Chapter 2  

“Mother, this isn’t…” Chunhua’s voice trembled timidly as she took a step back under Cai Shi’s sharp glare.  

This was clearly the rice he had brought. Shen Qingran instantly flared with anger, only to realize that despite being a grown man, he was utterly powerless against Cai Shi. Pushed all the way outside, he remained stunned by the revelation—”How am I this weak?”  

Cai Shi’s voice drifted faintly from inside, brisk and sharp, “Da Bao, Er Bao, come eat! Steamed rice, nice and fragrant!” “Haven’t you finished washing the clothes? Slacking off again, are you?”  

Shen Qingran heard Chunhua’s meek replies and the boisterous voices of the two chubby boys, gaining a whole new understanding of life in Li Family Village.  

He scooped up a handful of sand from the ground, clenched it behind his back, and pushed the door open with a cold smirk. Before Cai Shi could react, he flung the sand into the pot and even stirred it with a spatula.  

With his current strength alone, and the original owner’s husband absent from the village, there was no way to reclaim the meal.  

Fine. If he couldn’t eat, neither would they.  

Shen Qingran’s stomach protested, his heart bled, yet a childish sense of satisfaction flickered in his mind.  

The two little brats wailed and threw themselves on the ground, rolling around in tantrums at the sight of their ruined meal.  

“What are you doing?!” Cai Shi’s triangular eyes narrowed murderously.  

Shen Qingran raised an eyebrow, dusted off his hands, and left Cai Shi fuming while the boys’ cries grew louder.  

Knowing when to quit, he bolted before Cai Shi could do something irrational.  

As the saying went, “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” Though this trip had wasted half a pound of rice, he had learned to start a fire!  

Round it off, and he was practically a master chef now.  

Following Chunhua’s cooking method, Shen Qingran found flint in the firewood pile, lit a small flame, and ended up with a pot of half-cooked rice.  

“…” He’d just add water and turn it into porridge for dinner.  

The once-young master Shen Qingran swore this was the worst meal he’d ever eaten. Silently setting down the bowl, he concluded—this world needed better crop varieties.  

This meal solidified his resolve to wait for the female lead in Li Family Village.  

He must cling to her thigh!  

According to the timeline, the female lead’s family would soon relocate here to escape the war.  

Agricultural technology would save the world—ten thousand catties per mu was no dream!  

On the mountain path outside Li Family Village, two men walked at a steady pace. The one behind, dressed in black, carried a pair of crutches and a bundle while chattering incessantly to persuade the man ahead.  

The one in front wore coarse clothing, his tall frame straight and imposing. His sharp, striking features exuded the aura of a battle-hardened warrior, a presence so formidable it could be felt from afar.  

“Master, must you really return to Li Family Village? Though the Crown Prince suspects you faked your death and is searching everywhere, there’s no need to suffer in such a place…”  

Chang Ming fretted. His master was a dragon among men—how could he stoop to being a country bumpkin?  

The Crown Prince was heartless and ungrateful. Despite his master’s unwavering support, he had grown suspicious. After the Puyang battle, he had even plotted to bury the master and his hundred thousand troops alive. Fortunately, the master had foreseen it and transferred the army into the Shadow Army.  

That Crown Prince was vicious, striking to kill at every turn. Trapped in an ambush, the master had barely escaped after losing the use of both legs.  

Chang Ming inwardly spat. Without his master, the Crown Prince would be nothing!  

Xue Feifeng responded indifferently, “Mm.”

Chang Ming wasn’t deterred by his master’s aloofness. “Master, Chang Bai told me you got married. How could you not inform your subordinate about such an important matter? And the madam—”

At this mention, Xue Feifeng’s expression finally flickered, and Chang Ming’s gossipy eyes lit up.

“Not a madam,” Xue Feifeng said curtly, as if the matter wasn’t worth elaborating on.

Chang Ming swiftly changed his tone to one of concern. “That Shen Qingran—has he taken advantage of your injury to bully you?”

Xue Feifeng shot his subordinate a warning glance, silently telling him to rein in his nosy tendencies. “Give it to me.”

His gaze fell on the crutch in Chang Ming’s hand.

“Let me carry it a bit longer—someone’s there!” Chang Ming’s sharp eyes darted toward a spot in the mountain forest. Could it be the Crown Prince’s men?

Xue Feifeng had already sensed it before him. With a flick of his right hand, he sent a pebble flying, then gripped the crutch and resumed his limp. “Hide.”

Chang Ming vanished instantly.

A few moments later, a figure came tumbling down the slope with a thud.

Shen Qingran had his arms wrapped protectively around his head. He’d nearly cried out when his foot slipped, but spotting two travelers below at the last second, he’d bitten his lip hard enough to taste blood.

Today had been nothing but misfortune. Plain rice was hard to swallow, and Shen Qingran, spoiled by his privileged upbringing, couldn’t stomach such fare. After scouring the area around his house, he’d grown even more impressed by the original owner’s so-called “cooking assistants”—they were practically bandits! Even the undergrown garlic sprouts in the field had been plucked clean.

Craving meat and vegetables to the point of desperation, Shen Qingran suddenly recalled the female lead’s tactic from the novel: living off the mountain.

By Shen Qingran’s logic, ancient people were so resourceful that anything edible in the mountains would’ve long been picked clean. But transmigration novels painted a different picture. Every time the female lead ventured up the mountain, she’d stumble upon treasures.

Like wild boars that had conveniently killed each other in territorial fights, mushrooms, wood ears, wild fruits, and lingzhi the villagers didn’t know how to appreciate, or bird eggs that had miraculously gone unclaimed and unhatched…

What if the novel was right?

Shen Qingran rubbed his hands together. Surely a transmigrator deserved some unique luck, right?

Early that morning, he’d taken a hatchet up the mountain, but the pristine state of the forest gave him a bad feeling.

Not only was there no food to be found, but even firewood was scarce.

After walking for hours, the tender soles of his feet blistering, Shen Qingran could only marvel at how thoroughly the mountain had been exploited. With each lament, his brows drooped further until he was the very picture of a pitiful, crestfallen soul.

Even if there were mountain delicacies the locals didn’t know how to enjoy, he wouldn’t recognize them anyway.

He did spot clusters of lush mushrooms under century-old trees, but the memory of the original owner’s cause of death in the novel sent a chill down his spine.

If they were truly edible, wouldn’t they have been picked by now?

He wasn’t an idiot.

Empty-handed, Shen Qingran decided he couldn’t return empty-handed—he might as well gather some firewood. The supply at home was nearly exhausted.

He deliberately chose a spot near the foot of the mountain to avoid carrying the load too far.

Just as he’d been wrestling with a dead branch as thick as his arm for twenty fruitless minutes, taking a break before resuming the battle, his foot caught on a protruding root. A sharp pain shot through his ankle as if stung by a wasp. Standing on a steep slope, he lost his balance and tumbled down.

Shen Qingran hastily dropped the hatchet and curled into a ball, rolling all the way down to the mountain path. Covered in dirt, he scrambled up to check for injuries. Aside from a scraped wrist, he was unharmed.

Xue Feifeng’s brow twitched when he saw the clothes of the person tumbling down. As the figure turned to face him, a flicker of surprise passed through his eyes.

Though Shen Qingran wasn’t exactly tidy at the moment, this was undoubtedly the cleanest version of his “wife” Xue Feifeng had ever seen.

No gaudy red or purple garments, hair neatly combed, and none of the usual gluttonous, vacant expression. Instead, his face was lively, almost like a pampered young master.

It was as if he were a completely different person.

Except for the sorry state he was in—his forehead and lips both split open.

“What are you doing here?”

Huh? Shen Qingran’s heart skipped a beat. Since transmigrating, aside from Cai Shi and Chunhua, this was the first person to speak to him—and with such a familiar tone at that.

Who… was this?

Shen Qingran was grateful for his muteness, sparing him the risk of giving himself away with a greeting.

He sized up the man before him—handsome but dressed shabbily, with an indefinable air about him… What kind of air was it… Military, a soldier!

Shen Qingran silently swallowed the heart that had nearly leapt out of his throat. This couldn’t be his cheap husband, that Li what’s-his-name, who’d been away at war for five years!

He couldn’t be blamed for the term—the novel never specified his name, only referring to him as Li Dalang.

But since when was Li Dalang a cripple? The book never mentioned that!

…Then again, it never said he wasn’t one either.

Shen Qingran’s gaze was drawn to the saber at the man’s waist. There was a matching one in Li Dalang’s room!

It was him.

Suddenly, everything made sense. No wonder Cai Shi had been so brazen about stealing his food—it was because this “couple” was made up of one cripple and one weakling, barely a threat even combined.

Wait, why was he back early? Wasn’t he supposed to return tomorrow?

The chicken bones at home weren’t even cleaned up yet. Would anyone still believe him if he claimed nine chickens had been snatched by weasels now?!!!

Was he about to get divorced?

The Li guy had already been considering divorcing his wife, and Shen Qingran wasn’t the type to shamelessly cling on like the original owner… He hadn’t even gotten to taste the seedless watermelons the female lead would popularize yet!

Xue Feifeng watched as Shen Qingran’s expression shifted rapidly, as if scheming something nefarious, and felt a surge of irritation. Li Feng had once been a guard under his command before dying in battle. Xue Feifeng, knowing the man had no family, had borrowed his identity—only to discover there was an arranged marriage!

Unable to cancel the engagement, Xue Feifeng had brought the “wife” home. He wasn’t short on money, so he figured he’d just take care of Li Feng’s widow. Within a single day, he understood why the “mother-in-law” had been so eager to marry off her daughter.

Xue Feifeng hadn’t minded much—so what if the guy was lazy and gluttonous? The palace was full of such people.

But on the second day of their sham marriage, Shen Qingran had invited a bunch of idle troublemakers over, showing off and turning the house into a chaotic mess. No amount of scolding worked. In Li Family Village, Xue Feifeng’s reputation had turned greener than grass.

He had come here to recuperate in peace after the Puyang massacre, his worldview altered, indifferent now to imperial power struggles, brotherly betrayals, and political suspicions. If the world burned, why should he care? He had ignored Shen Qingran at first, but his patience wasn’t infinite enough to tolerate the man’s antics. He’d asked the Shen family to take him back—leading to the earlier incident.

Claiming he’d left to sell herbs out of anger was just a cover. In truth, Chang Ming had brought a renowned physician to treat his leg injury. Someone as insignificant as Shen Qingran couldn’t possibly anger him.

Xue Feifeng had expected Shen Qingran to demand money from him like before.

As a result, Shen Qingran, afraid of being driven away before the female lead arrived, ingratiatingly stepped forward to carry Xue Feifeng’s baggage. Having not eaten properly all day, he had visibly lost weight, giving him a somewhat gaunt and austere appearance. Despite his small shoulders being weighed down to the point of bending, he still actively supported Xue Feifeng.

Obedient as a model little wife.

Xue Feifeng: “???”

Shen Qingran, feeling guilty, lowered his eyes submissively.

Xue Feifeng subtly pushed his hand away: “No need.” Then he took the lead, walking ahead.

Leaning on crutches, he limped step by step, looking utterly pitiful.

Shen Qingran’s eyes filled with sympathy—just look at how the original owner had bullied this man, forcing someone with disabled legs to leave the mountains to make a living.  

He had always been soft-hearted toward the disadvantaged. They were both men—what was wrong with helping out? He caught up and supported Xue Feifeng again.

Xue Feifeng, forced to feign lameness and endure this treatment: “…”

…

Chang Ming jumped out behind them, his face full of admiration.  

So this was how the “madam” behaved… Could this be the legendary “absence makes the heart grow fonder”? Even when the master was at his most severely injured, he never allowed anyone to support him like this!  

No… not the madam!  

Chang Ming recalled his master’s words and fell into inner turmoil.