Chapter Five: Life is the Best Teacher

  He Jianqiang seems to be very satisfied with his current life, this legendary experience has taken him away from all the humiliation and sadness, in that world, only those who have no ridicule and are by his side, so he feels like he hasn't lost anything.

  Yun Zheng's heart was groaning, when he was struggling to survive, eating raw bamboo shoots could be delicious, but now holding a bowl of white rice, he had no appetite, let alone the small piece of oily smoked meat on top.

  I won't farm, I won't hunt, I won't raise silkworms, and even more so, I won't weave. How can two bodies be fed? This is a big problem. Relying on others for help, begging all day like a beggar, Yun Zheng thinks it's better to die.

  After daybreak, he put He Jianqiang at home and went to borrow an axe to chop firewood on the mountain. This was the only reliable way of survival he could think of after a night's thought.

  Chopping firewood wasn't as easy as Yun Zhen had imagined. The young boy who was chopping wood with him on the mountain had already chopped a large pile, while Yun Zhen's firewood was still very little. The axe was very old, or rather, the material of the axe was very poor. After chopping at the dry tree twice, the blade would warp. Many of the dry woods were cut down by Yun Zhen.

  A sturdy young man, like a cow calf, snatched the hatchet from Yun Zheng's hand, poured some water from the bamboo tube, and began to grind it on the stone. In no time, the hatchet was sharpened. He grasped the hatchet at an angle and chopped down, the hatchet seemed to have encountered little resistance, cutting into the withered tree. The young man handed the hatchet back to Yun Zheng, telling him to learn from his example in chopping wood. The first chop didn't count; after three chops, Yun Zheng found that he could finally wield the hatchet in his hand.

  Perhaps the noble virtue of simplicity has been infused into their blood, and the young boys helped Yun Zheng chop and bundle firewood. Only then did they start sitting around a small bonfire, taking out their own rice balls to eat. Yun Zheng looked up at the sky, the sun was already three poles high, his stomach growled with hunger, he had no extra food to make rice balls.

  Lying in the river ditch to take a sip of water, wanting to wait for the little friends to finish eating and then go together to carry firewood to sell at Dou Sha Guan. This is the source of livelihood in the future, everything must be figured out clearly.

  They refused the rice balls handed over by the young boys, they didn't have much food themselves. The mountain children were generous, and forcibly stuffed the rice balls into Yun Zheng's hands. Then they laughed and played on the mountain slope, digging up bird eggs, picking wild fruits, and even using a long straw to poke at an ant nest. When they lifted the straw, it was covered with white ants. They thought the boys were just playing, but it turned out that they had swept the white ants into a small iron pot suspended over the fire. The pot immediately erupted in a crackling sound, and afterwards, the boys devoured the ants.

  Yun Zong knew that there was an animal called the anteater that loved to eat ants, and great apes would also insert branches into ant nests and then eat the ants that crawled up onto the branches. Who would have thought they ate them too?

  That sturdy kid pinched a handful of ants from the pot and wanted to feed them into Yun Zheng's mouth. Yun Zheng opened his mouth without hesitation, ate those yellowish-brown ants, chewed twice, and immediately became the most enthusiastic person to grab ants outwardly. Stir-fried ants were really delicious, salty, with a strong aroma of roasted fragrance.

  The time of joy was too short, when there were no more ants crawling up the grass stalks in the ant nest, the small wild interest also ended. The little boys picked up their own firewood and formed a neat team to go down the mountain along the winding path.

  Half-grown kids would see little girls wearing embroidered skirts and burst into loud singing of love songs, only to be scolded by the blushing girls. If they were unlucky, a mother with a black cloth wrapped around her head would come out with a broom to chase them away. Although Yun Zhen was beaten several times, he felt extremely relieved in his heart.

  Selling firewood is easy, those few traditional Chinese medicine shops in Dou Sha Guan need a large quantity of firewood to decoct medicinal materials every day, as long as your firewood is dry enough, they will take it away, and the firewood won't be unsold.

  One bundle of firewood costs three cents, eight children gave twenty-one cents, how could the young apprentice at the pharmacy cheat Yun Zheng? Even if he was stupid, he couldn't calculate 3 x 8 = 21. Seeing the apprentice about to hand over the money to a smiling sturdy youth, Yun Zheng pressed down on the little boy's hand and glared silently at the shopkeeper.

  The shopkeeper felt a bit guilty and added three more copper coins. Yun Zheng was still smiling and not speaking, the shop assistant wanted to get angry, seeing Yun Zheng seemed to be about to shout at the kind-hearted old doctor, hastily took out ten more copper coins from his pocket and slapped them into Yun Zheng's hand, turned around and left, huffing and puffing.

  "Tomorrow's firewood will be settled at 3.8 yuan per bundle, is that okay with you?" Yun Zheng shouted towards the back of the shop assistant, who almost stumbled and glared at Yun Zheng before entering the pharmacy.

  The little boys were extremely excited, surrounding Yun Zheng and shouting continuously. However, Yun Zheng couldn't understand what they were saying until the sturdy boy told him word by word. Only then did Yun Zheng realize that this damned fellow was always cheating everyone, and whenever he got his hands on the money, it would somehow decrease.

  After Yun Zheng agreed to teach everyone to count, the extra two cents were unanimously allocated to Yun Zheng. Six cents bought two catties of rice, which was very disappointing for him.

  Back home, Jianqiang had been lying on the windowsill of the bamboo building, watching Yunzhuang's unsteady return. He shouted with excitement, happy to see someone coming back home, as he hated being alone in the house. Ever since his mother disappeared, he was terrified of empty rooms.

  To earn two kilograms of rice, Yun Zheng's hands were covered with blisters, his shoulders cracked and bleeding from the carrying pole, and the sweat made him feel piercing pain. Life had always been difficult, Yun Zheng knew that, so when he carried firewood, he was extremely exhausted, but still gritted his teeth and didn't make a sound, eating his own food, suffering his own hardships, doing his own work, from his past life, he already had this realization.

  The sky was bright again, Yun Zheng struggled to get up from the bamboo bed, a new day began. After washing and dressing, he made breakfast for Jian Qiang, hastily kneaded two rice balls, wrapped them in lotus leaves, looked at the remaining grain bag with only a little rice left, sighed, and walked out of the door. He planned to chop two bundles of firewood today, so that his family would have some reserves, in case they couldn't chop wood on rainy days, and the brothers wouldn't go hungry together.

  Yun Yan walked away, and the little yellow dog poked out from under the strong blanket, wagging its short tail eagerly, waiting for Jian Qiang to come out from under the blanket.

  Yun Jianqiang looked at Yun Zheng disappearing into the morning mist and muttered to the little yellow dog: "The more I interact with people, the more I like dogs. But Big Brother is different, don't you think?"