Ye Ai Xia’s place

“Mom, what do people do during Summer Festival?” Ye Jiao asked curiously. She only knew that there would be a race and from Mu Xin, she heard that there will be a lot of dumplings.

Ye Ai Xia patted the bed, calling the girl to go up before she answered. “Summer Festival is the time for family to gather together and make rice dumpling. Aside from that, there’s also the race around the city. The fastest will receive reward from the imperial family.”

“Reward?” Ye Jiao’s eyes sparkled.

Ye Ai Xia nodded her head. She had participated in the race a couple of times in the past. As her specialization was her speed, she could win the race. After all, the contestants were limited to rank 3 at most. Those at rank 4 couldn’t participate.

In the first place, those at rank 4 were the guardians of the capital city. There would be no way they wanted to participate in this kind of race.

“The reward will be different each year. Come to think about it. I haven’t checked it,” Ye Ai Xia took the parchment and opened it up. She glanced at the lines telling the reward.

First place: Spring and Youth Pill

Second place: Eon Energy Pill rank 3

Third place: Eon Energy Pill rank 2

Ye Jiao peered at the paper. Thanks to her mother’s teaching, she could read the letters that were written inside. “Mom, what is a pill?”

“A pill is some kind of medicine in the shape of a small ball,” Ye Ai Xia replied. She raised her hand and used her Eon energy to form a small ball. “The shape is like this, but each type of Eon Energy is different with one another. They can be either formed by using pure Eon Energy or a mix of various medicine that’s squished together.”

Ye Jiao’s eyes shone. “Can you make one, Mom?”

“I can condense my Eon Energy to form an Eon Energy pill,” Ye Ai Xia admitted, “But it’s going to deplete my Eon Energy a lot as it wastes a lot of power and I have to compress it to make sure that it’s completely pure.”

“it sounds difficult.”

“It is,” Ye Ai Xia nodded her head. “As for pills made using plants and such, I can’t make them. I have never learned the technique before, so it’s impossible for me to make one.”

“It needs study?”

“Yes,” Ye Ai Xia pointed to the first one. “This is a pill that is said to be able to restore one’s youth. Many women would surely aim for that.”

Ye Jiao tilted her head. “It sounds like this competition is targeted to women.”

“It’s possible.”

“Can you use Eon Energy Pills, Mom?”

“I can,” Ye Ai Xia eyes moved to the reward. “But it’s not going to be of much use to me.”

For Eon Energy Master Rank 3, Eon Energy Pill rank 2 wouldn’t help them too much. It would only increase the amount of their Eon Energy slightly without much change in the overall condition. If they wanted to improve a lot, they would need Eon Energy Pill rank 3, which was far rarer in this Kingdom.

Besides, Ye Ai Xia had almost reached her limit in rank 3, so she couldn’t absorb too much at once anymore. She could only use Eon Energy to strengthen her body bit by bit.

Those people must have done this on purpose.

They knew that she didn’t have much use for the rewards this time, but still gave them out anyway. As for the first reward, she didn’t really care for it as she was still young. Besides, Eon Energy Master could make themselves look a bit younger than their real age.

“This year race is truly a joke,” Ye Ai Xia sighed to herself.

“Mom?”

“Let’s just prepare for the Summer Festival. Jiao’er, tomorrow you should go to the kitchen and asks for some rice, pork, egg, and some other ingredient. We’re going to make dumplings.”

“Why rice, Mom?”

“In the festival, it’s the tradition to make rice dumplings,” Ye Ai Xia replied. As for why it was rice…* she had forgotten. History’s lessons were not her forte, so why should she bother remembering them?

“I’ll make them with you, Mom?” Ye Jiao’s eyes sparkled.

“Yes, now go to sleep, little lady.”

“Yes, Mom.”

Ye Jiao snuggled into her bed before pulling the blanket up. She waited until Ye Ai Xia had left before sitting up on her bed. A few months ago, she found out that her training speed remained the same even if she practiced at night, making it convenient for her. As she wanted to become stronger quicker, she spent the night training again until she fell asleep.

By the time it was morning, Ye Jiao found herself on her bed. Her blanket was not placed properly due to her sleeping during her training.

Ye Jiao jumped down the bed and called out to her mother. “Mom, I’ll go get the rice first.”

Ye Ai Xia walked to the house from the backyard. She nodded her head. “Be careful. If the servants don’t want to give, just tell them to replace today’s meal with raw ingredients such as rice, egg, pork, and the others that I told you before.”

“Ok, Mom!”

With that instruction, Ye Jiao ran out of the house and headed to the stone path. She could see that there were a lot of wrecked stones near the entrance with the bugs were nowhere to be found. It seemed that the guards killed them all along with destroying part of the path when they came through here yesterady.

Ye Jiao clicked her tongue. It was such a shame that a lot of them died. She didn’t really have much interest to collect them again from the garden. Right now, she had to focus on her training.

“Excuse me,” Ye Jiao stopped by the entrance. Several servants were standing in front of her, busy working to prepare the breakfast for their young masters and misses.

The servants sent a glare to her. They recognized her as the young girl that stayed with Ye Ai Xia. Even though no one dared to make trouble for her because of what happened to the two servants before, they wouldn’t treat her politely.

“What do you want?”

“I want to ask for some rice, pork, egg…”

The servant frowned at the list Ye Jiao mentioned. “There’s no such thing in the kitchen. Just go, and we’re going to deliver your usual meal to you.”

“That won’t do,” Ye Jiao replied. “How about if you just change the meal to these ingredients?”

“Do you want to create trouble for us?” The servant asked back. If they didn’t deliver the food per their master’s instruction, they wouldn’t be able to make any excuse. Last time, two of their friends had died because of changing the menu. Now, did this girl want to do the same thing?

“No, this is what Aunt Ai Xia wants,” Ye Jiao recalled that her mother asked her to call her aunt in front of others. There were times when she almost forgot, but this time, she managed to hold her tongue from spouting off that word.

The servants looked at one another. They didn’t really want to deal with this little girl because it would be annoying.

“Go away, we’re not going to receive order from you.”

They would prefer to receive orders straight from their master than obeying this woman and plunging themselves into trouble. They were not stupid.

Ye Jiao frowned. Her eyes were looking at the servants with annoyance. She didn’t want to create trouble, but shouldn’t the servant agree to what her mother asked? This would make it hard for them to celebrate the Summer Festival.

As she was pondering what she should say, a light and elegant voice entered her ear.

“What are you doing loitering here?”