"Do you want to challenge a high salary? Are you eager to show your manhood in front of the opposite sex? Are you willing to seek deep soul communication amidst the exhausted shouts? If you're a man, come and prove your strength."
Three years ago, Luo Chuan just turned eighteen and fell for a girl in his village. To marry her, he left the mountain village where he had grown up to work in the big city. However, without an education or skills, he hadn't found a job for a week and was penniless. Then, he saw this recruitment advertisement and hurriedly applied in his desperation. It was only after he was knocked unconscious by a woman who was as fierce as a bear, did he realize that it was recruitment for a women's free fighting team's sparring partner.
Although he was almost beaten up every day, the treatment was really good, and the salary was high. He held on for three years and earned three hundred thousand yuan.
Now, he refused to work anymore. He had money, he wanted to go home and marry his wife.
Humming a tune and carrying carefully selected gifts, he walked on the mountain road, with his heart already with the girl in the village. The blazing sun above his head intensified his eager and anxious mood, and he couldn't help complaining, "The damn road in the village, not even a passenger car can pass, it should have been repaired."
At last, Baiyang Village was in sight. The familiar village was closed-off and impoverished, but it was his home, and she was in the village.
He was an orphan, picked up and adopted by his grandfather. After his grandfather passed away from illness, "she" was his largest concern.
"Wait for me to earn money, and I'll marry you," he had said, seemingly just yesterday.
Turning a corner, Luo Chuan's mood was even more excited as he could see the gate of her house.
He put down the gifts in his hand, specially adjusted his clothes, picked up the gifts again, and was about to knock on the door. A tall young man came out from the yard.
"Hmm?" Luo Chuan was stunned. He recognized the young man, whose name was Meng Wei, and was a "second generation official" in the village. His father was the village head of Baiyang Village and the wealthiest man in the village. Because of his “background” and wealth, Meng Wei had always been overbearing, patronizing men and women alike. It was rumored that he had connections in both the underworld and the government, and the villagers who were bullied by him did not dare to speak out in anger.
"What is he doing here?" Luo Chuan wondered.
At this time, a beautiful face peeked out of the door and deeply kissed Meng Wei's face: "Meng Brother, come on, don't forget our promise. Once you become the village head, we will travel abroad."
Meng Wei smiled intoxicatingly: "Don't worry, Little Lian. You will be our village, the village master's wife in the future. We can go wherever you want."
"Crack!" Luo Chuan's beautiful, innocent heart shattered.
Li Fenglian, the woman who Li thought about day and night, the woman he was striving to marry after earning money away from home, the woman he had made vows of enduring love with, was dating Meng Wei.
Meng Wei turned around to leave, noticed Luo Chuan and said, "Hey, isn't this Luo, the idiot? When did you return? You really cleaned up. What are you up to?"
When Luo Chuan was still at school, his grades were poor, always ranking the last. He couldn’t even learn farming at home. Some villagers said he was abandoned by his biological parents because he was dumb, and nicknamed him "Idiot". But in reality, he was not dumb at all. His grandfather used to say that he was pretty smart, just not enlightened yet.
Li Fenglian, who was in the courtyard, noticed Luo Chuan, and her face changed slightly after a brief daze.
Ignoring Meng Wei, Luo Chuan blankly looked at Li Fenglian, "Why? We promised each other..."
Sensing something was off, Meng Wei turned his head and asked Li Fenglian, "What promise?"
Li Fenglian walked out from the courtyard, her slender waist swaying. She bent down and hugged Meng Wei's arm and said, "It’s nothing, Brother Meng. This idiot wanted to court me in the past and even said he would earn money to marry me. I was just joking that I would date him once he earned a lot of money. He took it seriously."
Meng Wei teased: "The fool is smitten, a toad trying to eat swan meat. Hey, idiot, the village head election is coming up, remember to vote for me. Or you will regret it."
Election for the village head? Luo Chuan wasn't interested, he just stared at Li Fenglian, "I have money now."
Meng Wei slapped him on the head: "Didn't you hear a word I said? Little Lian has been my girl for a long time, and you, a pauper, dared to covet her? You have money now? What a mischievous thing."
Luo Chuan looked up at Meng Wei who was taller than him with a threatening face, his last glimmer of hope reflected in his question: "Did you force her?"
Meng Wei pushed him aside with his foot: "Can't you understand human language, you fool?"
Li Fenglian echoed from the side: "Exactly, such a fool. Brother Meng, just ignore him. Beating him now would affect your election. Let's deal with him after you become the village head." She rolled her eyes at Luo Chuan and said, "And you're saying you have money now? Did you know our village is owned by Brother Meng’s family, can you outdo Meng’s wealth? Have a good look at yourself in the mirror, such poverty written all over your face. Get lost."
Luo Chuan's heart died completely. For the past three years, all his blood and sweat had meant nothing as Li Fenglian was just playing him. Looking at the couple who were showing intimacy in front of him, he didn't go after Meng Wei for a fight because it was utterly meaningless now.
He walked away, lost and desolate, carrying the gifts he brought.
"How could this be?" he asked himself. Turns out, his diligence over the past three years was merely a joke to Li Fenglian.
Throwing away the gifts in his hand one by one, he said, "So, I was deceived. What a fool I am." He had meticulously selected these gifts, but they were now useless.
The last thing in his hand was two bottles of precious good wine. When he decided to quit his job, the "tiger mothers" from the combat team gave it to him, blessing him and his loved one a "long-lasting harmony."
Tearing open the packaging, he downed a gulp.
Yet, the saying "drowning your sorrows in liquor" didn't help at all, instead, it caused the sadness to "double."
Holding back his tears, he suddenly realized that he was indeed superfluous in the village.
Arriving at his doorstep, he checked every pocket, but the house key was also gone.
His desolation increased. He sat down on the ground, leaning against the door, incessantly drinking. After downing a bottle of wine, his head spun, his mind was dazzled, he pulled out his treasured bank card: "I have money now, but she is gone. She tricked me. What do I need money for?"
He opened another bottle of wine and drank a few mouthfuls, surprising himself with not knowing who to blame. Staring fiercely at the bank card: "Definitely you! It’s all your fault. For you, I suffered, but it’s all in vain in the end."
Groggily throwing his bank card away, he then thought better of it, and crawled to pick it back up. With ninety percent anger fueled by a combination of drunkenness and confusion, he had an idea that would shock the entire village.
In the village committee's courtyard, a village head election was systematically underway.
Meng Wei had already resorted to tricks to secure votes, the election was just a formality. At that moment, he stood on simple makeshift stage, holding a loudspeaker, delivering his campaign speech: "If I were to become the village head, I will lead everyone to wealth. If I become the village head, I will focus on attracting capital and investments to improve our village’s living standards...”
The absent-minded villagers yawned incessantly, or chatted amongst themselves, some even nodded off.
Luo Chuan, smelling of alcohol, burping, stumbled into the election scene.
The previous village head, Meng Wei’s father, took the loudspeaker after his son finished speaking, “Alright, let’s not waste everyone’s time, I announce, let the voting begin now.”
Luochuan staggered forward, successfully attracting everyone's attention. As the crowd watched in confusion, he snatched a megaphone, held up a bank card in his hand and announced, "Listen everyone, I have a bank card here with three hundred thousand in it. I don't want it anymore. Hehe…" He giggled foolishly, then continued, "Let's use it to repair the roads in our village. Consider it a donation from me. Hehe…” He slapped the bank card on the table and handed back the megaphone to Meng Wei's father, "You all continue." He walked away, still laughing foolishly.
After a while, thunderous applause echoed from behind.
Meng Wei and his father were visibly enraged. To them, Luochuan's antics were simply disruptive.
What happened afterwards, Luochuan didn't know. Drunkenly, he went to his grandfather's grave, "Grandpa, your grandson is back. I'm here to accompany you, I don't want to live anymore." He babbled on before falling asleep.
As night fell, the summer nights in the mountain village were somewhat chilling.
Luochuan curled up, shivering lightly.
A common spotted snake in the mountains, flicking its tongue, crawled over his body, exploring.
A cold sensation on his face prompted Luochuan to brush it away in his sleep and lay spread out eagled. The snake, annoyed, opened its mouth to bite his nose. Suddenly it seemed frightened, it quickly retreated.
From the night sky, a red streak appeared.
It shot down straight, disappearing as it hit Luochuan's forehead. The surrounding flowers and plants seemed to be pushed by its impact, falling away with Luochuan at the center.
Luochuan sleepily sat up, oblivious to the abnormality, and lay back down.
He was someone who seldom dreamed, yet now he experienced some strange dreams.
In his dream, he was another person, one who sought immortality and wanted to be a carefree immortal. He went on to learn skills from various masters, persevered through hardship, mastered many skills, and seemed to attain immortality.
But then a divine disaster struck. He struggled against it, his physical form disintegrated with only a ray of spirit left that carried all his knowledge. It traversed through the stars, flew across dimensions, and descended on a blue planet.
Various strange techniques evolved in Luochuan's mind.
Within the dream, Luochuan gradually became excited, he found it all too fascinating and reveled in the experience.
Suddenly, he felt a chill on his back. When he was young and mischievous, he'd feel the same chill each time his grandfather rebuked him. He turned to look, and sure enough, his grandfather was there, glaring at him sternly, "Just a little setback, and you're all defeated, can’t you get up?"
"Grandpa? Aren't you dead?" Luochuan scratched his head, his blood ran cold and he sprang up, wide awake.
