Searching for the best path, starting from Renjia Town

Chapter 1: Collecting Firewood
"Kunshan, go collect firewood."

"Yes, Uncle Zhang, wow, the fish is so fresh today, business is booming."

"Kunshan, we're running out of firewood. When can you send two bundles over?"

"Okay, Uncle Along, I cut some good firewood a few days ago. I need to dry it again and I'll send it to you tomorrow night."

……

Early in the morning, Li Kunshan carried an empty shoulder pole and a bamboo basket on his back, walked through the streets of Renjia Town, and greeted the merchants and residents on both sides of the street in a familiar manner.

Renjia Town is a small town in Fujian. Fujian is full of hills and very few plains. It is known as "eight mountains, one water and one piece of land". The grain production is low, and the transportation and logistics are inconvenient. It has been a "place that military strategists do not fight for" throughout the ages.

Since the death of Yuan Shikai, warlords have been fighting each other all over the country. Only here, although there are warlords, there is basically no fighting, and it is a bit peaceful, which seems out of place.

Li Kunshan traveled through time two years ago and, as an ordinary resident of Renjia Town, made a living by collecting firewood.

After leaving the town and walking west for about ten miles, you will reach a mountain range.

During the Republic of China era, supplies were scarce and ordinary families couldn't afford coal. Instead, they used firewood for cooking and heating. Therefore, in addition to "professional" woodcutters like Li Kunshan, many ordinary residents also frequently went into the mountains to collect firewood.

The outskirts of the mountain range were already bare, with no firewood to be harvested.

Li Kunshan continued to walk forward, and after walking for another ten miles, he came to a hill.

There are graves of all sizes everywhere, as well as urns containing ashes placed randomly. The world is in chaos, and human life is cheaper than grass. This is a famous mass grave on the edge of Renjia Town.

The world is in chaos today, the universe is dark, and righteousness is suppressed by evil, thus breeding all kinds of demons and monsters.

The mass grave is a haunted den. At night, there are gusts of cold wind and ghost lights.

For this reason, people who go into the mountains to collect herbs or hunt bypass this place.

Li Kunshan walked straight into the mass grave with no fear on his face.

People bully the weak and fear the strong, and the same is true for ghosts. If you are afraid of it, it will bully you. If you are tough, the ghost will also give in.

When he put down the bamboo basket behind him, he found a lot of incense and paper money inside.

"Let's have some incense first."

After lighting the incense, Li Kunshan skillfully placed it in front of each grave and urn, three for the gods and four for the ghosts, four sticks for each.

While burning incense, he muttered something to himself.

"We didn't know you when you were alive, but we are all from the same village. As long as I come, you will have something delicious to eat."

"I just came here to collect some firewood. If you want to eat incense, I also need to eat. If I can't collect firewood and have no food to eat, how can I have money to buy incense for you? So, don't bother me."

"Don't worry, I know the rules and I won't touch your shade tree."

After burning incense, Li Kunshan took out paper money and lit it in the middle of the mass grave.

"I earn little and cannot afford gold ingots. This is all the paper money I have, so I won't give it to you one by one. Come and divide it among yourselves. After eating the incense, you can take some pocket money."

As Li Kunshan muttered, gusts of cold wind came from all directions, instantly raising the fire a level higher, and the ashes of the burnt paper money were blown all up into the sky.

Li Kunshan's eyes were filled with tears, so he simply threw the remaining paper money into the fire.

After finishing, Li Kunshan took out his hatchet and started collecting firewood nearby.

This is a mass grave and is always haunted. No one dares to come here to collect firewood, but there is plenty of firewood.

People who take favors from others are grateful and those who eat from others are soft-hearted, and ghosts are the same.

After receiving Li Kunshan's incense and paper money, the ghosts here would not only not harm him, but would protect him. After all, if anything happened to Li Kunshan, who would burn incense and paper money for these lonely ghosts?

In addition, Li Kunshan has a treasure to deal with ghosts!
He touched his arms and found it was hard. The baby was still there, and Li Kunshan felt relieved.

Speaking of which, the previous incarnation had collided with something dirty two years ago and lost his life.

The old hatchet fell, and a dry branch as thick as a wrist fell to the ground, with the broken end being flat and smooth.

In less than a minute, all the dead branches of the old tree had been chopped off. Li Kunshan bent down, picked up all the dead branches and threw them aside. He did not continue to swing the hatchet for the remaining fresh branches.

The government has issued an order that anyone who goes into the mountains to collect firewood is only allowed to cut dead branches and unproductive saplings, and is not allowed to destroy living trees.

If violated, the proceeds will be confiscated and a fine will be imposed.

There are wars everywhere now, the Nationalist government is falling apart, and many laws and regulations are useless.

Compared to abiding by the law, avoiding those cruel officials and soldiers is the right way to protect yourself.

The reason why Li Kunshan did not cut down the living trees was actually because he did not want to drain the pond of fish.

Only as long as the green mountains remain can there be no worry about firewood. If they are all cut down in one go, what will you have to cut next year?

After cutting off the dead branches, Li Kunshan found a cluster of low shrubs covered with hard thorns. This kind of shrub produces little firewood and is difficult to cut, so the woodcutters also dislike it.

But there are always people collecting firewood in the mountains, so how can there be so many small trees and dead branches?

As for the lush camphor tree forest in the east, there is a lot of firewood to be collected there, but it belongs to the wealthy gentry in the town and outsiders are not allowed to go in to collect firewood.

Not only were there slaves armed with homemade spears patrolling every day, but they also kept vicious dogs. If someone was caught, they would be beaten up, and even a month's worth of firewood would not be enough to pay for medicine.

Although this small cluster of shrubs is not pleasing, we have to make do with it.

In order to make it easier to apply force and prevent the hard thorns on it from pricking your hands, you usually use firewood to press down the shrub first, and then cut it off one by one along the bottom.

Li Kunshan did not do these things. He just swung the hatchet close to the ground, and all the bushes fell apart.

It was clean and neat, like cutting through the Gordian knot, but what Li Kunshan held in his hand was not a precious sword, but just an ordinary, worn-out hatchet.

"……about there."

After arranging all the branches and tying them into two large bundles, Li Kunshan looked at the sun and estimated that it was only three in the afternoon. Although he still had time to cut more, he could no longer lift the weight.

That’s it for today.

After attaching the hatchet to the bundle of firewood, Li Kunshan carried two large bundles of firewood down the mountain.

Li Kunshan is seventeen years old this year. Although he is nearly 1.8 meters tall, he is a bit thin due to the scarcity of supplies and insufficient nutrition in that era.

The two bundles of firewood, wet and dry, weigh at least one or two hundred kilograms. The mountain terrain is already difficult to walk on, but Li Kunshan still walked briskly and looked effortless.

Uncle Zhang, who sells fish in the town, joked that Kunshan is a crab. Although it looks thin, it has meat inside its bones.

The girls in Yihongyuan drooled at the sight of Li Kunshan, as his penis was usually big and strong!
It took Li Kunshan just over an hour to walk more than twenty miles, carrying two large loads of firewood.

When I got home, it was still light outside.

The firewood bundles are untied, the dry firewood is stacked aside, and the wet firewood is spread out in the yard to dry. Only after it is completely dried can it be delivered to each owner's home.

Li Kunshan's father died early, and then his mother also passed away. He only had an older sister to depend on. She married into a neighboring village a few years ago and already had two children.

So now, Li Kunshan is the only one living in this yard.

After packing up, Li Kunshan walked to the water tank, scooped a bucket of well water, and gulped it down in one breath.

Then he sat down in front of the grindstone and carefully sharpened the hatchet. If you want to do your job well, you must first sharpen your tools, and the same applies to chopping wood.

After nearly half an hour, the hatchet was sharpened and put aside, ready for use tomorrow.

No one wanted to deliver firewood today, so before finishing his meal, Li Kunshan took a deep breath, got into position, and started practicing boxing in the yard.

(End of this chapter)