Mrs. Mei's Survival Diary - Chapter 15

Chapter 15 – Opening the Eyes of the Sky

When Rong Yinshuang brought her pawn ticket to the tall counter at the pawn shop, she confidently declared her intent to redeem it.

The shopkeeper checked the ticket and leaned forward to ask, “Are you looking to redeem these?”

Rong Yinshuang nodded earnestly, replying, “Yes, please help me, shopkeeper.”

The shopkeeper gave her a weird look, as if to say, “Are you serious?” After a moment, he retreated behind the counter, and the sound of the abacus filled the air as he announced, “The gold can be redeemed for five hundred and twenty-two taels of silver, and the redemption fee is seven hundred and eighty taels. You’ll need to pay in cash.”

Upon hearing this, Rong Yinshuang handed over a pre-prepared bag of silver. The shopkeeper’s sharp gaze reflected his disdain for her actions, but since she was there to pay, he had no reason to turn down the silver.

Rong Yinshuang understood his attitude; after all, most people who pawn gold and silver were often in a tight spot. Typically, they only get about 80% of the value as money when pawning. Who would come in and pay 50% more to redeem something unless it was a family heirloom? It seemed a bit off, right?

The shopkeeper finally found the piece of gold that Rong Yinshuang had pawned, wrapped it up, and kept it on the counter. “Alright. You can take it now,” he said as the transaction was completed.

Rong Yinshuang looked at this irregular-shaped piece of gold, and the big stone hanging in her heart finally fell.

With the gold in her hands, Rong Yinshuang called the two children who were guarding the door and walked to the market.

After shopping in the market for a long time, Rong Yinshuang bought a spinning top for her eldest son and a colourful windmill for her youngest son. The two children happily followed their mother. At noon, they found a small restaurant nearby and ordered two meat dishes and one vegetable dish. Both children were delighted, and they finished their meal without any trouble.

Once they got back home, the two kids went off to play on their own.

Rong Yinshuang finally found some time to herself. She realised she hadn’t started on the items she promised to the silk and satin shop. Her hands were a bit stiff from pushing the cart a couple of days ago, and now she hadn’t even finished the embroidered pieces. It would be nice to check on her progress, but with nothing else to do, she pulled out Wu Daozi’s books to read.

There was so much in this book that Rong Yinshuang hadn’t finished it yet. She picked up a few spells for banishing ghosts and protecting the home. Her husband had once complimented her on her excellent memory, and now it was truly proving to be useful. Even to memorise the tricky spells, it only took her a couple of glances.

But just drawing the spells wasn’t enough. Usually, a cinnabar was needed to draw the spells, but if you want them to work better, you could use your own blood. That really boosts their effectiveness, and the results could vary a lot depending on the mana of the person who created the talisman.

Rong Yinshuang was rather interested in fortune-telling magic, but the description of it in the book was very complicated, and she could only read a little about it. ‘The book said that the art of predicting fate required precise and exquisite deductions, and the first condition for achieving it is to open the heavenly eye. The heavenly eye connected yin and yang and could see everything that mortals couldn’t see. The steps are not too troublesome; I only needed to prepare three pillars of fragrance and some yellow paper. Then open an altar in front of the Taoist ancestors, use blood as an alliance, and burn all the yellow paper.’

[Yin and yang are key ideas in Chinese philosophy, symbolising two opposing yet connected forces. They embody duality, where yin relates to darkness, femininity, and passivity, while yang is linked to light, masculinity, and activity.]

But even if someone could do it, due to different mana, the effects obtained would also be different. Those with low mana may not be able to see anything even if they open their heavenly eyes, while some with advanced Taoism may even be able to see the end of the spiritual enlightenment. Therefore, it was impossible to say.

[Mana- an idea of a life energy thought to be located in the head, associated with high social status and ritual power.]

Rong Yinshuang looked at her surroundings and found that it seemed that she could do it right now if she needed to open her eyes. She was in a Taoist temple. There were stone statues of Taoist ancestors, incense, candles, yellow paper and so on. After delivering them to Qiu Rong’s family, there was still some leftover. After thinking about it, she decided to give it a try.

In the temple, there used to be incense burners and other items. Rong Yinshuang got some yellow paper and an empty bowl ready, set aside the fire folding piece, and followed the book’s instructions.

She cut her finger, let some blood drip into the bowl, and added three pieces of paper. Then she placed a piece of yellow paper in the bowl, mixed it with her blood, then lit three incense sticks. Using the peachwood sword, she followed the steps to draw a curse in the air. After reciting the words from the book, Rong Yinshuang knelt before the Taoist ancestor, set the peach wood sword aside, picked up the blood bowl, and ignited the yellow paper inside. Once the paper was burnt, she took the ashes from the bowl, closed her eyes, and rubbed them on her eyelids. The ashes were absorbed into her skin and vanished.

When Rong Yinshuang opened her eyes, everything looked the same; no matter how much she rubbed, nothing changed. ‘Looks like my magic skills aren’t strong enough yet.’

She packed up her things and turned to see her eldest son leaning against the door, watching her.

As she turned, he came in and asked, “Mom, what are you doing?”

Rong Yinshuang glanced at the bowl in her hand and replied, “Oh, just trying something out, but it didn’t work. Are you tired from playing?”

The eldest son shook his head. “No, I’m fine. But my brother seems low on energy today; he just sits there and doesn’t want to move.”

After hearing what the eldest son said, Rong Yinshuang quickly put down all her things and walked to the yard, where she saw Mo’er sitting on the threshold, looking listlessly.

“Mo’er, Mo’er ?”

Rong Yinshuang shouted twice, and Mo’er slowly turned his head. She saw that his cheeks were extremely red.

Rong Yinshuang hurriedly ran over, picked the little boy up and touched him. The back of his neck and forehead felt very hot.

“Elder brother, your brother is sick. Go and get the door lock. Let’s go out and find the doctor.”

It was normal for a child of his age to suddenly have a fever. Rong Yinshuang had taken care of her eldest child before, so she was not too panicked.

After locking the door, she took the child to the nearest medical centre in the city.

A sudden fever like this was the most common. The main thing was to cool the body down. There was a small bath in the hospital that was specially designed to cool down children. In it, warm water was mixed with mint-like juice, which could quickly lower the temperature of the child’s body to avoid burning and damaging the brain.

Fever in kids could vary in intensity. If treated promptly, it was usually not a serious issue.

Rong Yinshuang worked with the doctor to cool down Mo’er at the medical centre, using an ice towel on his forehead.

After a bit, Mo’er’s temperature dropped significantly.

The doctor then gave her two more fever-reducing pills and advised her to take the baby home.

Once the fever was gone, Mo’er felt much better. He climbed onto Rong Yinshuang’s back, pointing at things and asking for candied haws and sweet-scented osmanthus cake.

Rong Yinshuang bought them one by one until Mo’er agreed to go home.

End of chapter 15

Have a nice day!