6 Chapter 2 Taoyuan Village_2

Ninety percent of people absolutely cannot do it.

Shu Guan can't either, but he has no choice.

Shu Guan sits on a wooden bench, looking at the tiny snippet of sky above with eyes full of sorrow and despair.

This sorrow and despair seep through every indented pockmark on his face.

The sores on his body were cured by the lame old man who had adopted him, using some herbs he dug up from the forest. But it left some sequelae - Shu Guan's entire body was covered with black pockmarks, including his face.

What Shu Guan fears most now is washing his face every morning, looking at his own reflection in the basin of clear water - he can't bear it to the extent that he would even vomit last night's dinner.

However, there are no mirrors in this village, so Shu Guan has never clearly seen how ugly he is, but he can feel it from the way other people look at him.

Like the several children running around the grain-drying field at this time, the oldest being seven or eight years old, and the youngest two or three. Upon seeing Shu Guan sitting on the bench, expressions of disgust and a hint of fear appeared on each of their faces.

Shu Guan gave them a smile.

Consequently, a little girl from the group of children, the youngest, cried out of fear.

"We won't play with you!"

A boy who seemed to be the leader of the group of children swung his fist at Shu Guan.

"Let's stay away from him, no one play with that pockmarked guy."

The boy stared at Shu Guan menacingly, instructing his companions behind him.

Shu Guan gave the chubby boy a disdainful glance.

Who'd want to play with you brats anyways? I'd rather you scram.

Perhaps the only benefit of having a face full of pockmarks was that other than the old cripple, almost no one in the village would look him in the eye or talk to this ugly outsider.

This also saved Shu Guan the trouble of having to pretend in front of others.

The children from the village ran away all at once. Shu Guan looked down at his feet and laughed at himself.

Children's reactions are always the most genuine. So, I must be so hideous, like a ghost in this lifetime!

They say transmigration is an opportunity to change one's life. But if you transmigrate to an isolated mountain village, living out your whole life within a few dozen miles, this opportunity can only be seen as a joke of fate.

However, for the person involved, Shu Guan, this joke is not funny at all.

Thinking that he will need to live in this cage-like valley for the rest of his life, enduring mundane, tasteless, and lifeless days, farming, marrying, having children... Speaking of which, it's unknown whether it's due to the local conditions, but the women of Taoyuan Village are all particularly charming.

...However, with my current ghastliness, it's highly probable that no girl would be willing to marry me...

So, not only do I have to live in this remote mountain village for the rest of my life, I might also have to live it alone, just like the old cripple.

Am I the unluckiest transcender?

Shu Guan's mood becomes even more melancholic and irritable. He subconsciously moves the index and middle fingers of his right hand,

Before his transmigration, whenever he was troubled, he could smoke a cigarette to relieve his frustration, but now even this small comfort was unattainable.

At that moment, Shu Guan seemed to think of something. He twisted his head to look at something placed on the other end of the bench, then looked at a certain corner of the grain-drying field.

In the whole field blanketed by the ferns' dark green sea, only the color in that corner was different.

They weren't drying ferns in that corner, but various types of herbs.

Some of them Shu Guan was able to identify, while others he had never seen before.

For example, there was a herb that had a seven-colored leaf and looked like a tiny human figure. Even with Shu Guan's vast knowledge prior to his transmigration, he had never heard of such a plant existing on Earth.

According to the lame old man, the sores on his body were treated using the juice of this seven-colored herb.

And right now, the old cripple was hunched over in the pile of herbs with his lame leg, carefully sorting through them.

Shu Guan sneaked a glance at the old cripple, confirming that he wouldn't turn around anytime soon.

So, he crouched down, supporting himself with one hand on the bench, the other arm reached out and grabbed the cigarette rod resting on the far side of the long bench.

The tobacco comes from a special type of leaf found in Taoyuan Village, which has been sliced after being sun-dried and roasted. The adults in Taoyuan Village all enjoy smoking it.

This cigarette rod is beautifully made with flawless craftsmanship. It's made from bamboo, and the green body is scattered with splotches of brown, each one shaped like a tear.

This is Xiang bamboo.

Many of these beautiful bamboos grow among the mountains surrounding Taoyuan Village.

Shu Guan knows this type of bamboo and also knows that it is most commonly found in both Hunan and Hubei provinces, which was among his initial clues in determining the geographical location of Taoyuan Village.

The front end of the cigarette rod connects to a brass ashtray, on which is carved the figures of a dragon and a phoenix—jointed from head to tail.

Although the theme may seem a bit cliché, the craftsmanship is truly breathtaking—as even Shu Guan found it something to marvel at, despite his general lack of knowledge in the area.

The carvings of the dragon and the phoenix on the ashtray, which is about the size of a pigeon egg, are extremely vivid. Every scale on the dragon, or every feather on the phoenix's crown, is artistically detailed.

The spot where the cigar rod and the ashtray meet hung a little blue tobacco bag roughly the size of Shu Guan's hand.

The tobacco bag is made from cloth dyed with local colors in Taoyuan Village. Despite its rough texture and crude coloring, the embroidery on both sides shows remarkable elegance—one side depicting towering cliffs, while the other a stream outside the village.

Especially the stream is so vivid that it almost feels like the water is gurgling and fish are jumping about energetically.

This cigarette rod was self-made by the old cripple, he made the brass ashtray with the carvings of the dragon and the phoenix, and he even did the embroidery on the tobacco bag himself.

Shu Guan now took a grip on the cigarette rod, pinched out some tobacco strands from the bag and stuffed them into the ashtray. He then picked up the flint that lay by the rod, lodged the brass cigarette holder into his mouth and bent his knee to prop against the middle part of the cigar rod.

Shu Guan struck the flint against the metal a few times.

With his current strength, getting a spark from the flint was challenging.

However, he was lucky today, and he actually managed to light the tobacco.

Then Shu Guan took a deep puff.

The nostalgic scent of tobacco filled his lungs through his throat.

Compared to the rolled cigarettes he used to smoke, dry tobacco was richer yet slightly bitter and spicy. It was a bit harsh but it had a crisp taste.

Even though Shu Guan's soul was that of a heavy smoker, this body he now inhabited had never indulged in such a thing before—he has not experienced anything as strong as dry tobacco till now.

As he inhaled his first bit of dry tobacco, Shu Guan began to cough violently.

He quickly covered his mouth with his hand and even gave a cautious look towards the old cripple.

Fortunately, the old man's hearing wasn't outstanding. He didn't seem to notice the commotion on Shu Guan's side, as he kept his back toward him, crouched over the cluster of medicinal herbs that he had painstakingly gathered from the forest.

After waiting a few seconds and finally seeing the old man remain oblivious, Shu Guan relaxed and began to trace smoke rings leisurely from his puff.

The afternoon sun of early spring shone brightly.

A little boy with a face full of freckles sat alone on a long bench, holding a cigarette rod and skillfully puffing out smoke rings. All his sorrows and worries seemed to dissipate along with the bluish-white smoke rings.

Thus the gaze of the ugly child began to deepen and sharpen.

Shu Guan started pondering once again on a problem he has contemplated for years.

That is, why does this place called Taoyuan Village exist!

This is the only question about this seemingly ordinary small mountain village that Shu Guan can't quite understand.

There seems to be no problem with this village.

However, the fact that such a village exists is in itself the biggest problem.