ca-book Chapter 116: Walls of gold bricks, roads paved with divine stones—the worldview of the old neighbors
Chapter 116: Walls of gold bricks, roads paved with divine stones—the worldview of the old neighbors
Life in the hutongs has always been like a bowl of lukewarm water, uneventful and undisturbed.
Grandpa Zhang's chessboard, Grandma Li's vegetable basket, and the children's evening noise—this has been the scene for decades.
But in the last few days, a red-hot branding iron was thrown into the water.
All the ripping sounds came from the Lin family's courtyard house at the very end of the alley.
"Old Zhang, did you hear that again? Xiao Fan's yard looks like it's being demolished." Aunt Li, carrying tomatoes, approached the chessboard, her voice as low as if she were doing something wrong.
Grandpa Zhang's horse was being held by the cannon's leg, and upon hearing this, he didn't even bother to lift his eyelids: "I heard it, it's just renovations. Didn't two foreign lads come over a few days ago, one sweeping and the other chopping wood? It's no big deal."
"No!" Aunt Li looked like she'd seen a ghost. "This time it's different! I just passed by, and guess what I saw?"
An older man watching the chess game nearby joked, "Did you see young Lin bring home a wife?"
"Get lost!" Aunt Li spat. "I saw...they were building a wall with gold bricks!"
"Gold bricks?" Grandpa Zhang chuckled, finally looking up. "I say, Aunt Li, you need to get your reading glasses replaced. They're just ceramic tiles coated with gold powder, nothing but cheap gimmicks."
"It really is! It's real gold!" Aunt Li exclaimed excitedly, gesturing with her hands to indicate its size. "It's this big! The sunlight was so bright it blinded you! That tall guy named Aldebaran, he slammed one against the wall like they were stacking blocks of tofu!"
The onlookers burst into laughter, and the air was filled with a joyful atmosphere.
"Aunt Li, with your imagination, it's a pity you don't write books."
"Building walls with gold bricks? Do they think this is the Forbidden City?"
Amid the laughter, Old Wang, who had been silently drinking tea, stopped what he was doing.
He put down the large tea mug that had been with him for twenty years.
His expression looked a little off.
"Old Wang, what's wrong? Are you stuck with the game?" Grandpa Zhang noticed his unusual behavior.
Old Wang didn't say anything.
He stood up, carrying the teacup, and moved step by step toward Lin Fan's house.
His heart was not in turmoil.
It was as if the sky had collapsed and the earth had caved in.
Walls built with gold bricks?
He believed what others took as a joke!
Ever since that day when he drank that "immortal tea" in Lin Fan's courtyard that made him twenty years younger, he knew that Lin Fan, and those strangely dressed guys in his courtyard, were not human at all.
At least, not an ordinary person.
But he never expected that these "gods" would be so down-to-earth?
Building walls with gold bricks? What kind of nonsense is this? Even immortals flaunt their wealth?
With his heart pounding in his chest, Old Wang walked to the entrance of the courtyard house.
Then, he froze on the spot.
The bumpy dirt road at the entrance of the courtyard is gone.
Instead, a path has been erected.
A path paved with colorful crystals extends from the Lin family's gate into the alley.
The crystal pavement shimmered with a dreamlike brilliance under the sunlight, and each crystal seemed to contain a tiny starry sky.
Several "workers" dressed in golden armor were kneeling on the ground, wiping the road surface with a snow-white soft cloth.
Their expressions were so devout, as if they were wiping the sacred body of a god.
Old Wang's understanding was shattered at this moment.
Glazed tile road? Crystal road?
He had lived for seventy years; what hadn't he seen? But this thing in front of him belonged to none of the categories he had ever seen.
He shakily lifted his foot, intending to step on it, but then abruptly pulled it back.
He dare not.
Just then, a loud "bang" came from the courtyard.
Old Wang was startled and instinctively grabbed the door frame, standing on tiptoe to peek inside.
Just one glance.
His soul almost ran away from home on the spot.
In the center of the courtyard, the fair-skinned man named "Mu" was floating in mid-air.
Before him, a colossal furnace appeared out of nowhere, with purple flames burning silently within it.
The man reached out, and pieces of pitch-black metal flew into the air and were thrown into the furnace, instantly turning into molten iron that shimmered with starlight.
Then, the man made a half-hearted gesture of bringing his hands together.
The molten iron was automatically shaped into simple, ancient-looking hoes and shovels, exuding a sharp, piercing aura that stung the skin.
Telekinesis... conjuring fire from thin air... forming objects from thought...
Old Wang had worked in the martial arts world when he was young, and he had only ever seen these terms in myths and supernatural tales that were denounced as "feudal dross."
He always thought that was just ancient people bragging when they were drunk.
Today, the cow flew right before his eyes!
What else could this be but a god?!
Old Wang's knees began to weaken.
He wanted to run, but his feet felt like they were nailed to the ground.
He wanted to shout, but his throat felt like it was stuffed with cotton.
He felt that his lifelong adherence to the materialist worldview had been torn to shreds by an invisible hand, then thrown to the ground and crushed back and forth by this colorful crystal road.
He had always thought that the Lin family boy he had watched grow up was, at best, a reclusive martial arts grandmaster.
Now, what kind of grandmaster is that?
This is fucking a paradise!
Lin Fan is the head of this den of immortals!
Old Wang leaned against the cold door frame, panting heavily. He felt like he was about to have a heart attack.
Only one thought remained in his mind.
From then on, whenever you passed by the Lin family's house, you had to go around them.
wrong!
You must come and pay your respects!
We burn three sticks of incense morning and night, and bow whenever we pass by! We pray to the gods to bless our family with peace!
Just as Old Wang was struggling with this dilemma, the "deity" floating in the courtyard seemed to have finished its work.
With a casual wave of his hand, the newly made, still-steaming farm tools floated lightly into the hands of another group of burly men.
A burly man leading the group picked up a black hoe, weighed it in his hand, and a satisfied smile appeared on his face.
Then, he casually dug into a bluestone slab paving in the corner of the courtyard.
Old Wang instinctively closed his eyes.
He already sensed the sharp sound of the hoe breaking.
However, no.
In the silence, only a soft "poof" sound could be heard.
The sound was not like a hoe hitting a stone, but more like a red-hot needle piercing a piece of tofu.
Old Wang squinted open one eye.
The millstone-sized, indestructible bluestone slab was silently chipped off at one corner by the black hoe.
The cut is as smooth as a mirror.
It's like... digging up a potato.
The group of burly men looked at the new tools in their hands and burst into a wild, animalistic cheer.
Old Wang: "..."
His vision went black, his body swayed, and he leaned against the wall.
He finally believed it.
What Grandpa Zhang said a few days ago—that the foreign young man chopping wood split the whetstone in two with one axe—was no exaggeration.
In this courtyard, this might really just be everyday life.
Old Wang, looking lost and dejected, slowly made his way home.
He made his decision.
He went home and took out the Moutai he had treasured for thirty years.
Go to the market again and buy two pounds of the best pork belly.
He's going to offer sacrifices to the gods!