Auntie Liu hollered at the door for a little while longer, only leaving when she realized no one was going to pay attention to her.
The moment Shen Qiao closed the gate, she rushed straight into the kitchen, patting her wildly pounding heart. Goodness me! Look at me getting all brave, actually learning to slap people across the face.
Once her nerves had settled, Shen Qiao immediately opened the system panel. Sweeping her gaze over it, she saw that her points had indeed increased by two. She hurriedly called out to the system: “Xiao Mo, Xiao Mo.”
A crisp, impatient mechanical voice sounded: “What?”
Shen Qiao was already used to Xiao Mo’s cold, aloof demeanor and didn’t mind it at all. Smiling, she asked, “I have two points now. Can I redeem them?”
If Xiao Mo had a physical body, it would have rolled its eyes into the back of its head. “No.” Pausing for a second, it added, “For the first ten points of your Luck, Martial, and Storage stats, each point requires five mission points to exchange.”
“Five points for one stat point for the first ten points? What about after that?”
“Once you reach the conditions to unlock them later, you’ll naturally know.”
“Alright then,” Shen Qiao said helplessly.
Exiting the system interface, she took out two wild pheasant eggs. After a second thought, she pulled out two more and put them all into a pot to boil.
Currently, all she had were these wild pheasant eggs, a few mushrooms, and a handful of wild greens. It seemed she would still have to venture into the mountains to forage for food.
After eating two eggs, Shen Qiao stopped, stashing the remaining two into her storage grid. She picked up her basket, preparing to head up the mountain.
Just as she walked up to her front gate, she saw the Village Chief walking toward her.
It was only through the Village Chief’s help that the original owner’s parents had been laid to rest in peace. Over the past three years, he had frequently brought food to the original owner, which was the only reason she had barely managed to survive. Shen Qiao quickly took the initiative to greet him: “Uncle Village Chief.”
“Shen girl, are you heading out?”
“Yes. There’s nothing left to eat at home, so I want to go up the mountain to dig up some wild greens.”
Looking at the teenage girl, the Village Chief felt a pang of pity, but there was nothing he could do about her situation. He said, “Wait a moment before you leave. I have something to discuss with you.”
Hearing that the Village Chief had business with her, Shen Qiao hurriedly stepped aside to invite him inside. The two walked into the courtyard, skipping the main house to sit directly on two wooden stools in the yard.
Shen Qiao tried to pour some water for him, but he stopped her. “No need for water. Sit down, too.”
Seeing how solemn the Village Chief looked, Shen Qiao sat down as well and said, “Uncle Village Chief, if you have something to say, please go right ahead.”
The Village Chief glanced at her before speaking: “Over the past few years, the poll tax wasn’t too high, so you managed to scrape by and pay it. But another round of poll tax will be collected after the autumn harvest. Given your current situation, what are your plans for it?”
This question instantly reminded Shen Qiao of Auntie Liu’s earlier mention of the poll tax. Only then did she search through the original owner’s memories for details about it. The original owner had paid twenty coins in the first two years and one hundred coins last year. Assuming it would be one hundred coins again this year, Shen Qiao said, “Uncle Village Chief, I’ll find a way to manage the tax.”
Knowing she must have misunderstood, the Village Chief explained to her, “The poll tax is calculated per head. Children under seven are exempt. Those between seven and fourteen pay twenty coins a year, and adults fifteen and older pay one hundred coins annually. However, unmarried women over the age of sixteen must pay five times the standard poll tax—which means five hundred coins.”
Shen Qiao gasped in shock. Five hundred coins?! That was enough to buy coarse grain to feed her for three or four months! No wonder women in ancient times got married so early.
Seeing Shen Qiao remain silent for a long time, the Village Chief felt sorry for the girl. But his hands were tied; a minor village chief like him could never sway imperial laws.
Thus, he could only continue, “You turn sixteen this year, so your poll tax will be five hundred coins. Even if you manage to scrape together enough for this year, what about next year? Besides, living all alone as a young girl in this house isn’t safe in the long run. It’s still best for you to find someone to rely on.”
Shen Qiao knew that no household in these times had money to spare, and the Village Chief assisting the original owner for three years had already been extraordinarily generous. “Thank you, Uncle Village Chief. I’ll give it careful thought.”
Hearing her response, the Village Chief said nothing more, standing up and taking his leave.
At first, Shen Qiao had been thinking that once she earned enough money, she would register her own female-headed household and live independently. With a bit of hard work, she could handle a five hundred-coin poll tax. But just as the Village Chief said, imperial courts throughout history had always been harsh toward women. Was she truly forced to marry someone just to have a pillar of support?
After mulling it over for a long while without reaching a conclusion, she decided to drop it for the time being. It was better to solve her immediate problem of putting food on the table first.
Tossing these troubles to the back of her mind, Shen Qiao slung the basket onto her back. She grabbed a small bamboo sickle and a billhook from the corner of the yard, tucked them inside her basket, and set off toward the mountain.
Having swallowed a stomachful of rage at the Shen household, Auntie Liu only grew angrier the more she brooded on her way home. Unable to stomach the humiliation, she headed straight back to her maiden family’s house.
The moment she arrived at her family’s home, she saw her sister-in-law tidying up the room while scolding Liu Youfu: “Look at how old you are, wandering around all day long without staying home! It was hard enough for me to raise you brothers into adults, and now I have to raise your sons for you, too! Hurry up and take a wife so I can finally enjoy some peace and comfort!”
Scoundrel Liu was thoroughly sick of his mother nagging him about this. He snapped back, “If you hadn’t kept tormenting my wife, would she have been driven to drown herself in the river?!”
Hearing this worthless scoundrel actually blame her, Mrs. Li—Scoundrel Liu’s mother—flung the broom in her hand straight at him.
“I tormented your wife?! Wasn’t it you beating her up at every turn that drove her over the edge?! You actually have the nerve to blame me!”
Seeing his mother throw the broom, Scoundrel Liu dodged out of the way. Auntie Liu also hurried forward to mediate: “Sister-in-law, why work up such a temper? Sit down and cool off first.”
Mrs. Li hadn’t actually intended to hit him anyway, so she took the opportunity to sit down. “Sister, why are you here? Is something the matter?”
“There is something. Youfu is thirty-five this year; it’s about time to arrange another marriage for him.”
Hearing her sister-in-law bring this up, Mrs. Li sighed with worry. “I want to match him with someone too, but it’s been two whole years, and we haven’t found anyone suitable.”
Auntie Liu patted her sister-in-law’s hand and said, “I came today specifically for this matter.”
Hearing that they were talking about getting him a wife, Scoundrel Liu stopped leaving and sat down right next to his aunt. “Aunt, do you have someone suitable in mind?”
“There is indeed a fitting one.”
Scoundrel Liu immediately asked eagerly, “Who? Is she pretty?”
Seeing his impatient look, Auntie Liu said, “It’s the girl from the Shen family, Shen Qiao.”
Before Scoundrel Liu could say anything, Mrs. Li spoke up first: “No, I don’t agree. That girl brings bad luck to her kin!”
Auntie Liu reasoned, “That girl is helpless and easily manipulated, and after living on her own for these past few years, she’s bound to be a hard worker. Her mother was chronically ill simply because she starved on the escape route during the famine, and her father’s death was just an accident—what year doesn’t the mountain hunt take a life or two?”
Seeing that Mrs. Li didn’t raise any more objections, Auntie Liu pressed on, “The Shen girl is sixteen now. As long as Youfu marries her, that house will naturally belong to our Liu family! When Youfu’s eldest son gets married down the line, we won’t even need to build a new house—we can just spruce up that courtyard and move right in.”
Hearing this, Mrs. Li’s eyes lit up. Although Scoundrel Liu couldn’t quite remember what Shen Qiao looked like, the thought of taking a sixteen-year-old maiden as a wife when he was already in his thirties filled him with uncontrollable glee.