Chapter Three: The Old Lame Man and the Little Pockmarked Boy_2

Of course, there may be some differences, but Shu Guan is not a history expert and cannot distinguish those subtle differences.

However, through some other clues, he had roughly determined the era to which he had traveled.

That is the common chili peppers and tobacco seen in this village.

Tobacco was introduced to China during the middle of the Ming Dynasty, while chili peppers came even later, during the end of the Ming Dynasty.

These are not obscure pieces of knowledge, but not many people pay attention to them. Shu Guan, who liked reading humanities and historical books in college, happens to know this and knows it in great detail.

He remembered reading an article that mentioned that although chili peppers were introduced to China in the late Ming Dynasty, they were initially appreciated by Chinese people as an exotic plant. It wasn't until decades later that they began to gain popularity as a food ingredient.

They became popular first in the Yunnan and Guizhou regions and then spread to Hunan, Hubei, and Chuan and Shu regions. One significant factor for this trend was the rebel army led by Wu Sangui, the rebel leader of the Western Expedition.

The village elders also mentioned that they came to this remote valley to escape chaos and war.

Considering the historical context, Shu Guan believes that the turmoil two hundred years prior was possibly the rebellion that occurred at the end of Ming and the beginning of Qing.

If that's the case, it has been over two hundred years by now, and the outside world is probably at the end of Qing Dynasty. He wonders whether the Qing Dynasty has fallen.

Above are Shu Guan's current judgments on the era and location of his time travel experience.

Although he has been living in this valley for four years and has not seen the world outside the mountains, Shu Guan is more than 90% confident in his deductions.

Since he's still on Earth and has only traveled a few centuries back, he naturally doesn't believe what the village's elders say about immortals.

But setting aside those superstitious legends, how did the earliest villagers of Taoyuan Village arrive at this valley?

This question has plagued Shu Guan for years.

He feels that if he can understand this issue, he may find a way out of this valley surrounded by cliffs on all sides.

It's said that the ancestors of the earliest residents of Taoyuan Village left some written records that might contain clearer clues.

Unfortunately, those records are kept in the ancestral hall of Taoyuan Village. As Shu Guan is not a native of Taoyuan Village and is only four years old, he naturally has no opportunity to read those records.

He can only wait until he grows up a bit more to find a chance to take a look.

In addition, apart from not knowing how the first villagers of Taoyuan Village arrived in this valley, there is another peculiar thing.

That is, although the over 300 refugee villagers who first arrived at Taoyuan Village were not all from the same place or with the same last names, over the past two hundred years, it's been quite challenging to avoid marriages between people with the same last names in such an isolated environment.

As far as Shu Guan knows, it's quite common for cousins to marry in Taoyuan Village, and even marriages between second cousins are not uncommon.

Yet, there are hardly any villagers with mental abnormalities or people born with defects.

This fact defies logic in terms of biology, genetics, and probability.

So perhaps there is indeed some secret in this seemingly ordinary small mountain village!

Shu Guan shook his little legs and puffed away on his pipe. Unconsciously, he finished smoking one bowl of tobacco.

Shu Guan naturally opened the pouch attached to the pipe to prepare to fill another bowl.

He used to have a heavy smoking habit, two packs a day.

At this moment, a wrinkled hand came over and took the pipe from Shu Guan's hands.

It turned out that Shu Guan was thinking too intensely and had not noticed that the old cripple had returned to his side.

There was a strange glint in old cripple's white pupil, but his other eye was full of kindness and warmth.

He raised his hand to pat Shu Guan's head and grinned, love flowing through each wrinkle on his face for the ugly freckled boy sitting on the bench.

"Little kid, don't smoke this. It'll stunt the growth of your little friend down there."

"When you're older, grandpa will make one for you."

Old cripple stuck the pipe he had taken from Shu Guan in his waistband.

"Alright, grandpa, I won't smoke anymore."

Shu Guan obediently nodded.

He would never make the old cripple unhappy.

"Little Mazhi, let's go home."

Shu Guan's current name is Little Mazhi, just as the old cripple is called the old cripple.

The people of Taoyuan Village have such simple names.

Because there are more than 700 people in the village, and everyone is trapped in a valley, there is indeed no need for a real formal name. A simple nickname to distinguish each other is enough.

For example, the leader of the group of children just now, the big boy, is named Wang Dahu, and he has three younger brothers named Erhu, Sanhu, and Sihu. As for the one who was frightened by Shu Guan's appearance, the tender and watery girl, her name is Zhang Yadan.

As for Shu Guan, he is called Little Mazhi now, and when he grows up, he should be called Mazhi, and when he is old, he will be called Old Mazhi.

Shu Guan, who would probably be called Mazhi for his whole life, raised his face and showed a radiant smile to the old cripple.

Of course, this is how he feels.

In fact, when Shu Guan smiles, all the black moles on his face are squeezed together, making him look unbearably ugly.

"Okay, Grandpa."

He stretched out his chubby little arm toward the old cripple.

The old cripple's face showed no sign of dislike, and he still laughed, picking up Shu Guan and placing him in the bamboo basket on his back.

Although the old cripple gave him a name that might be laughed at for a lifetime, Shu Guan has never been angry with him.

How could Shu Guan be angry with the old cripple!

Four years ago, when he was just picked up by the old cripple from the creek, he had sores all over his body, and he was crying in pain every day.

It was this old cripple who tirelessly wiped his body with medicated juice day and night, holding him through the night for three whole months.

It was also this old cripple who begged every woman in the village who had just given birth for a chance to nurse him some milk. Sometimes the old cripple would go near a woman breastfeeding, carrying Shu Guan and not minding his old face, just so Little Mazhi could take a few sips.

And it was still this old cripple who had never left Shu Guan alone in these four years, whether he was farming in the field, picking herbs in the mountains, catching fish in the water or fixing houses in the village. The old cripple always kept Shu Guan by his side.

Because even now, there are many people in the village who dislike Shu Guan, thinking this child who was covered in pus and drifted along the creek was reincarnated from some mountain demon and is an ominous person.

Many people in the village objected to taking this child in back then.

So the old cripple never let Shu Guan out of his sight.

Raising a child is not easy.

Especially for a crippled old man with a hopeless old appearance who has lost a leg, a cataract in one eye, and no children, raising a child is even more difficult.

If it were just an ordinary four-year-old child, he might not understand the sacrifices the old cripple has made.

But Shu Guan is not a real child - the old cripple's grace of nurturing and the hardships of guarding him for four years, he has seen it all.

Without the old cripple, Shu Guan would not have survived.

The old cripple carried a bamboo basket with Little Mazhi standing in it. Little Mazhi's little hand rested on the old cripple's shoulder, supporting his own body with all his strength.

This way, it's easier for the old cripple.

An old cripple with no children and a Little Mazhi with no parents.

The grandfather and grandson with no blood relation, slowly disappearing behind the cliff in the setting sun, walking towards their home.

At some point, Shu Guan gently rested his forehead on the old cripple's thin shoulder, his face peaceful.

Because of this old cripple, he survived.

And because of this old cripple, he did not go insane in this desperate mountain village.

In his last life, he had no family.

In this life, he does.

If this is the meaning of his time-traveling here, then Shu Guan doesn't regret it so much anymore.