Chapter 3: Meeting Young Master Jing

Tang Huai looked at Liu Xiaoyu.

In her last life, Liu Xiaoyu, who had no husband, lived in abject poverty, and eventually suffered from depression and committed suicide by jumping into a river.

Seeing how Liu Xiaoyu was so thin that only her cheekbones remained, Tang Huai felt a pang of pain in her heart. She took Liu Xiaoyu's hand, "Mother, you must be strong and persevere! You're still in confinement, you can't cry, crying will damage your eyes. We may have lost father, but we must go on living. No matter how difficult or exhausting, we must live on!"

"Your father has left us, and now it's just us mother and daughters, bleak and miserable, what will we do?" Liu Xiaoyu cried.

"Everything will get better, trust me, Mother!" If she could survive such poverty in her last life, what was there to fear in this one?

Tang Huai let go, "Mother, I'll go cook some rice for you."

When she arrived at the kitchen, she found it very small, with a fireplace full of dry firewood.

Tang Huai looked at the rice jar, which had about ten pounds of rice left—enough for a while.

Next to the rice jar, in a bamboo basket, there were a few eggs. Fortunately, they hadn't been taken by any of her aunts.

After Tang Huai had cooked the rice, she fried two eggs and brought them to Liu Xiaoyu to eat.

Liu Xiaoyu was reluctant to eat the eggs, insisting that they be given to Tang Li.

Tang Huai saw this and immediately took Tang Li outside.

As Liu Xiaoyu was already weak from childbirth and grieving the loss of her husband, having not eaten or drunk anything since yesterday, two eggs could not possibly replenish the nutrition she needed, and now she wanted to give them to Tang Li. Naturally, Tang Huai wouldn't allow it.

After taking Tang Li out, Tang Huai fried some dried radishes and ate porridge with her.

After they had eaten, Tang Huai sat in the living room looking at the humble mud-brick house, empty and extremely poor.

She knew that life ahead was going to be very difficult.

"No matter how hard, we must go on! The heavens have given me another chance at life, there must be a reason for it," Tang Huai thought to herself with determination.

After the meal, Liu Xiaoyu fell asleep holding her youngest daughter, and Tang Li also lay down on the ground and fell asleep.

Tang Huai stood in the yard, looking into the distance with a look of melancholy.

During the confinement, their home didn't even have a single chicken...

They used to have two chickens, but both were slaughtered for father's funeral.

Tang Huai blinked her eyes—she would catch a wild chicken!

Huangguan Mountain was the tallest and largest mountain in Shuanglong Village, resembling two dragons spiraling around each other. There were wild chickens to be found here.

Armed with a hemp sack, Tang Huai didn't manage to catch a wild chicken on Huangguan Mountain, but she did catch a venomous snake.

In her past life, she had caught snakes with Tang Youxin and had some experience. She put the venomous snake into the hemp sack and tied it firmly, then continued to look for wild chickens.

"Fwoosh..."

Suddenly, a deep call from behind her sounded like a mix between a cow and a pig. Tang Huai was so scared that she hurriedly turned around to look.

A wild boar!

A formidable wild boar!

As it walked toward Tang Huai, baring its tusks, she could see the aggression in its demeanor.

Seeing its fierce appearance, Tang Huai's first instinct was: This boar will attack people!

Scared, Tang Huai turned and ran, but she was so hasty that she ran into a pine tree.

A dry branch jabbed into her flesh, and Tang Huai covered her forehead in pain, "Ah..."

"Whoosh—" Suddenly a gust of wind zipped past her ear.

Startled, Tang Huai quickly turned to look and saw that the wild boar behind her had been shot with an arrow!

"Whoosh—" came another arrow!

This arrow struck the wild boar, causing it to fall to the ground, struggling.

Tang Huai shifted aside in shock and looked back, only to see a man in dark cyan trousers and a pure white tank top, wearing black leather boots, approaching.

The afternoon sun filtered through the leaves, speckling him with light, making him look both magnificent and dazzling.

The man had a tall and straight figure, with features so fine and perfect as if he was God's most exquisite masterpiece.

In his hand he held a bow, with several arrows tucked into his boots...

As he came closer and she saw his face clearly, Tang Huai was shocked—it was him!

Jing Peng's elder brother, Jing Xuan!

Jing Xuan was young and talented with an extraordinary demeanor, currently the head coach at a very fashionable and imaginative club.

Tang Huai remembered clearly that, in her previous life, she had very little to do with Jing Xuan.

He was the pride of the Jing Family, the dream lover of the girls in Ancheng, respected and revered by men and women, young and old. She knew somewhat about his affairs.

Tang Huai remembered that, in her previous life, when she married his younger brother Jing Peng, he did not come back to participate in his brother's wedding.

Jing Peng's features bore some resemblance to Jing Xuan. Seeing Jing Xuan reminded Tang Huai of Jing Peng, and the deception she had suffered from Jing Peng and Tang Ying in her previous life tightened her heart sharply.

The tall and straight figure had already approached her, his voice calm and low, "You're injured."

Jing Xuan was not often at home and, with the large population of the village and the children changing every day, he did not recognize Tang Huai.

He slightly raised his sword-like eyebrows and glanced at the wild boar, which was slowly ceasing its struggle, "Whose daughter are you? What are you doing on the mountain?"

Then he took out a handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to Tang Huai: "Your forehead is bleeding, wipe it."

His voice softened somewhat, exhibiting a low and magnetic charm.

Tang Huai looked at the handkerchief extended to her and glanced at his hand from the corner of her eye, deep in thought.

His palm was broad, his fingers long and well-defined, very beautiful hands!

Just standing there, she could feel a strong male hormone emanating, this was a very powerful and charismatic man.

The sleeves pulled up to his arms were slightly dirty, which added a bit of wildness to him, but it did not obscure his extraordinary temperament.

"No need," Tang Huai suddenly looked up, smiled at him, but her eyes were somewhat distant, "Thank you for showing up in time."

After speaking, Tang Huai turned and left.

Jing Xuan watched her slender figure, his dark, sharp eyes flashing a fragment of light.

Girls who knew him and didn't, which one didn't have peach blossoms bubbling in their eyes at the sight of him? His appearance was too perfect.

It was the first time for Jing Xuan to encounter a girl who had absolutely no interest in talking to him.

The girl was very young, and she had an aura that Jing Xuan couldn't describe.

Her gaze seemed to have seen through everything...

He shot the wild boar, but she did not think he was saving her, but rather that he was just doing what he had intended to do anyway.

Indeed, as soon as Jing Xuan returned to the village, he heard from the villagers that Huangguan Mountain had a very fierce wild boar that attacked people on sight.

He came here to hunt.

Unable to find any pheasants, Tang Huai decided to look elsewhere.

"To catch that wild boar that attacks people, the villagers have set many iron traps in the mountains. Aren't you afraid of getting caught?"

Upon hearing this, Tang Huai halted in her tracks.

She suddenly remembered the village idiot, who in her previous life had run to Huangguan Mountain and gotten caught in an iron trap.

Because he was deep in the mountains and couldn't struggle free of the trap, by the time the villagers found him, the idiot had already died.

Some villagers said he had died of hunger, others said the trap was unclean and he died of an infection in the wound, but regardless of the speculation, he was dead.

Preoccupied with finding something to help her mother recoup her health, Tang Huai had forgotten this incident.

"I know now," Tang Huai said indifferently, then directly left Huangguan Mountain, no longer searching for wild chickens.

In her previous life, when Jing Peng talked about his older brother, he always did so with pride.

Jing Xuan was not only handsome and capable, smart and talented, but also strong in martial arts. Tang Huai deeply admired him, but seeing him only reminded her of Jing Peng, which made her feel uncomfortable.

Jing Xuan, watching her figure, lifted his handsome eyebrows. It seemed she really disliked him...

Yang Hongxing stood in his yard, casting a dark glance into Liu Xiaoyu's house, calculating how to get back a hundred yuan in interest.

"Mom, Mom!" At that moment, Tang Zhixuan came running back, sweating profusely and excitedly said, "Brother Jing Xuan has caught that wild boar that attacks people, he said he'll kill it another day and distribute the meat to the villagers!"

Upon hearing this, Yang Hongxing's eyes lit up and he looked at his beloved son, "Really? When did Jing Shao come back to the village?"

Those younger than Jing Xuan called him Brother Jing Xuan because his grandfather was a factory director in the city, wealthy, and despite his young age, he had bought land and built a house in the county town and even had a jeep. His grandeur, for that era, was simply that of a wealthy family, and his cohorts liked to call him Jing Shao.

"I don't know, I just saw him. He has become even more handsome; the women in the village are all starry-eyed at the sight of him," Tang Zhixuan replied.

"Where's your sister? Tell her to go to Uncle Jing's house to see the wild boar," Yang Hongxing was eager for Jing Xuan to take an interest in his daughter, Tang Ying.

"Sister is playing badminton with Jing Min!" Jing Min was Jing Xuan's younger sister.

Upon hearing this, Yang Hongxing's heart surged with joy, and he said with a smile, "Tang Ying is clever."

Interacting more with Jing Min meant more chances to come into contact with her three brothers. Yang Hongxing thought greedily, "If Tang Ying could marry Jing Shao, Tang Fei marry Jing Peng, and Jing Min marry my Zhixuan, that would be perfect."