The cannon fodder female supporting role in the misplaced life

"Come, eat some chicken wings. Like nourishes like body." Xu Xiaofeng gently put a chicken wing into Xu Yingying's bowl.

Xu Yingying glanced at Xu Xiaofeng gratefully, but still replied politely: "Auntie, I can pick it up myself, you don't have to think about me all the time."

Xu Xiaofeng smiled slightly, with a hint of persistence and pampering in her eyes. She said firmly: "It's your business if you pick up some for yourself, and it's my business if I pick up some for you. We don't interfere with each other." This is her unique rule and also a way for her to express her love for her niece.

Xu Yingying nodded reluctantly, expressing her understanding. She knew that her injury had greatly worried Xu Xiaofeng, and if she truly rejected Xu Xiaofeng's kindness, it would probably only make her even sadder. Therefore, she decided to accept this love and work hard to recover.

Xu Yingying secretly thought about how to distract Xu Xiaofeng from dwelling too much on her injury. Suddenly, she remembered the dream she had at school that afternoon. Perhaps she could share this interesting dream and make everyone laugh. So, she decided to tell the story of that dream.

Of course, she wouldn't tell the story exactly as she'd dreamed, but chose the version Xiaowu had told her. This kept the story interesting while also avoiding unnecessary trouble or confusion. After all, some things are better left to the heart.

"Aunt, have you heard of Wu Gang cutting down the cassia tree?" Xu Yingying's sudden question diverted Xu Xiaofeng's attention.

"Yingying, are you talking about Wu Gang in the Moon Palace?" asked Xu Xiaofeng.

"Yes, it's that Wu Gang." It turned out that Aunt Xu knew the story of Wu Gang.

"Why are you talking about this for no reason?" Xu Xiaofeng felt that her niece would not mention an ancient person for no reason.

In order to divert Xu Xiaofeng's attention, Xu Yingying pretended not to know and said, "The teacher mentioned this myth in class today, but I don't think I had heard of it when I was a child, so..."

"It's easy. Auntie will just tell you this mythological story." Xu Xiaofeng said to Xu Yingying.

"Aunt, have you really heard of it?" Xu Yingying expressed some doubt.

"Let me think about how the story goes." Xu Xiaofeng pondered for a moment.

"It seems that a long time ago, there was a plague in a place, and many people died because of the plague. At that time, there was a young man named Wu Gang. His mother was also sick and bedridden because of the plague. Wu Gang started going up the mountain every day to collect herbs to save his mother."

"Guanyin, on her way back to the West for the Mid-Autumn Festival, passed by this place and saw Wu Gang gathering herbs on a cliff. She was deeply moved. That night, she appeared to him in a dream, telling him that there was a tree in the Moon Palace that had small golden flowers. Drinking water soaked with these flowers could cure the plague."

"And on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, there's a ladder that leads to the Moon Palace. Guanyin appeared in his dream on the twelfth day of the eighth month, and the Mid-Autumn Festival was only three days away. Wu Gang, after untold hardships, finally climbed the ladder to the Moon Palace on the night of the fifteenth day of the eighth month. August is the time when the tree blooms, and the fragrance wafts through the clouds. Wu Gang followed the scent to the tree and gazed at the golden little yellow flowers. He was so delighted to see these otherworldly creatures that he kept picking them, wanting to bring back more to save his mother and his fellow villagers."

"But he couldn't carry all the flowers, so he came up with an idea. He shook the tree, causing the small yellow flowers to fall and land in the river. Suddenly, the river was filled with fragrance and the water turned golden yellow. People drank the water and all the diseases were cured. So they renamed the river 'Gan River'."

"That evening, the gods in the Heavenly Palace were enjoying their annual Mid-Autumn Festival gathering. They were admiring the moon and eating mooncakes. Suddenly, they smelled a floral fragrance, which alarmed the gods, who sent people to investigate. They discovered that the Moon Palace's sacred tree, the Ding Palace's treasure, had lost all its osmanthus flowers, having fallen into the Gan River on Earth. They reported this to the Jade Emperor."

"The Jade Emperor was furious when he heard this. He loved mooncakes made from osmanthus flowers, and now that the osmanthus trees were gone, he couldn't have mooncakes. So he sent his celestial soldiers to capture Wu Gang. After he was captured, Wu Gang told the Jade Emperor everything that had happened that night. The Jade Emperor was at a loss for words and admired this young man from the bottom of his heart."

"But Wu Gang had violated the Heavenly Rules after all, and if he wasn't punished, the Jade Emperor's authority would be lost. The Jade Emperor asked Wu Gang what he wanted, and he said he wanted to bring the sweet-scented osmanthus tree to the human world to relieve suffering. So the Jade Emperor came up with an idea that would punish Wu Gang while still granting his request. He said, 'As long as you chop down the sweet-scented osmanthus tree, you can take it.'"

"So Wu Gang fetched his axe and began chopping at the tree, hoping to quickly fell it. However, the Jade Emperor cast a spell, making each blow grow longer. Wu Gang chopped at it month after month, continuing this process for thousands of years. Seeing that the tree wouldn't fall, Wu Gang missed his homeland and his mother so much that every Mid-Autumn Festival he would drop a flower onto Guabang Mountain to express his homesickness."

"Year after year, the mountains of Xianning were covered with sweet osmanthus flowers. The villagers used these flowers to make tea, and Xianning was free from disasters."

Xu Yingying sat there quietly, listening intently to Aunt Xu's recounting of the story of Wu Gang felling the cassia tree, a version that was radically different from the traditional one. This version differed from the one Xiaowu had told her at noon, but overall, there were some similarities. However, that didn't matter; the key was successfully diverting Aunt Xu's attention.

"That's about it!" Aunt Xu finally finished telling the story from her memory.

"So that's how it is." Xu Yingying tried hard to make it look like she was hearing the story for the first time, even though she had heard it twice.

Seeing her niece listening attentively, Xu Xiaofeng felt a sense of satisfaction. She thought that telling stories to others was quite a good feeling.

"If you don't know the story next time in class, you can talk to your aunt more. Maybe she will tell you if she knows it!" Xu Xiaofeng said expectantly.

"Well, I will definitely ask my aunt when the time comes." With that, the two of them went back to eating seriously.

Returning to the room in a blink of an eye, Xu Yingying felt that she had probably exceeded her KPI for today.

Today, from morning till night, I was completely consumed by the plot. I had absolutely no time for myself. But the most important thing is, I haven't made any progress on my mission. I really don't know what I've been doing all day.

I have to have in-depth communication with several people every day. It turns out that socializing all the time is so tiring. No wonder some people have social phobia.