Chapter 16: They Ran

As if suddenly remembering something, Wang Man turned and warned them again:
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Even if you run to the ends of the earth, I will find a way to drag you back.
If you don’t believe me, just wait and see.

And one more thing—I’m a petty person. I don’t tolerate anyone owing me anything.”

With that, she didn’t spare them another glance and turned to leave.

Wang San watched as Wang Man walked back into the house, finally exhaling a long, heavy breath.

Wang Datou said in a tearful voice,
“Today’s just been rotten luck. All this trouble over a few eggs.
Wang San, your Wife is way too fierce.”

“Exactly! And you didn’t even give us a heads-up.
Those eggs—ugh, we’ve been totally wronged.”

Zhu Yazi grumbled, still full of resentment.

Li Daniu was slightly more composed—perhaps due to his thicker skin or duller nerves.
“Enough, stop talking.
Wang San, hurry up and cook those wild greens. Let’s fill our stomachs first.
Otherwise, where are we going to get the strength to collect stones tomorrow?”

“What? Li Daniu, are you seriously going to listen to her and go pick stones?”
Wang Datou asked in disbelief.

Li Daniu scratched his messy hair and actually pulled out a louse from it.
Then, with practiced ease, he pressed it between his thumbs and crushed it before replying:
“You think if we don’t go, that fierce woman will let us off?”

He didn’t overthink it. No matter how exhausting it was, it was just one day.
As long as the debt was repaid, he’d never come near Wang Man again.

Just then, Wang Man came out—only to catch sight of Li Daniu squeezing that louse.
Her scalp tingled with revulsion.

“Wang San, tonight you’re sleeping with them. Find a spot yourselves.”

“Keep an eye on them. If no one shows up to help me collect stones tomorrow, I’ll make you pick them all by yourself.”

With that, she turned and went back inside.

Whatever she had originally come out to say, she forgot.
But it didn’t matter anymore.

Tomorrow, she’d make Wang San clean out one of the empty rooms and live there from now on.
He was no longer allowed to enter hers.

There was an unused room next door anyway—surely he wouldn’t object.

She barely had any flesh on her bones as it was, and she’d already lost too much blood.
She had no intention of feeding what little blood she had left to a bunch of bloodsucking parasites.

As the saying goes, what troubles you by day haunts you by night.
Sure enough, that night Wang Man had a terrifying nightmare.

She dreamed her body was covered in lice—dense, crawling, and furiously sucking her blood.
She watched helplessly as her already scrawny body shriveled up, leaving only a layer of skin behind.

It scared even the bold and fearless Wang Man awake in cold sweat.

She had thought that after yesterday’s punishment, Wang San and the others would be much more obedient today.
But when Wang Man got up, she discovered—they were gone.

Judging by the situation, they had slipped away during the night. She just hadn’t noticed.

Wang Man was so furious she actually laughed—coldly, very coldly.
They could run, sure. But the monk might run, the temple stays put.

Once the wound on her head healed, she’d go hunt every one of them down and drag them back.
And by then, it definitely wouldn’t be as simple as picking a single stone.

Heh…
They had no one to blame but themselves if she ended up being ruthless.

Auntie Ma Liu, upon hearing that Wang San and the others had run off, glanced at Wang Man with some concern.
She opened her mouth, wanting to say something to ease the tension, but… what could she say?

In the end, she sulkily shut her mouth. Better not bring trouble upon herself.

Over the next few days, Wang San didn’t come back.
Wang Man tried several times to enter the storage room, but still couldn’t get in.

That left her disheartened.

Still, she consoled herself.
With her skills, it wasn’t like she was going to starve to death.

If she didn’t have access to the supplies, so be it. She’d just head up to Xianfeng Mountain to hunt.
Not only could she eat meat—she could sell it for silver too.

Of course, the priority was still to heal properly.
She didn’t want to be in the middle of a fight with a wild beast, only to suddenly feel dizzy and end up as its next meal.

As for Wang San—when the time came, she’d make things clear with him.
She lived here now, and from now on, they would stay out of each other’s way.

In other words, they would live separate lives.

When Wang San wasn’t around, she’d still give his Mother something to eat. She wouldn’t let her starve.

Thinking that way made her feel a little better.

Wang Man added a bit more exercise to her routine each day.
Her current body felt completely compatible with her, perfectly in sync.

No—more accurately, ever since she’d taken over this body, it had felt like it was naturally hers.
There was no rejection whatsoever.

As for Wang San not returning, Auntie Ma Liu wasn’t worried.
She said he often disappeared for days on end.

There was even one time he was gone for over a month.
She’d thought something had happened to him—that he’d died out there somewhere.

If her eyesight hadn’t been so poor, she would’ve gone out to search for him herself.

Even so, she had still asked Wang Yida and the others to go into town and inquire about him.
In the end, they found out he’d run off with someone to a neighboring town.

Later, when he finally came back, Auntie Ma Liu started crying and begging him not to run off so far again.
If something happened, she wouldn’t even know about it in time.

Whether Wang San actually took it to heart or not was unclear.
But from then on, he just stayed around the town and never went elsewhere again.

Wang Man figured that Wang San still cared about his mother—otherwise, he would’ve long since run off somewhere far away.

And also, he was willing to sell off their only plot of land just to buy her back.
He probably feared that if anything happened to him, there would be no one left to care for his aging mother.

Still, once Wang Man thought it all through, she didn’t dwell on it too much.

After all, she was only Wang San’s wife in name—practically speaking, they were two unrelated people.

Even if Wang San wanted to become husband and wife in the truest sense, she wouldn’t agree.

Who knows what he’s been doing outside?
What if he caught something nasty and passed it on to her?

As for settling down with someone, that wasn’t something she had seriously considered.

If, someday, she happened to meet someone she could tolerate spending her days with—well, then she’d just tolerate it.

As for falling madly in love?
That was never going to happen.

Wang Man was simply not wired for that kind of thing.

Right—she didn’t even have that string called “family affection.”
Her own father and stepmother had sold her to Wang San, and she didn’t hate them for it.
To her, the deal made things clean—no need for entanglements later on.

Still, once she recovered, she wanted to try finding her older brother.
He had treated the original host of this body so well.
That kind of sibling bond was worth keeping.

Just as Wang Man was thinking about her future plans, her brain suddenly snapped back to the present.

Looking at her current situation, she realized—
She really couldn’t go on like this anymore.

Wang San was completely unreliable.
He never spared a thought for whether they lived or died.

Well, that made sense.
He could barely take care of himself—how could he care about others?

Her body was pretty much healed by now anyway.
Time to go into the mountains for a look.

She wouldn’t dare enter Xianfeng Mountain just yet, so she’d start with the nearby hills instead.

Auntie Ma Liu saw Wang Man strapping the family’s raggedy old basket on her back and quickly called out:

“Man Ya! Where are you going?”

“Just going for a walk,”

Wang Man replied casually as she walked off, not even glancing back at the anxious Auntie Ma Liu who was chasing after her.

Auntie Ma Liu called out anxiously:

“Manya, your head injury hasn’t even healed yet—just stay home, alright?
Whatever you’re looking for, I’ll go get it.”

But by the time she finished speaking, Wang Man was already far away.

The weather was quickly shifting into late autumn—it was nearly October.

The mornings and evenings were getting colder. You needed a quilt to sleep now.

Yet in that house, there wasn’t even a proper blanket to speak of.
How was she supposed to sleep like that?

Ma Liu Auntie did have a quilt, but it was stiff and lumpy—practically unusable.

It was also very narrow, probably no wider than a modern twin bed—maybe even less than that.

It was uncomfortable even for one person to use. Two people? Forget it.

So right now, she not only had to find food, but also figure out a way to earn some silver to buy a quilt.
And clothes too—
She’d been sold here wearing just the one outfit on her back.

For washing, she had to borrow Wang San’s clothes.

Wang San may have been skinny, but he was tall.

His clothes hung on her like oversized tunics—practically long dresses.