The Hidden Immortal

Chapter 7 is widely praised.

Upon reaching Chu Xun, the green and white snakes coiled up and raised their heads.

Chu Xun smiled and reached out his hand, and the little snake on his neck immediately slithered down obediently.

He casually patted the heads of the two snakes, one green and one white, and laughed, "You two are growing too fast. In a few years, you'll probably become pythons."

A snake is about a meter long, and a python is about ten feet long.

The two snakes, one green and one white, obediently let him stroke them, then raised their heads and flicked their tongues in his palm before leaving with the little snake.

Two weasels jumped out of the ground. The smaller female bit the cub's neck and pulled it down.

Then it raised its two paws and bowed to Chu Xun before disappearing into the field.

Only after the birds and livestock left did the crows fly down from the trees.

Pick up the little trinkets brought by the poultry and livestock in the fields.

Some carried large mushrooms, some carried wild fruits, some carried a piece of silver, or flapped their wings and dragged half a heavy, black piece of wood.

These were all gifts from the poultry and livestock. Chu Xun took a bamboo basket and put them into the basket one by one.

These things alone can earn no less than ten taels of silver each year.

If they happen to find rare mountain delicacies, they'll sell even more.

With the increase in the number of poultry and livestock, Chu Xun had already sold eight taels and eight qian of livestock by the time the dog days of summer began this year.

Carrying a half-full bamboo basket, he waved to the crows and walked towards the village.

The crow tilted its head behind him, watching him enter the village before taking flight.

It lingered among the graves in the fields and cawed for a while.

Three years ago, ten men from Songguo Village left to fight for water.

Yellow paper fluttered everywhere. Now that the three-year mourning period has passed, the weather has been favorable, and we have finally emerged from the shadows.

At the entrance of a farmhouse in the village, a woman was weaving straw sandals with her head down.

A four-year-old boy, clutching a thin twig, scratched it on the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Upon seeing Chu Xun, he immediately came bounding over, naked from the waist down, calling out, "Uncle Xun!"

Chu Xun smiled and took a wild fruit from the bamboo basket. The boy happily clutched it in his hand and then reached out to pull him over: "Uncle Xun, look at the three I wrote!"

Chu Xun looked down and saw several crooked horizontal lines drawn on the ground.

According to the laws of Jingguo, one is not allowed to attend private schools or public schools, nor is one allowed to learn to write.

They call it protecting the literary style from corruption.

In reality, powerful clans did not want the common people to be enlightened, and even the ambitious Emperor of Jing never objected to this.

The more confused and ignorant the people are, the easier they are to govern.

As long as they don't starve, they'll only complain about everything and their own incompetence.

Although Chu Xun was capable, he was unable to act freely because of this law.

The only time I can teach children basic numbers is during the leisure time I spend telling them stories.

The government turns a blind eye to these basic needs of the people and doesn't impose too many restrictions.

"What about four?" Chu Xun asked.

The boy scratched his dark, grimy bottom embarrassedly: "I forgot how to write it."

Chu Xun chuckled. The woman beside him had already stood up and greeted him, "Brother Xun."

Unlike Zhang Anxiu's "Brother Xun," the woman's pronunciation had an erhua (erhua) suffix.

According to village custom, this form of address is more intimate and has nothing to do with age.

"Stone, go fetch some water for your Uncle Xun. Xun-ge, can you have lunch at home? I'll go cook!" the woman called out warmly.

The man in her family was one of those who died in the water dispute.

Two years ago, there was a severe drought. A woman with a newborn baby couldn't carry much water.

Not only was there no harvest, but they couldn't even afford to pay their grain taxes.

The tax collector from the county government, with his pointed face and monkey-like features, insisted on collecting a tax on her family's abandoned land.

It was only after Li Shoutian secretly slipped him two or three taels of silver that the matter was resolved.

You won't be charged a wasteland tax, but you can't be short a single pound of grain.

At that time, not many people in the village had surplus grain, so Li Shoutian came to find Chu Xun again, and together they took out some surplus grain to help these poor households pay their taxes.

They left some extra so that the widow and her children wouldn't starve.

They said they would pay it back when there was a harvest in the fields, but Chu Xun never thought about it.

It's just a few hundred kilograms of grain; he doesn't lack it now, nor does he care.

In winter, they would even deliver excess firewood to people's homes to help them keep warm.

In Chu Xun's words, he grew up eating food from many families, so it's only natural for him to do these things now.

But the villagers were honest; they didn't think about what was right or wrong, they just knew that Chu Xun was a good person.

Although the village chief is Li Shoutian, Chu Xun has done so many good deeds in recent years that his reputation is almost the same. The only difference is that he is younger and less experienced.

Most of those who had received his kindness were filled with gratitude towards Chu Xun.

Of course, there were also a few who were envious of Chu Xun's ability to accumulate so much silver, and they would jokingly say, to his face and behind his back, that Chu Xun had been fed by many families.

All the money saved should belong to the village.

Several women went up and scratched the man's face until it was covered in welts. They had watched Chu Xun grow up and had received his kindness, so they couldn't stand seeing someone say such shameless things.

"I'm not eating. Anxiu should have already cooked," Chu Xun said.

The woman asked curiously, "You're not really going to marry that girl Anxiu, are you?"

In recent years, Zhang Anxiu and Zhang Sanchun have often come to the fields to help with sowing and weeding.

When it's time to eat, they'll come over and help with the cooking.

Although we are not family, we are closer than family.

Every family in the village with a daughter hopes that Chu Xun will become their son-in-law or brother-in-law.

Seeing Zhang Anxiu constantly going to Chu Xun's house, they were extremely jealous and gossiped about it.

Zhang An, the scholar, didn't care about any of that. She could say whatever she wanted, but she was determined to go.

Even if Chu Xun doesn't marry her, she's willing to be a maid. She's happy to do it, so what!

The woman glanced at her son who had run off to fetch water, covered her mouth and chuckled, puffing out her ample chest and giving him a flirtatious look: "What could that little girl possibly know? Want your sister-in-law to teach you something?"

What can she teach?

It's nothing more than the same old stuff.

This is half true and half false. Although it is very sad that a man died, after three years, all the sadness should have faded.

Instead, there is the loneliness of being alone in an empty room.

They looked down on the dark-skinned farmers in the village, with their yellow teeth, some old and some simple-minded.

Chu Xun, a robust 19-year-old, was well-educated and reasonable despite never having attended a private school.

They can earn money, and they can save money.

His reputation in the village is outstanding.

If they could actually end up in the same bed, they'd be getting a huge advantage.

Chu Xun felt his scalp tingle under her seemingly tearful eyes. He didn't even dare to drink water and quickly made an excuse to go home for dinner and ran away.

The woman chuckled, but after a moment, a hint of melancholy appeared on her face.

He touched his face and muttered to himself, "I'm not that old, am I? I'm not going to eat you, why am I running away?"

After "escaping" the farmhouse, the villagers they encountered on their way home would greet them warmly.

Chu Xun responded to each one, and when he encountered a woman who dared to harass him, he hurriedly lowered his head and ran away.

This drew laughter from the women; they found her so young and so shy, they liked her more and more.

When she got home, Zhang Anxiu ran out of the yard.

"Brother Xun! The village chief is looking for you; he's been waiting for you for ages."

Chu Xun looked up and saw Li Shoutian standing at the door.

Li Shoutian came not for money or food, but to bring news that was neither good nor bad.

In order to expand farmland and strengthen the country, the imperial court promulgated new laws.

Land reclamation order!