Lu Jinghuai had long known that someone new had joined the household, but he had never been able to see her. Through the wall, he could hear the young girl’s soft and gentle voice, yet he could hardly imagine what she looked like.
His mother said she had been brought in as a shared wife for the three brothers.
But in his heart, he already considered himself a useless cripple. Perhaps he would never stand up again for the rest of his life.
What right did someone like him have to a wife?
So in his mind, Lin Xiyue should belong to the second brother. He simply hadn’t exposed the truth because he didn’t want to upset their mother.
Ever since they agreed to marry, their mother’s health had visibly improved.
They all knew it was because of her emotional burden, so naturally none of them dared say anything more. They only hoped her health would continue getting better.
Lin Xiyue wasn’t unfamiliar with gathering herbs in the mountains.
In her previous life, her grandfather also liked searching mountain forests for natural wild herbs, and she had often accompanied him.
However, such a vast mountain range was still something she had never seen before.
The Lu family house was built at the foot of the mountain. It was somewhat remote but not too far from the village.
Looking at the rows of mud-brick houses, Lin Xiyue realized that it wasn’t just the Lu family that was poor—the entire village was poor.
Lujia Village was a small settlement located in a mountain basin. Because the terrain was low and the surrounding mountains stretched endlessly, entering and leaving the village was very inconvenient.
Even taking an ox cart to the nearest county town took more than an hour.
Calling it a poor mountain village was no exaggeration.
Although Lu Yanqiu looked thin and weak, he moved swiftly along the mountain paths.
He was also quite talkative. Along the way, he introduced many plants and herbs to Lin Xiyue.
Even though Lin Xiyue already recognized most of them, she still listened patiently.
In her previous life, she had already been twenty-one, but this body was only seventeen.
Lu Yanqiu seemed to be a year younger than the original owner.
In her previous world, kids their age would still be in high school. Yet here, he already had to shoulder the responsibility of supporting the family.
“Look! A rabbit!”
Lu Yanqiu suddenly exclaimed.
Lin Xiyue snapped back to attention and looked over.
Sure enough, a rabbit was crouching in the grass.
Instinctively she touched herself, looking for tools—but of course she had nothing.
“What a pity I don’t know how to hunt. If Big Brother were here, he’d definitely hit that rabbit.”
While Lu Yanqiu was lamenting, Lin Xiyue suddenly grabbed the woodcutting machete from the basket on her back and threw it toward the rabbit.
Before Lu Yanqiu even had time to cry out in surprise, he saw the blade fly straight through the rabbit.
The rabbit didn’t even have time to run before dying on the spot.
Lin Xiyue let out a breath of relief.
Although her strength was weaker in this body, her accuracy was still there.
After all, she had good physical skills in her previous life. If she couldn’t even kill a rabbit, it would be truly embarrassing.
“You actually hit it? Xiaoyue, that’s amazing!”
Lu Yanqiu praised her sincerely.
Lin Xiyue gave an awkward laugh.
“Haha… just luck. I didn’t expect my luck to be so good.”
Lu Yanqiu had a simple personality and didn’t notice anything unusual about her skill.
Along the way he focused on gathering wild vegetables and collecting firewood, barely paying attention to what Lin Xiyue was doing.
But Lin Xiyue knew far more herbs than him.
This mountain was practically full of treasures. As they walked deeper into the forest, more and more rare herbs appeared.
Whenever she encountered small wild fruit plants, Lin Xiyue secretly transplanted them into the black soil of her space.
For now she had nothing to plant there anyway.
So she simply transplanted some wild vegetables into the space first—it was better than leaving the land empty.
Besides, she also wanted to see if that black soil had any special properties.
“Xiaoyue, there’s a red fruit tree over there. Mother really likes those. Let’s pick some!”
Lu Yanqiu suddenly called out.
Lin Xiyue turned to look and saw him running toward a fruit tree growing near a cliff.
Seeing the bright red fruits, she walked over as well.
“Wild hawthorn?”
Lin Xiyue thought it was some unfamiliar fruit at first, but when she got closer she realized it was actually wild hawthorn.
And the tree was quite large.
“It’s too tall. I can’t reach it.”
Lu Yanqiu tried several times from below but couldn’t hook any fruit.
Seeing his somewhat silly and adorable attempts, Lin Xiyue couldn’t help laughing.
“You silly boy. If you want fruit, you have to climb the tree. How could you pick them just standing down there?”
Her words instantly annoyed him.
Although he was young, he was already sixteen—old enough to get married here. Yet she called him a silly boy?
“Lin Xiyue, I’m your man! How dare you laugh at me?”
He instinctively tried to use that fact to suppress her, but as soon as he said it he regretted it.
After all, he had always thought of her as a sister-in-law, not someone for himself.
He’d better watch what he said in the future. What if this troublesome girl actually believed him and fell for him?
Lin Xiyue completely ignored his words.
She rubbed her hands together, grabbed the crooked tree trunk, and climbed up in just a few quick moves.
“What are you standing there for? Catch them!”
She skillfully picked many hawthorns. When she saw Lu Yanqiu staring blankly at her, she shouted at him.
Lu Yanqiu was completely shocked by her agility.
Is that something a girl should be able to do?
Was this brat a monkey in her previous life or something? She climbs trees so well!
As Lin Xiyue tossed the fruits down, Lu Yanqiu hurriedly caught them with his basket. He also picked up the ones that fell on the ground.
When they had already collected seven or eight jin of hawthorn, Lu Yanqiu finally shouted,
“That’s enough! These things are really sour. We won’t finish them if we pick too many.”
Lin Xiyue stopped picking once he said it was enough.
The ground was only about two or three meters below, so she instinctively prepared to jump down.
But by the time she realized she was no longer in her original body, it was already too late.
“Ah—!”
Lu Yanqiu didn’t expect her to jump from that height.
Instinctively, he rushed forward to catch her.
Unfortunately, his thin body was far too weak.
Not only did he fail to catch her, he even lost his footing and fell down himself—perfectly becoming a human cushion.
The scream that followed was from Lu Yanqiu.
“My waist…”
He held his back with a pained expression.
Although Lin Xiyue now had a different body, jumping from that height wasn’t really a problem for her.
At worst she might land less gracefully than before, maybe even fall—but serious injury was unlikely.
She just hadn’t expected this foolish boy to try catching her.
And fail at it.
“Are you alright?”
She quickly helped him up.
Fortunately, he had only been knocked down and wasn’t seriously injured.
“I’m fine. I was just almost crushed by you.”
Lu Yanqiu complained weakly while rubbing his back.
“You’re too weak. If you met a large animal in the mountains, wouldn’t you end up running all over the mountain trying to escape?”
Lin Xiyue wasn’t deliberately mocking him.
The truth was that his body really was too weak—he clearly lacked exercise.
Lu Wenyuan might be thin, but at least he was a scholar.
But Lu Yanqiu ran around the mountains all day. If his body stayed this weak, wouldn’t he just become food for the mountain animals?
Fortunately, the boy wasn’t stupid and knew not to enter the deeper forest.
Otherwise he probably would have already become fertilizer for the mountains.
“Hmph! I’m stronger than you. I could easily carry you down the mountain!” Lu Yanqiu retorted.