Chapter 2 A way to survive

Chapter 2 A way to survive

Chapter 2 A way to survive
The next morning, Chen Yuan woke up from his sleep, put on his clothes, and pushed the door open.

It was still early at this time, the sun was just rising, and the Chimang Mountains in the distance were shrouded in a thin layer of morning mist. The green mountains were hidden, and the ancient trees were lush, like a fairyland.

According to legend, someone once saw an immortal in the Chimang Mountains. He was able to fly into the sky and hide underground, and move mountains.

Even now, there are still elderly people who worship the immortals in the mountains every year and ask for their blessings.

Smoke was rising from the village and voices of people could be faintly heard.

The excitement of yesterday's wedding has faded, and the farmers have started a new busy day.

Chen Li was busy at the stove in the courtyard. When she saw Chen Yuan coming out, she called out:

"Erniu, wake up my little sister, it's time to eat."

"okay."

Chen Yuan agreed and went back to the room to wake up his little sister.

My younger sister doesn’t have a real name, she is just called Chen Xiaomei.

All girls in farming families are like this, with only a nickname for ease of address.

After waking up his younger sister, Chen Yuan moved the yellow wooden table out of the big thatched cottage and placed it in the yard.

Chen Li brought four bowls of freshly cooked porridge. Chen Tiezhu took out a coarse flour cake from the cupboard and scooped out a bowl of pickles from the pickle jar in front of the house. The family sat around the table and began to eat breakfast.

After Chen Yuan accepted the starlight infusion, his appetite became bigger and bigger. He spent another night in a half-hungry state and was extremely hungry. He picked up a coarse flour pancake and gobbled it up with pickles.

Soon, after finishing one pancake, Chen Yuan reached for the second pancake.

But when he touched the pancake, he paused and turned to look at Chen Tiezhu.

Chen Tiezhu had only eaten half of the pancake in his hand.

When he saw Chen Yuan's actions, the wrinkles on his face seemed to deepen, and he said:

"Eat."

Chen Yuan then picked up the second pancake and started eating it in big bites.

By the time he finished the second pancake, the other three were almost full.

Chen Tiezhu ate one pancake, Chen Li ate most of it, and the youngest sister had the smallest appetite and only ate half of it.

Chen Li picked up the porridge in front of her and said with concern:
"Erniu, are you full?"

Chen Yuan was naturally not full, but he did not ask for more. He also picked up the porridge and said:
"Mom, I'm full."

He knew that if he asked, his parents would definitely not let him starve.

But it was too appalling that he did nothing in the morning and ate three coarse flour cakes.

He could only endure the hunger in his stomach and pretend to be full.

……

After the family finished breakfast, Chen Li cleaned the stove and washed the dishes.

After feeding the only old hen in the family, Chen Yuan picked up the farm tools and followed Chen Tiezhu to the fields to tend to the crops.

The Chen family cultivated five acres of land and worked in the fields all day long.

The younger sister was not idle either. She followed Chen Yuan and Chen Tiezhu out to find familiar children of the same age, and then went to the river together to collect grass for pigs.

Chen Yuan's family was poor and could not afford piglets, but there were several wealthy families in Chenjia Village who raised pigs.

My younger sister helped the children from those families collect grass for the pigs, in exchange for some food at noon, thus reducing the burden on the family.

Chen Yuan sent his younger sister to the river, and then he and Chen Tiezhu went to the fields. Taking advantage of the cool weather, they began to weed and loosen the soil.

Chen Yuan is strong and has good endurance, and he works much faster than Chen Tiezhu.

A quarter of an hour later, Chen Li also came to the field, picked up the farm tools and joined the two of them.

The three of them worked until almost noon, and finished work and went home before the sun rose overhead.

At lunch, Chen Yuan ate three pancakes.

The wrinkles on Chen Tiezhu's face deepened.

In the afternoon, after the hottest time had passed, Chen Yuan followed his parents and continued to work in the fields.

It was not until sunset that the three of them returned home.

My younger sister had already prepared the meal, which was the same as in the morning and at noon, consisting of thin porridge, coarse flour pancakes and pickles.

Farmers cannot afford better food, and it is already difficult for them to fill their stomachs.

Chen Yuan ate two pancakes, and the feeling of half-hunger and half-fullness that had lasted for a whole day finally disappeared.

An ordinary person would only eat one coarse flour pancake for a meal, but Chen Yuan ate seven today and five last night.

It took an ordinary person four days' worth of food for him to completely digest the benefits brought by the starlight infusion.

After dinner, Chen Yuan went to chop wood as usual. Feeling that he had more strength than yesterday, a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

Click!Click!
Chen Yuan chopped one piece of wood after another without feeling the slightest bit of fatigue.

The little sister watched with great interest and recounted interesting events that happened during the day:
"Brother, look at the flowers I picked. Are they pretty?"

Chen Yuan looked over and saw the little sister smiling and tilting her head. A bright red flower was stuck in her slightly dry hair.

Chen Yuan felt a little distressed, but he praised:

"She looks good. My little sister is the best looking. Even if she wears dogtail grass on her hair, she still looks good."

"Humph, second brother is lying, dogtail grass is the ugliest..."

In the big thatched cottage, Chen Tiezhu sat in front of the yellow wooden table, watching the brother and sister chatting and laughing in the yard, in silence.

He held the pipe in his hand, opened it, took a deep breath of the dry tobacco leaves, and then slowly exhaled a long breath.

Chen's family was too poor, so he only smoked dry tobacco every few days. He could only smell the tobacco leaves to satisfy his craving. Chen Li sat on the other side of the yellow wooden table, eyes wide open, sewing the soles of her coarse cloth shoes with the last ray of sunlight.

Chen Tiezhu suddenly said:

"Mother, when I went to Dahua's house for a banquet yesterday, I sat at the same table with his son, and we talked for a while. Chen's son is doing well in the county, and he specializes in finding apprentices for shops. Why don't we ask him to help Erniu find a job..."

Chen Li stopped what she was doing, rubbed her eyes, and said:
"Let Erniu go to the city? No way! He's so young, what if he gets bullied?"

"People accept you because you are young. If you are older and your temper becomes wild, people won't want you."

Chen Li still refused to comply:
"The shop owners and managers of those shops are all black-hearted. The third son of Chen Huaishu's family went to the county to be an apprentice and was beaten half to death. How could Erniu endure such suffering?"

Chen Tiezhu tapped his pipe and sighed:

"Erniu's appetite is getting bigger and bigger. He ate seven cakes today. If we don't let him go out to find a job, he will have to dig for food with us in the fields. He can't even have a full meal. That's suffering!"

Chen Li's face darkened, and she spoke after a while:
"Will they accept Erniu as an apprentice?"

Chen Tiezhu heaved a sigh of relief when he saw his wife give in:

"Take it! Chen Laoer knows that Erniu is very strong, and he promised me that as long as I hand Erniu over to him, I won't have any trouble finding a job."

Chen Li held the patched sole of the coarse cloth in her hand and said softly:
"Then give it a try."

"Okay, I'll go find Chen Lao Er tomorrow and settle the matter..."

Chen Li remained silent. Suddenly, she stood up and took a wooden box from the bedside. She counted out twenty copper coins that had been wiped clean from it and handed them to Chen Tiezhu, saying:
"Give this money to Chen Laoer and ask him to help Erniu find a good job so that Erniu can suffer less."

Chen Tiezhu took the copper coin, put it into the coarse cloth bag he was carrying, and said:
"This time when Dahua's son got married and built a house, Erniu and I contributed a lot. Chen Laoer is his uncle, so we have to acknowledge this favor. If we give him some money, he will definitely not treat Erniu unfairly."

Chen Li picked up the coarse cloth sole again, sighed, and said:

"It depends on Erniu's fate. I just hope he doesn't blame me, his mother, for being so cruel."

……

Click——click——

In the yard, Chen Yuan lowered his head, pursed his lips, and chopped wood much more slowly.

Although Chen Tiezhu and Chen Li deliberately lowered their voices, he still heard every word of their conversation.

After twenty-two times of starlight infusion, Chen Yuan's physical body was improved in all aspects. Not only did his strength increase greatly, but his five senses were also far beyond those of ordinary people.

When Chen Yuan heard that his parents were going to send him to be an apprentice, he felt mixed emotions.

Since traveling through time, Chen Tiezhu and Chen Li have been very kind to him, and he truly regards them as his own parents.

During these three years, Chen Yuan tried many times to change his fate and let his family live a prosperous life.

The first thing he thought of was naturally to do business, but the Chen family was poor and had no capital.

Chen Yuan's expertise in computers and finance are of no use in this era.

He also didn't know how to make glass, liquor, or soap, and even if he did, he wouldn't dare to use them.

All profitable businesses were taken over by landlords, powerful officials and gangs of officials.

Chen Yuan is just a commoner, don't even think about getting involved, otherwise you will definitely be eaten alive.

Since business failed, Chen Yuan thought of studying and learning to read, and taking the imperial examination to become an official, which was also his strong point.

There was a private school in Chenjia Village, which was funded by Chen Rongcai, the only landlord in the village, and he hired an old student over 50 years old to teach.

Chen Yuan went to ask the old student to teach him how to read and write.

But he couldn't afford the tuition, and the old student was unmoved.

The Chen family was too poor. After paying all the heavy taxes and levies, they could barely make ends meet, let alone tuition.

Unable to attend private school, Chen Yuan wanted to learn writing secretly.

But he couldn't afford to buy books, let alone have anyone lend him books.

Later, after being infused with starlight, Chen Yuan felt light and healthy, and he was able to climb over the wall in the middle of the night to steal the old student's books to read.

But there was no one to guide him, and there were no auxiliary reference books such as dictionaries, so he couldn't get over the threshold and still couldn't learn to read.

If you can’t study, learning martial arts is even more impossible.

The poor are good at literature but rich at martial arts. The money to pay for martial arts training is much more than the tuition fee, which can easily be dozens of taels of silver. Chen Yuan simply cannot afford it.

In feudal society, the hierarchy was strict and poor people could only accept their fate.

However, Chen Yuan actually has one last way to change his fate, which is to become a bandit in the Chimang Mountains and block people on the road.

Relying on his strength, he should be able to get by even if he doesn't know martial arts.

But he was too young, just a child, and no one would want him even if he wanted to be a bandit.

Since all the roads were blocked, Chen Yuan thought about going into the mountains to hunt, at least to fill his stomach.

But hunting is not that simple. Although he is extremely strong, he does not know how to track and set traps, which are the key to whether he can catch prey.

Wild animals hide in the vast mountains and forests, are extremely alert, and are extremely difficult to find.

The few hunters in Chenjia Village would never tell others about their ability to make a living.

There were only so many wild animals in the nearby mountains and forests. It was not enough for them to hunt them themselves, so how could they allow others to get their hands on them?

Helplessly, Chen Yuan could only put aside all thoughts and wait until he grew up in a few years before making plans.

Given the chance to live his life again and the magical jade pendant, he would never be willing to just farm for the rest of his life.

When he heard that his parents were going to send him to be an apprentice, he felt reluctant to leave his family, but also had expectations.

No matter what I do, it's better than staying in Chenjia Village and farming.

At the very least, he had to eat a full meal first so that he could undergo the starlight infusion without any worries.

New books uploaded, updated every day at 12 noon and 6 pm, welcome to collect~


(End of this chapter)