"Gui Hua, throw this child away. We already have A'Da. We can't afford to raise two children..."
The familiar words rang in his ears. Zhou Ming opened his eyes and once again saw the familiar scene from his previous entry into the game.
Looking at the somewhat familiar figures before him, countless memories flooded Zhou Ming's mind. Remembering every little thing this poor couple had done for him, even knowing full well that this was only a game, he could not help but feel his nose sting, nearly bringing tears to his eyes.
"Father, Mother, in this life, I'll never let you suffer so much again!"
Zhou Ming silently made up his mind. He was determined to change this impoverished family's fate!
Time began racing by once more. To win this race against time, Zhou Ming used every moment he could spare to learn every skill he could master.
Before three months had passed, Zhou Ming could already speak clearly. He told his father, Zhang San Niu, that there was a Bamboo Forest north of Niu Tou Mountain, with several nests of Bamboo Rats beneath it. These Bamboo Rats were easy to catch: seal up every other burrow entrance, leave one open, then insert a hollow bamboo tube into it. Put damp straw in the middle of the tube, light it, and blow the smoke into the burrow. Before long, the Bamboo Rats would be smoked unconscious and could be caught at the other entrances.
That afternoon, Zhang San Niu returned carrying five plump Bamboo Rats, his face full of astonishment. There were two adults and three young ones. One was even a nursing mother rat, still alive and full of milk.
The five Bamboo Rats improved the family's meal, while Zhou Ming gained another source of milk besides his mother, Gui Hua. His tiny body grew faster than before.
"Dear, do you think something has possessed our Ergou? I'm afraid for the child..." That night, Gui Hua whispered fearfully to Zhang San Niu.
The more remote and impoverished the mountain village, the more its people feared things science could not explain. They often associated such matters with evil possession or ghosts taking over someone's body. The more extreme ones would even invite a Shaman Woman to perform rituals on the possessed, perhaps roasting them over fire or drowning them in a pond to drive out the evil.
"What do you know, woman? Ergou is the reincarnation of a star lord, sent to our family by Heaven itself. Don't go spouting nonsense outside, or if you anger Heaven, we'll both suffer for it!" Zhang San Niu warned fiercely, terrified that she might let the matter slip.
Gui Hua drew in her shoulders and shuddered. She looked complicatedly at Zhou Ming, who was sleeping soundly beside her. There was fear in her gaze, but also a trace of indescribable expectation.
At around a year and a half old, under his parents' "special" care, Zhou Ming learned to walk. His steps were steadier than those of his three-and-a-half-year-old older brother, and his behavior was unusually composed. The words that came out of his mouth always left people stunned.
For instance, he told Zhang San Niu that when planting beans in summer, he should use one-fifth fewer seeds beneath each sprout than in previous years. By the autumn harvest, each mu of land would yield fifty more jin of beans. Half-believing and half-doubting, Zhang San Niu tried the method on half a mu. By late autumn, he had indeed harvested more than twenty extra jin of beans.
When winter came and food ran short again, Zhou Ming had Gui Hua take two handfuls of millet from the nearly empty rice jar and scatter it outside on the snow. Then he used a wooden stick to prop up a simple winnowing basket, scattered some millet beneath it, and tied a hemp rope to the other end of the stick. In less than half a day, they caught more than thirty sparrows.
Over the next three years, relying on Zhou Ming's various clever tricks, this poor family was able to weather every hardship in peace.
Even the disaster in which his older brother Zhang Da Gou had drowned while catching fish in the river was avoided because Zhou Ming pulled him back in time.
When he was six, on another familiar night, his younger sister was born. After his father and mother argued, his father still ruthlessly picked up the baby and headed out into the pitch-black night.
But when he reached the doorway, a small hand tightly grabbed his sleeve.
"Ergou, don't pull me," Zhang San Niu said in a low voice.
"Father, I have a way to support my sister. I can raise her!"
"Ergou, how could you..." The words reached his lips, then rolled back down his throat. Looking at the frail little body before him and the incomparably serious expression on his face, Zhang San Niu simply could not believe that such words had come from his second son's mouth.
His younger sister was ultimately allowed to stay and was named Zhang Xiao Hua.
However, the next day, the group heading up the mountain to clear weeds gained a six-year-old figure.
Clearly, two mu of poor farmland could not support a family of five. The only solution was to burn down forest and reclaim new fields: first burn a large stretch of woodland, then dig out the stumps with hoes, level the land and raise ridges, then spend years rotating crops and leaving the soil fallow. Only then could virgin land become fertile cultivated land. The effort required might even consume an entire generation.
By the time he was thirteen, without the help of any large livestock, Zhang San Niu's family had forcibly expanded their original two mu of poor land into five mu. Zhou Ming also used the farming and forestry techniques he had learned to cultivate half a mu of orchard and half a mu of vegetable garden. Fruits and vegetables were plentiful all year round. He even sparked a wave of land reclamation throughout the village, as people copied Zhang San Niu's family and turned vast stretches of ownerless forest behind the village into orchards and vegetable gardens.
After he turned fourteen, the family no longer had to worry about food and clothing. At fifteen, they built a larger, sturdier bamboo-and-wood house. His older brother Zhang Da Gou had also reached marriageable age and had already arranged a match with a family from a neighboring village. After the end of the year, the bride would marry into Niu Family Village.
After settling his older brother Zhang Da Gou's major life event, Zhou Ming had to start considering finding himself a suitable life partner as well.
Life partners carried great weight in the game's evaluation. Zhou Ming wanted to find a good wife and spend the rest of his life happily with her.
First, she had to be pretty, gentle, virtuous, thrifty, and good at managing a household. She also had to be fertile, preferably able to bear him eight or ten children. After all, the number of descendants affected how many Achievement Points he could obtain at the end of the game, so naturally, the more descendants, the better.
Standing before a mirror, Zhou Ming examined his appearance and nodded in satisfaction. At sixteen, while he could not claim to rival Pan An in looks, he was still considered handsome and imposing throughout Niu Family Village. He was undoubtedly a great-looking guy!
Combined with the almost legendary reputation he had built in the village over the years, more than half a reinforced platoon's worth of girls had their eyes on him.
However, the one Zhou Ming had set his sights on was Wang Xiumei, the daughter of Wang Xiucai, a down-and-out scholar living at the eastern end of the village. Just one fleeting glimpse of her washing clothes by the river—her graceful, delicate figure, her shy and lovely face, those ample childbearing... assets, along with her scholarly family background—had convinced Zhou Ming at a glance that she was the perfect match he had been seeking!
"Win her over. I have to win her over!"
Wiping the drool from the corner of his mouth, Zhou Ming swiftly launched an unprecedented offensive of love. He wrote love poems and gave gifts, told stories and poured out his heart, confessed beneath the moonlight and exchanged meaningful glances. In less than a month, he had completely won her over. She refused to marry anyone but Zhang Ergou.
Wang Xiucai, who had always cared deeply about family status, naturally opposed the marriage. But after learning that his daughter's heart and body had both fallen into Zhang Ergou's hands, he could only wave his hand helplessly and hold his nose as he accepted Zhou Ming as his bargain son-in-law.
Having chosen an auspicious date and prepared to bring his bride home, Zhou Ming received news: Li Wenhao, the second son of Village Chief Li Shou Zheng, seemed to have also taken a fancy to Wang Xiumei. Though he already had a principal wife, he insisted on taking a concubine. After accidentally seeing Wang Xiumei, he had been stunned by her beauty and immediately sent people carrying eighteen crimson chests of lavish gifts to Wang Xiucai's home, determined to make him his father-in-law.
"Nephew Li, it isn't that this old man is unwilling. It's just that my daughter already has someone in her heart. You should take this Bride Price back," Wang Xiucai said, waving his hand in refusal.
"Someone in her heart? Who? Who dares steal Li Wenhao's woman?"
A layer of frost appeared on Li Wenhao's face, and a chilling murderous gleam flashed through his eyes.
"Do you know Zhang Ergou from the north end of the village? That brat is the one who lured away my precious daughter," Wang Xiucai said indignantly.
"Zhang Ergou!" Li Wenhao gritted his teeth, and the killing intent on his face became even more apparent, making Wang Xiucai beside him shiver.
In the blink of an eye, the auspicious day for bringing home the bride arrived.
The firecrackers in the brazier outside the door had been going off for a long time. The auspicious hour at noon was about to pass, yet the sedan chair bringing the bride still had not arrived.
"Something terrible has happened! Something terrible has happened! The bride—the bride was taken away by Village Chief Li Shou Zheng's son, Li Wenhao, and a group of men!"
An incomparably urgent voice delivered news like a bolt from the blue.
The crowd erupted into chaos. Zhou Ming, dressed in his groom's robes, staggered and nearly fell headfirst to the ground.
"Li Wenhao, you dare steal my wife? I'll fight you to the death!!"
New and old grudges surged into his heart at once. Burning with rage, Zhou Ming tore off his wedding clothes, rushed into the kitchen, grabbed a cleaver, and charged toward Village Chief Li Shou Zheng's home with a furious roar!
Before you continue