Gou Zai Xianwu Wenjing Search for Opportunities

"If you go to the Li residence to learn martial arts without eating meat or taking medicinal soups, it will actually harm your health and you will hardly make any progress. You must do everything within your capabilities and never push yourself too hard."

Lin Yuan was slightly surprised. His teacher hadn't been too opposed to him learning martial arts before, so why was he bringing it up now?

Seeing his confusion, Master Xu smiled meaningfully and said, "However, the Li Clan Martial Arts Hall is full of members related to the Li family, so they all have some background. When you go there, you can try to make friends with a few of them; it will greatly benefit you in the future. You might as well put more effort into this!"

Lin Yuan suddenly realized that Master Xu's way of thinking was different from that of ordinary people, but it was indeed a good idea. So he immediately bowed and said, "Thank you for your guidance, Master. I will never forget your great kindness in the future."

"Only you have the aptitude; if it were someone else, they might not even understand. If you could catch the eye of some noble family at the Li Clan Martial Arts School and arrange a marriage, then you'd be considered to have made something of yourself. That's much better than you just blindly practicing..."

Master Xu didn't finish his sentence, but he had already conveyed his meaning.

"I appreciate your kind words, Master!" Lin Yuan had the Divine Mirror and had no intention of becoming someone's son-in-law, but Master Xu's words were thought-provoking, and he planned to learn more from his master in the future.

"It's rare for such a promising talent to sprout from the muddy ground of Xiawei Village. Let me say something you might not like to hear," Master Xu paused for a moment, then said solemnly, "Lust has always been a double-edged sword; you must be extremely careful!"

"Like walking on thin ice, like standing on the edge of an abyss, I am always cautious and apprehensive, and I will never forget this lesson."

"Okay, just remember that. Go on!"

After the Zhang Shopkeeper incident, Master Xu's desire to make quick money has faded considerably. Now he only wants to stay at the school and retire. He has no intention of forcing the student, who is beyond teaching, to stay.

"Yes."

evening.

Lin Yuan moved into a side room in Hongliu Lane.

This room is not as big as Manager Zhang's. The main hall is in front of the door, and the bedroom is on the north side, separated by a curtain.

The accommodation here is much better than the dilapidated house back home.

He didn't have much stuff. After quickly packing up, he bought a steamed bun on the street and a bowl of salty tea at Old Sun's tea stall. While eating, he chatted with Old Sun and his wife, subtly inquiring about some news from Hongliu Lane. Seeing that there was nothing important, he returned to his room to practice calligraphy.

When it got dark, Lin Yuan took a shower, lay on the bed and kept watch, listening to the sounds outside from time to time.

In the middle of the night, he got up to use the restroom.

At this moment, the half-moon hung high in the sky, bathing the courtyard in silvery light.

He had scouted the area during the day and found a dog hole near the base of the wall where the wine jars were buried. A few blue bricks were piled up in front of the dog hole to block it up, without any sand or mud to hold it in place. The blue bricks could be pulled out by hand.

The dog hole leads directly to a tributary of the Carp River.

Having a small boat by the river would make escaping much easier.

Thinking of this, Lin Yuan suddenly suspected that Manager Zhang had indeed hidden a small boat outside the cave.

Lin Yuan just moved in today and doesn't plan to start digging immediately. He wants to observe the daily routines of the merchants in the courtyard first to avoid unnecessary trouble.

It's best to choose a rainy day, which will not only cover up the noise but also wash away any traces of freshly dug soil.

Having made up his mind, Lin Yuan didn't linger. He went straight into the outhouse, urinated, and left.

The next few days.

Lin Yuan went back to his hometown of Xiawei Village, carrying a pickled vegetable jar filled with pickled radishes made by his sister-in-law, and some small tools to prepare for digging out wine jars.

After returning, he lived a simple life between the school's side room and the outhouse. When he had nothing to do, he would stay in the side room to practice calligraphy, frequently go to the outhouse, and constantly familiarize himself with the locations and find any areas he had overlooked.

Meanwhile, they kept a close eye on the whereabouts of Manager Huang and others, only going out to buy some steamed buns at mealtimes and eating them with salted radishes.

These days, Manager Huang has been leaving early and returning late, with only a servant guarding the house during the day.

After observing for several days, Lin Yuan knew exactly where Manager Huang and the others were. Seeing that it wasn't raining for a while, he was getting anxious.

So he decided to visit the mass grave to see if he could activate the mirror.

That day, he asked Master Xu for leave, spent five coins to take a boat across the Carp River, and arrived at Fishbeard Mountain on the other side.

The river wasn't wide to begin with, and it wouldn't have been far to swim across, but now that the river is flooded, the waves are high, and he doesn't dare to swim.

Climbing up Yuxu Mountain, the surrounding area is barren, all sand and gravel, unsuitable for growing crops or tall timber, with only some low shrubs.

The mass grave is not large; it is a low-lying valley at the foot of the mountain, not far from the river. There are few stones here, making it easy to dig and bury people.

Those buried here are all homeless people, mainly refugees who fled to the town after the flood.

He wandered around the hill for half a day without finding anything. It was too hot at noon, so he went to a shady spot to cool off, ate the steamed buns he had brought, and drank some plain water to get by.

The afternoon was still fruitless.

The next day, Lin Yuan no longer asked for leave to come over alone. He would only occasionally take a walk around the place. Anyway, the place was not big, and walking around and going back would not delay his business. It was just that he had to spend ten coins for the ferry fee each time he came and went.

That evening, after finishing his classes at school, Lin Yuan wandered around the mass grave. Suddenly, the sky darkened, a cold wind picked up, and it looked like it was about to rain.

Lin Yuan was overjoyed. The opportunity to dig for the wine jar had arrived. He immediately headed back home and began digging that very night.

As I was running towards the river, I passed a mound of earth. The soil under my feet was wet and grayish-black, clearly freshly turned over.

This is a corpse that was just buried today.

Seeing that it was about to rain, he remembered that he was going to dig up the wine jars that night, so he noted down the location of the new grave and planned to come back and take a look later.

He had only taken two steps when he felt a chill behind him and a cold sensation on the back of his head; that similar feeling returned.

"A chill as cold as ice... this feels familiar..."

Unlike the last time he encountered a ghost, this time he only felt cold all over and his body was slightly heavy. He had no other reaction and did not collapse to the ground.

Just then, the mirror in his sea of ​​consciousness reappeared bathed in light, absorbing all the coldness from his body.

Suddenly, a man appeared in the mirror. He was dark-skinned and thin, with a limp, looking like a refugee who had fled from the countryside.

Lin Yuan recovered and was overjoyed.

As expected, the way to activate the mirror is through possession by a spirit.

He immediately tried asking, "Xianjing, what has he experienced in his life?"

This was a question that Lin Yuan had pondered repeatedly. The question was broad and comprehensive, making it easy for him to find opportunities within it.

As the mirror clears of the clouds and mist, the person's first-person perspective appears:

He grew up in Yusai Village. His surname was Liu, and his nickname was Lao Wu. He was the fifth child born to his parents. He also had a younger brother and sister. Of the seven siblings, three died young, one drowned, and one died of illness. Only he and his younger sister grew up safely.

When Liu Laowu was young, his family had a few acres of land and their life was relatively comfortable. However, the Lishui River flooded year after year, and their lives became increasingly difficult.

One summer, a major flood destroyed the entire crop. In the winter, an epidemic broke out, and his parents passed away one after another. He decided to sell his land and take his younger sister to work as a laborer at the docks.

One day, when he returned to his shack after finishing his work, he found that his little sister was missing. He searched for a long time and cried for a long time, but he couldn't find her.

In the following years, he made some money by taking advantage of his youth and strength.

So he married a widow who didn't ask for a dowry, they had a son, and they were able to make a living.

But years of hard labor had taken a toll on his health, and one day he broke his leg at the dock.

He spent all his savings on doctors, but his leg wasn't fully healed. He could walk, but he was limping and couldn't do heavy work. As a result, the family had no income and couldn't make ends meet, so his wife had to go out and work for others.

They managed to make ends meet until one day their son fell ill. The family had no money for treatment, and within a few days, the son's high fever persisted, and he died.

After that day, my wife never came back.

He lay in the room, neither speaking nor laughing, neither eating nor drinking, just staring blankly out the window, watching the sun rise and set, and then rise again.

Finally, everything went black.

The scene in the mirror ends here.

These images are pieced together from countless fragments of Liu Laowu's life memories, like a super-edited personal documentary that shows the outline of his life in a very short time.

The only drawback is that, due to the extremely short timeframe, only the outline is shown, without any details.

This gave Lin Yuan very good feedback. In the future, when he met someone he didn't know well, the first question he would ask was about their general life experience, and then find out where the opportunity lay. The second question would be to ask for details.

Lin Yuan couldn't help but sigh after reading it. Poverty-stricken couples face a hundred sorrows. Life is hard for ordinary people. Any setback can instantly plunge them back into poverty, leaving them constantly struggling on the poverty line until one day they can't hold on any longer and are completely wiped out.

This is the Liang Dynasty, where powerful families hold sway, and there is little warmth to speak of.

From Liu Laowu's brief life story, he was just a peasant from the lowest rungs of society. He had nothing, whether it was money, knowledge, news, or intelligence.

He was a hardworking laborer who worked until his body could no longer bear the strain and his family broke apart.

Lin Yuan suddenly realized something very awkward: the ghost had been found, the mirror had been activated, but he didn't know what to ask!

Lin Yuan was unable to save Liu Laowu's son, nor could he do anything to Liu Laowu's wife, nor could he obtain any opportunities from Liu Laowu.

Neither side can help the other!

It seems that asking any question is pointless now.

Lin Yuan decided to treat this as a test of the mirror's functionality, so he didn't ask a second question. Instead, he opened his eyes and snapped out of his reverie.

My head is a little dizzy, but I can still bear it; it's much better than the last time I had with Manager Zhang.

He immediately ran to the riverbank, and luckily there was a boat. He then shouted.

The sky grew even darker, and the wind grew stronger.

He boarded the boat and returned to town, when it began to rain.

When I returned to the room, the rain had intensified, pouring down in torrents.

This robbed the villagers, who were hoping for the floodwaters to recede, of their smiles!