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    Chapter Eleven


    "What''s going on, Dad?" Long Xiaoshan walked into the main hall, set down the bucket and basket, and saw Long Dashan sitting there, smoking a hand-rolled cigarette, his brow furrowed with a face full of distress.


    "It''s none other than that damn vige chief," Long Xiaoling said indignantly.


    "Xiaoling, keep your voice down," Long Dashan scolded.


    "Dad, what exactly happened? Who is the vige chief now?" Long Xiaoshan had juste back and hadn''t asked about these things; he didn''t even know who the vige chief was.


    "Your Uncle Fakui," Long Dashan said gloomily.


    "Long Fakui?" Long Xiaoshan had a sinking feeling in his heart and said, "How did hee back to be the vige chief? Wasn''t he always in the county?"


    "A couple of years ago, he came back and opened a sawmill at Shilong Slope outside the vige. Then he ran for vige chief. You know how it is now; the election favors the wealthy. He''s the richest in our vige, and he''s hired quite a few vigers at his sawmill. After Laotie retired, he got elected," exined Long Dashan.


    "Dad, you said this morning that you were going to work at the sawmill; don''t tell me it''s his," Long Xiaoshan asked.


    "It is his, but today he fired our dad and even had the vigemittee cut our electricity off. Isn''t that bullying?"ined Long Xiaoling.


    Long Xiaoshan pondered briefly, then understood.


    It must have been rted to the incident this morning in the cornfield where he thwarted Long Fakui.


    This was clearly retaliation.


    Long Xiaoshan''s eyes hardened as he said, "Getting our dad fired is one thing; that''s his mill. But what''s this about cutting our electricity? Can the vigemittee just do that at will?"


    Long Dashan sighed and said, "Xiaoshan, after your incident, we racked up quite a debt. I''ve been working at the sawmill and putting my entire sry towards paying it off. We were already behind on the electric bill. Today, after he sent me home, many people came to our door to collect debts. Ergouzi, who was collecting the electricity fees, also showed up. I couldn''t pay on the spot, so he cut off our power."


    A surge of anger rose within Long Xiaoshan.


    This Long Fakui was a despicable man.


    He was mixing personal grudges with official business!


    Long Xiaoshan wanted to confront the old scoundrel right away, but thinking it over, he calmed down.


    Long Fakui was being underhanded—if he reacted with violence, he''d be ying into his hands. Plus, he had just gotten out of prison and wasn''t keen on resorting to violence so readily.


    The main issue was still the poverty at home; they couldn''t even pay the electricity bill on time, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation.


    "Dad, how much do we still owe? Tell me about it," Long Xiaoshan asked.


    "This..." Long Dashan hesitated before replying, "It''s a bit over thirty thousand."


    Over thirty thousand was already a considerable sum in the vige. No wonder Long Dashan was so worried. Long Xiaoshan reassured him, "Don''t worry, Dad, I''ll think of a way to get the money. Tomorrow, I''ll go to the county job market to see if I can find work."


    "I''m going too," Long Xiaoling said.


    "What for?" Long Xiaoshan frowned.


    "Brother, I still have two months before school starts. I can work a summer job," Long Xiaoling replied, "Fang Fang from the next vige is working in the county. She even asked me to join herst time. Brother, I''m grown now, I can''t keep spending the family''s money."


    Seeing Long Xiaoling''s determination, Long Xiaoshan said nothing more. As someone who had been to the big city, he knew there were many students who got summer jobs to gain social experience.


    "I''ll go get the medicine ready for Mom. Xiaoling, fry up a bowl of baby shrimps."


    Long Xiaoshan poured out half of the bucket of baby shrimps and transferred the rest into a water tank.


    He took the basket of herbs to the backyard and began picking out the ones needed for the Bone-Regeneration Powder. This powder required four different types of herbs, each part of the nt had to be specific; some needed roots, others leaves or stems. The selection was meticulous, for instance, a few inches below the root, and even if someone had the form, they wouldn''t be able to replicate it without this detailed knowledge.


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    Long Xiaoshan took an iron pot, boiled the herbs, and pounded them into ck paste-like medicine cakes.


    He walked into the inner room.


    "Little Xiaoshan," He Xiangyue called out from the bed.


    "Mom, I''ve prepared the medicine. I''m going to apply it now," Long Xiaoshan said, holding the medicine cakes and gauze bandages in his hand.


    "Good, good, little Xiaoshan, you''ve worked hard," He Xiangyue said, looking at her son with great tenderness.


    Long Xiaoshan smiled, undid the wooden board on He Xiangyue''s leg, examined the injured leg, applied the medicine cake, and then wrapped it with a gauze bandage.


    "Mom, do you feel anything?" Long Xiaoshan asked.


    "Itchy, so itchy, it feels like a lot of ants are crawling on it," He Xiangyue said, restless.


    "Itchiness means the medicine is working. The bones inside must be growing. Mom, you have to bear with it and mustn''t move around now," Long Xiaoshan exined.


    "Okay," He Xiangyue nodded firmly.


    Long Xiaoshan stayed in the room for a while, then went out to eat something and returned to his room. There wasn''t much entertainment in the countryside, they didn''t even have a TV at home, and there was also a power outage. Long Xiaoshan went inside to meditate.


    While meditating, he suddenly felt a sense of dizziness.


    Long Xiaoshan found himself standing in a void, a bottle floating before his eyes.


    "Isn''t this the bottle I found? How did it appear here, and where is this ce?" Even though Long Xiaoshan didn''t believe in ghosts and spirits, he couldn''t help breaking out in a cold sweat.


    However, he was a brave man.


    He didn''t panic, but rather approached the bottle. He noticed that it looked somewhat different from when he had picked it up. It emitted a faint halo, and the bottle seemed to contain many mountains, rivers, nts, and fishes that flowed continuously. There were also five tadpole-shaped characters shining in golden light on the surface of the bottle.


    This type of writing was extremely ancient and full of spiritual nature.


    Long Xiaoshan had never seen such characters, but he somehow recognized their meaning, Virtuous Jade Spiritual Purification Bottle.


    Virtuous Jade Spiritual Purification Bottle, what does that mean?


    This bottle was found in Guanyin Cave—could it be a treasure of Goddess Guanyin?


    The thought crossed Long Xiaoshan''s mind, but he found it amusing. Are celestials really real? However, the artifact was definitely not ordinary; otherwise, it wouldn''t have disappeared suddenly and reappeared here.


    Long Xiaoshan reached out and grasped the Virtuous Jade Spiritual Purification Bottle.


    All of a sudden, a chill surged through his body, making his Divine Soul sofortable that he groaned out loud. Long Xiaoshan quickly came to his senses, finding himself still sitting on the bed. Yet, he felt as if his senses were sharper than before.


    Beyond the wall, he could distinctly "see" his father sitting in the main room drawing on a sullen cigarette, and his little sister mending clothes in the room.


    This visual expansion went even further out.


    He "saw" into his fifth aunt''s house next door. She was chattering away with the third uncle''s wife next door, gossiping about family matters. She just happened to mention that Long Dashan still owed her family two thousand yuan, and now that little Xiaoshan had returned from prison, it was uncertain when this money could be repaid.


    Long Xiaoshan quickly shifted his "gaze" to look further afield.


    Passing through a wall, he saw a wooden bed creaking violently, with two people engaged in adult activities.


    A flush of heat rose in Long Xiaoshan''s heart; wasn''t this the home of the Zhang Widow, the vige belle?


    Hadn''t her husband died many years ago?


    Long Xiaoshan was not the peeping type, and the Zhang Widow''s affair was none of his business. After all, it was normal for her to fulfill her physical needs after her husband''s death for so many years. He was about to look away when he suddenly stopped, staring intently at the person on the bed. Wasn''t that Long Fakui, the vige head, on top of the Zhang Widow?