Traveling Through Those Years Of Farming (Quick Transmigration) - Chapter 26

“You—”

Jiang Runzhu is stunned. She never imagines that Sheng Baobao would be so rude from the start.

“What do you mean, ‘you’?” Baobao slaps her finger away and keeps smiling. “What evidence do you have to prove that my parents are liars? You know, fraud is a crime, and so is damaging someone’s reputation.”

Be graceful, not irritable!

Baobao always remembers Mother Hua’s teachings.

“Do I need to ask? How could there be ghosts in this world? You’re an educated person, good at physics and chemistry. Don’t you know that many seemingly mysterious things can actually be explained by science?” Jiang Runzhu says confidently.

Baobao raises an eyebrow and looks at her with a strange expression. “For example? Did you know that when you were nine, your soul was so big it overflowed from your body? Why don’t you explain that to me?”

How could she claim to believe in science when such unscientific things have already happened to her?

“What nonsense are you talking about!” Jiang Runzhu feels a sharp throb in her head, as if it explodes. She feels dizzy, her body breaking out in a cold sweat. That is her deepest secret. How does Sheng Baobao know about it?

It must be a coincidence. This has to be a coincidence. Jiang Runzhu clenches her hands tightly, and the hair on the back of her neck stands on end. She instinctively wants to flee.

“Oh, I know!” Baobao claps her hands seriously. “It must be that your mother fed your body and spirit separately since you were little, and added pig feed to the food for your spirit. That’s why, when you were nine, your soul grew to the size of an adult’s. Your little body just couldn’t contain it. This explanation is scientific and reasonable, right? That’s not right. Now your body and spirit seem to be merged. Could it be that your mother finally stopped feeding you pig feed and allowed your body and spirit to grow together?”

Her expression is very serious, as though she is truly analyzing the problem scientifically.

“No, no.” Baobao shakes her head after speaking, her eyes narrowing as she stares at Jiang Runzhu’s face.

But Jiang Runzhu feels as if Baobao isn’t looking at her face at all, but through it, seeing something deeper within.

The sensation is deeply uncomfortable.

“Looking closely, I can tell your spirit is quite old. There are wrinkles under your eyes. Looks like the feeding hasn’t stopped.” Baobao shakes her head and comments. “I’m not wrong. When your soul and body hadn’t yet merged, I saw a face that was in its forties or fifties. Before you were reborn, you were already so old.”

Jiang Runzhu is so angry that her hands tremble. Who eats pig feed? She is being insulted! But deeper than the anger, she is scared. Baobao is joking, yes, but each word hits a nerve. When she had been reborn after death, hadn’t an adult soul squeezed into her small nine-year-old body? Could Baobao really have seen it?

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Jiang Runzhu can’t admit it, and she doesn’t dare to. She quickly dismisses Baobao’s words in a panic and hurriedly leaves.

The people at the Hua family are too strange, but if they truly have such powers, why had they been caught in the previous life?

Looking at Jiang Runzhu’s fleeing figure, Sheng Baobao doesn’t feel satisfied by striking a blow to her pride. Instead, she begins to think deeply.

When she had seen Jiang Runzhu just now, it seemed like she had been staring at her yard in a daze. But what is there to see?

Was it out of jealousy?

Indeed, her parents have caused quite the spectacle. Looking at the lively scene in the yard, it is clear that most of the village has come to her house. The Jiang family, on the other hand, must now be deserted and downcast.

But she still feels that the main reason isn’t quite this.

Baobao frowns, finally identifying a clue: the strange young man surrounded by many people. After thinking for a long time, she remembers Lin Huajun’s identity.

If she remembers correctly, she has seen Jiang Runzhu helping Lin Huajun’s mother carry things a few days ago. It seems like she is trying to please Aunt Lin.

Baobao recalls some of the plotlines from farming novels she has read before.

The first type is that Lin Huajun had been Jiang Runzhu’s husband in her previous life. For some reason, Jiang Runzhu abandoned him and chose to elope with another man. That man turned out to be unreliable, and Jiang Runzhu’s second half of life becomes miserable. In the end, as she lies dying, she realizes that Lin Huajun had been a reliable husband. So, in this life, she retains the identity of Lin Huajun’s wife, and they live happily ever after.

Another type of story involves Lin Huajun becoming a very remarkable person. Jiang Runzhu, knowing this because of her rebirth, tries to curry favor with him. Eventually, sparks fly between them, and they become an ideal couple.

Back when Baobao was still a super high-level VIP of Green River, she had seen countless examples of such stories. She remembers that this trope had been extremely popular for a time. However, a few years later, some readers started questioning the first type of storyline.

Why should the heroine still get such a chance after making a mistake in her past life? And if the hero is also reborn, would he really want to be with a woman who had cheated on him during their marriage and betrayed him?

Especially in this type of story, the hero often had a loving second wife in his previous life, and after the heroine is reborn, the second wife—who had been cherished and loved—ends up being despised by the hero in this life. Many readers criticized this.

As more and more readers raised these concerns, this type of plot gradually became less common.

Baobao’s intuition tells her that Jiang Runzhu is most likely the former type. If she doesn’t have a strong connection to Lin Huajun, she wouldn’t hesitate so much earlier, or step back like she did, accidentally stepping on her foot in the process.

Of course, all of this is just Baobao’s guess for now.

What she cares about most is what Jiang Runzhu said earlier. Could it be that in the original world, Mother Hua and Father Sheng ended up imprisoned for fraud? How else could Jiang Runzhu be so sure that they are liars and even mentioned the possibility of visiting them in prison?

Baobao pats her chest in relief. Mother Hua and Father Sheng are not liars now. She occasionally helps with drawing some talismans, and with Hua Xiaolian as a portable assist, the two of them always complete their tasks beautifully whenever they take on a job.

It’s just a pity that learning Taoism requires some natural talent. Even after ten years of mastering those Taoist books, their actual abilities still don’t surpass those of third-rate Taoist priests.

But they rely on their superior hardware to act like masters.

Moreover, the two major cases her parents helped solve by accident are still recorded in secret files. That means her parents are officially registered with names and identities. Unless they do something truly harmful to the country, the authorities would never arrest them for fraud.

In her heart, Baobao believes that Lady Hua is a real master.

She lets out a sigh of relief. She will never have to visit a prisoner in her life.

Jiang Runzhu rushes home in a panic. She doesn’t even greet her parents. She hurriedly enters her room, slams the door shut, and locks it.

“This child, she doesn’t even say hello.”

Hua Yingxiu and Jiang Sanshui are discussing their children’s marriage with their in-laws. Their daughter’s lack of politeness leaves them feeling a little embarrassed.

“The child is still young. She must have been bullied outside,” Lin Miao’s mother says politely, though she silently crosses her fingers for her daughter’s future sister-in-law.

This girl hadn’t been polite to them at all. When they met earlier in the county, Jiang Runzhu greeted them but then ignored them. Lin Miao’s mother feels that Jiang Runzhu looks down on them.

It is understandable that the little girl, being the top scorer in the college entrance exam, might have developed an arrogance. But their family isn’t doing too badly, so Lin Miao’s mother really doesn’t understand why Jiang Runzhu is so distant and cold.

She thinks that with such a sister-in-law, her daughter might suffer a bit when she gets married. Fortunately, Jiang Runzhu is about to go to college. Once she graduates, gets a job, and marries, she won’t stay at her parents’ house for long. So it is something they can bear.

“Even if you’re angry, you can’t take it out on your family. I’ll scold her later. But for now, let’s not talk about her. In-laws, let’s discuss the bride price.”

Obviously, Jiang Sanshui and Hua Yingxiu are now focused on their son and future daughter-in-law, and they don’t have time to consider whether their daughter is being wronged.

In her room, Jiang Runzhu is thinking frantically about why Sheng Baobao discovered the secret of her rebirth.

She stubbornly refuses to believe that the Hua family can really perceive things that ordinary people can’t. There has to be another explanation.

Could it be that Sheng Baobao is also reborn? Only then could she have noticed the difference between Jiang Runzhu’s current life and her previous one, and thus deduced the secret of her rebirth.

But Sheng Baobao was only eight years old when she died in her previous life. Even if she is reborn, she can’t possibly know what will happen in the future or notice the difference between her current and past lives.

Could it be that someone else is inhabiting Sheng Baobao’s body?

With this possibility, Jiang Runzhu suddenly feels enlightened.

This could explain many things, such as how Sheng Baobao survives her death, and how she knew that the rape and murder case—only solved the following year in Jiang Runzhu’s previous life—has been announced as solved shortly after the incident in this life. Perhaps Sheng Baobao has played a role in it.

The person in Sheng Baobao’s body now might be someone close to her, which would explain how she knows the age at which she died in her previous life and speaks of it with such confident bluster.

Jiang Runzhu slaps the bed board. It has to be this way!

Perhaps the reason why Lady Hua and her husband win over so many important figures now is that Sheng Baobao is advising them from behind the scenes. She is using her knowledge of the future to help shape Lady Hua and her husband into the image of skilled masters.

Yes, it must be this way!

Where do gods and ghosts come from in this world? The so-called yin and yang, cause and effect—those are just superstition and ignorance. It must be like this!

Jiang Runzhu chuckles to herself, her pounding heart gradually returning to a normal rhythm.

Good news comes from the Lin family. Lin Huajun, the third son of the family and a soldier, has recently made a contribution, and the army wants to train him further by sending him to a military academy for study.

When Lin Huajun joins the army, he only has a junior high school education. However, over the past two years, in addition to his training, he has been studying cultural courses on his own. Now, his academic level is equivalent to that of a high school graduate. The army recognizes his efforts and offers him a rare opportunity to study further, hoping he will better serve after completing his education.

Going to a military academy is a big deal. Everyone says this is a way for the army to pave the way for Lin Huajun’s future promotion. He will definitely become a significant figure.

The Lin family is ecstatic. In recent years, Lin Huajun has been stationed far away in the army with few breaks. Now that he will be studying in the provincial capital, he will have more time off than before, and it will be easier for his family to visit.

It is during this time that the village realizes there is such a fine young man who has not yet married. When Lin Huajun is recuperating at home, people come from all over to inquire about him, nearly trampling the Lin family’s doorstep.

Unfortunately, Lin Huajun doesn’t seem interested in finding a partner. Although the military academy offers more vacation time than his army duties, it isn’t much more. He feels that he isn’t ready to start a family just yet.

At 25 years old, Lin Huajun is already older than his two brothers had been when they started their own families. Fang Aihong is anxious, but since Lin Huajun’s future looks promising, she doesn’t push him when he shows no urgency to find a partner.

After a few attempts, fewer people come to ask about it.

Meanwhile, several village children who have just finished the college entrance exam submit their applications.

Baobao and Chunming both apply to the provincial university. Jiang Runzhu had originally intended to apply to F University in Hai City but changes her mind and applies to the provincial university because of Lin Huajun.

In the next few years, these most promising young people from Xiaoyanggang will study in the provincial capital.

And Sheng Baobao becomes more and more certain of her guess: Jiang Runzhu definitely has extraordinary feelings toward Lin Huajun.

Time flies by, and soon it is time to register for university.

Hua Yingpo and Sheng Wukun will never miss such an important moment in their daughter’s life. They decide to accompany her to school early. The old monk, seemingly indifferent to everything, has actually been saving up for the round-trip travel and accommodation expenses for this moment.

As for Chunming’s tuition, it is sponsored by his uncle, and his living expenses for the first two months are also covered. After that, he will have to fend for himself.

The old monk is so poor he can hardly hold back his tears. He truly can’t afford to financially support his precious apprentice.

Hua Yingpo is wealthy and has offered to support Chunming long ago, but he has declined. She doesn’t press him, only saying that if he ever finds himself in trouble, he can always come to them for help.

Their baby will be far away in the provincial capital in the future. Hua Yingpo hopes that Chunming will look after her more and make sure she isn’t swept away by the young boys around her.

Sheng Wukun has an extensive network of contacts. He doesn’t know where he manages to borrow a car from, but he drives them all the way to the provincial capital. He got his driver’s license a few years ago and has practiced privately for a long time. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have felt comfortable taking his precious daughter on the road.

Since they are driving themselves, and it is a relatively rare seven-seater car for that era, the couple has packed a lot of luggage for Baobao. They even want to bring along the rattan reclining chair that she is used to sitting on.

In contrast, Chunming’s luggage is much simpler: a few sets of clothes, a thin autumn quilt, and a few scriptures. That is all he needs.

They set off a few days early. Sheng Wukun drives for three days instead of the usual one-day-and-night bus ride. Each time they arrive at a new place, they stay for a while, try some local snacks, and enjoy the scenery, as if they are on a leisurely trip.

In truth, Sheng Wukun and Hua Yingpo just want to make the journey longer. He is reluctant to part with his daughter, but no matter how slowly the car moves, there will always be a day they reach their destination.

The Provincial University is located in the oldest part of the provincial capital of Y Province. The streets there are rich with history. Many of the buildings still retain their original appearance, simple but beautiful.

The streets are lined with ginkgo trees. In early autumn, the edges of the leaves are already turning yellow. Baobao can already imagine how magnificent the trees will look when they reach mid-autumn, their golden leaves covering the ground.

Outside the school gate, there are many students and parents carrying luggage. Some upperclassmen are there, helping with registration and guiding people in.

Baobao looks through the car window and sees a young man in a patched military uniform.

The man is around 18 or 19 years old. His uniform is a bit too short, showing a small part of his arm. His pants are tightly tied at the ankles with a white cloth belt, and he wears a pair of straw shoes.

Because of the crowd moving about at the school entrance, the man quickly disappears from her sight.

Her attention is soon drawn to other things, and within moments, she has forgotten about the young man in the military uniform.