Chapter 1: A Peasant’s Wife

Proofread by Claire.KK

“It Hurts…” When Ye Xiaoxian opened her eyes, she was shocked to find a strange man on top of her body. She wanted to resist him but her body was so feeble that she couldn’t extract a bit of strength. After a while she passed out again.

…

After who-knows-how-long, Ye Xiaoxian was woken by the cock-crows outside. She opened her eyes, finding the guy from last night was already gone and the room was now empty. She was in great pain and it felt like her whole body had been torn apart. Except her head could move a little, her four limbs couldn’t move at all.

“What…is this place?”

She turned her head and glanced at the low-roofed house made of earth. The corner of the house was cracked. There was a square table, a bench with one leg missing, and some potatoes and sweet potatoes scattered on the ground. Some bamboo leaned against the bed, with several pieces of male clothes hanging up on, which worn by people of ancient times.

Ye Xiaoxian had a feeling of fullness in her head again with many pieces of memory flashing in her mind. She held those pieces together and realized that she had time-traveled.

She was originally chef of a five-star restaurant and had been awarded numerous times, but when she had ventured deep into the mountains in order to choose and purchase food ingredients, she had unfortunately been caught in a debris fall. Now she found herself turning into the current Ye Xiaoxian after waking up.

Ye Xiaoxian had been raised in the Xiao family and was meant to marry the eldest son of the Xiao’s, but the eldest son had been suffering from shattered health since a young age, and half a year ago he was even confined to his bed due to his illness. Ye Xiaoxian later became a widow before they had married formally.

The second son of the Xiao’s happened to return back home a month ago from the battlefield and he had reached the age of getting a wife, so Mrs. Xiao née Li then tried to persuade Ye Xiaoxian and Junior Xiao to get married. On the one hand, Ye Xiaoxian didn’t have to be a widow anymore; on the other hand, they could save some money for Junior Xiao to marry another woman.

Ye Xiaoxian and Junior Xiao didn’t agree to it at all because others would laugh at them and such things would ruin their reputation. Ye Xiaoxian didn’t want to marry Xiao Junior and neither did he wish to marry her, so her mother-in-law, Mrs. Xiao née Li, came up with an idea. She went to the pig farm in town and got some philter powder used to help breed pigs for the male boar to take. As she prepared the dinner, she sneakily poured the powder into their greens soup and, after they drank it, Mrs. Xiao née Li locked them in the room.

That powder was meant to be given to pigs however, and Mrs. Xiao née Li was afraid it wouldn’t be that effective, so she put some more in the soup. The previous Ye Xiaoxian was a fragile one and by no means could she bear such abuse, so…

“Mrs. Xiao, didn’t little Ye say that she was going to hang herself and she’d rather die than marry the Junior. Why did she suddenly agree to marry him last night?”

Outside the house, two women were chatting.

“Alas, she didn’t wanna but she had to. You know what’s going on in our family. The elder has already gone and the junior has reached an age for getting married, but our family has no money to get him a wife so I have no option but to marry little Ye to him.”

“Didn’t your junior oppose it strongly as well? He looked really stubborn, but why did he agree last night?”

Then Mrs. Xiao née Li said in a proud tone, “A villager has her own little idea and now what’s done is done so they have to agree what’s agreed.”

“Ha-ha, Mrs. Xiao née Li, aren’t you clever.”

“I am indeed…”

Mrs. Xiao née Li’s maiden name was Li Hongmei. She was in her late thirties but still had some of her charm left. Though she only had worn-out clothes to wear, they had been washed and cleaned very well. She never forgot to decorate her hair with a wild flower so that she looked very tarty.

According to the memory of the previous Ye Xiaoxian, this Li Hongmei had been a harlot in a brothel when she was young. She didn’t quit it until she married into the Xiao family, so she was quite open with things.

Only such a person would manage to marry her elder son’s widow to her second son for the sake of saving money.