"Grandma, where's Grandpa? Hasn't he come back yet?"
As the sun sets and wisps of smoke rise from the chimneys, clean-cut Feng Bingwen bids farewell to his mud-covered but still eager friends and returns home, only to find his grandmother cooking.
"Your grandfather probably won't be coming back today. It seems something happened at the academy."
The old man, who was cooking at the smoky stove, replied,
What do you need to talk to him about?
“It wasn’t me, it was Xiao Niu. His father wanted him to go to the county school, but the tuition was too high, so he asked if he could pay with grain.”
"This matter really has to wait for your grandfather to come back, but I don't think he can make the decision. We'll have to wait for the dean to speak for himself."
"Grandma, do you think this will work?"
Feng Bingwen asked another question out of concern.
Although he didn't want to go to school too early, he knew that it was always good to read more books.
"How can I say for sure about this? But I heard from your grandfather that the headmaster of the county school is a nice guy. If Xiao Niu really wants to study, he might accept him. I'll tell that old man when I get back. You don't need to worry about it."
That's good.
Feng Bingwen let out a long breath, and a smile involuntarily appeared on his face.
"Alright, let's eat!"
After eating, people go to sleep. At this time, entertainment options are extremely limited, unlike in a dream where one can play with a small cube for most of the night. In small villages like Fengjia Village, every household keeps their doors tightly shut after nightfall, and the village is so quiet that it seems deserted.
Feng Bingwen wandered around the room for a while, and after feeling that the contents of his stomach had mostly subsided, he went back to his room, climbed into bed, and went to sleep. Before falling asleep, he habitually took a deep look at the Heavenly Book, and suddenly he was jolted awake, all sleepiness gone, and his mind cleared up completely.
Good deeds: 99 (99)
Releasing a spirit bird is a good deed, worth twenty (20)
"What the hell did I put in there?"
The unprecedented amount of good deeds Feng Bingwen performed made him realize that the purple-tailed sparrow that the village boy had given him during the day was probably no ordinary creature.
No, it's not just seemingly so, it's definitely not an ordinary thing. Over the years, he has rescued at least eighty or a hundred little frogs and sparrows from his friends, but he has never accumulated so much merit.
"So weak!"
But Feng Bingwen, regaining his composure, couldn't help but sigh. Recalling the purple-tailed sparrow, aside from its few vibrant tail feathers, there was nothing particularly special about it. Oh, if anything, it was incredibly intelligent, and its eyes were very beautiful.
"But what's the use?"
After the initial excitement and novelty wore off, emptiness followed. Feng Bingwen looked at the Heavenly Book, which had only increased in numerical value without any fundamental change, and found it uninteresting. He calmed his mind and went back to sleep.
As dawn broke, another day began. Life in the village seemed dull and monotonous to Feng Bingwen, but for the little ones he played with, every day was full of novelty. A small pond was enough to keep them lingering there.
In this monotonous life, Feng Bingwen could only try to find some fun in nature. He would never go to the big lake behind the village, because going to the lake required passing through wasteland.
The only places he could play were the village's ponds, but the villagers had specially raised fish in them, some as big as half a person's length. However, these big fish were not something that little kids like him could catch; at most, they could only catch some small fish and shrimp.
"Brother Wenzi, I caught another fish!"
A small fellow, stronger than Feng Bingwen and a head taller than him, walked over happily, carrying a grass carp and showing it off.
"Ergou, you're amazing! We don't even need to go home for lunch anymore. The fish you caught are enough for us to have a meal!"
"hey-hey!"
The sturdy little guy scratched his head and laughed triumphantly.
"Brother Wenzi, I caught a dove too!"
Just then, another little guy came over carrying a bird that was flapping around incessantly, looking defiant.
"Wow, great! We'll make pigeon soup later!"
"I'm going home to get the pot!"
"I'll go get the earthenware pot!"
"I'll go back and get some salt too!"
Seeing his friends carrying their cooking utensils home, Feng Bingwen also got up and headed home. Most of the adults in the village were busy with farm work, so even children as young as eight or nine could cook.
As for the fish and doves that were eaten, well, do you think it's easy for those rural kids to get a meal of meat?
Preventing farmers from eating meat, who primarily eat vegetarian food, is an evil deed that would condemn them to the deepest hells, where they would suffer tortures such as being fried, deep-fried, or cut in half at the waist for thousands of years.
Eating meat for food and killing for fun are two different things. Feng Bingwen would never stop these little guys from eating the wild game they catch; he would even eat with them.
He would sometimes stop these little guys from messing with toads, dragonflies, bees, and other insects. This is the origin of the good deeds mentioned in the Heavenly Book. Well, it mainly involves releasing frogs, and occasionally toads. These things are the easiest to catch, but also disgusting. He doesn't understand how those guys have the guts to just grab them.
As for catching fish and shrimp, or catching eels to eat, he doesn't stop them at all. The sparrow he released yesterday was simply because he was too lazy to deal with it. It was too small, and after all that effort, all he got was a bite of meat. He figured he might as well have gone to the fishpond and caught a fish instead.
The village children would happily bury pots in the ground, light fires, and cook fish soup and stew pigeons. The adults would not stop them; in fact, they would be happy to see it happen. Even if there was food at home, they would let the children come and have a taste of the meat soup. The village's fish ponds were public property.
This whole ordeal took two hours. The children played and made noise, while Feng Bingwen stayed by the fire, keeping a close watch. Taste was secondary to him; his first priority was to ensure that the fish soup and pigeon soup were cooked thoroughly.
At Feng Bingwen's call, all the children stopped playing and started serving soup from the porcelain bowls they had brought from home. For a moment, the only sounds were the blowing and slurping of soup.
After eating, they would wash the cooking utensils and bowls, play around for a while, and the day would pass by. For the children in the village who had not yet grown up and did not have to share the farm work, the time was extremely happy. Unfortunately, such time was always short-lived.
As dusk fell and the sky was ablaze with crimson clouds, the children, accompanied by shouts and laughter, bid each other farewell and went home, thus ending a joyful day.
Three days later, before going to sleep, Feng Bingwen unsurprisingly saw that his good deeds had increased a little more, reaching 100.
This good deed came from the group of little frogs he rescued. Spring is the season for all things to reproduce, and nowadays, little frogs can be seen hopping around everywhere in the fields.
For the village children, these bouncy little animals are extremely fun to play with, but for these young frogs, the interest of human children is a deadly disaster.
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