Gao Yiye said, "This fellow won't tell us the emperor's name, and the Heavenly Deity is very angry. Everyone, grab something and give him a good beating!"
Gao Chuwu was the first to pick up a big wooden club. Several other young men tightened their grips on their sticks, and the villagers began searching for weapons.
Under the setting sun, a whole crowd of villagers raised all sorts of odds and ends: clay pots, hoes, table legs, carrying poles...
At the sight of this display, San Shier's face darkened. Before the villagers could strike, he immediately howled, "Zhu Youxiao! Zhu Youxiao! The reigning emperor's name is Zhu Youxiao!"
He could no longer worry about the taboo against speaking the emperor's personal name. As the saying went, the mountains were high and the emperor far away; imperial authority did not reach the countryside. Right now, saving his own skin came first. Who cared whether he violated a taboo? He even forgot his habit of summing up everything he said.
"Tsk, so it really is Zhu Youxiao." Li Daoxuan's expression darkened. "One Leaf, ask him how things stand in the realm."
Gao Yiye hurriedly passed the question on.
San Shier was badly frightened by the motley assortment of weapons around him. He had no idea what she meant by "how things stand in the realm," so he recited an official document he had just seen at the County Yamen. "On the eleventh day of the fifth month, the Jianzhou Jurchens besieged Jinzhou. The Imperial Court dispatched troops to relieve Jinzhou, and on the twenty-eighth, the Jianzhou Jurchens divided their forces to attack Ningyuan City as well. Commander Yuan Chonghuan, together with palace eunuch Liu Yingkun and Vice Commissioner Bi Zisu, directed the officers and soldiers to man the battlements, establish camps within the moat, and repel the enemy with cannon fire..."
At this point, he saw that the villagers looked utterly blank, clearly unable to understand him. He grew a little uneasy, but their weapons had not come down on him, so he knew he was reciting the right thing. He continued, "Man Gui led You Shilu and Zu Dashou with troops to the rescue. A great battle was fought outside the city, with casualties on both sides. Man Gui was struck by several arrows. The Jianzhou Jurchen army then withdrew and reinforced the attack on Jinzhou. Unable to take Jinzhou either, they withdrew their forces because of the extreme summer heat..."
There, he stopped!
He could not remember what came next. Sweat poured down his face as he thought, I'm done for. I can't recite any more. Who knows whether they're satisfied? Will they beat me to death? This situation is what you call [hanging by a thread].
In fact, what he had recited was already enough.
After hearing this, Li Daoxuan was certain. Inside the Scenery Box was not some Little People Kingdom in another world, but-Great Ming.
And it was the late Ming Dynasty, during its most difficult years.
No wonder Gao Family Village was desolate and its villagers had nothing to eat. Wasn't this exactly how ordinary people had lived at the end of the Ming Dynasty? Reading about it in history books had never made it feel real. Only by seeing it in the Scenery Box could he truly feel their plight.
Now Li Daoxuan understood everything. "All right, don't give him any more trouble. I've asked everything I wanted to ask. He looks exhausted and hungry after being dragged here. Give him something to eat."
With that, he no longer had the heart to attend to the affairs inside the Scenery Box. As quickly as he could, he turned on his computer, opened his browser, went to Baidu, and searched for information about the late Ming Dynasty... He plunged in headfirst, immersing himself in the sea of history.
When Gao Yiye relayed his last words, the villagers immediately put down their weapons, kowtowed to the sky, and dispersed to their homes.
San Shier breathed a sigh of relief and thought, I've escaped with my life. The villagers here are so strange. They all obey this girl, and she looks like a religious charlatan, the classic fraud claiming, "I speak on behalf of the gods." Could they be some sinister cult like the White Lotus Sect? Falling into a cult's hands rarely ends well. I'd better play along. Only by staying alive can I get home. This is called [swallowing humiliation to stay safe].
He put on an act too, copying the villagers and kowtowing to the sky. He had no idea what god he was bowing to, but bowing was the right thing to do. There was no shame in it when his life was at stake.
Gao Yiye told him, "Come with me. I'll get you something to eat."
San Shier answered and hurried after her. As they walked, he asked in a low voice, "Miss, it seems everyone in your village worships a god... Which... deity do you worship? This is called [tracing things to their source]."
Gao Yiye said, "I don't know."
San Shier said, "!"
This was the first time he had heard of people not even knowing which god they worshipped. Weren't these villagers far too stupid?
Gao Yiye said, "The Heavenly Deity is the Heavenly Deity. He has never told us his name, and we wouldn't dare ask. All we know is that his divine power is boundless, that he's gentle and kind, and that he takes very good care of everyone in Gao Family Village. We only survived because of him."
San Shier sneered inwardly. Fairy tales invented by a charlatan. Only ignorant fools would believe them. I, San Shier, have studied the sages' writings. You won't fool me so easily. This is called [a clear mind and a firm resolve].
Just as he was thinking this, they reached Gao Yiye's home. She pushed open the shabby plank door with a creak. "Sit down for a while. I'll go to the kitchen and make you something to eat."
San Shier looked inside Gao Yiye's home and was instantly dumbfounded. In a corner of the room stood a huge pile of "huge" grains of white rice. They really were enormous, each grain the size of a millstone. A piece of cabbage leaf also leaned against the wall. It was not a whole leaf-the veins made it clear that this was only a small piece cut from one-yet it was as large as the entire wall.
Gao Yiye casually picked up a few pieces of broken rice, tore a piece from the enormous cabbage leaf, put them in a bamboo basket, and went into the kitchen. Apparently, she intended to make him a meal with them.
San Shier's mouth fell open in shock and stayed that way for a long time.
What was going on with this rice? What was going on with that cabbage leaf? What was going on with this village?
Good heavens above!
San Shier was a typical ancient scholar.
Although he knew far more than an illiterate person and was not easily deceived by religious charlatans, he still could not entirely shake off "superstition." In other words, although he did not believe the White Lotus Sect's nonsense about the "Unborn Venerable Mother" and the "true emptiness homeland," he was not an atheist.
He, too, believed that gods existed in the world.
After standing frozen for several dozen seconds, he darted to the kitchen doorway and shouted to Gao Yiye, who was cooking inside, "Which exalted immortal bestowed this food upon you?"
Gao Yiye said, "I already told you, I don't know."
San Shier said, "You haven't even asked about that? And you call yourself a divine messenger! Because of you, the villagers don't even know whom they're kowtowing to. When they build a temple for the deity someday, they won't even know whom to enshrine. This is simply [utter muddleheadedness]."
Gao Yiye said, "Oh? You're right! An educated person really does think things through more carefully."
She lifted her head and called to the sky, "Heavenly Deity! Heavenly Deity! By what honored title should we address you?"
The sky was quiet. No one answered her.
Li Daoxuan had already gone off to read history books. The humiliating history of the late Ming Dynasty left him heartsick. How could he hear the little girl's mosquito-soft voice from inside the box?
Gao Yiye spread her hands toward San Shier. "The Heavenly Deity doesn't want to say."
San Shier said, "Huh?"
Before you continue