Chapter 18

At five in the morning, Li Zhuiyuan raised his head, sat up, leaned back in his chair, and half-opened his eyes.

He maintained that posture until five-thirty. As sensation gradually returned, his head began to ache and spin, his pupils refocused, and his consciousness started to return.

Li Zhuiyuan pressed both hands to his forehead and slowly kneaded it.

He did not know how he had fallen asleep. He did not even know when he had woken up.

After another fifteen minutes of recovery, Li Zhuiyuan took a deep breath and looked at the desk. He found a pool of blood there, and the notebook he had used for calculations had been stained red.

The moment his gaze swept over the lines and markings on it, a stabbing pain pierced his brain. He immediately shut the notebook.

He gradually recalled that, before losing consciousness, he seemed to have been calculating his own fate.

Apparently, he could not calculate his own fate.

After checking the time, Li Zhuiyuan got up and cleaned the desk. Then he took a washbasin to bathe, scrubbing and hanging up his bloodstained clothes while he was at it.

After tidying up, he did not return to his room. Instead, he sat in the rattan chair on the terrace where he usually read.

The cool morning breeze kept brushing against his face, bringing some life back into him, though his head still felt uncomfortable.

The bedroom light in the East Room came on. Through the window, he could see a petite figure sitting there, with an adult figure beside her combing her hair.

So A Li got up this early every day.

As he watched, the silhouettes vanished from the window, and the sky entered its final gray-black stage.

The main door of the East Room opened, and the girl walked out holding a small wooden Go box in her arms.

She raised her head and saw Li Zhuiyuan, already seated outside the second-floor bedroom. Their gazes met.

Before long, Qin Li came to Li Zhuiyuan's side and sat on a little stool.

She did not spread out the oiled-paper Go board as she had in the past. Instead, she looked at the boy.

After a moment, Li Zhuiyuan felt a warm, soft little hand take his.

Perhaps, in the girl's mind, whenever he held her little hand, she found calm and comfort. This time, she had taken his hand first, hoping to give him the same.

The boy and girl sat there holding hands, watching the waves of rice gently sway in the morning breeze as the gray on the horizon gradually gave way to dawn.

Time passed slowly, yet quickly.

"Achoo!"

Li Sanjiang walked out of the bedroom and sneezed.

Turning his head, he looked at the boy and girl seated side by side, and suddenly thought of the boy and girl attendants beneath Guanyin in New Year paintings.

It was not that they looked alike. Rather, the delicate refinement of those two children's features truly resembled the rounded lines of the children in those paintings.

Li Sanjiang sniffed, then rubbed his nose with the back of his hand. He had noticed the changes in himself recently. He had once thought it was fine to live freely alone and leave freely alone, but Little Yuanhou's arrival had unexpectedly let him discover the joy of enjoying grandchildren in his old age.

Aunt Liu called them to breakfast.

Breakfast was especially early today because Li Sanjiang and Li Zhuiyuan both had to go out.

Breakfast was not porridge, but instant noodles—three-delicacy Yi Mein.

Aunt Liu had tucked an egg beneath the noodles in every bowl.

The noodles were delicious. Li Zhuiyuan had not felt hungry at first, but after a few bites, it felt as though the ice sealing his body's senses had completely melted. He quickly finished one bowl.

Aunt Liu went to cook another bowl for Li Zhuiyuan and brought it over.

Only after finishing the second bowl did Li Zhuiyuan feel that he had fully shaken off the aftereffects of calculating his own fate the night before.

"Want more?" Aunt Liu asked.

"I'm full, Aunt Liu."

Beside him, Qin Li also set down her chopsticks. She ate noodles slowly, always slurping up strands of the same length before biting them off, chewing and swallowing before taking another bite.

Li Sanjiang had finished as well. Smacking his lips, he said:

"Honestly, these instant noodles really aren't as good as the plain noodles from the noodle shop in town. Add some lard, soy sauce, pepper, then sprinkle on chopped scallions—that tastes far better than this."

Aunt Liu agreed. "That's true."

If adults in other households said something like that, they were probably trying to save money by disparaging instant noodles so they would not buy them again.

But that did not apply to Li Sanjiang. The destruction of one batch of paper crafts had nearly cut off his cash flow, which showed that he truly never saved money. Whatever he earned went into daily life, especially food and drink.

In fact, in the vast rural towns and villages of this era, having instant noodles for breakfast was already a luxury enough to make the children next door cry with envy.

In some provinces and regions, instant noodles had even gradually become a local specialty, such as meatball instant noodles with poached eggs.

Li Sanjiang picked up his travel bag, stamped his feet, and prepared to set off.

His bag was unusually long because he had put the Peachwood Sword inside. Ever since that sword had helped him kill the Corpse Demon last time, he had treasured it all the more.

He had even gone to the village committee to call the manufacturer, intending to order another batch. To his surprise, they told him that the furniture factory had already been privatized and had long since ceased production of Peachwood Swords.

That made the one in his hands an out-of-print item.

Li Weihan and the others arrived, each pushing a cart loaded with baskets and tools.

"Uncle Sanjiang."

"Uncle."

"Great Grandfather."

The four uncles all behaved very properly in front of Li Sanjiang, because Li Sanjiang never indulged them. Whenever he saw them, he would directly curse them as ungrateful wretches. It had gotten to the point that whenever they spotted Li Sanjiang from afar in the village, they hurriedly took a detour.

Pan Zi and Lei Zi happily ran straight to Li Zhuiyuan. Since Li Zhuiyuan had not been staying at his grandparents' house lately, they had had far fewer chances to gather together.

"Let's go!"

Li Sanjiang patted his trouser leg, then took Li Zhuiyuan's hand and followed Li Weihan and the others out.

Qin Li watched Li Zhuiyuan leave. She had known long ago that he would be going out today, but after seeing him depart, she still slowly lowered her head, her gaze falling on the bowl of noodles Li Zhuiyuan had just finished.

Liu Yumei immediately gave Aunt Liu a meaningful look. Aunt Liu sprang forward, gathered the bowl and chopsticks, and took them away to wash.

Soon after, Uncle Qin came back carrying a huge bundle of bamboo. He tossed it onto the embankment and clapped his hands.

Liu Yumei sat beside Qin Li and smiled. "A Li, how about I have A Li make you a rattan chair just like Little Yuanhou's?"

Qin Li did not respond.

Liu Yumei pursed her lips and said to Qin Li, "Hurry and make two identical new rattan chairs in the next couple of days, suitable for children to sit and lean back in."

Qin Li nodded.

Qin Li raised her head.

It was not obvious, but she truly was happy.

By the road at the village entrance, they did not wait long before an old-fashioned bus came rumbling over.

At this time, buses in rural towns had no stations or fixed stops. Though they were licensed and regulated, they were still essentially privately contracted operations. They would stop whenever they saw people waiting by the roadside, and passengers could call out to get off whenever they wanted.

Li Sanjiang had wanted to give Little Yuanhou a few more instructions, but the bus had arrived too quickly. He could only board first. After it drove away, Li Weihan picked up Li Zhuiyuan and placed him in First Uncle Li Sheng's cart, letting him sit there.

Then everyone walked along the roadside together. Before long, they caught up with Siyuan Village's group.

They were mostly able-bodied men from the village who met the age requirements, with very few women. That was because the vigorous river-dredging project had now entered its final stage, and the required manpower and work hours had been greatly reduced.

A few decades earlier, during certain seasons every year, nearly everyone across rural Jiangsu—men, women, old, and young—had to carry tools and be organized into labor. Those near rivers repaired dikes, while those without rivers built reservoirs.

Sometimes, when there was a major project, they would even be organized to travel farther away and work together.

In the depths of winter, the cold wind cut to the bone. There were not many construction machines in those days; everything depended almost entirely on human labor.

Everyone within the eligible age range had to participate. The projects lasted a long time, so they had to eat and sleep at the site, bringing their own provisions and building their own shelters.

Countless elderly people had been left with chronic ailments from the hardships of river-dredging back then.

First Uncle Li Sheng laughed. "Do you remember how hard it was when we went dredging rivers with Dad and Mom as kids? Dad used to tell us, if we didn't study properly, we'd be dredging rivers forever. Hahaha."

The other three uncles laughed along with him.

Second Uncle Li Zheng said, "In the end, all of Dad's words were wasted on us. None of us brothers had the brains for studying. Only our little sister made something of herself through school."

Third Uncle Li Xiong nodded. "Exactly. Mom was biased when she gave birth. She saved all the good brains for our sister."

Li Weihan pretended to be angry as he laughed and scolded, "What nonsense are you brats talking? If any of you could have studied, would I have refused to grit my teeth and support you?"

Everyone laughed again, trading playful insults.

Everything seemed to have returned to a long time ago.

The four of them had gone to work dredging rivers under their parents' lead, joking around like this all the way.

That was probably why Li Weihan cared so much about this river-dredging project. His sons had all started their own families and become fathers to several children. They usually focused on their own little households, so friction and disagreements were inevitable.

Only at times like this, when they carried tools and pushed carts as if they were alone in the world, could they rediscover the feelings and memories of the past.

Yet this warmth was destined not to last long. Large families with straitened circumstances all faced the same problems. Perhaps only when life improved and they grew older would they be able to let go of their calculations and grudges, truly reclaiming their familial affection.

Of course, they might never let go for their entire lives, turning blood brothers into strangers who never spoke again until death.

As the group continued forward, the uncles kept pointing out everything they saw along the way to Li Zhuiyuan, Pan Zi, and Lei Zi.

"This dike was built by us back then. We were still little and could only help carry dirt from behind."

"We built this reservoir too. It was so cold back then that everything froze."

"We dug this ditch as well. Lei Zi and Pan Zi were still tiny then, hahaha."

Following their introductions, Li Zhuiyuan kept looking around from the cart. Something stirred in his heart. He had always assumed that many facilities naturally ought to exist, only to realize that they had not existed as a matter of course.

Today, the waterworks found in nearly every village were the finest imprint left by that era's projects now drawing to a close. They were the crystallized sweat and labor of countless workers, built through shoulders and hands.

As Siyuan Village's group advanced, it continuously merged with groups from other villages. The procession grew larger and larger, until there was no end in sight from either direction.

Village leaders carried flags bearing their village names, while township leaders carried larger flags and held loudspeakers.

The flags were old, their lettering mottled and flaking away. Even the unpowered loudspeakers had long been covered in rust. But now, they served only as symbols. Habits and awareness formed over decades had already been etched into the hearts of several generations.

Li Weihan's tools were shared among his sons, allowing him to leisurely light his water pipe. The smoke he drew made his gaze gradually turn hazy—perhaps from the smoke stinging his eyes, or perhaps because the steady, honest man was suddenly overcome with emotion.

He said, "I remember when we were rushing to finish projects, an arts troupe came to the site to perform and encourage everyone. I remember those words, though I don't know who said them onstage. They went like this:

"If we don't build this dike now, if we don't dig this river now, if we don't build this reservoir now, then we'll leave it for our children to build later. If we endure all this hardship, then our children won't have to suffer it later.

"Looking at things now, those words were absolutely right.

"Panhou and Leihou won't have to dredge rivers in the future."

The uncles all agreed. Life now truly was much better than before.

The worksite was quite far away. The groups from several towns had assembled and set off early, only arriving around noon.

There were also many makeshift sheds around the site, while nearby homes had been temporarily requisitioned to provide hot water and provisions.

Hot water could be collected at any time, while the provisions were distributed through village brigades and teams.

The Li family sat around together eating scallion rolls, while the four uncles took out the salted sauces and pickles they had brought from home.

"Little Yuanhou, can you get used to this?" First Uncle Li Sheng asked.

"Mm, it's delicious." Li Zhuiyuan tore off a piece of scallion roll and put it in his mouth. The scallion fragrance mixed with the wheat aroma, and it really was delicious.

"Now they provide meals. Back when we dredged rivers with your grandpa and grandma, we had to bring our own provisions. We couldn't even get hot water—we had to boil it ourselves."

After eating, there was no time for a midday rest. Cadres from the brigade came down and began assigning everyone their work sections.

Before long, Li Zhuiyuan saw dense crowds of people carrying tools and pushing carts down both sides into the river ditch, which had not yet been diverted and was only muddy. They looked like a swarm of ants.

Yet they did not seem humble or small in the slightest. Instead, they were awe-inspiring.

Working in small groups, everyone shouted work chants and threw themselves into the labor with fiery enthusiasm.

Li Zhuiyuan had only been brought along incidentally and did not count as labor, so naturally he was not assigned any task. Quite a few young children had come with adults and were playing nearby, some still holding steamed rolls and eating.

But Li Zhuiyuan could not really play with them. He followed Pan Zi and Lei Zi as they pushed carts and hauled dirt.

At that moment, a group of young people who looked like university students walked over and asked Pan Zi and the others to hold a rope and set up markers for surveying. Li Zhuiyuan was assigned a task as well. Holding a wooden stake, he stood at the designated spot.

Beside him were two university students. One conducted measurements while the other recorded them with a pen. Since they addressed each other by name, Li Zhuiyuan learned that the surveyor was called Xue Liangliang and the recorder was Zhao Hequan.

Zhao Hequan smiled and said, "There will be fewer and fewer projects like this in the future. Our junior schoolmates won't have to be assigned to worksites for this anymore. I really envy them."

After calling out a figure, Xue Liangliang lowered his head to continue measuring and retorted:

"No. There will only be more major projects like this in the future. But our country will no longer need to mobilize the people for unpaid labor as it did before. The hardest times are almost over. Things will only get better from here."

"Xue Liangliang, what are you talking about?"

"What, you don't believe me?" Xue Liangliang smiled. "Then wait and see. Trust me, projects like this will seem so small in the future that they are hardly worth mentioning."

"If they're hardly worth mentioning, then why are we here?"

"I mean they'll be hardly worth mentioning in the future, not in the past or present. Nantong is located at the mouth of the Yangtze River. So many waterworks were built here in the past: first, for shipping and transportation; second, for agricultural irrigation; and third, most importantly, for flood prevention and drainage.

"Without this infrastructure, there could be no future development."

"Hehehehe." Zhao Hequan laughed. He thought the classmate assigned to his group was a little foolish.

Once the measurements were complete,

Xue Liangliang straightened up. As he reported the final set of figures, he stretched lazily and looked at the noisy yet orderly worksite before him, unable to help sighing:

"The great people are creating great history."

"Wake up, Xue Liangliang. You nearly made me think we were in a politics class. Are you secretly memorizing your textbook for the finals?"

Xue Liangliang smiled without responding. Lowering his head, he saw Li Zhuiyuan beside him holding the wooden stake and smiling at him too. He reached over and rubbed Li Zhuiyuan's head.

"Little friend, you're so young, yet you came here with your family?"

"Yeah." Li Zhuiyuan answered, "Small people are people too."

"Hahaha!"

Xue Liangliang burst into laughter at that. He could not help bending down to hug Li Zhuiyuan, then took several White Rabbit milk candies from his pocket and stuffed them into Li Zhuiyuan's pocket.

He found the child very interesting, and Li Zhuiyuan found this big kid interesting too.

Especially the expression and tone Xue Liangliang had used while saying those things earlier—they reminded Li Zhuiyuan of his Grandpa Bei.

At that moment, a small commotion rose from the distant worksite. Someone ran this way while shouting:

"They dug something up! They dug something up!"

Digging things up during construction was common. Everyone found it novel, but not many went over to look, since they all needed to hurry and finish their own tasks.

However, after completing their work, the university students assigned to the site were much freer. Zhao Hequan immediately grabbed Xue Liangliang and urged:

"Come on, Liangliang, let's go take a look. Let's see what they dug up."

Gradually, news kept filtering over. Everyone roughly learned that a small temple had been unearthed, only about the size of an ordinary household toilet.

Ordinarily, that would not have meant much. This was an alluvial plain region, where the density of ancient tombs and buildings was certainly far lower than in the Central Plains. Still, construction occasionally unearthed the tomb of some minor ancient landowner or a small shrine.

But under the special circumstances of the era, archaeological excavation and preservation naturally had to yield to construction. Anything blocking the project route would be dug up and demolished.

Of course, that was also because minor landowners did not have enough status to attract attention from the relevant authorities. At minimum, it would have to be the tomb of a minor noble.

Though in places like Xi'an or Luoyang, even minor nobles would have to step aside during construction, because they were not particularly rare.

But the temple unearthed this time was somewhat unusual. Word spread that it enshrined a female bodhisattva, who was bound by chains, with the other ends of the iron chains nailed into every corner of the little temple.

The sight seemed rather sinister to the people, and no one dared step forward to handle it.

Still, two Haihe University students smashed the chains apart with hammers and pushed over the Bodhisattva statue.

Only then could the project continue.

By dusk, nearly every large and small team had already exceeded its quota for the day. Everyone had experience now: finish early, pass inspection early, and get home early. They could also wrap up sooner and arrange somewhere to sleep for the night.

This was when the advantage of the Li family's four sons became apparent.

They did not have to put up sheds beside the riverworks or sleep on the ground with nothing but straw mats. Instead, they had claimed the yard of a requisitioned house beside the construction site.

Though the yard had no walls, it had level ground beneath them, a well nearby, and even a toilet. Those were already excellent camping conditions.

The four uncles divided up the work: fetching hot water, collecting rations, and finding dry grass for bedding. Li Weihan stayed behind with Li Zhuiyuan, Pan Zi, and Lei Zi, letting them rest where they were.

Several large bulbs had been strung up in the yard. They provided light for the people below and served as landmarks. This was also a hot-water distribution point, and barefoot doctors were stationed here as well.

Li Zhuiyuan saw Xue Liangliang and Zhao Hequan again. Their group of over twenty university students was led by a teacher, and they would be staying here tonight too.

Their conditions were better, though. They could sleep indoors.

The uncles sat on the prepared bedding and lectured Li Zhuiyuan, Pan Zi, and Lei Zi:

"Kids, take a good look. This is the benefit of studying. You have to work hard at your books."

Li Weihan, who was smoking a water pipe nearby, coughed from the smoke. Wasn't that exactly what he used to say to those four brats?

Almost the same scene, the same circumstances, the same earnest advice.

But it had been useless.

Li Weihan had finally understood and come to terms with it: people could not teach people, but events could teach them in one go.

No matter how others warned them about certain pitfalls, it was no use. They had to fall into them themselves before they understood. But by then, what was the point?

After patiently enduring their fathers' and uncles' lectures for a while, Lei Zi and Pan Zi could no longer sit still. They got up and called over some children around their age to play paper-slap.

Everyone had folded their own paper packets. They pooled together, took turns, and whoever flipped over another person's paper packet won it.

The older children gathered together and played with great enthusiasm, sharp "Smack! Smack! Smack!" sounds ringing out constantly. A crowd of younger children stood around them, watching intently and learning the tricks.

When Li Weihan turned his head, he saw that his Little Yuanhou had not gone over to play. Instead, he was sitting there with a book on his knees, reading it seriously.

Li Weihan leaned over and took a look. The words on the page were densely packed like tiny tadpoles, and he could not help asking worriedly:

"Little Yuanhou, can you see that clearly?"

"Grandpa, I couldn't at first, but I can now."

Li Zhuiyuan had not brought his magnifying glass because he had already adapted to the tiny print. More precisely, after becoming accustomed to it, he no longer needed to distinguish every stroke in exact detail. A general impression was enough for him to recognize the characters.

Only later did he realize the author's true intention in making the words so small, after he had rapidly memorized books with the aid of a magnifying glass.

It was deliberately training the reader's "eye"—not visual acuity, but the sense of perceiving things, the ability to turn detailed information into an overall image.

Li Zhuiyuan vaguely found the breakthrough. The key to the eighth volume of Yin Yang Physiognomy Explained was the transition from concrete forms to images. First, he had to thoroughly grasp these concepts and applications through rote memorization and extensive calculation. Then he had to refine them all together, accumulating quantitative changes until they became qualitative change, completing the ascent from science to mysticism.

He could already feel the countless eyebrows, eyes, mouths, noses, ears, and all the various faces formed from them that he had memorized beginning to twist and merge in his mind.

Though it was still very shallow, he had found the direction. In the end, only one face would remain in his mind. Then, when he encountered someone whose face needed reading in reality, he could directly imprint that person's features into his mind and compare them against it.

"Mm, be careful not to hurt your eyes." After reminding him, Li Weihan stopped disturbing his grandson's reading.

He looked at his grandson studying seriously with his head bowed, then at Lei Zi and Pan Zi shouting as they played paper-slap nearby.

Li Weihan felt as though life was a cycle. Wasn't this exactly how he had once felt when looking at his studious daughter and his four worthless sons?

He had once been baffled. They were all his children, so how had one nest produced both a phoenix and four grass chickens?

Now, he had a feeling that the same story would repeat itself among his grandchildren.

Uncle Sanjiang had once said while drinking that the Li family's ancestral graves must have caught fire for him to produce Lanhou. Well, in a few years, when Little Yuanhou grew up and took the university entrance exam, those graves would probably need to catch fire again.

The university students had assigned tasks too, and this counted as an internship. Young people's energy was always hard to imagine. They were not in a hurry to return indoors and sleep. Instead, they sat in a circle beneath a bulb in the yard, took out the food they had brought, and began a tea gathering.

Xue Liangliang noticed Li Zhuiyuan. He had been deeply impressed by the child, so he took a floss-filled bread wrapped in oil paper, walked over, and placed it in front of him.

Li Zhuiyuan looked up, saw him, and smiled. "Thank you, big brother."

"Little friend, are you from around here?"

Though he was working on the river project and his clothes were dirty, the child's clothing and bearing did not resemble those of a rural kid. More than anything, it was the unconstrained, open manner that naturally showed in his bones.

"Yes, I am. My name is Li Zhuiyuan. This is my grandfather, and those behind me are my uncles."

"Hehe, I'm Xue Liangliang. You're in primary school, right? What grade?"

"Mm, third grade."

Li Zhuiyuan nodded. Sometimes, even he found it hard to explain exactly what grade he was in. He only knew that once the children in his class reached the right age, they automatically advanced.

For a time, the old professors had nearly collapsed from tormenting one another. Then several very young teachers came to teach them, and the mutual torment suddenly intensified at an astonishing rate. Everyone scratched at each other with exceptional gusto.

Only later did he learn that those particularly young teachers were considered upperclassmen and upperclasswomen of their class.

"Study hard. Try to get into university someday."

"I will, big brother."

At that moment, someone at the tea gathering called over, "Xue Liangliang, come get ready. You're next."

"I'm coming, I'm coming."

Xue Liangliang turned and went back to sit down.

Li Zhuiyuan glanced at the university students sitting in a circle. He often saw similar scenes at school.

Those older brothers and sisters were students too, just like him. They liked sitting on the campus lawn, playing guitar and reciting poetry. The boys also liked growing their hair long enough to cover their eyes.

Tonight's tea gathering concerned their visions for the future. The topic had been chosen by the teacher leading their internship, which suited his role perfectly.

Zhao Hequan was giving his speech. He was the student who had been measuring alongside Xue Liangliang during the day, and he had now reached the final summary:

"America is a country where even the air smells exceptionally sweet.

And my future lies in America!

My girlfriend and I have already applied to study in America. We will stay there in the future, in that land of freedom and dreams, enjoying our freedom and realizing our ideals in life!"

As he spoke, his eyes shone beneath the bulb above his head.

His face was full of intoxication, and full of devotion as well.

When he finished speaking, the surrounding students applauded and cheered.

At the moment, enthusiasm for the West, especially the American dream, was sweeping like a storm through the nation's intellectuals, particularly young university students.

After reform and opening up, the gap in material living standards and the impact of Western popular culture were destroying this generation's confidence with terrifying force.

Going to America and staying in America was not something difficult to admit at the moment. On the contrary, it was an extremely normal form of political correctness.

Even the internship teacher saw nothing wrong with it. After all, quite a few teachers and professors from the school had gone abroad too. Many were sent out on public sponsorship, then slipped away from their delegations and stayed behind.

"I also hope everyone will have the opportunity in the future to go to America and seek the meaning of life. My girlfriend and I look forward to reuniting with all of you across the ocean."

Li Zhuiyuan looked up at Zhao Hequan. He did not use Destiny Deduction Theory to calculate anything. He merely applied Yin Yang Physiognomy Explained to Zhao Hequan's face for a simple reading.

The result obtained this way would be limited and imprecise, but Zhao Hequan's features were quite standard:

A difficult love life, alone for the rest of his life.

Li Zhuiyuan fell into thought. But he and his girlfriend seem to be very close. Did I get it backward again?

After Zhao Hequan finished, he came down, and Xue Liangliang went up next.

Li Zhuiyuan handed the floss-filled bread to Lei Zi, who had lost all his paper packets and returned dejectedly, sulking.

Then he closed his book and rested his cheek on one hand. He wanted to listen carefully to what this older brother had to say about his future.

Xue Liangliang stepped into the center of his classmates. He did not raise his head, and his expression was calm rather than excited. The light from the bulb above fell over his back, rendering a halo around him like the rising morning sun.

"My future lies in the Great Southwest.

"I study water conservancy, and I believe the Great Southwest, with its abundant water resources, will be where I can put what I have learned to use in the future.

"The geology there is unusual, making it unsuitable for nuclear power plants. But it has immense potential for hydropower. The country will certainly build hydropower stations there on a large scale in the future, and energy is an important cornerstone of national industrial development.

"I believe that, in the future, hydropower in the Great Southwest will not only meet the production and living needs of local people, but also supply and support the entire country.

"This is a great undertaking. I feel it would be an honor to integrate my future into it."

After he finished, the students below could not help looking at one another. They all felt that some kind of oddball had suddenly appeared among them.

Some classmates who knew him lowered their heads and stifled laughter. Clearly, they were long accustomed to Xue Liangliang's habits and behavior.

However, quite a few villagers sleeping nearby were also listening to the university students. When Xue Liangliang finished, many people shouted, "Good!"

At that moment, Zhao Hequan was the one who felt most humiliated. Although neither the students nor the teacher showed anything, he felt that Xue Liangliang was deliberately targeting him. He could not help speaking in a mocking tone:

"Oh, who are you putting on an act for? I don't believe you'd refuse if you had the chance to go to America. Forget America—even if you had the chance to go to Japan or South Korea, you'd go."

Xue Liangliang asked, "If it was for studying, why wouldn't I go?"

"Pfft." Zhao Hequan pointed at him. "See? You've said what you really think. Once you went, you wouldn't want to come back. You have no idea how enormous the gap between us and them really is. It's a gap we'll never catch up to."

Xue Liangliang shook his head. "We will catch up. Under its leadership, we have already achieved tremendous development. The future will certainly get better and better."

"But while you develop, do they stop developing? With such an enormous gap, even if they stood still, you still couldn't catch them in a hundred years!"

Xue Liangliang shook his head again. "That's impossible. This world is material. Unless nuclear fusion achieves a breakthrough and becomes commercially viable, the market pie of this world is destined to be limited. As long as we continue developing, this will no longer be a game of chasing after someone."

Zhao Hequan frowned. He did not understand. Neither did the other students, and even the internship teacher looked puzzled.

"Xue Liangliang, what exactly are you talking about? Aren't we the backward ones trying to catch up?"

"We are catching up, but we are not chasing. The better we develop, the more advanced our industry becomes, the more of the pie and market we can seize. In the future, they will not stand in place waiting for us. Instead, they will keep declining and actively... move toward us from both directions.

"I think that fifty years from now, our total economic output will definitely surpass Japan and South Korea."

The students looked at Xue Liangliang as though he were an idiot. Even the teacher could not help covering his mouth and laughing.

But Xue Liangliang continued:

"Is that strange?

"One day in the future, our shipbuilding industry will surpass South Korea's in scale, and our automobile industry will surpass Japan's in scale. Once they lose those industrial advantages, won't they inevitably decline?

"As for what you said about staying there, perhaps they do indeed have excellent living conditions now. But staying there does not suit me. I hope what I have learned can have a platform where it can be put to use.

"And I do not believe that when people can face exclusion in China merely for speaking different dialects in different provinces, they would somehow face no exclusion abroad despite different races and skin colors, and instead be given a free platform for development.

"That makes no sense, because it is too contrary to human nature."

"Good!" "Good!" "Good!"

The nearby villagers cheered even more loudly. Li Weihan and the four uncles joined in as well. Though they did not understand many of the terms, something simple and sincere in their hearts made them feel that the student's words were satisfying.

Zhao Hequan was somewhat embarrassed and angry. "You don't understand. You don't understand at all. You don't understand America, and you don't understand the true meaning of freedom."

A student nearby chimed in, "Xue Liangliang, since you're so certain, you must know what will make big money in the future. Tell us, then. Hehe."

"Yeah, tell us."

"We'll learn from you how to see the future and make money together."

Xue Liangliang thought for a moment, then answered seriously, "Based on the development patterns of early-developed economies, when an economy is in a period of rapid upward growth, its real estate sector is destined to see enormous expansion.

"So if you want a relatively stable investment that appreciates in value, you can buy homes in prime areas of major cities, even if you need to take out bank loans to do so."

Everyone froze at first, then burst into even louder laughter. Quite a few laughed until tears came out.

Xue Liangliang sat down, and the next student went up to speak.

Yet many students continued whispering to those beside them while looking at him with teasing, mocking eyes.

Xue Liangliang did not care. He remained in his seat and applauded for the student giving the speech.

Li Zhuiyuan still did not use destiny calculation. He merely silently examined Xue Liangliang's face.

A smooth love life, longevity, and peace.

Li Zhuiyuan blinked. If this is backward too, I really will get angry.

Late at night, the tea gathering had long since ended.

The villagers in the yard were all asleep, and the university students had gone to rest too. However, there were not enough rooms inside, and the female students needed to avoid suspicion, so some of the male students could only sleep outside on the ground.

Xue Liangliang and Zhao Hequan were among them.

Snoring continued throughout the yard like a symphony.

But everyone had worked hard during the day, so no one had trouble falling asleep. They all slept soundly.

Li Zhuiyuan lay beside Li Weihan, using his book as a pillow.

As he slept, Li Zhuiyuan suddenly felt cold. Normally, even sleeping outside in this season should not make someone shiver. Straw gathered by his uncles was spread beneath him, and his grandfather had covered him with the quilt brought from home.

But Li Zhuiyuan quickly realized what was happening.

Perhaps because Great Grandfather had not performed another Fortune-Transfer Ritual with him since that injury, he had not had this kind of dream for a long time.

With that familiar sensation now returning, Li Zhuiyuan knew... he had entered a dream again.

But with experience and theoretical knowledge now, he was not as reckless as before. He lay still and quietly opened his eyes just a sliver.

He saw himself still lying where he had been. Beside him was the sound of his grandfather's steady sleeping breaths, while his uncles, Pan Zi, and Lei Zi were diagonally ahead.

But he knew this was not reality. It was a dream, because that strange chill was growing stronger and stronger.

If he had not desperately restrained himself, he would have curled up and started shivering.

Then he saw a woman walk up from the steps leading into the yard.

The woman wore white, her long skirt dragging across the ground. Iron chains were wrapped around her body.

But the exposed skin on her body was charred black and raw red. As she walked, chunks of flesh constantly fell from her, making sticky, squelching sounds.

When she reached the center of the yard, the woman stopped. Her head began turning to look around, as though searching for someone.

Everyone else was asleep and could not see the woman.

Just as the woman was about to look in his direction, Li Zhuiyuan shut his eyes completely.

After a while, when he felt enough time had passed, Li Zhuiyuan quietly opened his eyes to a slit again.

But the moment he looked, he discovered that whether the woman had looked around several times or had simply been staring in this direction all along, in any case, from Li Zhuiyuan's perspective—

He and the woman met each other's eyes!

In an instant, Li Zhuiyuan's blood seemed to freeze, and his heart pounded faster and faster.

The woman's face was a blur of blood and flesh, as though it had been burned and scraped away. It resembled the horrifying sight of bloody mud and churned flesh when the earth was first plowed in spring.

The only conspicuous part was her mouth. Her lips could not be seen, only two rows of white teeth, making the sight even more terrifying.

The woman continued staring this way. At that point, Li Zhuiyuan did not dare close his eyes again or make any unnecessary movements.

But the woman began walking toward him, one step at a time.

It's over.

She noticed that I can see her?

Though turmoil surged within him, Li Zhuiyuan still forced himself not to move. He even controlled his breathing, keeping it the same as before.

As the woman drew closer and closer, he smelled scorched meat, tinged with moldy sourness. It was nauseating and revolting.

Yet Li Zhuiyuan continued breathing normally, as though he were still asleep.

The woman came before him and slowly crouched down.

Her terrifying face was almost pressed against Li Zhuiyuan's nose.

Li Zhuiyuan could not close his eyes now. He could only be forced to stare at her.

He watched the rotten flesh on her face fall away piece by piece. Two chunks even landed on his face and slowly slid down his cheeks.

They were sticky, covered in nauseating fluid.

At that moment, time seemed to crawl by at an excruciating pace. Every second felt like a year.

After staring at him for quite a while, the woman finally stood up, turned around, and walked step by step toward the center.

Li Zhuiyuan ignored the bits of flesh still clinging to his face. He remained perfectly still, keeping his eyes slightly open.

Suddenly, while the woman continued walking, her body kept moving forward, but her head twisted one hundred and eighty degrees around her neck to look back at Li Zhuiyuan again.

The sight sent cold sweat down Li Zhuiyuan's back. A bone-chilling frost swept from the back of his head all the way down to his tailbone, then surged back upward again.

Good thing I didn't close my eyes.

The woman seemed to have confirmed that this child merely had the habit of sleeping with his eyes slightly open.

Her head turned another one hundred and eighty degrees and returned to normal.

"Phew... phew..."

Li Zhuiyuan kept breathing out in his heart. His head felt numb and dizzy.

The woman seemed to have found the people she was looking for. Step by step, she walked toward the group of college students sleeping on the Sleeping Mat outside the threshold.

In the end, she stopped between Xue Liangliang and Zhao Hequan.

Both were sound asleep, unaware that something so terrifying was standing so close to them.

The woman spread her hands. Her sleeves slid back, revealing arms with white bones exposed beneath torn flesh. Not only was there rotten meat, but countless maggots burrowed in and out among it.

Li Zhuiyuan continued keeping his eyes slightly open. He would not change this posture until he woke from the dream.

Seeing this, Li Zhuiyuan could not help thinking:

Could the two college students mentioned during the day—the ones who smashed the chains on the Bodhisattva statue with a hammer—be Xue Liangliang and Zhao Hequan?

The woman slowly crouched down and reached both hands toward Xue Liangliang's neck on her right.

However, just as she was about to grab him, the few light bulbs hanging over the yard suddenly flickered several times because of a poor connection.

The woman's head immediately flipped back, facing behind her as she stared at the flickering bulbs.

After flickering a few times, the bulbs returned to normal.

The woman's head turned from behind her back toward the front again.

But this time, she did not turn far enough. Her face, which had originally been facing Xue Liangliang on the right, turned clockwise and ended up facing Zhao Hequan instead.

Her hands naturally shifted in the direction her head was facing.

Then,

toward Zhao Hequan's neck,

she clamped down!