The next morning, Qinghe woke to find herself wrapped in comforting warmth.
It was the first time she had opened her eyes and found Qin Xiao still beside her.
Usually, he left before dawn. Whenever he returned, his hands were never empty, carrying a few pheasants or rabbits from the mountains.
Whenever there was more meat than they could eat, Qinghe followed his method, burning cypress leaves mixed with spices to smoke the meat.
Once enough had been stored, they could sell it to a restaurant and earn a decent sum.
The slightest movement from Qinghe stirred Qin Xiao awake.
He lifted his eyelids and looked down at the fluffy crown of hair nestled against his chest.
His heart softened instantly.
Lowering his head, he kissed her forehead and asked in a sleepy, husky voice,
“Are you still cold?”
People often said women were made of water.
In the past, Qin Xiao thought it simply meant women cried easily.
But after last night, he had gained a completely different understanding.
When the weather turned chilly, women seemed capable of freezing like water.
Her feet had been so cold that it had taken a long time between his legs before they finally warmed up.
“With Husband holding me, I’m not cold.”
Nestled in his arms, Qinghe’s voice was sweet and soft, carrying a sense of contentment and security she had never experienced before.
In the past, when she had been plump, she was always warm and rarely felt cold, even during winter.
Perhaps she simply wasn’t used to the damp southern climate.
Or perhaps the hardships she endured during exile had weakened her body.
Whatever the reason, she had become especially sensitive to the cold.
Last night, she had seriously suspected that everything below her ankles had died without informing her.
Especially her ten toes.
It felt as though each one had gone off to be reincarnated separately.
When Qin Xiao tucked her feet between his thighs, she had briefly awakened.
The moment she felt his furnace-like body heat, all worries about freezing through future winters disappeared.
Qin Xiao preferred sleeping shirtless.
While lying against him, Qinghe discovered a scar on his lower back.
Since neither of them wanted to get up yet, she casually started a conversation.
“What happened here? Was it from the battlefield?”
As she spoke, her fingertip traced the scar’s outline.
A tingling sensation shot through Qin Xiao’s lower back, racing straight down his spine and tightening his lower abdomen.
He immediately grabbed her wandering hand, his voice turning rough.
“Mm.”
“During battle, we fought in groups of three.”
“The man behind me got his head chopped off. That exposed my back to the enemy, and I took a slash.”
“Fortunately, I’m thick-skinned. It didn’t damage any muscles or bones.”
The dangers of war sounded as ordinary as discussing daily meals when he spoke about them.
Silently, Qinghe offered a prayer.
May there never be another war.
May there never be another military draft.
The moment he finished speaking, Qin Xiao got out of bed.
His movements were swift and decisive, without the slightest hesitation.
Qinghe caught sight of the knee-length shorts he wore, noticing how prominently they were tented.
Unable to help herself, she hid beneath the blanket and quietly giggled.
…
Qinghe had just finished hanging the freshly washed bedding when the Zhou siblings arrived.
Ever since their last visit, when they had brought an entire sack of snakes, she became instantly wary whenever she saw a sack in Zhou Sui’s hands.
“Please don’t tell me it’s snakes again. Why isn’t the bag tied shut?”
As she spoke, she hurried backward in search of Qin Xiao.
Zhou Sui doubled over laughing.
“Sister-in-law, it’s not snakes this time. It’s flowers. Don’t be scared.”
“Flowers?”
Qinghe peeked inside the opened sack.
Sure enough, it was filled with flowers.
The blossoms were white, somewhat resembling lilies but not quite.
The shape of the blooms looked more like hanging bells, and they carried a faint, elegant fragrance.
“What flower is this? It’s beautiful.”
She reached inside to pick one up.
Before her fingers could touch a blossom, Qin Xiao appeared from nowhere and grabbed her wrist.
“Your hands are injured. Don’t touch it.”
“This is White Yu Fragrance. It’s poisonous. If the sap gets into your wounds, your hands could rot.”
Then he frowned and looked at Zhou Sui.
“And you. You saw her reaching for it and didn’t stop her.”
“If her hands get ruined, I’ll chop you up.”
Zhou Sui puffed out her cheeks and snorted.
“How was I supposed to know Sister-in-law was injured?”
Zhou Ye clicked his tongue and punched Qin Xiao squarely in the chest.
“Try yelling at my sister again and see what happens.”
“I’ll be the one chopping you up.”
The two exchanged several sharp remarks.
Although they looked serious, neither was actually angry.
Like brothers, they carried the flowers to the backyard to process them.
Zhou Sui explained that Qin Xiao had taught her how to harvest them.
Using scissors, she cut the flowers directly into the sack without touching them.
It was her first time gathering them.
Although Qin Xiao had repeatedly warned her about the plant’s toxicity, she had never seen its effects firsthand and simply forgot to warn Qinghe.
For that, she sincerely apologized.
“They use these to poison arrowheads.”
“It can also be made into an anesthetic. Hunters use it when they want to catch animals alive.”
While the men worked in the backyard preparing poison, Qinghe returned indoors to cut fabric for the wedding clothes.
The moment Zhou Sui spotted the bolt of silk gauze, then noticed the fading handprint on Qinghe’s face, her bold brows immediately furrowed.
“So Qin Auntie really hit you yesterday?”
She had only returned from gathering flowers yesterday afternoon and happened to overhear a group of village women discussing it.
Normally, she had little interest in gossip and ignored such things.
But seeing the faint mark on Qinghe’s cheek confirmed everything.
Qinghe nodded while continuing to cut fabric.
Soon, she had neatly cut a piece for the upper garment.
Zhou Sui wasn’t skilled at sewing, so she simply sat nearby watching.
Then she asked bluntly,
“So did you hit her back?”
Qinghe laughed softly and shook her head.
“She’s Qin Xiao’s mother.”
“If a daughter-in-law strikes her mother-in-law, she can be punished with beatings.”
Qin Xiao had never hidden Qinghe’s background from Zhou Ye.
Naturally, Zhou Sui knew as well.
The moment she heard that answer, her temper flared.
She didn’t know that Qinghe had cleverly neutralized Madam Qin’s tantrum with words the day before.
In Zhou Sui’s eyes, Qinghe looked like a clay doll with no temper at all.
Someone who got slapped and didn’t even dare fight back.
The kind of young wife who would be bullied endlessly by her mother-in-law.
That simply wouldn’t do.
She had to teach this former palace servant how survival worked in the countryside.
“In our villages, fights between mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law happen all the time.”
“Women in the city are terrified of being divorced, but village women aren’t.”
“Do you know why?”
Qinghe set down her scissors and looked at her curiously.
“Why?”
“Because country people are poor.”
“Most men can only afford to marry once in their entire lives.”
“If they divorce their wife, there’s a good chance they’ll stay bachelors forever.”
“So around here, being a daughter-in-law means being tougher than everyone else.”
“If you’re tougher than your mother-in-law, nobody in the family dares bully you.”
“But if you’re not, then you’ll spend your life being pushed around.”
For a moment, Qinghe fell silent.
If she remembered correctly, Huazhi had once accompanied their mistress while she recovered from illness in the countryside.
Someone had mentioned that the woman bought by Ma San’s family was famously fierce and even dared wield a mountain-cleaving blade…
Zhou Sui’s voice snapped her back to the present.
“As for ending up in court and getting beaten, don’t worry about it.”
“Unless somebody dies, the magistrate doesn’t care about family squabbles.”
“And if someone actually drags a case like this to court, neither side wins.”
“The first thing they’ll do is give both parties thirty lashes.”
“Do you know why?”
Qinghe’s dark eyes rolled thoughtfully.
“Because there are too many cases like that?”
“The magistrate can’t possibly deal with all of them.”
“So they created the rule to discourage villagers from constantly bringing petty disputes to court?”
Zhou Sui slapped the table enthusiastically.
“Exactly!”
“That’s exactly it.”
“So no matter who bullies you, as long as nobody dies and nobody loses an arm or a leg, fight back.”
“Don’t be so good-natured that people walk all over you.”
“Once someone gets away with it once, they’ll keep pushing their luck.”
Outside the room, Qin Xiao stood holding a bowl of dark medicinal soup.
After hearing those words, he gave Zhou Ye a thumbs-up.
“Your sister’s got it right.”
“When she gets married someday, nobody’s going to bully her.”
Zhou Ye lowered his eyes and chuckled softly.
“Whoever’s stupid enough to bully her…”
“I’ll make sure she never has a mother-in-law in the first place.”
Qin Xiao: “…”
You really are ruthless.
After saying that, Qin Xiao continued toward the backyard.
But Zhou Ye remained standing outside the doorway, listening to his little sister teach someone how to be a proper daughter-in-law.
The sister he had raised from childhood.
Would she really get married one day?
Just imagining it filled him with unexpected reluctance.
Inside the room, Zhou Sui was completely unaware that her brother was already mourning her future marriage.
At that moment, her curiosity was focused on something entirely different.
She leaned close to Qinghe’s ear and casually asked a question without the slightest embarrassment.
The moment Qinghe heard it, she stared at Zhou Sui in shock.