Chapter 59: A magical past (1)

I was shocked. There was more than just my master? Was it still the flourishing look of the sect? How come I haven’t met anyone else besides my master?

Seeing my expression, the master knew I had more questions. He said, “Don’t ask, I’ll tell you slowly. Why don’t you go make two cups of tea?”

I quickly nodded and busied myself for a while, bringing two cups of tea.

In the steam rising from the hot tea, Master began to unfold the mystery of our family’s past.

Master was born in 1912 in Hunan Province. He didn’t know exactly where in Hunan he was from because during that chaotic time, the country was still in dire straits, people were suffering, and there were many orphans without parents.

Without parents, he didn’t even know who his relatives were. From the moment he was born, he was abandoned in a small village. This was a common situation at the time. Fortunately, he was picked up by an old man who was grazing cattle in the village.

The old man was a lonely man who lived alone and was content with his own food. He took the monk in as his adopted son, which was appropriate.

Life was very difficult because the old man was very poor, and all he could give Master was rice soup. But Master survived tenaciously, and the two of them lived together in poverty, but in peace.

But then, when Master was eight years old, the old man who tended the cattle died a tragic death, beaten to death by a man because the cattle had eaten some vegetables in the field.

This was a minor incident, and the old man quickly drove the cow away. But it was fate that the old man had to suffer this misfortune, because of which he was beaten to death, and even the only old yellow cow was stolen.

The reason was that the land belonged to Liu San, the village bully, and he happened to see the whole thing.

Liu San was a scoundrel, lazy and bad, living off of stealing and drinking. Later, he couldn’t get by in this small village because he was lazy, so he simply went out to “see the world.”

What happened to Liu San outside the village is unknown to the villagers, but they only know that when he returned, he became a disabled person. Originally, there was nothing wrong with being disabled, and most people in the village still had sympathy for such people, but Liu San didn’t need sympathy. He was a “homecoming in brocade.”

Because he was escorted back by an army. At that time, there were many bandits and warlords, and the common people couldn’t tell the difference between the different armies.

So when he was escorted back by a troop of soldiers, Liu San was considered to have returned home in glory.

It is said that he was disabled because he saved an important mission for the army, and the people repaid him.

After he returned, the people in the army greeted the whole village. Liu San was one of them, so if anyone in the village dared to disrespect him, they would be shot. Then they forcibly took over a lot of land from the villagers and robbed a small landlord in the village of his house and gave it to Liu San.

He also forcibly ordered those who had been robbed of their land to work for the Liu family. Liu San relied on this and became a tyrant in the village, not to mention being a tyrant, he also gained a reputation as a local gentry, and it is said that he also had dealings with important people in the town.

People like this, how dare the villagers provoke them? In the face of Liu San’s tyrannical behavior, everyone is angry but dare not speak out, and they live with it.

The old man who tended the cows was a lonely old man who was honest. How dare he confront Liu San?

After eating the vegetables from Liu San’s field, he had to bow and apologize, and he had to pay compensation. Liu San loved money, and if someone took a blade of grass from him, he would have to bring back a load of firewood.

Faced with the old man’s submissive attitude, Liu San was not grateful. He had no sympathy, and even less of an idea of respecting the elderly. He had his eye on the old man’s cow! He had to make the old man compensate him with the cow.

There is no reason to talk to such a person, and he even has a little reason. The old man who let the cow out to graze originally made a living by letting the cows graze for the villagers. His cow was his only asset, so how could he part with it?

Moreover, the old cow and he had been inseparable for seven years, and they had developed a strong bond. During the busy farming season, when he took the cow out to help with the work, he would shed tears when he saw the cow was tired.

Liu San wanted to rob his cow, which was like robbing his life. Pleading for mercy was useless, as was kneeling. The old man was furious and said, “You’re so rich, why do you want to rob me of my only cow?”

This was the old man’s only resistance, and it was for this sentence that the old man sacrificed his life.

Liu San was used to dominating the village, and when had anyone dared to speak to him like that? And what’s more, he was an old man with only two people in his family, including himself. So Liu San’s gang of henchmen took action, beating the old man up. In the end, Liu San was still not satisfied, and he stomped on the old man’s chest several times, and it was those few kicks that killed the old man alive.

Seeing that the old man was dead, Liu San’s men were still a little scared, but Liu San yelled like nothing had happened: “What are you afraid of? I’ve seen many dead people in battle. Leave him there, someone will collect the body. Take the cow back.”

Of course, someone would collect the body. That person was my master. When the villagers came to tell my master about this, my master couldn’t believe it. My father was so honest, but he was beaten to death by Liu San. He was the only relative he had in this world.

The villagers sympathized with my master and helped him out a little, so that the old man could be buried in a thin coffin. They also gave my master the job of taking care of the cows, so that he could have a living to rely on.

But a seed of hatred was inevitably planted in my master’s heart.

One thing worth mentioning in the middle of this is that the cow that Liu San took back was knocked over the cattle pen on the day it was taken back, injuring three people and killing one.

What is amazing is that all of those people were the ones who had beaten the old man that day.

In the end, the cow was slaughtered by Liu San’s order, and the meat was eaten or sold in town.

After the funeral was over, my master quietly went to the back door of Liu San’s courtyard, cried for the cow, and burned some paper money. He said that even animals have feelings, but some people are even worse than animals. Liu San is such a person!

Two years passed by uneventfully, and my master’s life remained poor and hard. The only change was that his hatred for Liu San grew deeper and deeper.

The master vowed to take revenge when he grew up, but in the past two years, Liu San’s life has become more and more prosperous, and his influence has also grown. He has even caused harm to neighboring villages.

Is it true that good people don’t live long, and that evil will last for a thousand years? The master began to doubt the world. He thought that when he turned 18 and had more strength, he would find an opportunity to destroy Liu San together.

The old man had been so kind to the master, how could he not repay his kindness? The master had only planned his life until he was 18 years old.

If history had followed its normal course, the best that could have happened to the master would have been to die with Liu San. But the charm of history often lies in its unpredictability. One year later, several people came to the village, and the master’s life took an important turn.

To be precise, there were three people in the village that day, two young men and an old man. They were invited by another respectable family in the village, who had produced a juren (a scholar who passed the provincial exam) and was therefore considered a prominent figure in the village.

Unlike Liu San, the other family was more or less a scholarly family, with some power and wealth, but they were not arrogant, and they would not bully the villagers. On the contrary, they would help them from time to time. Even for the burial of the old man, the other family was the one who paid the most in the village.

But even though this was a good family, there were strange things happening in the house, causing chaos. In contrast, Liu San lived a free and easy life, which is why the master was so cynical at that time.

Let’s cut to the chase. The three people invited to the house were said to be “fortune tellers” for the family. How did these three people become involved with the master?