The little one's purse connects the two worlds, turning a desolate village into a paradise.

The village chief looked at the girl trembling on the doorframe. She was, after all, just a child.

He sighed deeply: "Birth, aging, sickness, and death, natural disasters and man-made calamities are never something anyone can control, let alone one or two young girls like you. Poor crops and frequent mountain disasters are due to the weather and accidents."

"As for this girl's situation..." The village chief paused, his gaze falling on the uneasy Gou Ya, as if he was carefully choosing his words.

"The reason why the villagers labeled her a jinx and blamed all the bad things on her was not because she really brought bad luck, but because her parents died early and she was all alone, helpless and no one spoke up for her."

They can't grow crops well because they're lazy, they don't care, and they're unwilling to cultivate them carefully or take good care of them.

They don't work when the sun rises, and they don't weed when the sun sets.

The destruction caused by wild boars was due to the village's inadequate protection and insufficient precautions. Even this mudslide was a natural disaster caused by the collapse of mountains and the wrath of the rivers and mountains. How could a weak woman possibly control it?

They just refuse to admit their laziness and stupidity. To admit it would be to admit their failure and incompetence.

So they blame everything on her, calling her a jinx, and that makes them feel at ease. It's not that I'm incompetent, it's that she's bad luck.

They told this story year after year, over and over again, until even those who spread it believed it themselves. Even if the sky were to fall, they could still point at this girl and say with righteous indignation that she was the one who caused it.

Ya Ya blinked her big, round eyes. The village chief had said a long speech, and she seemed to understand some of it, though not all of it.

Suddenly, she patted her chest with her little hand, her eyes crinkling into a smile: "Thank goodness, everyone protected Ya Ya, otherwise Ya Ya would have become a jinx."

"Sister, don't worry, everyone in our village is a good person. They will protect you, and you won't become a jinx."

Gou Ya stared blankly at the three people in front of her.

The words of the old woman in the pink floral jacket were like a gentle breeze, disrupting the beliefs that had been instilled in her for eighteen years.

She genuinely believed it was her problem because everyone had said that about her since she was a child.

The villagers never used proper names for him; they would just call him "that jinx," "that guy," or "that unlucky fellow."

She named herself Gouya, like a roadside weed that no one cares about, like a cat or dog in the village that barely survives, living a humble and huddled life, only hoping not to provoke others or bring disaster, and just getting by day by day.

But now someone is telling her that it's not her problem, that she's the victim, that she's innocent, and that she's just using others' incompetence as an excuse.

Gou Ya's mind is in a mess.

Eighteen years of deep-rooted grievances cannot be untied in an instant.

"Go and rest. Our village isn't afraid of these things. Don't think too highly of yourself. You think you can cause a mudslide? Dream on!" Doctor Chen rubbed his temples; he hadn't slept for an hour.

Gou Ya held onto the door frame and slowly stood up.

She lowered her eyes, her long eyelashes trembled, and her gaze fell on the worn-out toes of her shoes.

In the long years before, she had heard "get out," "bad luck," and "stay away" most often. No one had ever treated her so calmly as someone who should live a good life.

My mind is a mess, a mix of emotions, and I can hardly believe it.

She feared it was just a polite gesture, yet she also feared she might actually bring disaster upon these kind and gentle people.

Yet a faint warmth, one that she herself dared not admit, quietly spread from her heart, like a ray of sunshine leaking in during the cold winter.

Her throat tightened, and she opened her mouth but couldn't say anything. She just gave a soft "hmm" and slowly moved back onto the kang (a heated brick bed).

Sometimes ignoring advice can be a problem, and she didn't want to be someone who caused them trouble.

The room quieted down, and Dr. Chen closed the door to the inner room, taking small sips of his gruel from a small bowl.

"Want to go see the ducks?" Seeing that the matter was settled, the village chief pinched Ya Ya's little braid.

"go!"

"Dr. Chen, we'll be going now. If you need anything here, just call out to Granny Liu in her courtyard. And this book, it doesn't have legs, you should rest well and read it after you've had enough sleep..."

The village chief led Ya Ya out of Doctor Chen's house, and even after they were far away, his rambling voice still drifted back into the house.

The brooding duck by the river had become quite familiar with the village chief. Whenever it saw him from afar, it would stretch its neck, quack twice, and then tilt its flat head back, waiting to be fed.

It even clumsily twisted its round body, revealing a nest of eggs of varying sizes, warm and cozy, hidden beneath it.

The village chief gathered some water plants and plucked some tender shoots from the riverbank. He also picked a few small shrimp and gently tossed them in front of the brooding ducks. Ya Ya stood not far away, watching the ducks eat with great interest.

It wasn't until the village chief finished feeding the ducks that she remembered she had originally come out to pick wild onions.

"Oh dear! I forgot to pick some wild onions!"

Ya Ya looked around. The water celery was growing densely, and there was still a lot left after two days of picking. She didn't see any wild onions, though.

The village chief knew that the little guy brought wild onions to the night market every day. He washed his hands clean in the river, shook off the water droplets, and glanced at the sun on the horizon.

If we were to handle the picking and washing as meticulously as usual, it would probably be too late.

"Nannan, you go back first. Grandpa will cut some for you with a sickle. No rush. These cut ones don't have the little white balls and haven't been washed, so we'll sell them for a lower price. If it doesn't work out, we can bring them back and eat them ourselves."

The village chief led Ya Ya away from the riverbank and walked a short distance to Granny Liu's courtyard, giving Ya Ya some instructions.

Ya Ya nodded and walked towards the yard, occasionally bending down to pick some wild scallions from the roadside. She picked them every day, and the wild scallions in the vicinity had long since become sparse, with only a few scattered ones remaining that were not growing well.

The village chief went to the edge of the field and cut a large bunch of wild onions, which he carried back to Granny Liu's yard. A thin layer of wild onions had already been laid in Ya Ya's little cart.

"These don't look that good, and it takes time to wash them. Nannan, you should tell the man there that it's eighteen yuan a pound and see if they'll buy them."

Ya Ya put the wild onions that Grandpa Village Chief had brought into her spatial storage, nodded, and said, "Okay, Grandpa Village Chief, Grandma, I'm going now!"

We still need to buy soap, let's hurry!

Two more chapters tonight.