บท 3: A simple carpenter's life
*Cut* *Cut* *Cut* Sounds of wood being continuously cut echoed at irregular intervals from a somewhat in still poor-conditioned house, which is considered slightly above the average standard of living for the vast majority of mortals who live by subsistence agriculture.
The reason this house is slightly above the mortal average comes from a small workshop next to it, connected to the house like a room, from which the continuous sounds of wood being cut, nailed, and hammered can be heard.
The one responsible for these sounds is a young mortal around twenty years old who is skillfully crafting a wooden chair with dedication, displaying the knowledge and skill of someone who has been practicing carpentry for decades despite his young age.
He has a common appearance like the other young mortals in the village, with a normal face, short black hair, and a medium-sized beard, as well as a muscular physique resulting from constant heavy work and physical effort despite his slim body.
To everyone in this world, he is just another common young man like many others, but if an otherworldly demon were to look at him, they would have a completely different opinion because of a small detail: a wooden cross that is in the young man's neck, hanging from a cord, a Christian symbol easily recognized by anyone from Earth.
"Well, this is the last one... now I just need to inform Mr. Xu that his order is ready..." The young man carefully picks up the chair and takes it to the corner of the carpentry workshop, where five other similar chairs are neatly arranged next to a table, which is also part of the order.
"Hmm, but I still have a big order for a dresser from Mr. Fei... I might be able to finish in one more week." The young man shows no signs of laziness as he thinks about how he'll have to work constantly for the next week to finish the order for a wealthy merchant who wants to give a refined dresser as a gift to his daughter.
"Big brother!! Mom sent me to call you because food is ready!!" A young boy of just nine years old quickly enters the carpentry workshop to inform his brother that he's running late for lunch, amidst his brother's intense concentration on his work.
"Alright, Gi'er, I'll be there in a moment. Tell mom I'll tidy up and be right there." The little boy named Liu Gi nods as he quickly exits the workshop and runs to the kitchen to eat, probably starving after spending the morning playing with the other children his age in the village.
"I need to start teaching carpentry to Gi'er..." These are small thoughts that pass through his mind as he tidies up his carpentry workshop to keep things organized before he can go eat, but these thoughts quickly change when he finishes organizing and heads to the kitchen of his house to eat.
"Gi'er, after you finish eating, I'll need you to go tell Mr. Xu that I've finished his furniture." He quickly informs the boy as he enters the kitchen and sees him eating a bowl full of rice with some vegetables and a egg. After hearing what his brother said, the boy simply nods before returning to eating, as he's used to being his brother's messenger.
"Jin'er, leave work matters for later. In this kitchen, it's only eating time." His mother, who is finishing arranging the kitchen utensils, speaks to him in a serious but not too disciplinary tone, as she doesn't like Liu Jin bringing work matters into the kitchen, but at the same time, it's this work that saves them from hunger. So despite being the mother who rules the house, Liu Jin still holds the final authority.
"Hmm... well, little guy, you better enjoy today because starting tomorrow you'll be spending your days learning carpentry with me." Liu Jin sits at the table as he fills his bowl with much more food than Liu Gi, who still has the little appetite of a child even after spending the morning running and playing with the other children his age in the village.
"Lord Jesus Christ, bless this food we are about to receive, and grant that it may nourish our bodies and strengthen our spirits. We thank You for Your provision and ask for Your blessings upon us. Amen." He says his prayer in Russian before eating, which neither his mother nor his little brother pay much attention to, as they have become accustomed to him mumbling these things in a strange language before meals.
Although she was shocked when she saw him doing this when he was a child and asked him what he was doing, fearing he had trauma from his father's death, he simply told her he was thanking God for the food, which left her confused because they didn't have the custom of thanking the god of death.
So she asked why, which made the child Liu Jin quite irritated when he said he would never pray to a pagan god, and although she didn't know what that meant, she didn't ask further to avoid upsetting her son, who was still recovering from his father's death. And now she's so used to this act of his that she doesn't even feel like asking why he does it.
"Huh?! But I won't be able to play like i do anymore!!" The little boy is indignant inside, but there's not much he can do except look at his mother with a pleading look, but he's promptly ignored, as his mother thinks the same as his brother, and even if she disagreed, she couldn't go against Liu Jin's words, as he's the man of the house.
"Stop being such a crybaby, Liu Gi. At your age, your brother was already having to support this house..." She says a little angrily as she scolds her younger son, but quickly feels sadness at the memory of her husband's death, which happened in a hunting accident ten years ago, making young Liu Jin the man of the house despite his tender age.
Well, it's not like Su He, their mother, couldn't work normally, but at the time her husband died, she was pregnant with Liu Gi and couldn't work, and after giving birth, she would also have to rest for a while, which would make the little money they had saved for emergencies quickly run out before she could work normally.
But fortunately for her at that moment, her once childish and innocent son, who was just ten years old at the time, became much more mature and responsible, and he also quickly learned carpentry on his own, being very skilled in the art of carpentry to the point that in a few months, he was already making enough money to support them with difficulty.
Of course, Su He has no idea that the change in her son, which she attributes to the trauma of losing his father and the new responsibility he received, actually comes because of an otherworldly soul belonging to an old Russian priest from the early 20th century named Dmitri Ivanovich Kuznetsov.
"Changing the subject, has Jin'er finally changed his mind about marrying Fei Li?" Su He asks something that has been the main focus of her thoughts for the past few days since Mr. Fei's daughter, a relatively wealthy merchant compared to this mortal village, finally turned sixteen, and he proposed to Liu Jin that they get married.
This news quickly made Su He extremely happy and excited, but soon after she became worried, remembering her son's stubborn personality, who, because he is a famous and skilled carpenter with a bright future ahead of him, has been proposed engagements by several parents of young girls, but he quickly turned them all down.
And to her relief, she was by her son's side when Mr. Fei proposed marriage, so she could prevent her son from directly refusing the engagement, and now in these last few days, she has been trying to convince her son to accept the proposal, which she sees as a great opportunity for her son.
"Mom, I don't know why you keep insisting on this matter when I've already said the answer will be no, and that won't change." That's his answer now to this matter, and it will continue to be for the rest of his life because when he thinks of the word wife, a beautiful woman with fair white skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes comes to mind instantly. This woman is called Ekaterina and was his first and only wife who tragically died when they were still young due to an illness.
So for him, it doesn't make sense nor is it right to get married again since he is already married to his wife who is waiting for him in Heaven. In fact, before being executed by a firing squad, he hoped to be reunited with her in Heaven at this moment, but that's not what happened because after death he came to this world instead of meeting God in Heaven.
"What will be Christ's plan for sending me to this mythological world..." These are his thoughts because when he first came to this world, he thought all this talk about gu masters and gu capable of performing miracles were all lies created by the ruling class of nobles to make themselves greater before the peasants, who in this world they call mortals.
But he would be proven wrong when still in his first year in this world, he saw a gu master responsible for a small caravan that regularly passes through the village to replenish supplies using a gu to create a fireball strong enough to kill a servant who "disrespected" him with his bare hands.
From the moment he saw this event, he dispelled the idea he had in his head that he was still on Earth living somewhere in southern China during the medieval era and began to take seriously the stories of supposed immortals and the pagan stories told in this world like The Legends of Ren Zu, which are known by everyone in this world.
So, after hearing these stories, quickly realized the similarities they had with various popular tales and stories he heard from Chinese people in his world at the time when he was doing missionary work to convert the greatly pagan population of China to Christianity, which was extremely difficult since the Qing Dynasty actively persecuted Christians because of the Taiping Rebellion that originated because of a false "Christian" prophet Hong Xiuquan who believed himself to be the brother of Jesus Christ.
"Ah... my son, why do you want to make your mother unhappy about not seeing grandchildren in this life..." Liu Jin's mother speaks somewhat annoyed and sad because after the various conversations she had with her son, she never managed to change his opinion even a little, which left her quite disappointed and even with a suspicion that her son might be like one of those men who prefer the company of another man instead of that of a woman, but she never pursued this suspicion for fear of the answer.
"Well, mom, thanks for the food. I'll get back to work now... Gi'er, don't forget what I told you." After finishing his meal, he gets up from the table and goes to the carpentry workshop to continue his work and to also escape this subject because he doesn't have a good way to explain why he doesn't want to marry any girl from the village, and he doesn't intend to say that he comes from another world or something like that because that's the talk of a crazy man.
So he returns to the workshop as he begins to diligently and dedicatedly do his work as he was taught throughout his life in the Russian Empire and also learned after living years as a missionary passing through various Asian and European countries.
So he continues to do his work alone in his workshop without being under anyone's watchful eye, or so one might think normally, but looking coldly at him, there is an existence that would make even the strongest people in this world tremble, that is, Heavens Will.
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