Chapter 5

Chapter 5

I still had a little private money on me.

I bought half a sheng of rice, then went to the wasteland to dig up some wild greens and cooked myself a pot of vegetable porridge.

I kept buying needle, thread, and cloth to make shoes, then took them to the street to sell once they were done.

In the past, every coin I made had to be handed over to my parents. Sometimes I would secretly hide a little, but it was never much. The good thing now was that I got to keep all the money myself.

Gu Yanqing had no money to provide me with decent meals, so I wasn’t about to feed him anything good either. Three meals a day, all vegetable porridge.

Half a sheng of rice had to last half a month.

Wild greens could be dug from the fields, and the bamboo shoots, mushrooms, and Chinese yams on the mountain were all edible too.

Now and then, I would go dig up some eels and sell them in town. Eels fetched a good price-one could sell for fifty copper coins.

But eels were hard to dig up, and there weren’t many of them.

In the temple, I put together a few floorboards for myself. I brought over the bedding from my maiden home, and at night I slept on the floor. Gu Yanqing and I each took one side.

He recited his classical texts; I counted my copper coins.

Just like that, two months passed, and autumn arrived.

There were especially many good things in the mountains in autumn.

I slung a basket over my arm and prepared to go to the chestnut tree I had visited before to pick chestnuts.

After I finished picking them and was about to head down the mountain, I saw Zheng the Cripple.

His face was flushed, and he looked drunk.

The moment Zheng the Cripple saw me, he gave me a lecherous grin. “You little slut. You dared refuse to marry me? Today I’ll teach you a lesson!”

As he spoke, he came to grab me.

Thankfully, being a Cripple, he couldn’t run as fast as I could. I ran into the woods, took a long detour, and shook him off.

The moment I rushed down the mountain, I saw Gu Yanqing hurrying up. When he saw me, he let out a breath of relief and said, “What happened? Did you see Zheng the Cripple? One of the village aunties said she saw him go up the mountain.”

My face was a little pale as I told him what had happened.

We went back together.

Before long, Zheng the Cripple also came down the mountain. He even made a point of coming to the ruined temple to curse at us, calling us an adulterous pair.

Neither Gu Yanqing nor I said a word.

Because of what happened with Zheng the Cripple, I no longer dared go up the mountain much. I could only dig wild greens in the fields.

The village chief and the others all felt sorry for me, because those wild greens were what other families used to feed their pigs.

Two days later, I told Gu Yanqing I wanted to go back to my maiden home to stay.

The ruined temple wasn’t far from my maiden home. It was only about the time it took to burn a stick of incense away, and we could even see each other’s houses.

That night, as usual, I put knockout powder in the tea. Then I quietly slipped out the door.

I didn’t dare try anything under Gu Yanqing’s nose. He was much more cautious than my parents, and much smarter too. If he took knockout powder, he would definitely notice.