Chapter 791
Lu Zhenyuan's Shock
The next morning, Li Qingshi and Sun Weiwei were woken up by the lively noise outside. After sleeping in each other's arms for a while, they got up and went outside, only to find a large crowd gathered in the courtyard.
Li Qingshi thought something big had happened. After getting closer to Sun Weiwei, he found that General Lu Zhenyuan and Lu Wan'er were sitting in the middle of the crowd, and the people surrounding them were telling Lu Zhenyuan and Lu Wan'er about the current development of Kaoshan Village.
Lu Zhenyuan and Lu Wan'er, standing in the center of the crowd, listened with great interest.
Li Qingshi led Sun Weiwei through the crowd to Lu Zhenyuan and Lu Wan'er and said very politely, "Lord Lu, if you are interested in Kaoshan Village, how about we take a stroll around after we have breakfast?"
Actually, before coming to Kaoshan Village, Lu Zhenyuan had planned to set off back to Qingyun Road early this morning. However, after seeing the unique appearance of Kaoshan Village and the leisurely lifestyle of its people, as well as the delicious food he had never seen or tasted before, Lu Zhenyuan changed his mind. Hearing Li Qingshi say this today, Lu Zhenyuan replied without hesitation, "That's fine too. But you're married now, so it's time to change how you address me!"
Li Qingshi smiled and said to Lu Zhenyuan, "Yes, Father-in-law!"
After hearing Li Qingshi's words, Lu Zhenyuan looked at Li Qingshi with great satisfaction and laughed happily a few times. Then, the group went to have breakfast together.
After breakfast, Li Qingshi and Sun Weiwei accompanied Lu Zhenyuan and Lu Wan'er to stroll around Kaoshan Village.
Whenever they saw something new and interesting, they would ask the people of Kaoshan Village to help them explain it. Li Qingshi had already learned about the changes in Kaoshan Village in the past few days since he returned, so he didn't feel as excited as the others at this moment!
But after this tour, even Sun Weiwei, a devout follower of the Mountain God, was amazed by the tremendous changes in Kaoshan Village.
Lu Zhenyuan and Lu Wan'er were even more shocked than Sun Weiwei!
As the commander-in-chief of Qingyun Road, Lu Zhenyuan usually leads so many people. What kind of world hasn't he seen? But at this moment, he felt like he had become a complete novice in Kaoshan Village. He kept asking questions along the way, like a child full of job-seeking desires, or even more like a frog in a well who had never seen the world!
After touring the entire Kaoshan Village, Lu Zhenyuan felt that his horizons had broadened considerably, even though he only vaguely understood some of the explanations.
I couldn't help but marvel at how Kaoshan Village was like a paradise on earth.
Lu Wan'er, who was standing next to her, was also quite excited after taking a tour and seeing all sorts of novel things in Kaoshan Village. The young lady chattered happily all the way, just like a curious child.
Seeing their excited expressions, Li Qingshi couldn't help but sigh and say, "Back then, Kaoshan Village was a poor and desolate little village. After a severe drought, the total population of the village was less than fifty people."
Since the appearance of the Mountain God, Kaoshan Village has been completely transformed under his blessings, becoming the first sacred place in the Great Jing Dynasty where people no longer have to worry about food and drink!
Lu Zhenyuan had heard about the Mountain God Grandfather from Sun Weiwei before, but at the time he did not believe the absurd claim that there was such a thing as the Mountain God Grandfather. He thought Sun Weiwei's words were just childish nonsense or something she was saying casually, and he did not take them to heart at all!
Unexpectedly, today, seeing with his own eyes the magnificent scene of Kaoshan Village, which not only has novel means of transportation, but also a lot of grains he has never seen before, abundant water resources, and so on, and hearing Li Qingshi mention the Mountain God Grandfather again, Lu Zhenyuan finally began to doubt the existence of the Mountain God Grandfather for the first time in the face of this situation!
Thinking of this, Lu Zhenyuan, with questions in his heart, couldn't help but ask Li Qingshi, "Qingshi, I heard about the existence of the Mountain God Grandfather from Weiwei before. At the time, I thought she was just joking with us. Could it be that the Mountain God Grandfather you're talking about can really manifest?"
Li Qingshi said with a smile, "That's right, Father-in-law, the Mountain God can really manifest his power. Everything in Kaoshan Village right now is the best proof!"
Upon hearing Li Qingshi's words, Lu Zhenyuan was immediately shocked and asked, "Then can I meet him?"
Li Qingshi said, "Of course we can! But the Mountain God is a benevolent deity who bestows blessings upon all things. He is usually busy with his cultivation. If there's nothing else to do, we'd better not disturb his cultivation!"
Lu Zhenyuan nodded in agreement and said to Li Qingshi, "You're right. We mortals shouldn't disturb the immortals unless absolutely necessary!"
Just after the two finished speaking, a car horn suddenly sounded in their ears. They assumed it was a warning sound, like a bugle call, especially Lu Zhenyuan, who was a general who frequently commanded battles. Hearing this sound, he immediately became alert.
With lightning speed, he drew the sword from his waist and turned to point it menacingly at his opponent. As expected of a general, Lu Zhenyuan's movements were as smooth as flowing water, taking less than a second to execute the entire action.
But when he saw that what was coming from the opposite direction was not an enemy but something with four wheels on the bottom, he was instantly dumbfounded. He had actually seen this thing when he visited Kaoshan Village earlier, and he had even asked someone to introduce it to them.
I remember the person introducing it said that this strange-looking thing was a car, made entirely of iron, and that people could control it by sitting inside and using the thing in front called a steering wheel.
But where did that horn-like sound come from?
Just as Lu Zhenyuan was still in a daze, the driver honked the car horn again and politely called out, "Please move aside!"
Only then did Lu Zhenyuan realize that the sound he had thought was a "horn" was actually the sound of the car they were talking about. Lu Zhenyuan instantly felt embarrassed, quickly sheathed his sword, and stood aside. The car driver, however, understood Lu Zhenyuan's actions perfectly, as they had been just as wary when they first encountered such novelties as cars.
The driver drove away after seeing Lu Zhenyuan, Li Qingshi, and the others clear the road.
The group stood there watching the car whiz past them, and were astonished by its speed.
While clapping her hands, Lu Wan'er cheerfully spoke first to her father, "Wow, my goodness, Daddy, look! That car is so fast! It feels like it's much faster than you can ride a warhorse!"
Lu Zhenyuan was genuinely shocked by the car's speed. He shook his head and said with admiration, "Remove the 'seems,' that car is several times faster than my warhorse!"
Lu Wan'er said, "At this speed, if we use it to take us to Qingyun Road, wouldn't we be able to get there very quickly? That would save us from being delayed on the road for so many days!"
Lu Zhenyuan's eyes lit up, and he said in full agreement, "That's really a good idea!"
Standing to the side, Li Qingshi said, "It's a good idea, but this method is not feasible. These cars can only drive on wide and relatively flat roads. The roads in our village were specially leveled and widened by the villagers to make it easier for cars to drive!"
After listening to Li Qingshi's words, Lu Zhenyuan immediately realized that most of the roads in their Great Jing Dynasty were rugged and dangerous. Apart from a few roads that the government had to take, which were wider and flatter and required the use of carriages, the rest of the roads were impassable even for carriages, let alone cars, which were wider than carriages.
After thinking about all this, Lu Zhenyuan said to Li Qingshi, "Qingshi, you're right, I didn't consider things carefully!"
Standing to the side, Sun Weiwei said to Lu Zhenyuan, "Father, you are a domineering and mighty general, known for your thorough consideration of matters. How can you be so self-deprecating!"
Li Qingshi quickly added, "Yes, Weiwei is right, Father-in-law. It's not that you haven't considered things carefully. It's just that the thing that the Mountain God Grandpa released is so novel. Because people don't understand its performance at all, they wouldn't consider these external factors when they see it for the first time."
After listening to Li Qingshi's explanation, Lu Zhenyuan said, "So these toy cars were also placed there by the Mountain God. No wonder they are so magical!"
Standing to the side, Lu Wan'er quickly cast an extremely eager look at Li Qingshi and said, "Brother-in-law, those cars are so fast! I really want to drive one and have some fun! Could you help me talk to them and let me experience it?"
Upon hearing his daughter's words, Lu Zhenyuan quickly retorted, "How can a girl like you do these things?"
As soon as Lu Zhenyuan finished speaking, they saw another car driving towards them. Lu Wan'er's eyes lit up when she saw that the driver was a woman. She excitedly pointed at the car and said to Lu Zhenyuan, "Dad, Dad, look! A woman is driving this car. Look how smoothly she drives! She looks so cool!"
Standing to the side, Li Qingshi said, "Yes, I heard from the people of Kaoshan Village that the Mountain God decreed that anyone, regardless of gender, can learn to drive a car. Many men and women in the village have already learned. I've also taken the time to learn to drive these past few days since I came back to Kaoshan Village. Actually, it's not that difficult. The Mountain God specially provided us with some cars for trainees; they're very safe."
Seeing that the female driver was quite skilled at driving the car and sped past them in an instant, and then hearing Li Qingshi say that the Mountain God had specially assigned a car for the trainees, Lu Zhenyuan felt relieved and said to his daughter Lu Wan'er, "Since Qingshi said it's safe, then I won't interfere. You can handle it yourself!"
Hearing her father's approval, Lu Wan'er was overjoyed and quickly turned to Li Qingshi, saying, "Then what are we waiting for? Sister and brother-in-law, let's go quickly!"
Seeing Lu Wan'er's happy expression, Lu Zhenyuan couldn't help but smile and gently shake his head.
Lu Zhenyuan had three sons and one daughter. He doted on his only daughter, Lu Wan'er, because he was an outstanding military general. Perhaps due to the influence of his family from a young age, Lu Wan'er greatly admired those with high martial arts skills.
She had wanted to learn martial arts since she was very young, but Lu Zhenyuan was a very chauvinistic man. He felt that practicing martial arts was a man's business, and that girls should stay at home and learn things like music, chess, calligraphy and painting. In short, he thought that girls should be gentle, graceful, knowledgeable and reasonable.
The main reason is that Lu Zhenyuan himself is a military general, and his three sons are also military generals. He feels that military generals often have to fight on the battlefield, which is very dangerous. He does not want his daughter to be exposed to these things. He only wants her to study hard and learn etiquette. As for if she encounters danger, she will be protected by him, Lu Zhenyuan, the general, and her three older brothers. Then she can find a good family to marry into, and that will be perfect.
We cannot say that Lu Zhenyuan's thinking is backward because he has such ideas. It can only be said that in the extremely backward environment of the bonsai world, almost everyone has such ideas. His original intention was actually just to protect his daughter.
However, when his daughter Lu Wan'er secretly went out and encountered danger last time, she was fortunately saved by Sun Weiwei. If it weren't for Sun Weiwei, Lu Zhenyuan might never have seen his beloved daughter again in his life.
Afterwards, Lu Zhenyuan came to understand that Lu Wan'er was not the gentle type by nature. If you keep her locked up at home every day to learn etiquette and other things she doesn't like, she will cause trouble sooner or later. If she doesn't learn etiquette well and doesn't learn any kung fu, then it will really be a complete failure.
If she had agreed to let Lu Wan'er learn some kung fu earlier, she wouldn't have been kidnapped so easily. So later she tacitly approved of her daughter Lu Wan'er learning kung fu and stopped insisting on only letting her daughter study and learn etiquette.
When Lu Zhenyuan first heard that Lu Wan'er wanted to learn to drive, he instinctively resisted because his first reaction was that it was something men should do. However, after seeing female drivers and hearing Li Qingshi say it was safe, and considering that restricting her as before would backfire, he finally agreed. (End of Chapter)