Chapter 377 Forty Years in a Small Village
Li Ye’s words were not groundless, for the Feihong Bodhisattva’s description was so precise that it could only remind people of this conclusion. However, as soon as the words came out, Li Ye felt weird. In the past three years, although he had been with Feihong Bodhisattva day and night, and coped with the test of the secret region with her, but it could not be more innocent between them.
So even though Li Ye said those words, he did not think that this would be the case. And he soon regretted it. After all, saying such words was offensive to the Feihong Bodhisattva; it was no different from asking for trouble.
But the Feihong Bodhisattva had no resentment.
She had no resentment, but she was serious. What she said later shocked Li Ye.
“That’s probably the case,” she added.
Li Ye looked at her very seriously, “Are you sure?”
The Feihong Bodhisattva rolled her eyes and added, “What do you think?”
Since the Feihong Bodhisattva said so, it would be pretty right. Their cultivation was completely suppressed now, so they were almost ordinary people and could not look inside their bodies. However, they would not be completely unaware of the growth of new creatures.
Li Ye was silent.
He could only be silent.
He was not only silent, but also felt ridiculous.
After a long time, he looked up at the sky and added, “Providence is unpredictable. Do we really live normally throughout the rest of our lives here?”
As a cultivator, especially a Great Cultivator who had become an Immortal, his growth trajectory was naturally different from that of ordinary people. Cultivation had always been a top priority. Cultivators did not work in the field, nor consider daily necessities. In this sense, cultivators were separated from ordinary life.
Now it seemed that this strategic pass in the secret region was to let Li Ye and the Feihong Bodhisattva return to the ordinary life completely.
If not so, the secret region would not make new life.
Facts had proved that Li Ye was right, after ten months of pregnancy, the Feihong Bodhisattva was really about to give birth to a child.
At dusk on that day, after a long day of hard work, Li Ye and the Feihong Bodhisattva stepped on the ladder, climbed the roof and sat side by side to enjoy the sunset.
Li Ye hesitated for a while, and then finally asked, “Should I find a midwife for you?”
The Feihong Bodhisattva could only half-lay on the thatched roof because she was pregnant; she took an unpleasant look at Li Ye. “I can do it by myself.”
Li Ye was surprised and asked, “Have you ever had a child?”
The Feihong Bodhisattva almost bit her tongue.
If she hadn’t had any children before and didn’t have any experience, it would be too difficult to give birth herself.
Li Ye stared at the Feihong Bodhisattva as if to find a flower on her face. “In the land purified by Buddhism, you are the god in the minds of ordinary people. But if you have not experienced everything in the world, there is still something that you do not know. How could you then call yourself omnipotent and omniscient? How would you help people when they need it? For example, to send a child...”
The Feihong Bodhisattva added with a dark face, “I am a cultivator!”
Li Ye acknowledged with a long ‘oh...’
Her meaning was obviously very clear. She was just a cultivator, not an omnipotent god in people’s minds.
In other words, almost all cultivators were not omnipotent.
It was only reaching the Sage Realm that the cultivators were qualified to talk about being so-called omnipotence.
Li Ye stared at the sky and sighed. “So there is no God in this world!”
Feihong Bodhisattva added coldly, “There is no god, but there is Immortal!”
The so-called immortal referred to those Great Cultivators that had reached the Immortal Realm. They were certainly different from the so-called gods. They were only powerful cultivators, cultivators who pursued self strength, not gods who blessed people and observed the sufferings of the people.
Li Ye did not refute the Feihong Bodhisattva. Seeing that the sun was about to go down, he stood up and patted his buttocks, and then switched the conversation to some other subject, “I’d better find a midwife.”
The Feihong Bodhisattva was speechless, “...”
After finishing his words, he jumped off the roof. Although he had no cultivation for the time being, after all, he was strong and healthy, and the thatched cottage was not high that he could jump down easily. But as soon as he landed, the roar of the Feihong Bodhisattva came from behind.
The Feihong Bodhisattva shouted, “Come back!”
Li Ye turned around, looked up at the Feihong Bodhisattva, and asked earnestly, “Do you want me to help you deliver?”
From his point of view, the golden sunlight just came from behind the Feihong Bodhisattva, making her look beautiful.
However, the Feihong Bodhisattva’s behavior totally destroyed this wonderful sight. She glared at Li Ye and shouted, “Get me down first!”
Without cultivation, the Feihong Bodhisattva obviously found it difficult to move while she was pregnant. She still wanted to climb the roof to watch the sunset. All this required Li Ye’s assistance.
Li Ye shook his head, which seemed that he was suffering a lot. “This child is not mine, why should I serve you like my ancestors?” Then, Li Ye climbed up the roof obediently.
During the first three years, they lived a hard and poor life, and they often suffered from hunger. They were sometimes tortured by electricity, but they were generally harmonious and relaxed. Because they knew that this was a test of the secret region, their mentalities were good.
Three years of normal life had made the Feihong Bodhisattva become a mortal. In terms of words and actions, she was no longer as sober as before. She was not lively and vivid, like the people in the painting.
However, since she had fallen pregnant, especially in recent days that she was going to have a baby, her temper grew. She was always arrogant to Li Ye, almost like a mortal pregnant woman.
Such an “ordinary” Feihong Bodhisattva made Li Ye feel excited, but he also secretly grieved.
His complaint was actually caused by injustice and grievance.
The child was not his...
But Li Ye rarely said that, after all, it sounded very weird.
That night, it was in a flurry in the thatched cottage throughout the middle of the night. The midwife and the helpers came and went back and forth, and the pots of hot water were brought in and out. Of course, the most powerful thing was the cry of the Feihong Bodhisattva’s labor.
She seemed to have made up her mind to be an ordinary person completely.
Li Ye was sitting on a wooden pier in the yard, lost in thought when he looked at the brightly lit room. Beside him, a large number of people rushing around the village were comforting him and persuading him not to worry.
Li Ye did not feel urgent. Although the Feihong Bodhisattva shouted awfully, she was obviously going to be okay. The secret region wanted her to experience life, so of course it would not kill her.
After a few hours, with a loud cry erupting, Li Ye trembled all over. It was as though someone poured a bucket of cold water on his head. He felt a great fear, as if he was being pulled into a bottomless abyss.
The child was really born.
When the child was handed in Li Ye’s arms by the smiling midwife, his head was blank.
After finally recovering from everyone’s congratulations and noise, Li Ye looked up at the sky and sighed. He knew that a misery life had begun.
It was as Li Ye expected, the ensuing life became more difficult. Because there was one more mouth to feed, he worked harder, especially... After a few years, the Feihong Bodhisattva had two more babies...
Of course, nothing had happened between him and the Feihong Bodhisattva.
Of course Li Ye felt uncomfortable, but the Feihong Bodhisattva was even more annoyed. After all, pregnancy was hard work...
The good news was that since the baby was born, the Feihong Bodhisattva’s temper had changed again. This time, she had become very mild. She was now a virtuous woman, a great wife and mother. She was focused on her mothering skills and helping out her husband. If it were in the past, Li Ye would be very frightened and hard to accept it. After all, she was the Feihong Bodhisattva.
However, the years of working together day and night, and the common hard work had left no sense of distance between them. Li Ye felt that it should be logical for the change in the temperament of the Feihong Bodhisattva.
There was something more logical.
Li Ye and the Feihong Bodhisattva were getting old.
This wasn’t the worst thing Li Ye had ever felt because there was something worse...
With physical aging, he started to get sick... Sometimes it would cause backache when the weather changed. In the worst case, when he went hunting in the mountains, he accidentally broke his leg and lay in bed for over three months. Fortunately, there was more than one labor force in the house, so he didn’t starve to death.
It was dusk again.
Li Ye climbed up the roof along the ladder and sat down next to the Feihong Bodhisattva, who was watching the sunset in the sky. The scenery in front of them was really good. There was a winding river outside the vast farmland, which had been flowing into the distant barren mountains and wild ridges. The sunset hung at the end of the river, and the river surface was sparkling, it was so beautiful.
After years of living a poor life, the Feihong Bodhisattva’s only hobby that never changed was watching the sunset.
But as soon as Li Ye sat down, before he could dissolve the fatigue of working all day, the Feihong Bodhisattva looked over at him and asked, “Do you know what day it is?”
Li Ye lightly pounded his rheumatic legs and glanced at the wrinkles in the corner of Feihong Bodhisattva’s eyes. “Your birthday?”
“It’s eldest’s birthday!” Feihong Bodhisattva added seriously. The so-called ‘eldest’ referred to their eldest son. Although strictly speaking, it was not their son.
Li Ye was confused and asked then, “So what?”
The Feihong Bodhisattva glanced at him with a little complaint, but did not blame him. She added happily, “The eldest has reached the age of marriage, and it is time to find him a wife. Today, I met Mrs. Wang when I went to buy salt, and we talked about it. She and I both feel that the little lady of the Xu family is good, smart and sensible with a big butt, and she would be perfect to give birth to a child...”
Li Ye was stunned when he heard this.
The Feihong Bodhisattva stopped, too.
The two became silent.
After a long time, Li Ye smiled reluctantly and shook his head, and then added, “Twenty years. We have lived here for twenty years!”
“Twenty years, there is still no hint from the secret region.” The Feihong Bodhisattva sighed, and then she gathered her hair on the temples, suddenly her voice was full of vitality again, “When the eldest’s marriage is resolved, it would be Yuer’s turn, and she is of the hairpin age...”
Li Ye was again speechless, “...”
Time passed quickly, and another twenty years passed quickly.
In the setting sun, Li Ye and the Feihong Bodhisattva sat in the yard together, enjoying the coolness under the big locust trees. They stared at the farmland outside Firewood door in a daze.
They couldn’t go up to the roof, because they were old with graying temples, and it was difficult to move around. They simply couldn’t climb the ladder at all. Forty years of hard work had made them grow old quickly.
There were a few strong and young men working in the fields, women preparing food in the kitchen, and several children chasing and quarreling in the yard—these children were not their grandchildren, but their great-grandchildren. After all, this was an era that people got married and had children in their teens.
Li Ye hung his head between sleep and awake. Although it looked ugly, fortunately, there was no drool. The Feihong Bodhisattva looked at the sunset and was lost in thought beside him. She looked back at Li Ye and saw him keeping his body still without saying a word, her face changed.
She quickly pushed Li Ye. “Li Ye, don’t sleep here, or you will catch cold!”
Li Ye opened his hazy eyes and was a little at a loss, and then woke up after a long pause. Seeing him like this, the Feihong Bodhisattva breathed a sigh of relief. “You scared me to death.”
Li Ye smiled. “You think I died in sleep?”
The Feihong Bodhisattva moved his body with difficulty and changed her posture slightly. “That is not entirely impossible.”
Li Ye looked to the horizon and added with emotion, “Relax, I will die after you.”
“Then you have to work hard at being healthy. Your body barely got through last winter. Be careful, you may not get up one day... Anyway, don’t catch cold. If you are sick, you may not get better...” With saying those words, the Feihong Bodhisattva’s voice lowered. Her head gradually drooped, and her gray hair became golden in the setting sun.
Li Ye waited for a long time, but did not hear anything else. He could not help but turn around curiously, when he saw the appearance of the Feihong Bodhisattva, he was stunned. Then he seemed to sense something, his eyes changed dramatically, and trembled quickly and reached out his hand to touch her breath.
Indeed, the Feihong Bodhisattva had no breath.
Withdrawing his hand, Li Ye calmed down instead. He smiled lightly from his heart. “I worked so hard for so long and finally you died before me...”
Before he finished speaking, his hand fell to his side and he closed his eyes slowly.
When the time came, there was a smile on his face. It was like a victory.
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