Within five days? But which day exactly? I can't possibly prepare food and wine for this old Taoist priest every day.
Just as Li Guang was about to ask for more details, the old Taoist priest spoke up.
"It will rain within five days, from morning till night. If there are no special circumstances, I will come to this farm before noon that day." After saying this, the old Taoist left without looking back.
The old Taoist's words surprised Li Guang. The old Taoist actually said that it would definitely rain within five days, and that the rain would last for a day. Was it really that miraculous?
It hasn't rained for a long time. The fields are completely dry, some small rivers have dried up, and the big river in the village is also running low. If this continues, the big river will dry up in a few days too.
Water is scarce everywhere now, and if it doesn't rain soon, most of the crops will be lost.
A few days ago, Li Guang planted many vegetable seeds, but the soil was too dry and the seeds wouldn't germinate. He was waiting for rain.
Li Guang looked up at the sky. There were quite a few clouds, but there was no sign of rain at all.
If it really rains within five days as the old Taoist priest said, then everything will still be in time.
The old Taoist priest has gone far away, and no one knows where he is going, but his demeanor is indeed quite different from others. Hopefully, what he said will come true.
The old Taoist's words pleased Li Guang, and he seemed less hungry.
After the old Taoist left, Li Guang planned to go back and have something to eat, but he kept thinking about the old Taoist and forgot about going back to eat.
At this time, the craftsmen who came to work arrived one after another, and Li Guang put away the bowls and plates on the stone table and then began to work with the craftsmen.
If you get home at this time, there might not be any food waiting for you, so just bear with it and eat more at night.
Li Guang looked at a craftsman working nearby and asked:
"Look at the weather now, is it going to rain?"
The craftsman shook his head and sighed.
"The weather these days is giving us no way to survive. It hasn't rained for more than two months. These past few days, the sky has been full of clouds, and we can't see the sun, but it just won't rain."
If this continues, the crops will all wither and die. There will be no late rice harvest, and we'll go hungry again. It's really not easy being a farmer."
“Yes, farmers specialize in producing grain, but in years of famine, it is the farmers who starve to death first,” a craftsman added.
"The high-ranking officials and nobles of today have no idea about the suffering of ordinary people. They have endless money and enjoy wealth and luxury, but we farmers suffer the most."
The craftsmen were complaining one after another, but Li Guang didn't answer and just kept his head down and worked silently.
Finally, it was time to wrap up work in the afternoon, and Li Guang dragged his tired body home.
To avoid letting his family know that he hadn't eaten lunch, he tried to remain relaxed, enduring his hunger. After a while, dinner was finally served.
At the dining table, Li Guang ate in silence. He had expended a lot of energy that day and hadn't eaten lunch, so he was feeling quite hungry.
Li Guang knew that people starving to death was all too common during famine years, so what did it matter if he missed a meal?
After eating a bowl of rice, Li Guang began to ask Zhao Xiaosheng:
"I haven't been to the rice paddies for a while, so I don't know how the rice is growing."
Zhao Xiaosheng sighed and said:
"The water in the river is getting less and less, and the villagers have started to scramble for water to irrigate the rice seedlings. Because there is too little water in the river, the waterwheels are useless. They can only carry water to irrigate the seedlings so that they don't die from the drought."
Fortunately, this is not yet the rice heading stage. If this situation occurred during the heading stage, the rice harvest would essentially be lost. Now, we can only hope that it rains soon so that the late rice can still be saved.
Seeing Zhao Xiaosheng looking worried, Li Guang comforted him.
"Brother Sheng, don't worry. I met a wandering Taoist priest today. He told me that it will rain within five days, and it will rain all day long. At that time, the crops will be saved."
"Really?" Zhao Xiaosheng's eyes lit up.
"If it rains for even one day out of the next five days, we won't have to work so hard carrying water to irrigate the rice seedlings. Maybe the river will rise and we can use the waterwheel."
These past few days, Zhao Xiaosheng has been carrying water to irrigate the rice seedlings. It's not just him doing this; the whole village is doing it.
Farmers went to great lengths to prevent their crops from drying out, so when waterwheels were no longer needed, they used wooden buckets to fetch water.
Three or four more days passed, and the sun grew stronger and stronger. Every day was scorching hot, as if summer had returned. There were no clouds in the sky, and not even a breath of wind.
Li Guang calculated that tomorrow would be the fifth day the old Taoist had mentioned. If the old Taoist was indeed a hermit who could observe celestial phenomena, then it would definitely rain tomorrow.
But now the sky is clear and cloudless, with no sign of rain at all.
Fortunately, I only told Zhao Xiaosheng about this, so even if it doesn't rain, it won't have much of an impact.
Every two days early in the morning, Li Guang would get up and the first thing he would do was look outside at the sky. Although it was just dawn, he could still see that the sky was clear and cloudless.
Li Guang was utterly disappointed. He sighed, realizing that the old Taoist priest was unreliable and that he had wasted several days of his hopes.
Li Guang ate breakfast hastily, picked up Xiao Hei, and prepared to take Xiao Hei to the farm starting today, so that Xiao Hei could live there and guard the farm.
After arriving at the farm, Li Guang planned to build a doghouse in the corner of the yard for Xiao Hei to live in.
As he was engrossed in making the doghouse, he felt raindrops falling on the back of his neck, a cool, refreshing sensation.
Li Guang quickly looked up at the sky, which was now covered with dark clouds, and the sun had disappeared.
Could it really be going to rain? Li Guang was overjoyed.
Is this even real? It's already started to drizzle.
If it rains, you can't leave Xiao Hei outside; keep it in your room first.
Although the rain was light, it fell very frequently, and the ground quickly became damp.
The old Taoist priest was definitely a master. Sure enough, it rained within five days. The old Taoist priest said that it would rain all day today, which meant that it would rain from now until night.
Hurry back and prepare, have the chef make some delicious food, I'm going to treat the old Taoist to lunch.
Thinking of this, Li Guang hurried home, but by the time he got home, his clothes were already soaked.
At this moment, Zhao Xiaosheng also rushed back from the fields. His clothes were wet. Upon seeing Li Guang, he said:
"Li Guang, that old Taoist priest you met the other day was really quite capable. He said it would rain within five days, and he was right. Today is exactly the fifth day. Could that old Taoist priest be a deity?"
When the others heard Zhao Xiaosheng say this, they asked what was going on.
Li Guang then recounted his encounter with the old Taoist priest that day, which greatly surprised everyone and sparked their interest in the old Taoist.
According to the old Taoist priest, he was coming over to have lunch and drinks with Li Guang at noon today. Li Guang said that the old Taoist priest was over eighty years old. Could it be that he had really become an immortal?
Everyone immediately became interested and wanted to go over at noon to see what the old Taoist priest was like.
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