Two Realms: A cartload of rice arrived at the end of the Ming Dynasty

A small truck delivering rice into the mountains vanished into thin air on the mountain road of Jiyun Mountain.

In 2026, with its ubiquitous surveillance and remote sensing satellites, this is absolutely unacceptable.

The rule that "spirits are forbidden after the founding of the People's Republic of China" is no joke!

As long as Zhu Shiting presses this emergency number, he will be met with a constant stream of troubles and the undeniable fact that he has traveled through time.

So, just to be on the safe side and to carry out this accident to the end, Zhu Shiting quickly absorbed the various time-travel functions infused by the jade pendant and gritted his teeth to travel back in time!

……

The late Ming Dynasty.

On the muddy mountain road of Jiyun Mountain in Ruian County, Wenzhou Prefecture.

The woman in the red dress and dozens of villagers were still kowtowing and praying to the gods, chanting loudly, "May the gods bless our Jiyun Village with abundant harvests! May every family have a hot meal!"

"Great Immortal, please save our Sun family!"

"Please, divine beings, grant my father a speedy release from his prison!"

Just then, whoosh!

Zhu Shiting, who had disappeared for a few minutes, reappeared at the bend in the mountain road in the distance.

Upon witnessing this miraculous transformation once again, the kneeling mountain people cried out even louder.

"The divine grandfather has appeared!"

"Grandpa the Fairy is back!"

"Grandpa Fairy!"

The group of people crawled closer, kneeling as they went, from a distance.

Zhu Shiting, still marveling at the convenience of the jade pendant's teleportation function, glanced up and saw that this group of mountain people from the late Ming Dynasty were treating him like a god. His eyes immediately lit up, and he pointed at the woman in the red dress: "Beautiful lady, get up, I have something to ask you."

When the woman in the red dress heard the deity speak, she remembered her previous disrespect and kowtowed several times to Zhu Shiting.

She then removed her sword and bow from the ground, wiped the mud from her forehead, rose, and respectfully bowed deeply: "This humble woman, Sun Lu, whose given name is Yingning, greets the divine lord!"

"Sun Lu, Sun Yingning?"

Zhu Shiting murmured the name, thinking it sounded quite nice, and then took a closer look at the woman in the red dress.

The woman appeared to be in her early twenties, about 165 cm tall, with an oval face, fine eyebrows, large eyes, red lips, white teeth, and striking features. She had a very good-looking face, the kind that could easily gain millions of followers on Douyin with a little beauty filter.

However, upon closer inspection, the woman's skin was sallow, her cheeks were sunken, and her body was thin with little fat, clearly indicating long-term malnutrition.

As for the mountain people kneeling behind her, most of them were emaciated and looked like they hadn't eaten enough.

After scrutinizing the woman for a moment, Zhu Shiting continued, "Sun Lu, tell me about the situation of your Jiyun Village."

"Yes! Reporting to the Immortal Lord..."

Sun Lu was initially a little uneasy as Zhu Shiting approached and scrutinized her, but upon hearing that this celestial being wanted to hear their complaints, she immediately recounted the situation in Jiyun Village in detail.

According to the woman, her family, the Sun family, was originally a prominent official family in Ruian County. Their ancestors had served under General Qi Jiguang in the fight against Japanese pirates.

Under the protection of his military achievements, his children and grandchildren returned to their hometown and took up positions in the Wenzhou government.

Unfortunately, in the last ten years or so, the war outside the Great Wall has been devastating, and the rebel leader Li Zicheng has revolted in the Northwest. In order to raise enough funds for the army, the Ming Dynasty has been levying exorbitant taxes in the Jiangnan region, and the people are living in misery.

Sun's father, who was the grain collection official in Ruian County, was forced to go to jail for failing to collect grain taxes. As a result, the government confiscated the property of the Sun family. Five years ago, on a rainy night, the entire Sun family of more than 100 people fled to Jiyun Mountain and became outlaws. They made a living by cultivating the fields, hunting, and picking wild fruits, and their lives were extremely miserable.

"So they're just a gang of bandits who rule the mountains!"

"But you really don't see bandits like this on TV," Zhu Shiting muttered to himself.

After carefully examining the group, he then asked, "Your Sun family has become outlaws, why doesn't the government send troops to punish you?"

Upon hearing this, Sun Lu hurriedly defended herself: "Your Excellency, since the death of General Qi, the Zhu family's court has become lax in its military preparedness, and has suffered setbacks in war year after year. In Wenzhou Prefecture, only one in five men can be conscripted. Most of the able-bodied men who can be conscripted have gone north to die, leaving only the old, weak, sick, and disabled."

"Besides, our mountains are easy to defend and difficult to attack. There are five outlaw villages like ours within a ten-mile radius, and the families there keep in touch privately. If the government dares to send troops into the mountains, we can unite and defend the key pass, ensuring they never return!"

Upon hearing this, Zhu Shiting looked around at the rugged and steep mountain forest without modern roads, and a look of realization dawned on his face.

The highest point of Yunshan in this episode is over 400 meters high, and the mountain range stretches for dozens of kilometers, almost spanning half of Ruian County. There is only one dilapidated path leading into the mountain that has been neglected for many years.

Without cars or helicopters, it would take a whole day just to walk out of the mountains.

Only someone with nothing better to do would the government fight so fiercely against these bandits from the mountains.

……

After getting a general idea of ​​the background of the group of mountain people, Zhu Shiting directed them down the slope to help him put the bags of rice scattered all over the ground next to the overturned truck.

More than a dozen bags of rice were torn by bushes when they rolled down the slope, and were scattered everywhere.

The Sun family members bent over, picking up the white, translucent grains of Wuchang rice from the pile of weeds. They were all swallowing their saliva, as if they had seen a rare treasure.

"Young Miss, look how translucent and plump this rice is! Even the imperial rice offered as tribute isn't this good!"

Old Sun, the one who had led the way and shouted the loudest, held the rice grains mixed with dirt and sighed with reluctance.

Upon seeing this, Sun Lu superstitiously imagined: "This must be the celestial rice that the immortals eat. It's already a blessing from heaven that we mortals can even touch it."

As she spoke, Sun Lu, who hadn't eaten proper rice in a long time, also swallowed hard.

As they were chatting quietly, Zhu Shiting, who was directing the work from a distance, waved to her: "Miss Sun, I don't need these twelve bags of rice, so I'll sell them to you!"

"what?"

"Can such divine food be sold to us lowly commoners?"

Sun Lu felt a wave of dizziness, as if she had been struck on the head by some incredible stroke of luck.

"It's just ordinary Wuchang rice. We don't even know if it's actually from Wuchang," Zhu Shiting said, waving his hand.

Seeing that the group of people were thin and emaciated and looked pitiful, he wanted to make a deal with them.

After all, these rice bags with torn sacks would be rejected by the monks at Wuling Temple if taken back, and the owner would have to pay them some compensation. So, they decided to make use of the waste here in the late Ming Dynasty.

"So this 'immortal rice' is called Wuchang rice? What kind of place is Wuchang?"

"Never heard of such a place before. Could it be some celestial abode in heaven?"

Sun Lu pondered for a moment, then approached with some trepidation.

Looking at the dirty bags of rice and the plump grains of rice inside, the girl in the red dress was momentarily at a loss.

Zhu Shiting then asked, "Do you have anything valuable in your village? Like gold or jade? I can barter with it so I can take it back and make up for some of my losses."

Upon hearing this, Sun Lu immediately realized what was happening.

Combining this with what the immortal had said earlier, it seems that the other party really is just a delivery driver.

Several bags of rice fell from the sky and were damaged; I had to pay out of my own pocket to replace them.

Why does it feel like the rules of Heaven are just like those of the mortal world?

"Even if this immortal is just a deliveryman for the Heavenly Court, he's still a celestial deliveryman!"

"And they're also riding this celestial chariot, made entirely of iron!"

Sun Lu glanced at the small silver item lying on its side, and her heart skipped a beat. She reached out and took a jade hairpin from her hair bun.

"To be honest, Immortal, these past few years we've been living off the land. We've taken all the gold and silver jewelry from our village down the mountain and sold it to buy seeds."

"This hairpin is the last valuable possession I own; I humbly request that the immortal accept it!"

Zhu Shiting took the jade hairpin and examined it closely, thinking that it should be worth some money.

So he put it in his pocket and told Sun Lu and the others to carry the 12 damaged bags of rice and stand a little further away from him and the car.

Then, silently reciting "Circle and carry" and "Return," he vanished in a flash, along with the vehicle and the intact rice bags, from everyone's sight.