My experience of grinding in another world

Chapter 4 It's Not Easy to Live There

Four days later, in the library.

He sincerely and carefully examined the copied Taoist scriptures.

Before him lay seven Taoist scriptures, arranged in a row. These were the fruits of Chen Mu's labor over the past few days.

Two of them were copied by the predecessor, and the other five were copied by him.

He sincerely put down the last Taoist scripture and picked up the first one: "Let me flip through it again, and then again."

"If you keep flipping through it, you'll curl the book up," Chen Mu reminded him expressionlessly.

I just said I was just going to flip through it, but I ended up reading it word by word from beginning to end.

Is this guy trying to renege on his debt?!
Chen Mu narrowed his eyes, silently walked to a corner of the desk, and quietly touched the inkstone with his right hand.

After thinking for a moment, he slowly gripped the brush washer with his left hand again...

After a long while, Cheng Yi reluctantly closed the book.

He glanced up and noticed Chen Mu's subtle movements, his eyelids twitching violently. Was this scholar really that reckless?!

Although the handwriting has indeed changed somewhat, it has become more elegant and beautiful. It's comparable to the inscriptions on the walls of the Ancestral Master Hall.

Moreover, upon closer inspection, it can be found that the characters are consistent with the original handwriting.

One can only admire the other person's exceptional talent and the further improvement in their calligraphy skills.

He had never heard of evil spirits being able to inherit the original work's talent, or even go further.

I was really wrong.

Just as Chen Mu couldn't help but take action.

Cheng Yi pulled a small gray cloth bag from his sleeve.

"This is just a small token of my appreciation."

Chen Mu immediately smiled and said, "It's not small at all. Why don't you take a look at it some more?"

"No, your handwriting is beautiful and elegant, giving one the feeling of an ethereal immortal. It is a rare and excellent piece of calligraphy. Young Master Chen has exceptional talent in calligraphy and will surely become a master of his generation." He offered a sincere and uncompromising compliment.

"You flatter me, Daoist Master Chengyi," Chen Mu said modestly.

After exchanging pleasantries for a while, Chen Mu took his leave.

After finishing copying the scriptures, he should go home.

……

At the entrance of the Taoist temple, Chen Muzheng and Cheng Yi bid each other farewell.

"Huh?" Cheng Yi suddenly looked up and gazed into the distance.

Chen Mu couldn't help but turn his head to look.

Qingfeng Temple is located halfway up Xiaodong Mountain, with a stone staircase leading directly to the foot of the mountain.

At that moment, a figure was rushing down the mountain.

With each step, one leaps five or six meters, and in a few bounds, half the mountain path is already traversed.

Chen Mu was dumbfounded.

"How can this person run so fast?!"

My scalp tightened, and my heart skipped a beat.

"This world has martial arts that allow people to fly over rooftops and walk on walls!"

He couldn't help but think of the Taoist priests practicing martial arts at Qingfeng Temple. Could they also scale walls and leap across rooftops?
Chen Mu thought it was just a physical exercise.

"Master Chengyi, does Qingfeng Temple teach martial arts?" Chen Mu looked at Chengyi with shining eyes.

Cheng Yi withdrew his gaze and glanced at Chen Mu: "Young Master Chen, do you wish to learn martial arts?"

"Unfortunately, Qingfeng Temple only teaches its direct disciples martial arts." Cheng Yi said calmly, "Young Master Chen is already an adult and does not meet the temple's requirements for accepting disciples."

"Is there no such thing as a lay disciple?" Chen Mu was unwilling to give up. This was a martial art that allowed one to fly over rooftops and walk on walls!

He smiled sincerely without saying a word.

Chen Mu wanted to ask more questions, but the figure that was just at the foot of the mountain had already arrived in front of the two of them.

The man was dressed in a black, close-fitting outfit, with a black-handled goose-feather knife hanging at his waist.

The other person came with a gust of wind, and as soon as he steadied himself, he asked anxiously, "Is Master Feng Ren here?"

"Officer Lu?!" Cheng Yi's expression changed. "Master has gone down the mountain and hasn't returned. Could it be that he has been attacked by evil spirits again?"

Officer Lu turned to look at Chen Mu: "Come on, let's go inside and talk!"

Chen Mu stood at the entrance of the Taoist temple, watching the two figures hurry away, his expression inscrutable.

Martial arts? Evil spirits?
This world is truly amazing!
He wanted to see just how powerful the martial arts were and to find out what the evil spirits were.

This unknown world was a huge treasure trove for him, waiting to be explored.

Chen Mu couldn't help but feel his blood boil: "This world is so big, I want to go see it."

East Gate of Qingshan County, East Market Grain and Rice Shop.

Chen Mu, who had just been full of enthusiasm and wanted to see the world, felt as if someone had poured cold water on him.

"Ten bushels of white wheat, one cloth bag, and a sincere gift of sixty-two copper coins." The rice shop clerk placed the gray cloth bag on the counter and looked at Chen Mu with a smile.

He hadn't even had a chance to warm up the 150 copper coins he had on him before nearly half of them were gone.

If we eat as much as we want, this amount of white wheat will only last for a little over half a month.

In addition, there are the costs of firewood, oil, salt, writing brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones.

Forget about seeing the world; if I can't keep making money, I don't even know if I'll have anything to eat next month!
It's not easy to find a place to live...

……

Carrying a bag of rice, Chen Mu left the East Market and made his way through many twists and turns to Ping'anfang, located in the southeast of the county town.

Following his memory, Chen Mu stopped in front of a house.

This was his former home. His father passed away from illness a few years ago. His mother also died young, leaving him to live here alone.

Chen Mu unlocked the brass lock, pushed open the gray wooden door, and stepped inside.

The courtyard wasn't large; there was a vegetable patch on the east side and a thatched shed on the west side, with a mud stove underneath. There was also a well nearby.

"Small but complete, a nice place."

Inside the main room, there is a square table facing the entrance, with two long benches next to it.

Chen Mu went to the west window.

There was a long wooden table there, with pots and pans on it. Chen Mu poured the white wheat into the black rice jar next to the table and sat down to rest.

Time travel, evil spirits, calligraphy practice, scripture copying—since arriving in this world, he has never had a moment's rest.

Now that everything has settled down, he feels somewhat lost.

Will they make a living by writing and drawing portraits, just like their predecessor?
He could almost see the end of that kind of life from the beginning.

They scrimp and save, painstakingly accumulating wealth; then, when they get older, they manage to get married. Next, they have a child whose filial piety is unknown. And then they spend the rest of their lives amidst the arguments and squabbles of daily life.

You can say that a mundane life is true, but you can also say that it's a life of mediocrity.

This is almost a carbon copy of Chen Mu's previous life.

But now that he's been given the chance to travel through time, he never wants to live that kind of monotonous life again!

He's going to explore! He's going on an adventure...

Bang bang bang!
There was a sudden knock on the door.

"Open the door!"

"Who is this?" Chen Mu asked, opening the door in confusion.

A tall, thin old man in his fifties stood at the door.

The other party, with a cold expression, said indifferently, "Collecting rent."

A memory quickly surfaced in my mind.

Li Enwu, the second steward of the Wang family, is a rent collector.

Although he had lived in his own house since he was a child, the house did not belong to him.

"Please come in, Steward Li," Chen Mu said politely.

"No need," Butler Li waved his hand dismissively and said coldly, "Pay the money."

"Wait a moment, I'll go get it right away." Chen Mu turned around and went back into the room, pulling out a black pottery jar from under the bed.

The pottery was sealed with a gray cloth, and it was about the size of two fists.

After removing the sealing line and turning it upside down, a small pile of copper coins poured out with a clatter.

This is all the savings accumulated by the predecessor.

Chen Mu quickly counted out 310 copper coins and put them into a small bag before returning to the doorway.

"Butler Li, here's the rent for March." Chen Mu handed over the gray cloth bag.

Butler Li took the bag, patted it twice, nodded slightly, tossed it to the two burly men behind him, and turned to leave.

Chen Mu closed the door and went back inside, sighing as he counted the copper coins.

"Including what I got from copying the scriptures, I have a total of 232 pieces."

"Fat meat costs twenty-four copper coins a pound. With this little money, you can't even buy ten pounds of meat."

He wanted to travel the world, but first he needed to earn money to eat.

(End of this chapter)