Chapter 509 [Happiness comes from comparison]

   "Deaf-mute? How to say?" A young man next to him became interested in an instant, but there was also an older and well-informed person who had already understood the meaning of the word, so he answered the conversation with full admiration:

"It's really a wise saying! If you want to live a long time, although you can't do it if you don't look at or listen to things that don't go your way, you should pretend that you don't hear them after hearing them, and don't express your opinions. That's good. No matter how many conflicts Is it from talking too much? How many conflicts come from inadvertently speaking the wrong words. If you want family harmony, the word deaf-mute is really incisive."

  Fang Chang shook his head silently in his heart, but although he disagreed with this, he did not express his opinion, which can be regarded as implementing the essence of these two words to a certain extent. He poked the bonfire in front of him with a branch, so that the firewood could fully contact the air and burn more fully.

  Everyone is bored, interested in any topic, and willing to join in, so the chat atmosphere is very good, and everyone talks very enthusiastically.

The topic changed from the anecdote about the giant whale stranded on the South China Sea, so that the residents on the seaside had a few meals of meat, to the secrets of several bigwigs in the new court, and then turned into the grievances and grievances between the oirans and wealthy officials in a certain place The story, and then turned into a new drama written by a talented scholar.

  Fang Chang just listened silently, and occasionally, like others, he would say a few words of praise.

   But in the eyes of others, his attention is more on the tea brewed on the campfire. Whenever there is not enough water in the pot, the man in white will add water to it, so that everyone has tea to drink.

  The night is getting darker, but everyone's interest in talking is not low at all.

  Someone started a new topic, saying: "Recently, the world is not peaceful."

This ambiguous sentence immediately attracted dissatisfaction and blame from everyone, instead of praise: "How long has it been since the Anniversary?" "The chaos has just passed, so don't let anything happen." Anyway, I've had enough." "I think the new dynasty is very good, and the weather in all aspects can last for a long time," everyone said in a hurry.

  Seeing that his words were ambiguous, the person who mentioned them was a little ashamed and indignant, and quickly explained:

   "I'm not talking about the morals of the world. Recently, there are always rumors of evil spirits hurting people. Although they are everywhere in the world, it makes me feel a little bad."

   Everyone understood now, but someone looked at the surrounding dark wilderness and shivered slightly.

  So someone asked, and the person who brought up the topic told several related rumors in succession, each of which was a bit strange, and I don't know if it changed in the process of spreading, or the thing itself is so terrible. The timid one became more and more afraid in the dark, so he had to lean closer to the fire, and then begged him not to speak again.

  An elderly man sighed: "I've heard it too. In fact, these are not big things. They are better than chaos. The days of the past few years were really precarious."

  Someone next to him disagreed, shaking his head and said: "That's what you say, but for those who are unfortunate enough to catch up with this kind of disaster, it's not much different from suffering disasters when the world is in chaos—both are miserable."

  But someone laughed again:

   "Whether it is happiness or not, after all, it needs to be compared. I have heard such a story."

  The people around him were immediately distracted by him, so the man drank the tea in the cup, got up, took a spoonful, sat back and said:

"In our place, there was a single poor man in the village a few decades ago. He hadn't found a wife in his forties or fifties, and he was lazy, so he seldom cleaned up his house neatly. His quilt hadn't been unwrapped and washed for decades. It’s as hard as a piece of iron. In addition, his family is poor, and he can’t light the stove in the cold winter, so he can’t sleep because of the cold in the winter night.”

"So every winter when it was cold and unbearable, this bachelor would run out, climb up to the roof naked, let the north wind blow, climb down before freezing, and get into the bed. The hard as iron The quilt immediately became warm and comfortable, and the person shouted 'Not cold! Not cold! Warm! Warm!' and fell asleep successfully."

  Everyone clapped their legs and laughed loudly. Some people burst into tears from laughter, and hurriedly reached out to wipe it off.

  The storyteller was very proud and said: "It can be seen from this that happiness is actually a comparison. It does not lie in the present, but in the past."

  This is reasonable, the whole story is very self-consistent because it is true enough.

  But for some reason, Tian was still being chatted to death. After everyone laughed, they suddenly lost interest in chatting, so after saying good night to each other, they each went to sleep in a sheltered place.

  There were no blind beasts at night, or the ghosts that the people in the carriage were afraid of, came up to find fault and deliver food. Fang Chang also found a comfortable place by the campfire to rest for the night, and then parted with everyone the next day. They were all strangers, no one asked each other's identities when they met by chance, and no one would leave any special impression on this night, it was just an ordinary night on the road.

  ...

  Fang Chang walked through villages and towns towards his intended destination. The scenery along the way was not repeated, which was quite interesting.

  He would sometimes visit the gods passing by, not for the purpose of inquiring information, but just as he wanted, so he made friends everywhere. In addition to everyone he had met before, Fang Chang also knew a large number of mountain gods and land city gods.

As for the gods, they are very welcome to know such an immortal with unfathomable cultivation, but who is very approachable. In addition, there are exchanges and relationships between the righteous gods, so they originally got together because of their participation in the Great Calamity of Elimination. The well-known Fang Chang became even more famous.

  Often when he went to visit, after reporting his name, the other party thought of who he was, so he immediately went out to greet him with a high standard. It seems that as long as there is no news about the God of Mountains and Water, the God of Land and City God, everyone knows that there is a fairy in white who likes to make friends and often visits these gods of good fortune.

   On this day, Fang Chang was visiting the City God in Tan Yang Mansion.

  Here is very close to the destination Ruizhou. Fang Chang used his eyesight on the outskirts of the city before entering the city, and he was able to see the faint disharmony between the sky and the earth in the direction of Ruizhou. The area of ​​this feeling branch is extremely long and wide. Fang Chang secretly guessed that the place where the two worlds intersect should be the place where the two worlds intersect.

  The city **** here is surnamed Ke, and he hosted a banquet for Fang Chang. During the banquet, he knew that Fang Chang liked to observe the world and everything, and even dragged him around the city. Although the banquet was not rich, it was very distinctive and very much to Fang Chang's liking, and Fang Chang did not come here empty-handed, he brought a box of pencils as a gift.

This pencil was made by him on the cliff. The pen holder came from a newly built woodworking machine, and the refill was made of graphite mixed with clay, which was baked in a furnace. These two things took Fang Chang a lot of effort, and he even made a few. A special machine is used to assist in this task. Ke Chenghuang was very happy with this new stationery, he solemnly put it away, and was going to try again after Fang Chang left.

   "Here, this is what I'm going to get involved in today." Cheng Huang took Fang Chang outside a house and pointed inside.

  (end of this chapter)