Acai's Sky

Chapter 922 The Legend of the Red Badge

Hua Lao's fingers gently stroked the edge of the wooden box, and the gilded patterns glowed warmly in the morning light.

When he looked up, the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes were filled with smiles, but his gaze was as bright as a torch: "Girl, which dungeon did you steal this treasure from? It was 1932, when our party was still fighting guerrilla warfare in the Soviet area."

Ah Cai scooped up a spoonful of slightly cool milk and twirled her peach gum bracelet with her fingertips. "In the punishment dungeon, the Shanghai underground party hid their badges in cake molds and packed them with sweet osmanthus cakes. When crossing the blockade, the Kuomintang soldiers pierced several boxes with their bayonets..."

She suddenly lowered her voice, her eyes sparkling, "Guess what? There's gold dust mixed in those broken candy crumbs!"

Mr. Qiu fished out his reading glasses from the inside pocket of his Zhongshan suit, and the metal frame on his nose clicked shut. "No wonder this badge has jagged edges. It must have been hand-forged."

He turned the badge against the light, revealing the finely engraved patterns beneath where the paint had peeled off the copper base. "See? This wheat ear pattern is similar to the homemade badges we saw in Yan'an back then. They were all carved out bit by bit."

Guan Lao's thumb, covered with calluses, gently rubbed the back of the badge: "There are dark patterns here!"

He rolled his fingertips over the embossed characters for "Sparks of Fire," his voice suddenly breaking. "Back then, my father was a foreman at a Shanghai cotton mill. He relied on these dark-patterned badges to connect with the organization, and later on, he was targeted by spies..."

He shook his head violently, put the badge back into the wooden box, and rapped his knuckles on the table, "Girl, you've ruined these treasures in your hands. They should be kept in the glass cabinet of the ancestral hall!

Village Chief Rong came over with an empty bowl, porridge stains still on his beard. "Old Guan, what are you so anxious about? Didn't you see that Cai girl brought two sets?"

He winked at Ah Cai and raised his chin towards the family tree on the wall. "One set will be put in the ancestral hall, so that the children can know how our party carved out its way out from the very beginning. The other set~"

He suddenly raised his voice, startling the old cat napping in the corner and making it prick up its ears. "We should send it to the Red Memorial Museum in town, so that those public intellectuals who say 'sophora trees are a foreign species' can see that even our faith as Chinese people grows from our own land!"

Grandma Teng tapped Ah Cai's porcelain bowl with her bamboo chopsticks and said, "You've been so busy talking that the peach gum has gone cold."

She added a spoonful of hot milk to Ah Cai's bowl, and the amber peach gum shone in tiny specks of light at the bottom of the white porcelain bowl. "Back then, I was at the Women's Rescue Association, sewing bandages for the wounded. My stitches were so dense that moonlight could penetrate them. I hoped that the wounded would see the red stars we embroidered on the bandages and that they would hold on a little longer..."

She suddenly grasped Ah Cai's hand, the calloused skin on her palm rubbing against the skin of the young man's wrist. "Now it's good. You can bring these old items back from the dungeon. It's like sewing the moonlight of yesteryear back into your days."

As soon as Mr. Xiao walked out of the booth, he heard a few old guys reminiscing about the past.

He also walked closer to take a look. "It's a badge with Chairman Mao's portrait, and it's specially made. It's not made of tin like this. It must be from the Yan'an period. Why does it look like it!"

Ah Cai nodded, "That's right!"

Old Xiao looked at the seventeen-year-old Lord of Wangyou City and didn't understand why she wanted to hide herself so much. She was a capable person and she didn't want to show off to the world.

Look at those who have some skills out there now, which one of them is not so...awesome, yes, that's what I mean, each one of them is so awesome, if there is no copy system to suppress them, they will probably have to become kings on their own.

Village Chief Rong took the set of badges and said, "I'll put them in the ancestral hall. You can go there to see them later."

Old Xiao sent a message to his granddaughter, "Look at Ah Cai, she even brought some meaningful things with her when she went to the dungeon. But you, on the other hand, only know how to eat, drink and have fun..."

(Xiao Xiaoxian: What did I do to deserve this? What's the point of being so blunt? I'm on a mission, and surviving and having enough to eat are my top priorities. Bringing anything back depends on your granddaughter's luck.)

...

A Cai came to Grandma Ma's yard and saw her performing a ritual at home. She watched curiously from outside.

I accidentally identified the old lady who got off the horse:

[Ma Yuhua, a disciple of the Gray Immortal, a master of both medicine and divination]

Dharma Name: Hui Lingzi

Sect Inheritance: The seventh generation descendant of the Hui Family (Rat Immortals), whose ancestral Yin Hall enshrines the Hui Family's Immortal Ancestor. Chosen by the Hui Family at a young age, he disappeared from a granary at the age of five, returning after three days. Upon his return, he was able to communicate with rats, and a gray pattern with the word "Spirit" (ling) appeared on his palm.

Main skills: Gray Immortal Divination (using rat bones and grains as divination tools to deduce cause and effect), Gray Immortal Medicine (combining immortal arts with herbal medicine, specializing in treating difficult and complicated diseases), Spirit Rat Spiritualism (communicating with the Gray Family's immortal beasts to obtain information)

Specialty of the magic: Gray Shadow Interpretation: Take the scraps of the person's clothes, mix them with rat food, and let the spirit rats smell them. Then you can predict the person's future and marriage, and it is especially good at finding lost items.

Miraculous Doctor of Herbs: With the help of Hui family's magical power, he can mix herbs to cure many difficult and complicated diseases in the world.

Golden Rat Brings Fortune: The lucky golden rat "Golden Ingot" that was once raised has the power to gather fortune and luck, dispel bad luck, and bring blessings to those who are destined to meet it.

A Cai scratched his chin, wondering how could Haocai Restaurant forget to visit those old gentlemen. He shook his head again, thinking that it would be better not to pay attention to someone like Mr. Xiao.

Then let’s watch Grandma Ma do it.

Grandma Ma's silver hair was tied into a loose bun with a peach wood hairpin inserted diagonally. A few strands of hair hung beside her wrinkled but energetic face.

The faded navy blue jacket with a slanted collar was starched until it looked white, with buttons neatly fastened to the neck and faint gray mouse patterns embroidered on the cuffs. As she paced around the tripod, the hem of the jacket rose in tiny arcs.

Her eyes were half closed, her brows were full of concentration, her lips were slightly pursed, and her nasolabial folds trembled slightly with her movements.

Her skinny fingers twisted sage and drew runes on the cauldron. The bone bracelet on her wrist jingled. Suddenly, her pupils contracted sharply, and a gray light flashed. She raised her hand and sprinkled a handful of fuzzy sage into the cauldron. When green smoke rose, it condensed into the shape of a gray mouse in the air.

When the spell ended, she breathed a sigh of relief, her hunched back straightened slightly, but her hands covered with age spots were as steady as a rock. When she turned to look at Ah Cai, a smile appeared in her eyes, and the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes were squeezed together like old tree bark basking in the winter sun.

"Come in, you've been watching for so long." She seemed to have noticed someone peeping outside the door. She said without turning her head, then turned around to pour a glass of water, picked it up and drank it all.

Ah Cai stood at the door, holding up the lunch box in her hand, and explained, "Since you didn't go to the cafeteria, I thought of coming over to bring you some food."

After saying that, Ah Cai walked into the house cautiously, gently placed the food box on the kang, opened the lid, and placed the food inside on the kang table one by one.

"Come and eat, these steamed dumplings are still hot!" Acai greeted warmly.

After washing her hands, Grandma Ma slowly sat cross-legged on the kang. Looking at Ah Cai's busy figure, she said with emotion, "Oh, I can hardly see you clearly now. You've really made it big. Yesterday I saw you with a gold ingot. You've grown up so fast!"

Ah Cai smiled shyly and replied, "Well, when I leveled up, they also leveled up. It just cost a little more experience."