Chapter 7 Up the Mountain (Thanks to the leaders of the two big pineapples
In Chu Qiguang's mind, he still remembered the ferocious-looking and excited villagers in broad daylight.
In this world, Taoist temples are not only the ones who slay demons in the story about the female corpse, but also a huge mountain that weighs on the heads of the people.
Wangjiazhuang, where Chu Qiguang lives, is located in Qingyang County under Lingzhou.
In Qingyang County, the Wang family, which is domineering in Wangjiazhuang, can only be regarded as a small landowner.
In comparison, the Taoist temple in the county is the real behemoth. It not only presides over various marriages, funerals, sermons, worship, and demon subjugation for more than 100,000 people in the county, but also has countless large households investing their fields.
They incorporated it into their sect through methods such as offering, deceitfully sending, and changing registrations, just to avoid taxes. After all, Taoist temples do not have to pay taxes and have no corvee.
'Everyone in Wangjiazhuang, and even the entire Qingyang County, believes in Taoist Xuanyuan, and they are extremely fanatical. The Taoist priests in the county will even arrest villagers they think are demons and drown them in the river.'
As for the reason for sinking people into the river and drowning, Chu Qiguang found it absurd and ridiculous.
Some were suspected of being demons just because they wore clothes indiscriminately, some with bad reputations were arrested, and people with mental problems were also arrested. In Chu Qiguang's opinion, some were even arrested just because they had offended those in the Taoist temple.
The Taoist priests were also arrested and drowned in the river, and all their family property was bought at a low price.
When he thought of this, Chu Qiguang, who came from modern society, felt a chill and did not dare to take any forward-looking approach.
'Before you have enough status and power, you still have to do things in a way that is consistent with the style of this society.'
Grain taxes, corvee labor, landlords, officials, religion...these things are like mountains that weigh on poor peasants like Ergou, making them breathless.
This year's twenty-two cents of grain tax, if Chu Qiguang hadn't been around, would have been the last straw for Ergou's family. Either they would sell their fields and gradually become slaves of the Wang family, or they would have to sell their land.
Only by marrying Ergou's sister can he barely scrape together the food tax.
'And I have this problem that I will die if I don't show off...Gan! I have to improve my quality of life quickly. Living like this every day is a torment.'
'Speaking of which, that orange cat might actually be an opportunity.'
Thinking about his current situation, Chu Qiguang made a decision in his heart.
Anyway, his current situation can no longer be suffered, and if the cat really wants to harm him, he seems to have no way to resist the monster.
What Chu Qiguang didn't notice was that his affection for the orange cat kept emerging in his heart, which influenced him to make today's decision.
Ergou's mother beside her let out a long sigh. After being comforted by Chu Qiguang, she went into the kitchen to work. After a while, a scent of aroma came out.
Chu Qiguang and his sister walked over after smelling the aroma, staring straight at their mother baking two pancakes, and kept swallowing saliva.
Mother held the baked pancake and smelled it again and again, and finally handed the pancake to Ergou and her sister with some reluctance: "You guys eat it."
Seeing the woman's sallow complexion, Chu Qiguang couldn't bear to say: "Mom, you should eat some yourself."
The mother smiled and said, "I feel full after smelling it. You can eat."
Chu Qiguang sighed secretly in his heart, and Sister Ergou on the side was already holding the noodles and devouring them.
Ergou's mother scolded: "Slow down, don't choke." She smelled the aroma of the dough and couldn't help but feel her stomach twitch slightly, and finally went to the water tank to pour a bowl of water.
That night, after Chu Qiguang waited for his sister and mother to fall asleep, he carefully got up and hurried to the back mountain.
…
The place called Back Mountain in Wangjiazhuang has no name. It is just a barren mountain with mostly bamboo forests. Villagers nearby often come to the mountain to cut bamboo for household use, or dig bamboo shoots to sell in the county for money.
At this moment, most places in the mountain were dark, and Chu Qiguang didn't know what time it was. Fortunately, the moonlight was bright tonight, shining on the mountain road, allowing him to barely see the road ahead, slowly heading towards the top of the mountain.
go ahead.
'I don't know where the cat is waiting for me. This mountain is big or small. Even if a big living person is lost in this mountain, I may not be able to find it all night, let alone a cat.
?'
Chu Qiguang was breathing heavily when he climbed halfway up the mountain. He felt that his body was getting tired and colder, and his stomach was constantly squirming. He felt a strong sense of hunger: 'This body is too weak.'
As the night got deeper and deeper, several shrill howls came from the mountains and forests, like night owls or mountain foxes, swaying far away in the night wind.
The cool breeze blew over Chu Qiguang's body with a roar, making him accustomed to modern city life couldn't help but get goosebumps, and he felt a little regretful about going up the mountain late at night.
He suddenly had some doubts about his actions this time. Normally, he shouldn't have been so impulsive and went up the mountain.
'How about I go back... I can also use my own method to deal with the Wang family.'
Just when Chu Qiguang turned around, several rays of green light rose up from the bamboo forest behind him, dancing in the wind in the darkness like will-o'-the-wisps.
Chu Qiguang's heart tightened. Before he could react, those will-o'-the-wisps seemed to have discovered him and flew towards him.
Chu Qiguang touched the hatchet hidden in his arms tightly. The next moment, accompanied by will-o'-the-wisps, he rushed out of the shadow of the bamboo forest. Two short figures had already twisted out. They were as short as babies of one or two years old.
The strange standing movements made Chu Qiguang feel more and more nervous.
It wasn't until the short figure was exposed to the moonlight that Chu Qiguang saw clearly that what appeared in front of him were two wild cats with different patterns. The green will-o'-the-wisp he just saw turned out to be the green light in the eyes of these cats.
'This is... the wild cat that played with my sister before?'
What surprised Chu Qiguang was that the two wild cats in front of him were not as lazy or docile as usual. Instead, they stood up on their hind limbs, clasped their hands together, and bowed to him like humans.
Chu Qiguang was secretly shocked: 'Isn't it just the orange cat... these two cats are also monsters?'
The leading white cat waved towards Chu Qiguang with its front paws, then barked and turned around, as if to lead the way for Chu Qiguang.
Chu Qiguang thought: 'I'm afraid the orange cat sent them to lead me.'
He was still a little hesitant at first, but when he thought of the orange cat in Ergou's memory, he felt an inexplicable trust rising again. With a strong heart, he followed the cat into the bamboo forest.