Starting with a daily divination to build an immortal clan

Chapter 1 It Rains at Shen Shi (3-5 PM)
Jinliu Village, Anyang County, Yu State.

In August, the scorching sun beats down, baking the earth.

Wearing a straw hat, a linen shirt, and rolled-up trousers, Shen Yuan walked towards the threshing ground under the scorching sun along the village path.

Behind him were two naked children, one big and one small.

"Father is lying. There isn't even a cloud in the sky, how could it possibly rain?"

Seven or eight-year-old Shen Wenxing carried a wooden box, covered his forehead with his dirty little hands, tilted his head to look at the cloudless sky, and muttered something.

The little guy, only three or four years old, was far away, holding his little hose and watering an ant nest with abandon, his giggles echoing around him.

Shen Yuan stopped and looked at the mischievous little guy with a helpless smile.

"Anu, stop causing trouble!"

"Be careful at night, ants might crawl into your bed and bite your butt!"

The cascading water suddenly stopped. The little guy looked back, took two steps back in fear, then splashed water in a circle at a nearby tree before shaking himself off contentedly and running after it.

"Father, is it really going to rain today?"

Shen Yuan took off his straw hat and put it on the little guy's head, nodding and saying, "It's going to rain, so we need to hurry up and harvest the rice before it gets washed away by the heavy rain."

A gentle breeze blew by, and the little guy, finding his straw hat too big, quickly pressed it down with his hand. He then excitedly looked at Shen Wenxing beside him and said, "Big brother, when the rain stops, take Anu to the pond to catch frogs!"

Shen Wenxing glanced at Shen Yuan with evasive eyes, then quickly shook his head: "No, Mom won't let me play in the water. If she finds out, I'll get a good spanking!"

Anu pressed down on her straw hat with one hand and held Shen Wenxing's hand with the other, whispering, "Then let's sneak off..."

Before he could finish speaking, a slap landed on his bottom: "You brat, do you think your dad doesn't exist?"

"Stop dawdling and hurry up and harvest the rice."

The little guy got slapped but didn't cry. He ran off naked towards the threshing ground.

Seeing this, Shen Yuan couldn't help but smile, his thoughts drifting into a daze.

Sometimes he felt like he was dreaming, a very real and very long dream.

In his previous life, after graduating from university, he entered a large factory. In order to settle down in Hangzhou, he worked overtime like crazy. When he was thirty, with the help of his parents, he finally emptied his family's savings to make a down payment.

Tragically, before the property was even ready for handover, he died suddenly from overwork and ended up here, becoming an extraordinary ordinary citizen.

The reason they are considered extraordinary is that, compared to other commoners in the village, the Shen family is a wealthy household.

His great-grandfather joined the army and beheaded three barbarian warriors, earning him a noble title.

The Great Yu Dynasty adopted a military merit-based nobility system similar to that of the Qin Dynasty in its previous history.

He killed three enemies on the battlefield, received a noble title, two mansions, two qing of fertile land (1 qing = 100 mu), and forty mu of mountain land.

The title of peerage was inherited, with each generation downgrading its rank.

Now, in Shen Yuan's generation, the Shen family's title has been stripped away, but fortunately, they still have sixty acres of fertile land and ten acres of mountain land.

Two hundred miles west of Jinliu Village lies a massive mountain range stretching for thousands of miles, known as Yinlong Mountain.

Hidden Dragon Mountain acts as a natural barrier, keeping the Western Wilderness barbarians out.

Even with natural barriers, small groups of barbarian tribes would still cross Yinlong Mountain and roam into the territory of Dayu to plunder and kill.

Therefore, a few years ago, Emperor Yu ordered the establishment of a patrol corps along Yinlong Mountain. Since then, there have been few barbarian raids on surrounding villages and towns.

His wife, Hu Yufen, was originally a wealthy young lady. Eight years ago, she was rescued after an accident and ended up in Jinliu Village. The two fell in love and got married.

A few years after their marriage, Hu Yufen gave birth to two sons for him.

The eldest son, Shen Wenxing, whose nickname is Shitou, is seven years old this year.

The second son, Shen Wenyan, whose childhood name was Anu, turned four after the New Year's Eve.

With a wife and children, and sixty acres of fertile land and ten acres of forest, Shen Yuan felt that it was good to live a simple life like this.

However, half a month ago, he went fishing in the river with the villagers and unexpectedly found a mysterious tortoise shell that looked like white jade. Inexplicably, this activated the daily divination system bound to his family.

Every day just after midnight, the system will randomly refresh a new hexagram.

[Today's hexagram - neutral]: Rain will occur at 3:15 PM, and the rain will be sufficient at 5:00 PM, yielding 2 feet 3 inches and 41 points of water.

The hexagram in my mind was clearly displayed.

Sometimes Shen Yuan would think that with this system, he could easily play the role of a charlatan or a fortune teller, and get a lot of money just by talking.

Unfortunately, for the past two weeks, the divination system has produced no discernible pattern in its results, and attempting to predict a specific event would require expending his lifespan.

In his past life, he risked his life for money, only to lose both. He wasn't willing to do something so foolish in this life. After the initial excitement, life continued on its uneventful course.

In the past two weeks, the system has brought him quite a few small surprises.

For example, a few days ago, the divination showed that a litter of wild boars had appeared in the mountains near his home. Shen Yuan immediately followed the instructions and set a trap in the forest, catching seven piglets and an adult boar, which made him a small fortune.

Today, the sky is clear and blue, and no one can tell that a heavy rain will fall in two hours.

The huge threshing ground was filled with his family's newly harvested millet. If they waited for a heavy rain to come and collect it, not only would the millet be washed away by the rain, but the rain-soaked millet would also mold and sprout, resulting in a considerable loss.

"Master, the millet has just been turned over."

An aged voice interrupted Shen Yuan's thoughts. A hunched, shirtless, thin old man saw Shen Yuan and hurriedly came forward to greet him.

The old man's name was Fu Gui; he was a temporary worker whom Fu Gui had hired.

Fu Gui was an ordinary commoner from the neighboring village. Years ago, his only son went hunting in the mountains and accidentally fell. In order to raise money for his son's medical treatment, he sold all of his family's land.

Although his son survived, he became disabled and lost his land. Fu Gui can only make a living by working odd jobs for others.

"Uncle Fu, bring everything here and collect this grain as soon as possible."

Upon hearing this, Fu Gui looked at the sky with some surprise.

"Master, the sun is high in the sky, it's the perfect time to collect the tide, let's collect it now..."

Shen Yuan bent down, scooped up a handful of millet, examined it for a moment, and smiled, "That's about enough, hurry up and collect it."

Although Fu Gui was puzzled, he dared not delay since his employer had spoken, and immediately fetched tools such as dustpans and brooms to get to work.

The two little ones next to them each picked up a wooden pusher and helped push the millet together little by little from the outside in.

Shen Wenxing is already seven years old. Although it was a bit difficult to push him, he still gritted his teeth and persevered.

Shen Wenyan was less than four years old, and his strength was obviously much less.

The little guy pushed it a couple of steps, but after the millet piled up in front of the wooden pusher, it became completely impossible to move it.

"Eek—ya—"

"Ouch—"

The child's small hands held the wooden pusher, and his little feet kicked wildly, but due to a loss of balance, the wooden pusher slipped off the grain.

The little guy immediately fell to the ground.

"Young Master, are you alright?"

Upon seeing this, Fu Gui hurriedly ran over to help him up.

"Uncle Fu, don't worry about him. He's just a brat. He'll get tough from the fall."

When Shen Yuan spoke, the tears welling up in the little guy's eyes slowly receded. He got up, brushed off the grains of rice and dust stuck to his body, and picked up the wooden pusher again to help.

After several attempts, he found that he could only push the object two steps away. The little guy stood there for a while, staring blankly, and then suddenly laughed.

He stopped insisting on pushing the millet to the middle and instead moved it to a different position every time after pushing it only two steps.

Upon seeing this, Shen Yuan smiled with satisfaction.

Fu Gui, who was standing nearby, was also amazed when he saw it.

"The young master is so intelligent, the master is truly blessed."

The four men worked for more than an hour, and all the grain in the threshing ground was piled up in the middle.

The sky was no longer as clear as before, and strong winds were blowing across the threshing ground, with large swaths of clouds drifting rapidly in from afar.

Shen Yuan and Fu Gui hurriedly brought a large amount of straw and rice stalks from the side to cover the grain pile. They then used mud to build a dike in the middle of the grain pile to prevent rainwater from seeping into it from below.

Before they could finish their work, the sky had become terribly gloomy, and after a few muffled claps of thunder, large raindrops began to fall with a pattering sound!

Braving the raindrops, the two carefully checked the area to ensure there was no water seepage before hurriedly taking shelter in a shed next to the threshing ground.

Fu Gui wiped the rain off his face and looked at Shen Yuan in surprise.

"That's amazing! How did the landlord know it would rain today?"

Shen Yuan smiled without saying a word, but in his heart he was planning that once the rain stopped, he could hire some more day laborers to carry out summer planting.

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(End of this chapter)