Chapter Fifty-Five: Who Knows How Many Fellow Countrymen

The few people ran off laughing, and even after Zhao Qingzhi had given them several golden leaves, he paid them no further attention.

“Impossible. How could it be? How could it be?” Bigmouth Liu said miserably.

Wu Yue shook his head. He was fortunate, but he could understand how this man felt. “There is nothing impossible about it. There are countless people in this world who cannot cultivate.”

His offhand attempt at consolation seemed to strike a nerve.

“It cannot be!” Bigmouth Liu cried sharply. “It must not be so. I am different from them.”

Wu Yue said no more and prepared to leave as well. Suddenly, a young boy came running over, a large club in his hands and fury on his face.

He was probably a child from the household, and there must have been some misunderstanding. But Wu Yue was too lazy to explain—simply too lazy, with no other reason.

The boy swung the club at him, and Wu Yue was suddenly startled. The blow carried tremendous force, far beyond what a twelve- or thirteen-year-old boy should possess. Even an adult would scarcely have been stronger. Of course, dealing with it would still have been effortless for Wu Yue.

“Stop!” Bigmouth Liu suddenly shouted.

The boy halted at once, without the slightest sign that he had been unable to check his strength.

“This has nothing to do with anyone else. Go gather your things.”

At those words, the boy seemed to remember something. He glared fiercely at Wu Yue, then hurried toward the ruins.

“Can we talk?” Bigmouth Liu asked, her eyes filled with longing.

Wu Yue considered for a moment, then nodded. “All right.”

He did not refuse.

“What is it like outside? What kind of world is it?”

Dressed in plain hemp clothing, Bigmouth Liu asked the question anxiously. It was a question that had haunted her for more than thirty years and perhaps would continue to haunt her for the rest of her life.

Wu Yue was somewhat surprised. It was not the sort of question a mountain dweller of her age should have asked.

“There are many people outside, and it is very lively. There are all kinds of snacks and plenty of interesting things to do—places like Luoyang and Black Curtain City.”

“There is the Chu River, vast and endless beneath its surging waves. There are also green mountains, each with scenery unlike any other.”

Wu Yue described everything he had seen in detail. His account was fragmented and hardly entertaining. He had never been good at telling stories, but Bigmouth Liu listened with complete attention.

“There are even more sect cultivators—the immortals of ordinary people’s eyes. They possess all kinds of supernatural abilities: flight, command of water and fire, earth-escaping, sword-riding, seeking the Dao, forming golden cores. And there are countless sects as well.”

As he spoke, Wu Yue could clearly see the old woman’s eyes light up, only to dim again almost at once.

Wu Yue himself did not understand why he had said so much. Bigmouth Liu listened greedily, missing not a single word.

“Elder Sister! Elder Sister! I found it!”

The boy’s delighted cry suddenly rang out. He came running over with something held high in his hands.

“This is the thing you like best, Elder Sister. Luckily, it wasn’t smashed.”

Wu Yue glanced over absentmindedly, then saw what the object was. His pupils contracted sharply, and a tremendous tumult arose in his heart.

Someone from home.

Those three words appeared in Wu Yue’s mind, and his eyes flashed. This might truly be the second Earthling he had ever encountered—perhaps an even purer one. Zhang Xuandao had made it difficult for Wu Yue to feel any sense of kinship with him.

The object that had shaken Wu Yue so deeply was none other than a mobile phone, a standard product of the twenty-first century.

If this person came from the same place as him, then Wu Yue’s heart began to pound wildly. Great things might yet be possible.

Bigmouth Liu did not notice his expression. She took the phone from the boy and gently stroked it with her fingers.

“Only this can prove that I do not belong here. Otherwise, I would truly think I had merely dreamed it all—a dream that lasted twenty years.”

“I am not from this place. I came from a blue planet. There are immortals there too, but only in stories. There are also countless people, and I lived in the country with the largest population.”

“It was a beautiful and fascinating country, and I lived a very happy life. Looking back now, I realize how happy I was. I did not have to work, much less toil in the fields. Every day I went online, wandered through the streets, and only occasionally had to listen to some long-winded professor lecture.”

“The streets there were lively too. There were so many beautiful clothes and so much delicious food—flavors you could never imagine.”

As she spoke, a trace of childlike innocence appeared on Bigmouth Liu’s face.

“We could use airplanes to travel through the sky and submarines to explore the deep sea. There were televisions and computers too. No matter how far away someone was, a single message could reach them. Thinking about it now, wasn’t that the life of immortals?”

“It was a truly wonderful life. Then one day, for no reason at all, I arrived here. At first I was delighted. Where I came from, we called such a thing transmigration. Countless people envied it and longed for it to happen, yet it happened to me.”

Bigmouth Liu’s voice gradually sank lower.

“My parents here did not like me because I was a girl. What work could a girl do? How could a girl compare with a boy? I had no happy childhood. Every day, I longed to grow up. I wanted to grow up quickly, leave this place, and go see the outside world. But what was the outside world like? No one could tell me.”

“At last, I grew up, but life did not change. The people here could not understand poetry or writing, nor did they need anyone with learning. All they needed was someone who could fight and farm. They did not even brush their teeth or bathe. Yet my parents here—and everyone else here—believed I should marry a man like that.”

“I longed for an immortal to come here. Every day I stood on the mountain, waiting. I thought about escaping, leaving this place and this mountain behind. I asked around in secret, but no one knew the way, and no one had ever left. I ran away two hundred and seventy-two times in all, from the age of fifteen until I was thirty.”

“I failed every time. There were wild beasts and endless roads. This place was like a vast prison that kept me locked inside. Everyone around me was a beast. They understood nothing. They knew nothing.”

Bigmouth Liu murmured to herself.

“After my parents died, I felt no sorrow. I even thought that at last my fortunes would change. But they did not. I only learned how difficult life truly was.”

“I am not afraid of death. Not at all. I am only afraid that even after I die, my soul will remain here, endlessly reincarnating in this place.”

Wu Yue could understand how she felt. It was loneliness, and the pain of belonging nowhere. For a young person from a modern city to be suddenly cast into a savage wilderness—such an experience could drive anyone mad.

Hearing the death wish in the voice of this fellow countrywoman, Wu Yue asked, “What is your name?”

Bigmouth Liu raised her head in confusion. “My name is Liu—no.”

She spoke with sudden firmness.

“My name is Lin Xiuxiu.”

“My name is Wu Yue. Fellow countrywoman, it is good to meet you.”

“What did you say?”

Bigmouth Liu had not dared believe she had heard him correctly, so she asked again.

“Fellow countrywoman,” Wu Yue said softly.

Bigmouth Liu’s face was covered in tears. They fell like beads from a curtain.

Who knew how many people from home had died far from home?