5.
After Bạch Lê disconnected from the livestream, someone named "Tiểu Cao Happy" requested to join.
When I accepted, a young man with a trendy hip-hop style appeared on the other side of the screen.
He seemed to be sitting on the edge of a field, his face filled with indescribable worry: "Master, I want to find out where my uncle is. He's the village guardian in our hometown. He always waits for me at the village gate whenever I come back, but this time, when I returned, I found out he was missing."
"I asked the neighbors, and they said they haven't seen him since the heavy rain the day before yesterday. I'm worried something might have happened to him."
[Sorry for the dumb question, but what's a village guardian?]
[I heard from my grandpa that village guardians are people who watch over and protect the peace of the village. In their past lives, they committed terrible crimes and carry a murderous aura, which is why they can scare off certain filthy things.]
[Don't talk nonsense, the village guardians are good people. Their families have accumulated virtue for nine generations, so the tenth generation becomes the guardian. After this life, they get to ascend.]
Ignoring the arguments in the comments, I asked for Tiểu Cao Happy's uncle's birth date and horoscope, then calculated using my fingers.
"There's still a faint breath left, in the birch forest behind the mountain, under an ancient tree, buried deep in the mud, with a broken left leg."
As soon as I finished speaking, Tiểu Cao Happy grabbed his phone and rushed out.
He stumbled his way to the birch trees behind the mountain and found an old birch half-buried in the dirt. He started digging at the sand and gravel with his hands.
"Uncle, hang on, I'll get you out right now."
The sand and gravel were piled so deep that in just a short while, his fingernails broke, and his fingers were scraped and bleeding heavily.
But he didn't stop for a single moment, as if he couldn't even feel the pain.
[I'm too old to watch stuff like this anymore.]
[This reminds me of my own uncle. My parents died when I was very young, and it was my uncle who raised me. Because he had to take care of me, he's now 43 and still hasn't married.]
[My uncle and I are really close too. He's five years older than me, and when we were kids, whenever I got in trouble, he'd always take the blame for me. Ten times out of ten, he'd claim it was his fault.]
[Why do you all have uncles like that? I don't, so I'll pray that Tiểu Cao Happy can rescue his uncle soon.]
After digging for about half an hour, a piece of dark blue clothing finally appeared.
When Tiểu Cao Happy saw the edge of the clothing, he dug even more frantically.
A while later, the person buried under the dirt was finally half-exposed.
His head was caught in the tangled roots of the old birch tree, which gave him just enough space to breathe.
If not for that, he would have suffocated long ago, buried under all that sand.
Tiểu Cao Happy pulled his uncle out and performed CPR. The middle-aged man slowly regained consciousness.
He was overjoyed to see Tiểu Cao Happy.
"Little nephew, little nephew, you came to visit your uncle? Hehe, my nephew came to see me again, hehe."
Tiểu Cao's uncle spoke like a three-year-old child, clearly a bit slow-witted.
Tiểu Cao Happy wiped the dirt from his uncle's face and asked, "Uncle, why were you buried under this tree? Do you know if I'd come any later, you would have..."
He couldn't bring himself to finish the sentence and gently brushed the dirt off his uncle's body.
[This uncle seems a bit simple-minded. Isn't it normal for someone like that to get lost? Who knows if he'll even survive, let alone come here for a fortune-telling warning.]
[Maybe his dumb uncle dug a hole and buried himself? That's hilarious.]
[You guys up there should watch your mouths and show some compassion. Someone's family member is missing—what's wrong with wanting to get a fortune-telling reading? Mocking others will only bring you trouble.]
Uncle Cao laughed heartily and stammered, "It was pouring rain, and the mud was sliding down everywhere. If I didn't stop it, the whole village would have flooded."
Tiểu Cao Happy was stunned: "You mean there was a landslide on the mountain, and you got buried here trying to stop the mud and rocks from coming down?"
His uncle grinned from ear to ear and nodded. "Yeah, you're really smart."
As he said this, he gave a big thumbs up.
Tiểu Cao Happy couldn't help but laugh in exasperation: "You think you can just stop a landslide because you want to? Uncle, you're so silly."
[He might be a little slow, but he's got a good heart.]
[Someone just called them dumb, but honestly, they've got way more spirit than most people. Besides talking, what else can you do?]
[Uncle is so adorable. He really tried to stop the landslide all by himself.]
I looked at the half-destroyed landslide barrier showing on the other side of the screen and couldn't help but frown.
"Your village has a landslide barrier, so normally there wouldn't be a landslide. But that barrier was destroyed by some supernatural force. If it weren't for your uncle, your whole village might have been swept away."
Tiểu Cao Happy was shocked: "A ghost can destroy a barrier? But why would they do that?"
"Has there been a cemetery in your village that was recently relocated?"
He scratched his head. "I think I heard that since the village is going to be demolished next year, they wanted to level the cemetery and claim the land for themselves, so they'd get more compensation next year."
"That's it. The cemetery was flattened, so those ghosts had nowhere to go and destroyed the landslide barrier, trying to flood your village. But your uncle stopped them for now. Still, there's no guarantee they won't try something else."
Tiểu Cao Happy's expression changed dramatically: "So what should we do now?"
"Have everyone in your village who helped move the graves fix up the new graves, offer sacrifices, and kneel in front of them for three days."
Tiểu Cao Happy looked troubled: "Everyone in the village is greedy. If they weren't, they wouldn't have moved the graves in the first place. There's no way they'll listen to me."
I smiled knowingly: "Don't worry, give them some time. Wait three days and then talk to them again—I guarantee it'll work."
"Alright, I'll try. If they won't listen, there's nothing more I can do."
I sighed softly, wanting to remind him again: "Your uncle survived that landslide. Coincidentally, the roots of that old birch tree left him just enough space to breathe. Why do you think that happened?"
Tiểu Cao Happy asked in confusion, "Why?"
"Because your uncle is the village guardian—his life is closely tied to your village."
"While your uncle was protecting the village, the local earth god was also watching over him. That's why he survived the landslide and waited for you to rescue him."
"So in three days, you have to convince the villagers—do it for your uncle if nothing else."
Hearing this, Tiểu Cao Happy's expression grew complicated, and his voice suddenly became much more serious: "Alright, in three days I'll make sure to persuade them to rebuild the graves."
[This is so strange. I think what the streamer says is kind of funny, but at the same time, it's really interesting.]
[It's like listening to an old story. How could someone's life be so closely connected to the land?]
[I think what the streamer says makes sense. Where I come from, we also have a village guardian. We usually call him the Earth God, or Lord of the Land.]
I glanced over at Tiểu Cao Happy’s uncle.
He had clearly just escaped danger, yet now he was sitting there making a little boat out of birch leaves that had fallen to the ground, as if nothing had ever happened.
Most village guardians are people who suffer from the Five Afflictions and Three Deficiencies—they have no children, and their fate is tied to the village.
(*The Five Afflictions: widowed, childless, lonely, isolated, disabled. The Three Deficiencies: lacking money, lacking destiny, lacking power.)
This is also a trial they must face in this lifetime. If they manage to overcome it, they can ascend and become immortal gods in the mortal world.
Unfortunately, most village guardians end up dying in the end.
All because they want to protect the villagers in their village.
And the human heart is always the hardest thing to predict.