Mimi La Lai Lai’s new work is here—premiered first on yy novel website!
Zhao, the village head, was a man who valued efficiency. Before noon, the land deed stamped with a red seal had already been delivered.
The western slope of the village was described as “wasteland,” which was already flattering it. It was nothing more than a rocky ridge where weeds grew taller than a person, and beneath it lay sharp loose stones that made every step painful.
Su Jinxiu tucked the deed into her chest and pushed Huo Chen to inspect their “territory.”
The sun was vicious. Even the stones in the fields seemed to be steaming under the heat. Su Jinxiu casually plucked a foxtail grass and held it in her mouth, staring at the plot of land with a frown deep enough to crush a fly.
“This land… for growing medicinal herbs?” Huo Chen sat in the wheelchair, scanning the rocky cracks. “It’s more suitable for growing stones.”
“What do you know? The more barren the land, the stronger the medicinal properties,” Su Jinxiu said stubbornly, though her heart was bleeding. The cost of reclaiming this land would probably drain all the silver she had just managed to save.
She kicked away a stone still warm from the sun.
“Besides, the elevation is good, well-ventilated and sunny—perfect for honeysuckle and forsythia. We can’t afford delicate things like ginseng or lingzhi. We’ll grow hardy, aggressive herbs instead. High yield, low maintenance.”
Huo Chen didn’t respond. He wasn’t interested in farming. His attention was on the terrain. Behind the slope was dense forest, and in front was an open riverbank. If used as a battlefield, it would be easy to defend and hard to attack.
“We need to hire people,” Su Jinxiu calculated aloud. “Clear the rocks, turn the soil, fertilize. Just the two of us—your legs would break before we finish.”
At that moment, someone appeared slowly from the slope below.
A man in his fifties, wearing a fairly decent silk robe, but with a belly like a woman nine months pregnant. His face was greasy, and his triangular eyes kept sizing up Su Jinxiu. He carried two packets of pastries and a jug of wine.
The town’s widower, Li.
Su Jinxiu remembered him. The original owner’s aunt had once tried to sell her to this old lecher for five taels of silver. Li had buried three wives, and rumors said he had strange fetishes—an outright degenerate.
“Well, well, isn’t this Jinxiu?” Li’s voice was like a squawking duck, grating on the nerves. “I heard you brought that crippled husband back to raise? Tsk tsk, what a waste. Madam Zhao already took my five taels of silver and said she’d deliver you to my house today. I’ve been waiting quite a while.”
He stepped closer, his filthy eyes sliding up and down Su Jinxiu, completely ignoring Huo Chen sitting in the wheelchair. In his eyes, a cripple was no different from a roadside stone.
“Master Li, your information is a bit outdated,” Su Jinxiu spat out the grass stem and smiled without warmth. “Didn’t Zhao tell you? Her niece has already ‘gone mad’—not only does she hit people, she also stabs them.”
Li chuckled, revealing a mouth full of yellow teeth.
“I like spunky ones. The crazier the better. Come with me, Jinxiu—good food, good drink. Isn’t that better than staying with this cripple? Look at this land, full of rocks. You think it can grow gold?”
As he spoke, his greasy hand reached toward her shoulder.
Su Jinxiu was about to reach for the silver needles in her sleeve when the man in the wheelchair moved.
No extra words. No dramatic roar.
Huo Chen casually pressed his sharpened bamboo crutch against the ground and flicked his wrist.
Whoosh.
A thumb-sized stone shot up from the ground, propelled by the crutch, cutting through the air straight toward Li’s face.
Smack!
The sound was crisp—sharper than the slap from the last incident.
The stone struck directly at Li’s already loose front teeth.
“Ahhh—!!”
Li clutched his mouth and screamed. Blood mixed with two broken teeth sprayed through his fingers. He spun in place in pain, his greasy face twisting into a pig-liver color.
“Who?! Which bastard attacked me?!”
“Slipped,” Huo Chen said flatly.
He didn’t even look at Li. Instead, he lowered his head and slowly wiped the dirt off the tip of his crutch with a rag.
“There are a lot of stones here. Walk carefully.”
Only then did Li’s gaze fall on Huo Chen.
The man sat in a broken wheelchair, thin to the point of deformity, dressed in the cheapest coarse cloth. But his frame… his eyes…
It was like being stared at by a tiger pretending to sleep.
A coldness rose from Li’s bones, instantly soaking his back in sweat.
He had spent decades in town, bullying men and women alike. His instincts were sharp. This cripple—he had definitely seen blood. Not just once.
“You… you two…” Li clutched his mouth, his earlier lust completely gone, his legs shaking.
“Fine! I won’t argue with a woman or a cripple! This isn’t over! Madam Zhao took my money—she’ll answer for this!”
He threw down his threat and fled down the slope in panic, stumbling so badly he even forgot his pastries and wine.
Su Jinxiu looked at the fleeing, miserable back and let out a cold laugh. She walked over and kicked the snack box on the ground aside.
“Unlucky.”
She turned and looked at Huo Chen.
“Husband, that move just now was beautiful,” Su Jinxiu praised without hesitation. “What do you call it? Flicking finger divine technique?”
Huo Chen ignored her nonsense and took back his crutch.
“That man’s gaze was improper. Next time, if I’m not around, don’t let him get close.”
“Don’t worry,” Su Jinxiu said while picking up the wine jug and shaking it. “If he dares touch me even once, I’ll make sure he spends the rest of his life peeing while squatting.”
She glanced at the broken teeth on the ground.
“Pity about those two teeth though. If I had pulled them myself, I could’ve earned a few dozen coins for meat.”
Huo Chen: “……”
This woman’s thought process always swung between “money” and “meat.”
“Let’s go back,” Huo Chen turned his wheelchair around. “For hiring laborers, find Butcher Zhang in the village. He owes you a favor, and as a pig butcher, he can control a crowd.”
Su Jinxiu’s eyes lit up.
Right. With Zhang the Butcher’s build, who would dare slack off in the fields?
“Husband, you’re brilliant!” Su Jinxiu pushed him back, in high spirits. “We’re having dumplings tonight—cabbage and pork filling, thin skin, big stuffing!”
The setting sun stretched their shadows long across the jagged wasteland. Strangely, there was a sense of tacit understanding between them labeled as “partners.”
Huo Chen tightened his grip on the crutch.
Though he had fallen from power, everything and everyone on this land that bore his mark—even a single stone—was not something others could covet casually.
Let alone a woman who could make him dumplings.
PS: For dealing with Li the widower, that old pervert—do you think knocking out two teeth is letting him off too easy, or should we let him experience Su Jinxiu’s signature silver needles? Tell me in the comments what harsher punishment you’d choose!