With a wave of Lu Wanqing’s hand, all the boxes on the ground vanished into her space. Today’s harvest was truly impressive.
Not only had she obtained valuable treasures, she’d also gained a tiger and wolves. Today was really a lucky day.
More than that, it seemed Lu Wanqing was truly heaven’s favored child.
A few hundred meters away, a herd of wild boars was drinking water—an adult boar leading several piglets, a neat and complete family.
Since that was the case, she decided to take them all into her space so the family wouldn’t be separated.
She couldn’t very well break up a family, right?
That would be immoral. Completely immoral.
She said it was immoral—but her hands moved faster than her mouth. In the blink of an eye, the wild boars vanished without a trace.
After collecting so many good things, Lu Wanqing put some firewood into her basket as cover.
Hidden beneath it were real treasures—wild chickens and rabbits. With the original owner’s memories, she knew that people in this era might go an entire year without eating meat even once.
Forget meat—many people couldn’t even get enough wild vegetables.
That was why everyone looked sallow and thin. If any household cooked meat, the smell alone would attract neighbors like dogs catching the scent of bones.
So she had to find a way to keep the meat smell from spreading too far.
Lu Wanqing snapped her fingers and chuckled. Got it.
She’d burn some mugwort to mask the scent—then even if there was a smell of meat, it wouldn’t carry far.
Soon, she reached the back hills. There was no one around—no game to hunt, and no one wanted to waste the energy climbing mountains.
Unless they absolutely had to, people preferred lying down to conserve strength and eat less food.
When hunger became unbearable, they drank more water. Even when their stomachs felt painfully full, they were still starving.
That was simply life in this era—clothes were scarce, food even scarcer. Even tree bark had long been stripped bare.
Things were slightly better now than a few years ago. Back then, people didn’t even have bark to eat. Many had eaten “Guanyin soil” and died from bloating—unable to relieve themselves, their bellies swelling like balloons, waiting helplessly for death.
Surviving in this era was truly not easy.
While working, Xu Mengyi couldn’t focus at all. Her youngest daughter had gone to the back hills for so long—why hadn’t she returned yet? Nothing bad had happened, right?
If she didn’t come back soon, she would go look for her herself.
What if her daughter had taken the breakup too hard and done something reckless?
In Xu Mengyi’s eyes, Lin Yuchuan wasn’t worth much anyway. His mother was difficult, and if her daughter married into that family, she’d suffer endlessly. Yet her daughter had been stubbornly determined to marry him.
Meanwhile, Lu Wanqing had also picked up a lot of chestnuts—great snacks, especially sugar-roasted chestnuts, which were always popular.
At the same time, Lin Yuchuan and Jiang Xiaowei were slacking off at work, hiding away to discuss how to cancel the engagement with Lu Wanqing.
They wanted Lu Wanqing to be the one to bring it up—so all the blame and gossip would fall on her.
That way, Lin Yuchuan could play the role of the wronged, helpless victim.
The算盘 clicked loudly—his scheming was so obvious it was practically hitting people in the face.
Many were waiting eagerly to watch Lu Wanqing and the branch secretary’s family become a joke.
Finally, work ended.
Xu Mengyi ran the fastest.
When she got home and saw her daughter safe and sound, she finally let out a breath of relief.
She pulled Lu Wanqing into the room and whispered anxiously.
“Daughter, listen to me—don’t do anything foolish. If you truly like Lin Yuchuan, your mother can think of a way. At worst, we’ll make some concessions. But I must tell you—he’s not a man you can entrust your life to. The way he looks at you is never affection. It’s either disgust, impatience, or calculation. My foolish girl… your mother would never harm you. In this world, only your mother truly cares for you.”
Lu Wanqing felt the genuine love in her mother’s words. She felt comfort for the original owner—and also deep regret.
A sincere heart had been given to such a scumbag and a scheming woman.
Those two really were made for each other—fit for dogs, living long miserable lives together.
Now that she had come from the apocalypse, she would never let them have an easy life.
Without her help, she wanted to see how far Lin Yuchuan could really go.
Lu Wanqing looked at her mother seriously.
“Mom, ever since I fell into the water, I’ve thought many things through. Lin Yuchuan is not someone worth trusting. And Mom, I’ll tell you this—he’s already been unclear with Jiang Xiaowei for a long time. They might even already have a child. Someone like that has no morals. I’d never be with him.”
“What?!”
“He actually got that educated youth pregnant? Daughter, isn’t he playing with your feelings?”
“Don’t worry. With me here, I’ll go settle accounts with him right now!”
Just then, the rest of the family returned from work and heard Xu Mengyi’s words.
Though disappointed in his sister’s past foolishness, her eldest brother, Lu Yunzhou, couldn’t stand seeing her bullied.
“Dad, Mom—if Lin Yuchuan dares treat my sister like this, I’ll beat him to death today!”
Lu Wanqing quickly stopped him, afraid he’d really do something rash.
It wasn’t worth ruining his life over a scumbag—she had plenty of better ways to deal with him.
“Big brother, don’t go.”
Before she could finish, he interrupted her.
“Little sister, are you still unable to let him go? What’s so great about him—just because he can read and write? He’s like a pretty boy—can’t lift, can’t carry. How’s he supposed to support a family? What on earth were you thinking, liking someone like that?”
“Big brother—and Dad, Second Brother, Third Brother, Little Brother—listen to me. Since falling into the water, I’ve figured things out. Marriage should be between two people who love each other. If he doesn’t like me, why should I force it? I have good conditions—I’m not worried about marrying.”
“What I mean is—we can handle things quietly. We can deal with him however we want. For example, we could sack him and beat him up. But we can’t do it openly. Third Brother—especially you—you’re the most impulsive.”
“Tell me—what feels better? Beating him secretly, or hurting the enemy a thousand while injuring ourselves eight hundred?”
Third Brother Lu Yunheng snorted.
“Wow, little sister—you’re finally using your brain. If you’d been this clear-headed earlier, we wouldn’t have swallowed so much anger. I’ve wanted to beat that brat up for a long time. He was just taking advantage of you. He was clearly using you, and you were blind to it.”
“Let me be clear—if you ever get involved with him again, I won’t acknowledge you as my sister.”
Lu Zhiguo snapped,“You brat—can’t you talk to your sister properly? Why are you yelling at her?”