xymnovel 0010 Fujian Potato
0010 Fujian Potato
"Come one by one, every household needs one."
"A couple can share one large quilt, which can be used by the elderly and children."
In Jiyun Village during the late Ming Dynasty, Zhu Shiting directed the villagers to line up and receive their quilts.
They were all cheap items, and he didn't feel bad about sending them out.
But when the blankets were handed to the men, women, and children of the Sun family, the feeling was quite different.
After sleeping on straw for years, I finally have a blanket to cover myself with.
Moreover, it's a celestial blanket from heaven, soft to the touch, warm to wrap around, and even smells like a fairy.
The awe-inspiring presence of those celestial objects elevated the villagers' reverence for Zhu Shiting to an unparalleled level.
"Thank you so much, divine being, for bestowing this blessing!"
"This humble servant kowtows to the immortal!"
"Thank you, divine being!"
The blankets had only been distributed halfway when a group of people were already kneeling outside.
Upon seeing this, Zhu Shiting called Sun Lu over and said, "Miss Sun, please tell everyone that you are not allowed to kneel and kowtow to me in the future."
"Ah? Immortal, this...this is against etiquette."
"You are a deity descended from heaven, and you bestowed upon us the divine gift that sustains our lives. It is only right that our people worship you."
Sun Lu was a little flustered at this moment, afraid that she might do something wrong and anger this kind-hearted deity.
"This immortal is different from other clay-sculpted, golden-bodied deities. A proper bow is sufficient. If you continue to kneel and worship arbitrarily, I will not come again," Zhu Shiting said, feigning seriousness.
He was a modern, well-educated man, and it must have felt incredibly awkward to have so many people kneeling and kowtowing to him in front of him.
We must stop this bad trend as soon as possible, lest we be stared at like monkeys when we enter and leave this late Ming Dynasty era.
"Yes, yes! I will go and persuade the clansmen right away."
Upon hearing that the immortal was angry, Sun Lu turned pale with fright. She went out and persuaded each of the villagers, and soon the commotion of shouting and kowtowing subsided.
"That's more like it!"
Zhu Shiting nodded in satisfaction when he saw that his ears were finally at peace.
……
With no one kowtowing and causing trouble, the remaining quilts were quickly distributed.
The villagers who received the celestial bedding were all in a daze, standing outside their houses holding the quilts, somewhat at a loss.
Seeing these people from the late Ming Dynasty living like zombies, Zhu Shiting's face darkened immediately: "All of you, go back to your rooms and rest! I have some questions for your young lady. Anyone who causes trouble again, don't blame me for punishing them!"
As he spoke, Zhu Shiting took out a high-powered flashlight from his pocket, turned it on, and flashed it a few times at the lowest setting of several thousand lumens of white light towards the group of villagers.
The blinding white light, just like the soul-stealing magic of demons and monsters described in storytellers, terrified the group, who scattered and hid back inside the house.
However, embracing the soft, fragrant blankets in their arms and feeling the damp chill being dispelled, the villagers, enveloped in warmth, began to whisper among themselves in their respective rooms.
"My lord, why is this deity so unpredictable?"
"They were so kind to give us fairy blankets just now, but they're angry now."
"They're gods! Even clay figures have some temper, let alone real gods."
"But this fairy quilt is indeed very comfortable to cover yourself with. It's as light as a cloud, and it feels like a furnace when you're wrapped in it. With this quilt, you won't be afraid of freezing even if it snows heavily in winter."
There were whispers coming from inside each of the thatched huts, with people covered by blankets.
The fact that a deity descended to earth on this day had a tremendous impact on the villagers; it's estimated that some people will suffer from insomnia all night.
On the other hand, Sun Lu stared at the glowing celestial artifact in Zhu Shiting's hand and asked somewhat timidly, "Immortal, is that a golden crow from heaven?"
According to folklore, a golden crow lives in the sun. The white light emitted by this powerful flashlight is not only dazzling, but also gives a slight warmth when it shines on people, just like the sun's light.
So much so that this Miss Sun mistook it for a celestial artifact transformed from the Golden Crow.
"This is a flashlight, not some kind of golden crow."
Zhu Shiting smiled slightly and explained, pressing the flashlight switch a few times in front of Sun Lu.
The light, which had been spreading outwards, suddenly narrowed and shone towards the dark clouds in the sky, piercing the cold and dark Jiyun Mountain like a pillar of light.
"Flashlight? So that's what this magical artifact is called."
Seeing a striking spot of light illuminate the clouds in the sky, Sun Lu's eyes were filled with disbelief.
As expected of a celestial artifact, it can illuminate so far with ease!
Even if it wasn't transformed from a golden crow, it's still a treasure unlike any other in the world.
If this girl knew that the jade hairpin she gave her during the day could be exchanged for 100 of these powerful flashlights in modern times, her worldview would probably be shattered.
……
After showing off the functions of his powerful flashlight a few times, Zhu Shiting put his hands behind his back and continued to tour the Jiyun Village.
When Zhu Shiting saw that there was only a small amount of porridge left in a rusty iron pot on the earthen stove, he picked up a bamboo ladle from the side of the pot and scooped some into it.
He scooped some rice into the pot and saw that the porridge was so thin that you could barely see any rice grains. Zhu Shiting frowned immediately and turned to ask, "Miss Sun, didn't I sell you more than a dozen bags of rice during the day? Why are you eating this kind of porridge instead of cooking rice?"
Sun Lu followed behind him with a wry smile: "Immortal Qibing, the Immortal Rice is precious. The village hasn't eaten rice in a long time, and we plan to save it for future food shortages. If it's all cooked into dry rice, the hundred-odd catties of Immortal Rice will only be enough to feed the whole clan for four or five days. If it's made into porridge, it can last for more than a month."
Zhu Shiting fell silent upon hearing this.
More than 100 kilograms of rice, to be divided among more than 100 people, and then cooked into thin porridge that's as watery as can be and eaten for a month?
What a miserable life those people lived at the end of the Ming Dynasty!
Recalling the large meal he had left uneaten at noon, Zhu Shiting couldn't help but murmur, "Every grain of rice on the plate is the result of hard work."
From childhood to adulthood, both textbooks and elders at home have taught this generation to cherish food.
I hadn't paid much attention to it before, but now that I've traveled to the late Ming Dynasty and witnessed the suffering of humanity, these teachings from the past have come to life right before my eyes.
For a moment, even Zhu Shiting, a modern man, was filled with mixed emotions.
"So even immortals can read Li Gongchui's poems."
When Sun Lu, who was following behind, heard this ancient poem about sympathizing with the farmers, she was secretly delighted, feeling that she had finally found something in common with the immortals.
"Miss Sun, if we didn't have this rice, what would you grow to eat?" After a long pause, Zhu Shiting looked around the earthen stove again and asked.
"To be honest, the loess soil in the mountains is too barren to grow rice, so our people usually eat sweet potatoes."
"Occasionally, I would go into the mountains to pick some wild fruits, hunt some pheasants, catch some snakes and rats, and dig up some roots and stems to eat."
As she spoke, Sun Lu scooped a potato-shaped crop out of a wooden bucket next to the stove.
Zhu Shiting leaned closer for a look and recognized the fist-sized, red-skinned, rooted tuber. He exclaimed in surprise, "Min-yam? Isn't this just a red sweet potato? It's been introduced here so long ago?"