Chapter 4: Omnipotent

Old Lame and Shu Guan's home was located in a corner of the east side of Taoyuan Village, in a blue-tile three-room house.

There was a kitchen, a bedroom, and a storage room for miscellaneous items.

Outside the door was a courtyard spacious enough for over a dozen people to gather, with an elderly tree that had a trunk so thick it required two people to embrace it. Shu Guan once broke his leg climbing this tree as a kid.

They placed a stone table and chairs under the tree, which they used for dining.

The furnishings inside the house were simple but clean and tidy, with bright windows, grindstones, and wells, all in place.

Based on the literature Shu Guan had read, and his understanding of Huaxia peasants' living standards during the Ming and Qing dynasties, such conditions were definitely considered affluent by their standards.

However, by Taoyuan Village standards, Old Lame's residence was merely ordinary.

Taoyuan Village was indeed a remote area but not an impoverished one.

Although the fertile land suitable for cultivation in the valley was limited, it was quite fertile and sufficient to sustain the seven to eight hundred villagers.

The fish in the nearby stream were plump and tender, and there were also snails and clams.

The surrounding mountains and forests provided various wild vegetables, fruits, as well as wild rabbits, pheasants, bamboo rats, deer, but no wolves or tigers. The most ferocious beast was the wild boar, which was the source of bacon for the villagers' households.

Most importantly, no government officials came to collect taxes here!

So, except for the fact that no one could leave this place, Taoyuan Village was indeed a paradise. As long as one was not too lazy, one could live a very decent life in this valley.

Dusk always arrived earlier in Taoyuan Village than in the outside world.

On this day, as the last rays of the setting sun lingered, Shu Guan and Old Lame entered their courtyard.

Old Lame's bamboo basket was filled with the medicinal herbs they had picked from the mountain today.

Now ten years old, Shu Guan followed Old Lame, carrying a water bucket half his height, with a few carp they caught in the stream on their way back.

"Too bad we didn't find any seven-colored herbs today."

Shu Guan still felt somewhat regretful as they entered the courtyard.

"It's alright. We might find it next time."

Old Lame comfortingly patted Shu Guan's head.

"But we've gone up the mountain several times and haven't found any."

Shu Guan muttered another sentence.

Old Lame simply chuckled and said nothing more.

You just don't want to look for it... Shu Guan slandered in his heart.

Seven-colored herbs, the kind that cured his boils, were the miraculous herbs with seven different colors like a rainbow.

It was a very magical herb, able to treat almost any ailment, whether it was a fever, headaches, or injuries. It could even save women having difficult childbirths.

However, the number of these seven-colored herbs was extremely scarce and often grew in hidden corners of the forest, making them extremely difficult to find.

Old Lame was the only one in the entire Taoyuan Village who had ever found these herbs.

And when he wanted to find it, he was sure to find it.

Having lived with Old Lame for ten years, Shu Guan knew him well. Old Lame was quite an extraordinary person.

But he was different from the sort of extraordinary that Shu Guan had initially imagined - he was even more extraordinary than that.

Old Lame's lame leg wasn't due to injury or illness, and the blindness in one of his eyes wasn't cataracts.

His lame leg, blind eye, and deformed left chest were all congenital.

When Shu Guan learned about these matters, his first reaction was:

So that's it!

How could a completely isolated village like this, where only close relatives could marry, not have any deformed children?

It was just that in the entire village, there was only one deformed child - Old Lame, which was still an incredible fact.

The old crippled man's situation in the village back then was very similar to Shu Guan's now, as they were both hardly treated well by anyone, and even his own parents seemed to disdain him a bit.

For a naturally deformed child growing up in an unfriendly environment, it seemed that he would inevitably become a dispirited waste, just waiting to die.

But the old crippled man lived a life that no one could have imagined.

By the time he was in his teens, he became the most capable person in Taoyuan Village.

Although he had a lame leg and a blind eye, he grew the most rice in his fields, caught the most fish in the stream, and harvested the most game in the mountains.

Even in his twenties, the old crippled man single-handedly killed a wild boar that weighed over four hundred pounds.

As his age grew, the old crippled man's skills continued to improve and expand.

He gradually became the best carpenter, blacksmith, bricklayer, and weaver in the village.

Even in embroidery, he was better than any of the young wives and girls in the village, as evidenced by the blue cloth tobacco pouch that hung on his smoking pipe.

At the age of forty, the old crippled man even taught himself how to treat people's illnesses.

There was no skill needed for the rural life that the old crippled man didn't know; and not only did he know them, he was better at them than anyone else.

Shu Guan once asked the old crippled man why he could learn everything.

At the time, the old crippled man's expression was somewhat puzzled, but he responded with a matter-of-fact tone to Shu Guan's question:

I think I can learn it, so I just learn it.

Shu Guan was rendered speechless by this straightforward and powerful answer and couldn't find words to respond.

I think I can learn, so I just learn it!

It's like if he wants to find the seven-colored herbs, he can always find them!

It really is a life like he has an unfair advantage!

Although it's just an unfair advantage in an isolated mountain village, it's still incredibly impressive.

Sometimes Shu Guan wonders what kind of person the old crippled man could have become if he hadn't been born in Taoyuan Village and had a broader vision and a bigger stage.

...

Today's dinner was a fish stew made with fresh crucian carp caught in the stream, mixed with pickled fern and sour bamboo shoots, which tasted incredibly delicious.

Usually, a large pot of fish stew would be enough for the old crippled man and Shu Guan to eat.

But today, the old crippled man made several more dishes, cutting a piece of fatty and lean leg meat from the dried wild boar leg that was hanging under the eaves and stir-frying it together with fresh chive leaves.

There was also a dish of tofu made by the old crippled man himself, mixed with scallions.

Placed in the world Shu Guan had traveled to, this would be a perfect farmhouse meal.

But Shu Guan dares to say that the flavor of this meal far surpasses those of any farmhouse meal he has ever tasted in his previous life.

Since the old crippled man is so capable, he naturally knows how to cook, and his culinary skills, in Shu Guan's opinion, could make him a millionaire just by opening a restaurant in his previous time.

After taking the last sip of the fish soup with great satisfaction, Shu Guan touched his round belly, then tidied up the bowls and chopsticks on the stone table and carried them into the kitchen to wash.

The old crippled man cared greatly for Shu Guan but never spoiled him; in fact, Shu Guan did even more chores that a countryside child of his age should do.

For example, when Shu Guan was six years old, the old crippled man had already brought him into the woods to teach him how to set animal traps, identify various herbs, help plow the fields, or catch fish in the swift stream with his bare hands.

By the time Shu Guan turned ten, he had transformed completely from a white-collar worker in his past life to a skilled young man well-versed in all aspects of farm life.

Some people in the village secretly laughed and said that the old crippled man adopted this ugly child not out of kindness but to find a free helper and someone to care for him in his old age.

Shu Guan knew, of course, that this was not the case, for the old crippled man had once told him:

Grandpa doesn't know how much longer he can live, so while Grandpa is still alive, I'll teach you everything I can so that you can live on your own in the future.

Shu Guan walked into the kitchen with the bowls and chopsticks, while the old crippled man pulled out a peach branch he had chopped along the way today from the basket under the Gui tree and picked up a chopper from the corner of the yard. He then sat on a stone bench and began to carve.

There was a wooden expression on the old crippled man's face, a kind of extreme concentration.

The large chopper flew deftly between his palms, with such agility that it seemed as if he were holding an embroidery needle.

Soon enough, the arm-thick peach branch was transformed into a sword.