'What is this?'
'This has to be my Golden Finger!'
Fang Yue's heart pounded with excitement. It had been three months since he'd transmigrated into this world.
At first, he had tried numerous methods to activate a Golden Finger,
but obviously, nothing had come of it.
After three months, he had all but given up. He never expected his Golden Finger to activate so inexplicably now.
[Time is fleeting, but heaven rewards the diligent. For every day that passes, Talent +1]
Fang Yue focused his mind, and a sliver of information instantly appeared in his thoughts.
A moment later, he came back to his senses.
The function of his Golden Finger was very simple: for every day that passed, his Talent would increase by one point.
The higher the Talent, the better one's aptitude. Learning or doing anything would surpass the efforts of an ordinary person.
With enough time, it could turn a good-for-nothing into a peerless genius.
However, his current Talent was only 1 point, with a rating of "mediocre."
'Tsk, that's got to be a slanderous lie.'
Fang Yue had lived two lives. He wouldn't call himself a genius, but he certainly wasn't mediocre.
'But after adding one point of Talent, I don't feel anything. There's no change at all.'
'It only adds one point a day. Who knows when I'll actually see a difference?'
'And even if there is a change, what can I do with it?'
'Become an expert cattle herder? Or maybe an expert farmer?'
As Fang Yue pondered this, a worried expression couldn't help but cross his face.
Seeing this, Fang Ergou, who was standing beside him, blinked and said:
"Zhi, as long as you're not going to jump in the river, you should come back home with me now."
His simple, honest face still wore an expression of disbelief.
'Great,' Fang Yue thought. 'He still suspects I was about to jump into the river to kill myself.'
But he didn't seem to recall who had actually fallen into the river just now.
And that it was Fang Yue who had pulled him out.
"Pah! You're the one who wants to jump in the river."
Fang Yue shot him a glare, then ignored the blockhead.
He turned and led the water buffalo home.
"Zhi, wait for me!"
"I won't tell anyone you were going to jump in the river. I promise I won't tell Huang Xiaohua you were going to jump in the river."
~~~~~~
Along the way back, dilapidated houses were scattered like stars across a large clearing by the river bend.
They say you make a living from what's around you,
and while Da Liushu Village was nestled by a mountain and a river, in this feudal, agrarian economy, land was the true source of wealth.
Most people in the village led hard, impoverished lives.
Therefore, the houses one could see were almost all thatched huts and mud-brick homes.
In all of Da Liushu Village, there were only two buildings made of blue bricks and grey tiles.
One was the village's ancestral hall, and the other was the residence of the village's sole landlord, Master Liu.
When Master Liu was young, his family had been wealthy farmers in the village, owning twenty mu of prime paddy fields and living a relatively comfortable life.
But he chose the path of a scholar. After Master Liu began his studies, his grades quickly surpassed his peers. At sixteen, when he first took the imperial examinations, he earned the title of Scholar.
He became a child prodigy whom everyone in Da Liushu Village envied, and they all thought Master Liu was certain to attain the next rank.
But for the next decade or so, Master Liu repeatedly failed his exams. To cover the costs, he not only sold off all twenty mu of his family's paddy fields but also fell deep into debt.
The Liu Family's fortunes plummeted from that of wealthy farmers to poverty.
Master Liu himself gradually transformed from a genius everyone envied and emulated into a cautionary tale for Da Liushu Village.
Just when everyone thought Master Liu, and indeed the entire Liu Family, was finished for good,
the unexpected happened. At the age of thirty-five, he actually became a Scholar!
Because a Scholar of his standing was exempt from taxes and corvée labor and enjoyed various other privileges, the Liu Family's fortunes reversed in just a few short years. They even became the largest landowners within a hundred-li radius.
Continuing forward, he soon saw his own family's mud-brick courtyard.
Thanks to Fang Ergou's disturbance today, he was back a little earlier than usual.
At this time of day, his father, Fang Mu, and his older brother, Fang Cheng, were still out working the fields.
His mother, Ms. Chen, should be helping in the Liu Family's rear kitchen, and his older sister, Fang Lan, should be at home making decorative knots.
After arriving home, he led the water buffalo into its pen, gave it some fodder, and filled the trough with water.
A water buffalo was the equivalent of a strong laborer. During the busy farming season, they had to rely on its strength, so it had to be well cared for.
Entering the gate, he saw his sister, Fang Lan, making knots at the side of the courtyard.
Before he could speak, his mother, Ms. Chen, walked out of the main hall.
Ms. Chen's hair was already half-grey, and wrinkles lined the corners of her eyes. She wore a set of faded clothes that had been washed so many times they'd turned white.
She was clearly only in her thirties, but she looked even older than the fifty-something aunties from his previous life.
"Zhi'Er, come quickly! Look what this is!"
Seeing Fang Yue return, Ms. Chen's face lit up with a smile. She hurried forward, took a handkerchief from her bosom, and carefully unfolded it.
A tender strip of meat, as thick as a little finger and about an inch long, was revealed. It was a small piece of chicken.
This piece of chicken had clearly been brought back from the Liu Family's kitchen.
There's an old saying: a cook who doesn't pilfer makes for a poor harvest.
What cook doesn't sneak a bite? It was the way of the world, something that simply couldn't be stopped.
After all, a cook always had to taste the food to check the seasoning.
This had long been an unspoken rule. As long as it wasn't excessive, the master of the house would always turn a blind eye.
"Mother, why are you back so early today?"
"And why would Master Liu's family bear to kill a chicken?"
In these times, chickens weren't usually killed, as they were mostly kept for laying eggs.
Besides, when it came to eating meat, even a landlord family like the Lius usually ate pork.
Chicken was delicious and prized; it was only eaten on important occasions.
"The Liu Family's young master has returned to the village, so they killed a chicken."
Ms. Chen sighed, her heart aching a little. She was the one who usually raised the Liu Family's chickens, and they were all old hens that could still lay eggs.
After all, they could lay quite a few eggs over the course of a year.
Killing one just for a single meal was such a waste.
'The Liu Family's young master?'
Hearing this, an image appeared in Fang Yue's mind: a sturdy-looking boy dressed in a blue silk shirt, a silver collar around his neck.
He still remembered that around the New Year three months ago, the original owner of his body had gone to the Liu Family's estate to find his mother.
He happened to run into the Liu Family's young master. Perhaps because he had few playmates in the vast estate, the boy was excited to see Fang Yue and demanded he play with him.
The young master was at an age of boundless energy, and he dragged the previous owner of this body on a wild chase around the residence.
When that wasn't exciting enough, he even led him to the ancestral hall.
In the heat of their play, the young master broke a sacrificial vessel in the ancestral hall.
This naturally alerted the village elder who guarded the hall. Breaking a sacrificial vessel was a major offense. Forgetting the cost of compensation, a beating according to family law was unavoidable.
But in the end, the Liu Family's young master only received a mild scolding.
The original owner of this body, however, was whipped twenty times and couldn't get out of bed for half a month. He didn't survive, and that's when Fang Yue transmigrated.
"Alright, Zhi'Er."
"I have to get back and help out. The meal is ready. After you eat, remember to bring food to your father and older brother."
Ms. Chen pressed the strip of chicken into Fang Yue's hand, giving him no chance to refuse, and then hurried out the door.
In this life, Fang Yue had an older brother and an older sister.
But his parents seemed to favor him, their youngest son, always giving him any tasty morsels they came across.
And now, she had brought him this small piece of chicken.
Fang Yue darted over to his sister, tore the piece of chicken in his hand in two, and handed one piece to his sister, Fang Lan.