By the babbling riverbank, several men were talking.
“Since you say you are my subordinates, then tell me—who am I, and what do I do?”
Nangong An knew he had lost his memory. Lately, fragments of images often surfaced in his mind, but he still couldn’t remember who he really was.
Among the three, Feng Ying was the calmest, so he carefully and truthfully recounted everything to Nangong An.
“Master’s name is Nangong An. You are the young master of the Duke of Zhen State’s residence in the capital. Your mother was the daughter of a merchant family. After marrying your father and giving birth to you, she never had another child. You are the only son in the family.”
As he spoke, he observed Nangong An’s reaction and found that his face showed no emotion at all.
Feng Ying continued, “When you were twelve, you followed your father to guard the borderlands. That trip lasted ten years. Now you are a great general who strikes fear into the hearts of the enemy.”
“Before the Dragon Boat Festival, you returned to the capital to visit the old madam. When we were preparing to head back to the northern frontier, the emperor suddenly ordered you to go to Black Wind Stronghold to suppress the bandits. Unfortunately, you were ambushed and accidentally fell off a cliff.”
As Feng Ying spoke, images surfaced again in Nangong An’s mind. Seeing this, Feng Ying continued talking about matters on the frontier, hoping to help him recover his memories.
With Feng Ying’s narration, the images in Nangong An’s mind gradually became clearer. Finally, he remembered everything.
“Alright, you may all get up now.”
His voice was icy, with none of the earlier warmth.
The three of them immediately knew from his tone that their master had regained his memory.
“This subordinate failed in his duty. Please punish us, Master.”
Nangong An looked at the three men who had grown up with him and softened his tone slightly. “Enough. Get up. This isn’t your fault.”
Lei Ting looked at Nangong An’s cold, handsome face and couldn’t help asking, “Master, when did you get married and take a wife? Even if you were to marry, with your looks you could easily take a celestial beauty. Why marry an ugly monster?”
“You’re the ugly monster—your whole family are ugly monsters!”
Before Nangong An could speak, Yunxi snapped back.
Seeing that Nangong An hadn’t returned for a long time, she had come out to check. She hadn’t expected to hear that.
“You… when did you appear?”
Aside from Nangong An, the other three were shocked. Had their skills deteriorated so much that they hadn’t noticed someone approaching?
They all turned to look at Yunxi, and the moment they did, they were stunned. This was no ugly woman—she was like a fairy descended from heaven.
Lei Ting couldn’t help but slap his own mouth. “Madam, I’m sorry. This subordinate has a filthy mouth. I deserve to be punished.”
After saying that, he slapped himself again.
Yunxi couldn’t stand the sight and immediately stopped him. “Alright, it’s not your fault. That makeup really was ugly.”
After a brief pause, she continued, “I’m not your madam. My surname is Yang, given name Yunxi. From now on, you can call me Miss Yang.”
“Madam, are you denying everything after pulling up your pants? You can’t be so heartless,” Nangong An said. The moment he heard Yunxi say she wasn’t his wife, he felt something strange in his chest.
“What do you mean ‘denying it after pulling up your pants’? We were never husband and wife to begin with. You’ve remembered everything—don’t you know that?” Yunxi said. She had heard him clearly.
“I don’t care. You’ve already seen everything, so you have to take responsibility to the end. You can’t abandon your husband,” Nangong An said shamelessly.
The people standing nearby were completely stunned. Since when did their master have such a gentle and funny side? It truly opened their eyes.
Yunxi didn’t want to bother with him and said, “It’s late. Go rest. They’re starting to build the houses tomorrow.”
Hearing Yunxi tell him to sleep, Nangong An instantly felt pleased again. Ignoring the three subordinates staring in shock behind him, he happily followed Yunxi back to the tent.
Before, when he had amnesia, the two of them sharing a tent felt normal. Now, Yunxi felt a bit awkward. But in this desolate wilderness, she didn’t dare sleep alone—the roars of wild beasts at night were frightening.
The next morning, before dawn, everyone was already getting up and moving about.
By the time Yunxi woke up, part of the foundation had already been dug.
They worked steadily all day. By nightfall, the foundation had been completely dug and reinforced with stones. The speed truly amazed Yunxi.
Tomorrow, they could start building the walls.
Dinner consisted of a wild vegetable porridge, along with a pot of wild chicken and Chinese yam soup made from a pheasant they had hunted in the mountains.
The aunt who cooked said that their grain supplies were almost used up. Originally, they had planned to buy more once they reached Nanling City, but since they had decided to settle here, buying grain had naturally been delayed.
Yunxi had plenty of refined flour in her supermarket, but she couldn’t take it out. The others only ate coarse mixed grains and dark flour.
Looking at Lin Hai not far away, Yunxi said directly, “Brother Lin, since we’re settling here, shouldn’t we start reclaiming land to grow grain? After all, food is the foundation of life. If our stomachs aren’t full, how can we have the strength to work?”
Lin Hai scratched his head and said helplessly, “Nangong’s wife, we don’t have any grain seeds right now! Back in our hometown, the rice we planted had such a low yield that one season’s harvest wasn’t even enough to last a month. So now we don’t even know what to plant.”
Lin Hai was extremely worried. If they didn’t plant rice, what would they eat? But if they did plant it, it would all be in vain.
Low rice yields? That didn’t seem right. In modern times, yields were extremely high—several hundred jin per mu.
If the yield was low, it was either due to planting methods or a lack of fertilizer.
But it was already August now. They had missed the rice-planting season and could only wait until spring to plant it.
If they couldn’t grow rice, they could still plant sweet potatoes and potatoes. Yunxi had both on her supermarket shelves, and they could be planted.
She just needed to find an excuse to take them out.
Suddenly, Yunxi thought of their lack of flour and their plan to go buy some. She could use this opportunity to bring back sweet potatoes and potatoes.
“Brother Lin, my husband and I are going to Nanling City. We’ll help you buy grain. Just tell us what you need, and we’ll bring it back for you.”
After a pause, Yunxi added, “You can also start clearing some land to grow vegetables, so you won’t have to rely on wild greens every day.”
When Lin Hai heard they were going into the city, he was delighted. That way, they wouldn’t need to make another trip themselves. With things being so chaotic outside, it wasn’t safe to go out.
The next day, the foundation was finished. Today’s main task was building the walls.
Yunxi looked at the yellow earth and chopped straw and told them to mix the two with water—not too wet and not too dry.
After many attempts, the yellow mud suitable for wall-building was finally ready.
Under Yunxi’s guidance, they methodically poured the mud into prepared molds, bucket by bucket, then packed it tightly with large wooden poles. Slowly, little by little, the walls were built up.
Although it was labor-intensive, the houses built this way were especially sturdy.
After a full day’s work, they had only built one wall to the height of a person—about two meters.
The road ahead was long indeed.