1 Yanjo Wu, Moon Village

At exactly 13:00, Li Zian laid out the cooling mat and set the fan to the 1-speed breeze, then took off the flip-flops on his feet and lay down comfortably.

The mosquito incense smoke curled, it was sandalwood scented, mosquito repellent, and soothing.

He was a superfluous son-in-law and a superfluous son-in-law in the countryside.

But even if he was a superfluous son-in-law in the countryside, life should have rituals.

His philosophy in life was very simple: just go with the flow and be content with what you have.

A minute later, Li Zian's nostrils were snoring evenly, with a faint smile on his lips, clearly dreaming.

In his dream, he turned into a fish, squatting in the water without moving, watching a water plant flutter in front of him.

Knock knock!

There was a sudden knock on the door.

Li Zian heard it, but instead of getting up to open the door, his reaction was to roll over and take his back to the door.

"Zian, it's two o'clock and you're still sleeping?"

That was the voice of his wife's grandmother, Lin Shengnan.

His wife Yu Meilin worked away for years, and only came back to stay one day a year for Lin Shengnan's birthday, so he and Lin Shengnan were the only ones living in the Yu family's ancestral home in this Crescent Moon Village.

"Zian, the water in the pond has been cut off, the fish will die on this hot weather with no live water, so hurry up and go see what's going on." Lin Shengnan urged.

Li Zian opened his sleepy eyes, yawned, and then responded, "Oh, here I come."

He climbed up from the cooler, then put on his flip-flops and went to open the door.

A white-haired old crone was standing in the doorway, holding a leading cane in her hand, old as she was, but with a very strong brow.

This old crone was Lin Shengnan.

Li Zian had been a member of the Yu family for four years and had only met Yu Meilin five times in total, gotten married once, and once a year on Lin Shengnan's birthday, without even touching her hand.

Yu Meilin gives Lin Shengnan money every year to support the family's expenses, but Li Zian once offered to go to work with her, but she wouldn't let him, so she just let him grow vegetables and other food for the family, mainly to take care of her grandmother.

But because of this, he became a man who was considered by the villagers to be a softie.

He felt that he was a disgrace to his fellow villagers who ate soft food.

Other people live in luxury houses and cars, wear gold and silver, and live with good food and drink, but he, a man who eats soft food, has to plant land and grow vegetables and serve an old woman.

But he doesn't care, he is comfortable with his own life.

Two seconds later, Lin Shengnan began to add, "Can't you be a little more productive? Don't you want to have your own business when all you do is sleep all day and read useless books?"

Li Zian delayed for two seconds before he said, "What business?"

Lin Shengnan choked on the words and rolled his eyes.

Li Zian's heart was overflowing with bitterness.

Yu Meilin had thrown this old woman at him if he went out to find a job or start a business, who would take care of her?

The books he'd been reading for the past four years could be useful, English, cooking, planting, carpentry, carving, whatever, but he hadn't had a chance to put them to good use every day he was holed up in this mountain village.

"Has the pond's water cut off?" Li Zian felt he needed to make sure.

Lin Shengnan waved her hand impatiently, "Forget it, what business am I talking to you about, to the bull, go see what's going on with the water in the pond, if my fish dies I'll settle the score with you."

Li Zian yawned and walked to the backyard.

Lin Shengnan looked at Li Zian's slender back and sighed, "What's the use of looking good, I really shouldn't have married Meilin to this kid in the first place because of all that family crap..."

Li Zian heard this, but his heart didn't waver a bit.

But the fact that he was good-looking, he agreed.

It must have been because of this reason that Yu Meilin was interested in him.

Crescent Moon Village Yanjo Wu didn't get that nickname for nothing, it was strength.

The pond was in the backyard and had koi carp, which Lin Shengnan loved to feed in the gazebo by the pond.

The pond really was cut off.

Li Zian grabbed a hoe and went out the back door, following the path beside the stream.

The path curved from the beginning to the end of the village.

The Crescent Moon Village located in the northwest of Marshland was surrounded by mountains on three sides, and the valley in the middle looks like a Crescent Moon, hence the name.

The source of the creek was right at the tip of the Crescent Moon, and it was said that when Zhang Fei came to the village, he shot an arrow in the spring when his men were tired and had no water to cook. Later generations called the spring Zhang Feiquan, but who knows who changed the name to Crescent Moon Spring, but there were different names for the spring in the village including Zhang Feiquan and Crescent Moon Spring.

The spring has been flowing all year round and this was the first time it had been cut off.

A few women were sitting underneath a large banyan tree to cool off, some holding fans, some kicking melons. The one who was wearing a skirt didn't close her legs, but also took a fan and fanned herself inside the skirt. The ones who were knocking melon didn't clean up, and the melon seeds shells spat out randomly.

A few women muttered.

"Last night, my asshole of man came to unbuckle my pants, but I kicked him out of bed. He wouldn't even buy me the fifty dollar lipstick I wanted and yet he wants to make love with me? He wishes!"

"That bastard of mine was so angry, he lost over $200 in a $2 mahjong game yesterday. Do you think it's bad luck? This son of a bitch lost all his money for our monthly meat. He wants to eat meat? I wouldn't even give him a single piece of shit!"

A woman had a chance to see Li Zian coming this way and lowered her voice to say, "Isn't that Li Zian, it's rare to see him out."

"Yu's family's soft food is full. What's he doing out here?"

"I heard that four years ago he only went to the Yu family as a door-to-door son-in-law to raise money for his mother's treatment, but unfortunately his mother-in-law is a jinx, and his mother passed away soon after he got married."

"Do you know where Yu's money came from? I heard that his wife is making money by selling her body, talking about working at a part-time job, bullshit."

"Li Zian is so handsome, what's wrong with finding a wife? He should have found a real lady. If his parents were in heaven, they'd be furious with him."

"He doesn't care about the little green on his head, look at how well he lives."

"What's a little green? Oh, it's become a tarragon field."

"The man who eats soft food to find a lady, how well matched."

"Hehehehe..."

When Li Zian approached, they were smart enough to keep their mouths shut.

"Oh Zian, where are you going?" A woman greeted Li Zian.

Li Zian had a good glimpse of those women, the woman who spoke was called Ma Xiaorong, the village's shrewish Chen Gang's bitchy mouth, who loved to torment people daily. The gossip in the village was mostly from the mouth of this woman and from this point, he already hated her. So when he saw her hypocritical greeting, he pretended to not hear and continued on his way.

That Ma Xiaorong, however, felt offended, and before Li Zian could get far away, she said gloomily, "If my wife was out there selling herself to make money, I'd be a ball if I ran my head into a wall and died, and yet, you still have the nerve to come out and embarrass yourself."

A few women puffed out laughs.

Li Zian looked colder.

Ma Xiaorong added: "Everyone in the village knows that your wife is selling herself. What's all this talk about working? Oh my God, what a fucking joke."

Li Zian fiercely turned around, strode back, and said in a cold voice, "What did you say, say it again!"

Ma Xiaorong with one hand on her waist and the other one pointing at Li Zian menacingly: "So what if the bitch is selling her body? Don't believe me? Don't you dare hit me! Don't even dare to touch me! My man will kill you!"

Her words trailed off as Li Zian smacked her across the face.

Slap!

With a loud slap, five fingerprints instantly appeared on half of Ma Xiaorong's cheek, and she subconsciously covered her smacked cheek and said in shock, "You, you dare to hit me!"

Li Zian smacked Ma Xiaorong on the other cheek with his backhand.

Ma Xiaorong was dumbfounded, her mouth wide open, but she couldn't speak.

In the Crescent Moon Village, she had always been the one who walked roughshod over her man Chen Gang, who was the only one who bullied her. But now, a soft-skinned wimp she despised dared to whip her in public, and twice at that!

Li Zian's eyes had a captivating light in them: " I'm warning you. If I ever hear you make fun of my wife again...I'll slap you as well!"

It was okay for them to say that he eats soft food, he could endure. But to say that his wife was selling herself, even if he had to fight to the death, he will never tolerate it.

If you dare to say it, I'll dare to fight, no matter who you are!

"I'm going to kill you!" Ma Xiaorong's emotions suddenly explode and she reaches out to grab Li Zian's hair.

Li Zian kicked Ma Xiaorong in the abdomen.

Ma Xiaorong was kicked in the abdomen and collapsed to the ground, curled up into a shrimp with abdominal cramps.

"Ouch, we're all from the same village, right?" An older woman came to stop the fight.

"Zian, you need to apologize to your sister Ma." A woman said.

Li Zian turned around and walked away, not even bothering to say a word.

The book said women are made of water, but these women are made of shit, and they stink.

"Wait for me, you little pussy! I'm not a vegetarian!" Ma Xiaorong hooted after him.

Li Zian didn't bother to pay attention to her as he left the path and climbed up the slope to the source of the creek.

The source of the creek was under a cliff, a pool of water, and the pool was full but there was no stream gushing out from the spring, so it was probably blocked by something.

Li Zian took a closer look, but the eye of the spring was in the middle of a pool of water, almost two meters deep, so he couldn't see it clearly. He took off his shorts and sweatshirt and waded over to the eye. When he got close to the eye of the spring, he plunged into the water and dived for it, and when he reached it, he finally got a good look at what was stuck in the eye of the spring.

It was round and covered in a coppery green. It looked like a bronze object with some symbols and patterns on it, but it couldn't be seen clearly.

"Why is this thing in the spring's eye?" Li Zian's heart was curious and he reached out to pull out the object that was stuck in the spring.

The thing was jammed to death and even after a few attempts, he couldn't get it out. However, his fingers were torn and scarlet blood stained the object as the clear water was floating with threads of blood.

Li Zian held his breath until the end, but just as he was about to return to the surface for a breath of fresh air, the bronze object in the spring suddenly trembled, and the indistinct symbols and patterns burst out with a greenish glow. What was even stranger was that at that instant, all the blood floating in the water was sucked into the bronze object.

There was also Li Zian's blood, and the blood in the wound looked like it had been zapped out of a water gun!

Li Zian was suddenly nervous due to the lack of oxygen and loss of blood, so he braced his feet on the rocks at the bottom of the pond and tried to float upwards. The bronze object left the spring with him, and the blocked spring water sprang up, giving him some buoyancy.

Wow!

Li Zian emerged out of the water and inhaled heavily, but still couldn't stand the dizziness, he panicked and swam a few strokes and climbed onto the shore, easing his breath before checking what he had pulled out.

It was a compact incense burner, not bronze, but a kind of bronze jade incense burner, a little smaller than his fist.

How did this thing get stuck in a spring?

Before Li Zian could figure this out, a stream of green smoke suddenly emerged from the incense burner, going nowhere and heading straight for his nostrils. He subconsciously held his breath, but he couldn't stop the smoke from entering his nostrils.

When the smoke entered his body, Li Zian stiffened for a moment, then his legs fell on the grass by the pool.

Li Zian felt that he had been poisoned by the smoke inhalation and panicked, struggling to get up, but he had no strength in his limbs and his consciousness became increasingly confused.

In his confusion, an old man with a white beard appeared in front of him and spoke to him.

"I am Kida, the Great Chou Chou Fang Shi. Due to a lifetime of laziness, I did not pass on my knowledge to my descendants, and as my time is nearing, I regret it so much that I have sealed all that I have learned in this Great Idle Pocket Stove, leaving it to those who are destined. You awakened this stove with your blood, chosen by the Stove Spirit, with whom I also share this destiny, so I will pass on all of my knowledge to you...."

What's this about?

Li Zian was confused.

But it was out of his control, and as the old man who called himself Kida narrated, his mind swarmed with symbols and patterns as well as obscure and strange things.