Before long, all forty-two residents of the village had gathered around the enormous plain boiled egg.
Forty-two pairs of bewildered eyes stared at it in silence.
Ten yards long. Over three yards tall.
An egg of unimaginable size.
Standing before it felt like standing in front of a small white house that had suddenly grown out of the earth.
If a hole had not already been cracked in the shell, clearly revealing the golden yolk inside, none of them would have dared believe it was truly a boiled egg.
The Village Chief of Gao Family Village stood at the very front. His wrinkled face tightened with doubt.
"Yiye," he said slowly, "did you say this massive boiled egg was a gift from Tianzun?"
Gao Yiye nodded and pointed toward the sky.
"It is from the same Tianzun who helped us eliminate the bandits yesterday."
The villagers exchanged uncertain glances.
Yesterday's scene was still vivid in their minds. A gang of vicious brigands had been flattened into bloody pulp by an invisible crushing force. Flesh burst. Blood splashed everywhere. It had been horrifying beyond words.
Afterward, only Gao Yiye claimed she had seen Tianzun reach down from the clouds and swat the bandits to death one by one.
No one else had witnessed it.
Whether to believe her or not had remained an uneasy question.
And now, barely a day later, Gao Yiye had produced another impossible object, once again claiming it was a gift from Tianzun.
The Village Chief sighed.
"If we think carefully," he said, "who else but Tianzun could have accomplished what happened yesterday? And this enormous egg today. No ordinary person could have produced such a thing. Even if such a colossal egg truly existed in this world, there would not be a pot large enough to boil it."
Heads nodded all around.
That was true.
The Village Chief continued, "Yiye, it seems Tianzun favors you especially. He appears only before you. The rest of us are too lacking in fortune to glimpse His venerable presence."
Gao Yiye's eyes widened slightly.
"Tianzun… favors me especially?"
The Village Chief gave a slow nod.
"Did His venerable self give any other instructions?"
Gao Yiye lowered her head and thought carefully.
"He only told me to eat it. Oh. And he also said to invite all the villagers to eat."
Beside her, Gao Chuwu smacked his lips. He had already eaten a fist sized chunk of yolk. Tiny flecks of egg still clung stubbornly to the corners of his mouth. He licked them again and again, unwilling to waste even the smallest speck.
"I've already had a piece," he declared proudly. "It's very good."
Seeing that the two youngsters had eaten without any ill effect, the Village Chief finally made his decision.
He pointed solemnly at the massive egg.
"Since Tianzun has bestowed this upon us to eat, then eat we shall. However, there will be no disorderly grabbing. If we fight over it and spill it everywhere, that would be grave waste."
He turned toward Gao Chuwu.
"Chuwu. Go fetch a knife."
He studied the egg carefully.
"I reckon this egg weighs around fifty catties. There are forty-two people in the village. Each person shall receive one catty. Any remainder will belong to Yiye."
No one objected.
Gao Chuwu quickly returned with a knife.
The villagers cut the egg with extreme care. They weighed portions as evenly as possible. No one dared let a single crumb of egg white or yolk fall to the ground.
Each person received half a catty of yolk and half a catty of egg white. They carried their portions in bowls and devoured them ravenously.
As for the extra few catties, the villagers helped Gao Yiye place them in a large basin and carried it to her home. They set it in the coolest corner they could find.
Boiled eggs did not keep well in summer heat.
But when facing starvation, who cared whether it might spoil? Even if it turned bad tomorrow, they would still eat it.
After everyone had eaten their fill, the villagers knelt together on the ground.
They bowed toward the sky in worship.
They thanked Tianzun for His grace.
They prayed for the drought to end.
They prayed for favorable weather.
They prayed for a bountiful harvest.
Inside the Diorama Box, tranquility gradually returned.
The little people resumed their usual labors, and those labors all revolved around one thing.
Finding food.
They scoured hillsides. They sifted through riverbeds. They dug three feet deep into the earth in search of anything edible.
Despite having just eaten a full meal, they were already worrying about tomorrow's sustenance.
Gao Yiye picked up her bamboo basket once more and went out to search for roots across the sandy barren land, just as she always did.
Perhaps it was the meal she had just eaten, but her steps carried slightly more strength. She no longer looked quite as pitiful as before.
Outside the Diorama Box, Li Daoxuan sat silently, observing the little people.
His emotions were complicated.
One egg would not save them.
So what should he do.
Give them an egg every day?
But eating only eggs would not provide balanced nutrition.
They would need rice. Vegetables. Meat occasionally.
Salt too.
Salt was essential. Humans could not survive without salt.
And these little people were still human, were they not?
The more he thought about it, the more complicated the matter became.
Li Daoxuan muttered to himself, "Am I basically raising a box full of miniature hamsters?"
Given the appetites of these forty-two little people, he would need to spend at least one or two hundred yuan per month to feed them.
It was not a trivial expense.
But it was not unaffordable either.
Fine.
He would commit to it.
He opened Baidu and searched, "How to raise little people from a miniature world?"
There were no relevant results.
Then he opened his usual military history forum and posted anonymously:
"If you had a group of little people from a miniature world, how would you raise them?"
Reply one: "Any female little people? Grab one every day and lift her skirt."
Reply two: "Watch them bathe every day."
Li Daoxuan stared at the screen and muttered, "Damn morons, all of them."
There was no reasoning with such an unprincipled crowd.
It seemed he would have to cross the river by feeling for stones and learn from scratch how to raise these little people.
He walked into the kitchen and surveyed his food reserves.
Well.
There were practically none.
Like most young city dwellers, he mostly ordered takeout. He rarely cooked anything more complicated than noodles or a couple of eggs.
His refrigerator was almost empty.
Aside from a few eggs, half a handful of dried noodles, some cooking oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar, there was virtually nothing else.
This clearly would not do.
Li Daoxuan glanced at the Diorama Box and confirmed that the little people did not require immediate intervention.
Then he rushed out.
He dashed into the nearest supermarket and emerged with a sack of rice slung over his shoulder, two cuts of pork, a bag of vegetables, and a large packet of salt.
He spent well over a hundred yuan in total.
Back home, Li Daoxuan leaned close to the Diorama Box and counted carefully.
All forty-two little people were still there, diligently searching for food.
A mischievous idea suddenly struck him.
He snipped open the rice sack and scooped out a handful of grains.
Pristine white Northeastern rice, releasing a rich earthy aroma.
He located Gao Yiye's house in the village and peered inside with a magnifying glass.
Her home was utterly bare.
There was almost no furniture.
Such an empty house.
It would be a shame not to fill it with something.
Li Daoxuan cupped his hand like a scoop, aimed it carefully at her window, and slowly poured the handful of rice inside.
The grains cascaded down steadily.
They piled up higher and higher.
Soon, half the room was filled.
He clapped his hands lightly, satisfied.
She would be overjoyed when she came home and found all this rice, would she not.