Chapter 1: The Curse of Heaven
In the Xiangzhong region, hills and mountains rise and fall, with ten thousand peaks overlapping in a lush green landscape. The Zijiang River winds its way through like a mighty dragon, traversing Hunan Province from north to south, emptying into Dongting Lake. Along the river's middle reaches lies an ancient mountain town with a history spanning over a thousand years. This mountain town is one of the poorest counties in the country. To the northeast of the town stands Mount Xiong, stretching for dozens of miles, towering high and majestic, shielding the northwest. Local elders pass down the legend that this very mountain was the hometown of Chi You, a figure from ancient mythology, as well as his final resting place. However, no one knows where exactly Chi You lies buried, after all, it's been thousands of years, and there are no written records to prove or disprove the tale. Our protagonist, Long Bao, was born and raised in this very land.
Xiongshan used to be a place with lush trees and exotic flowers, where rare birds and beasts roamed. This was the ideal retreat for saints and sages. Unfortunately, decades ago, during the unprecedented Great Leap Forward, locals responded to the national call of "catching up with Britain and surpassing America" by cutting down all the trees on Xiongshan to smelt iron. Of course, no steel was produced, only piles of iron slag. No one knew how severe the consequences would be: streams dried up, trees disappeared, birds and beasts vanished, and even basic firewood for cooking became a serious problem for local villagers. The forest was the root of life for local villagers; without it, they couldn't retain water and soil, and their primitive farming methods resulted in low crop yields, making their lives very difficult.
The west side of Xiongshan Mountain is adjacent to the river, with steep cliffs and precipices hundreds of meters away from the river surface, making it a treacherous climb. The stone wall is covered with moss and wild grasses. At the intersection of Zijiang River and Xiongshan Mountain, there is a large bay with a sandy beach of over 20 mu (about 13.3 hectares). Standing on the beach and looking up, one can see a narrow and steep path winding its way to the top of the mountain. Over the centuries, countless people have walked along this small road. The end of the path is where Dafeng Village and Guzhai Village are located. Here, there are remnants of Xiongshan Mountain's forests that survived the Great Leap Forward disaster. Although the number of trees in these forests is not many, they can still be considered a forest.
Along the mountain forest downwards, the villagers here have reclaimed many terraced fields on the mountain slopes for generations, planting rice and miscellaneous grains. The villagers rely on this little food to make a living. Dawind Village and Guchai Village have a total population of over 1,000 people, with more people and less land. Fortunately, after the reform and opening-up, able-bodied laborers went out to work and earn money, supplementing some household expenses, and now their lives are much better than before.
There is a cave in the middle of the mountain, where a spring has been flowing for years, nourishing the countless lives of generations. The small road is the only way from the mountain village to the township government, and it takes almost 3 miles to get down to the river bank. From the sandy beach along the riverbank, walking on the rugged path for about 10 miles can reach the location of Tianlei Township Government.
Tianlei Township is a poverty-stricken township under the jurisdiction of Xiangzhong Mountain City. The chairman of the township people's congress, Qi Yunhai, is a native of this township. Next to the township government is the only market in the town, where people gather on the 1st and 6th days of each lunar month. At this time, people from all over the town will come from all directions to rush to the market. Less than 100 meters away from the market is the location of Tianlei Middle School and Tianlei Central Primary School, where the best students in the town study, and those who live too far away board at school.
In 1995, Long Bao was a 10-year-old fourth-grader at Tianlei Central Primary School. When it comes to Long Bao, the elderly people in Dafeng Village and Guzhai Village all know a legend that his ancestors were cursed by heaven, and generation after generation could only leave behind one descendant, no matter how many children they had, the remaining descendants could only be male, and all members of the Long family could not exceed 30 years old. Their spouses would also die within a year or two after the man's death, and the reasons for their deaths were either due to neurological disorders or excessive grief over the loss of their husbands, leading them to take their own lives.
This legend has been passed down for hundreds of years in the mountain village, with some people believing it to be true and others thinking it's purely fabricated. However, none of the older villagers in Dafeng Village doubted its authenticity. This is because all the ancestors of the Long family buried behind their house died before the age of 30, and it's said that they would prepare their own graves and tombstones beforehand, only waiting for death to be buried. This was because the Long family ancestors had long resigned themselves to the curse on them, and to avoid leaving behind helpless orphans and widows who couldn't afford to hold a funeral, they would always prepare everything in advance. It's said that the Long family has lived here for thousands of years, but no one has ever escaped this calamity. The Long family knew it was their destined fate, and even if they fled to the ends of the earth, they couldn't escape the control of their destiny.
The legend has it that the 28th ancestor of the Long family fled to Yunnan with his wife and children at the age of 28. On the eve of his 30th birthday, he suddenly burst all over his body and told his wife and children with his last breath to take his remains back to their hometown and write in the family tree: "All my descendants must not dare to break the curse, otherwise it will be unbearable." After that, he passed away. The 47th ancestor of the Long family was a deputy general under Yuan Chonghuan, the Iron Commander of the Ming Dynasty. On his 29th birthday, he fought against the Qing army and suddenly died after spitting blood after shooting 38 Qing soldiers. That night, his wife also swallowed gold in front of her husband's coffin, leaving behind an orphan who was less than five years old. A Qi surname soldier who had received great kindness from the general stayed to raise the young orphan and settled down on this mountain, thus the village of Tianlei also had the Qi surname.
There are also people who say that after this, no one from the Long family left Xiongshan and the mountain city to fight against or escape the curse. The Long family has always been in the habit of marrying outside (buying) wives, and immediately cutting off all ties with their wife's family after bringing them into the household, so as to avoid the curse affecting other families. Local people who know about these things usually do not marry their daughters to the Long family, which is why the Long family has no relatives in the area. For the Long family, life is very simple: all they need to do is go out and find a wife to carry on their bloodline, and then spend the rest of their lives quietly waiting for fate to decide their destiny before their 30th birthday, like a time bomb ticking away.
They say that all these things are recorded in the Long family's genealogy, but actually none of them have ever seen the Long family's genealogy. However, they still know the secrets of the Long family relatively well. The Long family's genealogy was made by the third ancestor of the Long family in the early Tang Dynasty using bronze and iron. The ancestors used a knife to engrave on this twenty-page copper plate, and then filled the concave places with silver. When you open this book, the family tree is very simple. From the true records above, it can be known that although many ancestors married several wives and had several children, none of the girls survived to adulthood, and there were never two boys at the same time. If the older boy was alive, the younger boy would not live for more than 100 days. In order for the younger boy to survive, the older boy must have died unexpectedly before the younger boy turned 100 days old. The genealogy also records many past events and several ancestors' wise sayings that they wanted to pass on to future generations.
All the men of the Long family are extremely handsome and strong, perhaps it is the excellent and unique genes of the Long family that determine their unique charm. Their spouses are all very beautiful, many of whom still married them without hesitation after being informed of the family curse. Just like Long Bao's mother, she was from Hubei Province and met Long Xing, the 63rd generation heir of the Long family, at Changhan Xi'an Crane Tower. Half a month later, for the sake of love, she abandoned her family and followed Long Xing to this poor and remote mountain village in Xiongshan, where true love conquered the hardships of life.
Long Bao had an older brother, but unfortunately, when he was just 90 days old, his five-year-old brother secretly went to play by the river and drowned in shallow water. His father, Long Xing, was grief-stricken and died three months later while traveling at night due to a mental breakdown. He fell off a cliff and died. Long Bao's mother lost her loved one and cried every day, eventually going mad and dying nine months later. The most tragic fate in the world had befallen little Long Bao, who had just learned to walk. It was as if he knew that this was an inevitable destiny for him. He lay beside his mother's gradually cold body, holding onto her clothes with all his might, refusing to let go no matter how hard the adults tried to take him away from her side. He didn't cry or make a sound, but instead stared at his mother's face with eyes full of tears, as if hoping that she would wake up from her sleep and sing him a lullaby again, and give him one last mouthful of milk.
The Qi surname is very rare in Tianlei Township, with only a handful of people, all of whom are descendants of the Qi surname's ancestral soldiers who flourished on Xiongshan. Grandfather Qi is one of the highest-ranking among them. The township's chairman, Qi Yunhai, is also a distant relative of Grandfather Qi's. According to their generational ranking, he should be called Uncle Qi, but Qi Yunhai never deigned to call him that. He would never get along with the Long family like Grandfather Qi did either.
Grandfather Qi is an elderly widower whose wife died early and left no children behind. He and Dragon's grandfather were as close as brothers, and due to ancestral reasons, the two families have always been referred to as relatives. To be honest, the Qi family has treated the Long family with great kindness for centuries, and without the Qi family, there would be no Long family. This is especially true in Dragon's eyes.
Nearly sixty-year-old Qi grandfather devoted himself to raising the orphaned Long Bao, and the two were dependent on each other for survival. Qi grandfather usually farmed, and whenever he went to the market, he would carry Long Bao there to sell grass shoes, bamboo products, and some medicinal herbs dug up from the mountains, and also set up a stall to write couplets and funeral orations to earn some extra money.
Xiaolong Bao's body is very good, he is well-behaved and obedient. Although the days of the old and young are simple and hard, they are not short of food and clothing.
