That mountain is practically his lucky charm, he was determined to turn all that wasteland into fertile fields.
This is also another form of exercise, what’s the saying again? Walking, sitting, or lying down, all can be a form of practice.
But just as Du Chengfeng was about to set off, Yu Second didn’t make a move for a long ti.
"What’s going on?"
Du Chengfeng moved closer.
"What happened?"
"The tools are broken."
Yu Second’s face was quite grim.
It turned out the hoe and shovel were broken, the heavy blade edges clearly had nicks, obviously, they hit sothing hard while clearing the mountain ruins yesterday. But when they returned, it was already dark, and after drinking, nobody noticed.
But this isn’t a small matter, especially for Yu Second.
Although these are just ordinary items, they are still two pieces of iron. If he were to go to town to forge new ones, it would add insult to injury to his already impoverished state—of course, if he absolutely had to use them, he could, but such tools would surely affect efficiency.
Moreover, there’s another important reason he doesn’t want to replace them.
These tools were passed down to him by his late father.
"I see..."
Du Chengfeng scratched his head.
"How about I try to fix them for you?"
"You... know how to fix them?"
Yu Second couldn’t help but lift his head.
Mainly because Du Chengfeng, with a big knife on his back, didn’t look like soone who could do this kind of work.
"I’ll try, what if it works?"
Saying so, Du Chengfeng pulled out a Grinding Stone.
Although he didn’t have experience sharpening farm tools, since they all had edges, it might not be different from sharpening a knife.
Now, he no longer needed to rely on sharpening knives to improve his skills, so the Grinding Stone was just kept as a nto, he hadn’t expected that this old craft could still shine.
"Move aside, don’t block my work."
Finding a bench to sit on, Du Chengfeng removed the hoe and shovel from their handles, preparing to grind them carefully.
The blade edges have more than one nick, showing these tools had been used for a long ti. It was because the user cherished them that they were used till now, but the overly long years inevitably aged these tools. When his fingers touched those old nicks, he could even feel the accumulated mories and imprints of those years.
"...Wait a minute?"
Feeling a familiar sensation, Du Chengfeng was taken aback.
Just grinding a farm tool, could it also evoke mories?
Yes, indeed it could.
It was the mory of a farm youth, sowhat resembling Yu Second in appearance, but looking more mature and honest. To work more efficiently, this youth, known as Old Yu, saved so money to have these handy tools made by a blacksmith in town.
Then it was just an ordinary farming life, exactly like Yu Second’s.
When he first arrived, unacquainted and with limited funds, Old Yu couldn’t afford good farmland, so he negotiated with the local Li Family, renting farmland near the foot of the mountain. Though this wasn’t a great start, Old Yu believed, with diligent hard work, everything would improve.
And it indeed was so, with hard work, Old Yu soon gained a foothold in Li Family Village. In the following years, not only did his situation improve, but he also got married, completely settling down in Li Family Village.
"Not bad."
Even as a bystander, Du Chengfeng couldn’t help admiring Old Yu’s perseverance. He too had been a refugee and could naturally understand the hardships involved. Although he now possessed power, had he not been accidentally led onto this path of carnage, he might have needed several years, like Old Yu, to build bit by bit in Yang Family Fortress.
No, he might not even have been as good as Old Yu, considering he had the knowledge and ideas from Taiping era, had the help of the kind-hearted Carpenter Li, and received a lot of compensations from drifters in Yang Family Fortress, which helped him flourish in Yang Family Fortress.
But Old Yu had nothing, truly starting from scratch.
For a refugee to reach this level is indeed comndable. With his situation improved, Old Yu had the ability to negotiate with the local Li Family to rent better farmland, or simply rely on savings to start a more profitable business—just as Du Chengfeng thought when he was a refugee, step by step, things would eventually get better.
But what puzzled Du Chengfeng was why this capable Old Yu was stuck at this step.
Clearly able to continue developing, Old Yu chose to remain at the foot of the mountain, without moving an inch—of course, it was not that Old Yu hadn’t thought of developing, but his target was the nearby hilltop.
Old Yu’s plan was actually to reclaim wasteland.
"I want to dig the mountain, this way it’ll be safer for farming in the future... As long as this mountain is gone, we can directly channel water from the river for irrigation, wouldn’t that be convenient?"
Old Yu persuaded his family in this way, wanting his wife and children to understand what he was doing.
But in Du Chengfeng’s eyes, this plan seed problematic.
He could cut down mountains and reclaim wasteland because he really could cut mountains, the greatest hurdles were no issue for him, it was only in post-process that he wanted to challenge himself. Assuming he didn’t want to deal with clearing ruins, he could simply take his big knife to the county office and recruit enough manpower to clean the ruins.
But Old Yu... didn’t have that kind of power.
Old Yu neither possessed extraordinary force nor could recruit help; he only had a hoe and shovel, just himself. Just with these, he expected to dig through a mountain—how could that be?
Clearly, relocating would solve the problem; why insist on digging a mountain?
"Crazy, you’re truly crazy."
As Old Yu entered middle age from youth, his wife couldn’t withstand such a hopeless life any longer. She bit her teeth and stamped her foot, and simply returned to her parent’s ho.
But Old Yu kept digging, as if the hill held so enchanting power. Old Yu dug from youth to middle age, then from middle age to old age. Even after his savings were long depleted, his forr wife passed away, and his hair turned gray, he never stopped. Fortunately, he did reclaim so fields, and his son grew up, willing to support him, speeding up his progress.
Yet, ultimately, Old Yu’s body couldn’t withstand it.
The Old Yu who battled with the hilltop all his life finally fell at the mountain’s foot. By the ti he was carried ho, he was done for.
"Mountain, mountain..."
Even when his body was about to give out, Old Yu still clutched the hoe tightly in his hand.
"Mountain..."
"Dad, I’m listening."
Old Yu’s son, Yu Second, quickly ca over and held Old Yu’s hand.
"I will dig the mountain, I will open the fields. Even if I can’t do it, my son, my grandson... I swear, soday the mountain will be dug away!"
"Mountain, mountain..."
Old Yu, seemingly not hearing Yu Second’s vow, just stared in the mountain’s direction, muttering, his voice grew fainter and fainter.
The almost mosquito-buzz-like faint sound was indecipherable to Yu Second.
But Du Chengfeng heard it clearly.
What Old Yu was saying was.
"The treasure in the mountain is mine."
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