Consummate the marriage?
Wait a second!
Luo Wangshu forcefully pushed at the large body pinning him down. He absolutely did not want to lose his chastity!
The clothes on his body were stripped away in a few swift movements. Luo Wangshu tried to kick him, but Mo Li easily suppressed him with his long arms and legs.
“Be good. It’ll hurt a little.” Mo Li grinned foolishly.
After speaking, he leaned down and planted a hard kiss on Luo Wangshu’s lips before contentedly hugging him and falling asleep…
Asleep?
Luo Wangshu broke out in cold sweat from fright. His hands and feet were still trembling uncontrollably, yet the person crushing him had simply fallen asleep like that.
His heart nearly jumped out of his throat.
Luo Wangshu cautiously tried pushing the man on top of him and received a dissatisfied mumble in return.
“Wife, sleep obediently. We still have to work in the fields tomorrow.”
Luo Wangshu: “…”
Could it be this idiot didn’t actually know what consummating a marriage meant?
Feeling like he had discovered the truth, Luo Wangshu stared at the face right before him.
That firm, sharply defined face didn’t look foolish at all.
Luo Wangshu originally thought he wouldn’t be able to sleep, but gradually, while listening to Mo Li’s long steady breathing and calm heartbeat, he drifted off as well.
At dawn, just as the sky began to brighten with the pale light of fish belly white, Mo Li got up.
Luo Wangshu was still sleeping soundly beneath him, so he carefully climbed down. After seeing the spot he’d kissed last night, he grinned foolishly for a while.
Now wife would give him babies, right?
After closing the door quietly, Mo Li drank a bowl of porridge, ate several cornbreads with pickled vegetables, carried several loads of water to fill the vats, grabbed a sickle, and headed out to work.
Meanwhile, Mo Fang had already gone up the mountain to gather medicinal herbs.
When Luo Wangshu woke up, the house was empty.
He rubbed his stiff neck. His lips burned painfully, and his body hurt too—probably from being crushed under that idiot for too long.
He scooped water from the vat to wash up. For brushing teeth, they used a fuzzy plant dipped in saltwater. It wasn’t comfortable, but it was better than nothing.
He grabbed a cornbread from the pot and took a bite of the pickled vegetables.
The taste wasn’t bad.
After eating his fill, the two still hadn’t returned. Feeling bored, Luo Wangshu began sweeping the yard and washing clothes.
Given his current situation, he didn’t dare run away.
First, there was the unknown discrimination from the people of this world.
Second, his body was weak and his legs still inconvenient.
If he ran off looking like this, he’d definitely end up sold again. Would he really be lucky enough to meet someone like Mo Li a second time?
After pulling all the weeds from the yard, Luo Wangshu sat on a stool and grew drowsy.
Those two had gone out without even telling him.
Were they really not afraid he’d run away?
Creak—
The wooden door was pushed open.
Luo Wangshu thought Mo Li had returned and immediately stretched his neck to look over.
But the people entering weren’t Mo Li or Mo Fang.
When Mo Fang returned with a basket full of medicinal herbs, he saw Mo Li working alone in the fields. Luo Wangshu was nowhere in sight.
Growing anxious, he quickly walked over.
“You foolish brat! Where’s your wife?!”
Mo Li stopped harvesting and wiped the sweat from his face with the towel hanging around his neck.
“At home.”
“You stupid child! You just bought him back and didn’t keep an eye on him? What if he ran away? Didn’t I tell you to bring him out with you?” Mo Fang stomped his foot in frustration.
Mo Li was dumbfounded too and muttered, “Wife won’t run away.”
“Why’re you still harvesting rice? Hurry back and check!” Mo Fang urged.
Mo Li had no choice but to grab his sickle and stride quickly toward home.
Inside the mud-brick house, Luo Wangshu brought stools over for the two visitors. The middle-aged man’s rat-like eyes stuck to his body, while the thin woman beside him, whose face was full of exhaustion, stood meekly with her head lowered, not daring to sit.
“So you’re the wife bought back by that fool? He even dares take in a monster from Mingyue Kingdom. Just as expected of an idiot.” The man spoke in a mocking tone.
Luo Wangshu ignored him and quietly stepped backward, moving closer to the hoe leaning against the wall.
“That face and figure really are nice…” The man’s lewd gaze was nauseating.
Watching the man approach step by step, Luo Wangshu’s eyes darkened. The moment the man lunged at him, he grabbed the hoe and smashed it toward the man’s forehead.
“Hiss—!”
The man glared at Luo Wangshu in disbelief.
“You filthy bitch! You dare hit me?!”
The woman stood there like a puppet the entire time, silent and motionless.
Luo Wangshu gripped the hoe tightly and stared at the man warily. That hit should’ve been harder!
He just didn’t know whether killing someone in ancient times would get him into trouble…
The man became enraged by Luo Wangshu’s resistance. When Luo Wangshu swung the hoe again, the man easily caught it and threw it aside. Then a large fan-like palm slapped across Luo Wangshu’s face.
Five bright finger marks immediately appeared on his pale cheek.
“Wife!”
Mo Li’s voice reached him through the buzzing in his ears. Luo Wangshu vaguely saw him and finally relaxed a little.
The moment Mo Li saw the red handprint on Luo Wangshu’s face, he grabbed the middle-aged man with one hand and unleashed a barrage of slaps.
Smack smack smack—
He only stopped after beating the man’s dark face into a swollen pig head.
“Wife…” Mo Li hugged Luo Wangshu heartbrokenly. He didn’t even dare speak loudly to his wife, yet someone had actually hit him.
And it was the person he hated most!
The more Mo Li thought about it, the angrier he became. He added another kick, causing the man to collapse on the ground wailing in agony while blood gushed from his nose.
Luo Wangshu tightly clutched Mo Li’s sleeve. His left ear buzzed as though a bee had gotten trapped inside.
When Mo Fang entered, this was the scene he saw.
Combining what he knew of the man’s character, he frowned slightly. However, the fact that Luo Wangshu hadn’t run away surprised him and also made him begin treating Luo Wangshu as part of the family.
Since someone from his family had been bullied, naturally he couldn’t just let it go.
The moment the man saw Mo Fang arrive, he roared, “I’m going to report you to the magistrate for murder!”
Mo Fang calmly walked over to Luo Wangshu and checked his face.
That slap really hadn’t held back at all. The swelling probably wouldn’t go down for two or three days.
“Besides your face hurting, is there anywhere else uncomfortable?”
Luo Wangshu didn’t know how he managed to understand him so clearly, but in a daze he answered, “My ears are buzzing.”
Mo Fang froze briefly.
So he wasn’t mute after all?
Or had that slap beaten him into speaking?
Whichever it was, now wasn’t the time to ask.
“Try swallowing hard.”
Luo Wangshu followed his instructions. The ringing in his ears eased considerably, though his ear still burned painfully.
“Apply some medicine later. It’ll be fine in a few days.” Mo Fang patted Mo Li’s shoulder and told him to take Luo Wangshu inside.
Only after the two entered the room did Mo Fang finally turn toward the man sprawled on the ground making a scene.
“Enough, Zhao Dayuan. You came to my house to bully my daughter-in-law and still think you’re justified?”
Zhao Dayuan sneered. “Which eye of yours saw me bullying your daughter-in-law?”
Mo Fang frowned and turned toward the woman nearby. His tone softened slightly as he asked, “Why’ve you come again?”
The woman fearfully glanced at Zhao Dayuan and stammered, “Brother Mo… Dayuan lost silver gambling and wanted to borrow some…”
Mo Fang glanced at Zhao Dayuan again. The latter patted the dust off himself with an arrogant expression, as though he was certain the money would be “borrowed.”
Seeing that Mo Fang had no intention of lending money, the woman panicked and tearfully knelt down.
“Brother Mo, I beg you! Dayuan really will sell me to a brothel!”
Looking at the woman’s increasingly haggard face, Mo Fang sighed heavily.
“Ali just got married, and the house needs repairs too. I don’t have extra silver. You… you should ask someone else.”
“So how’re we settling the matter of your idiot son beating me?” Zhao Dayuan wiped away the blood from his nose and glared viciously at Mo Fang.
“And how’re we settling the matter of you hitting my daughter-in-law? And what about all the silver you borrowed before? When’re you paying it back?”
Mo Fang’s few calm sentences instantly rendered Zhao Dayuan speechless.
“Bah!”
Spitting out a mouthful of bloody saliva, Zhao Dayuan grabbed the woman by her hair from the ground.
“You’re ruthless!”
After shouting that, he dragged the woman away.
Mo Fang stared absentmindedly at the woman’s frail back and sighed deeply.
After so many years, it was time to cut things off.
Inside the room, Mo Li carefully wiped Luo Wangshu’s face with a wet cloth.
Even though he was a huge man, his movements were unexpectedly gentle.
Luo Wangshu felt somewhat uncomfortable. He tried saying he could do it himself, but Mo Li absolutely refused.
Sigh.
It was only a slap.
When he was little, that woman had scalded his hand with boiling water, leaving behind a scar the size of a bowl, and he hadn’t said anything then either. Slaps had long since become commonplace.
After all, he was an illegitimate child everyone despised.
“Wife, if I blow on it, it won’t hurt anymore. Be good.”
Mo Li’s tone, like he was coaxing a child, made Luo Wangshu both laugh and cry.
Despite having such a serious face, his actions and speech were even more childish than an actual child’s.
“It doesn’t hurt anymore.”
Luo Wangshu finally couldn’t hold back from speaking. If he stayed silent any longer, this guy would probably cry.
“Really?” Mo Li blinked and asked.
Luo Wangshu nodded firmly.
Only then did Mo Li relax.
Then…
“Huh? Wife, you can talk now?”
Luo Wangshu froze for a moment.
Crap. He’d exposed himself.
But why did listening to Mo Li speak no longer feel awkward at all?
Did this mean he had completely fused with this body?
Before Luo Wangshu could think it through, Mo Fang’s voice sounded from outside.
“Done talking yet? If you’re done, come apply medicine. Any later and you might end up disfigured.”
Mo Fang spoke irritably from the doorway.
Mo Li hurriedly dragged Luo Wangshu outside while continuously muttering, “Wife, lemme tell you, Father’s medicine is amazing. Last time I got burned by fire, it stopped hurting as soon as I applied it. Nice and cool.”
The medicinal room was filled with the fragrance of herbs.
Luo Wangshu realized this wasn’t the sort of herbal stock ordinary farming households kept. There were simply too many herbs here.
Could normal people even use this many?
So this man was actually a doctor?
The cool sensation on his face pulled him back to reality as Mo Fang slowly said, “Yesterday I saw you walking strangely and thought you were lame. But now it looks more like an injury, and one that hurt the bone too. I’ll apply some medicine and secure it with splints later. If the bone heals crooked, then you really will become crippled.”
Luo Wangshu stared at Mo Fang in surprise.
Just from the way someone walked, he could tell the difference between lameness and injury?
Were ancient doctors all this amazing?
“Stop pretending to be mute in front of me.”
Luo Wangshu lowered his head awkwardly. “Thank you.”
“You can read, you can talk, and you’re clean and fair-looking. How’d someone like you end up exiled here?”
Mo Fang muttered to himself before giving up thinking about it.
As long as his foolish son liked him, that was enough.
Only then did Luo Wangshu secretly realize that he’d been treated as an exile all along.
No wonder everyone here looked at him unfriendly.
“Old sir, how did you know I was exiled?” He didn’t exactly grow extra body parts, so how had they recognized it?
Mo Fang glanced sideways at him.
“Call me Father.”
Luo Wangshu hesitated for a moment before weakly saying, “Father…”
Mo Fang nodded in satisfaction.
“First, your eyes are pale gold. That’s the symbol of Mingyue Kingdom. Second, aside from exiles, no men from Mingyue Kingdom come to the Dayuan Empire.”
So that was it…
“I’m very curious what exactly you did,” Mo Fang said while examining him.
Mo Li suddenly hugged Luo Wangshu possessively and said unhappily, “Father, wife is mine!”
Mo Fang instantly couldn’t tolerate it anymore and smacked him on the head.
“You brat! Only you would fancy a decorative vase like this!”
Luo Wangshu’s lips curved upward ever so slightly.
Maybe… he really had a home now.