In the twenty-fifth year of the Great Yu Dynasty, heavy snow had been falling continuously since October.
Qingshui Village, nestled at the foot of the mountains outside the capital, was already draped in a thin “white garment.”
“The hunter Cui’s daughter is sixteen and unmarried! This year, she must pay eight taels of silver for the Unmarried Tax!” The cold wind carried the voice of Wu Dafu, the tax collector, into the Cuis’ thatched hut.
Inside, Cui Xiaoqi was jolted awake by the cold as she lay slumped against the edge of the bed. The charcoal brazier had lost its last spark sometime after midnight.
She had stayed up all night by the side of the man she had rescued, bandaging his wounds and feeding him medicine. It seemed her precious, hidden-away medicine hadn’t gone to waste; she had finally managed to keep him breathing.
Hearing the voices outside, Cui Xiaoqi tucked the quilt around the man, stood up, and rubbed her numb, frozen legs. She opened the door and leaned casually against the frame.
“Oh! Master Wu, you’re up quite early. The roosters haven’t even crowed yet. It seems your wife didn’t keep your bed warm enough, eh?”
The tax collector, Wu Dafu, was from the neighboring village. For the past three years, he had been responsible for collecting taxes in Qingshui Village and was a familiar face to the villagers.
He glanced sideways at the nonchalant Cui Xiaoqi, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “Young lady, don’t talk nonsense! I urged you to get married this time last year, but you wouldn’t listen. Now look at you—still unmarried. Pay up!”
A minor tax official behind him held out his palm, urging impatiently, “Stop wasting time, hurry up—” but he shrank back when Wu Dafu glared at him.
Three years ago, a war had broken out between the Great Yu Dynasty and a neighboring country, resulting in millions of casualties. To increase the population, the imperial court had introduced harsh marriage and childbearing tax policies.
If a woman reached sixteen without being married, she had to pay eight taels for the Unmarried Tax. At seventeen, if she remained childless, she had to pay twenty taels for the Childless Tax.
In the entire Qingshui Village, Cui Xiaoqi was the only one left who was sixteen and still unwed.
The village chief, Wang Shougen, squeezed through the crowd to the front, snow particles clinging to the shoulders of his many-times-washed, patched cotton jacket.
“Seventh Girl, it’s not that your uncle wants to nag you…” he said, rubbing his frostbitten, red hands. “I’ve come to propose so many times, but you just won’t agree to marry my Wen Wazi. If you’d just say the word, you wouldn’t have to pay this silver!!! You’re just a girl after all… so short-sighted!”
Cui Xiaoqi sneered, feigning ignorance. Did he not know what kind of person his son was? Lazy, gluttonous, never leaving his bed, eating and defecating in the same room—he was fatter than a pig!
She reached for the bow and arrow hanging on the wall, nocking an arrow and drawing the string.
Pointing the arrowhead at Wang Shougen, she gave a wicked smile. “I told you, if you pressure me to marry your son again, this arrow will want a taste of human blood!”
Wang Shougen saw the curve of Cui Xiaoqi’s lips and felt as if the King of Hell himself were beckoning him. Terrified, he scrambled back three steps, waving his hands in surrender. “No… I won’t pressure you…”
Looking at this “crazy” Cui Xiaoqi, he completely abandoned any thought of becoming her in-law. He had to go home and talk Wen Wazi out of wanting to marry this girl. If a madwoman like her were brought into the family, the ancestors in the Wang family graves would climb out overnight in rage.
Cui Xiaoqi gave him a contemptuous glance. Coward!
“Village Chief Wang, your son is twenty this year, isn’t he? According to the tax laws, if a man is twenty and hasn’t found a wife, he must pay five taels of silver!”
As soon as Wu Dafu spoke, Wang Shougen rubbed his hands awkwardly and nodded repeatedly. “Yes, yes, it should be paid. Even if I have to sell grain or marry off a daughter, it must be paid.”
“Cui Xiaoqi, where is the silver?”
Cui Xiaoqi unhurriedly hung her bow back on the wall. “I naturally don’t have any silver!” She paused, her tone shifting. “However…”
The crowd’s faces grew grim at her words.
Cui Xiaoqi crossed her arms and smiled. “Today is my wedding day. Since I’m getting married, I naturally don’t need to pay the Unmarried Tax!”
Wang Shougen shook his head in disbelief. At the critical moment of paying taxes, she was getting married? To whom? How could he, the village chief, not know about this?
While other families ate husks and wild vegetables, the scent of meat often wafted from the Cui courtyard. He had visited her house many times, hoping to snag a bite of meat. Unfortunately, Cui Xiaoqi lacked “discernment”—he didn’t even get a sip of meat broth, let alone meat.
Combined with her refusal of the marriage proposal, he was quite disgruntled. He suddenly raised his voice in a scolding tone, “Seventh Girl, marriage isn’t just something you say! Don’t you dare deceive Master Wu! Lying won’t do you any good!”
“Cough, cough…” He spoke too fast, and the cold air made his throat itch, causing a violent coughing fit.
“I’m getting married today; why are you so excited? I, Cui Xiaoqi, never tell tall tales. The man is lying on the bed right now.” After speaking, she glanced toward the interior of the hut.
Wang Shougen was both angry and anxious, his long, donkey-like face pulled tight. He strode to the window and craned his neck to look inside. Sure enough, he saw someone lying on the bed.
Judging by the frame, it was a man—a tall, slender figure that clearly couldn’t be faked by anyone from the Cui family.
The man was even injured! He questioned her furiously, “Who is the man on the bed?”
“My soon-to-be matrilocal husband. I picked him up~” Cui Xiaoqi told the truth; there was no hiding it anyway.
“A person you picked up has no household registration. This marriage doesn’t count! Marrying a man isn’t like catching a mountain pheasant! And this wild man is injured…”
Wang Shougen’s murky eyes darted around. “Who knows if he’s an enemy spy?”
If Wen Wazi couldn’t get a wife, how could he let her marry first!!
The two were only a few feet apart.
Cui Xiaoqi pulled a sharp blade from her deerskin boot and stabbed it into the doorframe. “He has a household registration; he’s a law-abiding citizen!!! On the other hand, you seem to have saved an enemy spy before!”
“You!” Wang Shougen’s face turned a dark, reddish-purple.
He had indeed saved someone of unknown identity for the sake of a string of coins. Only a few people knew—how did she find out?
Wu Dafu struck a gong with a loud clang, shaking loose the snow particles. “Everyone, shut up!”
Half a month ago, Cui Xiaoqi had given him two wild pheasants. His family hadn’t tasted meat for over six months; for the sake of that gift, he was willing to buy her a few days.
He stared at Cui Xiaoqi and said, “Only three days. If you can’t produce a marriage certificate and household registration by then, and you can’t pay the silver…” He pointed toward the capital. “The Official Matchmaker is already waiting.”
Cui Xiaoqi’s nerves tightened, and she bit the inside of her cheek.
When she entered the city a few days ago, she had seen the methods of the Official Matchmaker with her own eyes. Unmarried girls were randomly assigned to widowers or bachelors of extraordinarily old ages—some even in their fifties or sixties!
“In three days, if I, Cui Xiaoqi, cannot produce the household registration and marriage certificate, I will voluntarily accept a match from the Official Matchmaker!”
Cui Xiaoqi was going all in.
Before Wang Shougen left, his fingers—yellowed from tobacco—shook as he pointed at Cui Xiaoqi. Before he could utter a threat, he saw her reach for her bow again. Terrified, he jerked his hand back and scurried away behind Wu Dafu.
As Cui Xiaoqi watched them leave, her smile faded, her lips pressing into a straight line.
She only had three days to prepare.
In her past life, she had been a shooting champion. At fifteen, while traveling abroad for a competition, she was struck by an unlicensed vehicle as soon as she stepped out of the airport.
This was her second year since transmigrating. She had no system to rely on, let alone any “golden fingers.”
It was absurd—she was just a person with modern thoughts but no power to deal with lethal dangers and unstable times. She was so lowly that just being alive and having a full stomach was a blessing.
As things stood, she definitely had no silver.
Marry some random person? She wouldn’t do it!
Coincidentally, while hunting yesterday, she had encountered a man covered in blood. She hadn’t wanted to meddle, as she had already “picked up” two younger sisters. If she brought home another person, she feared her mother would nag her for three days and nights.
But when she knelt down and saw the man’s face, she changed her mind!
A handsome man had fallen from the heavens, and she just happened to need a husband.
No silver? Marry a fat pig? She chose to “marry” the handsome man. At least he was easy on the eyes and could help her dodge the tax.
Inside the house, the charcoal in the brazier began to crackle.
Cui Xiaoqi rested her chin on her hand, staring at the flames. A dry branch spun quickly in her palm as she poked a bundle of blood-soaked silk on the floor.
No matter how she looked at it, it resembled a Feiyu Robe worn by male leads in historical dramas!!
With a flick of her wrist, she used the branch to toss the blood-stained clothes into the brazier.
With a sizzle, the bloody clothes were swallowed by the flames and burned to ash.
Next, Cui Xiaoqi picked up the basin of bloody water by her feet and splashed it under the old locust tree in the backyard.
Just as she returned from the backyard, she heard a crisp snap. She looked up alertly to see a “massive object” crouching outside her fence, peeking stealthily into the yard.
That hulking figure was none other than Wang Shougen’s 250-pound son—Wang Wenhan!
The moment their eyes met, Wang Wenhan braced his hands against the fence and stood up with a heavy huff, no longer hiding.
He squinted his tiny, bean-like eyes and demanded in a muffled voice, “Xiaoqi! I heard my father say you’re getting married? Everyone in these surrounding villages knows you’re mine! Which blind fool dares to steal my woman?”
Cui Xiaoqi frowned. Since she transmigrated, this 250-pound fat kid had been like sticky candy she couldn’t shake off. She didn’t discriminate against fat people; she just loathed this persistent, unwanted harassment.
“Get out!!” Cui Xiaoqi spat out a single cold word, turned sharply, and strode toward the house.
Wang Wenhan grew frantic. He had been hoping the Unmarried Tax would finally force her to marry him! Who would have thought a “Cheng Yaojin” would jump out halfway?
A beauty like Cui Xiaoqi was hard to find elsewhere in these villages. Having guarded this flower for so many years, how could he let a wild man pluck her?
He had to “cook the rice” today!
Wang Wenhan steeled himself, his massive body suddenly slamming into the fence.
With a crash, the fence collapsed. He spread his arms wide and lunged toward Cui Xiaoqi.
Cui Xiaoqi’s ears twitched. Using the snow as a lubricant, she slid forward, her figure nimbly darting to the wall.
She snatched the bow and arrow from the corner, drew the string to its limit, and pointed the arrow directly at Wang Wenhan. “If you take one more step, I’ll turn you into a porcupine!”
Wang Wenhan braked hard, his nose nearly touching the arrowhead. The smell of alcohol on his breath was nauseating. “Good sister, hold the arrow steady, don’t hurt your brother…”
Even as he spoke, his hand reached out restlessly.
With a whoosh, the arrow grazed the top of his head, taking a lock of hair with it, before thudding into the trunk of the old locust tree outside the fence.
Wang Wenhan never expected Cui Xiaoqi to actually shoot. Beneath his greasy, black, old cotton trousers, his thick legs began to tremble uncontrollably. “You… you…”
He stuttered for a long time without saying anything meaningful. His face turned the color of pig liver, and he snapped in a fit of rage, “Fine, Cui Xiaoqi! You just wait. I’m going to report you to the officials right now. The wild man in your house is an enemy spy!”
Before the words had even landed, the fat boy ran faster than ever before, vanishing past the village entrance in a flash.