Chapter 22 – It Seems Like My Brain is Broken
“Fourth Uncle, you’ve mistaken someone; I’m not an Xianzun. My name is Gu Wenzhu, and Xia Yi’s aunt is my stepmother.” Gu Wenzhu stood there, at a loss.
Come on, Uncle! Have you no dignity? Xia Yi just wanted to roll his eyes.
Cheng Ming continued to cry, genuinely, “Xianzun, you’ve been wandering for over twenty years! We searched for you many times but couldn’t find you. We were even worried you might have ascended! Turns out you’ve been farming here.”
Gu Wenzhu looked helplessly at Xia Yi, who shook his head, indicating he couldn’t do anything about it. He pointed to his head, suggesting Cheng Ming might be a bit out of it.
“Um, Fourth Uncle, come here for a second.” Xia Yi stepped to the edge of the courtyard.
Once Cheng Ming wiped his tears and approached, Xia Yi said quietly, “That’s enough, Xiaoming; this is too much. Don’t call my Brother Zhu Xianzun anymore. I’ll tell you, he’s a good person. Even if you didn’t act dumb to get close, he’d take you in.”
“Don’t call him Brother Zhu; show some respect. Do you know who he is? He’s the Xianzun of our Qishan Sect. Even though you saved me, if you don’t show respect to our Xianzun, I’ll have to fall out with you,” Cheng Ming said sternly.
“179, has he become addicted to acting?” Xia Yi was shocked, closely observing Cheng Ming’s expression. He didn’t seem to be faking it, which made him feel confused.
“You’re not acting? Then how can you think he’s your Xianzun?”
“It’s not thinking; it’s the truth. He is indeed our Qishan Sect’s Cang Yi Xianzun.”
This is a disaster; he really has some issues.
“179, I don’t think he’s pretending. Otherwise, his acting is too good; it’s like his mind is broken.” The more Xia Yi looked at Cheng Ming, the more he felt something was off.
“Host, I’ve reported this issue to the main system. It will be investigated by the tech system to see if this confusion, delusion, or role-playing is a psychological issue resulting from the crossover.” The system said seriously.
“That’s good.” Xia Yi felt relieved but then sensed something was wrong. “Tech system? The one involved in the three months of multi-level marketing?”
“What multi-level marketing? That was an exchange for learning.” 179 sounded a bit displeased. Host, it’s one thing to attack me regularly, but now you’re attacking my colleagues.
“Now we hold daily morning meetings, reciting uplifting quotes together; the morale within the system has improved,” 179 defended angrily. Seeing Xia Yi silent, it softened its tone and continued, “If you buy five chips from me and let me become a level three manager, I’ll forgive you.”
You’re still calling that an exchange for learning? No wonder all these Qishan Sect people keep coming over.
Xia Yi walked over to Gu Wenzhu. “My Fourth Uncle isn’t thinking straight; he insists he’s from a cultivation sect and that you’re their Xianzun. Brother Zhu, just go along with him; whatever he says, just agree.”
“Okay, I’ll go along. After all, he’s your Fourth Uncle; I should take good care of him.” Gu Wenzhu replied quietly. “I’ll go ask a doctor to take a look tomorrow.”
“No need; he’ll be fine in a while.” Xia Yi decisively refused. The aftereffects of this crossover can’t be solved by a few local doctors. “I’ll brew him some calming medicine to drink first.”
Gu Wenzhu nodded. This kind of mental issue is indeed hard to treat. “Don’t be stingy; the money’s in that little cabinet. Bring back more medicine when you go.”
“I know; go cook now; I’m hungry.” Xia Yi said loudly while pushing Gu Wenzhu toward the kitchen.
“Xianzun is going to cook?” Cheng Ming gasped. “Aren’t you supposed to serve him?”
In the kitchen, Gu Wenzhu began pouring vegetables into the pan to stir-fry. With a whoosh, the smoke rose, and he threw in a few dried chili peppers—Xia Yi loved spicy food. He easily flipped the pan a few times, and the enticing aroma began to waft through the air. He tasted a piece with his chopsticks, nodding in approval as he grabbed a plate and took the dish off the heat.
Cheng Ming stood at the door, dazed, watching Gu Wenzhu skillfully cook and plate the food, feeling as if everything in front of him was an illusion.
“Our Xianzun? Don’t mention standing at a dusty earthen stove frying vegetables; even the oil smoke would be unbearable. He only drinks water from the Yunli spring, fetched daily by a crane flying thousands of miles to get it to ensure the water is pure and unpolluted. And he’s out in the fields with sleeves rolled up, hoeing? Cang Yi Xianzun has always worn white robes, ethereal and untainted, crafted from the finest silk by the best weavers using carefully selected jade silkworm silk.”
“Is Xianzun here to undergo tribulation?”
“And he doesn’t even recognize me? Has he forgotten me? That’s impossible; Xianzun has cultivated to the Transformation Stage; he should remember even the most distant memories. Besides, even if he forgot everyone else, he wouldn’t forget his dearest Xiaoming.”
“Could he have amnesia?”
Gu Wenzhu cooked a dish of preserved meat and bamboo shoots that Xia Yi loved, adding a handful of fragrant garlic shoots. Xia Yi avoided the fatty meat, picking out the lean parts and leaving the unevenly nibbled fatty pieces in Gu Wenzhu’s bowl.
In Cheng Ming’s shocked gaze, Gu Wenzhu calmly picked up a piece of fatty meat and ate it.
Early the next morning, Xia Yi got up. The radishes in the field needed one last fertilization before they would be ready for harvest, so he had a busy day ahead.
After a sweet farewell ceremony with Gu Wenzhu, he took two steamed buns and two hoes, humming a tune as he made his way to the old house yard.
“Xiaoming, Xiaoming.” Xia Yi began calling Cheng Ming to wake up. “Xiaoming, it’s time to get up and work.”
Cheng Ming opened the courtyard door with a pained expression, reached out for the buns, and mumbled about going to the fields with Xia Yi. “When I was in the sect, there were attendants to help me get up every day. Even though I’ve long since stopped eating, I would occasionally taste some delicacies. These buns are just for the servants of the sect. Every day, I would go to the mountain top to absorb the spirit energy of heaven and earth, then practice diligently; who has time to farm?”
Xia Yi smirked coldly and held out his hand to Cheng Ming. “If you’re not going to eat, give it back to me. Your Cang Yi Xianzun got up this morning, made us breakfast, fed the dogs and cows, cleaned the chicken coop, and now he’s out in the fields farming without a word of complaint.”
Cheng Ming warily tightened his grip on the bun and shut his mouth.
Once in the field, Xia Yi tossed Cheng Ming a hoe. “Go loosen the soil around each radish carefully; don’t break their skins.”
Reluctantly, Cheng Ming took the hoe and started to gently dig in the ground.
Suddenly, he froze. He uncovered a patch of dirt to reveal a bit of radish skin. He set the hoe aside and crouched down, gently clearing the dirt around the radish, his eyes widening.
In disbelief, he rubbed his eyes and cleared a bit more dirt. Then a look of sheer joy spread across his face as he trembled with excitement. “Heavenly Spirit Fruit! This is the Heavenly Spirit Fruit!”
Here we go again.
Xia Yi leaned on his hoe, feeling powerless.
“179, did you get any feedback on the report you submitted?” Xia Yi called out to the system. “The crossover has really messed up his head, and it’s getting worse.”
“Yesterday, I reported the situation, and the tech system conducted a detailed investigation. However, they found no issues after the checks. The tech system thinks it needs further training and has gone out to study more,” 179 replied.
Alright then.
So, for the rest of the morning, Cheng Ming was busy inspecting each radish, grinning ear to ear. “I’ve never seen so many large, high-quality Heavenly Spirit Fruits. I only saw something like this years ago at a gathering of various sects. The leader of the Wandao Sect showed us, but it was much worse than this; they hid it as if we’d take a piece just by looking.”
“Can you believe it? A field full of Heavenly Spirit Fruits! The leader of the Wandao Sect would be dumbfounded, hahahaha.”
“Eating just one could boost your cultivation by at least a hundred years.”
“What a shame my fellow disciples can’t see such a marvel.” He began to choke up again.
Xia Yi couldn’t hold back any longer. “If you want to farm, then farm properly. How long are you going to obsess over a row of radishes?”
Cheng Ming glared at him. “You call them radishes, but you think I don’t know what a radish looks like?”
Xia Yi smirked and nodded, dragging Cheng Ming along. They reached another person’s radish field, dug up a radish, and asked, “What’s this?”
“Radish, of course,” Cheng Ming replied as if it were obvious, seemingly displeased that Xia Yi would ask such a question.
Oh? Is he better now?
Xia Yi dragged him to his own field and pointed at the radish again. “And what’s this?”
“Heavenly Spirit Fruit,” Cheng Ming replied dreamily.
What the hell!
Why can’t you recognize my radishes? Is this a case of intermittent confusion?
“Forget it; I’m not going to argue with you. Let’s go back for lunch.” It was already noon, and with things being less busy lately, Brother Zhu might have already prepared lunch.
“I’m not eating; I want to guard these fruits.” Cheng Ming waved his hand without looking up, then added, “Just bring me two buns when you’re done.”
Xia Yi stopped calling him and headed back home for lunch.
