New Year Was Almost Here

In that era, it was both decorative and practical.

But Qing He Miao, who knew how convenient electronic maps would become in the future, naturally had little interest in the old map most of the time.

At most, he thought that although it was outdated now,

if he kept it for another seven or eight years, he could film a short video of it and post it online.

Perhaps it would even gain some commemorative value.

But now he was studying it with particular care.

He held the black hardcover notebook his teacher had required him to buy after he started middle school, open to the last few pages.

On those pages was what he had found when he had previously taken time to visit the town's internet cafe.

Using the information he had, he had looked up the material and copied it down.

As for how he had gotten online when he was still a minor,

never mind that.

It was an ordinary occurrence in this era.

He could only say that the way the system would develop and become more complete in the future was pretty good.

His finger moved slowly across the map, starting at the chicken's head and following its neck downward.

It passed over the vast plains and intersecting mountain ranges, until his fingertip finally stopped in the HEB province region, just north of the map's center.

There, in extremely tiny print, were the words "Laishui County."

Even on a map two meters long, once the scale was reduced enough to show the whole country, the county-level labels looked crowded and tiny.

Amid a jumble of overlapping, prominently marked names, the characters for "Laishui County" were so faint they were almost impossible to make out.

Fortunately, the old map had been made to exacting standards, and everything that should have been there was there.

After finding Laishui County, Qing He Miao moved his finger a short distance northwest.

It stopped at the edge of an area outlined in fine lines to indicate mountains.

Based on what he had discreetly learned over the past few days in the world of "The Ravages of Time," through his limited conversations with the locals, Huang Liu, and the others,

he had worked it out repeatedly and could basically confirm that his starting position in that instance was somewhere nearby.

In other words, the area where he was currently active lay in the region that had been known as Hebei since ancient times.

No wonder it was almost New Year over there too.

And yet, comparatively speaking, it was really warm!

He also had Great China to thank: its culture had remained unbroken for thousands of years.

Qing He Miao had only learned from his research at the internet cafe that the place name "Laishui" had been established during the Sui dynasty and had never been changed.

The name alone had a history of more than a thousand years.

Putting that together with his knowledge of the early Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period and the approximate plot of "The Ravages of Time,"

the so-called "Lord Liu" north of Laishui County was probably Liu Rengong, a separatist warlord of that era.

The vast area south and east of Laishui, meanwhile, belonged to the forces of the better-known hegemon of that era, Zhu Wen, Emperor Taizu of Later Liang.

He was more familiar with Zhu Wen, who had appeared in the story.

"Zhu Wen's territory..."

Qing He Miao muttered to himself.

What did that mean?

It meant that if he went farther south, he might very well run into the Xuanming Sect, an organization where everyone was a double-crosser, comparable to the Winery!

In other words, if he traveled farther west instead, then judging by the map, he might enter the territory of another major warlord, Li Keyong, Prince of Jin.

Tongwen Hall, another important jianghu organization in the show, was there.

Unfortunately, the modern map before him could not be zoomed in, so he could only determine an approximate location.

Naturally, it had no marking for the particular mountain where he was currently staying in the instance.

However, clearly printed in the lower left of where his finger rested were the words "Taihang Mountains."

Qing He Miao made a rough measurement with his finger.

According to the jianghu rumors he had heard these past few days, the name "Li Xingyun" did not seem to be known in jianghu yet.

And the Xuanming Sect's supreme leader was rumored to still be Zhu Wen's eldest son, Zhu Yougui, the "Underworld Emperor."

"In other words..."

A light flickered in Qing He Miao's eyes.

"The main plot of 'The Ravages of Time' probably hasn't officially started yet! Li Xingyun, that silly lad, should still be at Mount Qingcheng, Bashu, right now. Good grief, that's almost half of China and most of the Central Plains away, isn't it?"

The image of that unreliable protagonist surfaced in his mind, and the corner of his mouth twitched slightly.

"A henpecked husband. No wonder the female characters have him wrapped around their fingers. He must be really good at eating spicy food."

And it was just such a man from Bashu who, before long, would head to Henan and Guanzhong and stir up a great commotion.

In that respect, he was just like the legendary White Lady. Both were very clever.

Neither ever caused trouble in their own hometown, nor did they ever look for a partner there.

Qing He Miao stood on the kang, his finger tapping absentmindedly at various places on the map.

His mind raced as he considered whether he should take advantage of this time to do something in advance.

But as soon as the thought arose, he dismissed it himself: it was too far away!

That era was not like the present. Transportation was underdeveloped, and even a decent official road might not be passable.

With mountains and rivers stretching between them, there might be routed soldiers, roaming bandits, and separatist checkpoints everywhere.

Without an exact location, when would he ever find one person amid the boundless mountains and seas?

It did not seem worth it.

Besides, there was still the Bad handsome, that old monster who had lived for more than three hundred years.

Most of the opportunities that appeared in the show had been arranged.

Gangzi, oh Gangzi.

He was a problem.

As he pondered, the door creaked open, letting in a gust of cold air.

Qing Mu came in carrying a plastic bag of frozen meat and a case of boxed milk, which she set down on the edge of the kang.

"Stop playing with that lousy map all the time. There's something I need you to go do."

Qing Mu spoke as she warmed her hands on the kang.

"What is it?"

Hearing her, Qing He Miao snapped shut the hardcover notebook of scattered information, sat down, and asked.

"New Year's almost here, isn't it?"

His mother pointed at the things she had brought in.

"Go visit your fourth granduncle. He lives alone over in West Gully, and his children have all gone away to work. They don't make it home more than a couple of times a year, so it's lonely in his house. Take him a few things, see if he needs anything, and keep him company for a while."

In the past, transportation had been inconvenient, and the circle of families who married into one another across the surrounding villages had been relatively fixed. Qing Mu, for example, had married into the family from a neighboring county.

For the same reason, although most of the people in the village were Father Qing's relatives from the Qing clan, a few were from Mother Qing's side of the family.

They counted as distant relatives.

For Qing He Miao's generation, many of those relationships had already grown quite distant.

For instance, if one really traced the relationship to this "fourth granduncle," he was probably something like "the son of Grandmother's father's sister," a connection with several twists and turns.

To find the actual blood tie, one had to go back to Grandmother's father's generation before they could be counted as real relatives.

But to the older generation, he was a familiar relative of their own, someone they could not forget during festivals and holidays.

"Sure."

Qing He Miao agreed readily, swung himself off the kang, and bent down to look for his padded shoes.

This was the most basic affection in the rural society of the past; there was no need to refuse his mother.

Chapter 37: New Year Was Almost Here

"You agreed pretty readily today."

Qing Mu gave him a somewhat surprised look, then, still worried, reminded him:

"You know what to say when you get there, right? Ask about his health, whether he's got everything ready for New Year, and whether he needs firewood. Don't just sit there without saying anything."

"Don't you trust me to take care of it?"

Qing He Miao found his shoes and replied as he put them on.

Ever since childhood, he had been much more dependable than an ordinary child, saving his parents in this life a great deal of worry.

"You've got the nerve to say that!"

Qing Mu glared at him.

"You've never known how to chat with people. You've hardly had any friends your own age since you were little. Nothing that comes out of your mouth has ever sounded pleasant to anyone."

"I've always just told the truth, and I've been teaching you proper principles too."

Qing He Miao tied his shoelaces, straightened up, and sighed somewhat helplessly.

"If it doesn't sound pleasant, that's because life is bitter to begin with. What the hell does that have to do with me?"

"You're the only one who's right, and everyone else is wrong!"

Qing Mu waved her hand irritably.

"Hurry along. Be careful on the road, and stay a while."

Qing He Miao stopped arguing over words he had repeated countless times.

In any case, time would strip away appearances and reveal the truth.

Once he was dressed, he picked up the bag of meat and the case of milk, turned, and walked out the door.

A biting chill enveloped him in an instant.

In the prolonged extreme cold beyond the pass, the ground that had yet to be covered by fresh snow was frozen as hard as an iron plate.

The ground felt hard and unyielding beneath his feet.