Pearl Light

Part 3

5

My Story?

There's nothing much to tell about my story.

My name is Li Zhen Zhu, and I don't remember anything before I was five years old.

When I was five, a plague swept through Li Family Village, killing my parents and leaving only me.

But the prolonged fever damaged my brain.

Neighbors would give me some food.

Farmers are kind-hearted, and the children of farmers mature early.

I picked up broken firewood, gathered fallen grains, and even once found two sick chickens.

In the heavy autumn rain when I was seven, I held those two sick chickens in my arms, waiting for someone to claim them.

"Sick chickens can spread disease, nobody wants them. You can take them."

Those two sick chickens recovered, and then the chickens laid eggs, and the eggs hatched into chicks.

"Heaven doesn't let good people starve! Look, although Zhen Zhu is a bit clumsy, she's quite skilled at raising animals."

"The chickens from other families don't lay eggs, but Li Zhen Zhu's chickens lay double-yolked eggs."

When I was twelve, I found Da Huang, who was being pelted with stones by children.

"Do you have no one to care for you either?"

Da Huang wagged his tail and whimpered.

When Da Huang came, I had my first family member.

Then, when I was fourteen, I found Xie Wu Chen.

His clothes were tattered, and he was unconscious, holding a rusted long sword tightly in his arms.

Even in that state, he couldn't hide his celestial appearance, with skin like jade, looking like a lotus flower emerging untainted from the mud.

The sun was scorching that day, and I was afraid he would get sunburned, so I shaded him with two lotus leaves.

I waited all day, but no one came to claim him and say, "This is an unwanted item, Zhen Zhu, you can take it."

Village Chief Li had told me that if no one says an item is unwanted, you can't take it, otherwise, it's stealing.

When the sun set, I furtively looked around.

Under the cover of darkness, I stole Xie Wu Chen back home.

I propped myself up and looked at him, thinking it was a waste.

Such a big man, and nobody wanted him.

I counted on my fingers.

There were three people in my family before: my father, my mother, and me.

Village Chief Li said three people make a home.

Now I had Da Huang, and this man.

So he would be the father, I would be the mother, and Da Huang would be Zhen Zhu.

Hehe, Li Zhen Zhu had a home again.

But Xie Wu Chen was gravely injured.

I cooked rice porridge and chicken soup, feeding him bit by bit.

On the third day, he opened his eyes.

The first thing he did was reach for his sword and point it at me, looking around warily:

"Where am I? Who are you?"

Later, I found out he was a sword cultivator from Lingchen Peak, having fallen to the mortal realm after failing his ascension.

No wonder there were thunderstorms recently; it was Lingchen Peak cultivators undergoing tribulations.

The injured Xie Wu Chen stayed at my home, waiting to prove his Dao to the heavens again in five years.

I couldn't bear to let his sword-wielding hands do farm work.

Aunt Liu, who sold tofu, laughed at me:

"Zhen Zhu, why don't you let your husband work instead?"

I shook my head and wiped the sweat off my brow:

"He's not a farmer, it would wear him out."

"What kind of man eats for free? He should at least help you chop some firewood." Aunt Liu snorted, "Only Zhen Zhu is foolish enough to treat a stone as a treasure."

"He... you aren't around when he chops firewood. He can read and write, he's a scholar, and he helps me keep accounts. Auntie, don't worry."

That was the first time I lied.

Xie Wu Chen wouldn't chop wood or help with accounts.

He stayed because he found the spiritual energy in Li Family Village rich, making his cultivation twice as effective with half the effort.

I served egg custard to Xie Wu Chen, looking at him flatteringly:

"If in five years, you still haven't returned, could you stay with me?"

He gave me a cold look:

"I will return to Lingchen. When the time comes, I will repay you."

"You don't owe me anything. If it's fine for you, could you help me with the accounts?" I felt sad, "I can't keep accounts, so I'm always being cheated."

"Fool," Xie Wu Chen sneered, "Why do they only cheat you and not others?"

Yeah, why do they only cheat me and not others?

I pondered all night but couldn't figure it out.

But I didn't think Xie Wu Chen hated me; he just hated all foolish people and things.

Because in the third year, his junior sister, Shi Yu came to visit.

I only then realized that Xie Wu Chen could smile too.