sovbooks 0015 Iron Pot
0015 Iron Pot
After Sun Lu and Zhou Ren finished discussing it face to face, Zhoujiazhai quickly dispatched more than 20 people to carry the bedridden Zhou Gang down Longtan Mountain on a bamboo stretcher.
Due to the rugged mountain roads and the continuous spring rains, the road back to Jiyun Village was muddy and slippery. The group hurried along, finally crossing a mountain and arriving at the location of Jiyun Village just before noon.
However, as soon as they approached their own village, Sun Lu, who was leading the way, smelled an unusual odor.
It was the aroma of stir-fried vegetables, a blend of oil and spices, that whetted one's appetite at first sniff.
If it were a modern person, they probably wouldn't pay much attention to this smell if they smelled it on the street or in their neighborhood.
After all, around lunchtime, both street-side restaurants and ordinary households will be cooking, and the smell of cooking oil can be smelled throughout the entire street and stairwells when the range hoods are turned on.
But this is in the mountains during the late Ming Dynasty!
Let alone the spices used in stir-frying, even Sun Lu herself couldn't remember how many years it had been since she had smelled that oily, greasy aroma from stir-frying.
The Zhou family members who had followed along swallowed hard after smelling the aroma.
"It smells like spices and rendered pork fat!"
"Young Lady Sun, your Jiyun Village has become so wealthy after receiving the immortal's reward! You can even hold a grand open-air banquet during the spring planting season?"
Zhou Ren's throat bobbed as he smelled the fragrant aroma, and his face showed a look of astonishment.
Resources are scarce in Jiyun Mountain. People rarely have even a bowl of thin porridge to drink, let alone the aroma of stir-fried dishes that can only be smelled when wealthy families hold banquets.
"Brother Zhou, I don't know the situation in the village either. It's probably because that immortal has descended to earth again."
Sun Lu responded, and the image of Zhu Shiting flashed through her mind.
After much thought, she concluded that the only person capable of causing such a commotion in this remote mountain village was that elusive and mysterious deity.
Sure enough, as soon as the group carrying the stretcher crossed a hill, they could see crowds of people in Jiyun Village in the distance.
Several gleaming iron pots have been set up on the originally simple open-air threshing floor in the village.
The pots were either simmering with thick rice porridge or being stir-fried with large chunks of fatty pork with big iron shovels.
What surprised the group even more was that the Sun family members in Jiyun Village had completely changed from their previous disheveled appearance, all of them wearing strange gray clothes that Sun Lu and the others couldn't describe, and on their feet were colorful shoes that they didn't recognize.
"How could this be?"
"Could these be celestial robes and shoes bestowed by a celestial being?"
Sun Lu murmured in shock upon seeing this.
She had only been away for less than half a day when she felt an absurd sense of alienation from her own village!
"The young lady is back!"
"Young Miss, please go back to your room and change into your new clothes and shoes. These are all blessings from the God of Wealth."
"The immortal grandfather was afraid we would go hungry, so he sent over some pork slices and spices, and instructed the adults in the family to cook a feast for lunch."
At this moment, several children who were playing outside the village saw Sun Lu leading the team back and all rushed out to greet them, chattering excitedly.
"Where is that immortal being?"
When Sun Lu saw that these naughty children from the clan were now dressed in strange clothes that were obviously several sizes too big, she immediately asked about Zhu Shiting's whereabouts.
"The immortal put down the reward and said he had things to take care of back in Heaven, and would come back later," the children answered truthfully.
"Thank you for your mercy, divine being!"
Upon hearing this, Sun Lu immediately knelt on the ground and kowtowed to the void.
The group of people from Zhoujiazhai behind them, who had never seen a scene of immortals before, also kowtowed upon seeing this.
If they hadn't seen it with their own eyes, they would never have imagined that the Sun family, who were even more destitute than Zhoujiazhai, could live such a blissful life.
With porridge to drink at every meal and clothes to wear for everyone, what else could this be but divine mercy?
……
After the group finished their greetings outside the village, they carefully carried the stretcher into Jiyun Village.
When Zhou Ren got closer and saw the several gleaming, handle-covered, smoky iron pots on the stove, he felt like he couldn't take it all in.
"Was this pot forged from steel that has been refined hundreds or thousands of times?"
"This kind of divine iron is enough to forge cannons, yet it's being used to make kitchen utensils?"
"Truly the actions of immortals, their extravagance is astounding!"
Zhou Ren stared at the iron pot and the wooden-handled iron shovels wielded by the Sun family, his mind starting to go blank.
Looking again at the rusty longsword at his waist, he realized that he was no longer in the mountains, but had gone to the Heavenly Court.
After all, salt and iron have always been strictly controlled by the imperial court, and even in Wenzhou Prefecture, you can't see such thick and shiny iron pots and shovels.
Within the Cloud Mountain in this episode, resources are even scarcer, and there are hardly any decent ironware items.
If it wasn't a gift from the gods, how can we explain the scene before us?
"It seems that what Miss Sun said is true; there really is a celestial being descended to earth."
"Big brother, you're definitely saved this time!"
Zhou Ren shuddered, glanced back at his brother Zhou Gang, who was sleeping unconscious on the stretcher, and unconsciously clenched his fists.
As for Sun Lu, after asking several elders in the village about the details of the celestial being descending to earth to bestow gifts, she went inside and, like the other villagers, changed into a gray work uniform that looked somewhat out of place in the late Ming Dynasty.
"I wonder what material this fairy robe is made of; it feels rather stiff and tough to the touch."
"And the ribbons on these clothes actually reflect light!"
Sun Lu touched the silver warning tape on her shirt and muttered to herself.
Stomping on her newly acquired pair of floral-green liberation shoes with rubber soles, Sun Lu's face was filled with surprise: "These shoes are truly amazing! They fit perfectly and are incredibly slip-resistant. Wearing these, I estimate I can cover much faster distances when traversing mountains and muddy roads."
Just as she was pondering, a commotion came from outside the house, with people calling out to the gods. Upon hearing this, Sun Lu hurriedly ran out of the thatched hut.
On the open-air dam, Zhu Shiting, who had just had lunch in the modern era, was now teleporting over with a pile of Wuchang rice.
"No kneeling or kowtowing!"
"You lot must be from another village, right?"
"Remember my rules: you are not allowed to kowtow to me when we meet."
Zhu Shiting pointed at Zhou Ren and his group who were kneeling and kowtowing, and sternly reprimanded them a few times, while the electric baton in his hand crackled a few times.
Upon seeing the immortal unleash his thunder magic in anger, the group from Zhoujia Village trembled in fear.
"Immortal, please calm down. Brother Zhou and the others are new here and don't know your rules. Please forgive them this time." Sun Lu quickly stepped forward, bowed, and explained, trying to smooth things over.
Zhu Shiting turned around and saw the eldest daughter of the Sun family, whom he hadn't seen for half a day, had changed from that tattered red dress into this work uniform. A playful smile immediately appeared on his face.
Although the woman had changed into new clothes and shoes, she looked noticeably more energetic.
However, in Zhu Shiting's eyes as a modern person, the other person's simple attire made her look exactly like a factory girl who had just come from the mountains and entered the big city to fix screws in an electronics factory!