Don't farm, cultivate immortality!

As Zhuang Xing left Qiluzhai, he thought of the little carp that was jumping around.

He didn't think there was anything wrong with the carp swimming out of the pond.

The mistake wasn't that it swam out of the pond; the mistake was that the little carp swam out without any preparation.

Carp have no legs and cannot walk.

Humans have no fins or wings, yet they can float on the water and soar in the blue sky.

It is obvious that he is a human being, not a fish without feet.

(The third part of the youth series, the end)

Chapter 218 The Story of Zhu He (Part 1, Extra Chapter)

(I'll be posting a side story about the parents today. I'll take a day off to rest the new volume and organize my thoughts.)

Horses pulled wooden carts along the rugged, muddy road. Around the carts, Taoist priests with swords accompanied them. In Zhu He's eyes, the Taoist priests were very tall. When she looked up, she could only see their backs.

Zhu He, dressed in tattered burlap clothes, hugged her slender legs.

She was sitting in a straw-covered carriage, which was carrying her away from her familiar village.

She didn't know where she was being taken. At only nine years old, she had no idea what kind of place the so-called Xuanqing Temple was.

She buried her head in her knees, curled up in the corner of the carriage, and remained silent.

The other children were also silent; no one spoke to her, and she had long been accustomed to this silence.

She thought that at least by following these unfamiliar Taoist priests, she could at least have food to eat.

Having food to eat is good enough; if she has food to eat, she's willing to follow the Taoist priest.

But her gaze still secretly drifted to the carriage in front, which also carried some children. There were fewer children on that carriage than in hers, and they were all dressed cleanly, none of them as thin and small as Zhu He.

She watched the children and the Taoist priest chatting and laughing, and felt that the sunlight was a bit too bright today, so she squinted and looked away.

After an unknown number of days, the car carrying Zhu He arrived at a small town.

Zhu He had never seen such a place before. She saw houses made of stone bricks and towering mountains.

She was led to a clean inn, where someone gave her clean clothes and guided them to wash their bodies.

The clothes were too loose on Zhu He. She was too thin and too short. The sleeves were so long that they covered her hands. She had to roll up the sleeves and tie the hem of the clothes with a belt so that the fabric wouldn't drag on the ground.

Upon arriving at the inn's courtyard, a smiling old Taoist priest was there asking for my name.

The old Taoist priest looked kind and approachable, and he had an inexplicable sense of warmth about him. He was holding a bag and distributing things to the children in front of him.

Zhu He didn't know what the old man was doing. She thought it probably wouldn't be her turn. The children who received the gifts were wearing different clothes than Zhu He. They all had white tassels hanging from their waists, but Zhu He didn't have any of those things.

But she was wrong. In the end, the old Taoist priest still came to Zhu He with the bag.

Zhu He lowered her head, not daring to look the old Taoist in the eye, her hands tightly gripping her sash.

"Child, what is your name?" the old Taoist priest asked.

"My name is Zhu He," Zhu He said.

"Zhu He." The old Taoist patted Zhu He's head and placed something wrapped in oiled paper in Zhu He's palm. "Here, child, this is for you."

Zhu He finally raised her head and saw the old Taoist's eyes.

The old Taoist priest smiled with narrowed eyes. Zhu He pursed her lips and asked softly, "Grandpa, what's your name?"

“My name is Qingxuzi, this is my Taoist name,” the old Taoist said.

On this day, Zhu He learned that there was a food called maltose in the world, and also met a Taoist priest named Qingxuzi.

...

Zhu He followed Daoist Qingxuzi up the high mountain. She climbed the steps for a long time, gritting her teeth as she went, but she still felt like she couldn't go any further.

She almost fell to the ground, but a boy who was a little older than her caught her.

The two walked at the back of the group; they were the slowest among them.

The boy didn't seem to be feeling well either. He was panting heavily and sweating profusely, but he still helped Zhu He up to the top of the mountain without saying a word.

Zhu He didn't have a chance to ask his name. She had seen this boy on the carriage, but the two of them hadn't exchanged a single word. Even when the boy helped her to the temple gate, he still didn't speak to her.

"Thank you." Zhu He caught her breath and thanked the boy.

But the boy scratched his head and ran off somewhere else without even saying goodbye to her.

After arriving at Xuanqing Temple, Zhu He finally understood what kind of place it was.

It was much better than she had imagined. Although she had to work, it wasn't anything heavy. She helped out in the kitchen, collecting firewood, washing dishes, and sweeping the floor. If she worked hard, she could sometimes get an extra steamed bun.

Master Qingxuzi taught her how to write her name. He said that the "He" in Zhuhe is the same as the "He" in seedling. Seedlings are crops planted in the field. Everyone hopes that their crops will grow well. When your family named you, they must have hoped that you would grow up strong and healthy in the same way.

Zhu He vaguely recalled something, but she couldn't quite remember. It was like a dream, as if a long, long time ago, she was in a warm embrace. Did she also have a place called "home" back then?

She felt a little sad, but at least she learned to write her own name. Later, she heard the Taoist priest say that if she wanted to learn other characters, she could come to Qiluzhai to listen in. Qiluzhai was the old Taoist priest's study. After that, she would go to Qiluzhai whenever she had the chance.

When Master Qingxuzi sees her, he will greet her. When Zhu He meets the Master, she will be happy because she can get a piece of candy.

She carefully stored the candies in a bamboo tube. The candies were delicious, but she was reluctant to eat them.

Gradually, Zhu He also learned the names of many people.

She recognized the boy who had helped her up the stone steps.

The boy's name was Zhuang Liangqing. Zhu He took the candy she had hidden to the boy and said, "Thank you for helping me back then." The boy didn't say a word and suddenly ran away.

That night, Zhu He hugged her little bamboo tube and ate candy by herself. The candy was very sweet, but it didn't seem as delicious as the first time she tasted it.

Zhu He thought the boy wouldn't talk to her anymore, but the next day, the boy came to find her again. He finally spoke his first words to her, saying, "Here, take this." He put some candy in Zhu He's hand. After saying that, the boy ran away again.

Zhu He thought this person was really strange, and seemed a bit clumsy. But before she knew it, she could see him every time she swept the floor, gathered firewood, or washed dishes and pots. He would rush to help Zhu He with chores, and over time, Zhu He got used to having him around.

The boy missed school, so Zhu He taught him to write.

Although Zhu He is younger, I always feel that she is the older sister, and the boy is like a less intelligent younger brother.

He's a bit stubborn and can't always think straight. That day, Zhu He saw that his knee was scraped and bleeding a lot, but he didn't even cry out in pain.

He said he had picked up all the firewood, carried it carefully, and put it in the woodshed. He also picked up your share.

Zhu He applied the borrowed medicine to the boy's wound. Zhu He asked him if it hurt, and he said it didn't. She watched as he grimaced and forced himself to finish applying the medicine.

Chapter 219 The Legend of Zhu He, Part 2 (Extra Chapter)

Time flies, and after three years on the mountain, Zhu He has grown a lot.

She understood that Xuanqing Temple had brought them up the mountain to take in these homeless children.

These children were different from those children with sword tassels tied around their waists; when the time came, they had to go down the mountain.

Zhu He actually had the opportunity to stay on the mountain. An old woman took a liking to her. She was a seamstress. The old woman said that life down the mountain was no better than up the mountain. She said that Zhu He was very skillful and asked her to stay and help her with her work.

But she didn't stay. After thinking about it for a long time, she decided to go down the mountain.

When they came down the mountain, she and Zhuang Liangqing walked together, carrying their belongings. They had very little: a few clothes, some money they had saved, and they also took a basin, chopsticks, and a bowl.

Zhuang Liangqing was unaware that she had a chance to stay on the mountain. Zhu He kept this secret to herself and never told Zhuang Liangqing.

The two walked side by side as they followed the Taoist priest away from Qingxuan Mountain. Before parting, they saw Master Qingxuzi one last time.

Once they reached the foot of the mountain, they would have to farm to make a living.

As a boy, Zhuang Liangqing, who had just turned fifteen, was allocated fifty mu of fertile land from the village chief according to the law. When he came down the mountain, it was springtime. He borrowed some seeds from one house and some farm tools from another, and worked hard in the fields.

Zhu He went to plant and harvest hemp, and weave cloth like other girls.

They lived in that old house. Zhuang Liangqing was originally from this village, and the old house belonged to him, but it was just a leaky thatched hut with nothing inside; it was a dilapidated house.

The two were not married, but they lived together.

It rained heavily that night, and they huddled in the only corner where they could barely stay dry.

Zhuang Liangqing said to Xiaohe, "Can I marry you?" Zhuhe said yes.

Without parental consent or a matchmaker's arrangement, they were betrothed for life.

A few years later, the house was repaired, and a new bed and new quilts were added inside.

The two then got married.

Later, they naturally had a child.

...

When Zhu He woke up, her husband was sleeping peacefully beside her.

She had a dream in which some things from long ago flashed by indistinctly.

Moonlight streamed in from outside, illuminating the spacious house. The wooden floor was spotless, and the bamboo grove that had been cut down in front of the house had grown back, rustling in the wind.

A cool breeze blew in, and she heard the sound of the door opening and soft footsteps. It was this sound that woke her up; her young daughter had come in.

The daughter snuggled into the covers and nestled in Zhu He's arms, her petite body trembling slightly.

"Did you have a nightmare?"

"Mmm." Her daughter buried her head in her chest.

"What did you dream about?" Zhu He asked softly.

"I'm going to be eaten by the pig-headed monster," the daughter said, her voice trembling with tears.

Zhu He was very afraid that her daughter would cry. Unlike her son, who rarely cried, her daughter was the complete opposite of the others. Once she started crying, she couldn't stop.

I remember when Zhuang Xing was being raised, he would only cry when something happened to him, but his daughter would cry loudly whether there was something wrong or not.

Zhu He thought she had experience raising one child, but when it came to raising her daughter, she realized that she knew nothing at all.

"Alright, alright, Mommy's here." Zhu He patted her daughter's back.

Not long ago, the daughter slept in the same bed as her parents. She was only moved to a room by herself. This often happened because she was afraid of sleeping alone, so she would run to her mother's room at night to act cute.

Come to think of it, Zhuang Xing seems to have acted like that before...

However, it was very rare. At least when we slept in separate rooms, he never came to me out of fear.