Chapter 344: Communication

Pan Yun couldn't calculate it, and neither could Miao Zhen, but she said, "But the tortoise shell shows it's not a bad thing. Why does Little Martial Uncle suddenly bring up Shuangyang Village and Huaihua Village?"

Because she suddenly received a large amount of merit points from them.

Pan Yun had already summed up the pattern: when doing good deeds, either she received merit points on the spot, or she would receive them after a period of time.

This "after a period of time" basically fell within half a month, and generally she only received them once.

A very small number of people would give her merit points twice for the same deed.

Strictly speaking, the children Yu Popo brought along were also an exception.

Every day at meals they had to give thanks, and every time they gave thanks she received merit points.

But in reality, she had also delivered grain to others, yet aside from receiving merit points like +1 or +2 at the very beginning, she never received any more afterward — even sending another batch brought nothing.

Pan Yun was a practical person; if she couldn't get any benefit, she slowly stopped delivering.

Only this group of children Yu Popo led — even when she wasn't home, she still gave money and asked people to deliver grain to them.

One could say that during the days she was shut inside Long Hushan Academy studying, all her merit points came from them.

Shuangyang Village and Huaihua Village — after they left the village back then, she received a large amount of merit points. She had carefully looked at the statistics shown by the Spirit Realm: every single person had given some.

Later, she received a second batch of merit points from a few more people one after another, and after that things went quiet.

Further merit points came only from strangers after the Quanzhou pirate-slaying incident spread. By rights, Shuangyang Village and Huaihua Village shouldn't be giving her such a large amount of merit points all at once.

It made her a little worried that something might have happened to them.

Since Miao Zhen said it didn't seem like a bad thing, Pan Yun took advantage of the fact that there weren't many people around, pulled out a sheet of white paper, and began writing a letter. "I'll write and ask — then I'll know."

Miao Zhen suddenly raised her head to look at the sky outside. The golden morning sun spread flat across it, the sky a deep blue, with only a few faint wisps of white cloud drifting in the air.

She said, "Today is a good day."

Pan Yun replied casually, "Of course it is. This is the day I divined after kneeling before Master's divine statue and praying devoutly for half a shichen. You could say it's the best day of the whole winter."

Miao Zhen: "On such a good day, did the steles for Shuangyang Village and Huaihua Village also pick today to be set up?"

Pan Yun's brush tip paused, and she fell to pondering. "Counting the days, we've been back almost a month now. The steles really are about to be set up. It can't be such a coincidence that they chose today, can it?"

It was exactly such a coincidence. Licentiate Chen had consulted the almanac for a long time and finally chosen today.

At that moment, at the border between Shuangyang Village and Huaihua Village, a huge stone stele had been erected. On it was an essay personally written by Licentiate Chen, carved word by word by craftsmen following his text.

Ever since Licentiate Chen had worked his connections and bought up all the village land under his own name, the people from the county government office and the Charity Nursery stopped coming.

Instead, more matchmakers came into the village, and several landlords' stewards came privately to find him, wanting to buy land from him.

All were refused by Licentiate Chen.

He put out the words, "I will not take a wife until the Japanese pirates are destroyed. If I break this oath, may Heaven punish me and Earth destroy me." After that, even the matchmakers stopped coming to him.

Only those stewards and brokers from the property houses kept running back and forth.

Though Licentiate Chen was annoyed, he knew that if Shuangyang Village and Huaihua Village wanted to survive, he couldn't refuse harshly and offend everyone.

So, while leading them on with empty talk, he took people around the county searching, slowly picking out some refugees who were good at farming and honest, letting them enter the village either as long-term hired hands or as tenant farmers.

He didn't dare take in refugees who were related or came from the same village; nor did he dare hire too many lone workers without family.

As for the village's land, he would rather leave it fallow than risk taking in too many people.

Thanks to his efforts, in less than a month the two villages had recovered their vitality and begun to settle into stability.

The stone steles he had commissioned at his own expense were also delivered.

Things the county government office wouldn't report on, wouldn't even record in the county gazetteer — only he could record them.

"Record it on the stone stele. So long as the stele doesn't shatter, the deeds won't fade. Later generations — especially the descendants of our two villages — must remember this grudge and engrave this kindness in their hearts. So long as the stele stands, the kindness and the grudge cannot be forgotten."

Licentiate Chen stood beside the stone stele, raised his hand to point at the characters above, and taught them to read it out word by word: "On the twelfth day of the tenth month of the eighth year of Zhengtong, Japanese pirates came ashore by going around the city and attacked Shuangyang Village and Huaihua Village…"

Everyone looked up together. Few among them could read, but they opened their eyes wide and followed Licentiate Chen, reading word by word downward. Soon they reached the names of their parents, their brothers and sisters, and many, many little playmates…

Licentiate Chen had the names of every slain villager carved onto the stele. The first half described the cruelty of the Japanese pirates and the misery of the two villages;

The second half recorded Pan Sanzhu's deeds of slaying pirates in Quanzhou, then wrote of Pan Yun bringing Pan Sanzhu's goodwill to the villages, and set down the destination of the charitable funds Pan Yun had arranged for them and the rules…

Time can soothe the wounds in people's hearts, but it can also wear down their fighting spirit and make them forget their hatred.

Licentiate Chen would not allow them to forget. So he specially erected this stele, so that descendants would remember this grudge, and also remember their agreement with Pan Yun.

Beneath the stele, the survivors of the two villages looked up at the names above, and committed to memory Pan Sanzhu, Pan Yun, Miao Zhen, Miao He, Master Xuanmiao, and Tao Ji.

Apart from Licentiate Chen, who had his suspicions, no one knew that Pan Sanzhu and Pan Yun were the same person.

Ambition and gratitude surged in their chests. They remembered the grudge against the Japanese pirates, and they also remembered the kindness of Pan Yun and the others. Because Pan Sanzhu's and Pan Yun's names were placed at the very front, the children remembered them most firmly — especially the name Pan Sanzhu.

Sanzhu, Sanzhu — especially easy to remember. And during this time they had heard no small number of stories of this heroine slaying pirates, so she had already overtaken Pan Yun to become their number one idol.

And so Pan Yun's merit points shot straight up.

Of course, at this moment she didn't know that the stele had been erected, or that in the future it would become a place where the surrounding villages came to offer sacrifices and make wishes, letting her always receive merit points at certain times.

At this moment, she was handing the letter to Xiao Qi, and gave her a handful of copper coins as well. "Take it to the Minxin Bureau. They know how to send it."

Xiao Qi tucked the letter into her bosom and pressed it down, nodding with a solemn face. "I'll definitely deliver it!"

Pan Yun ruffled her hair and laughed. "Off you go."

They took their blessing bags and headed back to the county town, laden with parcels big and small.

The moment Xiao Qi entered the city, she handed everything she was carrying to her companions, pressed a hand to her chest, and said, "I'm going to the Minxin Bureau. You all head back first."

Yu Popo wasn't worried about her either, only telling her to come straight home after mailing the letter. "Tonight we're cooking blessed rice."

The blessed rice in the blessing bags — they believed it had been blessed by listening to scriptures in the temple, and that it contained good fortune. Once you got it, you had to eat it as soon as possible to take in more of that good fortune.

! 。Read

Everyone in line at the front of the Mountain God Temple who received a blessing bag thought this way and said the same: "We'll cook it tonight when we get home."

"I just hefted it — really heavy. It must be full measure, six catties and six taels. We can't finish a whole bag in one night, can we?"

"Then we'll split it over three nights."

"Three people came from our household, and we got three blessing bags — enough to last us nine days."

After winter set in, the work in the fields lessened, and to save grain, everyone not only cut back on meals but reduced the amount of grain in each meal, only maintaining a state where they wouldn't starve to death.

It was a rare chance to cook thick porridge or rice.

The blessing bags given by the Mountain God Temple — every household took them home and immediately opened them to cook, and to absorb better fortune, they tried to cook as much as possible.

After eating their fill for several days in a row, their stomachs felt warm and cozy, and their bodies were full of strength.

Thus, most people who didn't think too deeply felt that the blessing bags from the Mountain God Temple really did contain fortune, and that their bodies truly improved after eating them.

"It's really gotten better. I used to be dizzy and light-headed, but after eating the blessed rice, I got well."

"I used to lose hair in big handfuls, and my complexion was waxy and yellow. After eating it, it got much better too."

"I was weak all over, as if I'd caught a chill. After eating the medicine packet from the Mountain God Temple and then the blessed rice, I got well."

Thus, those who had come grew even more convinced of the Mountain God Temple, believing it very efficacious.

So during festivals, or in times of hardship, they would go to the Mountain God Temple to worship.

For small matters in daily life, they would bow toward the direction of the Mountain God Temple, silently reciting "Mountain God of Mount Sanqing" in their hearts.

These small matters were things like a child crying and fussing, taking a tumble on flat ground, seeming to hear ghostly wailing…

Don't laugh — after kneeling and bowing from afar to the Mountain God, most of these matters were resolved, and even those that weren't were at least somewhat eased.

Thus, the common folk of Yushan County and neighboring counties all believed in the Mountain God even more.

The fame of the Mount Sanqing Mountain God began, through them, to spread among the nearby counties. The number of people who came daily to worship at the Mountain God Temple grew more and more, and among them were no shortage of wealthy folk.

The temple fair lasted three days. After the three days, the faithful dispersed, and the Mountain God Temple returned to quiet.

Pan Yun had thought this quiet would last until the New Year, but in less than half a month, the Mountain God Temple's daily worshippers had already increased.

After seeing off another group of devotees who had come to offer merit money, Pan Yun, taking advantage of the moment when no one was around, lit incense and offered three sticks to her master, whispering, "Master, if your magic power has increased, give a little flash on your statue."

Pan Yun looked up, staring fixedly at the statue.

She saw a flash of light pass through the statue's eyes.

Pan Yun slammed her fist hard into her palm and said excitedly, "I knew it — Chinese legends don't lie. Gods eat incense and exist through faith."

"Master, if one day you receive a great deal of incense, can you ascend and become an even more powerful deity?" Pan Yun rocked her head back and forth as she spoke. "They say when one person attains the Dao, even his chickens and dogs ascend. So if one god attains the Dao, shouldn't your disciple also get some benefits along the way?"

Pan Yun let her imagination run wild, fantasizing shamelessly: "For example, take your beloved little disciple — me — and Senior Brother along, and fly us up with you?"

A stream of consciousness descended into her mind out of thin air.

There was no sound, no text, but Pan Yun understood it at once.

Her smiling face instantly fell. "You're saying my own cultivation would be faster than you carrying me up? And you're still atoning for sins? Master, what misdeeds did you commit in the past? All those merit points, and you're still in the debt-repaying stage!"

That stream of consciousness paid her no further attention.

(End of chapter)