After the storm of passion had passed, Yu Qingwan was utterly exhausted and had already fallen into a deep sleep. Faint tear tracks still lingered on her cheeks.
Li Chen looked at her with tenderness and a trace of guilt in his heart. In his excitement just now, although he had been far gentler than before, she had still suffered.
Let her sleep.
Carrying the lamp, Li Chen quietly entered the workshop. A hunting bow alone was not enough. He planned to make himself a crossbow. The next time he went into the mountains to hunt, he would at least have a backup weapon.
For a mercenary, crafting and modifying both cold and modern weapons was a necessary skill. Moreover, in his previous life he had held dual master’s degrees in mechanical engineering and chemical engineering from overseas. If not for his scientist parents’ refusal to create biological weapons of evil, which had led to their deaths at the hands of powerful foreign forces, his future would have been bright. He never would have stepped onto the path of a mercenary.
As for the former owner of this body, he had been beaten by his father into learning carpentry for ten years and had become quite proficient at woodwork. With the experience of two lifetimes combined, technically making a crossbow was no problem at all.
Still, even a simple crossbow required a great deal of time. After crafting several components, he returned to sleep. He would perfect it bit by bit.
At early dawn the next morning, just as the hour of Mao arrived, he was already awake. It was a habit formed during years as a mercenary. Even after becoming the CEO of a group corporation, he had maintained it.
He first strapped on the simple sandbags he had made the previous night around his ankles, then ran a lap along the mountain path behind the hill. After that, he found a sturdy horizontal branch nearby to serve as an improvised pull-up bar and completed five sets of standard pull-ups, ten each set.
By the time he finished, his body was already somewhat exhausted. But Li Chen did not stop. He had to train this body to the point where it could exert at least half of his true strength in the shortest possible time.
Back in the courtyard, he did ten sets of push-ups, ten each set, totaling one hundred. Then he held a 5-kilogram stone and did five sets of sit-ups, five each set. After that, he pressed a 10-kilogram stone overhead thirty times.
To be honest, this amount of training did not even reach one-fifth of the lowest standard from his previous life. Yet after finishing it all, Li Chen had already reached his limit.
There was no helping it. Years of hunger had left this body weak. He could not push further, or he might injure himself internally. He needed adaptive training for recovery, gradually increasing both repetitions and weight. He also needed a large amount of nutrition. In a few days, he would increase the training volume.
In these chaotic times, survival depended on one’s own strength.
He fetched a basin of water and rinsed himself clean. By then, Yu Qingwan had already prepared a pot of meat soup.
In the morning she had not stewed the remaining Pine Grouse. Instead, she sliced five mountain rats into strips and stir-fried them with wild scallions. After skinning and removing the innards, each rat weighed about 100 grams. She had also stewed two large birds, each weighing about 250 grams after plucking.
In truth, Yu Qingwan was reluctant to eat so freely. It felt extravagantly wasteful. But Li Chen had insisted she must. She could only obey her husband.
After the morning’s exertion, Li Chen was ravenous. He devoured more than half of the food like a whirlwind. His appetite startled Yu Qingwan.
Of course, after being thoroughly exhausted half the night before, Yu Qingwan was hungry too. But seeing how fiercely Li Chen ate, she timidly filled only half a bowl with soup and a few scraps of meat, sitting beside him and eating in small bites. The source of this chapter is NovelPing.
She feared that eating too much would displease him.
Li Chen was eating heartily when he noticed that Yu Qingwan had already finished and was putting away her chopsticks and bowl.
He frowned, took her bowl, walked straight to the pot, scooped a full bowl of solid meat, added a ladle of soup, and set it back in front of her.
“Ah? Husband, this servant wife is already full…” Yu Qingwan shook her head in panic.
“Eat.” Li Chen glanced at her.
“Husband, you are a man and must go hunting. You need to eat more. This servant wife has a small appetite and eats very little…” she said softly.
“I told you to eat,” Li Chen commanded.
Yu Qingwan fell silent and lowered her head to continue eating. Tears welled in her eyes, but she was afraid he would grow annoyed if he saw them. She buried her head low and let the tears fall into her bowl.
Yet why did the meat and soup mixed with her tears still taste so good?
After the meal, the pale, bloodless look on Yu Qingwan’s small face had faded. A rosy glow had appeared, and her skin seemed luminous and moist. At such a young age, she already carried a hint of beauty that could topple cities.
Li Chen cast a glance at her and felt his heart stir again.
“Clean up. We’re going into the city,” Li Chen said as he turned away to gather his things.
After eating, his strength and energy were steadily recovering. He slung his hunting bow and simple arrow quiver over his back and spoke to Yu Qingwan.
Then he went to the well at the front of the courtyard and retrieved the rabbit and remaining game he had lowered there the previous night. The cool temperature at the bottom of the well preserved them effectively.
In such hot weather, leaving rabbit meat out overnight would have caused it to spoil.
“Husband, I… I still need to dig wild vegetables,” Yu Qingwan said timidly, carrying a large bamboo basket on her arm. Walking was still uncomfortable.
“No more digging. We’ll sell the rabbit in the city and exchange it for rice and grain,” Li Chen said.
After glancing at her patched hemp clothing, he added, “And buy some patterned cloth to make a few sets of clothes.”
“Ah?” Yu Qingwan’s eyes filled with shock and disbelief.
“Let’s go.” Li Chen avoided her gaze and spoke briefly before turning toward the door.
She quickly switched to a smaller bamboo basket and followed him out in quick, small steps. Then she shut the door and locked it with the rusty lock. Threading the key onto a strip of cloth, she hung it around her neck and secretly patted it with her small hand before lowering her head and following carefully behind Li Chen.
“Do we even need to lock the house? What’s there worth stealing?” Li Chen shook his head.
“It still has to be locked,” Yu Qingwan replied softly.
“Why?” Li Chen asked, glancing back at her.
Yu Qingwan lowered her head gently and said with a hint of nervousness, “Only when it’s locked is it a home.”
“A home…” Li Chen murmured, momentarily lost in thought as he looked at the lock.
After a long pause, he turned and walked ahead, his tone softer than before. “Let’s go. To the county town.”
Li Chen walked in front, while Yu Qingwan followed behind with her small basket, head lowered and steps quick and careful.
After walking about one hundred steps and circling a ridge ahead, a straight road stretched downward.
By the large elm tree at the village entrance below, a large crowd had gathered, as though something major had happened.
Li Chen shaded his eyes with his hand and looked. Most of the village was there, over one hundred people in total. The majority were women. There were about thirty men.
Those men were either over fifty years old, physically disabled, or not yet fully grown. Among able-bodied men between twenty and fifty, there were very few. Boys under eighteen made up more than half.
Some men carried bows, some held machetes, and others bore long spears. One might have thought they were heading to war.
A large group of women surrounded them, chattering like boiling water.
“Blessed by heaven, you’ll definitely bring back game. Go early and return early.”
“If even that rascal can hunt, which one of you is worse than him? Go early and return early. The children are waiting to eat meat.”
“Eldest son, be careful.”
Li Chen suddenly understood. So these foolish women had encouraged the men of their households to gather today and head into the mountains together to hunt.