“Fire, all you ever think about is eating! I already told you that evil woman ran away and isn’t coming back! Yet you still call her Mother!”
Mu was so furious she felt like exploding. If she were not so young, she would rather risk searching for food herself than sit there waiting to starve.
“Waaah! Mu is yelling at me!”
Being scolded for no reason, Huo’s face crumpled in grievance as he prepared to burst into tears.
Jin hurriedly clamped a hand over Huo’s mouth to stop his wolf-like howling, then shot Mu a glare.
“Mu! Why are you taking it out on Huo? Will you only be satisfied after waking Father up?”
“Huo does nothing except eat and cry!”
Seeing Huo cry at the slightest provocation only irritated Mu further. In frustration, she kicked the iron pot beside the campfire, sending it flying far away.
“Mu, you’ve gone too far!”
Jin grew angry too when he saw her venting her temper on the iron pot.
That pot was the family’s only iron cookware and their only valuable possession.
“Jin… Mu…”
Shui, who never joined their arguments, suddenly pointed toward a woman weaving through the refugees and asked softly,
“Look quickly. Is that Mother carrying a sack over there?”
Though it was hard to see clearly, the glow from the campfires faintly illuminated the woman’s face and ragged clothes. Shui felt that the woman resembled their foster mother.
The moment Huo heard that their foster mother might be back, he immediately stopped crying.
Jin and Mu both turned around at once.
As the woman drew nearer and her features became clearer, disbelief spread across Jin and Mu’s faces.
They had been certain the woman had run away.
Yet not only had she returned—she had even brought back a sack full of food and water.
Song Jin naturally had no idea they had all suspected her.
The moment she returned to their campfire, she tossed the four water skins onto the ground and shrugged the sack off her shoulder while explaining casually,
“I had to go very far before I found anything to eat, so that’s why I came back late.”
“…”
“?”
“?”
The four children never dreamed Song Jin would actually explain why she had returned late on her own initiative.
Especially Mu.
Hearing Song Jin’s explanation and remembering her earlier tantrum, Mu suddenly felt as though someone had slapped her across the face. It burned hot with embarrassment.
Seeing that the children remained silent, Song Jin did not pay much attention.
After setting down the sack, she glanced at the sleeping Xiao Yanzhi and frowned.
“Your father didn’t develop a fever again, did he?”
Song Jin had no desire to see her bargain-bin husband’s cold face after he woke up, nor did she want his injuries worsening.
One crippled man and four children were already burdens enough. If Xiao Yanzhi developed headaches or fever on top of that, it would only become an even greater burden.
As the thought crossed her mind, her legs unconsciously carried her toward Xiao Yanzhi. She reached out to touch his forehead.
But before she could make contact, a large hand suddenly seized her wrist tightly.
“What are you trying to do?”
At some point Xiao Yanzhi had already awakened. His crimson phoenix eyes surged with murderous hostility, his fierce expression resembling a wolf in the forest.
“Uh…”
Song Jin’s mouth twitched.
Far from frightened, she rolled her eyes.
“With everyone watching, what exactly could I possibly do to you? I was only worried your fever would worsen and drag me down!”
After speaking, she yanked her aching wrist free and stormed toward the water skins.
Untying the four skins bundled together, she grabbed one and threw it at Xiao Yanzhi.
“If you don’t want me touching you, then hurry up and drink! Once we survive this disaster, we’ll separate peacefully. Then we’ll each go our own way and never interfere with one another again!”
Hearing her casually bring up separation yet again, the veins on Xiao Yanzhi’s forehead throbbed violently and his face darkened ominously.
He tossed the water skin back toward her.
“How do I know you didn’t poison the water? Drink it first.”
Catching the water skin flying back at her, Song Jin’s pupils shrank slightly and her fingers tightened around it.
Still, she did not take it to heart.
Pulling out the stopper, she tilted her head back and drank several large gulps.
The original owner’s credibility had long since been exhausted. Xiao Yanzhi’s suspicion and wariness toward her were entirely normal.
If she got angry over something like this, it simply would not be worth it.
Only after seeing Song Jin drink the water without issue did Xiao Yanzhi finally lower his guard.
Then he turned toward the unusually quiet four children and called out coolly,
“Xiao Jinxing, Xiao Jinyan, Xiao Jinyu, Xiao Jinnuo—come drink some water.”
Song Jin had just turned around to prepare food when Xiao Yanzhi’s calm voice suddenly reached her ears.
Her foot slipped, and she nearly stumbled flat on her face.
Looking back at the father and four children as though she had seen a ghost, she blurted out:
“What the hell?”
Song Jin suddenly remembered a rebirth farming novel she had read not long ago called The Lucky Koi Farmer Girl.
The male protagonist in that novel was a ruthless, vindictive, black-bellied man who never forgave even the smallest grievance.
His name was Xiao Qinian, courtesy name Yanzhi.
When Xiao Qinian was fifteen, he accidentally found abandoned quadruplets—two boys and two girls—left beside a river shortly after birth. He adopted them as his children.
In order to register the children under household records, he had even split from the Xiao family household and moved out on his own.
At eighteen, he passed the imperial examination and became a xiucai scholar—the first scholar Xiao Village had produced in decades.
Just as all the villagers believed Xiao Qinian would someday become a top scholar and bring honor to the village, a devastating earthquake crushed both his legs.
But because he was the male lead blessed with plot armor, he encountered the female protagonist while fleeing famine with his adopted children.
The female lead was not only reborn—she was also blessed with a “lucky koi” destiny.
By chance, she joined Xiao Village’s refugee group.
Throughout the journey, thanks to her lucky constitution and memories from her previous life, she became everyone’s favorite and took great care of Xiao Qinian.
Later, when the imperial court resettled the refugees, she and Xiao Qinian became neighbors.
In the first year after becoming neighbors, the female lead led the villagers to wealth and prosperity.
In the second year, she found a miracle doctor who healed Xiao Qinian’s crippled legs.
In the third year, Xiao Qinian passed the highest imperial examination with outstanding honors and married the female lead.
Five years later, Xiao Qinian rose to the position of Grand Chancellor, while the female lead received the noble title of First-Rank Imperial Lady.
As for the four adopted children, every single one of them eventually became extraordinary figures of great status.
Their names were:
Xiao Jinxing.
Xiao Jinyan.
Xiao Jinyu.
And Xiao Jinnuo.
As for the original owner of this body…
Song Jin searched her memories desperately before finally recalling a brief mention near the novel’s ending.
Xiao Qinian entered a hidden underground prison to visit old enemies from his past.
Inside one particular cell was a woman in especially horrific condition—reduced to a human stick.
That woman’s name was Song Yunjin.
“No way… I can’t possibly be this unlucky…”
Looking at the father and four children before her, then remembering the woman turned into a human stick in the novel, Song Jin felt utterly terrible.
This Xiao Qinian—
without question—
had to be Xiao Yanzhi.
And Song Yunjin had to be the original owner of this body after becoming a vagrant and changing her name.
As for who had mutilated Song Yunjin into such a horrifying state, the novel never explicitly stated it.
But every clue pointed directly toward Xiao Qinian.
Realizing she had not only transmigrated but transmigrated into a novel, Song Jin’s entire face turned pale.
Originally, she had assumed this was merely a standard transmigration story. She thought she only needed to survive the famine, separate from Xiao Yanzhi, and divide the household registration.
But now she discovered Xiao Yanzhi was actually the future black-bellied male lead—someone destined to become the all-powerful Grand Chancellor.
Now she was genuinely terrified.
“Under heaven, all land belongs to the emperor; within the empire’s borders, all subjects belong to the throne.”
If Xiao Yanzhi really became Grand Chancellor one day, blackened into a complete madman and determined to hunt her down according to the plot, then not only would she suffer a fate more unjust than Dou E—she would probably spend the rest of her life running for survival.
It seemed that merely protecting the crippled man and four children during the refugee journey would not be enough to save her life.
The best solution…
was to make Xiao Yanzhi let go of his hatred.
At that thought, Song Jin’s eyes suddenly lit up.
Right!
If she healed Xiao Yanzhi’s crippled legs, wouldn’t that repay the debt the original owner owed him?
Then the two of them would owe each other nothing.
And once that happened, why would he continue clinging to hatred?
Maybe Xiao Yanzhi would even become grateful to her instead.