"Finally, eighteen years later, Xu Shilin came to Jinshan Temple, defeated Fahai, and rescued his mother, White Snake. Fahai couldn't fight, so he fled to the Daming Lake. When he met a crab, he got in and hid inside. Not moving at all..."
In the original story, it should be that the White Snake's son grew up, won the first prize, sacrificed his mother in front of the pagoda, rescued the White Snake, etc. Of course Yang Zhen would not say that. In this world of immortals and heroes, what’s the use of being a top scholar? It is more in line with the public's perception to cultivate one's abilities through immortality!
"There were too many crabs in Daming Lake, and Xu Shilin couldn't find them one by one, so he found a friend of his when he was a child and asked him to help catch crabs. He told him that Fahai couldn't bear the cold or heat the most. This crab catcher After arriving, it will be roasted with fire and sealed with ice..."
"His friend caught crabs in Daming Lake every day. After catching them, he would freeze them and roast them. He found that the crabs treated in this way had a very special taste, so he built this Grand View Tower by the lake. This ice and fire crab is also It has become the famous dish of Daguanlou..."
Through half deletion and half brainstorming, Yang Zhen finally finished telling this Daming Lake version of "The Legend of White Snake".
The hall fell into silence for a moment. Yang Zhen's voice telling the story seemed to still be echoing in the hall, and several people were slowly savoring it. The waiter was even more stunned. There really is such a story. The ancestors of our Daguan Tower actually knew the people in the story. Why have I never heard of it?
At this time, the girl named Yue'er spoke again:
"Auntie, what is a monk? Why are you so bad?"
"Aniang doesn't know, maybe it's a sect, right?"
"It's a sect over there in the Far West," the nun said: "This sect emphasizes the karma of reincarnation and requires practitioners to convert to their Buddha. It is not liked by the monks here in Kyushu. That sect three thousand years ago After the battle, they have already retreated to the far west."
"Three thousand years, no wonder I haven't heard of it," the woman sighed and looked at Yang Zhen: "The story is very exciting. I wonder where did you read it?"
The tone was very polite, and the title was changed to "little friend".
Yang Zhen pretended to recall it for a while, then shook her head with a wry smile: "I don't remember."
The woman stopped talking, and the nanny glanced at the waiter.
The waiter often greeted and dropped off guests at the restaurant, so he knew it was time to leave, so he hurriedly bowed and left.
Yang Zhen didn't know whether he should follow or not, but he was no longer as worried about gains and losses as before. After the story was told, his mind was relaxed. Everything he had to do had been done, and the result was not that important anymore.
Sometimes we struggle because we haven’t worked hard enough.
If you work hard and have a clear conscience, you will naturally have a broad mind.
He smiled from the bottom of his heart, nodded to them, raised his hand to the girl, turned and walked out the door.
"My little friend, please stay."
Mammy made a sound to keep him.
…
After the three women had eaten crabs, they no longer ordered other meals. They set up a table on the terrace outside the hall and called for some fruits, snacks, tea, and tea. The girl ate a lot of crab meat soaked in rice wine, and her face turned red, so she asked her mother to take her with her to enjoy the scenery of the lake and mountains on the bench in the corridor. Grandma was sitting at the table and stretched out her hand to invite Yang Zhen to sit over as well.
Grandma handed Yang Zhen a piece of cut melon and fruit with a kind face, but the question she asked surprised Yang Zhen:
"Are you looking for someone to adopt you?"
"Ah, how do you know?" Yang Zhen opened her mouth. He only discussed this matter with Aunt Fu and the waiter on the first floor. How could she know?
Then Yang Zhen figured it out. Now he was relaxed and relaxed. He pointed at his ears and asked with a smile: "Is it the immortal's method?"
Grandma nodded: "I am accompanying the young lady and madam when they go out, so naturally I have to pay attention to what is going on around me."
Yang Zhen took the fruit and explained: "I have been looking for work all day today. They said I have no identity and I can't do it, and... they think I am too young, so I can only find a family first to see if they can adopt me and give it to me." An identity.”
"Well, you were doing questions and telling stories just now. Do you want us to help you?"
It turns out that people are like a mirror in their hearts! I really can't hide my little thoughts from others. Yang Zhen was a little embarrassed, but she couldn't retreat at this time. In this case, it was better to speak openly and openly.
"I was wondering... could you help me find a job? Even though I'm young, I know a lot of things. I can write and do calculations, and I have a lot of strength. I can do many jobs."
"This is absolutely not allowed." Mammy replied very firmly: "You are still underage and cannot be a hired worker. This is a rule set by the sect, and no one dares to defy it."
"The rules of the sect? I heard that the sect seems to pay special attention to children. Is there any reason here?"
It has only been three days since Yang Zhen came to this world. Yang Zhen has already heard many rules related to children from Tiezhu, Aunt Fu, and the clerks and shopkeepers she met when applying for jobs. For example, children are not allowed to be robbed and child labor is not allowed. Children are not even allowed to stay overnight, etc. These regulations sound like they are all about protecting children, but they make it difficult for Yang Zhen, now an orphan, to find a job.
"Because, a child may develop spiritual roots and practice to become a monk. Such a person cannot be allowed to suffer injustice when he was a child."
Wronged? Yang Zhen didn't come back to her senses for a while.
Seemingly sensing Yang Zhen's confusion, Mammy continued to explain.
"These rules were set by the former head of the Yunxiao Sect and the Supreme Elder at the time..."
"The sect leader of Yunxiao Sect was born in poverty, his parents died. He was sold by traffickers to work in shops and mines at a very young age, and suffered all kinds of torture and abuse. Until one day he accidentally saved a sect senior and started practicing cultivation from then on. Lu, and later became the sect leader..."
"The Supreme Elder was born with extraordinary talents. As a result, a certain killer organization killed his entire family, kidnapped him, and secretly cultivated him into a generation of genius. Naturally, the matter was exposed later..."
Yang Zhen was stunned for a moment after hearing this. Both of them have the template of protagonists!
"One of these two seniors has been tortured since he was a child, and the other was kidnapped as a child, so he hates this kind of trafficking, abuse, and robbing of young children. After one became the sect leader, he almost trafficked all the people in Kyushu. Killed them all; the other one did not let the killer organization go. Later, they formulated these rules together. Children are not allowed to be hired or driven to work, and children are not allowed to be trafficked or robbed. Otherwise, the Yunxiao Sect will punish them..."
"Then what's going on with the spiritual roots? Why do children have them, and what about adults?" This is the question that Yang Zhen wants to understand the most.
"Speaking of this, it's a long story." Grandma clapped her hands, smiled and hugged Yue'er who came to listen to their conversation: "I heard you tell a story today, so I will tell you this too. The story in it.”
This nanny looks to be in her forties, but she calls herself old, and her true age is unknown.
"This matter has to start from three thousand years ago..."
It turns out that three thousand years ago, almost all mortals in this world had spiritual roots and everyone could cultivate. At that time, there were countless monks, and even ordinary people could know a few magic formulas for exhaling and receiving qi, and how to perform a few tricks such as fireballs and earth dragons.
There are many monks, but the resources are limited. The result is that they are fighting each other. To use a fashionable word, it is involution. Today, people are killed to seize treasures, and tomorrow, everyone is wiped out. Except for those top beings, almost everyone in the entire continent is in danger and is in danger.
Then a great battle broke out, which also alarmed the immortals in the upper world. After the war, resources became even scarcer, so some immortals used their supreme magic to seal off the world. From then on, babies in this world lost their spiritual roots as soon as they were born...
"Then... wouldn't everyone be unable to practice?" Yang Zhen said in surprise.
"Of course it won't be like this. Immortals still have some leeway when doing things. Not every child is like this..." Mammy continued to talk slowly.
The immortal also set up a huge heaven and earth formation in this world. These children will be affected by this formation on New Year's Day of the year when they are about to turn twelve. But only a very small number of children, under the influence of the formation, the spiritual roots in their bodies will materialize and they can practice.
"This ratio is about one for every thousand children."
"so little!"
"Yeah, so things are rare and valuable, do you understand?"
Understood! Yang Zhen suddenly became enlightened and figured out many things.
For example, why Tiezhu was so comfortable in the Gu family at the beginning, and why the pawnshop owner was eager to introduce himself to the owner of the family for adoption were all the same reasons. Before reaching the age of twelve, these children may develop spiritual roots and embark on the path of cultivating immortals!
If children cannot be snatched or sold, the only option is to use the name of adoption.
"But the ratio of producing spiritual roots is so small, isn't it worth those people's fight to adopt a child?" Yang Zhen expressed her doubts.
"Then you are wrong. Don't say that one person is born out of a thousand people, which means that one monk is born out of ten thousand people. Many people are also willing." Mammy explained.
"In a civilian family, once a child develops spiritual roots and enters the immortal sect, the family is no longer an ordinary family, but a family of monks. From then on, the government does not dare to bully, there is no corvee, and there is no need to pay taxes on the land under the name. If the child practices If you are successful, the government will come to your door to curry favor..."
Yang Zhen knew it in her heart. This is just like in the previous life, when a child from a poor family passed the examination and became a scholar, he became a scholar from then on and his family no longer had to pay for food.
"There are also many transactions involving immortal cultivation resources, and only monks can participate. The profit here is up to a hundred times different from those who buy money in the mortal world!"
"On the contrary, if the family does not have the support of a monk, even if the family's wealth is worth tens of millions, it will be eaten by others and will be taken away by others sooner or later..."
"But there is only one child in a thousand who has spiritual roots. For smaller families, maybe even a hundred years there will not be a single child with spiritual roots in the family. Such families can only slowly decline. Are they willing? Of course not! "
"Any family that wants to protect the family in the long run must have its own true immortal cultivator. If you can't give birth, adopt more children. If you cast too many nets, you can always catch fish..."
"Even for those big families, the more monks the better. With every additional monk, the family will gain more strength..."
"It only costs three to five thousand gold to raise a child a year, and only three to five thousand gold for a thousand people. But if one of these thousand people comes out as an immortal cultivator, the reward will be more than ten thousand gold! They calculated this deal very clearly..."
…
As her mother told her, Yang Zhen gradually understood. But thinking about his own situation, he still had questions.
"So, do those orphans have to be adopted by those wealthy families? What if the orphans don't want to?" Yang Zhen asked doubtfully.
After all, the rate of spiritual roots appearing is too low. Most orphans go to these wealthy families and their future destiny is to be slaves.
"The sect has never required that orphans must be adopted by wealthy families. The Yunxiao sect's rule is that if there are orphans within its jurisdiction, the local government must be responsible for raising them."
"Government support? Is this still the case?"
"It's long gone. Any system may change after being implemented for a long time. Just like this rule, guess what it will become in the future?"
Mammy showed a meaningful smile and looked at Yang Zhen, as if she wanted to know how he would answer.
What has become? Yang Zhen thought seriously, recalled what she had seen and heard in the past two days, and quickly came to a realization.
"Later changes, the government was nominally responsible for raising children, but actually entrusted it to other people, such as those wealthy families! In this way, the government not only saves worry and money, but can also get a sum of money from the wealthy families, and it only needs to act as a supervisor. . As for the big family, they may get immortal cultivation seeds with spiritual roots, and they will become the help of the family from then on. Even mortals can be taken as slaves. No matter what, they will not lose money."
This is truly a win-win! No, it’s a win-win-win. The government and wealthy families each benefited from it, and orphans with spiritual root qualifications also received a better living environment and even funding for future cultivation.
So who is the loser? It's those mortal children. In this life, I have been arranged like this and become a slave of a wealthy family!
They may be angry and resist, but what’s the use? In this world where monks are respected, mortals are like ants, who would care?
Maybe escaping like Tiezhu is a way, but how many such lucky people are there? This world is very big, and leaving the areas where humans gather is the wilderness. There are monsters and beasts there, and there are many places where even monks dare not set foot at will. When mortals enter the wilderness, they will die without rebirth.
Yang Zhen fell silent, thinking of himself. What should I do, can I just find someone to adopt?
