Chapter 1: Unquestioning Filial Piety 1
Author: 打字机N号
T/N: This is a MTL work. I tried to edit as best as I could, any mistake plz do put your comment and I will edit it ASAP. This is my first attempt on chinese novel so please cheer me up! I hope you will find this novel as interesting as I do.
“This is really a big deal. How could a stone on the mountain ended up falling down and happened to hit Liu – zi head so coincidentally?
“What kind of nonsense is that? Don't you see that the blood all over the place? Liu – zi is already lost his consciousness, and I am not sure if he can be save or not. You look at his wife who is still silently crying. If worse comes to worse, her days will be even harder.”
“Her days doesn't necessary have to be bad, right? If he is gone, then she's still can go back to her family's house, and she might even meets a more kind-hearted in-laws in the future. Her little days might even be much better than now."
"Hey, this kind of thing can't be said so casually. Be careful. If the old couple hear this they might come to find you.”
—–
Jiang Liu heard lingering sounds of arguments around him. He endured a headache as he slowly opened his eyes. What greeted his eyes were several black and yellow skinny faces.
“Woke up, Liu-zi already woke up!”
Seeing him opening his eyes, the farmer with paramedical training [T/N: They were also known as barefooted doctor] who was about to paste the some kind of plant and ash on Jiang Liu's head immediately shouted at the people around him.
“He already woke up. It is estimated that it is only skin trauma and nothing else. There should not be any big problem."
When the farmer with the paramedical training initially saw the blood flowing down from Jiang Liu head, he was shocked. He was only someone who was a half-way doctor and so far he only dealt with the villagers' small wounds and pain. He had never encountered this kind of heavy injury.
Therefore, he was planning to use the ash to stop the bleeding before asking the team leader to send Jiang Liu to the county hospital. He never thought that the other party will woke up immediately.
According to the knowledge of this half-way doctor, since Jiang Liu already woke up, then the wound should not be big problem. Even though there was still lots of blood coming out, but with proper nourishment, he should be back on his feet soon enough.
———-
“Liu-zi, can you recognize me?”
Seeing Jiang Liu looking so confused, the doctor quickly took a step forward as his whole face magnified in Jiang Liu's eyes before directly touching his [Jiang Liu] face.
I don't know, of course I don't know anyone here ah!
Jiang Liu wanted to answer as such when he suddenly realized that not long time ago, he was bounded by a silicon-based creature known as the Righteous father’s system: 001. Now, he no longer his old self.
It was said that the life of Jiang Liu while he was still alive was full of rich experience.
When he was three years old, his father was killed by the metal framework that was dropped accidentally on the construction site. The contractor who had no conscience just compensated them with 20,000 yuan. And then, at the age of five, his mother finally couldn't stand the life of poverty and widowhood. She finally took all the money at home and ran with other man.
In this way, Jiang Liu became an orphan. He then lived a bitter life with his only grandfather while relying on the pity of the relatives and the neighboring villagers.
At the age of fourteen, his only relatives finally left him. Jiang Liu then simply sold the old house and used the money to give his grandfather a funeral. After that, he simply took the remaining money, carrying a small bag and stepped into the big dye tank called society.
He didn’t have much qualification since his education stopped at junior high school. Due to that, he could only pursued the same career as his father who died early.
In the construction site, he saw the life of the people who were at the bottom of the society. He learned how to be thick skinned while keeping his mouth sweet. He learned how to tie the steel bars, pouring the concrete, doing the masonry plastering, and even learning how to do auto repair with the auto repairman at the construction site.
Ten years later, he was already a veteran. He formed a small team based on his personal connections and when he became a contractor, his income started to went up.
According to Jiang Liu's life plan, if you already making a lots of money, then you should put the searching for a wife on the agenda. For him, as long as he has enough money, a wife and a son, then his life was basically settled.
Unfortunately, he could not wait until he saved enough money to ride on his dream. The small project that he was contracted with ended up having an accident. A worker got drunk after the construction's hours. Without any safety measures, he fell down from the dozen-story high building and lost his life. The relatives and friends of that man rushed over from the countryside. During the tumble, Jiang Liu finally got unlucky. He fell into the raised sharp stone and became a ghost.
During the last moment, Jiang Liu also regretted that he had spent his life as a miser for the sake of saving the money. He didn't know for whose sake that he had become such a scrooge. If he knew that he will ended up this way, he is better of spending his money drinking, eating and do all those stuff that had had never did before.
Just as he was ready to accept his death, his consciousness was taken to a strange space. At that time, a little guy known as the Righteous father’s system: 001 appeared in front of him. He did not give him any choice and directly bound him as its host.
Despite all that, Jiang Liu himself did not have any intention to resist it. Although by binding himself to the system meant that he need to go to the other world to perform tasks, or that every success will be rewarded, while failure will be punished, but it is still better to be alive that dead.
Jiang Liu had no great sentiment. He only knew that his consciousness was still there. He is still alive. Whether he will be happy or not in his next life is no longer a certainty, right?
Therefore, Jiang Liu felt that it was quite good to be selected by 001. Isn’t it just performing some tasks? He had overcame so many big winds and waves in his early years, and he even died not long ago. Therefore, is there anything that he need to be afraid of?
Now, looking at the situation, it seemed that he has come to the first mission world.
It's just that he hasn't absorbed the memory left by his original body. Therefore, if he rashly responded to others, it will likely attracted people's doubts. It just that the original body seemed to have been wounded and just woke up. Therefore Jiang Liu simply closed his eyes and fall back. While lying on the wooden frame, he pretended to faint.
“Hey, how did you suddenly went dead again? Didn't you just return to the light?”
The smile turned stiff as he said something unlucky while in panic.
“Hey–”
Although the village doctor was not reliable, but the people on the team are very convinced of his medical skills. Therefore when he said those words, most people believed that Jiang Liu had met his demise. The black and thin old man sat softly on the ground and cried.
“My Liu-zi, my son!"
Miao Caifeng, that was the mother of this body, started to cry loudly.
“I blame you for this misfortune. Since you entered the door, there is nothing good to happen. After so many years, you still haven't given my son a child. If something happened to him, then you must die with him. You're the messenger of death, you are the one who got him killed, how come that you are not dead instead of him?”
Miao Caifeng cried before she stood up and rushed to a woman who was completely squatted on the ground. She reached for her hair while her other hand hit the woman's body.
The woman seemed to feel no pain. Her eyes looked straight at the man with the bloodied head on her bed. There was sorrow in her eyes.
“Miao-shenzi, stop fighting. Your son is not necessarily dead. If you broke your daughter-in-law, then who are going to take care of our son?"
"That's right Miao-shenzi. Liu-zi was smashed by the stone and no one wished for it to happen. This has nothing to do with Xu Xiuxiu."
Everyone tried to diffuse the fight, but even then, Xu Xiuxiu already looked so miserable. Her face and her arms were scratched by nails, looking red and scarred. Her hair looked even worse than the chicken coop.
They knew how badly the day that Xu Xiuxiu had faced while living with the Jiang family. The Jiang old couple finally have a pair of dragon and phoenix at their old age. As for their eldest son, they cannot wait to work him like an ox. This son also know filial piety. Not only did he worked like an ox, but he also forced his wife to work with him while also taking care the old Jiang house.
In Jiang family, that couple was the one who work the most yet ate the least. Even then, from time to time, they could hear Miao-shenzi scolding the daughter-in-law, Xu Xiuxiu, as an embarrassment. As everyone said, for Xu Xiuxiu to marry into Jiang family was like marrying into a wolf nest.
But what was the solution? Xu Xiuxiu’s mother had died early. Because of that, her mother couldn’t let her live good life. Now that her maternal family was not here to support her, she can't even complain for the hurt she faced and had to do everything in the house.
"Leader, I can’t cure this injury, so I think that we should send him to the county hospital. It’s better to be fast, or else I am afraid that his blood will drain out.”
The opening by the village doctor gave the captain a big idea.
“If you go to the county hospital to see a doctor, how much will it cost? Our family do not have such money."
Miao Caifeng who had been struggling to reach her daughter-in-law suddenly yelled at the people on the side.
Perhaps she felt that her reaction was a bit cold as a mother that she quickly added.
“Our house broken recently so we had used our money to repair it. We even welcome this ill-fated woman in."
She looked sorrowful as she sat down and started to cry once again.
Everyone was like, you look at me, and I look at you, as they looked around.
Just looking at Miao Caifeng's crying, they thought that even if she was heartless, she should had some feelings for her eldest son. But this time, when the village doctor said that they need to send their son to the county hospital in order to save his life, the old lady had decided to refuse it profusely. After all, the Jiang couple have been working all this years to earn the work point. Therefore, how could they lose even a penny? In her final analysis, Miao Caifeng feels that it is not necessary to spend money on this son.
“The injury of Liu-zi was also related to his work with the dam. I am going to ask the upper office to reimburse half of it. As for the rest, I heard that the hospital in the county has some regulations. You can first treat the disease, and then pay. As for peasants who do not have money in their hands, it can be deducted from the work points every month until they are paid off."
Big Guan was after all the team leader and Jiang Liu was also got the injury while working to repair the dam. If he doesn’t care about the people in his team, his team member might ended up feel alarmed over it.
"Cure, must let him cured."
A hoarse female voice broke the quiet atmosphere.
Xu Xiuxiu stepped forward before kneeling and begging Big Guan.
"Leader's uncle, please, I beg you to open the strip. Whether or not you can save Jiang Liu, we will remember your kindness. As for the money for treatment, let's deduct it from the work points according to the leader's uncle. As long as I am alive, I can always pay off the debt."
Xu Xiuxiu had thought about it. After all in the end, despite their hard work, all those benefits that they should receive will never reach the heads of this husband and wife. Furthermore, even though Jiang Liu had a blinded filial piety, he does not have the habit of hitting his wife like many men in the country. Once Jiang Liu dead, she will inevitably going to be forced to re-married by her family. As a woman who had not been able to conceive for a decade, her choice to remarriage might brought even more disaster to herself.
In contrast to this, it was better to send Jiang Liu to see a doctor. When the brigade owed the money with the hospital, then her mother in law will not be able to force her to remarry. What's more, the team will also not agree with it.
Her life was amount to that, and Xu Xiuxiu's face was so heavy that she feel there was no point to even get angry
“If the leader willing to owe the money than it's okay for us."
When Miao Caifeng initially heard the words of her daughter-in-law, her face suddenly turned ugly. Her daughter-in-law seemed to imply that she as a mother would stop her son from seeing a doctor. So she grudgingly acquiesced.
But that was the county hospital, who knows how much money will be spent to treat that injury. Miao Caifeng was afraid that this will become a debt to the whole family, dragging the younger son, Jiang Juan and his younger daughter, Jiang Hua.
Everyone also guessed her careful thoughts. Looking at the silent old Jiang, everyone's heart was getting more and more disdainful of this bias old couple.
"Then quickly put him on the ox cart."
Big Guan no longer delay, and quickly let his son to drive the oxcart. He then took some money and meal tickets and followed Xu Xiuxiu to sit on the oxcart.
Jiang Chuangen and Miao Caifeng seemed to be afraid of going to the hospital which required them to fork out their own money so decisively moved to the side.
When Big Guan saw their action, he let his son quickly drive the oxcart and no longer wait for the bias Jiang old couple.
“My family is really a bitter, blame me for being a useless mother, my heart, ah, it's like being cut by a knife."
Even if the oxcart has gone far, the people on the oxcart can still hear Miao Caifeng wailing at them. It was like she was afraid that some people would not know that she was actually feeling “painful” over her decision.
The people on the cart were worried therefore no one saw a sardonic smile appeared Jiang Liu who should have been in “coma".
Note: -zi or -shenzi is a suffix at end of one name similar to japanese -chan or -san