Chapter 10: Exposed

“Our ancestors originally lived in the Central Plains. Our family used to be quite wealthy! Otherwise, how could your grandfather and great-uncle have had the money to go to school when they were young?”

Jiang-shi smiled warmly as she explained to Daohua. At this point, she exchanged a glance with Xia Youtian. The couple had the same thought: if the old man hadn’t been educated himself, he wouldn’t have insisted so strongly that someone in the family had to become a scholar.

Seeing Daohua tilting her head and gazing expectantly at her, Jiang-shi continued speaking gently:

“Later, because of war and chaos, our ancestors fled here.

Although it’s colder here, there was a lot of unclaimed land, and the soil was very fertile—you could squeeze oil out of a handful of it! But all of that pales in comparison to the biggest benefit—no war!”

Daohua was thoroughly confused.
“Didn’t you say that the northern barbarians attack Beiguan County every few years?”

“Silly child, they attack Beiguan County town, which is over a hundred li (about 50 km) from our little corner of nowhere!

The county town has imperial troops stationed there, so the barbarians usually can’t break through.

Besides, even if they got lucky and managed to get in, they only go after the rich households in town. As for our poor countryside—they can’t even be bothered to look at it!”

After hearing that, Xia Daohua more or less understood their reasoning, but she still felt uneasy.

Unfortunately, the Xia family didn’t even have a few books, let alone any maps! Without a map, it was impossible to tell which areas in this era were truly the safest in terms of terrain.

All she could do was comfort herself:
Haste makes waste.
She’d have to take things slowly.

---

The household was still busy.

On the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, the Lizheng (village chief)’s family began slaughtering pigs—just like every year, they were the first to do so.

All the village children were thrilled and ran off to watch.

Daohua originally had no interest in watching pigs being slaughtered, but Linghua and Zao Hua from the fifth branch dragged her along.

Linghua and Zao Hua cheerfully squeezed to the front of the crowd with several other children their age, eyes wide, fingers in their mouths, staring intently at the butcher as he bled the pig, inflated its skin, and chopped it into pieces—not missing a single detail.

Xia Daohua forced herself to watch halfway through. Once she saw Linghua and the others completely focused on the pig, she quietly slipped away.

Wandering aimlessly through the village by herself, she eventually found herself near an old house by the mountain’s edge. The house had been built decades ago.

Now it was extremely run-down and, of course, uninhabited.

The thatched roof had been mostly blown away by the cold wind. Several large holes gaped in the rooftop. The walls were crumbling, with one side already half-collapsed. From a distance, the house looked like a crooked triangular hut, but up close, you could tell it used to be a proper building.

But as Xia Daohua approached the old house, she suddenly heard voices coming from inside.

She thought one of the voices sounded familiar, so she paused and listened more closely.

Two phrases carried over on the wind—and they shocked her.

The female voice unmistakably belonged to her aunt, Xia Yujiao. The male voice also sounded somewhat familiar, likely someone the original body knew, but she couldn’t quite place it.

Before she could think more, Xia Daohua’s body moved faster than her mind—she immediately hid inside her space.

After all, catching someone’s secret rendezvous was never a good thing.

But by hiding, Daohua accidentally discovered a new feature of the supermarket in her space.

From the storage area of the space supermarket, not only could she hear the outside world, she could actually see it too. There was a small viewing point—it turned out to be a full-length mirror on one wall of the storage room.

Her instincts were right.

Just after she hid, two people walked out of the old house.

One of them was indeed her aunt—Xia Yujiao, the youngest daughter of the Xia family’s elders. She was already engaged but had not yet married.

The other was a burly man with a full beard, fierce-looking eyes with large whites, giving him a very aggressive appearance.

He wore an ill-fitting green silk robe, a blue silk headscarf, and black boots with white soles—clearly trying to dress well. He looked around cautiously before speaking:

“Maybe I misheard. The footsteps just now were so light… probably not a person. Maybe just someone’s dog ran past.”

Xia Yujiao lowered her head shyly and whispered:

“I should go back now.”

The bearded man suddenly wrapped his arm around her waist.

“Yujiao, listen to me—don’t marry that sickly guy! After the New Year, I’ll divorce my yellow-faced wife and come propose to your family!”

Yujiao struggled but couldn’t break free. Frustrated, she hit his arm with her fists:

“Let go! What do you think this looks like? If someone sees us—how could I ever face anyone?”

“I won’t let go unless you promise me!”

“It’s not that I don’t want to promise you—it’s that I can’t!

Leaving aside the fact that you’re already married with a child—

Just on my end, my parents have already arranged my engagement! The Xie family did nothing wrong. Even if Xie Bao is weak and sickly, our family can’t just go back on our word and break the engagement!

I came to meet you today just to make things clear. Please—let go of me!”

“No! I won’t let go!”

The bearded man started acting like a scoundrel. Xia Yujiao grew so distressed that she burst into tears, sobbing:

“Wuu… are you trying to ruin me?”

Seeing her crying, snot and tears streaming down her face, the bearded man finally let go of her:

“Don’t cry, Yujiao, please don’t cry! Just promise me—don’t rush into getting married. I’ll figure something out!”

Xia Yujiao didn’t respond. Still sobbing, she wiped her face as she walked away.

The bearded man stood there for a while before suddenly shouting:

“Hey, you brat! Come out! I saw you!”

Xia Daohua jumped in fright.

Could he see her in the supermarket space? She could see out—was the reverse true too?

Then she saw the bearded man looking around blankly, then turning in another direction and shouting the exact same line again.

Ohhh… so he was trying to bait someone out!

Daohua wiped the cold sweat from her forehead and thought, Good thing I didn’t panic—almost fell for it!

She racked her memory and was sure that the man’s face was familiar—definitely someone the original body knew—but she still couldn’t remember his name.

The bearded man circled the broken house once, shouted in all directions, but never got a response.

Finally, he looked around suspiciously, and left—though even then, he kept glancing over his shoulder as he walked away.

Only once he was completely out of sight did Xia Daohua emerge from the supermarket.

(End of Chapter)