Chapter 220: What Is So Good About This Place?
After the autumn harvest in Linjia Gully, the rice fields had already been reaped.
In the harvested paddies, eight-year-old Lin Luoyu clutched a small pouch in her hands. Barefoot, she lowered her head and searched every inch of the field.
She was looking for rice grains or rice ears that had been left behind.
Although the field had already been searched at least twice by the landowner and was basically picked clean, people always missed things.
Lin Luoyu did not expect to find any intact rice ears. What she mainly searched for were individual rice grains scattered in the mud.
The search had to be careful but also quick. After each autumn harvest, the rice stalks would be burned as the most primitive fertilizer, ensuring a decent yield the following year.
Lin Luoyu's eyes lit up as she reached into the mud. Very quickly, she pulled out a rice ear that had been rolled into the soil.
Although the grains were covered in mud and far from plump, in Lin Luoyu's eyes they seemed to glow.
Suppressing the joy in her heart, she hurriedly stripped the grains from the rice ear one by one and stuffed them into the small pouch.
With this unexpected gain, Lin Luoyu searched even more diligently.
But unfortunately—
Good fortune was only an occasional mercy from the heavens. Most people spent their days waiting in misfortune for that rare moment of pity.
After combing the entire paddy field, the amount of rice grains in the pouch was not much, but it was enough to cook one pot of thin porridge.
No matter what, it counted as a day's rations.
She did not mind that the pouch was still damp with mud and stuffed it into her clothes, then hurried toward home.
Just as Lin Luoyu stepped out of the field, a slightly mocking female voice came from behind a roadside tree.
"So young, and you've already started stealing?"
Lin Luoyu's heart jolted, dizziness washing over her as she turned to look. It was the mistress of this field.
She was a somewhat slender middle-aged woman with upturned eyes and a sharp, mean appearance.
The woman sneered. "Hurry up and return what you took from my field!"
Lin Luoyu did not explain or argue. Though young, she understood that the woman had seen her long ago.
She said nothing while Lin Luoyu was picking, only appearing after she was finished.
If it had only been a few scolding words, Lin Luoyu would have felt merely wronged.
But clearly, the woman's target was the small amount of rice grains hidden in her clothes.
Lin Luoyu wanted to retort—these were things you were going to burn anyway, things you did not want anymore.
But reasoning did not fill an empty stomach.
She turned and ran, ignoring the curses behind her, lowering her head and sprinting with all her strength.
The middle-aged woman grabbed a branch and chased after her, cursing as she ran.
After some distance, Lin Luoyu felt every breath turn scorching hot. Her throat grew dry, and her legs began to feel too heavy to lift.
But she did not dare stop.
The curses behind her grew closer, as if right at her ears.
The pain of the branch striking her back seemed to already be rehearsing itself.
Bang!
Lin Luoyu felt herself collide with something, and then a pair of arms wrapped around her.
Panting, she raised her eyes in fear. Before her stood a strange woman—someone Lin Luoyu had never seen in Linjia Gully.
At this moment, the woman was looking at her with concern.
"What's wrong?" Li Junzi asked gently. Her gaze shifted to the middle-aged woman chasing after them, and she showed a calm smile.
"You shouldn't be so naughty…"
Before she could finish speaking, the middle-aged woman swung the branch without hesitation, bringing it down viciously toward Lin Luoyu.
Whoosh—
Li Junzi raised her hand to block the branch and pulled the filthy Lin Luoyu into her arms.
Before Li Junzi could ask what was going on, the woman's words poured out like beans from a jar.
"Which family are you from? Get out of the way! I'm going to beat this little thief until she never dares steal again!"
Li Junzi glanced down at the terrified Lin Luoyu in her arms, then looked up at the woman.
"What did she steal?"
"My rice!"
Hearing this, Lin Luoyu cried out through sobs.
"I didn't steal!"
"Didn't steal?" The woman sneered. "Then what's in that little pouch in your clothes? Isn't it my rice?!"
Lin Luoyu did not know how to argue. She could only shout desperately.
"It's what you didn't want! You didn't want it!"
The woman instantly grew smug, her face filled with disdain, as if she had seized the moral high ground.
"What I didn't want? When did I ever say I didn't want it? Hurry up and return my rice!"
Li Junzi said nothing more. She took two copper coins from her purse and handed them to the woman.
"Then treat it as me buying it."
The woman's expression shifted as she accepted the two copper coins. The disdain on her face turned into delight, though she still did not spare Lin Luoyu.
"Today, a kind person paid for you. Next time, you'll have your legs beaten broken!"
After delivering her threats, the woman turned and left triumphantly, as if she had won a great victory.
Li Junzi lowered her head and looked at Lin Luoyu in her arms.
Lin Luoyu's eyes were wide, tears shimmering within them, her lips tightly pressed together.
Li Junzi gently patted her back and softly comforted her.
"It's all right now…"
"I didn't steal!" Lin Luoyu cried through sobs as she pulled the pouch from her clothes.
Li Junzi looked inside. A few rice grains mixed with mud lay quietly within.
There were very few grains, and more mud than rice.
"That was what she didn't want!" Lin Luoyu finally burst into tears, large drops rolling down her cheeks. "She didn't want it, so I picked it up! I didn't steal!"
"I didn't steal!" Lin Luoyu cried, her whole body trembling.
She only wanted to clear the accusation of being a thief. No matter how hungry she was, Lin Luoyu had never stolen.
Li Junzi wanted to say something, but she only lowered her voice and continued to comfort her.
"I know. I know. It's all right."
Lin Luoyu wiped the tears from her face with her dirty, mud-stained clothes, leaving another smear of mud on her cheek.
It looked almost comical.
She pressed her lips together and said stubbornly, "You shouldn't have given her money."
"Mmm… that was my fault."
Li Junzi nodded. As she was about to say more, Lin Luoyu broke free from her arms, clutching the pouch tightly as she ran toward a spot in the village.
Li Junzi watched Lin Luoyu's bare feet pound along the road strewn with sharp stones.
It seemed as though fleeing from here meant escaping her predicament.
This was how Li Junzi and Lin Luoyu first met.
There was nothing glamorous about it, and they barely exchanged any words.
It even ended on a slightly awkward note.
Li Junzi pressed her lips together gently, just like Lin Luoyu.
——————
Night fell.
Although Linjia Gully was called a gully, it was not actually located in one.
It was simply rather remote.
Farther from the village was a small river. It was not large, but there were fish in it.
Lin Luoyu hooked earthworms dug from the ground onto the hooks. They were called hooks, but were actually fish bones ground down over time, crude and misshapen.
Whether she caught fish depended entirely on whether the fish were foolish enough.
Lin Luoyu ground several hooks, twisted lines from vine fibers, and selected several decent-looking branches to make multiple fishing rods.
The finished rods looked extremely crude.
After baiting all five rods, Lin Luoyu cast them into the water and tied them securely to the bank.
She did not understand fishing, but she had seen others catch fish this way.
And five rods were surely better than one.
This method relied heavily on luck.
But Lin Luoyu had caught a few foolish fish this way before.
So sometime in the latter half of the night, she would bring these treasured rods to fish.
The weather was good tonight. The moon was full and bright.
Even so, despite the moonlight reflecting on the river, Lin Luoyu could not see clearly and could only vaguely make things out.
This was due to night blindness caused by malnutrition.
Catching fish depended on luck. Casting the rod did not guarantee a catch.
Most of the time, she caught nothing.
Most nights ended with hopeful arrival and reluctant departure.
These fishing rods were Lin Luoyu's precious possessions, made through great effort.
So even with no one around and darkness pressing in, she suppressed her unease.
Listening to insects chirping and distant dogs barking from the village, she sat alone by the river and waited.
Only the occasional sound of swatting insects broke the silence.
"So hateful…"
Lin Luoyu pouted and muttered softly.
She was still brooding over what had happened during the day.
It was not the first time she had suffered injustice, and every time, she remembered it clearly.
She never truly let it go.
From afar came a somewhat familiar voice.
"Fishing this late at night?"
Lin Luoyu's heart jolted. She scrambled to her feet and looked toward the source of the voice.
It was Li Junzi, who had paid the two copper coins for her earlier. She wore a gentle smile and stood some distance away, not approaching further.
She left Lin Luoyu a sense of safety.
Instinctively, Lin Luoyu wanted to run, but her eyes flicked to the fishing rods nearby.
She spoke in a negotiating tone. "I'll pay you back the two copper coins… just give me a bit more… a lot more time."
Li Junzi's voice remained gentle. "Why should you repay it? I gave it because I wanted to."
Lin Luoyu froze, standing there at a loss.
The chance to be free of two copper coins was right in front of her. Such a huge sum could be erased with a single sentence.
She pouted, her voice trembling but firm.
"I will repay it."
She did not know why, but if she did not repay it, it felt as though something was lodged in her chest, unable to come out.
She could endure being beaten, but not this sudden kindness.
It was not that no one had ever been kind to her. The neighbor's sister-in-law treated her well.
Sometimes, seeing how thin Lin Luoyu was, she would share a little from her own meager rations.
So when Lin Luoyu caught fish, she would give some to the neighbor as well.
But in these times, everyone was hungry.
Such kindness was simply too rare.
Lin Luoyu asked herself if she would share her own food with someone she had just met, and the answer was no.
So she could not understand Li Junzi's actions.
Yet she could not let go.
This warmth, insignificant to most people, felt almost too intense to Lin Luoyu now.
Perhaps people grew into strange adults through constant inner conflict, in their own peculiar ways.
Li Junzi was momentarily speechless.
She had read countless books and debated with many people.
Yet no book recorded this, and none explained what to do in such a moment.
That mouth which had spoken so many principles now could not utter a single one to this sensitive, self-conscious girl.
Those principles seemed too lofty.
Li Junzi changed the subject. "Why come fishing at night?"
Lin Luoyu lowered her head. "Because during the day, this place belongs to Lin Dagou. He won't let me fish and even steals my rods."
Li Junzi walked closer and continued asking.
"Then is the fishing here good?"
"It's not good. I often catch nothing."
"If that's the case, why still come at night?"
"Because I'm hungry."
Li Junzi did not know how to describe her feelings. Even after reading countless books and savoring poetry vast as the heavens, she could only describe it as deep sadness.
She took a deep breath and took out some dry rations, offering them to Lin Luoyu.
"Then… would you like to eat some?"
Lin Luoyu stared at the rations. She pressed her lips tightly together, both hands gripping her trousers.
Just as Li Junzi thought she would accept them—
Lin Luoyu refused.
"I can support myself."
The words sounded tearful, yet also like a declaration to herself.
Li Junzi withdrew the rations and took another deep breath.
"Then may I fish with you tonight?"
Lin Luoyu tilted her head slightly, thought for a moment, then nodded gently.
Li Junzi walked to her side and looked at the bright river.
Where Lin Luoyu could not see, she produced a writing brush from somewhere. A faint white aura coiled around it as she lightly wrote something.
Moments later, one of the rods began to shake.
Lin Luoyu lunged toward it with lightning speed.
After securing one fish, another rod soon caught one as well.
Li Junzi waited a little longer, and after some time, Lin Luoyu caught a third.
Then a fourth, and a fifth.
Lin Luoyu stared excitedly at the five fairly large fish before her.
Li Junzi smiled and praised her. "Very impressive."
Lin Luoyu nodded somewhat perfunctorily, her gaze still fixed on the fish.
Li Junzi did not mind, but soon felt surprised.
Lin Luoyu picked out the two largest fish, holding one in each hand, and handed them to Li Junzi.
A hint of a smile finally appeared on Lin Luoyu's face.
"In the past, catching even one was good luck. Catching five today means you must have shared some of your luck with me."
"So these fish are yours too."
Li Junzi smiled in relief and accepted the two fish.
Lin Luoyu tied the remaining three fish with grass rope and then gathered all five rods.
Under the moonlight, an adult walked with two fish in one hand and three in the other, while a child carried five fishing rods across her shoulders.
"You're not from the village, are you? I've never seen you."
"Yes, I'm from outside."
"Where are you going?"
"I originally planned to go to Junzi Mountain, to study, debate the Dao, and understand principles."
"Junzi Mountain? It sounds very far… but originally? Where are you going now?"
Li Junzi lifted her gaze toward the distance.
"To Linjia Gully."
"Here? What is so good about this place?"
"Because I realized that reading books is not as good as observing the world, and debating principles is not as good as personally comprehending them."
——————
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