Lopsided wooden planks were buried at the end of each bed. Qui Tian had nailed two slips of hemp – talismans – each with what seemed like a relatively simple instruction that appealed to the growth of the crops within the beds they preceded.
The characters written on the first talisman – few as they were – had a brilliant ruby-red glow, and they expelled a warmth that kept the snow and cold at bay. They were the reason the garden wasn't buried under mounds of snow.
The second talisman was faintly aglow with an azure light that seemed to nourish the crops; Yun Jieshi imagined it replaced the desperate need the plants had for sunlight – if any of them were like their cousins from Earth, of course.
Oddly though, there was a bed that was alienated from the rest, and worse yet, free from the graces of the talismans. Yun Jieshi squinted and drew close to it, moving away from Qui Tian. He could afford to weather the blizzard for a few minutes.
The instant he noticed what crop was growing in the snowflake-lathered bed, the little monkey cried:
"You have rice?!"
Just like that, his simmering apprehension towards the black-stalked flowers was forgotten.
Yun Jieshi fell to his knees in front of the bed and appraised the rice plants. The stalks were tall and thick; they were at least twice as big as those he knew from common rice plants on Earth. And there was yet another difference between the rice he knew and this kind.
The little monkey was no seasoned rice farmer in his past life, but he didn't think the stalks, leaves, and tillers of the plant were supposed to have a subdued pastel blue hue regardless of their stage of growth. Even more bizarre was the peach-pink husks that hid the rice grains.
These observations caused Yun Jieshi's enthusiasm to drop by a league, but not completely.
'This is still rice,' he defended the resistant plants.
He turned to the hag. She ignored his dramatic reaction to the rice; her attention was elsewhere. She approached a small, pitiful bed where seven rows of the odd ginseng were growing, and began pulling out the ones that had matured – whatever metric she used to deduce the fact. She was rather harsh. Her hands didn't have a seasoned finesse even when it came to this, unfortunately.
Yun Jieshi's anxiety shot up each time she uprooted the crops she needed; after the ginseng, she moved on to different plants.
'With how much she's brought back to the cabin with her every day, how is there still so much of these crops here? She's growing this ginseng from this one bed and yet…' Yun Jieshi thought, derailed from the subject of rice.
It was truly bizarre, but as he marveled, his questions were soon answered.
Qui Tian ripped out some of the roots from the matured ginseng and planted them in each of the pockets in the dirt where she had uprooted the rest of them.
The little monkey reeled.
'Right. She did say the soil here is extremely fertile. But I didn't think… Don't tell me those roots will have grown into the whole by tomorrow!' Yun Jieshi shook his head, scarcely believing it.
Should this have been as surprising as it was? Probably not, but any odd human-brained monkey would have gaped at this conclusion.
Qui Tian split the root of the radishes, the stumps of cabbages, the bulbs scallions, the stems of eggplants, the ends of lemongrasses, and many more crops and planted them back into the beds. Yun Jieshi would have called this shooting, but he didn't dare.
After noting everything the hag collected, he drew his focus back to the rice.
'I don't think she normally collects this. Does she not know how to cook it perhaps?' he thought. 'Odd how it can grow so well in this evil cold. This goes beyond resistance. It should still be edible, given that it's still floppy. It's as unbothered by the snow as those flowers.'
The little monkey gave the black-stalked flowers a cautious look, shuddered, and then turned back to the rice. He grabbed one of the stalks.
"Spiced Wine Rice, a selective delight for the enlightened; good for warm, drunken pleasures," the old sagely voice said.
"Excuse me?" Yun Jieshi said, coiling his head back. The way he looked at the rice changed at once. "Warm drunken pleasures?"
He rubbed his little hands together and blew into them. The cold seemed to grow stronger now that he'd found something interesting.
'It's like the Shuang Fingers! A delight that most creatures here can't have,' he thought and studied the rice grains. 'Does eating it make you feel… drunk?'
Yun Jieshi bit his lips. Quickly, he rushed to Qui Tian, who was loading the harvested crops into her hemp cloak. The protection from the instruction she'd used earlier enveloped him at once.
"Qui Tian," he said and pointed towards the rice plants, "can you eat that?"
The hag spared a moment to look at the rice and then at him. She shook her head.
"What… why?"
The hag meant to answer, but judging by the look in her eyes, she couldn't find the words. Yun Jieshi wondered if it was another sore subject for her.
But how could rice be a sore subject for anyone?
Didn't the saying go, Without rice, even the cleverest housewife cannot cook?
Waving his hand, Yun Jieshi decided to ask something that wouldn't require a complicated answer.
"Can we bring some back to the cabin? I know how to cook it."
The hag considered him. She still adopted a difficult expression, but it thawed into an exhausted one when she sensed the intense desire coming from the little monkey. On the matter of rice, he was rather adamant.
After a long sigh, Qui Tian relented.
"Bring."
The little monkey beamed and raced back to the rice plant bed at once.
He began harvesting the rice stalks one by one, making sure to be gentler than the hag. After he'd collected twenty – judging they'd have more than enough rice for the two of them – he planted their roots into the bed. It felt stupid pushing them through the cold, hard dirt beneath the snow, but that was how the magic here worked.
Yun Jieshi rushed back to Qui Tian after he was done. One look from her told him that he was going to have to carry the rice plants on his own, which he thought was fair.
Just as Qui Tian beckoned him away from the garden, the little monkey posed another question:
"Could you teach me the instructions on these talismans?" His little finger pointed at the lopsided wooden planks.
Qui Tian answered as briskly as though she'd been prepared for the question all along.
"Not enough… Xun."
'I thought as much,' Yun Jieshi thought, sighing. 'Pluck my pit.'
As they began towards the mountain of ice and snow, Yun Jieshi's fear of the black-stalked flowers was renewed. He held his breath, following every step Qui Tian made.
Thankfully, the flowers didn't bother with them. They kept happily snapping at the falling snowflakes. Soon, he relaxed enough to wonder, as he adjusted the way he carried the rice plants…
'Did someone plant these flowers here? Even if the soil here is rich, I don't understand how such a flower can just pop out of nowhere. This rice definitely came from somewhere, given that it also grows well even in the snow. If only I could touch the flowers…'
But of course, the little monkey wouldn't dare.
The dreadful prospect of what the flowers might do to him was just as horrifying as the prospect of the black-feathered creature.
Speaking of this creature, as the duo passed its great, frozen feather, the little monkey couldn't help but agonize over what it could be again.
Another monster. An entity unknown.
If only Qui Tian could share.
'Maybe if the rice gets her drunk, she'll spill the beans,' he thought, amusing himself. 'Though I guess that's if she can eat the rice.'
The rest of the way back to the cabin wasn't entirely unpleasant. While the hag assumed her introverted silence, Yun Jieshi made sure he still remembered the instruction for supplying water. He imagined that with all the fresh ingredients, he would be able to make the instruction work better. He couldn't wait to get started.
As soon as they arrived at the cabin, Qui Tian – predictably – made them tea. This time, she didn't bother to test the little monkey. Instead, she showed him all the ingredients for the right tea and how best to prepare it.
Yun Jieshi already knew scallions and the ginseng were an integral part, but there was also lemongrass and the radish root. Both had very, very subdued flavors. The little monkey imagined that was why they hardly registered when he tasted the tea.
He and Qui Tian sat down to drink generous quantities of the tea. The latter seemed especially pleased when she took her last sip.
"Human… better," she said in a small voice.