The home of Lao Laizi and Shu Guan is a three-room blue-tiled house in a corner at the east end of Taoyuan Village.
A kitchen, a bedroom, and one for storing some sundries.
There is also a courtyard outside the door that can accommodate more than a dozen people sitting around. In the courtyard is an old osmanthus tree planted with two people hugging each other. Shuguan broke his leg on this osmanthus tree when he was a child.
There are stone tables and chairs under the sweet-scented osmanthus tree, which are usually used for eating.
Although the furnishings in the house are simple, they are neat and clean, with bright windows and wells, mortars, and grinders.
According to some of the literature Shu Guan had read before, and his understanding of the living standards of Chinese farmers during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, such conditions could definitely be regarded as a well-to-do family.
The old cripple's residence can only be regarded as ordinary in Taoyuan Village.
Taoyuan Village is a remote area, but it is by no means a poor village.
Although there is not much land suitable for farming in the valley, it is quite fertile and there is absolutely no problem in feeding the seven to eight hundred people in the village.
The fish in the stream next to the village are plump and tender, as well as snails and clam shells.
There are various wild vegetables and fruits in the mountains and forests, as well as hares, pheasants, bamboo rats, and elk, but there are no jackals, tigers, and leopards. The most ferocious beast is the wild boar. These are the sources of bacon in the villagers' homes.
The most important thing is that there is no government here to collect taxes!
So, except that no one can go out from here, Taoyuan Village is really a paradise. As long as you are not too lazy, you can live a very good life in this valley.
Dusk in Taoyuan Village always comes earlier than in the outside world.
On this day, Shu Guan and Lao Laizi walked into their courtyard under the last ray of sunset.
The bamboo basket behind the old lame man was filled with herbs collected from the mountains today.
Shuguan, who is ten years old this year, followed behind the old lame man, holding a bucket half his height with both hands. In the bucket were several crucian carps that he picked up from the stream on the way back.
"It's a pity that I didn't find the colorful grass today."
When walking into the courtyard, Shu Guan still felt a little regretful.
"It's okay, maybe I'll find it next time."
The old cripple touched Shuguan's little head in a comforting way.
"But we have gone up the mountain several times and still can't find it."
Shu Guan muttered something again.
The old cripple smiled naively and said no more.
It's because you don't want to find it... Shu Guan cursed in his heart.
Colorful grass is the kind of herb that cured his abscesses and has seven rainbow colors.
It is a very miraculous herbal medicine that can cure almost any disease. Whether it is typhoid and diarrhea, headache and brain fever, injuries from falls, or even dystocia for women, this colorful grass can be used to cure it.
It's just that the number of colorful grass is very rare, and it often grows in some very hidden corners of the mountains and forests, making it extremely difficult to be discovered.
In fact, in the entire Taoyuan Village, there is only one person who can pick colorful grass, and that is Lao Laizi.
And if he wants to look for it, he will definitely find it.
After living together with the old cripple for ten years, Shu Guan already knew very well what kind of person the old cripple was.
The old cripple is actually a very powerful person.
Of course, it is not as powerful as Shu Guan originally imagined, but it is more powerful than Shu Guan originally imagined.
The old lame man's legs were not lame because of any injury or disease, and his blind eye was not a cataract.
His lameness, blindness, and deformed left breast were all brought from his mother's womb.
After Shu Guan learned about these things, his first reaction was:
This is right!
How could a completely closed village that only allowed incestuous marriages have no deformed children?
It's just that there is only one deformed child like the old lame man in the whole village, which is still extremely incredible.
The old lame man back then was in a very similar situation to Shu Guan today. He was not welcomed by anyone at all, and was even disliked by his own parents.
A born deformed child who grows up in an environment that is not friendly to him will eventually turn into a decadent waste waiting to die.
However, the old lame man lived a life that no one could have imagined.
When he was a teenager, he became the most capable person in Taoyuan Village.
Although he was lame in one leg and blind in one eye, he grew the most rice in his fields, caught the most fish in the stream, and hunted in the mountains and harvested the most prey.
Even when he was in his twenties, the old lame man killed a wild boar weighing more than 400 kilograms alone.
As he grows older, the old cripple's skills are constantly being upgraded and increased.
He slowly became the best carpenter, best blacksmith, best mason, and best weaver in the village.
He can even embroider better than all the young wives and eldest girls in the village, as evidenced by the blue cloth cigarette bag hanging on the cigarette pole.
When the old cripple was forty years old, he even learned to treat people without a teacher.
Of all the life skills needed in a village, there is no old cripple who can't do it, and he can do it better than anyone else.
Shu Guan once asked the old cripple this question, why he could learn everything.
At that time, the old cripple looked a little confused, but he responded to Shu Guan's question in a matter-of-fact tone:
I think I can do it, and then I will be able to do it.
Shu Guan, who asked the question, was speechless for a while, and was shocked speechless by the old lame man's honest and powerful answer.
I think it will, it will!
Just like if he wants to find colorful grass, he can always find it!
This is really a cheating life!
Although he was just cheating in a mountain village isolated from the outside world, he was still extremely tough.
Shu Guan sometimes thinks that if the old cripple had not been born in Taoyuan Village, and if he had had a broader vision and a bigger stage, he really doesn't know what kind of person he could have become.
…
The dinner that day was a fish soup stewed with crucian carp freshly picked from the creek. Pickled bracken and pickled bamboo shoots were added to it. It tasted extremely delicious.
Normally, such a large bowl of fish soup would be enough for Lao Laizi and Shu Guan.
But today, the old lame man made a few more dishes. He cut a piece of fat and thin elbow meat from the dried wild boar leg hanging under the eaves and fried it with fresh leek leaves.
There is also a tofu made by Lao Laizi mixed with spring onions.
In the world that Shu Guan traveled to, this would have been a table of farmhouse entertainment.
But Shu Guan dared to say that in his previous life, it never tasted like that farmhouse, and it was so delicious.
Since the old cripple is an omnipotent old cripple, he can naturally cook and be skilled in cooking. Shu Guan feels that if the old cripple could live in his time, he could become a rich man just by opening a restaurant.
After finishing the last mouthful of fish soup, Shu Guan touched his round belly, then packed up the dishes and chopsticks on the stone table and took them to the kitchen to wash them.
The old lame man loved Shu Guan very much, but never pampered him. The old lame man did not let Shu Guan do any less or even more of what a country boy should do at his age.
For example, when Shuguan was six years old, the old cripple took him in the mountains and taught him how to set traps and dig traps, or took him to identify various herbs, or let him help the plow when plowing, and Or teach him how to catch fish with his bare hands in a fast-flowing stream.
By the time Shu Guan was ten years old, he had completely transformed from an urban white-collar worker in his previous life to a rural boy who was extremely skilled in any farm work.
Some people in the village secretly laughed, saying that the old cripple adopted this ugly child not because of any kindness, but because he wanted to find a free helper and someone to die for.
Shu Guan knew that was certainly not the case, because the old lame man once said to him:
Grandpa doesn’t know how long he can live. While grandpa is still alive, he will teach you everything he can. From now on, you will have to live alone.
Shu Guan walked into the kitchen with the bowls and chopsticks. The old lame man took out a peach branch that he had chopped off on the way back today from the basket placed under the osmanthus tree. He also took a hatchet from the corner of the yard and sat down. On the stone bench, chipping began.
The expression on the old cripple's face was extremely dull, a kind of dullness that was focused to the extreme.
The thick hatchet flew nimbly between his palms, so nimbly that it made people think he was holding an embroidery needle.
Soon after, the peach branch as thick as an arm turned into a sword.
