Don't farm, cultivate immortality!

"Xiao He, what's this?"

"I don't know either." Mother covered her face and sighed. "Maybe we should just throw it away."

"No, that's too wasteful," the father shook his head.

He picked up a piece with his chopsticks, hesitated for a moment, and then put it in his mouth.

"How about it?"

"It tastes pretty good," the father said. "It tastes like beans."

In the end, the bowl of "bean soup" did end up in their stomachs. Zhuang Xing also ate a little bit. Tofu is very suitable for children, as it is soft and easy to digest.

After the first time, there was a second time.

Zhuang Xing caused all sorts of trouble from the sidelines, and finally, a month and a half later, the mother made tofu on her own.

She pressed the tofu firmly into the bowl; it was now exactly the same as the tofu Zhuang Xing remembered.

While making tofu, you can also conveniently scoop out a couple of bowls of soy milk to drink. Add just a little bit of sugar, and it tastes delicious.

After that, Mother took the tofu to the village market.

The secret to making tofu was carefully hidden by my mother and father; if you wanted to eat it, you had to come to her.

In this way, when summer came, my mother didn't need to go outside; people would come to the door to buy tofu from her.

After discussing it with her father, her mother stopped weaving cloth starting in the summer and instead bought soybeans from other people's homes to make and sell tofu.

My mother's life became much easier; she no longer needed to work in the yard under the scorching sun.

As for the family's fields, the father continued to cultivate them as usual, but with extra money, they could hire people to help.

Because they made tofu, my mother and father were much more relaxed. The days when they had to split an egg in two to eat were gone forever. When they finished the autumn harvest and paid the autumn tax, they did the math and found that they had two strings of cash left over. One string of cash was worth one thousand coins, and a piece of tofu only sold for two or three coins. Little by little, it added up.

"Zhuang'er is truly our family's lucky star." Mother hugged Zhuang Xing and gave him a happy kiss.

They bought new clothes, as winter was approaching, and the family of three put on brand-new winter clothes.

On the table is a stewed fresh river fish, the surface of the fish soup glistening with smooth fish oil, and the snow-white tofu resembling white jade.

They added another pot and stove to the house so they could make more tofu to sell, and the tofu they made every day sold out completely.

Zhuang Xing lay in his mother's arms and chuckled twice. He turned two years old that day.

...

Then, three years later, in the year he turned five.

On the eighth day of the third lunar month, he went outside the village to deliver food to his father who was working in the fields.

After noon, he stayed with his father by the field until evening.

He held a wooden sword that his father had carved in his hand, and swung it at the weeds in the field.

If someone who practices martial arts were here, they would notice that there seems to be a certain kind of spirit in his every move.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

The image of that stunning sword strike from five years ago flashed before his eyes, and his body moved accordingly. He imitated that sword strike and swung it out.

Where no one could see, several weeds in front of him had been cut off at the roots, the cut surfaces perfectly smooth.

Although he had never learned any martial arts techniques or understood any internal energy cultivation, he could feel a dragon-like energy being mobilized within his body simply by following Miss Huai'an's movements when he slashed out.

That aura only gradually became clearer when he was three years old. However, he couldn't grasp it at all, and he didn't understand how to control it or how to train it. It seemed that this aura would only become stronger as he grew older.

He was both happy and troubled. He was happy because he seemed to be a "steel pestle," but troubled because he didn't know how to sharpen his own iron pestle.

Perhaps it's time to find a way to get in touch with the old hunter; he's the one in the village who knows the most.

He sat down and watched the huge red sun set in the distance, the whole world burned red.

The rosy clouds were reflected on the surface of the stream, and suddenly he felt the amulet on his chest vibrate again.

This was the second time in three years that he had been stunned.

It's the same place, there's no mistake, his memory has always been excellent.

On the river, in the place where the lotus flowers last appeared, lotus seeds appeared after the lotus flowers had withered.

Chapter 28 The Girl Next Door Is Growing Up

It happened again...

Last time it was a lotus flower, is it this time a lotus seed?

Zhuang Xing let out a breath; he still hadn't determined the reason for Bai Lian's appearance.

Although the old hunter discovered traces of the monster in the riverbed three years ago after the appearance of the white lotus, he was never able to capture the monster.

The monster seemed to be timid by nature. After the old hunter set a trap by the river and sent someone to guard it, the monster disappeared without a trace. After a while, the matter was dropped.

For three years, the village remained peaceful as always. Apart from Zhuang Xing himself, everyone else had probably forgotten about it.

Zhuang Xing had some doubts in his heart and had come to the river outside the village many times, but he never saw the white lotus again. Who would have thought that three years later, he would see the lotus seeds again.

He frowned, thinking that he must find out the truth this time.

Such a strange phenomenon cannot occur without a reason. Everything has a cause and effect. He must figure out the reason for the appearance of the white lotus and lotus seeds before he can put his mind at ease.

Thinking about it, Zhuang Xing walked towards the river alone.

This time, his father didn't come to help him.

He was already five years old, and his father no longer disciplined him as he used to.

From the time he could run and jump, and could go to the toilet independently, dress himself, and wash dishes by himself, we started letting him roam freely at home.

His mother and father were very lenient in their education of him. After all, their family was neither a scholarly family nor a martial arts family. For his parents, it seemed that as long as Zhuang Xing grew up healthy, that was enough. They rarely had any additional requirements for Zhuang Xing.

Zhuang Xing walked along the uneven natural cobblestone path and came straight to the riverbank.

Beside it was the village's waterwheel, its wooden wheel creaking and turning as it was propelled by the river.

He noticed something strange: the phantom image of the lotus seed... seemed to be acting strangely, sometimes bright and sometimes dim.

Is it... a bad signal?

It felt like watching an old satellite dish TV during a downpour, with the screen switching back and forth between a hazy white and a bright color.

The amulet around his neck vibrated erratically, making him feel as if he were wearing a small, electric toy.

Zhuang Xing was increasingly confused. Could it be that the talisman Miss Huai'an gave him was actually an electronic product?

Just as he was wondering, he heard soft footsteps, the rustling sound of footsteps on wild grass.

He turned his head and saw a girl who was slightly taller than him.

The girl was about eight or nine years old, dressed in plain gray clothes, and there was a strong herbal scent as she walked over.

Her hair was wet, and the strands clung to her fair face. Judging from the wooden basin she was carrying and the towel draped over her shoulder, she had clearly just washed her hair by the river.

Zhuang Xing hesitated for a moment. The girl's features seemed familiar to him, but... he wasn't sure. He hadn't seen that little girl for a long time. She was almost nowhere to be found in the village. Occasionally, he would see her from behind, but she would just be alone with her head down, quickly disappearing from sight.

Zhuang Xing had no chance to speak to her at all. Several times he tried to strike up a conversation, but the little girl avoided him as if he were something dirty, or rather, she always deliberately avoided the people in the village.

He was quite surprised; it turned out that this was what lay beneath the girl's long, black hair.

These days, the girl always keeps her head down, so you can't see her face clearly. Zhuang Xing's impression of her is still from the funeral five years ago. But now that he sees her face, he finds that she is completely different from the child in his memory.

The facial features were indeed very similar, but now, her once innocent and stubborn eyes had become as still as a deep well.

She was much prettier than I remembered, but her eyes had lost their sparkle.

However, she used to avoid people wherever she went, so why isn't she doing so now?

Sure enough, she could see the erratic lotus seed phantom on the river surface.

Zhuang Xing silently watched the girl's profile. The girl showed no intention of speaking to him. She simply put down the wooden basin, wiped the water off her hair with a towel, and stared at the river.

"Can you see it?" Zhuang Xing asked, pointing at the thing.

The girl finally turned her head and glanced at Zhuang Xing.

Then, she picked up the wooden basin, turned around, and left.

Zhuang Xing was completely baffled by her. She was like a timid mushroom, shrinking away at the slightest hint of trouble.

"Wait, you can definitely see it, right? That crazy thing!" Zhuang Xing ran up to her and asked.

The sun was about to set, and there were very few villagers still working, but that didn't mean there was no one.

But among these people, only he and the girl reacted to the lotus seed phantom.

He could see the phantom image, and he could use the amulet around his neck as an excuse, but why could the girl see it? Did she also have the same amulet?

If she doesn't have it, then what conditions need to be met for her to see that phantom?

There must be some connection between them; he and the girl must have something in common.

If Zhuang Xing could figure out this unknown commonality, he felt he would be able to understand some of the mysteries behind it.

But it seemed his voice was too loud, because when he shouted, the girl lowered her head and looked away from him.

"Sorry, I was too loud just now." Zhuang Xing realized that he had provoked the girl. For someone who was often ostracized, his behavior just now was like the prelude to bullying. "I just wanted to ask you if you can see that thing too."

He tried to keep his voice gentle, and the girl looked up and glanced at the river again.

But she still didn't react further. She neither left nor spoke, as if she was waiting for Zhuang Xing to get bored and leave on his own.

No one was obligated to pay attention to him, so Zhuang Xing could only do his best to appear sincere. Logically speaking, he should be the one asking the girl for help now.

"Actually, it's like this." Zhuang Xing took out the amulet, pointed to the lotus seed in the lower part, and showed it to the girl. "Look, aren't these two things exactly the same? I just wanted to figure out if there was any connection between them, but it seems that only you and I can see the thing on the river, so I wanted to ask you. I absolutely, absolutely didn't mean anything else."

The girl's gaze lingered on the vibrating amulet. She narrowed her eyes, like a sniper aiming a shot, and stared at it for a long time.

Zhuang Xing didn't offer any further explanation. He had said all he could. Continuing to explain would only make things worse and would likely have the opposite effect.

After a long silence, the girl finally spoke.

Her lips parted slightly, and she whispered, "They really are the same..."

"Right!" Zhuang Xing's eyes lit up. "It's strange, isn't it! Why would it appear in a place like that? Why can we see it? We won't be able to sleep at night until we figure this out!"

The girl seemed startled by his enthusiasm and took a step back.