Don’t think cutting pig fodder was an easy job.
In reality, it was not only physically demanding, but also required quick eyes and even quicker hands.
Pigs might seem stupid and willing to eat anything, but that wasn’t actually true.
Several nearby production teams raised pigs, and since pigs ate a lot, edible pig grass was always in short supply.
Whenever someone discovered a new patch of pig grass, they would almost certainly run into people from another production brigade.
Fortunately, everyone had reached an unspoken agreement—whoever cut it first got to keep it. So far, no one had resorted to violence over pig grass.
The two young educated youths worked themselves to exhaustion every day, following behind Ye Qingyun and cutting grass with all their might, just to keep this relatively easy job.
Unfortunately for them, they had run into a naturally gifted workaholic—Ye Qingyun.
As the second sword cultivator of the Hehuan Sect, she refused to let anyone be faster than her except her senior sister.
When their hands became covered in blisters, the two youths finally accepted reality.
Instead of competing with a workaholic…
They might as well lie flat.
Ye Qingyun didn’t care. If they wanted to slack off, they could. She would still do her own work properly.
Before long, she had built a reputation as someone diligent, hardworking, and utterly dependable.
The members of Team Two all praised her. Although she came from the city, she worked efficiently without any trace of the delicate airs city people supposedly had. She was far better than that old fellow Wang Tiezhu.
Wu Younian also breathed a sigh of relief.
He had been worried that his second younger sister wouldn’t be able to adapt to rural life.
Now he could finally stop worrying.
Only Ye Qingyun was puzzled.
Who was Wang Tiezhu?
She shrugged.
Who cared?
She still had to head farther away to gather pig grass. She had already harvested everything along the riverbank.
After spending quite a bit of effort over the past few days, she had finally found an excellent patch of pig grass that no one from the other production teams knew about.
So after taking a nap at noon and finishing all the housework, she leisurely slung her basket over her back and headed there.
The harder she worked, the faster she got hungry.
And she kept craving something tasty.
There were five mouths to feed with three meals a day. Only half a month had passed, yet all the meat and cooking oil she’d bought from the supply and marketing cooperative were already gone.
The eighteen yuan she had left would have to last until the summer harvest.
So where was she supposed to find some free meat?
As Ye Qingyun walked along the ridge toward the ancient tree, her mind spun frantically.
She was so lost in thought that she accidentally stepped on someone.
The other person cried out first.
“Which blind little brat was that? Can’t you see someone’s lying here?”
“I’m sorry.”
Ye Qingyun quickly apologized before looking down.
She saw an old man covered in patched clothing, barefoot, with messy hair and an unkempt beard, clutching his injured foot while cursing furiously.
She was just about to ask whether he was hurt.
Suddenly, the old man grabbed her arm and stopped shouting.
When Ye Qingyun met the familiar look in his eyes, she froze as well.
Before she could react, the old man threw his arms around her and burst into tears.
“Disciple! Your master has missed you so much! I’ve waited so long for all of you!”
Ye Qingyun: “…”
That damned familiar feeling…
If this wasn’t her utterly unreliable master, Xiaoyaozi, then who else could it be?
With tears and snot running down his face, Xiaoyaozi wailed,
“My life has been miserable! Without my disciples taking care of me, I can’t even eat or dress properly!”
Ye Qingyun immediately replied with equal sorrow,
“I’m even worse off! Three hundred years of cultivation went to waste. I became a widow raising four children, and now I’m back in my hometown raising pigs!”
Master and disciple looked at each other.
Then hugged each other and cried their eyes out.
A minute later.
After venting their emotions, Ye Qingyun patted her still-complaining master, signaling him to follow her so they could compare what had happened after their rebirth.
Xiaoyaozi…
No.
He was now the villager Wang Tiezhu.
Wang Tiezhu wiped away his muddy tears and asked blankly,
“Where are we going?”
“To cut pig grass.”
Wang Tiezhu stared at her in disbelief.
“What?! We finally meet again after all this time, and you’re still thinking about that damned pig grass?”
Ye Qingyun calmly replied,
“I’m now a farmer in the Seven Ridge Village Production Brigade. The brigade assigned me the task of gathering pig grass, and the pigs are waiting to eat. I have to finish the work the brigade assigned me.”
“And besides, since we’re already here, we should make the best of it. Isn’t that what you taught me, Master?”
She turned around, her large blinking eyes filled with sincerity.
Wang Tiezhu scratched his head in confusion.
“I taught you that?”
Had he ever taught his disciple something so… respectable?
Ye Qingyun nodded firmly.
“You did.”
Wang Tiezhu was left speechless.
But with that interruption, the sadness completely disappeared.
While cutting pig grass, the master and disciple quickly exchanged information about their new lives.
Xiaoyaozi had been reborn six months earlier into the body of Wang Tiezhu, an old bachelor from the Seven Ridge Village Production Brigade.
Wang Tiezhu was forty-nine years old.
He had no parents, no siblings, and lived one day at a time.
He was the village’s most notorious slacker.
His only property was a tiny, dilapidated wooden shack. His rice jar was emptier than his face was clean, and every year he ended up owing the production brigade grain because he hadn’t earned enough work points.
After Xiaoyaozi took over his body, he fully committed to staying in character.
In fact, he surpassed the original owner.
He flirted with young women, married women, and didn’t even spare widows.
As a result, he successfully won the title of the most unpopular man in the Seven Ridge Village Production Brigade.
Ye Qingyun wasn’t surprised in the slightest.
She had long since grown accustomed to her master’s behavior.
What puzzled her was something else.
Why had her master been reborn six months earlier than she had?
Could it be that his rebirth had nothing to do with her heavenly tribulation?
Just as relief began to rise in her heart, Wang Tiezhu suddenly shouted,
“Disciple, you have no idea! The day you ascended, the entire sect was celebrating. Then, out of nowhere, a heavenly lightning bolt carrying enough power to destroy the world crashed straight onto our sect’s mountain!”
“I watched helplessly as the entire sect was reduced to rubble. No one survived… Your four senior brothers and sisters all…”
He deliberately paused there and shot his youngest disciple, who was diligently cutting grass, a resentful look.
Ye Qingyun hadn’t expected it to really have been caused by her heavenly tribulation. Feeling guilty, she coughed awkwardly.
“Master… I never expected the laws of Heaven to change.”
The moment the words left her mouth, she braced herself.
Normally, her petty master would have smacked her twice on the head.
Instead, Wang Tiezhu’s reaction was unexpectedly calm.
“Yes…”
“Everything has changed.”
Standing with his hands behind his back, dressed in patched clothes, he looked up at the sky with an unfathomable expression.
“You don’t need to blame yourself too much. The laws have changed. After the founding of the nation, ascension is no longer permitted. The fact that you and I could be reborn as ordinary mortals and survive another hundred years is already Heaven’s mercy.”
Her master might be unreliable, but he was unparalleled in the art of divination.
His words always carried meaning.
Ye Qingyun’s heart trembled.
So that meant…
Her senior brothers and sisters had been reborn too.
Only the times and places of their rebirth were probably different.
Master and disciple exchanged a single glance.
That was enough for each of them to know exactly what the other was thinking.
Wang Tiezhu gently shook his head, signaling her not to ask any more questions.
Because the answer was simple:
Heaven’s secrets must not be revealed.
Talk too much, and lightning might strike.
Sure enough.
A bolt of lightning suddenly tore across the clear sky.
The frightened master and disciple immediately lowered their heads and cut pig grass with frantic speed, their hands moving so fast they became afterimages.
We’re behaving ourselves now! Please spare us!