In the summer of the tenth year of the Jianxing era, in Xu Family Village at the foot of Niujiao Mountain in Shuangquan Town, Tong County, Qingzhou, it was the time for an afternoon nap after lunch. The scorching sun blazed, and the cicadas chirped noisily. The crops in the fields drooped their heads, half-dead from the sun.
Without any warning, a heart-wrenching scream suddenly rang out. Like a clap of thunder, it shattered the silent sky. It startled many people, who jolted and scrambled off their kangs, running outside without even putting on their shoes properly.
As they ran in a panic, they yelled anxiously, “What’s wrong? What’s happened now? The heavens won’t give us rain, and it looks like we’ll have to flee the famine and beg for food soon. Please don’t let anything else happen…”
Someone who knew the situation pursed their lips and pointed to the eye-catching large residence at the head of the village. “It’s the third son of Old Xu the Second’s family. That scream just now was from him…”
“What was he screaming about?”
“His wife was having a difficult birth. They called Doctor Jiao, and she finally managed to deliver the baby, but now she’s bleeding uncontrollably. Doctor Jiao said that to save her life, they need good medicine. A single dose costs two taels of silver, and to make a full recovery, she’ll need at least five doses…”
Hearing this, the onlookers couldn’t help but gasp. “My goodness, what kind of medicine costs two taels of silver? Wouldn’t five doses be ten taels? With that kind of money, you could marry two new wives! And young, unmarried ones at that!”
As soon as this was said, someone nearby immediately glared and retorted, “We can’t even afford to eat, and you’re talking about marrying new wives? With that silver, buying grain is what matters. The wheat at the town’s grain shop has already gone up to fifteen copper coins a catty…”
“What? When I asked last time, it was still ten coins. How did it get so expensive in just a few days?”
“Why don’t you compare it to last year? It was only five coins a catty last year…”
“Aiyo, oh heavens, are you trying to starve us common folk? This year’s wheat harvest was already poor. We were hoping to plant sorghum and beans in the second half of the year to make up for it, but it hasn’t rained for a month straight. If this drought continues, what harvest will there be? We might as well just hang ourselves and wait for death…”
After saying this, the person couldn’t help but slap their thighs and start wailing dryly. The topic was instantly derailed. Everyone felt a shared sense of misery, and no one cared anymore about the Xu family’s daughter-in-law lying on the kang, waiting to be saved.
Gu Huanxi was trying hard to save herself. She had no other choice. She didn’t want to die right after transmigrating. In fact, when she first opened her eyes and saw the hell-level difficulty of her starting situation, she had really wanted to be reincarnated again. It was too miserable, too difficult, completely snuffing out any will to survive. But the cries of her newborn daughter, as weak as a kitten’s, reminded her: a mother’s love makes her strong.
So, she had to struggle on her deathbed.
Inside the adobe house, only she and her daughter lay on the hard kang, covered by a thin, heavily patched quilt. The dry straw that had been under her during childbirth had already been taken out and burned. Now, an old mattress was spread beneath her, and she was still bleeding continuously.
The original owner of this body had probably died this way. Now that she had taken over, if she didn’t stop the bleeding, she would be finished too.
Outside the door, the argument was still raging. A sharp, acidic voice said, “Third Uncle-in-law, why are you being so stubborn? Didn’t Doctor Jiao just say it? Your wife has damaged her body. Even if she’s saved, she won’t be able to have any more children, and she won’t be able to do heavy work. What use is she then? In a farming family like ours, who can afford to have someone just lying on the kang waiting to be served?”
“Don’t blame your sister-in-law for being blunt. I’m just looking out for you and for this family. Let’s not even talk about whether our family can afford ten taels of silver. Even if we could, wouldn’t it be better to use it to marry you a new, young wife who can give you a son? That way you’ll have someone to smash the basin and carry the funeral banner for you when you’re gone.”
Then, a greasy male voice chimed in, “Third Brother, what your second sister-in-law said might be crude, but it’s not wrong. You can stop kneeling and kowtowing. Even if you kneel to death, our family can’t produce ten taels of silver. You can’t force Mom and Dad to sell everything we own just to save your wife, can you? What about the rest of us in this big family? Are we supposed to live on air?”
Xu Huaiyi’s head was buzzing from kowtowing so forcefully earlier. The original owner of this body had been too earnest, his head hitting the ground with loud thuds, his face a mess of blood, yet he still couldn’t move a single person in this family.
The original owner must have been so desperate before he died, right?
He straightened up. After struggling to open his eyes, he saw a man and a woman in ancient-style clothing, dodging away with frightened expressions, as if terrified by his blood-covered face.
Directly in front of where he knelt stood a spacious five-room, tile-roofed house, the most magnificent in Xu Family Village. But at this moment, its door was shut tight, and not a sound came from within.
He had the original owner’s memories, so at this moment, he felt a profound sense of anger and grief. But right now, he couldn’t be bothered with anything else; he had to find his wife first.
Speaking of which, his wife must have transmigrated with him, right?
He staggered to the door of a room in the west wing. Taking a deep breath, and afraid of scaring her, he first wiped the blood from his face with his sleeve. Only then did he push open the door with trepidation, his gaze meeting Gu Huanxi’s just as she looked over.
Gu Huanxi blinked, her expression a little dazed. Looking at just his face, this man bore a sixty to seventy percent resemblance to Xu Huaiyi. But where was the 186-centimeter-tall man?
This shrinkage was too much, wasn’t it? A whole ten centimeters!
Xu Huaiyi was also sizing her up. Willow-leaf brows, almond eyes, a cherry-like mouth—exactly like his wife. She was just too thin, and her complexion was awful, deathly pale, as if coated with a layer of white wall putty…
He walked in cautiously, closed the door behind him, and tentatively called out, “Huanxi?”
Gu Huanxi grunted noncommittally, her eyes falling on his thin upper body. Well, the tall guy is gone, and so are the abs he spent so much money and sweat on at the gym. This transmigration is a huge loss.
Xu Huaiyi cautiously approached the kang and called out again in a cloying tone, “Wifey?”
Gu Huanxi rolled her eyes. “Are you ever going to stop calling me? I’m about to bleed dry…”
Hearing the familiar tone, Xu Huaiyi finally let out a long sigh of relief and lunged forward excitedly. “Wifey! Huanxi! You scared me to death! I was so afraid you didn’t come with me. What would I do here all alone…”
Gu Huanxi was nearly suffocated by his weight. Furious, she pinched his waist hard and pushed him through gritted teeth. “If you don’t get up, you’re about to be all alone.”
Hearing this, Xu Huaiyi reacted a beat later and shot up as if he’d been burned. He then began to fumble around her body frantically. “Wifey, how are you? Right, right, you just gave birth, you’re bleeding! What do we do? Right, we have to find Doctor Jiao, but we don’t have any silver. The family won’t give us any. It was no use even when I kowtowed until my head bled…”
He became flustered when he panicked, like a headless fly, especially when it concerned her. He could scare himself to tears. This flaw of his was incurable.
“Listen to me now. Go lock the door first!”
“Oh, oh…”
Follow all commands—Xu Huaiyi had thoroughly implemented this principle in his past life, and this life was no different. Listen to your wife, and you’ll have a full stomach!
After he locked the door and confirmed that no one could get in, Gu Huanxi held their daughter with one hand and pulled him with the other. She silently recited in her mind, “Enter the RV,” and then a magical scene occurred.
The family of three vanished on the spot, leaving only a worn-out quilt on the earthen kang.