Carrying a Hoe to Cultivate

After Li Zhu and the others left, Xia Yi went to the kitchen and took out the pot of big buns, “Eat, then we will sort things out.

”The man swiftly sat up on the board, he grabbed a bun with one hand and started to eat hungrily, almost choking himself to death. Xia Yi promptly fetched a bowl of porridge and gave it to him.

Only when the whole pot of buns were out did the man restore his calm, sipping the porridge sluggishly, he spoke to Xia Yi, “My name is Cheng Ming, I am the fourth elder of Qi Shan, I know that Liu and you know each other.”

“Some time ago, Liu vanished for two days suddenly. He appeared in the main hall out of the blue when we were anxiously searching for him. Following that, he brought a few of our fellow apprentices into the backroom, he told us that some spell had been cast on Qi Shan, and said that he had been transferred to a utopia while he was missing.”

“He was worried about us falling for it one by one, so he told us to prepare a bowl for each of us, and have a staff with us always, he warned us repeatedly to not lose those when we arrived at the utopia. And we ought to remember, we have to go to a nearby village to find a young man named Xia Yi, he said that you would help us out.”

“When did you arrive?” Xia Yi asked.

Cheng Ming hesitated for a second, although he did not wish to answer, he still opened his mouth and said, “Two days ago. I was making magical items, all of a sudden my vision wavered, the surroundings twisted and deformed. I sensed danger at that moment, I thought perhaps that was the spell that Liu had been talking about. And bingo, when I opened my eyes again I was already here.”

“You arrived two days ago, why didn’t you come to me sooner?” Xia Yi was curious.

Cheng Ming paused for a while, then he spoke slowly, “My sense of direction was never that good, even when I was at Qi Shan, I could not tell the way once I walked out my own yard. When I arrived at this place, I saw a cornfield beside me, I was surrounded by corn, and more corn. They all looked the same.” Cheng Ming halted, emphasizing.

… Can corn look not like corn?

“So I walked, and I walked, after a long time, I went into a mountain. I was lucky enough to find some fruits to fill my stomach, that’s why I could make it until Er Niu found me.”

“You have totally no sense of direction.” Xia Yi could not suppress his sigh, this dude who called Cheng Ming was too pathetic, he starved for two days because of his weak sense of direction.

Cheng Ming scrunched his face sadly, “It’s alright, I–” He stopped abruptly, staring straight at the direction of the kitchen.

Xia Yi looked in the same direction and saw Kirin lying lazily in front of the door, it used its front claws to scratch its bowl, licking and wanting more.

Cheng Ming looked stupefied, he mumbled, “Liu did not lie, you have a kirin, a kirin that eats leftovers…”

Okay, I understand now, people in the Qi Shan Sect are all dog persons.

“I am going to boil some water, you can wash yourself first, I will take out some old clothes of Zhu’s for you to wear. No one knows when you will be able to go back, we have an empty old house near the entrance of the village, you can go there to tidy things up and live there for now.”

After Cheng Ming finished washing, Xia Yi brought him to the yard of the old house at the entrance of the village, “The wall is a little smoked, but everything else is fine. Zhu had repaired the wall some days ago, there is a bed in the storage next to us. You can start tidying up, I will bring you some blankets later.”

Cheng Ming nodded repeatedly, feeling thankful, “I could not take everything for free. How about this, I still have a few foundation establishment drinks on me…”

Xia Yi interrupted him quickly, “I have that too, you can live here without worrying, if you feel uneasy about it, just come to farm with me.”

“F…farm?”

“Haha, he thinks low of farming. If there was no bug to transmigrate you here, you would still be enjoying good food with servants around you serving you.” 179 said angrily, but stopped talking upon seeing Xia Yi’s stern face. 

“It’s fine if you do not want to farm, you can still become a traveler doctor to sell foundation establishment drinks, you can even become a pig breeder. If things do not work out, don’t you have a stick and a bowl with you?” Xia Yi said stony-faced.

“Farm farm farm, I will farm.” Cheng Ming replied straightly, “I will start farming tomorrow.”

Xia Yi nodded, “Then you should tidy up, there is a wooden bowl in the corner of the yard, you can fetch water yourself, I will now go back. When it’s time for dinner, you can come without me calling you.”

“Right right right.” Cheng Ming nodded, again and again. He was afraid that Xia Yi might change his mind and tell him to be a beggar.

Xia Yi summoned the system when he was back in the yard.

“179, didn’t you say that the bug had been fixed since last time Liu SiQian went back? Why do we have another one here?”

“I have no idea either, the technical system told me that the bug was fixed. I asked again when Cheng Ming came just now, the technical system was a little mad about it. He thought that I was questioning his professionalism. He said that he had learned in every world and was just back from your home world, he had learned there for three months.”

“Huh? He finished learning within three months? What had he learned?”

“I don’t know, he always wants to gather all of us to lecture us since he was back. He will close the door once we enter, and tell us to find five more students for each of us, then he will try to sell us some chips.”

Xia Yi: …What had the technical system experienced in my home world?

It won’t work, he thought, they all transmigrate here and nearly starve to death. He could not help in other ways, but he could still give them food. Therefore, Xia Yi found and took out a wooden board, he drew on it, and pinned a long wooden stick below it.

He came to the cornfield where he first arrived at this world, he stuck the sign into the ridge of the field. He looked closely to ensure there were no problems with it, then he brushed off the dust on his hands and went back home, satisfied.

There was a map on the board, Xia Yi had drawn the directions to their home, with a big fat arrow pointing at it.

Below it, he had even drawn Kirin and written–beware of the dog.

**

In the evening, Cheng Ming had arrived early to wait for dinner.

Xia Yi was washing and cutting the vegetables in the kitchen, waiting for Gu Wen Zhu to fry them once he got back. At this stage, Xia Yi could do some preparation jobs, but the actual cooking had to be left for Gu Wen Zhu to do it.

Cheng Ming was playing with the dog in the yard. Playing with the dog was not a very precise way to describe it, it was more like the dog was playing with him.

Kirin had discovered that this dog person was very submissive to it, this guy was following it around and doing whatever that made it happy, therefore it had accepted him as its underling. Now it was lying lazily on the flagstone pavement in the yard, using its front claws to play with a small sandbag.

This sandbag was made by Gu Wen Zhu when he was practicing sewing. Ever since he had sewn up the sleeves for those two sets of clothes, Gu Wen Zhu had been feeling that he was starting to learn about a new profession, thus, he would make some little things whenever he had time.

Kirin pretended to be playing with the sandbag, but it was actually monitoring his underling. When Cheng Ming was not watching, it would hold the sandbag with its mouth and swing it, the sandbag then formed a projectile in the air and fell onto the corner of the yard far away.

Cheng Ming hurried and chased the sandbag to fetch it back. He put the sandbag in front of Kirin to please it, looking at Kirin closely. Then Kirin would lick his hand to praise him.

Cheng Ming was delighted, Kirin was also enjoying playing.

While the man and the dog were playing merrily, the front door had been pushed open, Gu Wen Zhu walked in with the hoe on his shoulder. He had only loosened the soil today, therefore he came back earlier than usual.

As soon as he entered, he looked right at the kitchen. On the other hand, Xia Yi rushed out once he heard him, he said happily, “You are back. Zhu.” And he walked up to him.

Since Gu Wen Zhu saw Xia Yi, he had been looking at him, not paying any attention to the extra guy in the yard who was crouching in front of Kirin staring at him with eyes wide open.

Cheng Ming was stunned. Wasn’t this handsome farmer carrying a hoe on his shoulder, with sleeves and the lower parts of his trousers rolled up, the honorable immortal leader CangYi who had been travelling out there for more than twenty years? Even though he had not been seeing the leader for all these years, he still remembered his face vividly.

The honorable immortal leader told us he was going to travel around the world, but he had actually been missing for over twenty years, and he is, he is here farming??

Gu Wen Zhu had now realised the presence of Cheng Ming. This fat guy was crouching in his yard, staring at Gu Wen Zhu with an astonished expression. Hence, Gu Wen Zhu could not help but asked Xia Yi about him.

“This, this is my fourth uncle. He fled to find me.” Xia Yi gathered the courage and lied.

After that, he gave Cheng Ming an expression to signal him, “Uncle, this is Zhu, Gu Wen Zhu. It was him who had accepted me when I first arrived.”

“Fourth uncle.” Knowing that the man was a relative of Xia Yi, Gu Wen Zhu passionately greeted him.

It was as if Cheng Ming had not heard a word of their conversation, he was still crouching with mouth open, staring at Gu Wen Zhu unbelievably.

When Gu Wen Zhu was starting to show confusion, Cheng Ming shouted loudly with tears welling in his eyes, his mouth trembling, “The honorable immortal leader! I am Mingie.” After saying so, he stood and intended to hug him.

Isn’t he enjoying acting too much? Xia Yi was startled.

Isn’t this over the top? Mingie? Why don’t you go and look into the mirror? Are you not ashamed to call yourself Mingie at such an age?

Gu Wen Zhu was startled as well, then he turned to look at Xia Yi, puzzled.

“My uncle had starved and fainted, Li Zhu and Er Niu passed by and picked him up in the mountains, he had just woke up and he is still fuzzy.” Xia Yi was explaining to Gu Wen Zhu and signaling Cheng Ming at the same time.

Mingie, do not overdo it, don’t act too much.

Cheng Ming did not even glance at Xia Yi, he only gazed at Gu Wen Zhu with eyes full of emotions and tears, he looked exactly like a child finally finding his mother who had been missing for many years, Xia Yi could not hold off his goose bumps.

Full of deep feelings, Cheng Ming spoke with his mouth trembling, “Honourable immortal leader, you really don’t remember me? I am Mingie. Four hundred years ago, you found me at the Willow Village outside Qi Shan. I was only seven, my parents both passed away and I had nowhere to go. It was you who brushed off the tears from my face, it was you who held my weak and slim arm, you said that you would provide me with a warm home.”