The moment Madame Du stepped through the doorway, she threw herself in front of Village Chief Zhu Chenggong and burst into loud, heart-wrenching sobs.
“Chief! You must uphold justice for our Zhen’er! The poor girl only just finished observing filial mourning for her late father, yet the man she was supposed to marry is already fooling around with another woman in the village! My Zhen’er will be nineteen in just a few weeks. If this engagement falls apart now, how is she supposed to live?”
A crowd of Wang family relatives stormed in behind her, loudly hurling insults at Zhu Qingshan.
Zhu Chenggong rubbed his aching temples as the noise filled the room. “There must be some misunderstanding. Qingshan is not the sort of reckless young man who would behave improperly.”
“Er Gouzi saw everything with his own eyes, how could there be any mistake?” Madame Du snapped, jabbing a trembling finger toward Zhu Qingshan. “Chief, you cannot protect this ungrateful boy just because he belongs to your clan!”
Zhu Qingshan looked at her hysterical display with complete indifference.
“If that is truly how you feel,” he said calmly, “then let us dissolve the engagement immediately.”
Madame Du froze.
That was not how this was supposed to happen at all.
In her plans, the Wang family was meant to angrily demand a separation while Zhu Qingshan desperately begged for forgiveness. After enough resistance, she would reluctantly agree to cancel the engagement, but only after squeezing a huge amount of compensation silver from him for ruining her daughter’s reputation.
“And you think you can simply walk away from a formal engagement?” Madame Du shouted furiously. “What about my Zhen’er’s reputation?”
“Reputation?” Zhu Qingshan let out a cold laugh. “Your daughter is hiding a grown man inside her bedroom. Do you really think she still has any reputation left to speak of?”
Madame Du’s heart nearly stopped.
Even their closest neighbors knew nothing about the hidden man. How could Zhu Qingshan possibly know?
He must be bluffing.
“Zhu Qingshan!” she shrieked. “You were betrothed to my daughter for over ten years! How can you spread such vicious lies about her? If rumors like this spread through the county, my Zhen’er will never survive it! If you want that girl from the Li family so badly, then our Zhen’er will step aside for her. But I beg you, stop slandering my daughter!”
“Whether I am lying or telling the truth, you know the answer yourself,” Zhu Qingshan replied coldly. “If we end this engagement peacefully today, I will let the matter rest. But if you insist on causing trouble, I will head straight to the magistrate’s office and report that an unidentified criminal has entered Zhu Family Village.”
As he spoke, he adjusted his robes and turned toward the door as though he truly intended to leave immediately.
Madame Du panicked and rushed in front of him.
“You are not going anywhere!”
Zhu Zhen’er had repeatedly warned her that the hidden man carried an extremely dangerous political identity. Until his injuries healed completely, absolutely nobody could discover his whereabouts.
The surrounding Wang relatives immediately grew suspicious after seeing Madame Du’s terrified reaction.
One of the older uncles frowned deeply. “Madame Du, you dragged all of us here demanding justice for Zhen’er. What exactly is happening inside your household?”
“Don’t listen to his nonsense!” Madame Du stammered, cold sweat covering her forehead. “You all watched Zhen’er grow up. Do you truly believe she would behave so shamelessly?”
Then she turned back toward Zhu Qingshan, her tone suddenly becoming desperate.
“Since your heart already belongs to that Li girl, this engagement should indeed end. However, our Wang family has always acted honorably. For the sake of the kindness your late father once showed us, we are willing to forgo any compensation.”
She sounded magnanimous on the surface, but inwardly her heart was bleeding.
If her daughter’s secret had not been exposed, she would never have left without extracting at least eighty or a hundred silver liang from Zhu Qingshan.
Under Zhu Chenggong’s watchful supervision, both families formally tore apart the engagement contracts and exchanged the original betrothal tokens, officially ending the marriage agreement that had existed for over a decade.
The news spread through Zhu Family Village like thunder.
At first, the villagers had only been gossiping about Zhu Qingshan, Wang Zhen’er, and Li Xiyue. Now a mysterious fourth person had entered the story, making the entire scandal even more sensational.
When Wang Zhen’er heard the news, she was so furious she nearly bit through her teeth.
“Zhu Qingshan… how dare he? How dare that lowly peasant humiliate me like this?”
“Zhen’er… what happened?”
A weak male voice drifted from behind the bed curtains.
Wang Zhen’er quickly wiped her eyes, forcing tears to appear before throwing herself beside the bed.
“Brother Zhao, my life is so bitter!”
Deeply moved by her pitiful appearance, Zhao An gently pulled her into his embrace.
“Do not cry, my dear Zhen’er. This should be a happy occasion instead. My Zhen’er is a flawless pearl. How could a crude village peasant possibly deserve you? Once my injuries recover, I will personally take you back to the Imperial Capital.”
“Brother Zhao, you are the only person I have left,” Wang Zhen’er sobbed as she buried herself in his chest.
Inside, however, she was overflowing with triumph.
Zhu Qingshan, just look at me now. Even without you, I have found a man a thousand times greater. One day, I will make you pay dearly for humiliating me today.
Completely lost in her fantasies of future glory, Wang Zhen’er never noticed the faintly mocking smile hidden in Prince Wei Zhao An’s eyes.
Several days later, Li Xiyue finally heard the gossip.
During the past week, Wang Dani had not dared withhold food from her even once. In fact, her aunt had been deliberately avoiding her altogether. Their frightened, superstitious behavior amused Li Xiyue greatly.
“Niece Li! Where are you hurrying off to?”
Aunt Li waved enthusiastically the moment she spotted her on the village path.
“Have you heard? Zhu Qingshan and Wang Zhen’er officially broke off their engagement!”
Of course they did, Li Xiyue thought calmly. I already know the plot of the original novel.
Aunt Li leaned closer excitedly.
“And do you know the real reason? Wang Zhen’er was secretly hiding a man in her bedroom! Zhu Qingshan exposed everything right in front of the chief. Her mother came looking for trouble, but ended up running home in disgrace. Isn’t that satisfying?”
Li Xiyue’s footsteps paused.
Wait… that was not supposed to happen.
In the original story, Zhu Qingshan never discovered Prince Wei’s existence this early.
Could it be…
A cold realization struck her.
If her guess was correct, then her original plan of relying on Zhu Qingshan for survival was no longer possible.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The sharp sound of a brass gong echoed throughout the village.
The instant Aunt Li heard it, she rushed home to grab a stool before hurrying toward the huge banyan tree in the center of the village.
Confused, Li Xiyue followed the crowd.
By the time she arrived, nearly every villager had gathered beneath the giant tree, whispering nervously among themselves.
“Chief! What happened?”
“That’s right, Uncle Chenggong! I still have work waiting in the fields!”
“Quiet!” Zhu Chenggong barked as he struck the gong again.
“The matter I am about to announce concerns the life and death of everyone in this village,” he declared solemnly. “After hearing this, nobody is allowed to reveal it to outsiders. Understood?”
“Understood!” the villagers answered immediately.
“Starting from today, no household in Zhu Family Village is permitted to sell a single grain from this year’s wheat harvest.”
The crowd exploded into chaos.
“How can that be? I was planning to sell grain to prepare my son’s wedding dowry!”
“Exactly, Chief! You need to explain this properly!”
Zhu Chenggong raised both hands.
“Qingshan, explain it to everyone.”
Zhu Qingshan stepped forward calmly and repeated the same fabricated story he had previously told the village chief.
“This matter began while I was escorting goods through Lizhou Prefecture…”
He explained everything clearly and concisely within a few minutes.
When he finished, the square fell into heavy silence.
The villagers wanted to dismiss his words as nonsense, but the name Grandmaster Yuanzhen carried enormous authority. None of them dared question it openly.
An elderly woman suddenly burst into tears.
“Heavens above! How are we supposed to survive this? Life has only just gotten better these past few years!”
Voices immediately rose around her.
“A flood followed by a nationwide drought? Won’t we all starve to death?”
Some skeptical villagers muttered quietly among themselves.
“Didn’t Qingshan say our mountains won’t suffer much flooding? How could things become that terrible?”
Once the panic settled slightly, Zhu Chenggong stepped forward again.
“Our Qingtian County may avoid the floods themselves, but the drought afterward will devastate the entire north. Crops will fail everywhere. We cannot stop heaven’s will, but Grandmaster Yuanzhen risked his life to warn us. As long as we prepare in advance and store enough grain, our village can survive this disaster together.”
Although a few families still doubted the warning, they were quickly drowned out by the majority.
In the original novel, Zhu Family Village barely occupied more than a few lines of description. The famine that later killed millions across the empire had only been briefly mentioned.
But now, Li Xiyue stared at Zhu Qingshan with absolute certainty.
He was definitely reborn.
Transmigrators, rebirths, storage spaces, every dramatic trope imaginable had somehow gathered inside one tiny mountain village.
“Your family’s well,” a low voice suddenly whispered beside her ear. “Count down five bricks from the top, in the direction facing the pomelo tree.”
Li Xiyue froze.
What?
Zhu Qingshan looked at her expression, and certainty flashed through his eyes.
“I need to speak with you privately. Follow me.”
Without waiting for an answer, he turned and walked toward the secluded pond.
Li Xiyue glanced at the villagers still arguing noisily beneath the banyan tree before quietly following him.
The moment they reached the pond, Zhu Qingshan turned around sharply.
“Who are you?” he asked coldly. “You are not the real Li Xiyue.”
A chill ran down her spine.
Has she been exposed already?
“Brother Zhu, what are you talking about?” she forced out with a nervous laugh. “If I’m not Li Xiyue, then who could I possibly be?”
Then realization struck her.
In the original timeline, they had spent an entire lifetime together as husband and wife. Even without deep romance, he knew her habits and personality better than anyone else.
“There is no point pretending anymore,” Zhu Qingshan said calmly. “I would not say this without certainty. You do not need to fear me. Even if I exposed the truth, nobody would believe something so absurd. I simply want to know… where did the original Li Xiyue go?”
He felt no romantic attachment toward her, but after sharing decades together in his previous life, he still felt obligated to uncover the truth.
Silence stretched between them.
Zhu Qingshan waited patiently.
Finally, Li Xiyue spoke.
“When did you first start suspecting me?”
A trace of sorrow appeared in Zhu Qingshan’s eyes.
The Li Xiyue he once knew was truly gone forever.
“The moment you picked up a hatchet and chopped down Wang Dani’s bedroom door,” he answered. “The original Li Xiyue would never have dared to do something like that.”
I knew it, Li Xiyue groaned inwardly.
Wang Dani and Zhu Tiezhu had probably suspected something too. But why did everyone assume that just because the original owner had been weak and submissive, she would remain that way forever?
“Fine,” she said honestly. “Now that you know I’m not the original Li Xiyue, what are you planning to do with me?”
Truthfully, Zhu Qingshan had not considered that far ahead.
“Look, I know your secret too,” Li Xiyue said carefully. “Since we both have leverage over each other, why don’t we simply agree to keep quiet and leave it at that?”
The atmosphere around Zhu Qingshan changed instantly.
A terrifying killing intent radiated from him.
Li Xiyue immediately took several cautious steps backward.
“Think about it rationally!” she said quickly, raising both hands. “You already broke off your engagement with the original female lead, and my relatives are planning to marry me off to some disgusting old man. Since we already know each other’s biggest secrets… why don’t we just get married instead?”