Chapter 11: Unquestioning Filial Piety 11
Author: 打字机N号
T/N It has been a long time since I posted this. There is a festival, thesis as well as sheer laziness of mine that slow down the release… I’M SORRY!!! Anyway, the good news is I will make sure to finish this arc within this month. After the release for today, there will be 6 chapters or so left for this arc.
Till then, plz enjoy.
Due to limited ingredients, Jiang Liu could only prepare his wife a bowl of fragrant glutinous rice porridge and a plate of egg muffin [ T/N: When I googled it, it gave me sponge cake images, but I think it was more like “Gyeran Ppang” from Korea].
As for him, he just finished the leftovers from last night. After he finished his breakfast, he was ready to go. He planned to visit the people on the team who raised chicken and duck and bought some to raise for consumption later.
As soon as he came out from the door, he found out that there were already three kids loitering near his yard. He was totally unaware of this. The older one looked around seven or eight years old, while the youngest was about three years old. He was barely able to stand steadily.
Before his death, the kid in his time was so chubby. Their white and tender skin made people feel reluctant to touch it in case it hurts them. But in the current era, due to the lack of clothes and food, plus the fact that the children were also responsible for helping the family raise the income, all of them looked black and thin, as if their body has nothing but skin.
“Uncle Liu.”
When Jiang Liu came out, the children arguing with each other stopped their actions and called his name. Their back was ramrod straight that from behind, they looked like a three-segment pole.
The older one looked nervous as he greeted Jiang Liu. His two younger brothers also followed his step and called out to Jiang Liu. The two-or three-year-old child was still inarticulate in his speech, but his earnest attempt to spew the words really made others could not help but smile.
There were too many children in this village. Jiang Liu had only occupied the original body for a few months. So he did not recognize many people on the team. He quickly checked his memory. After a while, he finally matched the children with the memory he had received from the original body.
The oldest one seemed to be Jiang Zhu, and the other two were his younger brother, Jiang Shuan and Jiang Shu.
These three children were the sons of one of the widows in the team. When his father died in an accident, Jiang Shu was still in her mother’s stomach. This widow was also a tough person. After the accident involving her husband, she did not abort the child away to remarry. Instead, she decided to give birth despite her status as a widow. She also single-handedly took over the burden of caring for the elderly and raising the children.
With three children in the family, even ordinary people would feel the burden. This was an even difficult hurdle for this widow’s family, who lacked people who could do the team’s heavy labour. Therefore, in the past few years, the days of widow Xu’s family was tough. Fortunately, the widow’s three sons were all sensible, especially the eldest son, Jiang Zhu. Even though he was still considerably young, he has already taken up the responsibility as the elder brother to take care of his two younger brothers. When their mom went to work at the field, he used the bamboo raft to carry the small Jiang Shu and tied his second brother, Jiang Shuan’s waist with a rope. With one hand holding the rope and another hand holding a stick, he took both of them to the field to find some small sweet potato or the leftover rice crops to increase the amount of food put on the table.
The people on the team also knew that this mother and sons’ life were difficult. So they always turned a blind eye to this action of these three children.
Sometimes the people in the team will also deliberately left some crops after the harvest. They also purposely avoided some plots when picking up the bits and pieces.
Sometimes, the team member’s selfish calculation can be quite annoying, but more than often, this group of people is kind and warm.
“What’s the matter? Do you come to me for something?”
Remembering the identity of these children, Jiang Liu’s expression turned much gentler. This was because he somehow thought of himself when he saw them. Although he did not have a mother like them, there was still a grandfather who also loved and willing to give him everything in the world.
“Xiao Shu, hurry up.”
Jiang Zhu looked at his three-year-old brother. Thinking that Jiang Liu could not see him, he pulled his brother to stand in front of him.
These children were obviously planning to give Jiang Liu something, but his little brother was still shamelessly lying and rolling on the ground. Therefore he could not help but turned stunned when he suddenly realized the presence of Jiang Liu.
“Fruit–giving, giving you.”
Jiang Shu did not get angry when his brother was pulling him. He smiled and patted his pocket before bringing his hand forward and then opened his hand to reveal a bunch of wild berries—his milky voice calling out to Jiang Liu.
Now that the temperature gradually cooled down, it was not easy for these children to find these berries. After all, these children had always treated such wild fruit as their precious snack during this era. When such good things finally matured, they will be picked by those sharp-eyed children.
When Jiang Liu was a child, he also ate this unique wild fruit that could only be found on the mountain. He had never had this sweet and sour taste since he left home at the age of fourteen. When he suddenly saw it, it really made him missed it.
“Uncle Liu, thank you.”
When he saw that Jiang Liu did not make any moves, Jiang Zhu quickly grabbed the berries in his brother’s hand and stuffed them into the pocket of Jiang Liu’s clothes.
Before Jiang Liu could react, he took his two younger brothers’ hands and made a deep bow to him. Then he ran away. He estimated that Jiang Liu would not accept their meagre gratitude.
The three-year-old Jiang Shu couldn’t run fast. He was basically got pulled away by his older brother. He struggled to move with his two small and short legs. He also had been licking the hand which previously held the berries, savouring its sweet taste.
Jiang Liu was left stunned by their sudden departure. He naturally guessed why these three children had come to thank him.
Yesterday, he had delivered the department store’s payment, and it seemed that the widow Xu’s family had earned three yuans making the handicrafts. Don’t underestimate the importance of such a small amount of money to a barren family. With those three yuans, it can support the family for at least a week.
How many of the people in the team were like those of widow Xu? Many of them will not be able to earn even half of that family. It was enough to see the family’s serious efforts. Jiang Liu heard that the Jiang’s brothers had helped their mother dry the thatch bought from the team. They did it so that when their mother returned home from the field, she can quickly work on the thatch. Widow Xu’s mother-in-law was also an old lady who was inconvenience due to her leg, yet, even while lying on the bed, she also worked hard learning how to weave the item with her daughter-in-law. These kinds of people, the things that they do, were absolutely perfect. They had never thought of doing something to garner Jiang Liu’s sympathy due to their weak position.
Jiang Liu also understood the reason why the three brothers had specifically come to thank him. For others, having one extra-fast income is like icing on the cake. However, for the widow Xu’s family, it was like a coat gift for them during the winter.
Listening to what others had told him about widow Xu, it seemed that she intended to earn more money to send her eldest son, Jiang Zhu, to school. In these years, her eldest son was the one who had been burdened with this ill-fated fortune. So, she was hoping to compensate him with this.
For the Jiang family, Jiang Liu had become their great benefactor.
Jiang Liu took out a red berry from his pocket. It was estimated that Jiang Shu was too nervous when he was holding it. Those berries ended up being squashed, thus leaving a sticky mess in his pocket.
But Jiang Liu ignored it as he looked at the fruit soaked in juice before throwing it into his mouth.
Sweet!
[Please read at the original website, or you can at least support me with some ko-fi]
“When people are happy, the inside of the brain will secrete a substance called dopamine. That’s why the host is feeling very happy now.”
001 appeared mid-air as it mechanically stated those words. Ever since Jiang Liu came to this mission world, this was the first time 001 had appeared in front of him.
“In the current world, the host had won the gratitude of the nine people and received an additional 450 points in total.”
Originally, Jiang Liu wanted to explain to 001 that human emotions could not be calculated so systematically. It was not grounded solely by scientific analysis. However, when he heard 001’s announcement, he decided to abandon his intention to educate 001 and instead asked 001 about the extra points.
“This system is the Father’s system. We aim to spread love. The behaviour of the host is a good example of this. Getting extra points is also a reward for the host.”
001 fulfilled its duties as it explained it to Jiang Liu.
Jiang Liu became silent. His original intention in doing this was not to help others. He wanted to solve potential problems that might arise from his action. He also planned to expand the production line. He intended to make more money for himself.
As a person who had been at the bottom of society for a long time, Jiang Liu’s heart has long since become numb. He only thought about his own little days, so he never had any noble sentiment of helping others. When the Father’s system found him, he felt that the system had picked the wrong person. How could a villainous person like him become a selfless and generous righteous father to others?
He had to say that his feeling was a bit complicated right now, especially when he heard from the mouth of his system that his selfish behaviour had garnered sincere gratitude from nine people.
The way the system judged the standard of gratitude was definitely not according to the general standard. Otherwise, if such small favour could be exchanged for 50 points, he was afraid that this system would be run dry by him soon enough. He can make a fortune right away by deceiving it. Jiang Liu has yet to determine to what extent the gratitude needs to be until it can be exchanged for points. However for those people, he may really be a savior who had saved their lives.
Jiang Liu threw another berry into his mouth, but he could no longer perceive its sweetness this time. He could only perceive the sour, bitter, and salty taste.
“Although the host had done a good thing worthy of praise, I have to remind the host that the current raider’s target, Miao Caifeng’s goodwill towards host, had dropped from the original 60 to the current 40. Please stay vigilant and seek the host to improve your goodwill to the target as soon as possible.”
The way 001 do its things was truly by the book. All its’ words came from the result gathered from its’ data analysis. 001 unable to understand the complicated state of Jiang Liu’s mind at that time. While the other side was contemplating, this side had been very unpleasantly poured cold water to the other party.
“So high!”
That was the first reaction Jiang Liu had when he listened to 001’s proclamation. He thought that according to the old lady’s behaviour towards him when he arrived, she would rather see him dead than add a burden to the family. Her behavior at that time truly was not like a mother and the child but instead an enemy. He really didn’t expect that there were still 60 points of good feelings.
These days, he had always shown a sour face every time he faced the old lady. And yet, her feeling of goodness towards him had not fallen to below zero. In the end, it was not sure if the old lady’s good feelings were considered to be worthless, or was it because her love for her little son, Jiang Hai, had reached its zenith, that despite everything, she still choose to put her hope on her younger son instead and turned her back to Jiang Liu?
“You can rest assured. I still want to live for a long time. Naturally, I will complete the task.”
Jiang Liu waved his hand. Anyway, currently the old lady had always shown a stinky face to him, and in retaliation, he also had always given her the cold shoulder.
But for these nine people who really appreciate him, even if it was only for the sake of the point that they brought to him, he still needs to give them some benefit.
Jiang Liu refused to admit that he felt touched. His inflexible self was reluctant to admit a mistake yet at the same time believed that proper behaviour was based on reciprocity. As a small person, he also had his own bottom line. He refused to be indebted to others.
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How do I put it? I read somewhere that some parents love their child as their child while other love the idea of their child. So yeah, love and good feelings are not bound to a singularity.