Looking at the mountain village ahead of him, Li Yan felt a surge of excitement in his heart. He Divine Sense suddenly spread out, covering an area of dozens of miles in an instant. After a moment, a smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.
"It turned out that they were all busy in the fields." In his Divine Sense, he instantly found the location of his family, but there was a young woman and a child in that group of people whom he did not recognize. However, he immediately thought of what Xu Shi, the monk of the Blood Leaf Sect, said just now, and thought that they should be his sister-in-law and nephew.
Taking a deep breath, Li Yan looked at the two women beside him and pointed to the side of the mountain village in front of him, "Where are we going?" After saying that, he took the lead and ran quickly with ease.
After the two girls Gong Chenying and Zhao Min looked at each other, they knew that Li Yan had found their relatives. They immediately stepped on their feet and followed them. However, when they thought of seeing Li Yan's family, their heartbeats accelerated sharply for no reason. Especially Gong Chenying felt that his body was shaking a little.
Under a row of shades at the edge of the field, Chang Bo and the others had finished their lunch. The woman named Xiaoyu and Li Yan's mother were clearing away the dishes. Chang Bo was teasing his grandson, and Li Wei and his Saner neighbor who were passing by were whispering about this year's harvest and the situation.
At this moment, three people were walking towards this place from a distance, which attracted the attention of the villagers in the nearby fields and Li Wei and others. This was because the clothes of these three people were completely different from them. Even though they were far away, you could still find that they were rich and luxurious people.
Li Wei stopped talking to the three people around him. At the same time, some villagers in the distance who were standing upright in the fields and wiping the sweat from their foreheads also noticed the three people walking over. Here, except for Li Yan's mother and Xiaoyu who lowered their heads to clean up the dishes and chopsticks, they didn't notice. Even Chang Bo picked up Xiaowu and looked at the person coming.
The mountain village is remote, and few outsiders come there on weekdays, so once a stranger enters the mountain, it is easy to attract the attention of the locals.
Here, the current Green Mountain Pass commander sent a general here a few years ago, nominally to check the number of people in the village, and what is strange is that this general actually proposed to go to the village ancestral hall to see Li Yan left the belt. After looking at the belt for a long time, the general finally issued a strange order to Li Guoxin, ordering his village to only pay 40% of the tax every year. This order immediately gave way to everyone Some villagers were stunned, as they were 60% less taxed. For mountain villages, this was not just as simple as having more grain to store, but the benefits were dramatically multiplied, especially as they accumulated over time, their place would be better than other surrounding villages. The villagers were richer, but these villagers were not stupid. Seeing that the general said this after seeing the belt left by Li Yan, it means that this matter must be related to that belt.
After the general left his message, he left. This incident immediately made the village lively. Even the belt, which was supposed to be gradually forgotten with the passage of time, was valued and mentioned again. However, when the Changbo family found out about this, they were not happy at all. Instead, Li Yan's mother ran to the ancestral hall and cried bitterly for a long time looking at the belt.
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A few days after the incident, no formal announcement was posted at the head of the village. This made Li Guoxin think that the general just said it casually, or forgot about the matter and did not notify the local county government. However, he did not dare to go to the county government to ask how important the tax reduction was. Even a few words would affect the village. As the village chief, he had to resist taxes and defy taxes. It would be very easy for him to be arrested and jailed.
However, when the harvest season came and people from the county government came to collect grain, everyone in the village seemed to have forgotten about it. However, the government officials who came took out a notice and posted it at the head of the village, stating that they would only collect 40% of the previous year's tax. The signature was not the county government official, but the seal of the commander Green Mountain Pass.
This caused a sensation in the mountain village, and Li Guoxin was even more excited. After the government officials left, Li Guoxin thought for a while and set up two orders in the village. One was that from now on, every household in the village would give a stone to the Changbo family for their harvest in summer and autumn; the other was that the Changbo family would go hunting in the mountains. Even if Li Wei followed, the Changbo family would have a share of the harvest in the mountains. After his order came out, although some people in the village were silent at first, there was no objection later. Everyone knew it well, not to mention that one stone per family was too little to save taxes.
But after everyone agreed to Li Guoxin's order, Chang Bo quit. He was upright and stubborn by nature, so he went directly to Li Guoxin and said that his ancestors had lived here for generations. How come he came to him, but lost his moral integrity because of a small profit.
As the village chief, Li Guoxin was well aware of the great source of this blessing. After repeated persuasion, Chang Bo finally considered that he was old and Li Wei was half-disabled, so it was not easy to feed a family. Finally, he changed the first item, not to distinguish food from any family, but asked for five more acres of land. As for the hunter who went into the mountains to hunt, Li Wei really couldn't accompany him, and the young and old in the family also wanted to eat meat, so he agreed. Chang Bo's move increased his prestige in the village several times, and every year from then on when he worshiped his ancestors, he would also put wine and meat tributes in front of his forgotten belt.
The impact of this goes far beyond that. As the life in the mountain village gets better and better, its reputation is also getting bigger and bigger. Even neighboring villages with a radius of a hundred miles are aware of it. Many villagers hope that their daughters can marry here. For this reason, they continue to go to matchmakers and pull fiber, hoping to get a big betrothal gift and their daughters to have a good home. For a while, unmarried men in the village have become popular.
During this busy farming season, a stranger came into the mountain, which was also extremely eye-catching. This made the villagers who discovered it look at the stranger with confusion.
As the three people on the path continued to approach, even Xiaoyu and Li Yan's mother felt the atmosphere was different, and then they raised their eyes and looked at everyone in confusion.
"Grandpa, grandpa, who are they? Their clothes are...
...It was so dazzling that Xiao Wu couldn't see clearly. "While everyone was watching, a clear child's voice sounded. Xiao Wu blinked his big eyes, broke away from Chang Bo's arms, pointed at the three people who were approaching and said, this is the first time he has seen clothes of such beautiful colors. They are completely different from the khaki coarse cloth clothes in the village. The unique luster of silk and satin shines in the sun, which makes his eyes dazzle.
"Xiao Wu, be good, don't dare to talk nonsense." After hearing this, Chang Bo hurriedly covered Xiao Wu's mouth with a big rough hand. He was someone who had been here before. He knew that those rich and wealthy young men had extremely domineering tempers and would get angry at no time. How could he dare to let his grandson continue talking.
The surrounding villagers all thought the same thing, but immediately some people's expressions changed greatly, because Xiao Wu's voice suddenly appeared, and it was very loud just when everyone around him was silent. The young men led by the three people obviously froze, and then they quickened their pace again and went straight to the fields of Chang Bo's family.
When Li Wei saw this, sweat immediately broke out on his forehead. He didn't know why the other party listened to Xiao Wu's words and came straight to his family. The purpose was very obvious. Although he complained in his heart, he took a step forward and stood in front of his father and Xiao Wu.
Li Wei stepped forward. Although there was fear in Chang Bo's eyes behind him, he could only sigh in his heart. He put Xiao Wu in his arms on the ground, and then pushed Li Wei's shoulder, trying to push him behind him. However, Li Wei seemed to have taken root at this moment. Chang Bo's push only moved his shoulder slightly.
"Dad, it's okay. It's just a child's words. I'll just talk to him." Li Wei turned around and smiled at Chang Bo, then looked at the person again.
While Xiao Wu was being placed on the ground, Xiao Yu had already hugged her into her arms. She was trembling as she looked at Li Wei in front of her. Her eyes were full of worry, but she bit her lip.
Chang Bo also slowly walked to his son's side. The villagers who were chatting with Li Wei hesitated for a moment, thinking of the benefits that Chang Bo's family had brought to them, and they slowly gathered around. A dozen villagers in the fields in the distance had stopped working long ago and kept looking here.
Li Wei looked at the first person, who was almost a head taller than him. He had long hair and a burly figure. He had an indescribable nobility in his rich clothes. He strode over. In just a few breaths, he was almost in front of him. Li Wei took a deep breath and saluted the person with a fist.
"This young master is here to invite me. My son is young, and just now..." Just as he was speaking, his words slowly stopped, and there was a look of confusion on his face, because he had already seen the appearance of the person clearly. This person's face was excited, and his eyes were even more smiling. How could he be so half-hearted?
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A scowl? And he found an extremely familiar feeling on this man's face.
"You... you..." Li Wei was confused, and carefully looked at the person in front of him. His mind was shaken, and the doubts in his eyes became more intense.
"Third brother, it's me..." The man stopped in front of Li Wei, his expression became more and more excited, and then he spoke, but his voice was choked. After he spoke, his eyes fell on the rickety old man next to Li Wei. At this moment, the old man was looking at the visitor blankly.
"Dad, I am Lao Wu, Lao Wu." Li Yan had a lump in his throat. He looked at the old man who was much shorter than himself, had many wrinkles, and was much older. With a "pop", he knelt on his knees on the field stalks full of wheat stubble and dust. In an instant, his face was covered with tears.
His two very short words and his kneeling made the surrounding people hear pindrops, as if the whole world had stopped.
Li Wei still maintained the posture of cupping his hands, but his head moved involuntarily with Li Yan. His face was full of disbelief. He looked at the young man so close to him, and his mind was in chaos. After Chang Bo was stunned for a moment, he rubbed his eyes fiercely with his big rough hands. He had done this action countless times in his dreams, but every time he woke up, it was just a dream. When he woke up, he always felt extremely disappointed and burst into tears.
Just when everyone was stunned, a heart-wrenching cry came from behind Chang Bo, and then an old woman stumbled over and ran over, "Wu'er, are you really Wu'er?"
The old woman stumbled and jumped over everyone like crazy. When she saw the young man kneeling on the ground and looking up at her, she recognized Li Yan at a glance. It was the fifth child she thought about day and night and cared about in her dreams. No matter how much Li Yan had changed, she recognized him at a glance. With a hoarse cry, she had already pounced on Li Yan.
"Lao Wu, it's really Lao Wu, my fifth son... Wuwuwu..." As she rambled, her eyes became hazy, and suddenly she stretched out her withered old hand and stroked Li Yan's face while she kept chanting.
"God, you can't wake me up from my dream. Please let me do it for a little longer. This, this, this is Lao Wu, these eyes, this nose, this mouth, this is Lao Wu, this is Lao Wu, wuwuwu..."
The cries echoed in the air, like weeping and complaining, and the loving mother's tearful eyes were helpless...
"Lao Wu, Lao Wu, it's really you!" Li Wei had woken up from his confusion and stepped in front of Li Yan, looking at the face covered with tears being held up by his mother.
"Third brother, it's me, it's really me." Li Yan choked with sobs and turned to look at Li Wei with tears in his eyes.
"Little bastard, little bastard, you little bastard..." Chang Bo stood there without moving, just looking at Li Yan in front of him infatuatedly, muddy tears streaming down his face covered with ravines, which had long been like dry ditches in the northwest when it rained, and he kept muttering one sentence in his mouth.