Chapter 2

I reassured myself, thinking that the drought would not affect the wheat so badly. Even if we did nothing further, Dad was definitely going to have a good harvest in the fall. Yet, I still felt uneasy.

The next day, I took out my hard-earned savings and bought pesticide to kill the locusts, carefully ensuring that the fields were meticulously sprayed.

Dad couldn't help but laugh when he saw this, saying I was behaving more like a farmer than he was.

I dared not relax. I kept a close eye on our crops each day.

When harvest season finally arrived, the wheat stood tall and robust. After the grain merchants came to inspect it, they offered the highest purchase price. "This batch of wheat is top-quality grain. We'll buy it at a high price. Please reserve some for us."

Dad's tanned face was filled with joy. "Wonderful! I can buy new clothes for my wife and daughter this year."

After agreeing to harvest it the next day, my tense heart finally felt at ease.

I was right—Grandma's premonitions were wrong. As long as I did not trust her, all was going to be well.

That night, Mom celebrated by cooking one of our chickens. We then went to bed early to prepare for the harvest the next day.

However, just as dawn was breaking, I heard someone wail incredulously. "How could this happen? Where did the locusts come from?"

Alarm bells went off instantly in my head as a sense of foreboding rose within me. I rushed out without even putting on my shoes, and the scene before me made my eyes widen in shock.

Locusts swarmed the fields in black tornadoes. The wheat, which had been perfectly ripe and ready for harvest, was now being devoured mercilessly by the locusts.

Dad flailed his arms desperately, trying to scare them away, but to no avail. He even tripped and fell to the ground, forced to watch helplessly as the locusts devoured nearly all our crops.

The man who seemed unassailable never got up that night. I leaned in and heard him murmur, "It's over. It's all over. Vanessa's tuition, our medical fees, our living expenses… All of it is gone."

Dad's words cut through me like a knife.

Why did this happen?

I clearly chose not to listen to Grandma's instructions, and there wasn't a locust plague in my past life. Why did one show up now?

Before I could make sense of it, Dad walked out the door.

When he returned, his back was deeply hunched.

I knew then that he'd gone to borrow money from our relatives.

How humiliating must this have been for a man who taught me to live with honesty and integrity?

Just thinking about it was like taking a blade to the heart.

That very night, however, Grandma appeared in my dream again. She seemed to know of our family's current predicament.

"Vanessa, go to the oak tree behind the hill," she said, sighing deeply. "Your Grandpa buried gold bars there for a rainy day. Now that the prices are high, selling them can solve our immediate financial woes."

In my past life, I listened to Grandma and excitedly told Dad the news. Yet, who would've thought that what was hidden there wasn't gold but heroin?

Dad was wrongfully imprisoned by the police, who mistook him for a buyer.

This time, I refused to let anything like that happen. So, the first thing I did after waking up was to report it to the police.

"Officers, I think someone's buried something under the oak tree on the hill behind our house. It might be evidence left by criminals."

They remained silent for a long time before agreeing to investigate.

I knew this threw a wench in their plans, but to keep Dad out of this, I had no choice.

That afternoon, the police arrived.

I froze momentarily, thinking they'd come to reward me for tipping them off. But, to my dismay, the officers were carrying in the very same crate that landed Dad in jail in my past life.