Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Lu Wanxiao finished washing the dishes and, just as she stepped out of the kitchen, saw Song Changting gathering firewood. She wiped her hands and walked over. "Let me gather the wood. You go to the kitchen and start the fire."

To prevent the muscles in his lame leg from atrophying, Song Changting massaged and soaked his feet every day.

After boiling the water, Lu Wanxiao brought the footbath to Song Changting. He gave her a look she couldn't read but said nothing; after soaking his feet, he returned to his room.

Lu Wanxiao knew he must find it strange, since the original owner had never done such things. In fact, she used to mock him whenever he soaked his feet. But Lu Wanxiao didn't mind. Given Song Changting's intelligence, he would eventually notice her differences; there was no need to hide it—unless she planned to abandon him and just run off once she recovered.

Leaving a crippled man behind to enjoy herself? That would be too heartless, asking for bad karma. She truly couldn't do such a thing.

Besides, she was unfamiliar with this place. She had nowhere to go, no money, and no pull. Was she supposed to roam the world? This body was so weak she probably couldn't even make it to the county seat.

What if she got kidnapped and sold off halfway? She had no relatives here, no one to care if she lived or died, no one to come looking for her.

So, she'd better hunker down for now, find a way to earn some money, and take it one step at a time.

The next day.

Perhaps due to the unfamiliar surroundings, Lu Wanxiao woke up at first light. She dressed and prepared to fetch water from the river to cook breakfast. After searching the kitchen for a bucket without success, she went to ask Song Changting, only to find his room empty. Following her memory, she headed toward the small river behind the house.

......

Halfway there, she saw Song Changting hobbling back with a half-full bucket of water, leaning on his crutch.

He was thin and moved with difficulty, as if a breeze could knock him over.

The once spirited and talented scholar had been reduced to this state, with a wife who tormented and humiliated him. Anyone who saw him would sigh at his pitiable fate.

Rubbing her hands together, Lu Wanxiao pushed down the bitterness in her heart and quickened her pace toward him.

"Let me carry that."

Seeing Lu Wanxiao, a flicker of surprise crossed Song Changting's eyes, but it vanished quickly. He said nothing, walked right past her, and kept going.

It seemed Song Changting really couldn't stand the original owner.

But when you think about it, who wouldn't feel that way? She had sold off his younger brother, driven his mother to death—though, to be fair, she was already gravely ill with little time left, that wasn't the point.

And she had tried to cuckold him. In the end, it didn't happen, but the act itself was so disgusting that if she were in his shoes, she would have killed that woman and turned her name upside down.

Lu Wanxiao shrugged helplessly. Spotting new wild celery by the roadside ditch, she picked a handful, washed it in the river, and took it home.

On the way, she met Song Changting fetching water again. Without a word, she handed him the celery, grabbed the bucket from him, and went to the river to draw water.

Looking at the clean wild celery in his hands, Song Changting's eyes flickered slightly. When she returned with the water, they walked home one after the other.

Once home, while Song Changting washed up, Lu Wanxiao searched the kitchen cabinets. She found an egg and half a bag of flour.

The flour was brought by one of Song Changting's former classmates who came to visit, and the egg was given by the neighbor lady, who felt sorry for him and secretly gave it to him to build up his strength—only for the original owner to find it. She had eaten four of the five eggs all by herself, leaving only one.

You have to admit, the original owner was a real piece of work.

Not only did she not give Song Changting a single bite of the egg, but she also used all the flour to make pancakes and ate them herself, without even letting him get a whiff.

Of course, given Song Changting's pride and dignity, he would never ask her for such things.

A woman this awful was one in a million.

Such a woman deserves to be coated in egg wash, rolled in breadcrumbs, and deep-fried a hundred and eight times.

Lu Wanxiao made a wild celery and egg pancake and a bowl of wild celery soup.

She had thought that, given how much Song Changting hated the original owner and how proud he was, she'd have to talk him into eating. But he ate his share without a word of complaint.

After breakfast, Lu Wanxiao noticed the firewood supply was running low. She decided to go to the forest behind the village to gather some, or she might not be able to cook dinner.

She found a beat-up basket and grabbed a hatchet. Seeing Song Changting sitting nearby, watching her with an unreadable expression, she said offhandedly, "We're almost out of firewood. I'm going to go gather some."

Without waiting for his reaction, she strapped on the basket and headed out.

At the courtyard gate, she paused, then turned back and asked, "By the way, can I go up the mountain in the back? Are there any wild animals?"

She wanted to see if she could find anything valuable up there to sell. This household was dirt poor. If she didn't earn some money soon, they'd run out of even the plain rice porridge in a few days.

Living off the mountain—you could sell herbs, wild chickens, hares, all that stuff. With luck, she might even find ginseng or lingzhi.

If not, she could at least gather some food. There should be plenty of wild vegetables this season.

Hearing her question, Song Changting stared at her for a moment, then dropped his gaze, hiding his expression. "Haven't you been there before?"

Meaning: you're still alive and well, so what's the point of asking if it's dangerous?

Lu Wanxiao understood and nodded. "You eat lunch on your own; don't wait for me. I'll be on the mountain and back a little later."

Song Changting looked at her like she was crazy, then said coldly, "Go look for Hunter Zhu, then."

"Huh? Hunter Zhu? What for?" The sudden change of subject threw Lu Wanxiao off.

After a moment, it clicked and she realized. Song Changting thought she wanted meat, so she was planning to hunt wild chickens or hares. After all, the original owner had tried before—and failed every time, not even finding a single feather.

Several times, she had come back very late, and Song Changting's mother had to send people to find her.

And instead of being grateful, the original owner would curse and complain. Once, her words were so harsh that she got slapped by his mother.

After that, she stopped going to the mountain. Probably scared that his mother wouldn't come looking for her if she didn't come back.

Hunter Zhu could hunt; his family always had meat.

And the original owner, fair-skinned and delicate, had let him cop a feel of her hands, promised to sleep with him in a couple of days, and said she would divorce Song Changting and marry him when the time was right. That made his head spin.

He had given her not only some meat but also half a tael of silver.

The original owner ate the meat and spent the silver. When Hunter Zhu later pressed her to keep her promises, she made excuses each time.

Hunter Zhu was big and burly, with a long scar on his face, and not very bright. The original owner, accustomed to the refined and intelligent Song Changting, could never fancy him.

After she turned him down several times, Hunter Zhu tried to physically force himself on her. She resisted, so he beat her to death.

That had only happened the day before.

So, when Song Changting told her to go look for Hunter Zhu, it was because she hadn't taken his words seriously. He was tired and ready to call it quits on this marriage early?

After all, they were bound to split up sooner or later anyway—why go through all this extra trouble?

After all, if someone is determined to court death, even the heavens can't stop them.

That's what you mean, right?!

"What the hell!"

"I just want to go up the mountain to see if there are any wild vegetables, and also pick up some firewood. Don't worry, I'll come back safely. You stay home and don't come looking for me. If you're hungry, cook for yourself." With that, Lu Wanxiao shut the courtyard door and left without waiting for Song Changting's reaction.

Song Changting stared at the closed door, his gaze dropped, his thick lashes hiding any emotion. After standing there for a moment, he went back inside, opened the book on the table, and took out the letter that was tucked inside the book...

**

Probably because it was still early, and the Song family's house was near the end of the village, Lu Wanxiao didn't run into anyone along the way and reached the foot of the mountain without trouble.

Glancing at the mist-covered mountain, Lu Wanxiao cut a branch to use as a walking stick and, after resting three times, finally climbed to the top.

"Geez, this body is way too weak." Panting, Lu Wanxiao sat down on a big rock and popped an unknown fruit she had picked along the way into her mouth. It was sour and sweet, refreshing.

Good thing it's spring—there are already some edible wild fruits on the mountain. If it were winter, even if you ate leaves, you'd be hard-pressed to find ones with enough moisture.

Sigh~ Why is it that when other people transmigrate, they end up in wealthy families with no worries about food or clothes? Or at least, if they end up like her in some poor, isolated place, they'd have some kind of cheat or golden finger. Why does she have nothing?

She has no interest in building everything from scratch!

After bemoaning her miserable fate, Lu Wanxiao tossed the remaining few fruits into her mouth, sharpened the end of the branch, and prepared to look around.

Spring brings everything to life, and the mountain is full of treasures. Perhaps by luck, in no time she found several common medicinal herbs: licorice, kushen, swallowwort, burnet, Japanese knotweed, gromwell, dandelion, and others.

Not very valuable, but better than nothing. She'd dry them at home and gather more to sell later.

Every little bit counts—a little is better than nothing, right?

Who can blame her for being so poor she doesn't even have a single copper coin?

Another day of longing for that nine-digit inheritance.

"Sigh~" She continued forward.

Good thing that during those years with the old man—besides forcing her to practice martial arts, he also made her study medicine. She'd gone up the mountain to collect herbs plenty of times.

Otherwise, she'd be completely in the dark now, blind to the treasures right under her nose.

Besides the herbs, Lu Wanxiao also picked some fiddlehead ferns and other wild vegetables she recognized.

The basket was getting heavy. Lu Wanxiao looked up at the sky; the sun was already high. She decided to head home first and come back another day.

Passing a large, seemingly old tree, she noticed the ground was very damp and wanted to check for lingzhi mushrooms. But before she even reached the tree, the ground gave way beneath her and she fell—along with her basket—into a pit...