CH 19

Yumi12-15 minutes 30.05.2023

When the white flash disappeared, Luo Xiao gradually opened his eyes. His eyes widened unknowingly when his sight fell on his right palm. The seed pattern from before was now changed into a picture of a three-dimensional small peach tree sapling with a height of one inch. He opened and closed his eyes with a disbelieving expression. For a while, his brain failed to function.

The disbelief passed and he slowly came back to his senses. He discovered that he didn’t feel any different from before. He carefully reached out his left hand and poked the three-dimensional peach tree sapling, only to end up without feeling anything. Closing his right hand, he saw the picture of a peach tree sapling vanish into thin air. Then he opened his palm for the second time and the picture emerged again.

He looked at the tiny peach tree sapling that was similar to a 3D projection effect, and couldn’t help but speculate in his heart. This thing was still a mystery to him, and he didn’t know its function. It would be good if he knew how to use it.

Much to his surprise, as he was just thinking about it, he discovered that the tiny peach tree sapling had disappeared completely. What followed next was a virtual screen that popped out in front of him containing the detailed words about introduction.

According to the introduction, this tiny peach tree sapling was originally a immortal tree. No one knew the identity of the former immortal owner of this immortal tree. In his previous life, Luo Xiao rescued the life of this immortal tree by fate, and in the cycle of karma, a single life of a immortal tree was equivalent to a rebirth in this life.

It was a pity that in the process of coming back to the past, a mishap occurred. The immortal tree was divided into two. The aura stayed inside Luo Xiao’s body, but the main body went straight back to the immortal peach tree and lost contact in the process.

Still staring with his head lifted at the introduction, a scene flashed back into Luo Xiao’s mind. The scene happened one month prior to the time of his death. At that time, Fan Lie proposed to visit a deserted mountain village, so the three of them went there.

Due to Fan Lie’s crazy obsession for food, the three of them had no choice but to drive different cars and went past the bumpy mountain road that lasted for many hours just to go to that small mountain village to see the well-known local game—hunting wild black boar. After catching a wild boar, it will be cooked and eaten by the villagers.

When they were staying there, Luo Xiao once prevented the locals from cutting up a peach tree to be used as a firewood out of momentary kindness. Then he moved to straighten the peach tree that was almost dug from the soil, and filled it with soil before giving it water.

For the next few days they stayed in that mountain village. He would always go to the location of the peach tree and to see its condition, and became joyful when he saw that it was flourishing. The thought that his rebirth was due to a momentary act of kindness never crossed his mind.

After letting out a long breath, he focused his sight on the virtual screen that popped out in front of him, and discovered that it resembled a tablet computer. The only difference was that it’s not the manual type, but a mind control type. Instructing using his mind, he scanned back and forth, inside and out.

This virtual screen had two different modes. One was the screen mode, and the other one was the three-dimensional mode. Using the screen mode, the growth and other information about the peach tree was displayed through numerical bars. On the other hand, using the three-dimensional effect mode, the intuitive growth and other situations of the peach tree were displayed in a way that could be seen easily.

Luo Xiao learned that as long as there is sufficient energy, the peach tree will continue to grow. The branches will grow and a fruit will be formed. Of course, aside from bearing an immortal fruit, the inside of its trunk was a growing mustard seed space.

The virtual screen showed the current growth of the tiny peach tree. Luo Xiao looked at it.

Level: Level 1

Internal space: 1 cubic meter

Energy value: 5

Energy required to level up: 95

Luo immediately became thrilled, but at the same time a little awkward. He discovered that this so-called internal space was really helpful and great. With just a single thought, the thing he wanted to keep appeared inside the space. This function really answered his problem of where to keep the treasure he may find in the future. The problem is, he had no knowledge regarding the energy needed to level up the peach tree, causing him to feel a little awkward.

Forget it, it was still a pleasant surprise that he was able to set his hands on this magical thing. After that, he turned his eyes on the several copper coins placed on the table with the same thrilled expression. He lifted them up and turned them again and again, only to see nothing strange about them. Out of helplessness, Luo Xiao had a quick flash of insight, and the several coins were directly imported inside the space that he just got.

In the same second, a message appeared on the virtual screen: Several sealed coins are imported inside the space. Do you want to remove the seal?

When his eyes fell on the words written on the screen, Luo Xiao’s face was filled with interest, and he involuntarily lifted his eyebrows. He controlled the confirm button in his mind without thinking deeply. It was a pity that another message appeared at the next second: To remove the seal, 50 energy points are required. Please try again later after the needed numbers of energy points are met.

Is this for real? Luo Xiao curled his lips slightly and thought. He had to get 50 energy points to remove the seal. While he was still feeling a little dissatisfied, his little uncle pulled open the door and entered, “Xiaoxiao, how is it? Is your stay at the house okay?”

“It’s okay! This afternoon, I finished a lot of my homework.” Luo Xiao turned his head up in a well-behaved manner and replied with a grin to his little uncle.

“Well, that’s good.” His little uncle smiled and rubbed his hair, then spoke with a hint of apology, “Uncle is sorry for you. Uncle may not have the time to accompany you out to play for the next few days. Just wait until I finish my work, and we will go out to play. How about that?”

Luo Xiao straight away shook his head, “It’s alright, little uncle. I’m already ten years old, and I can manage myself. You can work without worrying about me. If I feel bored staying at the house, I’ll go outside for a walk.”

“But, in that case…” In this era, the concept of family planning was not popular. In every household, there would be four or five children at normal times. It was also because of this that child trafficking was almost non-existent. Particularly in the place of City S where development was on the rise. In addition, Luo Xiao gave people the impression that he was a sensible and obedient kid.

So, Luo Yong agreed after a brief thinking. “Fine, do as you want. Just remember not to run too far, or else uncle will be worried about you. Understand?”

“Yeah, I understand. Little uncle is the best.” Luo Xiao jumped forward and wrapped his little arms around his uncle’s waist before saying joyfully.

The factory where Luo Yong worked treated its employees well and also gave them free food in the afternoon. The two shared the food brought home by Luo Yong, and went to bed after eating. They had no option. After all, there was simply no entertainment like game consoles, computers, television, and so on, unlike in future generations. The most advanced appliances in this era were a radio and a black and white TV set measuring about ten inches.

It’s just that the place they were currently staying at had no black and white TV at all, and the same goes for the radio. The electric light was still a yellow tungsten lamp. It is especially bad for the eyesight when people use it to read in the dark, so it was better to get on bed and sleep early.

After having a good night’s sleep, Luo Xiao and Luo Yong went out of the house to work one after another. Upon arriving at the shop ‘A Grocery Store’, the door was still closed, probably because it was still early. Luo Xiao moved and sat on the steps opposite the shop. With one hand supporting his chin, his eyes wandered to his surroundings.

While the sun was still rising, his eyes fell on the road. He can see some women who got up early to buy vegetables, and also some hardworking people going to their workplace.

Despite the fact that Linchun Street is still an unpopular street now, it will be changed into a well-known antique street located in the City S in the future. Plenty of people who will visit this place will have the mindset of trying their luck to see if they can find real treasure. However, that would be in the future.

Before his thoughts could even wander, a pair of feet wearing black cloth shoes entered his eyes, “Kid, you got here quite early.”

He lifted up his head and the picture of the old man clad in a dark gray cotton-patted jacket with two pieces of still smoking meat buns in his hands and eating unhurriedly entered his sight.

“Right, have you eaten breakfast? I still have an extra bun here that I haven’t eaten yet.”

“There’s no need for that, Grandpa. I’ve already eaten breakfast.” Luo Xiao waved his hands indicating his refusal and grinned.

“Is that so?” The old man nodded and moved his feet towards the direction of the shop before, and opened the door. Escorting Luo Xiao inside, he pointed to the things inside the shop before saying, “In usual times, not many people come to the shop. Just as you know, when someone enters the shop, all you need to do is to greet them. There’s no need to clean anything. By the way, you can also see some books here in the shop. You can choose from the books that piqued your interest and read them.”

After saying that, he approached the table and lifted the teapot to pour himself a drink and gulp it, “That’s it, gulping a drink, it’s really comfortable.”

Luo Xiao listened to the old man’s words and went to the place the old man pointed to just now, and found that the middle of the three shelves on this side was filled with many different books.

Estimating it, there seemed to be about fifty to sixty books placed there. Aside from the masterpieces like Water Margin, Three Kingdom, and Dream of Red Chamber, he could also find some miscellaneous essays scattered around. Luo Xiao scanned his eyes around.

When his sight fell on the book called ‘Bagua’1Bagua is the basic concept of “Book of Changes”, which can represent the dynamic and static static of all natural phenomena, and each hexagram is composed of three lines.  From Wikipedia , several sealed coins from yesterday flashed in his mind. He was taken aback for a while and immediately went to pick up the book and opened it. He flipped through the pages casually, and learned that the content of this book was generally about divination.

If the case of his rebirth didn’t happen, he would probably never take a look in this book. After all, before his rebirth, he felt like fortune-telling and other magical stuff were all nonsense, and that they were purely made up by some people who cheated others for money.

But that all changed after this rebirth, and this deepened after remembering what happened yesterday. Although his resistance against fortune-telling dissipated for a bit, at the very least he won’t think that it was nonsense like before.

Unbeknownst to Luo Xiao, the old man paid attention to him the moment he approached the bookshelf to choose a book. When he saw him pull out the book ‘Bagua’, the old man couldn’t stop the lights from his eyes. It must be known that he only placed that book after Luo Xiao left yesterday, and he placed the book in an inconspicuous corner. Unexpectedly, Luo Xiao found it and really pulled it out to look through it.

The old man’s eyes fell on Luo Xiao who was reading the book with a solemn expression, and the more he looked at the scene, the more satisfied he felt. Anyway, there’s no need to hurry. He could get a better view of this young kid in the days to come.