"We pay our respects to Heaven and Earth, the harmony of Yin and Yang, and Heaven and Earth as witnesses.
Bow again to parents, the grace of giving birth to and raising us will never be forgotten by our descendants.
Husband and wife bow to each other, becoming one, regardless of status."
A withered old man with few teeth in his mouth shouted with all his might, and two young men held red linen cloths in their hands and kowtowed in turn.
The bride was wearing a half-worn dress with a red cloth covering her head. Although it was very simple, at least there were no obvious patches on the clothes.
The groom was in a terrible situation. His casual clothes were covered with patches of all sizes and looked very sloppy. He could only wear borrowed cloth to cover up the mess.
Zhou Yuan stood in the noisy crowd, with neither blessings nor contempt, only confusion.
He was originally a serious Blue Star person, but he woke up unexpectedly and entered a seemingly real game world.
The reason why this is called a game world is that in his eyes everyone has a health bar above their head, and he himself also has an attribute panel.
As for the fact that it seems to be true but is not, it is because he has been traveling through time for more than a month and has been constantly asking indirect questions, and found that the local villagers cannot see things like attribute panels and health bars at all.
They are just normal living people who experience birth, old age, sickness and death, and have to work hard. They also chat about the Zhao family and the Li family from time to time.
When Zhou Yuan thought that gamification was his golden finger, he heard the village elders remind him to be careful of immortal demons when going out.
Some of those monsters are very strong, some are very weak, but they all have one thing in common, that is, they are immortal.
Even if you try your best to kill them, they will still come back to life after midnight.
Fortunately, the monsters all have their own territories and will never go out easily, otherwise the village would have been wiped out long ago.
The more Zhou Yuan listened, the more puzzled he felt. How could such an extraordinary power as immortality appear in a weak person?
Why would such a powerful and invincible demon imprison itself? What do they eat and drink? It is impossible that they are all without desires.
Combining his ability to see the health bar, he couldn't help but come up with a bold guess.
Those demons might be monsters in the game. They are not immortal, but they will refresh periodically.
But this doesn't make sense. If this is a game world, human NPCs are too normal. How can different emotions and personalities be simulated?
Zhou Yuan was a little confused for a moment, wondering whether it was the world that was being gamified, or himself.
“Pah.”
A rough big hand gently patted Zhou Yuan's shoulder, and the old man with wrinkles on his face began to speak.
"Shi Tou, what are you standing there for? Are you envious of Er Gou getting married?
Don't blame the village for not helping you to have children. Your father left for the army early, and your mother died the day she gave birth to you.
Even if the village pays to find you a wife, who will support you after you join the army? If you are lucky enough to have children, who will help you take care of them both?"
"Uncle Da Huang, I don't have that thought. I'm just thinking about the recruitment order issued by the county."
"What's there to think about? You don't want to run away, do you? That's not possible.
Our village has 67 households, and we need to provide 23 able-bodied men. If you run away, other families will have to take your place."
"Shitou, in the past few years, it was other households that sent able-bodied men, either to join the army or to do corvée labor.
We all considered you a child and didn't let you go, but now you're sixteen and a grown man, you can't not go."
"How could that be, Uncle Huang? I have a conscience and would never run away and harm anyone."
Zhou Yuan had thought about escaping, but the village was worried about him being a carefree person, so they sent three married men to live and eat with him.
He couldn't defeat three villagers alone, so he could only understand the situation of this world first and then make follow-up plans.
"The ceremony is over."
With a loud shout, the newlyweds were pushed into the bridal chamber, and the village women brought out baskets of soft yellow flour cakes and bowls of thick chicken soup.
The villagers who came to attend the wedding gave gifts and naturally got a meal of soft yellow flour pancakes.
Zhou Yuan and the other twenty-three men who were going to join the army not only had soft yellow flour pancakes, but also each had a bowl of chicken soup cooked over low heat.
The soft yellow flour cake is made of millet, also known as rhubarb rice. It has a soft and sticky texture and tastes good. It would be even better if some sugar was added to enhance the flavor.
The thick chicken soup had been simmered for a long time, with a layer of sweet fat floating in it, and even two small pieces of chicken in it.
One of these two foods lacks sugar, and the other lacks salt. Zhou Yuan's mind has no interest in eating them, but his body is very eager for them.
"Snoring, snore..."
Zhou Yuan, who was drinking chicken soup and eating soft pancakes, dared to say that this was the most tasteless and most delicious meal he had ever eaten.
Tastelessness is the essence of food, and deliciousness is the body's feedback. A body that has been lacking oil and water for a long time can't wait to refill the ceramic bowl with soup.
When he looked up, he saw that there really was a man licking the bowl. Zhou Yuan, who didn't lick the bowl, instantly looked a lot richer.
"Shitou, don't waste it, lick the bowl clean."
"Uncle Da Huang, I've decided to change the way I live. The first step is to stop licking the bowl."
"If you can bear it, don't give it to me."
After Zhou Yuan had his fill, he headed home. Three villagers followed him, eating their soft biscuits.
His completely different spirit and energy, coupled with the following of three honest villagers, instantly made him the most respectable guy in the village.
"Uncle Huang, I can't run away, why are you following me all day?
Let's all go home quickly. If the bride's fellow villagers see us, they will think that the people of Qiaoxi Village are mean. "
"Shitou, we are all worried about you. If you, a carefree person, go into that old forest, who knows how many people you will harm."
"That's enough. If you keep saying that, I'll run away."
"Okay, okay, I won't say any more. You are the boss, and we will listen to you."
He had enough food in his stomach, so he should have had a good sleep, but Zhou Yuan tossed and turned and couldn't fall asleep.
One reason was that the two men sleeping on the straw mats were snoring loudly, and Uncle Huang, who was on duty, was staring at him.
Secondly, the unknown of the new world made him seriously lack a sense of security.
Of course, the most important thing is that his initial plan did not succeed. He originally used the excuse of seeing blood to seize the village's right to kill chickens.
But after slaughtering three live chickens, I didn't gain any experience.
This made his plan to gain strength by hunting poultry become a delusion.
"The immortal demons might be monsters that spawn periodically in the game. Could it be that they are the only ones that can provide experience?
It's also possible that the chicken is too weak to gain experience. How about killing one and trying that?"
Zhou Yuan stared at the three villagers, compared his physique with theirs, and decided to take care of his fellow villagers.
After all, these people all have families and helped their predecessors live to the age of sixteen. Even rabbits don't eat grass near their burrows. It's better to go out of the village and find a bad guy to experiment with.
"Shitou, why are you always staring at us? Don't do anything stupid.
The old and young masters didn't die on the battlefield, but instead died at the hands of their own people. How ridiculous! "
"No, Uncle Huang, why don't you sleep on my bed and I'll keep watch for you."
"I wouldn't dare. You've been acting weird ever since you heard the recruitment order.
I also want to enlist my son in the army, and I can’t let you put me in harm’s way.”
"Da Huang, how come you don't trust your fellow villagers? I don't want to bother with you. I'm going to sleep."