"Oh, Brother Yunping."
Carrying the fish basket on his back, Li Yunping had just turned past the small earthen slope at the village entrance when a young girl walked towards him. The girl's face was like a full moon; though her features were not outstanding, that brimming smile lent a spirited charm to her brows and eyes.
"Sister Wan'er."
Li Yunping stopped in his tracks, smiling and waving at the girl. He turned and lowered the fish basket from his back halfway, revealing the lively catch inside.
"Look at my luck today. These fish are nice and plump. Take two back for Uncle Tian to taste something fresh."
"How could I accept that?"
Tian Wan smiled, lowering her head and tucking a strand of hair from the corner of her mouth. This girl had developed early; though barely eleven, she already stood a head taller than the thirteen-year-old Li Yunping.
In the customs of Lixi Village, men and women discussed marriage at fifteen or sixteen. Among their generation, they were the closest in age. Tian Wan had long secretly decided that this honest youth before her was her future husband.
"Take it, don't be polite!" Li Yunping didn't take no for an answer. He grabbed the two largest crucian carp and stuffed them into Tian Wan's arms. He didn't think too much of it; he just felt that Uncle Tian's family was the kindest in the village, and he felt close to them, so naturally, he wanted to look out for Tian Wan when he saw her.
After bidding farewell to Tian Wan, Li Yunping quickened his pace and hurried home. Entering the courtyard, he dipped the fish basket into the small pond behind the house to keep the fish alive. Composing himself, he reached into his bosom, pulled out the ancient mirror he had found at the river bottom, carefully wiped the water stains from its surface with the corner of his shirt, and tucked it back into his inner pocket.
Afterward, he grabbed the three red-lacquered food boxes from the table and strode rapidly towards the family fields.
By now, the sun was scorching. His two older brothers were sweating profusely in the fields alongside their father.
The Li family had four sons: the eldest, Li Changhe; the second, Li Tongyan; the third, Li Yunping; and the youngest, Li Chixi. In the area around Lixi Village, who wouldn't give a thumbs up and praise the four Li brothers as "dragons and phoenixes among men"? Even Tian Wan's father, Uncle Tian, whenever chatting idly about the four brothers, would always sigh with envy: "That old man Li Gengye has truly cultivated good fortune over several lifetimes!"
But Li Gengye himself didn't see it that way. As the only person in Lixi Village who had seen the world and traveled far, watching his own children, not yet fully grown, scratching out a living in the mud, he always felt a bitterness in his heart.
"A good man aspires to travel far; he should study and practice martial arts. If he is trapped between the furrows of the fields, he will ultimately be a good-for-nothing coward!" He had once pointed at the fields and cursed.
But life is just so; those who have seen prosperity find it harder to endure loneliness. Li Gengye had served in the army in his early years and seen blood and fire. In his forties, he returned to Lixi Village with a body full of injuries and his saved military pay to buy land and property, becoming a wealthy household in the village. Yet, the ravines in his heart had never been filled.
When Li Yunping reached the edge of the field, his eldest brother, Li Changhe, was already waiting in the shade of the old locust tree by the ridge. As the eldest son, seventeen-year-old Li Changhe had a faint mustache on his upper lip, and a steadiness showed between his brows.
"Third Brother, walk slower. There's no rush."
Li Changhe smiled, reaching out to ruffle Li Yunping's hair, his gaze gentle.
"I heard from Uncle Tian that you had quite the haul in the river today?"
"You bet, plenty!" Li Yunping grinned, revealing a mouthful of white teeth. "Tonight, our family can finally have a proper feast!"
"You just think with your stomach."
Li Changhe wiped the sweat from Li Yunping's forehead, took the food boxes, turned around, and shouted towards the field:
"Second Brother—"
"Coming!" Second Brother Li Tongyan heard the call and walked over in long strides, a hoe on his shoulder. He first called out to Li Changhe, then turned to look at Li Yunping, a smile on his face as well.
"You two eat first. I have to go back and help Mother with the fire," Li Yunping said. Having busied himself all morning, his stomach was already growling with hunger. After speaking, he hurried back home.
————
When Lu Chenyuan was packed into the fish basket, he faintly sensed a strange pulling force. As they got closer to that household, this feeling grew stronger.
Passing the old locust tree thick enough for two to embrace at the village entrance and truly entering the village, this attraction reached its peak. Lu Chenyuan only felt a fluctuation in his consciousness, as if something had grabbed him tight. Inside the fish basket, the body of the ancient mirror trembled slightly. Through the gaps in the basket, a strange dark red glow seemed to flow across the mirror's surface.
"That is... a part of me, or something crucial to me." A sudden realization rose in Lu Chenyuan's heart.
"To the north! The direction of that large lake!" As Li Yunping carried the fish basket further from the village entrance, the pulling force slowly faded, but Lu Chenyuan silently noted the direction in his heart.
Sticking close to Li Yunping as he wandered around the village, combining his perception of the surrounding environment with his observation of Li Yunping's actions and demeanor, Lu Chenyuan could basically guess what the people he was seeing were doing.
He discovered that this seemed to be an ordinary small village. There were no martial arts masters flying over eaves and walls, nor any cultivators riding swords through the air.
The villagers worked at sunrise and rested at sunset, following the rules. The farm tools and the scale of the houses were all ordinary, exuding a mundane, earthly atmosphere.
"This place is truly just an ordinary small village. The best house is merely a two-story earth-and-tile building..." Lu Chenyuan pondered secretly. If there were cultivators here, no matter how down on their luck, they wouldn't squeeze into such cramped mud houses, right?
"Powerful forces inevitably bring a leap in productivity. The village before me is too backward."
He already had a plan in mind, and a framework for his future survival slowly took shape.
Tonight, the Li family was exceptionally lively. Mother Liu Yun and the two younger brothers were busy around the stove, washing and cutting vegetables, the smoke rising.
Li Yunping returned fully loaded. Even more surprising, his younger brother Li Chixi, while picking mulberry leaves to raise silkworms on the back hill, had conveniently dug out a nest of plump field mice and brought them back in his grain bag. This delighted Father Li Gengye, who slapped the shoulders of the two half