Volume 1, Chapter 2: Establishing Authority for the First Time

Just as Liu Feng was about to leave, he saw Mu Wanqing return. Seeing her sister’s face streaked with tears, she quickly pleaded, “Husband, Wanqing will cook right away. I promise you’ll have a full meal.”
“Please, spare my sister.”

Mu Wanqing didn’t hesitate and hurried to prepare the meal. But what could she possibly make? The basket held only the most common wild vegetables, the smallest and most meager kind. The better, more filling wild greens had long been picked clean by the starving villagers.

Her hands stung painfully from the minor injuries sustained while foraging. But aside from enduring the pain and swallowing her tears, what choice did she have?

Before long, Mu Wanqing brought out a steaming bowl of soup, desperately trying to mask the worry in her beautiful eyes. She feared Liu Feng would scorn the thin broth and punish the sisters harshly.

Liu Feng sighed.

The two sisters were in the prime of their youth. Though their fair cheeks bore traces of dust, their exquisite beauty remained unmistakable—delicate willow-leaf brows and eyes bright and clear as water.

Liu Feng raised his hand to take the bowl. “Good.”

Looking down, he realized it was no ordinary porridge—just a mix of various coarse grains and brown rice. Yet, even these grains were sparse. The bowl was mostly filled with green wild vegetables, roots and all.

There was no other way.

His stomach growled loudly with hunger. His body was weak, and he couldn’t afford to be picky; something was better than nothing.

He drained the bowl in one gulp, regaining some strength. His pale face flushed faintly.

“Is there more?”

“No.”

Mu Wanqing bit the edge of her garment, her knuckles whitening from the strain. She swallowed hard, as if suppressing a rising bitterness and fear in her throat.

Her eyes brimmed with dread.

She took back the empty bowl from Liu Feng and whispered so softly it was barely audible, “Husband, please don’t sell me and my sister. We will work harder to gather wild vegetables. We eat little—we will make sure you are full.”

Liu Feng looked at the bowl in Mu Wanqing’s hands.

Suddenly, his heart twisted with unease at the sight of these two pitiful sisters before him.

Just as Liu Feng pondered their next move for survival, a sudden noise came from the doorway.

The fragile and dilapidated door was kicked open with a heavy crash.

A bald, burly man barged in.

A skinning knife hung at his waist, stained with dark brown blood.

He dusted off his hand, his oily nose gleaming unpleasantly in the sunlight. His yellowed teeth flashed as his tongue licked them, his gaze like hooks fixated lecherously on the sisters’ chests.

Mu Wanqing instinctively stepped back half a pace, crossing her arms defensively over her chest, her knuckles pressing hard against the coarse cloth. Mu Wanqing’s sister mirrored her stance, shielding herself.

“Li Ergou, what do you want?”

Liu Feng stood and raised his hand to protect the frightened sisters behind him.

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