Chapter 50 Traveling Notes

As we loaded all our things into the truck, A-Gong and A-Mu’s chicks were running all over the place, jumping around and being very naughty. I finally got to see how active Tibetan chickens were. They even climbed onto our shoulders and heads. Poker-Face grabbed them one by one and put them back into the basket, but after a while, they started running around again. I didn’t know where they got their energy from.

I rolled down the window to say goodbye to Fatty’s friend and then we headed home.

This time, we didn’t go back with any secrets, and the return journey was surprisingly easy.

For people like us, the purpose of traveling was a difficult question to answer because we had already seen the most beautiful scenery out there. Our mood as we looked at those mountains and rivers, vast mountains and dense forests, and towering snow-capped mountains and huge lakes was completely different from when we first saw them.

In the past, such beautiful scenery was always the prelude to our adventures, and what we always saw after that were great wonders seldom seen by humans.

As we traveled through such beautiful scenery this time, however, the years we had experienced in these places before gave off a different kind of feeling. In fact, when we revisited these old places, I was actually looking at my past self and those remnants I left behind.

I originally thought that those remnants were the main reason for going on this trip, but it wasn’t until after Motuo that I realized that we had never traveled—we’d only gone on adventures—and it wasn’t so easy to live with the remnants.

I didn’t have an answer to what the purpose of traveling was, but compared to building my own house, it obviously wasn’t my strong suit.

But on our way back home, I looked at the truck full of gifts, the scar I got from beating the monkeys, Fatty in the passenger seat, and Poker-Face in the back seat, and suddenly realized that one of the indispensable key factors when it came to traveling was the people you traveled together with.

You would experience various things together, but it was best if they weren’t fierce mountains, evil rivers, demons, or ghosts; you would go and get gifts together, but it was best not to lose your people along the way; you would go home together, but it was best not to be full of doubts and misgivings.

In this way, your long journey home would be a good one.

Fatty and I switched seats so that he could drive, but when we stopped to buy tea eggs, the chickens ran away. We hurriedly chased after them and ended up getting questioned by a traffic cop. In the end, we had to pay a fine. We then drove to a gas station, but there was no gas so the three of us had to push the truck to the next gas station. Then the truck got a flat tire. Halfway through our journey home, a typhoon came and battered the truck with heavy rain. Fatty fell asleep while driving and almost killed us all.

Although we experienced many things while heading back, I knew in my heart that this was a good trip.

We passed a town along the way, which had crab sauce as its main specialty. It was regarded as the ultimate sauce when paired with crab dishes, but when we tried it with french fries, it tasted soapy. I figured this may not be a universal delicacy.

After leaving that town, we headed straight back to Rain Village. The distance actually wasn’t that far, so we ended up arriving in the afternoon. No one came out to greet us when we parked the truck in front of the gate. Although the journey had indeed been quite trying, I didn’t feel my back start aching until I finally saw the gate in front of our house.

Instead of letting Fatty put the chickens in the courtyard, I found some bamboo, made a chicken coop, put it by Xilaimian’s stove, and temporarily settled A-Gong and A-Mu’s family there. The sheep were also led out of the truck and tied to the bamboo outside of the restaurant so that they could adapt to the environment here. Finally, we grabbed all of the various-sized gifts out of the truck and walked through the gate.

The moment we opened the gate, the sun was shining just right. All the moss in the courtyard had grown up undisturbed, including the aquatic plants in the pond. The water was so clear and the bottom of the pond so green that it almost looked as if there wasn’t any water at all.

This was the courtyard of my dreams, and it was the first thing we saw as soon as we came home.

I put down my things, sat by the back door, and looked at the courtyard, feeling a very subtle sensation in my heart. I didn’t want to leave at all.

Fatty went into the house to put some things away, came out again, and nodded approvingly, “This is really something, Mr. Naïve. Who would have expected it would turn out like this when you built it?”

“I expected it,” I said.

Poker-Face came in carrying his things on his back, looked at the courtyard, and went into the house to put his things down. There was a bag of milk candy in the things he was carrying, so Fatty dug it out, opened it, and threw one to me. When Poker-Face also came out and leaned against the wall to look at the pond water and aquatic plants, Fatty threw him one, which he caught.

We ate the candy and gazed at the pond quietly for a long time before Fatty suddenly said, “I’ll cook.”

“I’ll boil the bath water,” I said.

We both looked at Poker-Face, who said, “I’ll get the wine.”

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End of Traveling Notes

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“Notes in Rain Village: Traveling Notes” Epilogue

The performance was cancelled for special reasons and changed to a banquet, so the two sheep were killed.

I thought they would be the ancestors of our future flock, but who would have expected my livestock tycoon dream to end so early?

Raising chickens was a relatively smooth endeavor, but the quantity still wasn’t up to scale. Plus, Fatty soon ate A-Gong and A-Mu’s eggs, along with their children. The improved stone pot chicken was well-received, but it was in short supply because we had problems getting the ingredients for it.

The new dishes were also well-received, which meant that we were once again on the local restaurant list.

I really missed the hot springs at the temple—whenever I saw news coverage of that place, it still had the same beautiful scenery—so I started to soak in the local hot springs every day.

We also got a plot of uncultivated land by the roadside so that we could breed fireflies. It wasted a lot of beer, but in the coming year, this place might be very beautiful. I had long predicted that my attempt to get into the breeding industry wouldn’t succeed, but this place should definitely be full of small, glowing lights next summer.

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Author’s Note:

Babu specially drew some new pictures for “Rain Village”:⁽¹⁾

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TN Notes:

(1) Top pic goes with Chapter 4, 2nd pic goes with Chapter 6 (was uploaded by NPSS with “Queen of West’s Ghost Banquet” Chapter 5), and bottom pic goes with Chapter 8 (was uploaded by NPSS with “Queen of West’s Ghost Banquet” Chapter 12). Translation courtesy of me (took it straight from the chapters) so not official or anything.

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I can put these pics in the final pdf/epub for Rain Village under the appropriate chapters if you all want, just let me know. I was going to work on that extra I still need to do but figuring out how to remove the Chinese text, put my own in, and picking the right font so it looks pretty took too much time so I’m over it lol. Bless all the people who work on translating manga, webtoons, manhwa, etc. Ya’ll the real MVPs.