Although Li Daoxuan had "vanished into the clouds," he hadn't actually gone anywhere. He was still outside the box, watching the miniature world. He had simply closed the glass lid and observed everything through it.
After several days of experimenting, he had figured out how it worked. Whenever he opened the lid and looked inside, Gao Yiye could see him "appearing in the clouds." But as long as there was a layer of glass between them, even Gao Yiye couldn't see him.
Humans really were strange creatures.
Watching openly felt fine. But watching secretly gave a thrill. Truly, the heart of a peeping tom was a mysterious thing.
Seeing Gao Yiye and Shan Shi'er drop their formal masks the moment "Tianzun left" was genuinely entertaining.
Li Daoxuan didn't think building a temple or making a statue was necessary. But if the little people wanted to keep themselves busy, he would let them. No need to interfere. After all, the village had only around forty people. Without enough manpower, there was a limit to what they could accomplish. He might as well sit back and see what they came up with.
Shan Shi'er got straight to work.
First, he ordered every household to bring out all its oil jars, bottles, and other containers. The villagers filled them with rapeseed oil until every container in the village was full. Even then, half the pool of oil remained.
Next, he organized the village's able-bodied men to lift the mineral water bottle cap together. It looked like a swarm of ants hauling a heavy load. They carried the remaining half-cap of oil back to Shan Shi'er's temporary home inside the Pepsi can. Then they turned to the pile of flour.
The flour Li Daoxuan had dropped into the box was all in ball form.
Shan Shi'er borrowed a millstone from the Village Chief and put Gao Chuwu and the other young men to work grinding the flour balls back into powder. It had to look like ordinary flour.
Gao Chuwu complained while grinding. "Master Shan, why do we have to crush them again? So troublesome."
Shan Shi'er smacked him on the forehead. "What do you know? I am taking this flour out of the village to meet outsiders and recruit people for us. Flour that looks like balls would seem bizarre to outsiders. If government officials saw it, who knows what trouble it would cause. So it must be ground into powder. Only then can we hide our tracks."
Gao Chuwu said innocently, "If government people see it, just tell them Tianzun gave it."
Shan Shi'er smacked him again. "What do you know? The imperial court has been cracking down on the White Lotus Sect for years. Anyone caught up in accusations of heresy or sorcery could be killed without mercy. If I walk up to someone holding ball-shaped flour and say Tianzun gave it, that is walking straight into the net."
Gao Chuwu rubbed his head. "Hey, stop hitting me. I am already dumb. If you keep hitting my head, I will get even dumber."
Li Daoxuan laughed watching this. He turned to look at the other side.
Mrs. Shan had pulled Gao Yiye to sit under the eaves. She held a Daoist scripture in her hands and was reading it aloud for Gao Yiye to follow.
The more Gao Yiye listened, the more her head spun. But she still listened seriously, still tried hard to memorize. She showed no sign of backing down.
The people were working hard.
Li Daoxuan said to himself, "I should work hard too. For the sake of my life, let me pick up another gig."
He opened QQ, his work messenger, and contacted the person who assigned him jobs.
"Bro, got any work these past couple of days? Send something my way."
The man replied cheerfully.
"I've been waiting for you. Here, take this job. A game company needs a monster design. The main color should be black, and it needs to look fierce and disgusting, something that makes people feel sick just by looking at it. Eight hundred yuan, with a two-day deadline."
Two days passed in a blink.
Dusk arrived. The sun sank toward the west.
Li Daoxuan stretched, loosening his stiff muscles.
The client had just checked his work. Overall, they were satisfied with the monster designs, but felt two fangs should be added. He added them as fast as he could. Then the client decided fangs were too common. A long tongue would be better.
He gave the monster a long tongue. The client looked at it and felt the tongue should have spikes. So he shrank the fangs and pasted them onto the tongue.
The client was very satisfied. Li Daoxuan's savings went up by eight hundred.
These past two days, busy with work, he had barely paid attention to the little people in the box. Now that the work was done, he finally had time to look.
The moment he focused on the box, he saw Shan Shi'er leading a large group of ragged people through the city gate.
He counted. One hundred and two people.
The group's eyes swept across Gaojia Village's towering walls. They seemed stunned by the sight. They shuffled in timidly, walked to the open ground in the middle of the village, and stood there, hands and feet not knowing where to go.
Shan Shi'er stood in front of them and spoke loudly.
"What needed to be said, I already said on the way here. In short, you have come to Gaojia Village. There is food here. No one will go hungry. But I will say the ugly part first. Once you eat the food Tianzun has granted, you work for Tianzun. Whatever Tianzun wants you to do, you do. Obey. Do not slack off. Otherwise…"
He deliberately paused, then let out a sinister chuckle, looking every bit the villain.
"Going hungry will be the least of your worries. If you anger Tianzun, you'll learn what it means to be struck down by Heaven and Earth."
Li Daoxuan laughed inwardly. This guy is scaring the newcomers. Making me sound terrifying.
At that moment, the Village Chief of Gaojia Village came over. "Master Shan, these people are?"
Shan Shi'er chuckled. "These are villagers from Wangjia Village, Zhengjia Village, Zhongjia Village, and several other nearby settlements. Because Wang Er rebelled, he dragged away most of the villagers. Their villages have almost no one left. I went over, shouted a few times, and they followed me here."
Humans were social creatures. When a village's population fell below a certain point, the remaining residents could no longer sustain themselves and had to move elsewhere.
Normally, farmers were tied to their land, which made it difficult for them to leave. But after three years of severe drought, the land had become completely useless. A handful of people left to guard a village full of cracked, yellow earth had little hope of survival.
The Village Chief looked a bit awkward. "So many people at once. Where will they live? The village does not have that many houses."
Shan Shi'er smiled. "I cannot be bothered to worry about where they live. I only provide food. Let them figure out the rest."
The Village Chief said, "Should we ring the bell? Ask Tianzun for help?"
Shan Shi'er's eyebrows shot up. He glared at the Village Chief. "Do not bother Tianzun with every small, trivial matter. If we cannot solve it ourselves, that is when we ask Tianzun for help. If we can solve it ourselves, we do our best to handle it. Otherwise, one day Tianzun will kick you in the crotch and tell you to get lost."
Li Daoxuan was in the middle of cutting a soda can. Hearing Shan Shi'er's words, he set down the scissors and the can.
That makes sense. Have I been too much of a babysitter?
Forget cutting the can. Let us see how the little people solve their own problems.
Just then, his takeout arrived. Li Daoxuan picked up his shredded pork and potato rice bowl, shoveling food while watching the box.
Shan Shi'er gave each newcomer a small bag of flour. The starving villagers, faces sallow with hunger, wept with gratitude. They borrowed pots, cooked the flour into paste, and ate their fill.
The sky began to darken.
They were not worried about having no place to sleep. They went outside, pulled some dry grass, piled it at the base of the city wall, and lay down in their clothes. In this drought year, it would not rain anyway. What did a roof matter?
They had just lain down when they noticed something surprising.
Lights appeared on the wall.
One after another. Circling the entire massive wall of Gaojia Village. Every ten steps, a lantern was lit. Not candles inside. Oil lamps. The rapeseed oil burned with a rich, fragrant smell, providing a dim glow around the walls.
Two villagers carrying bows climbed onto the wall and began their patrol.
The newcomers were startled.
Burning rapeseed oil like this? Just how rich is Gaojia Village?