It was early July in Ningzhou. In the mountains, wild vegetables grew plentifully. Aman crouched in a patch of weeds and dug up a bunch of curled, tender ferns. She also discovered a patch of grayish greens.
Her eyes lit up. She hurriedly picked them, not caring whether the leaves were young or old—anything edible was fine.
The vast wilderness stretched all the way to the mountains, endless as far as the eye could see. Though remote, Ningzhou’s mountains were rich in resources, and locals often ventured there to gather useful materials: hunting, collecting herbs, or foraging for wild vegetables.
A clever hunter’s trap suddenly snapped shut, catching Aman and her basket with a loud clang, sending her tumbling.
The sudden weightlessness hit her like a wall, and everything went black. She lost consciousness entirely.
By now, evening had nearly arrived, and the July sun scorched the land as if trying to bake skin right off a person.
Zhao Ye turned his head to glance at the sky outside. The corners of his cracked, bleeding lips curled into a cold sneer.
He was laughing at himself.
He had imagined Aman would return.
Of all the servants at the Crown Prince’s residence, he had only brought Aman along. He had thought that, once they reached Ningzhou, she could leave whenever she wanted, marry a good family, or find a job to make a living. It would be better than spending her life tending to him.
Now, looking back, he realized he was right.
He was no longer a noble Crown Prince. He couldn’t even take care of himself. Who would want to serve someone like him?
As darkness slowly swallowed the last rays of sunlight, Zhao Ye quietly withdrew his gaze from the door and closed his eyes.
He lay there, seemingly waiting for the darkness to consume him.
Clang!
The wooden door outside the courtyard creaked open. Years of disrepair made even a gentle push loud.
“Your Highness!”
Just as the last light was about to vanish, Aman appeared, panting, carrying a full basket on her back.
The first thing she did was light a candle.
“You…” Zhao Ye’s eyes widened in surprise and confusion. She hadn’t left?
The basket was overflowing with wild vegetables and herbs she had gathered.
“What happened to you?”
Zhao Ye’s voice was still hoarse, as if even speaking hurt.
He noticed her bruised and dirty appearance—she looked as if she had been beaten. Her shoes were broken, a toe poking out. Her pants were torn, knees scraped, and her fingernails blackened, muddy, or worse.
Actually, she had dug herself out of a trap in the mountain with her bare fingers. Her nails nearly tore off in the process.
She was desperate, scared that wild animals might appear and eat her.
If she died, Zhao Ye would die too. She could be buried in a foreign land—or worse, leave no body behind.
“Just fell,” Aman said, wiping the mud off her face, showing no concern.
“…”
Could just falling really leave your face bruised like that?
“Your Highness, I gathered some herbs in the mountains. I’ll boil them to clean your body—they’ll help you heal.”
“I also collected a lot of wild vegetables. They’re edible.”
Aman traded two copper coins for a small amount of coarse salt from a local family. Not much, but it would give the vegetables a bit of flavor.
Even a crippled man like Zhao Ye needed salt. It gave strength.
“Your Highness, wait here. I’ll get a fire going and prepare food!”
As he listened to Aman chattering away, her bright voice seemed to push back the darkness in the room, even cooling the oppressive heat.
First, Aman helped him drink some water. The tip of his nose twitched at the strange smell. Zhao Ye’s black eyes flickered with slight embarrassment.
“It’s fine, Your Highness. I’ll help you clean up first,” she said.
Her hands slowly reached for his waistband. She could feel his body trembling slightly.
Such an awkward situation would be unbearable for anyone—but Aman had no choice.
She wanted to return to the modern era. She did not want to remain in this cruel ancient world, where a woman’s value was measured by her reproductive capacity.
Aman never believed she had a “chosen one” destiny with a protagonist aura here. That was nonsense.
Even in the ancient era, she was still a miserable laborer, a beast of burden.
Now that Zhao Ye was paralyzed, he couldn’t even handle his own bodily functions.
Aman carefully turned him over and cleaned him thoroughly. Then she moved the wooden boards she had washed and dried yesterday into the room, piecing them together to make a flat surface.
She relocated Zhao Ye onto this new spot, then continued cleaning up the mess on the floor.
She was thankful the courtyard had a water well. Otherwise, she would have had to fetch water from far away at night—a risky endeavor. Walking at night, she felt as if someone silently followed her, the chill air brushing her back, making her too wary to look around.
After cleaning, she set a small iron pot on the stove. Soon, it gurgled and boiled, the smell of rice filling the courtyard.
Aman found another iron pot in the yard. Though rusted and chipped, it was still usable. It would be perfect to boil the herbs she collected today.
The wild vegetables she picked could only be prepared in the simplest way—cold salad.
Boiled and cooled, sprinkled with coarse salt, without any oil. But given the circumstances, it was the best she could do.
“Your Highness, the meal is ready.”
As always, she fed Zhao Ye first, saving herself for last.
“Aman.”
Aman paused to listen.
Zhao Ye struggled to speak. “I am no longer the Crown Prince. You… don’t need to call me Your Highness. Just call me Zhao Ye.”
Having served as a maid for so long, Aman’s mindset still carried the ingrained master-servant etiquette.
Since coming to this era, she had truly witnessed the cruelty and coldness of ancient society.
During the Wei and Jin periods, the chaos of the Five Barbarians led to widespread cannibalism. This era was no different.
Aman was lucky not to be eaten. Because of her strength, she had been sold to the Crown Prince’s residence as a maid.
This was misfortune with a silver lining.
“Your Highness… that won’t do, I—”
“Call me Zhao Ye.”
Aman hesitated, then whispered, “Zh… Zhao Ye.”
“You are no longer a maid of the Crown Prince’s residence. You don’t need to call yourself that either.”
Seeing Zhao Ye like this, a sudden unease gripped her heart.
“Zh… Zhao Ye, these are wild vegetables I dug from the mountains. They’re edible. I… I added a little coarse salt. Try them…”