Chapter 2: A Family That Accumulates Goodness Has No Surplus Blessings

The second year of Taiwu, Northern Territory of the Great Xia, Yuyang County.

As the sun set behind the western hills, ten thousand rays of afterglow intertwined with the mist. Farmers returned home along the country roads in the dusk, and the cattle and sheep followed them into their pens.

In a mud-brick house north of the city, a dark-skinned farmer, a young girl with her hair tied in a topknot, and a young master in plain white silk were gathered around a dilapidated wooden table, waiting for food with eager eyes.

The flame in the oil lamp on the table flickered, causing the dim room to seem to sway along with it.

A moment later, a farm woman wearing a coarse cloth skirt walked in from the darkness outside the main room, threw the ceramic dish and wicker basket in her hands onto the table, and returned to the kitchen with a cold face.

"Young Master, you eat first."

The farmer pushed the dish and the wicker basket toward the young master, having already mastered the word "eat" quite well.

In the dish were radishes pickled in salt, and in the wicker basket were four wild vegetable steamed buns the size of chicken eggs. The land in Yuyang County was barren, and the three meals a day for the common people were all like this, unchanging throughout the year.

The young master picked a steamed bun out of the wicker basket, observed it for a long time, and then opened his mouth: "Old Qiu, have you ever eaten meat?"

Hearing this, the young girl with the topknot suddenly became interested and looked at Old Qiu: "Dad, what is meat?"

"Something harder to eat than a steamed bun; one small bite will cause a stomachache all night."

"Hiss."

The young girl bared her teeth, as if she had already started to have a stomachache, her little face wrinkled up.

At this moment, the young master broke half of the steamed bun in his hand and fed it to the young girl, then tore off a piece and stuffed it into his own mouth, chewing it to himself.

His name is Ji You, an undergraduate student in the Philosophy Department of Lin Chuan University. He loved singing, dancing, rap, basketball, hiking, photography, and rock climbing. He was great at *Honor of Kings* and was also very witty and humorous.

However, that was already more than two years ago.

During the summer vacation of his freshman year, he followed an adventure team to trek through the Yunling no-man's-land, accidentally got lost in the mountains, and finally walked into this world.

Then he fainted on the ridge of the field and was saved by a farmer in Yuyang County.

After waking up, everyone called him Young Master Ji.

Later, Ji You learned that there was a wealthy landlord family in Yuyang County surnamed Ji. He looked exactly like the eldest young master of that Ji family, and even his name was exactly the same.

At that time, it took him many days to accept the fact that he had transmigrated, but he had absolutely no "when in Rome, do as the Romans do" mentality. After coming out of the medical clinic, he spent half a month wandering in the mountains, looking for the way he came.

Then, the heart that had been hanging finally died.

Later, someone told him that the Ji family was a famous landlord family in Yuyang County, so he thought he could at least be free from worry about food and clothing—a perfect "heavenly" start.

But then he learned that this was a "fraudulent" start.

Because just the day before he arrived in this world, the Yuyang Ji family had been sanctioned for offending a cultivation sect, and the family members were either dead or had fled.

It was precisely because of this that the people of Yuyang County regarded him as the young master of the Ji family who had accidentally wandered into the deep mountains while fleeing.

Fortunately, Old Master Ji was not an unscrupulous landlord who had committed all kinds of evil; he was usually quite good to his servants. So for these two years, he, this fake, had been eating and drinking in the home of Old 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 by Old Master Ji when he was about to starve to death.

So even though the family business was gone, he still called Ji You "Young Master" on weekdays.

But Old Qiu's wife didn't like him. After all, after Old Qiu stopped being a steward, he also started farming. The family's harvest was barely enough for the three of them to live on, and no one wanted an extra mouth to feed for no reason.

"Two days from now, the county will send people to collect taxes. Our family eats more than others, and now we are still short of quite a bit."

"I'll go out tomorrow to borrow some; if we scrape it together, it should be enough."

Old Qiu chewed on a steamed bun and said to his wife standing in the kitchen.

Every autumn equinox, the people of Great Xia had to hand over 60% of their field produce to support the imperial court and the immortals. Even though the people were now living in dire poverty, it had never been reduced by even a fraction, leading to starving people everywhere every winter.

This was not a rare scene in Great Xia, but if there were truly commoners who could not be starved to death, that would be a strange anecdote.

Even worse, some elderly people who could no longer farm but still needed to eat and drink were sent to the "Elderly Care Pavilion"—that is, a living tomb—while they were still alive.

Li Shuping walked in with wild vegetable soup: "Borrow? Where to borrow? In this world, which family has surplus grain?"

"I still have a relative; I think they won't ignore us."

"Didn't you say you were a wild orphan, adopted by the Ji family at eight? What other relatives could you have?"

"I still have an old father-in-law." Old Qiu muttered with his head down.

Li Shuping paused and flew into a rage: "Ever since I followed you, I haven't had a good day, and now you want to borrow everything from my maiden family?"

"When I was a steward at the Ji family, I also let you live a few good days..."

Li Shuping caught sight of Old Qiu reaching for the wicker basket and reached out to slap his hand away: "Stop eating, let the Young Master eat; the Young Master is growing."

The rather sharp-tongued Mrs. Qiu was actually someone with a sharp tongue but a soft heart.

Ji You was a bit moved as he reached his hand toward the wicker basket, only to hear the second half of Li Shuping's sentence ring out in the room: "Eat until you're sturdy, so you can follow the plow in the spring plowing."

"How can we let the Young Master do farm work?"

Li Shuping crumbled the steamed bun and said: "The Ji family is already gone; if he doesn't work in the fields, what will he eat? Only you still treat him as a Young Master; otherwise, why would the daughter of the Old Master's family break off the engagement with him?"

Young Master Ji originally had an engagement set since childhood; the object was Fang Ruoyao, the daughter of the County Magistrate.

However, just three days after Ji You was sent to the medical clinic, a carriage came from the county government office.

At that time, County Magistrate Fang Zhongzheng brought his daughter Fang Ruoyao off the carriage, forcing him to voluntarily sign a letter of annulment, intending to break off the engagement.

Ji You was still lying in the medical clinic and hadn't recovered, so his handprint was pressed on it.

However, he didn't feel bad; after all, that was someone else's wife.

And just a few days ago, news came from the county city that Miss Fang had been selected by the Great Xia Sacred Sect's Heavenly Academy and would go to Shengjing to enter the Dao and cultivate immortality.

The Azure Cloud World had always respected cultivators, and even the imperial family had to show them three points of respect. But this "immortality" was not something one could cultivate just because one wanted to.

Great Xia law stated that commoners could only engage in production and could not privately cultivate immortality; otherwise, it was a capital crime, and it would implicate the three clans.

So Fang Ruoyao having the opportunity to become an orthodox cultivator could truly be considered a step to the heavens.

Consequently, after this matter spread, Young Master Ji was laughed at for a long time.

But this was not Ji You's fault; it was because the original Young Master Ji had a bad reputation.

Li Shuping using Miss Fang as an example now was not intended to mock, but to make Ji You and Old Qiu understand that the so-called Ji family had long since changed, trying to persuade him to recognize reality.

Ji You broke off a bit of the steamed bun and fed it to Old Qiu's daughter, saying: "Next autumn, I should be successful, and then I will let Qiu Ru eat fragrant and spicy food."

"I want to eat fragrant and spicy food!"

Qiu Ru's eyes were bright, and her little hand gripped the steamed bun and took a fierce bite.

The little girl was five years old this year. The Ji family was gone before she had any memory, and she hadn't lived any good days. Now, she didn't even remember the taste of meat.

Li Shuping was a bit helpless, thinking to herself that they were about to run out of food, yet they were still thinking about eating fragrant and spicy food. This Young Master was afraid he was already terminally ill.

However, there were always good things in bitter days, just like her silly daughter.

Qiu Ru was weak and sickly when she was just born, coughing every day. These two years, she had suddenly gotten much better. Although the family was short of food and she couldn't eat any meat, the daughter was growing sturdier and sturdier.

Physician Chen in the county could be considered a saintly hand within a radius of ten miles. Even he clicked his tongue in wonder after seeing her and firmly said that this matter was strange.

But Old Qiu often told her that this was called "good people get good rewards," telling her to be better to the Ji family's Young Master. But in these bitter days, when would it ever end?

"I'm finished."

Ji You suddenly spoke and stood up.

Old Qiu paused: "Young Master, why did you only eat this little? Keep eating."

"Forget it, there's no surplus grain at home. Let's leave the rest to eat later."

The hour of the pig (9-11 PM), the night was deep, the moon reached the willow tips, the lamps were extinguished, and all was silent.

Ji You left Old Qiu's house and walked along the dark path toward the city. At this moment, a long, crimson scar in the night sky stretched across the horizon, like a bleeding wound, dyeing the nearby night sky pink.

This was not a rare celestial phenomenon; it was said to have existed since ancient times and had remained until today.

"Heaven's mourning... what does that mean?"

"Does it mean that Heaven has already died?"

Ji You remembered the string of syllables he heard on the walkie-talkie on the day he transmigrated, feeling somewhat puzzled.

Just at this moment, he had arrived in front of a two-courtyard residence, so he pushed the door and entered.

He didn't live at Old Qiu's house, but in the ancestral home that was all that remained of the Ji family.

This residence was large, but the valuable things had been sold by the Ji family members when they fled. Now, only some broken bricks and rotten tiles remained.

Ji You walked into the second courtyard and suddenly saw a scholar in plain clothes sitting on a willow tree in the neighboring courtyard. His face was like jade, his sword-like eyebrows reached his temples. He hung an oil lamp on a tree branch and held an old book, reading silently, framed by the silver hook of the moon.

However, upon seeing someone coming, the scholar in the neighboring courtyard took down the oil lamp and jumped off the willow tree.

Ji You seemed to have long been accustomed to such scenes, so he didn't pay any attention, turned back to his room, lit a candle, closed the doors and windows tightly, and carefully covered them with black curtains.

"Give me a cigarette."

He pulled open the drawer and, by the dim light of the candle, pulled out a stick of incense called "Flower Immortal Sound."

This incense had a calming effect and could make people enter a meditative state in an instant.

Ji You inserted the incense into the burner, took off his boots, and sat on the bed. A few breaths later, spiritual light began to flicker around his body.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 3 =====