Under One Person: The Taoist Priest Descends the Mountain

As the night deepened, Liao Zhongzheng sat outside his tent smoking on the other side of the mountain valley.

Old Meng crawled out of the tent and sat down next to him.

Liao Zhong offered him a cigarette, but Lao Meng waved it away.

Liao Zhong lit one for himself and took a deep drag: "Are there really no other options for those kids?"

Old Meng was silent for a few seconds: "It's not that there's no way, it's that the current conditions don't allow it. Top hospitals have biological isolation equipment and precision surgical instruments, but we have none of that here."

Liao Zhong exhaled a smoke ring: "I've already made arrangements."

Old Meng nodded.

Liao Zhong suddenly asked, "What do you think of Cheng Mo?"

Old Meng pushed up his glasses: "He's a rather steady young man. Hua Feng mentioned him before, saying he's a rare talent, but unfortunately, we can't sense his Qi."

Liao Zhong grunted in agreement: "I saw the corpses of those members of the Medicine Immortal Society; they were all killed with a single punch."

Old Meng didn't respond.

The two sat in silence, watching the outlines of several small tents in the darkness in the distance.

Old Meng patted Liao Zhong on the shoulder: "Go to sleep, you have a ton of things to do tomorrow."

Liao Zhong stubbed out his cigarette, got up, and crawled into the tent.

……

The next morning, just as dawn was breaking, Cheng Mo and Xia He got up.

After the two finished practicing their skills in the open space behind the house, Xia He went to the kitchen to wash rice, while Cheng Mo started a fire.

Two large pots of porridge were bubbling and steaming on the stove, the rice grains rolling in the boiling water, gradually turning into a thick, glossy rice oil.

Xia He then ran to the kitchen of the empty house next door, dug out all the cured meat, eggs, and dried bamboo shoots she could find, diced and shredded them, and stir-fried two large bowls of side dishes.

Wang Zhenqiu, sporting a head of messy blond hair, pushed open the door and sniffed, "You guys were cooking and didn't even call me?"

Xia He put the spatula on the stove: "Why did I call you? You don't know how to cook."

"I can eat it!" Wang Zhenqiu said confidently.

Cheng Mo carried the two porridge pots onto a large tray, Xia He carried the two vegetable bowls, and Wang Zhenqiu eagerly snatched them away, saying, "I'll carry them, I'll carry them."

Xia He hurriedly went to find the children in the village, and with the help of the employees of Na Du Tong, she gathered all thirty-odd children together.

Cheng Mo placed the pot on a flat stone, picked up a bowl, and began to scoop out the porridge.

After serving the porridge, he carried a bowl to the nearest child, squatted down, and handed the bowl to him.

The child glanced at him, took the bowl, and began to drink the porridge.

Wang Zhenqiu and Xia He also started distributing the bowls.

The children took the porridge, accepted it, and began to drink.

No one cried, no one made a scene, and no one tried to steal anything.

They just drank porridge, and when they finished, they handed the bowl back to them.

The three of them started serving the dishes again and placing them in front of the children.

The employees of Nadutong are having breakfast.

Self-heating meals, compressed biscuits, and bottled water—standard rations for field operations.

Then the aroma of the porridge wafted over on the wind and into their noses.

The employee who hadn't found anything delicious yesterday swallowed hard, his eyes filled with resentment: "What is this? How can porridge taste this good?"

My colleague was folding up the tent when he heard this. He looked up, took a deep breath, and stopped what he was doing.

"Wow, this smells amazing!"

"That guy who cooked yesterday is at it again?"

"Definitely."

The two exchanged a glance and swallowed simultaneously.

Not only the two of them, but several employees around them also stopped what they were doing and looked over there.

Liao Zhonggang returned to the village to inquire about the situation. He smelled the fragrance and went straight over.

Xia He was serving porridge to a little girl when she saw Liao Zhong approaching. She looked up and smiled, "Good morning, Lao Liao, have you eaten?"

Liao Zhong's gaze was fixed on the porridge pot: "Not yet."

He turned to Cheng Mo, grinned, and said, "Hey, bro, you don't mind if I have dinner with you, do you?"

Cheng Mo was serving porridge to another child without looking up: "I don't mind, but the children do."

Liao Zhong: "Nonsense, kid..."

He was speaking when he saw a little boy finish his bowl of porridge, staring longingly at the porridge pot, then at Cheng Mo, and then at the porridge pot again.

A little girl next to her was even more direct; as soon as she put down her bowl, she reached for the spoon in the basin.

Liao Zhong choked.

What the hell is going on?

Didn't these children not react at all before?

Xia He said slowly, "Good food is the best psychological therapy."

Liao Zhong stared at the children wolfing down their food, unable to utter a word of rebuttal.

Cheng Mo did have some guesses.

Children's nature is not so easily erased. Although these children had been tormented by the Medicine Fairy Society for four or five years, after the Gu was removed yesterday, they found that they were not beaten or scolded for occasionally moving or changing their posture.

When you encounter a new kind of food that you've never tasted before, you'll naturally open your heart to it.

He sighed inwardly. Yesterday's meal was too rushed. If it had been cooked carefully, their natural instincts might have been activated sooner.

But that's just a thought. In yesterday's situation, every second counted, so of course the first priority was to replenish basic energy.

Liao Zhong suddenly had a flash of inspiration.

This kid cooks so well, could we invite him to cook for these kids for a few more days?

Once the children recover, or find their biological parents... the more I think about it, the more feasible it seems.

He chuckled and leaned closer to Cheng Mo: "Brother Cheng, would you be interested in helping these kids more?"

Cheng Mo: "What?"

"I'd like to ask you to cook for these children for the next few days," Liao Zhong said, rubbing his hands together. "Of course, it won't be free labor. The company will pay you two hundred yuan a day until the children find their parents or recover. What do you think?"

Cheng Mo: "Actually, I..."

Xia He immediately interrupted him: "That's fine, two hundred yuan a day, right?"

She glared at Cheng Mo as she spoke: "You idiot, you won't make money when you can!"

Cheng Mo shook his head and chuckled.

He didn't intend to refuse; he just thought he already had this intention, but this girl beat him to it.

Seeing that Cheng Mo didn't object, Liao Zhong was secretly pleased and then turned to Xia He: "Miss Xia, if you're also willing to help, we can give you one hundred yuan a day."

Xia He complained, "Why does the little Taoist priest get two hundred while I only get one hundred?"

Liao Zhong smiled but remained silent.

Xia He stammered, "...I helped out too!"

Suddenly, a loud shout came from the side: "If you'd told me you'd cook for me for 200 yuan a day, I would have hired you for a year!"

The three turned their heads and saw Wang Zhenqiu standing three meters away, holding a bowl of porridge, his eyes shining frighteningly.

Cheng Mo said slowly and deliberately, "If you want to experience what hemorrhoids feel like, I don't mind helping you."

Wang Zhenqiu's face turned green. "...You're disgusting!"

Liao Zhong, who was listening nearby, subconsciously sat up.

How did he know I had hemorrhoids?

It must be a guess, it must be.

After the children finished eating, Cheng Mo and the other two packed up the remaining food and carried the pots and pans westward into the village.

There are four children there.

They had only taken a few steps when they heard rustling footsteps behind them.

Looking back, they saw more than thirty children following behind them, forming a sparse line.

No one spoke, no one gave any instructions; they just followed silently, like a flock of little ducks.

A staff member from NaDuTong rushed over: "Kids, don't..."

Liao Zhong grabbed him and said, "Don't shout."

The employee was taken aback.

Liao Zhong lowered his voice: "These kids have finally started to look normal, don't let you scare them back."

The employee awkwardly stepped back.

A large group of people then headed west of the village in a grand procession.