Food gives me an entry, I will be invincible if I stay alive

Chapter 270 One notebook, multiple uses

On Starry Lake, the ship Chen Xu was riding on was a large vessel capable of carrying a thousand people.

There are three floors above the deck, and two more floors below the deck.

Such a large ship is truly extraordinary in terms of shipbuilding technology.

However, this world is essentially a mythical world, and the lives of the upper and lower classes are actually quite separate.

Such a large ship, if placed in an ordinary feudal society, would probably be considered the pinnacle of shipbuilding technology, but in the present-day Great Li Dynasty, it is merely a slightly higher-class passenger ship.

It is controlled by a water gang on Star Lake, which not only transports pedestrians but also goods.

This also demonstrates how developed the transportation between Qinglin Prefecture and Pingyang Prefecture was.

When Chen Xu was in Yunjiang Prefecture, he already thought that Yunjiang Prefecture was very rich and prosperous.

Compared to Jichuan County, Yunjiang Prefecture was many times more prosperous.

Despite its prosperity, Yunjiang Prefecture was considered a remote place among the seven prefectures of Tiannan.

Why is it remote?

In the past, without comparison, it was difficult to see the whole picture, but now that there is a comparison, we know that Yunjiang Prefecture is indeed remote and backward.

At least, a ship of this size, like the one on Canxing Lake, would be absolutely impossible to find in Yunjiang Prefecture.

In addition, it is said that there are hundreds of islands on this Starry Lake, scattered like stars across the vast expanse of the lake, and each island has a spiritual spring.

The island's inhabitants then cultivated spiritual fields on the island, planting spiritual rice and spiritual fruits.

On this vast Star Lake, a magnificent industry has been formed that is even richer than a gold mine.

Of course, the so-called common people were mostly tenant farmers of certain wealthy families, and these details were not for outsiders to know.

Throughout his life, Chen Xu has never stopped paying attention to the outside world.

He would occasionally stay at the homes of local people around the Lingxi Mountains. This was a way for him to show concern for the people's livelihood. However, the people's livelihood in Yunjiang Prefecture and Qinglin Prefecture was completely different from that in Canxing Lake.

It turns out that the world is truly interconnected at any given time and in any given place.

Chen Xu broadened his horizons and anticipated that he would see a wider, more expansive, and more magnificent world from now on.

He thought he had read many books, at least all of Feng Yuanbai's collection.

But in reality, this is still far from enough.

No wonder the ancients said, "Reading ten thousand books is not as good as traveling ten thousand miles."

Chen Xu sometimes feels a sense of detachment from worldly affairs, but whenever he truly enters the secular world, he realizes that it is still too early to talk about leaving the world.

He has not yet truly entered the world and seen the bustling center of this world, so how can he talk about transcending the world?
If one only talks about leaving the world without truly engaging with it, then this talk of leaving the world is nothing more than childish banter.

Chen Xu picked up his pen to write in the cabin, while the little hedgehog and the mouse bickered for a while—

Of course, it was mostly the mice who tried to provoke Wei Yuan, while Wei Yuan mostly gave in to the mice.

When it occasionally retaliates, it does so discreetly, giving off a rather dignified and gentlemanly air.

Although the two little demons were bickering, they were both very sensible and never really got into a heated argument.

As they were talking, Chen Xu suddenly placed his brush on the brush holder beside him. Wei Yuan's eyes lit up, and he quickly said:

"Brother Chen, why did you stop writing? Is it because you've run out of ink?"
Brother Chen, let me help you grind the ink!

It leaped onto the table in front of Chen Xu in a flash, and without saying a word, picked up a stick of dark ink from the inkstone and began to grind it carefully.

The mouse was a step behind again, and it was furious. The two demons had been arguing just now because of the matter of grinding ink for Chen Xu.

However, Wei Yuan was much larger and could grind ink quickly and well. The mouse could only manage to grind ink three or four times out of ten, and that was only because Wei Yuan intentionally let it.

Otherwise, it won't win even once.

This is infuriating!
Ah Shi, puffing up in anger, seeing that he couldn't win against Wei Yuan, immediately jumped in front of the few pages Chen Xu had just written, his eyes darting around, and said with a smug look:

"Wei Yuan, grind the ink properly! I'm eager to read the new chapter the scholar has just finished writing, squeak squeak squeak..."

Yes, Chen Xu was in the cabin, writing a storybook.

It's not the original "Tales of Gods and Ghosts," but a true storybook.

Logically speaking, Chen Xu shouldn't have been writing vernacular stories at this time.

After all, his opponents were writing either "Mengyang Dianshi" or "Tiannan Shuijing". If Chen Xu only used a storybook to compete with them, wouldn't he be a laughing stock?

When Chen Xu first started writing his storybooks, the two little demons were quite puzzled.

But once they actually got into Chen Xu's story, the two little demons suddenly realized that something was unusual about it.

The opening chapter tells the story of a down-on-his-luck scion of a noble family who is framed by his stepmother, has his legs broken, and is falsely accused of theft.

The elements are plentiful.

It was a conflict between legitimate and illegitimate children, a feud over a broken leg, and damage to one's reputation.

The story also subtly hints at the stepmother's infidelity, the half-brother's lack of paternal blood, and the father's complete ignorance of the affair, showering him with favoritism—a foolish and absurd drama.

To be honest, this opening is a bit cliché.

But what the storybooks of this era lack is precisely this kind of strong impact.

Stories like this, the second writer is a lackey, the third is a fool... the tenth, the hundredth, needless to say, are just wasted resources...

But the first one to write it could be considered a genius in a certain sense.

But Chen Xu did more than that.

He starts by building up all sorts of hatred, and when the protagonist is exiled to a farm, he faces secret ostracism from the people there.

While there were some who pitied the protagonist's plight and secretly offered him some assistance, generally speaking, everyone avoided the protagonist openly, fearing that they would be implicated by him.

After some time passed, the weather remained dry, and the river level dropped.

The villagers had difficulty getting water, so they had to carry loads to the river day and night to fetch water.

Sometimes, the farmers in this village even had to fight to the death with the farmers upstream just to get a little water.

That very night, Little Stone, the farmer's son who had helped the protagonist, had his head smashed open.

He wept bitterly and came to the protagonist to tell him about all his suffering.

He wasn't weeping for the various pains of his head injury, but for the hopeless harvest this year.

If we rely solely on buckets to collect water, when will we ever be able to thoroughly irrigate the fields?
Once the opportune time is missed, even if it rains again or enough water can be drawn from the river, the harvest in the fields will definitely be greatly reduced.

The little stone came to the protagonist crying, but it wasn't really looking for a solution.

He thought to himself that this young master came from a different background and his knowledge was different from that of the farmers in the village. Talking to him would be better than suffering alone and telling his family about his troubles.

After Little Stone finished complaining, the protagonist picked up a pen and quickly drew more than ten drawings.

(End of this chapter)