Chapter 16
Chapter 16: Disagreement
By sunrise, Jin An had turned into a little “official.”
He refused Jin Sui’s help with anything and insisted on doing it all himself. He made trip after trip to the pool, hauling water until his face went red and sweat soaked his hair—yet he still wouldn’t let her lift a finger.
He dragged back heavy firewood and pounded his chest, promising that as long as he was around, he would never let Sister do hard labor.
His courage even grew to the point of madness.
He once suggested they could sneak back up the cliff, hunt down the tiger, and kill it—because tiger pelts were worth more than wolf pelts.
The two days at the valley bottom passed quickly and peacefully.
They lacked nothing: water, firewood, food.
Grandpa Ling’s ankle improved.
Jin Sui remembered the stories from her past life—how protagonists stumbled into mountains and always found priceless herbs.
So she asked with a half-smile, “Grandpa, we’ve been in the mountains so long. Why haven’t we seen lingzhi, ginseng, or tai sui? If we found some, we wouldn’t worry about travel money once we get out.”
She’d noticed something else too.
There were wild fruits and greens she didn’t recognize at all, yet Grandpa Ling recognized everything and knew exactly how to eat it.
It reminded her of ridiculous plots she’d watched before—villagers portrayed as too ignorant to eat what grew around them.
So she asked, “Grandpa, how do you know every mountain food? Are there really people who sit on a treasure mountain and still come back empty-handed because they don’t know what to eat?”
Grandpa Ling snorted.
“In years of disaster, people peel bark and dig up roots to grind into flour.”
“Even poison gets processed and eaten. People eat clay. You think they won’t learn what can be eaten in the mountains?”
Jin Sui gave a helpless laugh.
Some stories really were brain-dead.
People here didn’t fear food.
If it wasn’t poisonous, you ate it. If it was mildly poisonous, you treated it and ate it. If it was very poisonous, you soaked it in alcohol.
So much for her dream of getting rich with her “knowledge.”
Compared to Grandpa Ling, her book learning was nothing.
Fine.
She still had the pocket-space laboratory. Once she settled down, she could plant potatoes and tomatoes.
She would become a rich landowner in this era.
She would.
Because Grandpa Ling’s ankle wasn’t fully healed, their pace turned painfully slow. Sometimes they walked for half a day and still felt trapped in the same stretch of valley.
Yet there was one blessing.
The forest below the cliff didn’t seem to have large predators.
At night, they didn’t hear wolves howling or tigers roaring.
After several more days, they climbed over a ridge—and something appeared that made the three of them nearly cry.
A narrow trail.
A road meant people.
A road meant they had finally left the Xiao Han Mountain Range and reached the edge of the human world.
No more wolf packs and tigers.
No more sleeping with one eye open, terrified of being eaten in the night.
Jin An shouted first.
“A road!”
Grandpa Ling’s voice shook with excitement.
“Look at the ground. It’s worn smooth—people walk here often. There must be woodcutters and hunters nearby.”
And Jin Sui—she didn’t even need the disguise as much anymore.
No one would guess she was a woman at a glance, not in these rags.
Grandpa Ling’s excitement faded into caution.
“Who knows whether the wanted notice from Luo City has spread this far.”
He looked at them both.
“You two will pretend to be my Daoist novices,” he told them. “Once we reach a temple, I’ll get Little An a certificate of ordination.”
Jin An fell silent, then asked bluntly, “If I become a Daoist novice, can I go to Chang An to clear Father’s name?”
Grandpa Ling sighed.
“You can. But you must wait until you’re older.”
Jin An let go of Grandpa’s arm.
His face turned hard, unfamiliar.
Anger and hatred burned in his eyes.
“How long? Until I’m eighteen? By then, who in Chang An will still remember Father?”
“I know it. Grandpa doesn’t want to clear Father’s name at all!”
He turned to Jin Sui, voice sharp.
“Sister, tell me. Are we going to Chang An now, or are we waiting eight or ten years?”
Only then did Jin Sui understand.
All the clinginess, all the trying to please her—he’d been saving it for this moment.
He wanted her to choose.
He must have overheard her and Grandpa Ling discussing Father’s case.
Jin Sui couldn’t help thinking: an eight-year-old in her old life would still be a clueless second-grader.
But in this era, children grew up early.
She wanted Chang An too.
She couldn’t ignore what she’d promised Madam Jiang.
And she could already imagine it: if they returned to Grandpa Ling’s hometown, Grandpa Ling would fight them with everything he had to stop the siblings from reopening the case.
So Jin Sui forced herself into the middle.
“Right now, we’re fugitives,” she said. “We have no money. Going to Chang An is dangerous.”
“We should go to a prefecture city near Chang An first. We’ll quietly investigate Father’s case and gather resources. Once we have money and connections, we can clear Father’s name.”
“I knew it!” Jin An shouted. “You’re both afraid to die! You both want to hide!”
His voice cracked with fury.
“Father and Mother died so horribly, and you don’t care!”
Jin Sui stepped forward, wanting to hug him.
He had watched Father be executed. He had watched Mother die miserably in a cave.
No child should have carried that.
But Jin An shoved her away hard, glaring up at her with tear-bright eyes.
“When Mother died, you didn’t even cry! If you won’t clear Father’s name, you’re not my sister. And I don’t need you to take care of me!”
Jin Sui’s chest tightened.
Before she could speak, Jin An raised something in his hand.
“If you won’t go to Chang An, I’ll go myself! I will clear Father’s name!”
Grandpa Ling’s face changed.
The key Madam Jiang had hidden inside the wooden hairpin—Jin An had stolen it.
Jin An turned and sprinted down the mountain trail.
“Jin An, stop!” Jin Sui shouted, but she had to steady Grandpa Ling too.
Grandpa Ling shoved her hand away.
“Forget me. Go after him. Ah—this child’s mind is deeper than I thought!”
Jin Sui’s jaw clenched.
“Wait here. I’ll catch that brat and drag him back. If words don’t work, a beating will.”
She sprinted after him.
But after two bends in the trail, Jin An vanished from sight.
Behind her, Grandpa Ling limped after them with his cane, shouting Jin An’s name until his voice went hoarse.