Big Buckteeth raised his chin, looking smug and arrogant.
“I’m definitely better than you. At least… my brain works normally.”
Just that alone was enough to crush Gu Zhou.
“Not necessarily!” Gu Zhou spat out coldly. “You’re full of bad intentions. Let them ferment inside you, and one day you might end up with sores on the soles of your feet and pus dripping from the top of your head.”
“Gu Zhou, you bastard! How dare you curse my child?”
“I didn’t say anything about your child. I was only talking about you.”
Gu Zhou stared at him coldly.
“Let’s wait and see who ends up living the more miserable life.”
Big Buckteeth turned around and walked away, not even bothering to wait for the woman behind him.
“Husband, slow down! Wait for me!”
The woman hurried after him.
Ji Yun looked puzzled.
What was wrong with this guy? Did he come all this way just to pick a fight?
He ran away because he couldn’t win the argument?
Clearly, Gu Zhou didn’t think she could understand the quarrel between them.
“Don’t mind him. His brain isn’t normal either, just like yours.”
Ji Yun…
That feels oddly insulting.
“Are you really okay by yourself?”
Gu Zhou was still worried.
Ji Yun pushed him away.
With him around, how was she supposed to communicate with the animals?
“Don’t run around, okay? If you get lost, I might still be able to find you. But if you run into a wild beast, you’ll be in trouble. There are tigers in this forest. Big tigers. Roar!”
Gu Zhou made a tiger-roaring gesture.
“With that tiny body of yours, you wouldn’t even be enough to get stuck between a tiger’s teeth.”
Ji Yun didn’t want to bother with him.
She simply squatted down and poured the dirty clothes out of the wooden basin.
“You really don’t appreciate me. Let me tell you, I’m your man. If you dare not listen to me, I’ll…”
He raised his palm high.
But when his eyes met Ji Yun’s clear gaze, his raised hand suddenly froze.
“What kind of sin did I commit in my past life to end up with a fool like you?”
“For the first half of my life, I was a son to my parents. For the second half, I have to be a son to you. What a miserable fate.”
Gu Zhou slowly lowered his hand.
Ji Yun quietly stared at him.
She couldn’t understand why a grown man had so much to say.
(Several thousand words omitted.)
After finally finishing his long lecture, Gu Zhou added, “In short, don’t run around. Come straight home after you finish washing the clothes. If I find out you didn’t listen to me, I’ll…”
He had to admit that he hadn’t figured out how to threaten a fool yet.
Ji Yun nodded and once again gestured for him to go do his own thing.
Only then did Gu Zhou turn around and leave, grumbling as he limped away.
Once he was far enough away, Ji Yun almost laughed out loud.
This man actually wasn’t bad at heart.
He was responsible, too.
He was just a little too long-winded.
After Gu Zhou disappeared into the forest, Ji Yun threw down the basin, rolled up her trouser legs, and stepped into the water.
The stream wasn’t deep, only reaching slightly above her knees.
The water was refreshingly cool.
Yesterday, she remembered seeing the little black fish dart into a crack between the rocks on the opposite bank.
She wondered if it was still there after spending the night.
“Little electric eel, come out! Let’s be friends.”
However, she searched through rock after rock and still couldn’t find any sign of the black fish.
“Maybe I saw it wrong. Forget it. I’ll just have to do it the hard way.”
Ji Yun wiped the sweat from her forehead and climbed back onto the bank.
Quite a few lush green wild plants grew along the shore.
She looked them over.
Most were just weeds.
Wait.
There were wild vegetables here too.
Behind that large tree, wasn’t that a clump of water fern?
They looked incredibly tender.
She had eaten them during the apocalypse, and they actually tasted quite good.
Of course, the ferns back then had been enlarged countless times.
That was why she hadn’t recognized them at first.
She quickly picked a large handful of young ferns and then continued washing the clothes.
By the time she finished the pile of clothes, it was almost noon.
Ji Yun followed the same path back.
Grasshoppers jumped around in the grass, their movements catching her eye.
Ji Yun put down the wooden basin and extended a finger.
Blue light flickered at her fingertip.
The grasshopper tried to escape but couldn’t move even an inch.
“Little grasshopper, don’t run. Come into my palm.”
………
After a friendly exchange with the grasshopper, the blue flame at her fingertip became more solid.
She could now control two grasshoppers at the same time.
“It really works. It’s just too slow, but there’s nothing I can do about that.”
Ji Yun shook her head and continued toward the wooden house.
The sun climbed higher, and the forest gradually became hotter.
Ji Yun quickened her pace.
In the distance, a man and a woman stood in front of the wooden house, looking toward the forest.
When they saw Ji Yun emerge from the trees, they both rushed toward her, their expressions filled with excitement and their eyes slightly red.
The woman immediately pulled her into her arms.
With tears in her voice, she said, “Yun’er, your mother is sorry. If those people hadn’t tied me up, I would never have let them take you away, even if I had to fight them to the death.”
“Yun’er, I heard the authorities matched you with a cripple. Does he treat you well? Has he bullied you?”
Ji Yun shook her head.
The man looked her over.
Although she was somewhat dark and thin, she was still fairly clean.
There were no injuries on her body either.
It seemed that the family hadn’t mistreated her simply because she was a fool.
“Mother of the child, she’s fine. Stop crying.”
“How can you say she’s fine? Our daughter was married off without us even knowing, and you call that fine?”
The woman turned and shouted at him.
“…”
Looking at the sincerity in their eyes and their similar features, Ji Yun understood.
These must be the original body’s parents.
Sure enough, her chest suddenly felt heavy, as though a large stone had been placed on it.
The man immediately took the wooden basin from her hands.
“Yun’er, go rest. Your father will do this.”
“You’re so clumsy. What can you do? Move aside, I’ll do it.”
The woman rolled her eyes at him, snatched the clothes from his hands, shook them out, and hung them on the bamboo pole in the courtyard.
The man gave an honest, sheepish smile.
While working, the woman smiled apologetically at Grandma Gu.
“Mother-in-law, from now on, I’ll have to ask you to take good care of our Yun’er. Her mind is a little slow, so please be patient with her. She can learn.”
The man smiled humbly as well.
“Of course.”
Grandma Gu’s expression was anything but warm.
She didn’t even invite them to sit down.
“Dad, Mom, why… did you come here?”
As Ji Yun’s supernatural ability grew stronger, her body had recovered another step.
The burning sensation in her throat had improved considerably.
It no longer felt like she had swallowed a blade.
“Yun’er, your father and mother are sorry. If we had been there, we would never have let them take you to the county office.”
The woman started crying again.
Her words were meant to tell Grandma Gu that her daughter had a family behind her.
Just because the girl’s mind wasn’t right didn’t mean they could bully or mistreat her.
Grandma Gu was no fool.
How could she not understand what the woman was implying?
She snorted coldly.
Did they think she wanted to marry such a foolish granddaughter-in-law?
She had been forced into it too!
And now they actually had the nerve to come here and put on airs?
Grandma Gu snorted.
“All right, stop pretending. The court has clearly decreed that once a woman reaches marriageable age, she must be married off. There are laws governing this. You can’t shirk your responsibility!”
The faces of the Ji couple stiffened.
This old woman was not easy to fool.
Song-shi stubbornly said, “Money would have solved it.”
The imperial court had also stipulated that if a family truly did not want their daughter to marry, they could pay a sum of money in lieu of the marriage.
“Then did you manage to gather the money?”
“We’re… still a little short.”
Ji the Eldest had been going out to work during this period to earn money.
“It’s all because your father and I are useless. We couldn’t gather enough money, so your grandmother tied you up and took you to the county office. I’m useless too. I couldn’t stop her.”
“All right, enough with the crying. Anyone who didn’t know better would think I had mistreated her.”
Grandma Gu curled her lips.
They had started crying the moment they arrived.
If crying could solve problems, there wouldn’t be so many difficulties in this world.
“Mother-in-law, we’re sorry…”
“You two talk. I’m going to the kitchen to cook. Stay here for lunch.”
She was getting old and had no patience for all this crying and fussing.
Once Grandma Gu left, Yun-shi quietly asked, “Yun’er, did they bully you?”
Ji Yun shook her head.
“Daughter, what happened to you? Why aren’t you talking?”
Ji Yun pointed at her throat and rasped, “Injured… throat.”
“It hurts a lot, doesn’t it?”
“It’s… okay.”
Ji Yun was helpless.
Why is this body so watery?
The tears just never seem to stop.
“Yun’er, keep this package of pastries. Eat some when you’re hungry. When you finish them, I’ll have your father buy you more. Here, take them to your room and put them away.”
“I don’t want them!”
Ji Yun pushed the package back.
Yun-shi was both surprised and pleased.
She really has grown up after getting married.
In the past, whenever Ji Yun saw pastries, she would stuff them straight into her mouth without caring whether her parents had eaten anything.
“Your father and I aren’t going to eat them. You eat them.”
“Daughter, you… are you better now?”
Ji the Eldest noticed something unusual, but he still couldn’t be certain.
“Her father, what are you talking about?”