Daliang Kingdom, 25th year of Jianguang, Qi County, Linshi Village.
“You beast! Stop right there!”
The sudden angry shout startled Su Xiao’an, who had been sitting in the courtyard lost in thought.
She looked up and saw a slender tabby cat with an equally slender fish clenched between its teeth. The cat had just jumped from the neighboring courtyard onto the low wall separating the two houses.
A wooden stick came flying after it, heading straight for the cat’s head.
With a graceful leap, the tabby cat effortlessly jumped onto the roof of Su Xiao’an’s house and disappeared in the blink of an eye.
“That damned beast!”
The woman who had been shouting, Zhu Cui, appeared beside the low wall. She looked up at the roof with an expression of despair and helplessness.
“Auntie Zhu, did the cat steal your fish? Food is precious during a famine. How did you let it out of your sight?”
Qi County had suffered droughts in spring and floods in autumn for the past two years, resulting in poor harvests and reduced grain production.
Now it was already March, and not a single drop of rain had fallen this year. With the farming season approaching, the villagers were extremely anxious. They had suffered through days of hunger and inadequate clothing for long enough—and they were terrified of having to endure it again.
Zhu Cui helplessly sat down on the low wall, her voice filled with tears.
“Yesterday, your Uncle Zhu went into town and spent the whole day repairing someone’s courtyard wall. Today, he went to collect his wages. The three children had been complaining that their mouths were bitter from having nothing good to eat.
“He finally gritted his teeth and used his hard-earned wages to buy a fish. He wanted to make some fish soup for the children so they could have something flavorful for once.
“I put the fish in a clay basin in the courtyard. I only went inside to get a knife for a moment, and that cat came out of nowhere and snatched it away!
“I hate that beast so much! If I ever see it again, I’m going to catch it, hang it from a tree, and skin it alive.
“Who cares what kind of meat it is? Once it’s stewed, it’ll taste good anyway.”
As Zhu Cui spoke, she waved her hands around, her expression ferocious, as if she had already caught the cat.
She tilted her head up and cursed at the roof for quite some time before finally climbing down from the wall and angrily returning home, where she could continue regretting the lost fish.
Su Xiao’an remained silent.
She had originally lived in the distant twenty-first century.
In modern society, she had been a highly renowned traditional Chinese medicine doctor.
That night, an unexpected earthquake struck. Su Xiao’an died in the disaster, only to transmigrate into the body of the original owner, who had already died from starvation.
Who could possibly accept being transported from the modern world to ancient times?
She had desperately tried to figure out how to return.
But she could not find the slightest clue and had absolutely no idea what to do.
Three days later, Xiao’an finally gave up.
Since she could not return, she had to find a way to survive.
But merely surviving was not enough.
She wanted to live an extraordinary life, one that would shine brilliantly.
And to live such a life, the first problem she had to solve was the lack of food and clothing.
How was she going to solve it?
Xiao’an had been thinking about this dilemma constantly.
The sound of footsteps entering the courtyard interrupted her thoughts. She turned her head to look.
A handsome young man with dark skin walked in.
He was very tall, with jet-black hair. Standing there, he looked like a tall, upright pine tree.
From the original owner’s memories, Xiao’an knew that this man was named Kang Rong, her fiancé.
Kang Rong held a peach branch covered with flower buds in his hand. With a faint smile on his face, he looked at Xiao’an and asked,
“Why are you sitting out here in the courtyard?”
He handed her the peach branch.
“I broke this off along the mountain path. Put it in a vase, and it’ll bloom tomorrow. It’ll look beautiful and smell nice, too.”
Xiao’an slowly stood up and reached out to take the branch.
“The weather is warm. I thought I’d sit here and enjoy the sunshine for a while.”
After saying that, she walked toward the house, and Kang Rong followed her inside.
Kang Rong’s family were hunters. They lived in the northern mountains, about six or seven li from Linshi Village.
When they were children, he often came to the village to play with the original owner. The two of them could be considered childhood sweethearts.
Every day, Kang Rong and his father, Kang Tongfu, went into the mountains to hunt. But after several consecutive years of famine, there had been fewer and fewer animals to hunt.
Often, they would spend several days without catching anything. The whole family survived by eating whatever they could find, barely scraping by.
Xiao’an took a black clay jar, filled it halfway with water, and placed the peach branch inside. Then she set the jar on a wooden cabinet.
Watching her, Kang Rong asked gently,
“Do you still have food at home? Will you be able to hold out?”
There was not a single grain of food left in the house.
The original owner had become so severely malnourished that her body was extremely weak. She eventually fell ill.
No one knew about it, and no one took care of her. She lay alone for three days before dying in the middle of the night.
During the few days since Xiao’an had transmigrated, perhaps fate had not intended for her to die, or perhaps she had simply been lucky. She had managed to find more wild vegetables than the others and had been relying on them to fill her stomach.
Everyone was struggling with the same hardship, so Xiao’an did not want to tell Kang Rong about her situation.
She smiled.
“I can manage for now.”
“That’s good.”
Hearing that Xiao’an still had something to eat, Kang Rong’s tense nerves relaxed slightly. His dark, bright eyes settled on her face.
“Sit down. I have something to tell you.”
Xiao’an moved a stool in front of the wooden cabinet and sat down against it.
“What is it? Go ahead.”
“It’s like this.”
Kang Rong’s voice was slightly heavy.
“You know that my elder brother was bitten by a wild boar while hunting last year. He died because of his injuries, leaving my sister-in-law and her three children in a difficult situation.
“My parents discussed it for some time and decided that I should marry both families.”
Xiao’an stared at him.
“This way, my sister-in-law will have someone to rely on for the rest of her life, and my nephews won’t have to grow up without a father.
“I came here to tell you that although I’ll be marrying into both families, it won’t affect you in any way. I certainly won’t mistreat you or shortchange you.”
Kang Rong spoke naturally, as though marrying two wives was a perfectly ordinary thing.
Xiao’an was stunned by what she heard. Her dark eyes were filled with disbelief.
“You’re going to marry into both families?”
Xiao’an was not the original owner. She was a transmigrator, and she had no feelings for Kang Rong.
She was simply curious.
A hunter wanted to have two wives, and in the future both wives would have children, while he would also have to raise three nephews.
Did he really have that kind of ability?
If he did not, wouldn’t the eventual result be that either his wives or his children would starve to death?
Kang Rong walked over and placed a hand on Xiao’an’s shoulder.
“You don’t need to worry about living a difficult life.
“As long as the whole family stays together, we can get through any hardship.”
Ever since Kang Rong’s elder brother had been killed by the wild boar, his parents had carried a constant worry in their hearts.
Once Xiao’an married into the family, as time went on, they feared she might inevitably begin to resent their eldest daughter-in-law, Lin Feng, and her three children.
Especially after Kang Rong’s parents died, they worried Xiao’an might see the four of them as a burden and insist on separating the family.
That was why they had decided that Kang Rong should marry into both households.
That way, both Lin Feng and Xiao’an would be Kang Rong’s wives. Neither could simply dislike or abandon the other.
Then, when the elderly couple eventually died, they could do so peacefully.
The two elders had already made their decision. They discussed it with Kang Rong, and he agreed.
That was why he had come today to tell Xiao’an about it.
Seeing the astonishment on Xiao’an’s face, Kang Rong spoke gently.
“My sister-in-law is a good woman. She won’t make things difficult for you. The three children are also very sensible. With my parents helping us, you have nothing to worry about.”
Xiao’an gently but firmly removed Kang Rong’s hand from her shoulder.
“Did you come here to discuss this with me, or did you come here simply to inform me of your decision?”
This time, it was Kang Rong’s turn to be surprised.
“Xiao’an, my parents have already made the decision. We can’t oppose them.
“I promise you that once you marry into our family, I’ll treat everyone equally. I won’t make things difficult for you because of my sister-in-law or my nephews.”
Xiao’an shook her head.
“Kang Rong, this may seem perfectly normal to your family, but I cannot accept it.
“You said you won’t make things difficult for me because of your sister-in-law and nephews. To be honest, I won’t even give you the opportunity to make things difficult for me.
“So let’s do this. I won’t interfere with your family’s affairs. As for our engagement, let’s simply break it off.”
“Xiao’an!”
Kang Rong was so shocked that even his voice changed.
“I’m marrying into both families because I have to take responsibility for my elder brother. Why are you opposed to it?”
“I can’t accept it, so of course I’m going to object.
“And besides, I don’t think you and I are suitable for each other.”