Chapter Two: I Will Marry Her!

Having pieced together fragments of his memory, Zhao Hengyi finally understood just how peculiar this Yan Dynasty truly was!

The military might of Yan had collapsed; the borders suffered constant harassment from barbarian tribes, and the frontier troops met defeat after defeat. To placate the steppe tribes, the court was forced to pay a staggering yearly tribute.

Naturally, this enormous sum was passed on to the common folk, and each level of officialdom seized the chance to levy yet more arbitrary taxes, piling burden upon burden, until the taxes demanded of the people reached absurd heights.

It was because of these taxes that Zhao Hengyi and the trio known as Heaven’s Cripple and Earth’s Defect were thrown into prison and subjected to forced marriage education—they refused to take wives.

After paying his taxes, Zhao Hengyi could barely feed himself; if he married, that would mean another mouth to fill and yet another tax to pay—there was simply no way to survive!

Thus, he had dragged his feet on marriage until the age of eighteen, only to be seized and brought to the county jail to be “educated” by a cadre of fellow inmates.

Now, seeing that the three members of the marriage squad had all chosen brides, Miao Xiaoyu grew truly desperate!

She knew she was cursed, the bringer of misfortune to any husband, and she ought not to ruin another’s life. But if she failed to marry today, she would be sent to the Golden Sparrow House, disgracing her ancestors, and her six young sisters would surely be left with no hope of survival!

Clinging to her last sliver of hope, Miao Xiaoyu could no longer care about anything else. Like a drowning woman clutching at straw, she broke from the line and, with a dull thud, knelt before the bruised and battered Zhao Hengyi.

“Please, I beg you—choose me! If you pick me, I will serve you like a beast of burden all my life!”

Sorting through his memories, Zhao Hengyi was startled, instinctively retreating a few steps. He had lived two lifetimes, yet never before had he witnessed anyone driven to such desperation—he was momentarily lost for words.

From the depths of his heart, Zhao Hengyi loathed the custom of the marriage squad. Alone in this Yan Dynasty, he had originally intended to volunteer for the suicide battalion, but now…

“Tch, this Miao Xiaoyu is shameless—still looking to harm others even now!”

“There’s no way he’ll agree—who wants to die young?”

“Exactly! And she’s got six young sisters. Marrying her is like taking on six burdens as well!”

The trio and the constables jeered without a care, convinced that Miao Xiaoyu’s fate was sealed—she would be sent to the Golden Sparrow House, and her six sisters would soon be left to beg in the streets and starve.

After all, everyone in Anyang County knew Miao Xiaoyu was fated to bring ruin to her husband. No sane man would choose her, not even for a matchmaker’s recommendation, and there were still more than a dozen girls left in the marriage squad.

The matchmaker and the other girls felt pity for Miao Xiaoyu as a fellow woman, but the specter of her misfortune silenced them—whoever married her would bring their family to ruin.

Kneeling in the dust, Miao Xiaoyu sank into despair. The cruel, mocking words stripped away even her final hope. Perhaps this, after all, was her fate.

“I’ll marry her. I’ll marry Miao Xiaoyu!”

Zhao Hengyi’s voice seemed to descend from the heavens, piercing Miao Xiaoyu’s darkness and pulling her back from the abyss.

Everyone in the courtyard was dumbfounded—he was actually going to marry Miao Xiaoyu? Did he have a death wish?

Zhao Hengyi himself felt helpless, unable to watch such a worthy girl be destroyed before his eyes. And besides, she had six young sisters—without her, those six little girls would likely perish as well.

As for the rumors of her cursed fate, Zhao Hengyi didn’t believe a word of it. He agreed to marry Miao Xiaoyu, intent on saving all seven lives.

Under the stares of those who looked at him as if he were already dead, Zhao Hengyi calmly accepted the marriage contract from Sergeant Zhang. In the blink of an eye, in this second life, he was wed.

No sooner had they left the county jail’s courtyard than six timid little girls, their faces streaked with tears, rushed to surround them.

“Big sister, please don’t leave!”

“Big sister, don’t abandon us. Yingying will be good, Yingying won’t even eat if you say so.”

“Big sister…”

Watching Miao Xiaoyu sobbing with her six frail sisters, Zhao Hengyi heaved a long sigh of relief.

With the marriage contract, Miao Xiaoyu would not be hounded by the authorities before next year’s taxes were due—he had, for now, saved seven lives.

The six little girls, knowing it was this stranger who had saved their sister from being dragged away, shyly offered their thanks to their new brother-in-law, their well-mannered gratitude all the more heartbreaking.

Having married, Miao Xiaoyu naturally brought her sisters to return home with Zhao Hengyi.

Zhao Hengyi’s home lay in Elm Bay, separated from the county town by two ridges—a place he’d been taken from just that morning.

The Miao family, once famed as great cloth merchants, had fallen into ruin; now, only a battered old loom remained. It was thanks to that loom that Miao Xiaoyu had managed to keep all seven sisters from starving.

How to survive in this Yan Dynasty was now Zhao Hengyi’s most pressing concern.

Fortunately, as he sorted through his memories, he’d already begun pondering a plan and had some ideas forming.

Fearing no one would want her and that she’d be sent to the Golden Sparrow House, Miao Xiaoyu had set aside a tiny sum for her sisters—a paltry handful of copper coins.

Those few coins proved useful. Zhao Hengyi bought ten catties of wheat, then spent the rest on various items of uncertain purpose, emptying the last of their money.

Though Miao Xiaoyu was reluctant, this was now her husband—the man who had just saved her and her sisters’ lives. Let him spend as he wished. No matter what, it was better than being sent to the Golden Sparrow House or watching her sisters starve in the street.

Eight people in all—two grown, six small—shouldered the old loom and carried the wheat over two mountain ridges, returning to Elm Bay.

The six little girls were drenched in sweat from the journey, but not one uttered a word of complaint. They kept trying to help carry things, terrified that their sister and brother-in-law might abandon them. Zhao Hengyi could only sigh at the wretchedness of this world.

As soon as they reached the village entrance, sharp-eyed children spotted them, and a crowd gathered.

“Fool Hengyi’s back!”

“Fool Hengyi married the cursed star!”

“My mom said Fool Hengyi would get beaten to death in jail—guess she was wrong!”

Zhao Hengyi was speechless. It seemed his body’s former owner had not been the brightest, and the village children often made him the butt of their jokes.

Moreover, the marriage squad had stopped in Elm Bay that morning—everyone knew Miao Xiaoyu’s reputation.

Miao Xiaoyu, however, was unfazed. She greeted the children with a bright smile and handed each a small handful of wheat. The little rascals cheered and dispersed.

“Well, Fool Hengyi is back, eh?”

Once the children left, a slouching, shifty-eyed young man swaggered over. “If you’d just picked a bride from the marriage squad like a sensible man, you wouldn’t have been dragged off by the constables and beaten before coming to your senses. You really are a fool!

“Tsk, tsk, isn’t that the cursed star, Miao Xiaoyu? Fool Hengyi, maybe you don’t care about dying, but don’t bring misfortune to our village because of her!”

This lout was Liu Shuang, a notorious layabout and gambler, the bane of Elm Bay, and a frequent bully to the simple-minded Zhao Hengyi.

Seeing the sack of wheat on Zhao Hengyi’s back and the battered loom, greed flashed in Liu Shuang’s eyes.

“Fool Hengyi, let me have a look—what’ve you got in that sack?”