Chapter 5: Illusion

When Shu Guan walked out of the kitchen, he saw the peach wood sword in the old lame man's hand.

"Today is your birthday, Mazi. I made you a sword this year."

The old lame man grinned, his old face wrinkled like a happy chrysanthemum, with a look of unexpected surprise and smugness.

That kind of simple-minded person occasionally teasing others with a hint of smugness.

…No wonder there were a few more dishes today, it turned out to be his own birthday…

Shu Guan's birthday referred to the day when the old lame man picked him up from the creek years ago.

However, there was no concept of time in the mountains, and the villagers of Taoyuan Village used the lunar calendar, so Shu Guan hardly remembered his birthday in this era.

But the old lame man never forgot.

Every year on this day, the old lame man would make a toy for Shu Guan.

It's just that Shu Guan felt a headache looking at the two-foot-long peach wood sword made especially for him at this moment.

I really don't like these things…

Like the centipede kite you made for me last year, and the wooden horse you made the year before.

I don't want to play with them at all…

However, Shu Guan's face immediately showed a surprised and unexpected smile.

"Thank you, Grandpa."

He eagerly cheered and took the wooden sword from the old lame man's hand.

He was trying to please him.

He, too, was trying to please him.

In order to show his excitement and make the old lame man happier, Shu Guan deliberately waved the wooden sword a few times, accompanied by a few hums and shouts.

He learned it from the actions he often saw in TV dramas in his previous life. First, he cut a few times the way of Japanese Kendo, then played a few strokes of Tai Chi Sword.

Having labored in the fields and hunting for herbs in the mountains since childhood, Shu Guan grew up strong in this life. These swings were quite impressive and powerful.

Unexpectedly, the old lame man, who was sitting on the stone bench smoking, laughed.

"You're not playing with the sword properly, not right, not right."

Shu Guan was stunned and looked at the old lame man with the wooden sword in confusion.

The old lame man, who was sitting on the stone bench smoking, put the smoking pipe in his waistband and limped forward to Shu Guan, taking the peach wood sword from his hand.

Then, the smile on the old lame man's face slowly disappeared, and every wrinkle on his face became still, serious and wooden like those cracks on the cliffs outside the village that have been left behind after countless years of wind and rain.

Next, the old lame man slowly closed his eyes.

Shu Guan, who was standing beside him, suddenly felt his heart jump.

At this moment, Shu Guan felt that the old lame man's aura had changed, and the atmosphere in the courtyard had changed as well.

He couldn't describe that feeling, but it just seemed that something had become different.

Shu Guan's eyes brightened slightly.

Could it be…finally…

Although the old lame man's inaction in saving him when he broke his leg at the age of two years and eight months had convinced Shu Guan that he was just an ordinary old man, deep in his heart, there was still a little hope or luck.

As for the reason, Shu Guan always felt that he shouldn't have crossed over for nothing and spent a pale and boring life in a cage-like mountain village. This wasn't a script for a transcender!

Furthermore, after learning about the old lame man's past, Shu Guan found it hard to explain him simply as a "genius."

Could it be that… the old lame man was really a hidden expert like he had guessed when he first saw him?

Was it because he knew he wasn't in any life-threatening danger that the old man didn't save him?

And now, after years of living and testing together, is he finally going to reveal his true strength and face?

Shu Guan, who had read too much web literature in his previous life, had this thought flashing through his mind in an instant.

Just at this moment, the old lame man finally opened his eyes.

Then he made a move.

The old lame man bent his waist, slightly bending his one good leg, raised his shoulders, awkwardly propped his left arm behind his back, and held the wooden sword in his right hand, thrusting diagonally upwards.

It was a weird and funny posture.

If one had to describe it, it was like a silly old goose, suddenly startled by the thunder in the sky, spreading its wings wide and lifting its neck high.

Shu Guan sighed inwardly.

…It turns out it was just an illusion…

The old lame man then made a few more peculiar and funny moves. When he seemed to be preparing to jump up from the spot at one point, he almost fell on his back because his good leg was tripped by the lame one.

Luckily, Shu Guan reacted quickly and stepped forward to catch him.

Perhaps the old lame man had really killed a wild boar weighing four hundred pounds when he was young, but he was old now.

The old lame man panted for a few breaths, as if the few moves he just made had consumed much of his strength.

"I think a sword should be used like this."

The old lame man handed the peach wood sword back to Shu Guan, and said with a casual and matter-of-fact tone.

Shu Guan nodded continuously, helping the old lame man sit back on the stone bench, massaging his back and pinching his shoulders for a while.

When the moon finally rose from behind the towering cliffs and cast silver moonlight into the isolated village and the small courtyard where the young and old sat, the old lame man, who was used to going to bed early, went back to his room first.

Shu Guan sat alone in the courtyard for a while longer.

Looking up at the moon, which was no different from the one in his previous life, just at different points in the long river of time, he still felt a little unwilling in his heart.

Shu Guan, who had just celebrated his tenth birthday, hadn't resigned to his fate yet.

So after watching the moon for a while, he took the birthday gift from the old lame man and sneaked out of the yard to fight with the four brothers of the Wang family.

Of course, he used the "sword techniques" demonstrated by the old lame man.

Soon after, Shu Guan returned home with a bruised face.

Although Shu Guan was much stronger than his previous life at the same age, Wang Dahu was also a child who grew up in the mountains and was two years older than Shu Guan. Moreover, he had three equally tough brothers.

The fight, initiated by Shu Guan, ended in his miserable defeat.

On the way home, Shu Guan wiped his tears and snot while walking and shouting:

"If I were more determined and never neglected you, if I were more considerate, would love still end… it's just an illusion…"

He cried not for the wounds on his body but for his naïveté.

It was on this night that Shu Guan completely gave up on this life of crossing over.

He had accepted his fate of dying in Taoyuan Village for the rest of his life.

So, even years later, when Shu Guan discovered that the familiar moon that rose night after night behind the cliff might not be the same one from his previous life, his heart didn't stir too much.

What if he had crossed into another world?

If he couldn't get out, his world could only be this Taoyuan Village.