Chapter One: Song Family Village

  During the Song and Yuan dynasties, a clan with the surname Shang was unable to withstand the chaos of war and moved their tribe to the deep mountains of southern Fujian. They also changed their surname to Song, in order to remember their country. Later, due to the harassment of fierce beasts and bandits in the mountains, they built an earthen tower between the mountains to protect their people, and named it Song Family Fortress.

  The outermost building of Songjia Fort is a five-story building, made of glutinous rice and red sugar mixed with sand and compacted, extremely hard and firm. Although it has experienced the vicissitudes of time, it still stands proudly. Except for the outer five-story building, all the buildings inside the fort are one-story tile houses, which are like concentric circles, nested together, forming a total of five rings of earth buildings. In the innermost part is a high and majestic square tile house with a swallowtail roof, where the Song family ancestral temple is located. Generally, weddings, funerals, and banquets in the fort are held within this ancestral temple.

  At this time, in a room near the ancestral hall, two men were rummaging through things in the house.

  "Ah Wen, found anything?"

  Song Hu, who was searching through a pile of miscellaneous items with his head down, looked up and asked Song Wen on the side.

  Recently, the two men's grandfather passed away. As usual, they had to clean up the house and throw away things that the deceased person used to get rid of bad luck and prevent the spread of germs left behind by the deceased. Since their grandfather died a natural death, there was no need for them to be overly cautious. Knowing that there were many good things in his room, they came over to search for them. However, some of the more valuable items had already been taken away by older family members, leaving only a pile of miscellaneous trinkets behind. The two men spent half a day searching but couldn't find anything useful.

  "No."

  Song Wen responded without lifting his head, picked up a comb in his hand, glanced at it, and threw it aside. He then picked up a fan, felt that it was not bad, and began to examine it.

  The fan was thirty centimeters long, with a layer of dust on its surface. When opened, the dust flew everywhere. The open fan face was sixty centimeters wide, with two large characters "Ruyi" written on one side, accompanied by several unknown seals, and a landscape painting on the other. Underneath the fan hung a golden tassel, also covered in dust, with a green jade bead hanging from it, which sparkled brightly after being gently wiped clean. He took a look, thought the fan was pretty good, put it away, and continued to rummage through the pile of miscellaneous items.

  When I was a kid, I often played in my grandfather's house and knew that he had many small toys. Unfortunately, my grandfather was also a stingy person, you could look but not take. Now that I finally have the chance, of course, I have to rummage through them carefully.

  Soon, Song Wen fished out a copper mirror from the miscellaneous items. The copper mirror was about ten or more centimeters in size. Perhaps it had been too long, and rust had formed, but the surface of the mirror was smooth, still able to reflect people's images clearly. On the back of the mirror, a carving of an unknown beast floated, with a ferocious face. Above this unknown beast, there was a bat spreading its wings, flying high, with a vivid expression, as if it were about to break out of the mirror.

  Song Wen took a look and felt it was pretty good-looking, so he picked it up. After working hard for half a day, he finally had some gains.

  He looked up to see Song Hu still searching through the pile of miscellaneous items, his left hand opening a fan and his right hand holding a mirror, revealing his snow-white teeth, making a ferocious face, and shouting loudly: "Ha, you demon, aren't you going to die?"

  Song Hu raised his head and looked at him, directly rolling his eyes and saying: "Big brother, how old are you now, still so childish."

  He said that Song Wen didn't mind either, holding the copper mirror and fan to ask him: "How is it? Does it look like that Lei Gong Electric Mother?"

  "If you pucker up your mouth a bit, it's Lei Zhengzi, big brother."

  "It's your grandfather's." Song Wen cursed loudly.

  "My grandfather is not your grandfather."

  "Uh..."

  Song Wen was speechless for a moment.

  Song Hu said that Lei Zhenzi actually has a story. When Song Wen was still in school, he went to get a haircut and didn't know what happened, but when he got to school, his hair all stood up, just like Lei Zhenzi in the TV series "Fengshen Bang". So everyone laughed and gave him the nickname "Lei Zhenzi", but apparently Song Wen wasn't too fond of this nickname.

  Song Hu continued searching in the storage room and after a while, he finally found what he was looking for.

  "Haha, I found it too."

  "What's that?"

  "Yes."

  Song Hu raised his hand with a slightly yellow slingshot and showed off to Song Wen.

  "What do you want this broken slingshot for?" Song Wen asked strangely.

  "What a broken bow, this bow is made of old dragon eye wood, and this rubber band is authentic wild boar tendon, even the skin is old wild boar skin. I had a hard time finding it." Song Hu said angrily.

  "Oh, I remember now. It was you who broke the chili pepper family's water tank with a slingshot and got scolded by her mom, right? And then Grandpa took it away from you." Song Wen suddenly realized.

  "That's all in the past."

  Song Hu scratched his head with some embarrassment.

  In the past, I was silly and didn't know anything. I took a new slingshot and walked around with it, shooting at everything. I don't know how many chickens and ducks I scared away or how many stray dogs I chased off. But then, accidentally, I broke someone's water jar. As a result, my brand-new slingshot was taken away by Grandpa after only using it for a few days, leaving me filled with regret.

  "Hey, this broken fan is pretty good, and there's a piece of jade too. Looks like it's worth quite a bit."

  Song Hu saw the jade bead pendant on Song Wen's fan and his eyes lit up. Ever since he watched that antique collection program on TV, everything looked like an antique to him, everything was a treasure, so much so that things around the village that caught his eye were all brought back home by him, even those ancient-style roof tiles used for building houses were secretly pried off and taken home by him. Fortunately, it didn't cost much money, otherwise his father would have disowned him.

  "What's expensive?"

  At this time, Song Hu's father, also known as Song Wen's second uncle, Song Yuanshan, walked in.

  "It's this one, Dad! Look at how green this bead is. Is it jade?" Song Hu pointed to the jade bead on the fan and said.

  "Huh, when did you come to understand this too?" Song Yuanshan said with a sneer.

  "Just take a look, just take a look."

  "Not every green bead is jade, kiddo. This one's glass, get it?"

  Song Yuanshan scolded his son in a bad temper, he was completely helpless with this son, saying and scolding him didn't work, it was really frustrating.

  "Alright, you all go out and help if there's nothing wrong. Don't mess around here. Your mom and the others had a hard time cleaning up these things, look, they're all messed up again because of you."

  Song Wen and Song Hu flipped through things randomly, didn't put them back neatly, and made a mess.

  Song Hu saw it was not good and hastily gave Song Wen a signal with his eyes, then walked out.

  When passing the threshold, Song Wenyi accidentally stepped on empty air and fell to the ground with a thud. Fortunately, his hands were clasped in front of his chest, so he was fine. However, both hands had some skin scraped off, and a few drops of blood appeared. The copper mirror and fan in his hands also got stained with some blood, but those stains vanished instantly, and it was unclear where they went.

  Song Hu, who was walking in front, heard the sound and turned his head to look back. He found Song Wen lying on the ground and asked with concern: "What's wrong? Are you okay?"

  "It's nothing, just accidentally fell."

  Song Wen struggled to get up from the ground.

  Song Yuanshan heard the sound and came out, seeing the scrape on Song Wen's arm, he frowned and said: "The skin is scraped off, go to Ah Fen's place to wash it, lest it gets inflamed."

  "It's nothing, I'll just go home and apply some iodine."

  "Better go wash up."

  "Oh..."

  Under Song Yuanshan's persuasion, Song Wen had no choice but to go wash his wound.

  Song Family Mansion was built in the Song and Yuan dynasties, now it has a history of seven or eight hundred years. During this period, except for replacing rotten wooden pillars, nothing else has been changed inside the mansion. Perhaps it's too old, most houses inside the mansion emit a musty smell, especially on rainy days.

  Nowadays, with good economic conditions, some people do not want to live in the fortress and have built houses outside. Later, the head of the Song family discussed with the elders of the clan and simply planned a piece of land outside the fortress, allowing people from the fortress to build houses, which is now the new village of Songjia Fortress.

  The earliest buildings in Songjiabao New Village were two-story houses made of red bricks, while the later ones were mostly three-story houses, row by row, planned neatly. The streets on both sides of the house can accommodate two cars side by side, and there are shops on both sides of the street.

  Nowadays, everyone likes to travel to quiet places in the suburbs. More and more people are coming to Songjiabao for tourism. Especially after the earth buildings were listed as a World Cultural Heritage site, even more people came to visit, and the businesses of shops on both sides of the street became increasingly prosperous. The place where Song Wen went to wash his wound was among these shops.

  Out of the castle gate, Song Huo picked up some stones from the side of the road and loaded them into his slingshot, occasionally aiming at things on the roadside, eager to try.

  When he was a kid, this guy used to catch cats and dogs, causing trouble in the countryside, digging up bird nests, catching loaches, digging sweet potatoes, and touching fish, and now that he's already a father of a child, he still acts like a little kid, not settling down at all, no wonder his old man Song Yuan Shan doesn't get along with him.

  He glanced at him, Song Wen thought about himself and felt very ashamed. He was almost thirty years old but still hadn't married. Looking at this young man beside him, he was a mess when he was young, but grew up to be a good person and married a virtuous wife, making people jealous.

  This time, my grandfather passed away. I happened to be abroad for a year and was also tired of the wandering life, so I simply quit my job and returned home, planning to settle down, marry a wife, have a child, and spend the rest of my life here.

  Song Hu held up his slingshot and looked around, suddenly whispering to Song Wen: "Ah Wen, when are you getting married? If you don't have a partner, I can introduce one to you. Let me tell you, my wife has a great sister-in-law, the more beautiful she is, the more gentle she is, still single, and also a rich woman, you'll be set for life if you marry her. And I heard she's still a virgin."

  "You're a banana, aren't you? You've eaten your fill and have nothing better to do, just mind your own business!" Song Wen scolded in annoyance. After returning home, he hadn't had a moment's peace, with people eager to introduce him to potential partners lining up from one end of the village to the other. He never thought that this guy, who grew up wearing split pants together since childhood, would also try this trick.

  "Am I not concerned about you?" Song Hu said with a smile.

  Song Wen ignored him, suddenly a fat bird flew over the sky, and it was not flying high. He hurriedly called out: "Ah Hu, quickly, quickly shoot it down, we'll have an extra dish for dinner tonight."

  Song Hu also saw the big bird flying in front of him, took a glance, and calmly pulled out his slingshot to shoot it down.

  "Hiss"

  The pebbles flew out quickly and disappeared into the sky in an instant. Then, a large bird in the sky let out a mournful cry and fell from above.

  An old man walked from afar, and a big bird just fell in front of him, startling him. The old man looked down and suddenly turned around and shouted: "Spring Flower, your family's Muscovy duck has been killed..."

  "Wooden duck?"

  Song Wen and Song Hu were stunned, looking at each other in dismay, thinking to themselves: "No way, can ducks really fly in the sky?"