The Great Ming in the Box-Chapter 233: Bai Family Fortress Comes into View
Since his vision had greatly improved, Li Daoxuan immediately rushed to survey the newly expanded area.
He wanted to see one particular place urgently, so he prioritized clicking the “West” and “North” buttons repeatedly.
Soon, his vision incorporated a new village, “Shiqu Village,” but it was empty inside; this seemed to be Old Shi Si’s village. Continuing to click northwest, he added “Hejiagou Village,” which was also empty.
He kept clicking…
As he clicked, a large fortress came into Li Daoxuan’s view.
The fortress was square-shaped and had clearly been renovated not long ago; its layout suspiciously copied a Hakka roundhouse, featuring four tall corner towers and a lookout tower that had just been erected recently.
On the balcony of the lookout tower’s third floor, a man dressed in white robes was seated and fanning about; in his hand was a book titled “Middle School Math, Lower Second Grade Volume,” and he was studying it intently, with a stack of discarded calculation papers piled on the table.
Bai Yuan, it was Bai Yuan!
Li Daoxuan was overjoyed; he could finally see Bai Family Fortress.
He had half a mind to reach down and poke Bai Yuan to say hello.
But upon seeing Bai Yuan diligently working on his math problems, he decided not to disturb him for now.
Li Daoxuan continued adjusting his view to observe the surroundings of Bai Family Fortress.
After passing Bai Family Fortress, his vision could only move north another mile or so before stopping; it barely reached the foothills of Huanglong Mountain, and he couldn’t yet see the scenes on Huanglong Mountain itself.
He pulled back and surveyed all around.
Around Bai Family Fortress were vast farmlands, but all the ground was cracked like tortoise shell patterns. A little farther out, there were several small villages arranged in a semi-circle, guarding Bai Family Fortress in the center.
This layout somewhat resembled Gaojia Village’s current setup, where Gaojia Fortress was in the middle, surrounded by villages like Refugee Valley and Short-term Workers Village.
However, Bai Family Fortress was much smaller in scale, and while Gaojia Fortress’s farmlands were fully operational, this area was still bare yellow soil.
Li Daoxuan freely dragged his view, scanning the several small villages around Bai Family Fortress; these varied in size, some with hundreds of people, others only dozens.
The villagers there seemed mentally and physically healthier than those in the desolate villages he had found before.
Even though the natural disaster was merciless, the quirky Bai Yuan was still full of compassion; during the two years before the drought, Bai Yuan had used his wealth to aid the surrounding villagers. Later on, Li Daoxuan frequently sent large trucks to bring grain, continuously helping Bai Yuan assist the villagers.
This kept the villagers near Bai Family Fortress barely surviving, and they hadn’t fled as refugees, effectively stabilizing the population there.
Li Daoxuan felt happy inside too; seeing this state of Bai Family Fortress assured him that he had always judged Bai Yuan correctly…
How could he send a greeting gift to Bai Family Fortress and the neighboring villages?
Rain would surely be a good idea, but Bai Family Fortress plus the extensive surrounding villages covered a vast area; Li Daoxuan would be too busy making rain—clicking left-click-click, right-click-click—it would take ages and that didn’t feel like a joyful gift; it was more for subtle nourishment.
The gift had to be big, to startle the villagers and make it fun.
Li Daoxuan kept roaming his view, and soon he spotted something unusual.
Right between Bai Family Fortress and that cluster of villages was a massive depression.
It was truly huge; if Li Daoxuan placed the center of the box on the center of that depression, the giant pit would fill nearly the entire box—it shouldn’t be called a depression but a sinkhole.
Upon closer inspection, he saw that Bai Family Fortress and the surrounding small villages were all built around this sinkhole.
Li Daoxuan didn’t grasp it at first, but after a few seconds, a lightbulb went off in his head; he realized it wasn’t a huge sinkhole at all but a lake.
A dried-up small lake!
Ancient people loved building villages around lakes; he just hadn’t thought of it before—his reaction was too slow.
Now that he’d figured that out, Li Daoxuan knew exactly how to give the villagers a gift.
First, he prepared several large buckets, then slipped downstairs to the courtyard pond in his residential complex, filling them to the brim. This scared the koi fish, who swam frantically away, nearly getting scooped into the buckets.
The water-filled buckets were very heavy; Li Daoxuan struggled to drag them one by one into the elevator, and finally managed to get them up to his room and over to the box.
A dignified Deity, hauling the buckets until he was sweating profusely.
Now he could greet Bai Yuan.
Li Daoxuan clicked on the words “Bai Family Fortress” outside the box, and the view jumped directly above Bai Family Fortress; Bai Yuan was still buried in his math homework.
Li Daoxuan opened the box lid and intentionally didn’t use a Thanos-like hand, instead fanning his hand toward Bai Yuan…
A strange strong wind rushed at Bai Yuan.
The papers on his desk flew up with a swish, scattering everywhere.
Bai Yuan exclaimed, “Ah!” and jumped up: “My math problems!”
He dashed forward in one swift motion, grabbing a paper that had just floated up; spinning around, he caught another one. Running and leaping, he snatched several draft papers back, then laughed heartily: “Hahaha, even a sudden demon wind can’t stop my math skills from advancing by leaps and bounds…”
Just as he laughed, he sensed something wrong; overhead, at about seventy zhang (230 ft) high, there floated a Sharp Knife Troop of low cloud—wasn’t that exactly what appeared every time the Dao Xuan Deity manifested?
Bai Yuan broke into a sweat instantly and cried out urgently: “The Deity is here? Ahhh! I’ve been extremely disrespectful, calling it a demon wind; strike out ‘courtesy’ from the arts. Deity, forgive me; I truly didn’t expect you to grace Bai Family Fortress personally.”
Li Daoxuan chuckled to himself; as the Dao Xuan Deity, he was meddling with little people and couldn’t blame Bai Yuan for words slipping out. He took out an A4 paper, printed some words on it, and unfolded it below.
Bai Yuan was awaiting punishment from the Deity, when suddenly the cloud layer parted, revealing a giant paper in the sky with the words: “Summon the villagers.”
Rushing with pride, Bai Yuan understood; the Deity had finally flown to Bai Family Fortress to care for the common folk there. Hahaha, splendid! Bai Family Fortress had finally gained the Deity’s favor.
Overjoyed, he ran to the railing of the balcony and yelled down at his servants: “Strike the clappers! Summon all villagers, hurry, hurry, hurry!”
The servants struck bamboo tubes hanging in each corner of Bai Family Fortress, producing “kong, kong, kong, kong” sounds that carried for miles; soon, similar sounds echoed from nearby villages, and large numbers of villagers rushed out from their homes.
Chapter 233: Bai Family Fortress Comes into View
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