Chapter 004: Good at Abacus Calculation

She was previously not quite lucid because she had been drugged with aphrodisia. Now that the poison had been neutralized, her memory gradually became clearer.

At this moment, she understood more deeply the strictures on women in this era, especially in small mountain villages like this. As the village chief, Li Zheng could command her to be put into a pig-dipping cage, life for the people here, especially for women, was indeed fragile.

"That was close," thought Ji Xinhe, and then, guided by her own memory, she made her way to a mountain spring.

First, she needed to clean herself up, wash her face with the clear water. But when she looked at the reflection in the clear spring, she was startled. "Who is this horrible woman? And to think of the disgusted look on that man's face earlier... Ji Xinhe, how could you think of yourself as a beauty?"

But those weren't the priorities now. She could tidy her disheveled hair, but her outer garment had been torn, and there was a gaping wound on her head. In this state, it was no good. If she returned, how would she explain herself?

Should she just run away?

But just as Ji Xinhe had this thought, she suddenly heard various shouts not far away: "Little He? Where are you?"

"Xin He? Xin He? Where did you go? Your parents are worried sick!"

"Ji Xinhe, hey? Ji Xinhe?"

From the sound of it, it seemed like the whole village had been mobilized.

The villagers in this bay area were quite unified. When a major incident occurred in a family, such as a child going missing, everyone would drop what they were doing to help. Ding had made a lot of noise, so many people came to help with the search.

Ji Xinhe's heart skipped a beat. She had no way out now.

Looking down at her current state, even though the poison had been neutralized, her clothes were disordered, and there was a huge wound on her head. In such a state, even if she said nothing had happened, bystanders would inevitably gossip.

In this era, reputation was the most important thing for a girl. Though she didn't care about these things, she understood the need to act in accordance with local customs.

As the sounds grew closer, Ji Xinhe quickly surveyed her surroundings. Nearby, there was a small hillside, not too high or too low, but it was covered in bushes and some rocks were hidden within. If she rolled down there…

After gritting her teeth, Ji Xinhe jumped down.

"Xin He? Where did Xin He go?" Lady Ding shouted while scanning around. This girl had drunk her potion. Even if she escaped from the clutches of Pork Chops, the poison hadn't been cured yet. She ran up this mountain and by now, the poisonous effects must have taken hold. Now if she were caught, her reputation would be ruined and nobody other than Pork Chops would dare marry her.

Lady Ding calculated well. She had to force Ji Xinhe to marry Pork Chops, otherwise, what about the twenty pieces of silver she had accepted? Wouldn't Pork Chops come after her?

As soon as she thought about this, Lady Ding was more motivated to find the child. To others, she was such a good stepmother.

"Xin He, where are you? If anything happens to you, how can your mother go on living!" Lady Ding yelled at the top of her lungs.

Ji Dong was also anxiously searching everywhere and didn't have time to deal with the abnormal behavior of Lady Ding.

The whole area was filled with shouts, and the villagers made every effort to search.

At this moment, a villager suddenly shouted, "Listen, is that Xin He's voice?"

Once this was said, everyone quieted down and listened intently.

"Help..." came a very weak voice.

"Hey, that really is Xin He! The voice seems to be coming from below this hillside!" an old man shouted excitedly.

"Oh my, we've found her, we've found her! We found the person!" Everyone shouted.

"What? You found her!?" Upon hearing this, Lady Ding was almost electrified, she quickly ran over, as if she couldn't wait to see the miserable state of Ji Xinhe: "Where is she? Where is she? Hurry up."

"It seems she rolled down this hillside, we need to help her, someone needs to go down and check."

Lady Ding was about to rush down, but when she saw how high the hillside was, she was scared and stopped, yelling, "Quick, someone get down there and check."

Ji Dong headed over, without another word he jumped down, "I'm going to check."

"Be careful, Dongzi, this slope is pretty steep."

Ji Dong grabbed a small tree branch on the slope, "It's okay, I know this mountain well."

Lady Ding glanced around, it's not gonna work, Ji Dong took favor on that girl, if he was the only one who went down, it would be hard to find any witnesses. There must be more people to go down.

Lady Ding immediately shouted, "Listen, you heartless people, Ji Dong alone cannot bring her up. We need at least a few more people to go down and help. If anything happens to my daughter today, I won't let you go even when I become a ghost!"

The villagers felt queasy. "What are you talking about? Haven't we been helping you search for half a day already?"

"Then, at least you should help out until the end, not one of you are willing to go down and save our Xin He, how can you be so heartless!"

"Hey, who's heartless here?"

It seemed like a fight was about to break out.

An elder man in the village stood up, "Enough, saving the person is the priority. Ji Dong might not be able to carry Xin He up by himself, we need to send a couple more folks down to help. We must get the child up first."

This old man had some status in the village, and when he spoke, no one else quibbled. Some other men volunteered to go down and help.

Lady Ding watched intently from above, her heart full of anticipation. She wanted to see Ji Xinhe's miserable appearance caused by the aphrodisia's effects. It was clear to anyone with discernment what had happened. As a result, her innocence would be gone, and not just in the village - in a radius of ten or so miles around, no one would dare to marry her. If she didn't marry Pork Chops, then who would she marry?

"Hey, we found her!" came a voice from below. Ji Dong was seen climbing up the slope with Xin He on his back. The other men were there to assist, but none of their faces showed the shock and embarrassment that Lady Ding was expecting. Instead, they seemed to think nothing of it.

"We should take her to Doctor Ma to check on her. This kid has a big wound on her head, seems like she fell pretty badly from the top!"