Chapter 1: This is no different from when humans were primitives

  "In the cloud, study hard, with your level, you can definitely get into college." Zhao Yali said intimately, patting Li Yunzhong's shoulder.

  Li Yunzhong was about to enter the exam hall, looking at the beautiful female teacher in front of him, and found that she had dressed up specially today, with light makeup on her face, wearing a white suspenders shirt on top, gray ultra-short skirt on the bottom, paired with black silk stockings, and red high-heeled shoes on her feet. "Don't worry, baby, I'll definitely pass the exam for you to escape the bitter sea of teacher-student romance." Li Yunzhong said, kissed his girlfriend's cheek, and entered the examination hall.

  The beauty is Zhao Yali, Li Yunzhong's girlfriend and teacher. I don't know what idea Li Yunzhong's father had, but he insisted that he be admitted to Tsinghua University. So Li Yunzhong took the high school entrance exam with great fanfare, 19 points short of the admission line in his first year, so he repeated a grade; 4 points short in his second year, and repeated again; in his third year, he finally scored enough points, even exceeding the standard by several points. However, it happened to coincide with the education reform in Jiangsu Province, where the elective courses were not up to Tsinghua's standards, so he could only curse silently countless times: "Damn Jiangsu Provincial Education Bureau!" He repeated again, and even his girlfriend finished her studies at a normal university and came back for an internship, while he was still in his third year of high school.

  One day later, Li Yunzhong had just left the examination room and rushed back to his dormitory when a heavy rainstorm came with rolling thunder. "It's raining," "The weather in June changes suddenly"...... Li Yunzhong also joined in shouting loudly "It's raining, get up and..." Before he could finish speaking, a bolt of lightning struck him directly, Li Yunzhong only felt his body numb, as if he was flying in the sky, and soon lost consciousness.

  Li Yunzhong felt like he had slept for decades, didn't want to do anything, and was in a daze. Until his shoulder was patted by a big bearded man who said: "Hurry up, the Heavenly Father has descended, summoning us over, let's hurry." After saying that, without caring whether Li Yunzhong was willing or not, he pulled him along as they left.

  Yang Xiuqing stood on a high ground, watching the crowd below grow larger and larger until no one else came. Then he began to mumble incoherently, waving his hands wildly, shaking his head, and shouting "Welcome the Heavenly Father's Descent". Li Yunzhong was also pulled down to kneel on the ground by the big bearded man, which made him sober up a lot. Looking at the big man in front of him who was shaking violently, he was frightened into thinking that he had gone mad with rabies, and it seemed like he would start foaming at the mouth soon. Later, when he heard him speaking in Cantonese, saying "You little ones listen, nowadays evil spirits are rampant, you should all protect the true master, produce demons and eliminate magic...", Li Yunzhong thought that not only had he gone mad with rabies, but also had a mental illness. Li Yunzhong, who had just sobered up, couldn't understand what was happening either, and thought he was in a psychiatric hospital, but looking around, it didn't seem like it, so maybe they were filming a movie? Thinking of this, there was only one possibility left. Li Yunzhong looked around cautiously, preparing himself mentally, but still got a big fright from the scene before him. Everyone had their eyes closed, what kind of hairstyle is this, how come every person has a weird and dirty braid on their head? Li Yunzhong stretched his neck to sniff the braid of the person in front of him, and even before he got close, a strong stench hit his nose. Even filming a movie doesn't require such dedication to the role!

  Li Yunzhong, not wanting to make a fool of himself, also closed his eyes and secretly thought, "How dare you let me take pictures without my consent? You've been kneeling here for half a day. He looked up at the big man on stage again, didn't recognize him, and thought he wasn't a star. Hehe, wait until the performance is over and then deal with you.

  When Li Yunzhong was about to fall asleep, he finally heard someone say, "The Heavenly Father has left, everyone get up." The crowd got up in twos and threes, supporting each other. Li Yunzhong looked around, but there were no crew members or cameras, and the big man had already walked into the crowd, saying something from time to time. Summoning all his strength, Li Yunzhong jumped up and ran forward, grabbing the big man's braid and pulling it hard, shouting "See how I expose your little trick!" Hmm? Why didn't you pull off the fake braid? I'll pull again, still not broken, use more force, finally broke, and got a handful of hair. The people around were stunned, and the big man fell to the ground, shouting "It hurts me too!" Li Yunzhong carefully looked at the hair in his hand, which had white roots, and exclaimed, "Wow, it's real!" The people around quickly supported Yang Xiuqing, and two men sandwiched Li Yunzhong, while others shouted and scolded. Li Yunzhong thought he had made a big scene and couldn't clean up the mess, just as his head was slapped hard by someone, and he cried out in pain, "Ah, it hurts!" Then he foamed at the mouth and pretended to faint. He heard the big man say lastly, "Lock him up first."

  Slowly opening his eyes, Li Yunzhong quickly surveyed the surrounding environment after making sure no one was around. He found himself locked in a small wooden hut of about ten square meters. Through the gap in the door, he saw two more people standing guard outside.

  Li Yunzhong muttered: "It's too much, isn't it just a joke? Do I need to be locked up? It's strange, how can his hair be real?"

  "I want a drink of water; believe it or not, I'll go out and tell on you!" shouted Li Yunzhong, who was getting a bit thirsty, to the two people standing at the door.

  Soon a person brought in a bowl of water and didn't say anything to Li Yunzhong, directly placing the water on the table and preparing to leave.

  Li Yunzhong suddenly thought of something and said to him, "Stop, come here, I have something to ask you." As he stared blankly for a moment, Li Yunzhong suddenly reached out and pulled his braid, thinking that it was real. The water delivery person was startled, glared at Li Yunzhong, covered his braid, and ran out. Li Yunzhong touched the back of his head and found that he also had a braid. He gently tugged on it and felt pain, so he pulled out a hair to confirm that he indeed had a real braid. His hands had become much coarser, especially with calluses on his palms. Li Yunzhong's hands trembled as he brought the water in front of him, staring at the unfamiliar face rippling in the water. He finally couldn't take it and fainted.

  After waking up, Li Yunzhong sat stupidly for an hour to confirm that he had traveled through time and was not dreaming. Many memories of another person floated in his mind. This person was named Li Yunzhong, from Teng County, who came to burn charcoal in Zijin Mountain three years ago and got to know Feng Yunshan. He was absorbed into the God Worshipping Society by Feng Yunshan. The previous year, he was sent back to his hometown to preach, but encountered constant setbacks, leaving behind a small group of followers and returning to Zijin Mountain, only to find out that Feng Yunshan had been captured by the authorities some time ago, and Hong Xiuquan had fled to Guangdong. The God Worshipping Society, with thousands of people, was leaderless and in disarray, when Yang Xiuqing "suddenly fell ill and couldn't speak for two months, which everyone thought was a bad omen". He used this as an excuse, pretending that the Heavenly Father had descended, and he himself acted as the Heavenly Father's messenger, combining his keen insight and superstition cleverly to do a lot of ideological work, clarifying many confused ideas within the God Worshipping Society, avoiding its collapse, and telling everyone to burn charcoal and save money to bribe the authorities and redeem Feng Yunshan. Li Yunzhong also stayed behind at that time to help with burning charcoal, hoping to redeem Feng Yunshan as soon as possible. The person who pulled Li Yunzhong's braid today was Yang Xiuqing.

  It's all over, thinking of Hong Xiuquan, Yang Xiuqing, Li Yunzhong immediately associated with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. A group of peasants rebelled against the Qing Dynasty and were suppressed by the Xiang Army. The TV series has been filmed several times. I don't remember other Li Yunzhongs, but the ending is still clear: those who rebelled basically died cleanly, and few surrendered. Li Yunzhong scolded himself for not reading more history while worrying about the future.

  "Li brothers, Yang big brother asked me to bring you to see him," someone came in and said to Li Yunzhong.

  He was about 1.7 meters tall, with a messy hair and a queue wrapped around his neck, wearing a Qing dynasty-style cotton-padded jacket and pants, with the top open to reveal his sturdy chest muscles. Li Yunzhong knew him, his name was Lin Fengxiang, 23 years old, one year older than him, and Li Yunzhong used to call him Big Brother Lin.

  "Lin Ge, do you know why Yang Xiuqing asked me to come over?" Li Yunzhong asked.

  Li Yunzhong thought that if Yang Xiuqing betrayed him, he would return to Tong County. With his skills, he could go abroad and become a wealthy man with ease, without having to risk his life in the rebellion. He knew that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement was doomed to fail, and since it had failed, all these people were bound to die anyway, so there was no need for him to follow them to their graves. With this thought, Li Yunzhong felt at ease.

  "I heard that Mr. Feng's silver has been collected and it's enough, so I came to discuss with you about redeeming Mr. Feng." Lin Fengxiang replied.

  "Alright then, let's go together." Li Yunzhong said as he walked out.

  The meeting place was not far from the place where Li Yunzhong was. When Li Yunzhong arrived at the meeting place, he found Yang Xiuqing discussing with someone. Seeing that person's face, a name flashed in Li Yunzhong's mind - Xiao Chaogui. Seeing Li Yunzhong coming in, Yang Xiuqing said "Brother Li has arrived, haha, we were just about to send you to see that dog county magistrate, to pay the ransom and get Mr. Feng back, what do you think?"

  "Alright, I'll go." Li Yunzhong saw Yang Xiucheng seemingly forget what had just happened and still smiled at him. In his heart, he increased his vigilance towards Yang Xiucheng by threefold.

  Xiao Chaogui said "Brother Li must inform Mr. Feng in detail about the recent events at the meeting and invite Mr. Feng to go to Guangzhou to welcome back Master Hong".

  "I will carefully tell Mr. Feng." Li Yunzhong replied, looking at the new noble of the God-worshipping Society in front of him.

  The situation is stronger than man, let's pretend to be a fool first.

  Li Yunzhong thought: Yang Xiuqing and Xiao Chaogui took advantage of Feng Yunshan and Hong Xiuquan's absence, using the excuse that God had descended to earth to win people over, strike down dissenters, and completely seize control of the God Worshipping Society. Now all the followers in the Zijing Mountain area were subservient to Yang Xiuqing, and even if Feng Yunshan returned, he would be powerless against him. The two men feared that when Feng Yunshan and Hong Xiuquan returned and saw this situation, they would disown them and not acknowledge their actions. Therefore, they wanted Li Yunzhong to remind Feng Yunshan to prioritize the bigger picture. As someone who had been promoted by Feng Yunshan himself and was most familiar with the current situation in the Zijing Mountain area, he was the most suitable person to convey their intentions.

  "This is the silver and several thousand taels that our Carbon Workers have accumulated over the past few months, take it to bribe the county magistrate." Yang Xiuqing handed a money bag to Li Yunzhong.

  "Yes, I'll go early tomorrow." He took over the money bag. Since it was already late, Li Yunzhong had to set off tomorrow.

  As he walked out of the house, Li Yunzhong saw Lin Fengxiang still closely following him, so he pretended to fall and swung the money bag in his hand.

  "Ah, it hurts so much! Brother Lin, quickly pick up all the silver and copper coins."

  Watching Lin Fengxiang pick up the money bag and squat down in the midst of the copper coins on the ground, one by one putting them into the bag, it's estimated that he'll be busy picking for a while.

  Li Yunzhong quietly returned to the house from earlier and crouched by the window.

  Xiao Chaogui said, "Xiucheng, why don't you just kill him directly? Why be so polite to him?"

  "That Li Yunzhong can't be killed now, Mr. Feng's confidants in Zijing Mountain have been squeezed out and slaughtered by us, and those who hold the power are all our newly promoted people. Leaving Li Yunzhong is for Feng Yunshan to see, it is said that the little devil still has people in Teng County, waiting for Hong Xiuquan and Feng Yunshan to return and acknowledge the Heavenly Father's descent to earth, our position will be solidified, by then even if we want to kill the insignificant Li Yunzhong, who can stop me!"

  Damn it, Yang Xiuqing, you're really asking for it. I just pulled your hair and now you're yelling and screaming like you want me to die? From now on, it's either you or me. Tomorrow, I'll give you a taste of your own medicine in front of Feng Yunshan. Yeah, that's what I'll do.

  When Li Yunzhong first heard someone wanted to kill him, his initial reaction was to counter-kill.

  It's about time, Li Yunzhong walked towards Li Fengxiang.

  "Li brothers, the money has all been picked up, you count and see if there's any missing," said Lin Fengxiang.

  "Thanks a lot, Brother Lin." Li Yunzhong said with a smile as he took over the money bag.

  Lin Fengxiang was also a fierce man, due to his mother's death at a young age, his father loved him and did not discipline him, resulting in **unrestrained behavior**. In his youth, whenever he encountered injustice, he would stand up to help. After killing the county magistrate, he fled to other places with 4 pigs sold by his seventh uncle Lin Xiuzhong as travel expenses. Lin Fengxiang then mixed with the rivers and lakes, set up a divination stall, and got to know Yang Xiuqing. Now that Yang Xiuqing has usurped the power of the God Worshipping Society, he promoted a large number of people who were close to him, and Lin Fengxiang was among them.