Chapter 5: Catching Fish for the Wife Every Day

Alright.

Good deeds pay off.

With the man’s simple and expectant gaze on her, she decided to take him to the village chief as a reward for exchanging three fish.

The old chief recognized the girl; she was from the Xia family. He greeted her warmly while sipping tea: “Li.”

The dirty, disheveled man looked at the old chief, then at her, and also called out: “Li.”

The old chief was startled by the man who had just entered, his eyes widening: “Li, what happened to this young man? Did he flee from a disaster?”

Xia Li explained to the old chief how she had stumbled upon the man outside the village.

Of course, she omitted the part about him falling from a tree, only mentioning that she had met him by the river and that he seemed a bit off, so she brought him along.

“Do you think he might be here to find relatives in our village?”

She glanced at the man, who was still staring blankly at her, his dirty face framed by a pair of bright, black eyes.

Xia Li: I’m speechless. He must really be some kind of fool, right?

But then again, even though he had called her ‘wife’ out of nowhere and was staring at her with that messy hair, his gaze wasn’t lewd or intrusive.

Instead, it was like… a village dog that had found its owner after being away for half a year.

His eyes were fresh, sincere, and innocent, making her feel quite comfortable.

The old chief half-heartedly assessed the tall, ragged man, revealing a look of surprise as he shook his head:

“Honestly, if you ask me which family in the village this young man belongs to, I wouldn’t know. But if he’s a distant relative from somewhere else, then I wouldn’t know him. Is he really a fool? Didn’t you ask anything?”

As the old chief spoke, he looked over at the man, his tone gentle, “Young man, are you here in Shinianzi Village to find relatives?”

Only then did the man glance at him and nod.

“See, he can understand human speech? Haha, that’s good.”

“Then… do you remember? Who are the relatives you’re looking for?”

A shallow, shy smile appeared on the man’s face.

His voice was still rough and hoarse, “Wife.”

Old chief: ?

Before he could continue asking, the man’s eyes turned back to Xia Li with a bashful gaze, his voice coarse: “Li, wife.”

Xia Li: “……” Let me explain!!

Overall.

Although the old chief later suggested that Xia Li take the man to the police station in town tomorrow to inquire about his situation, his gaze kept darting back and forth between the two.

He seemed to ponder and asked:

“Li, your father passed away early, and I know most of your relatives from the Xia family, but do you think this young man could really be a relative of your mother? Or is he a suitor arranged by your family, specially coming here to find you?”

Xia Li felt helpless and was almost at her wit’s end.

“You’re joking. I’m not from a prominent family. If I were to take in a suitor, would we both starve to death? Besides, if my mother’s relatives were really looking for us, I wouldn’t have had to rely on my uncle and aunt all these years.”

The old chief looked at the girl again and recalled that when her parents passed away, she was just a little child. Now, she had grown into a graceful young woman.

Having been raised by the Xia family, she had endured a difficult life, living under someone else’s roof and swallowing her grievances. He couldn’t help but sigh inwardly.

The man, on the side, seemed to understand everything.

Just before leaving, he suddenly leaned down and mysteriously whispered in Xia Li’s ear, “If I starve, I’ll catch fish every day to feed my wife.”

Xia Li, feeling alarmed, covered her ears and took two steps back.

The man looked visibly aggrieved.

Yet he still stood there under the dark sky, looking at her with a rough and cautious voice: “I… will only catch fish for my wife to eat.”

In the end, the man followed Xia Li like a shadow, silently trailing behind her. Although she initially intended to leave him at the old chief’s place for the night, she ultimately decided to take him back to her home while it was quiet.

The mud-and-brick house left by her father wasn’t large.

It had two rooms, a hall, and a backyard with a kitchen, which was just enough for a family of three to live in.

Unfortunately, despite having this shelter from the wind and rain, the original owner was a lonely girl who was still young. After her parents passed away, the house deed had been taken by her uncle and aunt under the pretext of taking care of their niece, and it had long been in their hands.

That said, it was no wonder that Xie Shuangxiu was busy trying to arrange a marriage for her, wanting to marry her off quickly.

First, they could receive a substantial bride price.

Second, once Xia Li got married, she would be considered an outsider, and without the house deed as proof, the house rightfully belonged to her maternal family, thus having nothing to do with her anymore.

Xia Li thought to herself that she had only been here for two or three days, and Xie Shuangxiu was already insisting that she was almost twenty, which was getting old, and her personality was quite pleasant, yet they wanted to marry her off to a fifty-year-old man who owned a butcher shop in town.

That man’s wife had died many years ago, and he had two children who were not much younger than Xia Li.

Meanwhile, Xie Shuangxiu’s own daughter, Xia Yingzhen, was only half a year older than Xia Li.

Xia Li sharpened a rusty kitchen knife, a smile creeping onto her lips as she brought it down with a “thud” to chop off the fish head.

If they were so eager for that old widower’s bride price, they should let their own daughter marry him; let’s see when they would still be boasting about it then!

The fish head bounced on the cutting board, and the man who had been waiting by the kitchen door hurried in.

His eyes were filled with concern: “Wife, you’re hurt.”

Xia Li let out a breath, shot him an annoyed glance, and repeated for the umpteenth time, “You’re not allowed to call me that.”

The man stood tall under the kitchen beams, his long and sturdy frame resembling a wall, completely blocking out the dim light.

Xia Li looked him over, wondering if he really was a fisherman.

Fishing required strength, and with the sun and wind on the river, he had a robust build and a dark complexion.

He certainly looked the part.