Just as she was about to head straight home, she caught sight of a patch of mixed woods where an entire slope was covered in epimedium—also known as Horny Goat Weed—growing thick in one cluster after another.
She had only seen this plant before while scrolling through short videos online. Knowing it was a medicinal herb, she had no idea if it was worth any money.
Whatever, I’ll harvest it first and figure it out later. Setting her backbasket aside, she took a small bamboo sickle and began reaping it close to the ground, straightening the cut herbs as best she could and stacking them to the side. Before long, she had gathered a large bundle.
Since her basket already held the wild rabbits, she could only store the herbs into her system storage space before strapping her basket back on to head down the mountain.
When Shen Qiao arrived home, she first left the basket in the kitchen before entering her parents’ room. She rolled up everything on the bed into a pile and pushed it aside, then retrieved the epimedium from her storage space, spreading it out thinly across the bed. She meticulously picked out the weeds and yellowed leaves. She had heard this herb couldn’t handle direct sunlight and had to be shade-dried. Since she had no experience processing medicinal herbs, if it failed, it would just be a slight waste of time.
Once that was done, she quickly opened the system interface. Her luck lately had been awful—after two trips up the mountain, she had barely gathered a handful of things and had nearly run into danger both times. So when she saw the display showing 12 points, she didn’t hesitate to spend 10 points to exchange for 2 luck stat points.
Seeing her luck stat rise to two points brought a tiny bit of peace to Shen Qiao’s mind. Sometimes she couldn’t help but wonder: if she was unlucky, she always managed to turn danger into safety; but if she was lucky, trouble seemed to find her every single time. It was truly a contradiction.
Checking the time, she saw it was already noon. Having found nothing else edible today, she simply took out two wild pheasant eggs from her storage space. To her pleasant surprise, the eggs were still warm, exactly as fresh as when she had put them in that morning.
She lit the fire to boil water, washed a few mushrooms and a small handful of wild greens, and threw them into the pot to cook. Lunch was a bowl of wild vegetable soup and two boiled eggs.
She didn’t dare go out in the afternoon because Brother Lu’s two rabbits were still at her house. If Brother Lu came over to pick them up and found no one home, it wouldn’t look good.
However, she waited all afternoon without seeing him drop by. Thinking it over later, it made sense—though her house stood at some distance from the rest of the village, it was still broad daylight, after all. It wasn’t convenient for a grown man to visit her home.
While the two rabbits were still alive for now, there was no guarantee they wouldn’t die if kept too long. Worst-case scenario, she would carry them with her up the mountain tomorrow and return them to him if they crossed paths.
What she didn’t know was that shortly after Lu Zheng went down the mountain, Liu Laizi had woken up. Feeling the bump on the back of his head and looking at the cuts and bruises all over his body, a wave of fury washed over him. He sat there resting for a good while before picking himself up and heading down the mountain.
The moment he stepped into his house, Li-shi began scolding, “All you know how to do is run around outside all day! Look what time it is before you bother coming back!”
Hearing his mother nag him again, Liu Laizi snapped, “Mother, can’t you see I’m injured? And you’re still scolding me!”
Only then did Li-shi notice he was covered in dirt and limping as he walked. Setting down what she was holding, she rushed forward and asked, “How did you end up like this? How did you get hurt?”
Liu Laizi was already thoroughly irritated, and his mother’s questioning only added fuel to the fire. Walking toward his room, he muttered, “Who else but that wretched girl, Shen Qiao! She actually dared to lay a hand on me!”
Hearing it was Shen Qiao again, Li-shi bristled. “The nerve of her! She dared to hit you? Just wait until she marries into this family—see how I put her in her place!”
Liu Laizi’s father, Liu Laozhu, caught sight of the injuries on his son’s face and sneered in disgust, “Useless creature! You can’t even handle a little girl—what can you do?”
Li-shi, still protective of her son, snapped back, “Why are you picking on him? Can’t you see our son is hurt? It’s that Shen Qiao who doesn’t know what’s good for her!”
Turning back to Liu Laizi, she asked, “Do you want to go see Practitioner Tian?”
Having been beaten up, Liu Laizi already felt humiliated enough; how could he bring himself to go see a doctor? “No need. A couple of days’ rest and I’ll be fine.”
Feeling sorry that her son hadn’t eaten, Li-shi hurried off to prepare a meal.
Liu Laozhu glanced at his son and said, “Have you really made up your mind to marry a woman like that?”
“Damn right. She dared to hit me—I’m going to tame her until she’s completely submissive. I was just careless this time; next time, I won’t let her run off.”
Before long, Li-shi came in carrying a bowl of porridge and two coarse grain cakes.
Liu Laizi had been starving for a while now, so he snatched them up and dug in ravenously.
Li-shi said, “If you really want to marry that girl, I actually have a way.”
Without even looking up, Liu Laizi asked, “What way?”
Li-shi said triumphantly, “This afternoon, I’ll take a stroll through the village and spread the word that Shen Qiao has agreed to marry you, and that the wedding will take place in a few days. When the time comes, she’ll have to marry you whether she wants to or not!”
Hearing this, Liu Laizi grinned. “Great idea!”
Liu Laozhu added, “Call his aunt and go together.”
Seeing that the matter could be resolved without him lifting a finger, Liu Laizi went back to his room after eating. His entire body ached now, and he wanted to lie down for a bit. But as soon as his head touched the pillow, it throbbed with pain. He had to switch positions before feeling a little better.
That afternoon, Li-shi and Liu Dahua—Liu Laizi’s aunt—went together to the grand locust tree in the village.
The tree boasted a thick trunk and lush, sprawling foliage. Usually, village meetings were held here, and when there was nothing going on, a group of women would sit beneath it chatting.
When Li-shi and Liu Dahua arrived, they saw quite a few people taking shelter from the heat under the tree. Seeing the two women beaming with smiles, an auntie couldn’t help asking, “Oho! Why are you two so cheerful today? Did you strike gold or something?”
Li-shi had been wondering how to kick off the conversation, and now someone had handed her the perfect opening. “It’s even better than striking gold!”
“What could be better than finding silver? Tell us so we can share in the joy!”
Li-shi declared proudly, “My son is getting married!”
Everyone acted as if they had heard a massive joke, unable to hold back their taunts: “Your son is getting married? You must still be dreaming!”
“Exactly! Over the past couple of years, how many matchmakers have you hired for your son? Which one ever worked out?”
“Alright, alright, Li-shi, stop dreaming.”
Seeing that no one believed her, Li-shi said anxiously, “Why don’t you believe me? It’s for real this time!”
An older woman chimed in, “Then tell us, which village’s widow is willing to marry your son?”
Hearing the woman mention a widow, Liu Dahua cut in first: “What widow? The girl my nephew is marrying this time is Shen Qiao—a pure, unmarried young woman!”
Hearing that it was Shen Qiao, the older woman became even more skeptical. “That girl is only sixteen, isn’t she? Your nephew is old enough to be her father, and he still expects to marry her?”
Eager to solidify the rumor that Shen Qiao was marrying her son, Li-shi said, “What’s wrong with my son being a bit older? With Shen Qiao’s reputation for bringing misfortune to her family and her lack of modesty, if she hadn’t offered herself up without demanding a bride price, my son wouldn’t even want her!”
At the mention of “bringing misfortune to her family,” everyone recalled that her parents had passed away, and on the day she fell into the river, she had indeed been pulled out by Lu the Second. A woman who cursed her kin and had lost her purity was someone no respectable family would want to marry, so most began to lend some credence to the story that Shen Qiao was marrying Liu Laizi.
Another auntie spoke up, “You’re saying Shen Qiao doesn’t want a bride price? And she’s offering herself up?”
Seeing that everyone was starting to believe it, Li-shi pushed even harder: “Of course! If she dared to ask for a bride price, would my Youfu ever marry her?”
Liu Dahua backed her up: “And that’s only because she’s willing to give her family’s house to my grandnephew for his future marriage! Only then did my brother and sister-in-law kindly agree to it.”
While the group of women was engrossed in their lively gossip, none of them noticed Lu Zheng passing by nearby, taking in every single word.
Before long, word spread through the village that Shen Qiao was going to marry Liu Laizi—and was even giving her family’s house to Liu Laizi’s eldest son.