Zhou Xingxing couldn’t care less how dull or vacant their stares were. He turned and headed toward the kitchen, his stomach feeling utterly empty. He had no idea how long the original body owner had gone without eating.
His eldest aunt had originally intended to chase after him to continue chewing him out, but seeing Zhou Xingxing make a beeline for the kitchen, she stopped in her tracks.
“You little dead brat! Do you only feel good after getting scolded a few times?”
His eldest aunt heavily puffed out a few breaths. In recent years, her body had grown increasingly plump, and running just these few steps had her gasping for air.
“Alright, since he’s gone off to cook, just calm your temper,” the eldest uncle said. Not having heard what Zhou Xingxing said, he simply assumed his wife was just running on autopilot with her scolding.
“You spineless coward! That little dead brat is about to ride right over your wife’s head, and you’re still standing here playing dead!” Accustomed to being the top dog at home, the eldest aunt flew into a rage whenever things didn’t go her way.
The eldest uncle didn’t dare pick up the thread of the conversation. Back when they were newlywed, he couldn’t win a physical fight against his own wife, let alone now, when his wife’s build could easily fit two of him.
“Calm your temper. Calm your temper. Let’s wait inside the room. Let’s wait inside the room.” As long as the eldest aunt was present, the eldest uncle wouldn’t dare breathe a loud sigh.
The eldest aunt’s older son and younger son—namely Zhou Dayong and Zhou Eryong—saw that Zhou Xingxing had gone to cook, so they also returned to the main hall to keep waiting.
Only Zhou Yingying stared fixedly toward the kitchen. After a moment, she suddenly shivered, turned deathly pale, and bolted back to her own room.
Over by the kitchen, Zhou Xingxing walked in circles around the stove again and again. In the end, all his emotions melted into a thick, heavy sigh.
While his cooking skills were top-notch, this particular stove in front of him was something he truly didn’t know how to operate.
Sure, he possessed the memories of the original body owner, but the procedural muscle memory for lighting a fire… After squatting down and tinkering with it for quite a while, he ended up filling the entire room with smoke.
“Cough, cough, cough! Cough, cough! Cough, cough, cough!”
Zhou Xingxing ran out covering his nose and mouth, choked by the dense smoke to the point of spilling tears.
Cooking was definitely out of the question. Zhou Xingxing thought about strolling over to Wan Xiaoning’s place to freeload a meal first, planning to invite the other guy over to eat once he made something good himself.
With this plan in mind, Zhou Xingxing dusted the ash off his hands and sauntered leisurely out of the courtyard.
Along the way, he looked around as he walked. Since he might have to live in this village from now on, he needed to figure out what was where.
“It really is lunchtime. Even a person alone…” Zhou Xingxing muttered under his breath, then turned his head and caught sight of someone.
A tall and mighty man.
“A man.”
Zhou Xingxing instantly felt his face grow warm. He naturally liked men, and judging by his seventh sense as a submissive, the man ahead should measure at least eighteen centimeters! Or even more!
Don’t blame him for being a bit lustful! In their circles, submissives tried to outdo each other in dressing up!
But a fierce top!
Such a thing was simply rare and hard to come by!
What’s more! This was precisely his favorite type! Just looking at him screamed strength and energy!
The man was over one meter ninety tall! Broad shoulders, a V-shaped torso tapering down to his waist, and those long, long legs!
Zhou Xingxing’s waist instantly went weak for a second.
He raised a hand to press back down a heart that wanted to jump out of his chest, wiped away some nonexistent drool, and quietly began to tail him.
Li Qunhe had gone to the neighboring village today to sell pork. The villagers had just finished harvesting their fields, and every household had spare cash in hand; the hundred catties of pork he had left at home sold out entirely over the course of the afternoon.
Li Qunhe remembered what his mother had told him: after selling the pork, he needed to stop by the village healer’s house to pick up medicine. His mother’s health was poor, and she would only get better by taking her medicine.
Walking forward with his head down and strides long, he completely failed to notice the little tail following behind him. It wasn’t until they reached the healer’s house that Li Qunhe finally raised his head.
“Uncle, I’m here to pick up medicine,” Li Qunhe said, looking at the healer.
“Ah, Dahe is here! Hold on, I’ll get your medicine!” Before long, the healer came out carrying a string of medicine packets.
“How much money?” Li Qunhe lowered his head to fish out his money pouch, then looked up at the healer again.
“Just give me ten wen!” The herbs were gathered from the mountains and weren’t particularly precious—mostly ingredients to nourish Qi and enrich the blood.
“Ten wen. Ten wen.” Li Qunhe lowered his head and repeated it to himself.
He pulled copper coins out of his pouch, one by one, counting them out meticulously. After double-checking twice, he handed a handful of copper coins over to the healer.
“Thank you,” Li Qunhe said, clutching the medicine packets. Without waiting for the healer to say anything else, he lowered his head and started walking back.
The moment he turned around, Zhou Xingxing finally got a clear look at Li Qunhe’s face. It turned out to be the exact person who had pulled him out of the water yesterday!
His mouth fell open in surprise. By the time he recovered his senses, he realized the man had already walked far ahead. He quickly lifted his legs to chase after him, only to find the world turning black before his eyes once more.
Right before losing consciousness entirely, the lingering image flashing through his mind was still Li Qunhe’s long legs.
When he finally regained consciousness, it was already the morning of the next day.
The sweet aroma of rice drifted into his nose, and his stomach let out a rebellious growl. Zhou Xingxing snapped upright in a sit-up, his eyes blinking open hazily.
“So fragrant.”
Zhou Xingxing let out a genuine sigh of admiration, squinting his eyes to look around. Yet another unfamiliar place.
Compared to yesterday, however, he took it all in stride today.
“Xing-ge’er, you’re awake. How are you feeling?” After a moment, a middle-aged aunt walked over carrying a steaming bowl of rice porridge.
Zhou Xingxing lifted his gaze, a meager slice of memories surfacing in his mind.
The aunt before him and yesterday’s healer were family; their son served as a resident physician at a medical clinic in town.
Unwilling to leave their hometown, the couple had stayed behind in the village to treat illnesses for the villagers.
“Auntie,” Zhou Xingxing greeted her, opening his mouth.
“It’s good that you’re awake, good that you’re awake. Hurry up and drink some porridge; your stomach has been growling all night.” The healer’s wife made a move to feed Zhou Xingxing.
“Thank you, Auntie, I can do it myself.” Too embarrassed to let her feed him, Zhou Xingxing curved his lips into a smile and quickly took the bowl over.
“You child, you were running a fever and didn’t even know it. Good thing you passed out right outside my door, or your brain would have been baked to a crisp by the fever.” The aunt gave him a slightly reproachful look, though her tone was brimming with full affection.
“I’ve caused trouble for you, Auntie.” Zhou Xingxing thought about it; he must have caught a chill in the river yesterday.
The original owner’s body was truly fragile—just a dip in the water had caused him to fall sick. Back in his old life, he barely even knew what a regular cold or fever felt like.
Once he made money in the future, he definitely needed to properly nourish and strengthen this body!
The healer’s wife was a warm-hearted person, chatting idly with Zhou Xingxing. Zhou Xingxing possessed an extremely lively personality; as long as he wanted to keep a conversation going, there was never a moment where the atmosphere would turn awkward.
“Auntie, how did you cook this porridge? It smells so good, it’s insanely delicious!”
After finishing the bowl of porridge, whether due to the original owner suffering from long-term starvation or not, Zhou Xingxing felt that the rice porridge in his hands tasted infinitely better than any porridge he had ever eaten before!
“This child.”
The look the healer’s wife gave him was filled with profound pity. Such a pitiful child, easily satisfied by a single bowl of rice porridge—who knew how long he had been starving at home.
“If it’s good, eat more! There’s still more in the pot!”
“Auntie, that person who came to our house yesterday to pick up medicine… the guy who is super, super tall—what’s his name? Where does he live?” Zhou Xingxing smiled, pressing his lips together as he still remembered the long legs that had flashed before his eyes when he fainted.
“You mean Li Qunhe, the eldest son of the Li family?” He was the only one who came to pick up medicine yesterday, not to mention there wasn’t another man in the village taller or sturdier than Li Qunhe. “How do you not know him?”
“Auntie, I used to keep my head down doing chores at home, so I didn’t know much about some of the people and things in the village.”
Zhou Xingxing spoke the truth. The original owner’s memories only contained a young childhood version of Li Qunhe; now that he had grown up, his appearance and temperament had changed, so naturally the pieces didn’t match up.
“Sigh, you’ve had a bitter life, child.”
As an old-timer in the village, the aunt knew the ins and outs of every household. With loving care, she patted the back of Zhou Xingxing’s hand and began telling him about Li Qunhe’s situation.
“That boy’s life has been bitter, too. When he was little, he ran a high fever, but treatment was delayed. After the fever broke, he ended up a bit slow and dull.”
“His mother realized something was wrong and took him to town to see a doctor. The clinic healer said his brain had been scorched by the fever and couldn’t be cured, and taking medicine wouldn’t help much. But his mother refused to give up; whenever she saved up a bit of money, she’d go to the township to get herbal decoctions.”
“His father is a scoundrel. At first he paid some attention, but when he saw there was no hope, he quietly ran off by himself. He’s been gone all these years. In recent years, his mother’s health hasn’t been good either, so she always comes to my old man for medicine.”
“Dahe has a younger brother below him, likely born because his mother wanted someone to look after Dahe. Fortunately, Dahe can take care of himself now, and he can earn money to supplement the household expenses. But his head… it’s still not quite bright.”
The aunt recounted many details about Li Qunhe. How could Zhou Xingxing fail to understand? His brain had definitely been fried by a fever.
“Is that so.” Zhou Xingxing felt a twinge of sentimentality in his heart. Such a waste of a fine man.
He remembered going to a night market once and seeing a mother tie her child to her waist with a rope—one end for the child’s safety, and the other end serving as her own lifeline.
“Life is all about fate.”
Looking at Zhou Xingxing’s bright, clear eyes, and recalling the bruises she had seen when applying medicine to him last night, the aunt tightly clasped both of Zhou Xingxing’s hands to warm them up.
“Xing-ge’er, you don’t need to measure and compare hardships. As long as a person is alive, days ahead will get better.”
Stepping out of the aunt’s house, Zhou Xingxing felt a lot lighter. Ancient herbs still possessed miraculous healing efficacy.
However, the mere thought of returning to the original owner’s home made his heart tighten and left a bitter taste in his mouth.
No, things could absolutely not go on like this. He figured he wouldn’t be able to time-travel back again.
He needed to forge an exit strategy for himself.
What to do, what to do, what to do.
“A man.”
Two words suddenly popped into his head.
With no one to rely on here and very little money in his pocket, after turning it over and over in his mind, his current viable route to moving out was to get married.
He wondered if Li Qunhe was already married. He probably wasn’t. The aunt hadn’t mentioned it just now.
If he wasn’t married, marrying Li Qunhe seemed like a pretty decent option.
After all, Li Qunhe was handsome in an earthy, rugged kind of way. When two people are together, mutual attraction is the most important thing.
It didn’t matter if his mind was a bit slow; a slow-witted person wouldn’t lie, wouldn’t fake things, and wouldn’t piss him off, and with his own cleverness, he wouldn’t get taken advantage of.
Besides, even if any issues arose, it didn’t matter—he probably wouldn’t be able to stay mad anyway once he looked at Li Qunhe’s handsome face.
They could slowly cultivate their feelings later; the core principle here was get married first, fall in love later. Right now, the top priority was moving out.
On his walk back, Zhou Xingxing secretly made up his mind: he was definitely going to bag Li Qunhe!
Ah, life, oh life.
Aside from not being able to give birth, he could figure out a way to survive here no matter what!