Don't farm, cultivate immortality!

Zhuang Xing smiled and slowly followed, leaving the village with Da Chun.

Can Chapter 174 go even further?

Zhuang Xing and Da Chun were walking on the official road leading out of the village when they were surprised to find that Da Chun, with his thick eyebrows and big eyes, had already been arranged for marriage by his family.

This is normal. In ancient times, most people got married at the age of fifteen or sixteen, and many became parents at seventeen or eighteen.

If you're still single at twenty, you'll be laughed at. In the past, women who didn't get married by a certain age would even be fined.

While Zhuang Xing was reading miscellaneous books, he came across a law from the previous dynasty.

"Women aged fifteen to thirty who do not marry will be penalized with five taels of silver."

This means that if a woman of marriageable age between fifteen and thirty does not marry, she will be fined "five measures" every year, which is seven or eight bushels of grain, equivalent to an adult's annual food ration.

The number of single women in a region is sometimes used as a performance evaluation criterion for officials.

This was all in order to increase the birth rate. The Great Yu Dynasty also had similar laws in its early period.

"If a woman is seventeen years old and her parents do not arrange her marriage, the local officials shall arrange a marriage for her."

In other words, if a girl is seventeen years old and her parents have not yet married her off, the local government has the right to assign her a husband.

These quotas are basically reserved for able-bodied soldiers who are to guard the frontier.

These single women naturally had no choice but to follow their husbands to the harsh conditions of the frontier to participate in the Western Development Program.

However, this law was abolished during the reign of the second emperor of the Great Yu Dynasty.

Nowadays, there are no specific laws in Dayu regarding marriage between men and women. However, due to long-standing traditions, when a boy reaches the age of fifteen or sixteen, his family will find a suitable girl to act as a matchmaker and arrange the marriage.

Zhuang Xing was a little curious about who the girl Da Chun's family had told him about was.

The journey is still long, and he's bored, so isn't it normal for him to chat with Da Chun for a while?

Okay, to be frank, he's just a bit of a gossip.

Everyone has a gossipy heart. In this place, there isn't even a TV or variety show to watch. If honest and simple Da Chun has a scandal, it's not illegal for him to inquire about it.

"Dachun, your family has arranged a marriage for you?" Zhuang Xing moved closer to Dachun.

“Yes, I did.” Da Chun nodded.

How are you feeling?

"I don't feel anything."

Da Chun's straightforwardness surprised Zhuang Xing.

"That girl isn't pretty?"

"She's pretty, with a slim waist and big breasts, a little shorter than me, smells nice, and has long hair."

Although Da Chun's speech was rough, he captured all the essential characteristics.

The girl his family introduced him to should be quite good-looking, at least not bad-looking.

No matter how much she pleaded, Da Chun was a disciple of Xuanqing Temple, much better than an ordinary farmer. If she married him, she could go to the temple with him. Although there might not be any wealth or honor, it would definitely be much better than being a farm girl weaving cloth and doing chores at home.

Why wouldn't Da Chun like a woman who is good-looking and has a good figure?

Is it that her temper doesn't suit him, or that she's too hot-tempered and unladylike?

"Then why didn't you feel anything?" Zhuang Xing asked curiously.

He saw that Da Chun was a vigorous young man, and he wondered how he could resist such a beautiful girl.

Will Da Chun really go crazy from practicing kung fu on the mountain?

Where did you hear the saying that a virgin's skill cannot be broken?

Or is it that Da Chun has someone else he admires while he's on the mountain?

Just as I was wondering, Da Chun said with a serious expression, "I still need to practice my skills, so I can't get married."

"Why not? You can spend more time with her after you finish your training. You're a Qing Sui disciple now, you can move out." Zhuang Xing felt that Da Chun was still clueless and needed to help him understand. "You take care of external affairs, and the young lady takes care of internal affairs, isn't that wonderful?"

"I want to practice martial arts so I can uphold justice and vanquish evil spirits." Da Chun shook his head and said seriously, "When I was little, I saw the tiger demon's corpse, and I decided that I wanted to be a knight-errant! I had to get rid of the evil monsters; I couldn't hold them back!"

"Then tell me honestly, you really have no feelings for that girl?"

"She's beautiful, but I haven't become a knight-errant yet!" Da Chun said righteously. "I must become a knight-errant first!"

"Aren't you afraid that by the time you become a chivalrous hero, she'll already be married?"

"I'm not afraid!" Da Chun replied with a strong voice.

"You and your family said the same thing?" Zhuang Xing asked.

“That’s what I said!” Da Chun strode forward.

Zhuang Xing suddenly didn't know how to comment. He looked at Da Chun's determined way of walking forward and even felt a little envious.

It turns out it wasn't that Da Chun was clueless, it was that he was clueless.

Zhuang Xing shook his head, took out the invitation, looked up at the blue sky, sighed slightly, and then walked forward.

...

When we got back up the mountain, the snow had melted.

Zhuang Xing accomplished his mission perfectly, bringing back every single disciple who had come to visit to their families to the mountain.

He went back inside, put his things down, and petted the panda.

The pandas neatly arranged the bowls and chopsticks, and Zhuang Xing asked them, "Is there anything you'd like to do?"

"I want to eat the king's baked pancakes and cakes!"

This is how the pandas answered.

He saw Xiao An still sweeping the floor inside the house. Actually, the floor wasn't dirty; Xiao An was just practicing.

Xiao An didn't like being a wandering spirit. She told Zhuang Xing that she liked the feeling of grasping something, picking up a broom, and walking in the sunlight, feeling that groundedness.

It must be done by walking, so that she feels she is still alive.

She wanted to live, and although it was fraught with difficulties, she had become quite skilled at using a broom.

She said she wants to learn to cook in the future, and she wants to bake cakes like Zhuang Xing. If possible, she would love to taste what cakes taste like.

It's difficult, and perhaps impossible, but she has never given up and has been working towards that goal.

Zhuang Xing stayed in the room for a while, then went out to meet Yunling.

After a period of separation, Yunling's green tassels at her waist were replaced with red ones. Although she was more than half a year later than Zhuang Xing, she had gained the approval of the elders of the temple.

Yunling said that the Earth-Hidden Vine has borne fruit. She tested it in winter and found that the Earth-Hidden Vine can bind pandas, making it impossible for them to break free. Even if the pandas try to avoid it, it is difficult for them to escape. She said that if a monster is seeing the Earth-Hidden Vine for the first time, it is basically impossible to avoid it.

She said her next project is to make a flower that emits a scent that repels monsters. After seeing the panda, she felt that monsters can also be good. If she could make the monsters leave on their own and not fight with people, that would be the best.

Yunling was very happy when she said this. It was rare for Zhuang Xing to see her smile. She smiled from the bottom of her heart, and her smile was captivating.

"That's wonderful!" Zhuang Xingwei said happily to Yunling.

When he later went to see the old Taoist priest with that invitation in his pocket, he couldn't help but look at the people in the temple.

We walked and looked around, observing as we went.

When he arrived at Qiluzhai, he was somewhat dazed.

I remember the first time I came to Qiluzhai, his head wasn't even as high as the stone steps over there, and it took him several steps to climb up.

Before I knew it, he had grown so tall.

Now that he's so tall, won't he be able to walk even further?

Chapter 175 Not Just the Capital

Zhuang Xing pushed open the door and found the old Taoist priest drinking tea.

An old Taoist priest with white hair and a white beard sat at a table with a cup of steaming green tea in front of him. He looked down from the second floor of Qiluzhai through the open window.

The view from the window is excellent, overlooking the disciples practicing swordsmanship on the sword-dancing platform.

In his memory, many times when he came to Qiluzhai, the old Taoist priest would sit in the sunlight, slowly sipping tea and watching the scenery and people outside, just like he was now.

Upon hearing the door open, the old Taoist priest turned his gaze to Zhuang Xing, a smile appearing on his wrinkled face.

"I'm back."

"I'm back."

"Come and sit down, have a cup of tea with me." The old Taoist priest beckoned him over.

Zhuang Xing nodded and walked over. He took a teacup, first poured tea for the old Taoist priest, and then poured tea for himself.

He sat down next to the old Taoist priest, picked up his teacup, and took a sip.

"These are all tender tea leaves that I grew and picked myself. What do you think?" the old Taoist asked.

"It's a bit bitter," Zhuang Xing answered truthfully.

This tea tastes a bit bitter and has no sweet aftertaste.

The old Taoist priest smiled and said, "It's been a long time since anyone has said my tea is bitter."

“But this tea is a bit bitter,” Zhuang Xing said.

"This is how this tea originally tastes," the old Taoist said. "But when I invited other people to drink the tea, none of them said it was bitter, so I never changed the tea leaves."

"Does the Taoist priest like this flavor?"

"I'm used to drinking it."

The old Taoist priest looked at Zhuang Xing and took out a piece of maltose.

"If you find it bitter, have a piece of candy."

"It's not actually that bad," Zhuang Xing said.

How is everything at home?

“Father and Mother are both well, and my younger sister is also well.” Zhuang Xing took the letter out of his pocket. “When we were celebrating the New Year at home, the prefect sent someone to visit us. He said that the wheat seeds from previous years had helped with disaster relief in the north and south, and the Emperor wanted to invite the masters of the Taoist temple to the capital to receive a reward.”