Under One Person: One Person Goes

Chapter 53: Talking about the Past (Part )
Throughout a person's life, expectations for the future change in stages.

Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, once said, "I am originally a commoner from Huaiyou. What can the world do for me?"

However, it is no longer important whether this sentence was said by Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty. If you look at the first half of Zhu Yuanzhang's life through history books, you will find that this sentence is very appropriate.

Wang Yi was not a powerful ruler like Zhu Yuanzhang, but when he first came to this chaotic world, his initial thought was very simple: to survive, to find ways to survive.

Along with that initial memory, Wang Yi also told his peers about his gradual change in mentality from a person in a prosperous and peaceful era to a world where he is worse off than a dog in this chaotic era.

"In January of the first year of the Republic of China, the situation was turbulent. Dr. Sun Yat-sen telegraphed the whole nation in Yingtian, changing the country's name and announcing the establishment of a provisional government, which was called the Republic of China.

At that time, people were panicking on the streets of Beijing, and no one cared about a seven-year-old child who had suffered an unexpected misfortune and was wandering on the streets. That was the first time I experienced what it was like to be a beggar. You had to compete with stray dogs and cats for food, you had to learn to beg from the uncles passing by, you had to learn to protect the little leftovers in your hands, and you had to learn to sleep with one eye open and one eye closed, so that you could survive!
At that time, my idea was very simple. I just wanted to survive, have a meal, and a place to live that could barely keep me out of the wind and rain. That was enough. I really didn't have any other requirements. Fortunately, I was lucky. At that time, a boss named Qin sold his family business and opened a factory. The factory was recruiting some people who could do odd jobs. I took a gamble and was successfully recruited.

It is better to say that Boss Qin is kindhearted and cannot bear to see so many homeless children wandering the streets in the four cities, at least in his territory. I heard that he also has a teahouse. In the early years, he was a carefree Eight Banners son. People in the four cities of Beijing would call him Mr. Qin when they saw him. But in order to save the country through industry, he opened this factory, so he half-sold and half-given the teahouse and the land to others.
That day, it was the first time for me to drink hot soup, eat steamed buns, take a bath, and because I knew a few words, I was chosen by Mr. Qin to be the leader of the group of children. I was considered a king of children. I was paid 1 yuan a month. Do you know how much a pound of pork cost at that time? "

Wang Yi's last words stumped all his peers who were listening to Wang Yi's story about the past, because even Zhang Zhiwei was brought to Longhu Mountain by Zhang Jingqing when he was a child and grew up in Longhu Mountain. Food, clothing, shelter and clothing might be a little difficult, but he was definitely not left out.

So they couldn't answer, and Wang Yi also knew that they couldn't answer, so he just smiled.

"At that time, a stone of rice (80 kilograms) cost about 6.25 yuan, and a pound of pork cost only cents. Mr. Qin took good care of us kids. We ate and lived in the factory, and it didn't matter if we had to mend our clothes. I got the money and bought two pounds of pork and some offal. It cost me cents. I asked the chef in the factory to prepare a table for us kids. That was the first time I really ate delicious meat, braised pork!

It was at that time that I felt that I had become stronger and taller as I ate. Later, I realized that I had unconsciously felt Qi, but I didn’t understand it at that time. I still fantasized at that time that I would save more money, grow up a little, go to a private school to buy two books, and teach these brothers who called me brothers to read and write. Then I would work hard to live until the world was peaceful and life would be better. But this kind of life, I lived for less than a month, and my fantasy was shattered! ”

Wang Yi stopped here, but everyone knew what had happened. Most of them were born around the Xuantong period, and Lu Guangda was even earlier, at the end of the Guangxu period.

My elders also told me about that incident which happened not too long ago. It was nothing more than that the provisional president stole the fruits of victory and forced Emperor Xuantong to abdicate. He then used some tricks to place his cronies in the capital, eliminate dissidents, turn the capital into his base, and force the founding father to resign from the provisional presidency so that he could take office.

But behind this simple sentence spoken by our fathers and recorded in history books, there are so many people whose families were broken up, displaced, and died an untimely death!
Wang Yi could only understand the meaning, but not the spirit, because he had never experienced it, nor was he in it. The word "empathy" sounds vivid, but can you really empathize? It's difficult.

"Mr. Qin's factory, which he had run for more than ten years, was taken away by the henchmen of the interim president who forced the founding father to resign and took office, using only a piece of paper and dozens of guns. Then they threw a bag of silver dollars at Mr. Qin, probably only a hundred yuan, and drove him out, out of the factory that belonged to him! And drove us kids out too.

Mr. Qin, who had used his family business for generations to contribute to this country, was walking on the street in despair, like a stray dog. But at that time, he paid each of us kids a second month's salary. He was a good man, but this world doesn't let good people survive. "

Lu Guangda, Zhang Zhiwei and the others just listened quietly, as did the older generation who had been paying attention to the developments here from a distance.

Wang Yi's voice was not loud, but everyone present was a cultivator, with sharp eyes and ears, and was living in this chaotic world. They had seen what Wang Yi said and had even begun to get used to it.

"The factory was taken away, and we became beggars wandering the streets again. But a beggar holding a dollar in his hand is like a piece of meat! Everyone who sees him wants to take a bite! A beggar gang targeted us and wanted to snatch the money from us. We didn't want to give it, so we had a fight. There's nothing much to say about that fight. It was just a group of wild dogs fighting for food with a group of puppies. In the end, some people ran away, some died, and some followed them. So in the end, I took my younger brother who was following me and ran away with two dollars in my pocket, and wandered around the four cities.

Time passed by little by little, day by day, the capital city changed dramatically, and no matter how frugal my brother and I were, we still spent all our money. We could only beg, and the more we begged, the less we could eat, because I had Qi. At that time, there were refugees dying of starvation every day in the streets and alleys of the four cities of the capital, but no matter how many refugees died, it had nothing to do with those wealthy families. "

"That's not right. If people die every day, it's the capital after all. Someone has to...someone has to take care of it. The president had just taken office, so he had to pay attention to his image, right?"

Li Muxuan, who did not understand the sufferings of the world, raised a question, which was also the question of everyone, and it was also a reasonable suspicion. But at this time, Liao Tianlin, a disciple of the Yiren School Jiyun Society rooted in the capital, also listened to Wang Yi's story of the past, but his expression changed. Even the president of Jiyun Society, who was listening to all this from a distance, sighed.

Because he knew very well how it would be managed.

"Yes, of course they did. Because it was then that I learned that there was a profession called 'corpse collector' in the capital. It was not even considered the lowest class, and the tenth class looked down upon it."

As the name suggests, corpse collectors collect bodies of strangers who died in a foreign land or unclaimed bodies on the street and send them to charity cemeteries or mass graves for centralized disposal. Of course, there are also those who sell bodies in ghost markets or do other shameful activities.

But at that time, this industry had another color.

"They pushed a wheelbarrow in front of them, on which were placed a butcher knife, a chopping board, a weighing rod and a weight, and pulled a donkey cart behind them. They wandered around the alleys where refugees died of starvation, or in the homes of people who had just died but had no money to resettle them. They squatted down and picked out the refugees who died in front of them, throwing the good ones into the wheelbarrow and the bad ones into the donkey cart behind them.

Then he went to the homes of those whose babies died young but who had no money to bury them. In front of the parents of the babies, he pointed at the babies lying on the ground, bargained with the parents, and finally took away the remains of the babies for five cents..."

Wang Yi didn’t say what happened next, but everyone who listened already knew the result.

"I was really scared at that time. I was afraid that my brother and I would become pieces of meat on the chopping board. No, I didn't have any meat at that time. I was so thin that I was unrecognizable. I could only be sold as bones."

Wang Yi laughed at himself, but his laughter was so deafening to the ears of those who were listening to the story.

They wanted to say something, but found that they had no position to say that the victims and the body collectors were wrong in this story, even those victims who knew how the children's bodies would be dealt with.

"It was already October in Beijing at that time. The north gets cold early. My brother and I hadn't eaten anything for almost half a month. We just huddled together on the street in front of a corpse collector. I was older and had Qi, so I was even hungrier. Just when I couldn't stand it anymore and was about to fall asleep, my brother looked at me. I still remember the look in his eyes and the last words he said to me. He said, 'Brother, wait a minute. I'll get you a piece of meat and bone.'

Then he stood up with difficulty, tremblingly walked to the corpse collector who was chopping bones on the chopping board, and lay on the chopping board, saying, "Sir, please throw a piece of meat and bones to my brother. Don't want a two-legged sheep. I will give you my bones and meat, okay?"
-
The expressionless corpse collector was waving a bone-chopping knife on the chopping board, bit by bit breaking up the bones and pieces of meat that needed to be sold today, and then throwing the unwanted skulls aside.

Opposite the corpse collector, seven-year-old Wang Yi was leaning against the corner, numbly eating his non-blood-related brother, a brother he had only known for less than a year, and he used his own flesh and bones to exchange for that piece of leg flesh.

"I think you all know the story that followed. The Ghost Hand King picked me up in the capital. I don't know why he chose me, but he picked me up and I survived. So I took his last name. As for the "one" at the end, it reminds me all the time that I survived by exchanging my own flesh and blood for my brother, who has no blood relationship with me!"

Before he knew it, it was late at night and Wang Yi had finished the jar of wine next to him. This was the first time he drank so much wine.

He sat there, looking at the darkness and the calm, expressionless face, as if the person in the story just now was not himself.

Putting down the wine bowl in his hand, Wang Yi looked at his peers who had no worries about food and clothing, and asked with a smile.

"That's the end of my story. I've made great progress in my cultivation now. The duel between me and Senior Brother Zhang tonight will make me famous in the alien world. What do you think I'll do next?"

(End of this chapter)