Spring comes to the desperate place

Chapter 381 Hungry

Several younger brothers and sisters kept chattering at Song Chunlin, asking him to introduce the local customs and culture of Linyuan City. Song Chunlin was dumbfounded. How could they know anything about local customs and culture? All they knew was eating. When they opened their mouths, all they talked about was delicious food from all over the place, making the group of half-grown children drool.

Song Qin drove these children back to their respective rooms with disgust, like chickens, and finally drove Song Chunlin back to his room.

"You must be tired after all this trouble. Go to bed early. You still have things to do tomorrow, right?"

Of course Song Chunlin knew that this was an excuse made by Song Qinshi, so he immediately borrowed the donkey to go down the hill and hurried back to his room to rest.

Lying on the soft mattress, Song Chunlin couldn't help but sigh that only modern people know how to enjoy it. He couldn't get used to the hard bed in Linyuan City at all. He was so tired that he fell asleep as soon as he lay down every day, but he still felt sore in his waist and back when he woke up early in the morning. It was very uncomfortable to have the mattress on the bed, just as if it wasn't made up.

"The bed at home is still more comfortable to sleep in..." Song Chunlin buried his head in the quilt and was about to fall asleep as soon as he closed his eyes. Unexpectedly, Dabao in the space saw this and ran out to wake him up.

"Master, Master, don't sleep yet, get up and work!"

Song Chunlin frowned and turned over, trying to get away with it by pretending to be asleep. However, Dabao didn't buy it. The half-grown boy sat on him, grabbing his shoulders with both hands and shaking him wildly.

Song Chunlin was almost vomiting after being shaken by Dabao, so he quickly asked him to stop.

"Stop, stop, stop! How dare you! Get off quickly! You're shaking my brains out!"

Song Chunlin shouted anxiously, and Dabao finally agreed to go down.

"Hmph, don't try to be lazy, get to work quickly, and clean up the cabin quickly while you still have enough merit."

Song Chunlin entered the space in misery. The space now was very different from the previous one. As for when this change happened, not only did Song Chunlin not notice it, even Dabao didn't know when the change happened.

Just the day before they drove the barbarians away, Dabao found a wooden house in the space. From the outside, the house looked like a tree. Song Chunlin thought it was already there, but Dabao swore to him that he passed by here every day and had never seen any wooden house.

"I've been in this space for so long, how could I not know what's inside better than you?"

Song Chunlin remained skeptical and asked Dabao what was in the room. However, Dabao told him sadly that he could not enter the room.

"Aren't you a spirit of space? I thought you were omnipotent in space."

Dabao was a little embarrassed: "Not really, there are still some places here that are forbidden by the old master, such as this room. This should be left by the old master. I didn't know there was such a place before. I think it must be a treasure left by the old master for future generations. Master, please go in and see what's inside."

At Dabao's urging, Song Chunlin pushed the wooden door half-believingly and half-doubtingly. As a result, the door that Dabao couldn't push open no matter what, he opened it with just a light touch.

Song Chunlin even mocked Dabao mercilessly for this, saying that he was too fat and could not move well, and could not even push the door open. Dabao was very unconvinced and rushed into the house. As a result, he was bounced out by a strange barrier at the door. Now Song Chunlin really believed that this must be something left by his ancestors, otherwise why did he get in so easily?

The room was not as cramped and dark as they had imagined. Instead, it was bright and spacious. When Song Chunlin entered, he was almost dazzled by the brightness.

After he squinted his eyes for a while to adjust, he gradually saw the furnishings in the room clearly.

Perhaps it is not accurate to say that it is a house. The space inside seems to be in another dimension, because Song Chunlin found a huge study here, two rows of ten large warehouses, and a spacious kitchen and dining room outside. There is even an atrium with a huge unknown flower planted in the atrium. Song Chunlin thought it looked like some kind of flower, and it looked familiar, but he couldn't name it.

He familiarized himself with the surroundings and finally found a dark room behind a wall of books. There was only a bed against the wall in the dark room. There was no light, only the faint glow of a night pearl on the bedside.

This place doesn't look like a bedroom, but more like a prison. Song Chunlin lifted the quilt on the bed and found that there was nothing special about it. The quilt was very light and the material seemed to be some kind of silk. The embroidery on it was very delicate, like a quilt that a girl would cover herself with.

Song Chunlin didn't understand the specific function of this room, so he slowly retreated and turned to observe other places.

The study is the largest room in the entire house. Song Chunlin has not visited the other storage rooms and does not know what is stored in them, but judging from the number of books in the study, it is comparable to a small museum.

He casually pulled out a book, opened it and found that the words on it were actually oracle bone script. Great, to him, these were just heavenly books, and he couldn't understand them at all even by guessing.

After putting the book back, Song Chunlin walked to the reception room where he had entered at the beginning. There was a large stone floating in the center of the reception room. When Song Chunlin approached, a few lines of words gradually emerged on the stone. This time it was not oracle bone script, but Song Chunlin still had a lot of difficulty to barely understand the words.

The general meaning is: Destined person, when you come here, it means you have accumulated enough merit to save the world. The books and treasure house here are the condensation of my life's efforts, so please use them well.

Song Chunlin repeated this to Dabao, who was silent for a long time before speaking: "The so-called merit of saving the world, doesn't it mean that you drove those barbarians out of Dajing?"

Song Chunlin stroked his chin. The more he thought about it, the more he felt that the barbarians' joint attack on Linyuan was very similar to a certain historical stage in his previous life. He remembered that at that time, several foreign tribes united and fought all the way from the grassland to the capital at that time, treating the Han people as two-legged sheep and raising them in captivity. In that era, cannibalism was not just an adjective, they really did eat people, and they also divided people into different levels according to their taste.

Song Chunlin didn't know much about the history of that period, but when he thought about the Han people being used as slaves and food by the Hu people at that time, he felt sick to his heart.

If we put the two worlds together in time, it seems that they do match up.

"So Master, you are really saving the world. Just think about it, if you hadn't caught up with the day when Linyuan City was conquered, Linyuan would have been ruled by barbarians. By then, they would have come all the way south from Linyuan City to the capital. Wouldn't the people of the capital have also fallen into the cannibalism you described?"

Song Chunlin thought that it was possible, but the question was why he didn't see the so-called golden light of merit? Logically speaking, with such great merit, the golden light of merit should be bright enough to illuminate the heaven and earth, right?

Song Chunlin and Dabao stared at each other in confusion. They couldn't understand why they couldn't see the golden light of merit. Was it because there was too much of it and so it didn't show?

The two couldn't figure it out, so they simply gave up thinking about it. Then when Song Chunlin entered the house again, he found that in order to open the house, he had to consume the power of merit.

"What the hell, what kind of a shitty door is this? I lose ten points of merit for opening it once? I get one point of merit for saving one person, so I have to save ten people for opening one door!"

Dabao hugged the frantic Song Chunlin tightly and asked him to calm down.

Song Chunlin roared: "How can I stay calm? Let me see how many merits I have... one, ten, one hundred, one thousand, ten thousand..."

Song Chunlin stopped counting. After a moment, he calmed down and said to Dabao with a fake smile, "I finally understand why you need to have merits to save the world before you can enter and open the house. It's okay. It's just ten points of merit. I have millions of merits and can afford it."

Dabao was amazed when he heard this: "So many! Wow, Master, you are so amazing."

Song Chunlin raised his chin proudly and walked into the room again with his head held high. This time, Song Chunlin clearly heard a clear and pleasant voice: "Ding, deduct ten points of merit."

Song Chunlin clenched his fists, but soon loosened them. He comforted himself in his heart: It's okay, he has a lot of savings.

There were a lot of information stored in those warehouses. When Song Chunlin went in again, he remembered to take a trailer in and move out everything he was interested in. Then when he had nothing to do, he would flip through the information in there, trying to understand what it said.

But those books were old, and the text was particularly old. Fortunately, Song Chunlin was still able to look up information on the books he had collected before, and translate them one by one by comparing them with the text in the ancient books. His speed was definitely slow, but he was not in a hurry to use these things. He simply felt that since the ancestors could hide these things so well, and there were such strict conditions for entering and exiting the door, then these ancient books must be good things, and he would not be willing to give up until he figured them out.

On the way back, Song Chunlin had to take care of the young master, so he didn't have the chance to go in and sort it out. Now that he is home, he will come in when he is free, and occasionally even take some out. The brothers will study together in the study.

King Linyuan's funeral was held with extraordinary grandness. Although the weather was getting hotter, the emperor still insisted on keeping the body for three days. For this reason, the emperor specially found Song Chunlin and asked him if he had any way to make a large amount of ice. Song Chunlin did not hide his method and simply told the Ministry of Works the method of making ice with saltpeter. The Ministry of Works then went to get a large amount of saltpeter to make ice.

With the ice, the bodies of King Linyuan and his queen were kept in the Taimiao for three days. Song Chunlin went to see King Linyuan off on the third day when his funeral was held.

He was specially allowed to follow the team. He spent even less time with King Linyuan than with his son, but considering their acquaintance, he still wanted to give this old friend a ride.

The young master has been taken care of by a wet nurse sent by the emperor these days. He is surrounded by adults he doesn't know. Occasionally, Gu Fengyun will come to see him, but he is too busy and it is extremely rare for him to find time to visit him. The little guy seems to have become much quieter. When Song Chunlin saw him again, he finally showed a rare smile on his face.

"Big brother."

Song Chunlin looked at the little kid and felt that he had lost a lot of weight in just two days. The loose coarse linen mourning clothes looked empty on his body.

Song Chunlin squatted down with heartache and hugged his young body. Then he heard a very loud gurgling sound coming from the young master. Song Chunlin frowned and reached out to touch the child's belly. It was flat, obviously he had not eaten yet.

So he looked coldly at the wet nurse standing beside him and questioned her in a cold voice: "How do you do things? Hasn't the child even eaten at this time?"

The nurse lowered her head and explained to Song Chunlin: "This young master doesn't know, he is a filial son, how can a filial son eat?"

Song Chunlin thought it was ridiculous: "What kind of logic is this? I have never heard that filial sons are not allowed to eat. Are you making this up just to neglect your duty?"

When the wet nurse saw that Song Chunlin was not wearing official uniform and the fabric was not very luxurious but rather looked a bit gray, she thought that he was just a subordinate of some official. Therefore, facing his questioning, the wet nurse became a little impatient.

"My Lord, you are being too nosy. His Majesty asked me to come here to serve the young master, and I think I have done my best. How can you question me like this?"

"I question you? Why, from what you said, is it my fault? The emperor sent you to take care of the prince, but you didn't even give him food to eat. I don't care about the bullshit rules you mentioned. I only know that he is only a three-year-old child. He is in the process of growing up. You don't let him eat. Do you want to starve him to death?"

The dispute here seemed to attract other people. The wet nurse had no intention of getting entangled with Song Chunlin, so she forcefully tried to pull the young master away from here.

"It's time to see him off. Sir, please move aside so that the young master won't miss the time."

However, Song Chunlin refused to let her take the young master away. He waved away the other person's hand that was pulling the young master's arm, and his voice was filled with anger.

"You are just a bully. Don't you take a closer look? Am I so easy to fool? The emperor asked you to take care of the young master, not to let him starve. Since you are not qualified for this job, I will report it to the emperor and let you retire early."

When the nurse heard that he was going to complain, she immediately became anxious and said, "Young Master, you can't be unreasonable. Since His Majesty has appointed me to take care of the young master, he must trust me. Why are you stabbing me in the back?"

"What's wrong with backstabbing you? His father died for his country, and his mother preferred death to surrender to the barbarians. Such good people, but their children can't even get enough food to eat. Tell this to others, and you'll see if the people will tear your mouth off."

"No, you can't do this, young master, put the young master down quickly, put him down."