Chapter 2: A Family of Good Deeds Has No More Blessings
In the second year of Taiwu, Yuyang County in the northern border of Daxia.
As the sun sets in the west, the afterglow of the sun interweaves with the mist. Farmers return home along the country roads in the dusk, and their cattle and sheep follow them into the pens.
In a mud-brick house facing north outside the city, a dark-skinned farmer, a girl with a high bun, and a young man in plain white clothes were gathered around a tattered wooden table, eagerly waiting for their meal.
The flame in the oil lamp on the table flickered, causing the dim room to sway.
After a while, a peasant woman in a coarse cloth skirt came out from the night outside the main room, threw the pottery plate and basket in her hands on the table, and returned to the kitchen with a cold face.
"Master, you show off first."
The farmer pushed the plate and basket in front of the young man, using the word "show off" very well.
The plate contained shredded radish pickled with salt, and the basket contained four egg-sized steamed buns made with wild vegetables. The land in Yuyang County is barren, and the people eat this for three meals a day, all year round.
The young man picked up a steamed bread from the basket, observed it for a while and then said, "Old Qiu, have you ever eaten meat?"
Hearing this, the girl with a pigtail suddenly became interested and looked at Lao Qiu: "Dad, what is meat?"
"It's worse than steamed bread. One small bite will give me stomachache all night long."
"hiss."
The little girl bared her teeth, as if she had started to have stomach pain, and her little face was wrinkled.
The young man broke half of the steamed bread in his hand and fed it to the girl, then tore off another piece and stuffed it into his mouth, then started chewing it on his own.
His name is Ji You, an undergraduate student majoring in philosophy at Linchuan University. He is interested in singing, dancing, rap, basketball, hiking, photography, and rock climbing. He is very good at playing King of Glory and is also very funny and humorous.
However, that was more than two years ago.
During the summer vacation of his freshman year, he followed an expedition group through the Yunling No Man's Land, accidentally got lost in the mountains, and finally came to this world.
Then he fainted on the ridge of a field and was rescued by farmers from Yuyang County.
After waking up, everyone called him Young Master Ji.
Later, Ji You found out that there was a wealthy landlord in Yuyang County named Ji. He looked exactly like the eldest son of the Ji family, even their names were exactly the same.
It took him many days to accept the fact that he had traveled through time, but he had no mentality to make the best of it. After leaving the clinic, he wandered in the mountains for half a month, looking for the way he came.
Then, the hanging heart finally died.
Later, someone told him that the Ji family was a well-known landlord family in Yuyang County, so he thought that at least he would have no worries about food and clothing, which was a perfect start.
But then he realized that it was a trick.
Because just one day before he came into this world, the Ji family of Yuyang was sanctioned for offending a sect of immortal cultivators, and all the family members were killed or fled.
It is also for this reason that the people of Yuyang County thought he was the young master of the Ji family who accidentally wandered into the mountains while fleeing.
Fortunately, Master Ji was not an unscrupulous landlord who had done all kinds of evil. He was usually quite nice to his servants. So in the past two years, this fake had been eating and drinking at the home of Lao Qiu, the former steward of the Ji family.
Old Qiu was a loyal servant of the Ji family. It was said that he was picked up from the roadside and brought home by Master Ji when he was almost starving to death.
So even though his family business was gone, he still called Ji You "Young Master" on weekdays.
But Lao Qiu's wife disliked him very much. After all, Lao Qiu started farming after he stopped being a housekeeper. The family's harvest was barely enough for the family of three to live on, and no one wanted to have an extra mouth to feed at home for no reason.
"In two days, the county will send people to collect taxes. Our family eats more than other families, but we are still far behind."
"I'll go out and borrow some tomorrow, and it will be enough to make up for it."
Old Qiu chewed a steamed bun and said something to his wife who was standing in the kitchen.
Every year during the autumnal equinox, the people of Daxia are required to hand over 60% of their land to the government to support the imperial court and the immortals. Even though people are now living in poverty, the amount has never been reduced, so much so that every winter there are corpses of starving people everywhere.
This was not an uncommon scene in Daxia, but it would be a rare event if there were people who escaped starvation.
What’s worse, some elderly people who were unable to farm but needed food and drink were sent to the nursing home, which is a living tomb, while they were still alive.
Li Shuping came in with wild vegetable soup: "Borrow? Where can I borrow? In this world, who can have extra food?"
"I still have a real relative who will not ignore us."
"Didn't you say you were an orphan and were adopted by the Ji family when you were eight years old? What relatives could you have?"
"I also have an old father-in-law." Old Qiu muttered with his head down.
Li Shuping was stunned for a moment, then flew into a rage: "Since I followed you, I haven't had a good life for a few days, and you still have to borrow everything from my parents?"
"When I was the housekeeper of the Ji family, I also let you live a good life for a few days..."
Li Shuping saw Lao Qiu reaching into the basket and knocked it away: "Don't eat it, give it to the young master, he is still growing."
Mrs. Qiu, who is quite sharp-tongued, actually has a soft heart.
Ji You was somewhat moved as he reached out to the basket. Then he heard the second half of Li Shuping's words echoing in the room: "Eat well so that you can go to the fields and pull the plow during the spring ploughing."
"How can we let the young master do farm work?"
Li Shuping broke the steamed bread into pieces and said, "The Ji family is gone, what will you eat if you don't work in the fields? You are the only one who still treats him as your young master, otherwise why would the daughter of the great master's family break off the engagement with him?"
Young Master Ji had a marriage arranged since he was a child, and his partner was Fang Ruoyao, the daughter of the county magistrate.
However, on the third day after Ji You was sent to the clinic, a carriage arrived from the county government office.
At that time, the county magistrate Fang Zhongzheng got out of the car with his daughter Fang Ruoyao and forced him to sign the marriage cancellation letter voluntarily, intending to cancel the marriage.
Ji You was still lying in the clinic and hadn't recovered yet, but the hand seal was already pressed.
But he didn't feel sorry for her, after all, she was someone else's wife.
And just a few days ago, news came from the county town that Miss Fang was selected by the Tianshu Academy of the Great Xia Holy Sect and would go to Shengjing to practice Taoism.
The world of Qingyun has always respected those who practice immortal cultivation, and even the royal family has to show some respect to them, but becoming an immortal is not something that can be achieved just by wanting to.
The laws of Daxia state that civilians can only engage in production and are not allowed to practice Taoism privately. Otherwise, they will be beheaded and their three clans will be implicated.
Therefore, Fang Ruoyao has the opportunity to become an orthodox cultivator, which can be regarded as a quick success.
There is no mistake in the poem, post, content, and read the book on 6, 9, and bar!
So after this matter was reported, Young Master Ji was laughed at for a long time.
But this was not Ji You’s fault, but because the original Ji Shao had a bad reputation.
Li Shuping used the example of Miss Fang not intentionally to ridicule, but to make Ji You and Lao Qiu understand that the so-called Ji family was actually no longer the same, and she wanted to persuade him to face the reality.
Ji You broke off some steamed bread and fed it to Old Qiu's daughter, saying, "Next autumn, I should be successful, and I will give Qiu Ru delicious food and spicy drinks."
"I want to eat delicious food and drink spicy drinks!"
Qiu Ru's eyes sparkled, she held the steamed bread in her little hands and took a big bite.
The little girl is five years old this year. The Ji family disappeared before she could remember anything, and she never had a good life with them. Now she can’t even remember the taste of meat.
Li Shuping felt helpless, thinking that he couldn't even afford to eat, but he was still thinking about eating delicious food and drinking spicy drinks. This young master must be terminally ill.
But good things always come out of hard times, just like her silly daughter.
When Qiu Ru was born, she was weak and sickly and coughed every day. In the past two years, she has suddenly gotten much better. Although the family is short of food and has no meat to eat, her daughter is growing stronger and stronger.
Doctor Chen in the county is considered an expert in the area within a ten-mile radius. Even he was amazed when he saw this and said in no uncertain terms that there was something unusual about this matter.
But Old Qiu often told her that good things will be rewarded to good people, and asked her to be nicer to the young master of the Ji family. But now they were living in poverty, and she didn't know when it would end.
"I'm done."
Ji You suddenly spoke and stood up.
Old Qiu was stunned for a moment: "Young Master, why did you only eat this little bit and then continue to show off."
"Forget it. There's no extra food at home. I'll show off some of the leftovers later."
At the hour of Hai, the night is deep, the moon is above the treetops, the lights have been extinguished and everything is silent.
Ji You left Lao Qiu's house and walked into the city along the dark path. At this time, there was a long red streak across the night sky, like a bleeding wound, dyeing the nearby night sky pink.
This is not a rare astronomical phenomenon. It is said that it has existed since ancient times and has remained to this day.
"What does Tiansang mean?"
"Does that mean the sky is dead?"
Ji You recalled the series of syllables he heard on the intercom on the day he traveled through time, and felt puzzled.
At this moment, he had arrived in front of a two-story house, so he pushed the door open and went in.
He does not live in the old Qiu family, but in the only remaining ancestral home of the Ji family.
The house is huge, but the valuables had been sold off by Ji's family when they fled, and now only some broken bricks and tiles are left.
Ji You stepped into the second entrance and suddenly saw a scholar in plain clothes sitting on a willow tree in the next yard. His face was as white as jade and his eyebrows were as sharp as swords. He hung an oil lamp on a branch and read an old book silently, his figure framing the silver hook in the sky.
However, when he saw someone coming, the scholar from the next courtyard took down the oil lamp and jumped off the willow tree.
Ji You seemed to be accustomed to such scenes. He ignored it, turned back to the room, lit the candle, closed the doors and windows, and carefully drew the black curtains.
"Come on, Hanako."
He opened the drawer and, in the dim light of the candle, pulled out an incense stick called Huaxianyin.
This incense has a calming effect and can help people enter a state of meditation instantly.
Ji You inserted the incense stick into the incense burner, took off his boots, sat on the bed, and after a few breaths, a faint spiritual light appeared around him.
(End of this chapter)