Chapter Three: Bare Walls and Empty Rooms

When Miao Xiaoyu was dividing the wheat among the children, Liu Shuang watched carefully. This rascal immediately tried to snatch the sack meant for carrying wheat, clearly intending to steal it by force! If it had been the old Fool Hengyi, the wheat and the loom would surely have been taken, and Liu Shuang would have slapped him a few times for good measure.

But now Fool Hengyi was no longer the same person; how could he let Liu Shuang bully him? As soon as Liu Shuang’s hand touched the sack, Zhao Hengyi, who had remained silent, kicked him to the ground!

“Hey, Fool Hengyi, did a trip to prison make you tough? Watch me beat you to death—ow!” Liu Shuang still believed he faced the same cowardly Fool Hengyi who never dared to resist. Thinking his fall was only due to carelessness, he tried to get up and assert his authority as the village bully, but Zhao Hengyi kicked him again the moment he rose!

Zhao Hengyi gave Liu Shuang no chance. He dropped the sack and, mounting Liu Shuang’s body, delivered a thorough beating, only stopping when Liu Shuang was crying and calling for his parents.

“Fool Hengyi, you just wait!” Liu Shuang scrambled to his feet and ran toward the outskirts of the village, shouting, “I’ll come back and burn your filthy doghouse to the ground!”

After driving off the bully, Zhao Hengyi worried the six little girls might be frightened. But when he turned, he found Miao Xiaoyu and the six girls gazing at him with sparkling eyes, full of admiration.

“Brother-in-law, you’re amazing!”

“With you here, no one will dare bully us again!”

Zhao Hengyi felt a sudden sting in his nose. How many times had these seven sisters been bullied and wronged?

Just then, the village chief and several elders arrived, angry and hurrying to settle accounts with Liu Shuang! It turned out that when the wedding party arrived at Elm Bay that morning, Liu Shuang—still unmarried at eighteen—had been clever enough to pick a strong and honest girl for his wife after seeing Zhao Hengyi hauled off by the constables. But Liu Shuang reverted to his old ways: he beat the girl upon returning home, stole her dowry, and even took the clothes off her back to gamble with.

The honest girl sat naked, crying in Liu Shuang’s shack. With no one else at home, it was only when the women digging wild vegetables outside heard her cries that they realized Liu Shuang was up to no good again.

The women comforted the girl at home, while the village chief led a group after Liu Shuang, but they failed to catch him.

“Sigh, with Liu Shuang running off, poor Xiuying is doomed,” the old chief said helplessly. Sun Xiuying was the honest girl Liu Shuang had chosen. “Let’s find some clothes for her first. When that scoundrel Liu Shuang comes back, we’ll figure out what to do.”

Glancing at Miao Xiaoyu and the six girls timidly hiding behind Zhao Hengyi, the old chief felt a pang in his teeth.

None of these young ones brought peace of mind. Fool Hengyi had been dragged to the county and beaten, and now he’d chosen Miao Xiaoyu, the unlucky star, as his wife. Hopefully, this wouldn’t bring disaster to the village!

As for Zhao Hengyi beating Liu Shuang, no one cared. After all, even a rabbit will bite if pushed, and besides, he was a fool. The village women whispered among themselves: Fool Hengyi seemed to have wised up after a stint in jail; he dared to fight back against Liu Shuang now!

Relying on the fragments of memory in his mind, Zhao Hengyi greeted the villagers and led Miao Xiaoyu and the six sisters home.

The dilapidated thatched house had only one room and leaked air everywhere. Zhao Hengyi’s memories clearly told him that when it rained, a heavy storm outside meant a light drizzle inside.

“Husband, rest for a bit. I’ll tidy up the house,” Miao Xiaoyu said, not minding the poor conditions. If Zhao Hengyi’s family had been well-off, he wouldn’t have been forced to marry and beaten in prison.

The six girls joined in, swinging their little arms and legs as they helped their sister clean the house.

Watching their busy figures, Zhao Hengyi felt warmth in his heart.

Having lived two lives, it was only at this moment that he truly felt he had a home.

Miao Xiaoyu, quick and capable, led her sisters in cleaning up the messy house. She then cooked wheat porridge. She originally wanted to add some wild greens and grass seeds, but Zhao Hengyi stopped her.

The man’s word was law; her husband had just suffered in prison, so it was only right for him to replenish himself with plain wheat porridge. Miao Xiaoyu didn’t insist further.

When the porridge was ready, there was only one bowl. Miao Xiaoyu handed it to Zhao Hengyi, while she and the six girls kept drinking water.

“Why aren’t you eating?” he asked.

“We’re not hungry. Husband, you walked a long way through the mountains; eat quickly.”

“If you don’t eat, neither will I. How can a man eat while his wife and sisters go hungry?”

“Every family does the same; grain is always saved for the men. We really aren’t hungry…”

“I am the man, I am the head of the household, and what I say goes!”

The bowl of wheat porridge was divided into eight portions; each person got only a small mouthful, yet it tasted extraordinarily sweet.

Unlike the cheerful sisters, Miao Xiaoyu’s tears fell uncontrollably into her bowl.

The fragrant scent of wheat porridge filled her nose. With a gentle sip, the unique aroma of grain seemed to fill her entire body. How long had it been since she last tasted wheat?

Silently drinking the difficult porridge, Zhao Hengyi looked at Miao Xiaoyu and the six girls, sighing inwardly.

He needed to find a way to survive!

Though Zhao Hengyi found the wheat porridge hard to swallow—even when famished—in Elm Bay, and indeed in many places across the Great Yan Empire, it was a rare delicacy.

Many families couldn’t afford wheat. For the same price, they could buy more millet or sorghum. Even then, they had to mix in grass seeds and wild vegetables to make porridge, or there wouldn’t be enough to eat.

This was why men were reluctant to marry: they simply couldn’t support a wife!

Not only could they not feed a wife, after marriage—because of food rations and taxes—they’d end up dragging themselves to ruin!

In Zhao Hengyi’s remaining memories, hunger dominated most of his life. If not for Elm Bay being near Great Green Mountain, where wild vegetables and tree bark could be found, half the villagers would have starved to death!

This was also why he’d spent all the copper coins Miao Xiaoyu had saved for her sisters in the county: he needed to find a way out.

Letting Miao Xiaoyu and her sisters rest at home, Zhao Hengyi took those mysterious items and went out.

To find a path to survival in this cursed era was nothing short of a miracle for ordinary folk.

But Zhao Hengyi was confident. To outsiders, Elm Bay was a poverty-stricken backwater, where everyone deserved to go hungry. Yet in his eyes, they were begging for food while sitting atop a mountain of gold!

He had a way to feed his family—not only would Xiaoyu and her sisters have enough to eat, they’d eat well, and have extra to buy clothes and keep warm!

Elm Bay was poor, but it had a blacksmith shop—though Zhang Dan Niu, the smith, was not very skilled. The knives and farm tools he made didn’t last, but they were cheap.

Zhao Hengyi found the blacksmith’s shop, gave Zhang Dan Niu three jin of wheat, and obtained the right to use the forge, with Zhang Dan Niu willing to assist him.

Zhang Dan Niu was honest and well-known in the village. Though he knew Fool Hengyi was eccentric and often spoke nonsense, he never intended to cheat anyone. But Fool Hengyi insisted on using his forge, which was a bit much!

This was his livelihood—how could he let Fool Hengyi mess with it?

Yet Zhao Hengyi was determined. He wanted to use this unremarkable rural forge to create something that would let his whole family eat their fill and stay warm.