Qilipu was a typical village in the metropolitan territory.
The houses in the village were built side by side.
Most of the houses were old courtyard houses.
The elders were taking care of the flowers and plants in the courtyard.
The cats and dogs that the elders kept were standing at their courtyard’s entrance, basking in the sun.
Ling Pingan walked past these courtyards with his pet in his arms.
The elders raised their heads and looked at him with doubt in their eyes.
“Whose child is that?” They thought in their hearts, but not many people paid much attention to him.
A long time ago, the rural areas in the metropolitan territory of the Federal Empire had become nursing homes.
They would work in the cities when they were young. Then they would return to their rural homes to grow flowers and plants after they retire. When they had leisure time, they would play cards and fish with their old friends, enjoying themselves.
As for the land?
It had been rented to those fruit and vegetable companies for some time.
Therefore, the rural society two to three hundred years ago had long collapsed from the traditional point of view.
It wasn’t until they saw Ling Pingan walk to the entrance of an old courtyard in the village and skillfully took out the key to open the door.
The elders suddenly realized.
“The children of the Ling Family…”
They began to whisper among themselves.
The elders recalled the legends of the past that they had heard about when they were young.
At that time, the elders always taught them, “Don’t go to that courtyard to play, understand?”
“Don’t go to the Ling Family’s courtyard no matter what…”
There were different reasons behind it.
Some said that the ancestors of the Ling Family raised demons that devour humans.
Some also said that the Ling Family members all knew magic, the kind that if one offended them, then they would fetch a basin of water in their courtyard at night. Then, he would mumble something and smack the water with his palm. The person he cursed would get sick…
Some even said that the Ling family members themselves were demons.
Because someone had seen themselves that the Ling Family woman was dressing up on the windowsill, taking a bloody human skin off her face, and then placing it on the table, drawing eyebrows with an eyebrow pen, and then gluing it back on her face.
In any case, the Ling family was taboo in this village.
No one dared to approach them, other than a few families that were familiar with the Ling Family.
The elders looked at the young man wearing glasses and holding a kitten.
They thought of the legends they had heard when they were young.
A child holding a toy ran out of the house excitedly at that moment. “Grandpa… Grandpa…”
“Look at my invincible flying car…”
“Du…”
The elderly man immediately turned his head and looked at his grandson with a smile. “That’s amazing…”
The little boy was curious. He looked at the place where his grandfather had just looked, and his eyes immediately lit up. “Grandpa… didn’t you say that the courtyard is dangerous and there are monsters there? And you told us not to play around it.”
“Why does he dares to go?”
The elderly man chuckled as he stroked his grandson’s head. “He… is a member of the Ling Family…”
The little guy looked at the stranger who was opening the door curiously.
A cute little kitten immediately attracted his attention.
“His kitten is beautiful!”
Only then did the elderly man notice the little kitten that was squatting beside the young man’s feet.
Every strand of fur was shining brightly under the sunlight as if there was a five-colored radiance surrounding it.
The little kitten was extremely intelligent.
That pair of cat eyes were as beautiful as a gemstone even under the sunlight.
The elderly man was stunned…
The legends from when he was young assaulted his mind again and again.
“The Ling Family raises demons…”
“They know magic…”
“The Ling family is demons themselves!”
He quickly pulled his grandson back. “Good grandson, don’t look, don’t look…”
“Go home and watch cartoons with Grandpa…”
It was better to believe in such things than not!
No one would risk their descendant for that.
..
Ling Pingan opened the gate of the courtyard and walked in with his pet.
That was a typical rural courtyard.
The lawn in the courtyard was clean, and there were no weeds.
There was a well In the middle of the courtyard. It was old.
Ling Pingan walked over and opened the cover of the well. He looked at the well water. It was clear to the bottom and clean.
At the side of the well was a pavilion.
He remembered that he would sit in the pavilion at night as a child and look at the sky and count the stars every time he came back there.
That was one of the few hobbies he had as a child.
He could not even imagine that he had such a hobby as someone insensitive to mathematics.
He looked at the door of the ancestral house as he sat on the railing of the clean gazebo.
The brass wooden door was locked.
He walked over and opened the door. There were many deity tablets densely packed together in the hall.
That was also the purpose of most rural ancestral houses, to worship the ancestors!
Ling Pingan was an atheist.
But, he still respected the ancestors like most people.
So, he walked up and picked up a lighter on the altar table. Then, he took out incense candles from under the altar table, inserted them into the incense burner, and lit them one by one.
Then, he raised his head and looked at the deity tablets placed on top.
These diety tablets were his direct ancestors.
There were almost nine generations from the first generation to his parents for more than two hundred years in the Guangnan Ling Family.
The first ancestor’s tablet was placed in the center.
Then, the descendants of each generation were arranged specially.
The father on the left and the son on the right.
That was the ranking of Zhaomu!
Ling Pingan didn’t understand and only thought that such an arrangement was interesting when he was young.
But he knew that this was a very ancient Zhaomu System when he grew up.
Such arrangement placed the father and son always apart, while the grandfather and grandson were always on the same level.
Only the Emperor family could use such an arrangement a long time ago.
But now…
Anyone could arrange it that way as they wished…
Ling Pingan bowed slightly and said as he looked at the diety tablets that had been wiped clean, “The ancestors probably won’t blame me for not coming back for a long time…”
He poured a cup of wine for the cups on the table.
Then he continued, “It’s not that I don’t want to come back to visit the ancestors… But… I’m lazy…”
He was honest in front of his ancestors.
Although he knew that people died all the time.
But the influence of tradition was still strong.
Materialists only opposed feudal superstitions. They still respected traditional morals and values.
He took the cups of wine and poured them on the ground as an apology to his ancestors.
Suddenly, his eyes saw something under the altar table.
He squatted down and tilted his head to look. It was a card stuck on the altar table.
It looked like the same material as the card he found in the family tree in the cupboard.
Ling Pingan curiously reached out and gently pulled it. The card fell into his hand.
He picked it up and blew at the dust on the card.
Then, he saw lines of words written in ink.
Ling Pingan scratched his head as he looked at those words. “Did my parents leave this behind?”
“But why is it so strange?”
It was because that card was still a chapter from Tao-Te Ching.
Tao-Te Ching, Chapter 14.
“What cannot be seen is called the invisible. What cannot be heard is called the inaudible. What cannot be touched is called the intangible.”
The article copied on this card was even more mysterious compared to the last time.
Ling Pingan naturally knew that the 14th chapter of the Tao-Te Ching was a thoroughly philosophical article as a liberal arts student.
Simply put, that was a philosophical article that guided people to understand the universe and nature, thus getting closer to the universe and nature.
The general meaning was that the universe was complicated to describe and impossible to understand. Then what to do? Follow its laws and adapt to its operation.
But…
Ling Pingan didn’t understand why his parents or his ancestor would place such a card under the altar and in the family tree.
‘There must be something that they want to tell their descendants…’ Ling Pingan thought as he held the card in his hand.
But…
What did they want to say?
To ask their descendants to read the Tao-Te Ching?
Or did they want to use the Tao-te Ching as a metaphor?
Ling Pingan scratched his head, not quite understanding.
He played with the card in his hand and put it back after pondering for a while.
He turned around and looked at the well-behaved pet behind him.
This little one had become obedient ever since she entered the ancestral house.
Ling Pingan picked her up, stroke her head as he said, “Let’s go. Let’s go pick strawberries…”
Ling Pingan liked to pick strawberries very much when they came to the countryside.
Not only because they were cheap, but also because he could eat them for free!
The rule of the countryside was that you could pick strawberries and taste them.
How much you could eat was a skill!
Especially for a local farmer like Ling Pingan, even the price was cost-effective.
Other people might have to pay 30, 40, or even 50 yuan per catty.
But for Ling Pingan, it was a few yuan per catty.
That was a farmer’s benefit.
It was because the land in those orchards was the ancestral land of the local villagers.
Most of it was the Ling Family’s ancestral property!
It was only rented to a fruit company to grow fruits for the moment.
But the property rights were still under Ling Pingan’s name.
He could even earn tens of thousands of yuan in rent every year!
However, the Ling Family had an ancestral motto to donate all of this money.
Ling Pingan walked out of the main door and covered it up with the kitten in his arms.
He ran into an elderly man in his fifties before he could walk out of the courtyard.
Ling Pingan looked at him and immediately greeted him with a smile, “Uncle Wang…”
The elderly man raised his head and saw Ling Pingan. He immediately smiled as well and could not help but bow. “Young Master, you are back…”
Ling Pingan immediately waved his hand. “Uncle Wang… please don’t bow…”
As he spoke, he helped the elderly man up.
The elderly man was a distant relative who helped Ling Pingan take care of the ancestral house.
Even though he was said to be a distant relative, he wasn’t close to it.
According to Ling Pingan’s parents, Uncle Wang’s family had a daughter who was a concubine to the ancestors of the Ling Family about two hundred years ago.
It was still the Gaozong Era at that time.
Women were not emancipated. Men and women were not equal.
It was legal to take concubines at that time.
In the later period of the Gaozong’s rule, as the women and children’s Rights Protection Act fell into place, the rubbish tradition of the old era was swept into the garbage heap of history.
However, the garbage heap belonged to the garbage heap.
Some things could still survive even if they fell into the cesspit.
Just like now, the law forbade multiple mates.
However, many girls still liked to be the mistress of the rich.
There was nothing they could do. Money was the lure!
There were still titles of master and servant in the older era.
Uncle Wang’s family was a servant of the Ling Family a long time ago. It was also because of this that they offered a daughter to the ancestors of the Ling Family as a concubine (that was a very honorable thing in that era!)
Two hundred years had passed, and his clan still adhered to the traditions of the past.
They would casually call him young master…
That was also the reason why Ling Pingan didn’t want to return to Qilipu.
There were a few other families that were either servants or old subordinates of the Ling Family in the past in that place, other than Uncle Wang’s family.
He was a young man of the new era.
The concept of equality was important!
He didn’t like being called ‘Young Master’ by others.
Especially when the person was an elder!
However, the elderly man said with a smile, “Little young master, it is necessary…”
The Ling Family was special, especially the young master.
That was a secret.
A secret that should not be revealed!
“Young Master, are you coming back to stay this time?” The elderly man asked.
“I’m not staying for the night…” Ling Pingan hurriedly waved his hand. Ling Pingan knew that it would be very lively at night if he wanted to spend the night there.
A large group of people would come to visit him.
Apart from the Wang and Zhang families in the village.
The Hu and Lu families in the neighboring mountains would pay a visit.
“Oh right…” Ling Pingan asked, “Uncle Wang, where’s Uncle Zhang?”
“Old Zhang went to the vineyard early this morning to pick the grapes for you…” the elderly man said with a smile.
Ling Pingan could only sigh when he heard that.
“I have told him that there’s no need to go through so much trouble…” Ling Pingan shook his head.
The affection of the villagers moved him.
Unfortunately, he had nothing to repay these simple villagers.
He had graduated from college for nothing.
He had poor business after taking over the bookstore!
He couldn’t even write good books…
He was only good at playing games!
But he wasn’t a professional gamer either…
Therefore, he felt ashamed! He felt ashamed of himself in front of the townsfolk!
That was also why he always dreamed of becoming the federation’s book magnate or becoming the sixth scholar in the central plains.
He could only deceive and comfort himself with those two excuses that even he did not believe.
Therefore, Ling Pingan felt uneasy in front of the elderly man.
He quickly found an excuse, “Uncle Wang, I am going to excuse myself for now…”
“I have to go pick some strawberries from the fields to eat…
Then, he carried his cat and left in a hurry.
The elderly man had been watching Ling Pingan leave with a slight bow behind him.
“Young Master…” the elderly man looked at Ling Pingan’s figure and said softly, “When… can you bring us back to the ancestral land?”
It had been two hundred years.
When could they return to the ancestral land?
Horses living in the north always yearn for the wind from the north.
He and his ancestor’s soul had dreamed of returning to their ancestral land for two hundred years.
And all the hope fell on this little master.
It was because he was the only one who could bring his clansmen back to their ancestral land.
The elderly man saw a figure not far away when he turned around.
That person walked over.
It was an elderly woman with grey hair.
“The young master just left…” the elderly man said.
The elderly woman nodded. She knew at once the moment the little master returned and had sensed it.
“The kitten that the young master brought back…” the elderly woman said, “It’s unusual!”
The elderly man nodded. “I know…”
