Chapter 958 Unbearable to Look At
Suddenly craving buckwheat pancakes, Song Chunxue went to the kitchen early in the morning.
The young Taoist priest in the kitchen was steaming buns. When he learned that Song Chunxue wanted to make something they had never eaten before, they were very happy to give her one of their pots and pans.
Song Chunxue knew that this Taoist temple was a Quanzhen sect temple, where people did not eat meat, so she did not take out any scallions, ginger, garlic, or meat; everything was vegetarian.
Lately, I haven't been too attached to meat. After all, I'm tired of eating fish in Aishan. As long as it tastes good, eating vegetarian food is easier on my stomach.
Their schedules have been irregular lately, so eating vegetarian food is just right.
Song Chunxue mixed buckwheat flour paste with well water, wiped the pan with oil, and soon made twenty or thirty pancakes. Each one was large enough to fill one person up.
Afterwards, Song Chunxue stir-fried potato chunks with the potatoes she had brought, using rapeseed oil commonly used in the Taoist temple.
After searching around, she found a bowl of cooked pickled cabbage in the corner of the storage ring. She took it all out and stir-fried it, which was perfect for making wraps.
Although we don't know the extent of Master Han's relationship with the abbot, the presence of so many of them staying here will certainly cause a lot of trouble.
So she and her apprentices voluntarily took on the task of boiling water.
After breakfast, Master Zhang ran over to Song Chunxue and said that the three of them had to take care of important business, and that the task of looking after the five brats was left to her.
Song Chunxue nodded; she didn't want to go out anyway.
She admitted that she was all talk and no action, and that some things were better left to men to handle.
Moreover, she knew that many temples had their reasons for not allowing women to enter.
Each temple or Taoist monastery enshrines a different deity, and each deity has different precepts.
Some Buddhist temples do not allow women to enter, but most do, such as the Temple of the Nine Heavens Mysterious Lady. There are many temples dedicated to Bodhisattvas, but if three Buddhas are present, women are not allowed to enter.
She heard last night that they had been invited to a temple to have tea with the monks today.
But putting all that aside, she really doesn't want to see bald men right now; just seeing them makes her feel uneasy.
After lunch, while chatting with the abbot, they learned that they were going to the countryside in the afternoon to deliver food to the villagers. Song Chunxue accompanied them with five disciples.
They went to the grain shop; the Taoist priests bought a cartload of grain, while Song Chunxue and her disciples bought two cartloads. On the way, they encountered a vegetable farmer who was ignored by everyone, so they bought another cartload of vegetables to accompany them.
The abbot was a very easy-going person. Seeing that Song Chunxue, who had been dressed in high spirits the day before, was now wearing an ordinary blue Taoist robe, he couldn't help but smile and say, "I finally understand why Master Han said that you would definitely be willing to stay and go to the manor with us."
Song Chunxue handed the cleaned white radish to the abbot, saying, "This matter requires a clear division of labor. I don't understand discussing the big picture with those people, who can be wiped out in the blink of an eye, but I do understand dealing with farmers, because that's what I do."
The abbot nodded, looking at the increasingly rugged road ahead, and couldn't help but sigh, "Those officials in the government offices are opportunistic and collude with bandits and rebels. In recent years, they have not only disregarded the lives of ordinary people, but they have also neglected the official roads. Two carriages overturned on the slope ahead, and they made the people go to the government office to pay their taxes themselves."
Looking at the bumpy, winding gravel road, Song Chunxue thought that it was far less easy to maintain than a dirt road.
"The people can't even fill their stomachs, so where would they find a cart? They have to use oxen and horses to carry things, and even then, they'll pick and choose, breaking things over and over again. To be honest, the people here no longer care who owns this land. They just hope for good weather and a good harvest, and that the land will change hands quickly so they won't have to suffer exploitation from several different groups of people."
Song Chunxue nodded repeatedly, suddenly realizing that perhaps no matter how hard ordinary people tried, it would all be in vain. As long as the court didn't see it and the officials didn't leave you a way out, no matter how hard you worked, it would all be in vain.
At that moment, she suddenly felt that perhaps Wu San was right.
If he were just a bandit trying to overthrow the monarchy, she would support him.
Unfortunately, Wu San had already colluded with people like King Xuan and even placed his own faction in the court.
No matter how things change, whether it's a major earthquake or a minor tremor, it's the ordinary people who are the first to succumb.
Song Chunxue suddenly felt very confused. If only one person had the final say in the country from beginning to end, whoever sat on the throne and whoever was pushed off and beheaded, what did it have to do with the common people?
What they need is a good emperor who can serve the country and its people like the founding emperor, not a supreme court that is constantly being infiltrated and controlled by powerful figures.
When will this cycle of change end?
"Boom!"
"Boom!"
Suddenly, two claps of thunder rang out in the sky.
Song Chunxue quickly gathered her thoughts. What, did her idea violate the heavenly rules?
"Uncle-Master, let me lead the horse. This road is difficult to travel." Wuji looked at Song Chunxue, who was shorter than him, and wanted to switch with her.
“Let me do it. You’ve never walked on a road like this before, have you? You’ll panic when the horse gets flustered, so let me do it. But you can watch, and next time you walk on a road like this, you’ll know how not to fall.”
As they were talking, a sharp turn appeared before them. Song Chunxue gripped the horse's harness and moved quickly, trying to avoid being trampled by the horse's hooves while also making sure the turn was wide enough so that the horse would turn around before the carriage did, causing it to overturn on the bend.
She used to scold her children a lot for this when they were farming.
She was very strict and had a bad temper when it came to farming and hauling grain. Perhaps they had long ago become determined because of this and never wanted to farm in those mountain gullies again, suffering mistreatment while leading donkeys.
In truth, if it weren't for the foundation laid by the children's father and grandfather, none of them would have been able to go to school.
No matter how hard she and Sanwa worked, they couldn't dig up that much silver.
This was something she hadn't wanted to admit before. Only after leaving that remote mountain village did she realize that even if she treated herself like a bull, she could barely keep them from starving.
With the grain stored at the manor, looking at the fertile fields that were a hundred or a thousand times better than those at the Li family manor, with lush trees and verdant green hills, Song Chunxue felt that she should go back and deliver grain and vegetables to the people at her own manor.
The five children were young and strong, with inexhaustible energy. They chatted and laughed as they distributed each bag of grain to each household.
Song Chunxue also gave them a bag of maltose to take to the children.
Perhaps it was because she had become a grandmother herself that she couldn't bear to see those barefoot, dirty-faced girls who stayed at home taking care of their younger siblings. Their clear eyes made her afraid to look directly at them.
Suffering is unbearable to witness.
Whenever she sees that look in her eyes, she is reminded of how her sisters were when they were little.
Although she no longer complains about fate and heaven, she still feels sorry for her family and herself from back then.
And such people are found all over the world.
She sat with the abbot on the stone steps not far away, watching the young people walk along the path, without saying a word for a long time.
In the evening, everyone smiled and declined their offer of eggs and the last of their cured meat.
At that moment, Song Chunxue made up her mind to deliver some food to the villagers near her hometown, in her capacity as a Taoist priest.
She suddenly missed her older sisters and wanted to visit them.
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