Chapter 2 Difficult Family Circumstances
"Second brother, are you okay?" The first to speak was the third brother, who was only 9 years old. He looked at Liang Zifeng excitedly and asked.
"Well, everything is ready. You might as well get up and help me light the fire. Let's have some porridge in the morning."
Liang Zifeng picked up his sister who was leaning towards him. The girl was only 3 years old, but she looked like she was less than years old. And she felt so light in his arms, too light.
Turning his head to look at the other side, Liang Zifeng saw his fourth brother who was only 6 years old. Looking at his skeletal appearance, he felt very sad. Even though his eldest brother often sent him food, they could only barely make ends meet.
When cooking rice porridge, Liang Zifeng put in about half a pound of brown rice, which made his younger brothers and sisters feel distressed. They all asked Liang Zifeng to put in less rice, otherwise they would have nothing to eat in the future.
There were mostly wild vegetables in that broken basket, and one spring bamboo shoot. People usually feed wild vegetables to livestock, and few people eat them because they taste bad.
Liang Zifeng blanched the wild vegetables in boiling water, and then, amid the protests of his younger brothers and sisters, added some coarse salt and mixed them.
Although his younger brothers and sisters felt sorry for the food and salt, after eating breakfast, they all said it was delicious and wanted to eat more. Liang Zifeng sighed in his heart when he saw this.
After breakfast, Liang Zifeng walked out of the thatched hut and finally saw the environment in which they lived.
This is a small mountain village. Because there is almost no flat land, the houses are scattered here and there. A preliminary observation shows that there are only a dozen thatched houses. It seems that their house is a bit far away from the other thatched houses.
I don’t know if there are other people living in the invisible place. It looks like a poor mountain village.
Their thatched house is in a good location, facing south and with no obstructions on the east, so they can see the sun just rising in the east.
Although it was a little chilly in the early morning of spring, the warm morning light completely dispelled the chill. Listening to the various bird calls coming from the surrounding mountains and forests, and taking a deep breath of the fresh morning air, Liang Zifeng felt that this place didn't seem so bad after all.
Perhaps the air here was so fresh that Liang Zifeng subconsciously used the breathing method that he had practiced for several years in his previous life but to no avail.
He used the breathing method from his previous life, and after just a quarter of an hour, his body, which had just recovered from the fever, returned to its normal state.
"What's going on? Is this fake? It didn't work for several years, and I thought it was a fake breathing method."
Liang Zifeng was shocked, then surprised. He then recalled the content of the breathing method and continued to practice it for half an hour.
But the effect this time didn't seem to be that good, but there was still some effect, which surprised Liang Zifeng so much that he even wanted to shout out loud.
After practicing the breathing method, Liang Zifeng originally planned to practice boxing, but when he saw how skinny his younger brothers and sisters were, and then he looked at himself and saw that he was about the same, he gave up.
The most urgent thing should be to take good care of my health first. Looking at the condition of my younger brothers and sisters, a cold might take their lives. Just like I suddenly had a high fever this time, I was lucky.
So, no one really knows which will come first, tomorrow or an accident.
As the saying goes, live by the mountain, but if you leave the mountain village, the dangers in the wild become much greater.
Unfortunately, my father went into the mountains and took away the bow and arrows and an axe from home. Now the only thing left at home is a broken kitchen knife that can still be used to chop things.
So Liang Zifeng used the broken kitchen knife to cut two bamboos about four or five centimeters thick nearby, sharpened one end and used it as a weapon.
After processing the bamboo, he found some hemp ropes and said to his younger brother, "Third brother, I'm going to the mountain to get some food. You stay at home and take care of the fourth brother and the youngest sister.
If you are bored, you can look for wild vegetables and mushrooms on the nearby hillside, or find a way to burn more charcoal, which will be useful in the future.
Also, don't go too far, or you might get carried away by a wolf."
"Second brother, you have never hunted before and you don't have an adult to lead you. Can you do it?" The third brother said hesitantly and worriedly.
"Yes, second brother, why don't you wait for the eldest brother to come back." The fourth brother advised with some concern.
"It's okay, your second brother. I had soul separation syndrome before. One of my three souls and seven spirits is not in my body. I went to other worlds and saw a lot and learned a lot. Don't worry about me.
Also, my eldest brother might be in trouble and can’t take care of us, so we can only rely on ourselves.”
Liang Zifeng spoke out the speech he had prepared in advance, and also explained what soul-separation syndrome is. Moreover, considering the symptoms Liang Zifeng had in the past 12 years, it was very appropriate to call it soul-separation syndrome.
Look, the third and fourth brothers looked as if they were suddenly enlightened after hearing this. He also noticed that the third brother seemed to be secretly relieved.
"Little sister, be good at home and wait for your brother to come back and make you something delicious." Liang Zifeng touched his little sister's dry hair and said softly.
"Okay, Erguo, I'll be good." When the younger sister heard that something delicious would be made for her, her eyes immediately lit up, and she nodded vigorously and responded obediently.
"Then second brother, you have to be careful and you must come back." The third brother looked at Liang Zifeng with some concern, hesitated for a moment and continued, "How about I go with you, second brother."
"You're too young to help, or I'd have to take care of you."
Then, Liang Zifeng left with two bamboo chisels and some hemp ropes, and also took the broken kitchen knife with him.
……
Liang Zifeng left the mountain village and first walked more than three miles along the path taken by the villagers. This place had already left the scope of the mountain village, so Liang Zifeng spread his mental power around.
It was convenient to have spiritual power. He soon discovered many medicinal herbs and various mushrooms and wild vegetables. When he wanted to pick them, he suddenly found a problem. It was because of his lack of experience. It seemed that there was no backpack at home.
He had seen and made a backpack in his previous life when he followed an old Chinese doctor. So he cut some bamboo and in the process of making the backpack, he found that his mental power was also very strong in controlling objects.
As for how strong mental power is in controlling objects, Liang Zifeng found some stones to test it and discovered that mental power can easily lift stones weighing more than 20 kilograms. As for the limit, he did not test it. After all, he was still in the wild and could not consume too much mental power.
With the help of mental power, the backpack that would have taken three or four hours to carry was completed in less than an hour. At the same time, Liang Zifeng also thought of many ways to use mental power to defend against the enemy.