The morning after the market success brought a heavy, driving rain that lashed against the wooden shutters of the mountain cottage. The valley below was swallowed by a dense gray fog, isolating the small home even further from the rest of the village. Inside, however, the kitchen was filled with a dry, comforting warmth as the earthen stove crackled merrily.
Xu Ming sat at the wooden table, a smooth piece of charcoal in his hand and a scrap of coarse wrapping paper laid out before him. He was carefully calculating his earnings and estimating the cost of ingredients for his next batch of pickled vegetables.
"Eighty-two coppers from yesterday," Xu Ming murmured to himself, writing down neat modern numbers that he would later have to memorize in traditional script. "If I buy three large baskets of raw radishes and cabbages from the village farmers, that will cost around fifteen coppers. Salt, sugar, and spices will take another twenty. That leaves a clear profit of forty-seven coppers."
It was a modest start, but in this ancient era, a typical farming family could live comfortably on just three or four silver taels a year. One silver tael was worth roughly one thousand copper coins. If he could scale up his production, buying a proper brick courtyard house and a mule cart wouldn't just be a distant dream.
The heavy wooden door creaked open, and Shen Li stepped into the room, shaking the rainwater from his oiled straw cloak. He carried a heavy bundle of thick bamboo stalks he had harvested from the grove behind the house.
"The rain won't stop until tomorrow," Shen Li said, his deep voice vibrating in the small space. He set the bamboo down and hung his wet cloak by the door. "The mountain trails are too muddy for hunting today. I will stay back and make more wooden shelves for your jars."
Xu Ming looked up, his eyes softening as he watched the tall hunter immediately set to work. Shen Li knelt on the floor, using a sharp hunting knife to split the bamboo with effortless precision. He was a man of few words, but every action he took was entirely focused on making Xu Ming's life easier.
"Thank you, A-Li," Xu Ming said, rising from the table to pour a cup of hot, ginger-infused water for his husband. He set it down near the hunter's hand. "With the weather like this, no one will be visiting the market today. It gives us the perfect chance to prepare a larger batch. I want to try a new recipe today—spicy pickled garlic shoots."
Shen Li took a sip of the warm water, his dark eyes tracking Xu Ming's movements around the kitchen. "The village will be talking about yesterday. Madam Wang has a loud mouth. By now, the entire Liu family knows you made money."
"Let them talk," Xu Ming replied coolly, sorting through a basket of fresh garlic cloves. "As long as they stay on their side of the mountain, I don't care what rumors they spread."
But Xu Ming had underestimated the sheer, shameless greed of his original body's relatives.
By midday, the steady drumbeat of the rain was punctuated by the sharp, aggressive sound of someone banging on the courtyard gate. The chickens in the small coop began to cluck frantically in alarm.
Shen Li stopped his carving instantly. His hand naturally drifted toward the heavy hunting knife resting at his waist, his jaw tightening into a rigid line.
"Stay inside," Shen Li muttered, rising to his feet like a shadow.
"No," Xu Ming said, wiping his hands on a clean cloth, his expression turning icy. "If it's who I think it is, hiding inside will only make them bolder. Let's face them together."
Shen Li looked at the fierce determination in the small ger's eyes and nodded slowly. He opened the door, and the two walked out into the covered porch, looking out at the wooden gate.
Standing in the mud outside the gate were three people. Madam Wang held a ragged umbrella over her head, her face twisted in a look of self-righteous fury. Beside her stood Liu Da, his right wrist wrapped in a filthy bandage, glaring at the cottage with venomous hatred. But the man leading them was someone Xu Ming recognized instantly from the original owner's memories: Liu Guofu, Xu Ming's biological father.
Liu Guofu was a gaunt, weathered man with a permanent stoop, but today he wore a heavy woolen coat and carried himself with the unearned authority of a family patriarch.
"Xu Ming! Open this gate right now!" Liu Guofu shouted over the roar of the rain, his voice shaking with anger. "Is this how I raised you? To let your own father stand in the pouring rain while you hide inside like a coward?"
Shen Li walked down the porch steps, unbothered by the rain soaking his shoulders. He unlatched the heavy wooden bolt and threw the gate open, standing like an immovable wall between the visitors and Xu Ming.
"State your business," Shen Li said, his voice flat, heavy, and completely devoid of warmth.
Liu Guofu flinched slightly under the hunter's terrifying gaze, but the thought of the heavy coin pouch Madam Wang had described gave him a sudden surge of false courage. He puffed out his chest, pointing a trembling finger past Shen Li toward Xu Ming.
"I am here for my son!" Liu Guofu yelled. "Xu Ming, you unfilial beast! Your mother tells me you were in the town yesterday, selling goods and making dozens of silver coins, yet you haven't sent a single copper back to the family home! Your brother's wrist is broken because of this brute you married, and we had to pay the village doctor ten coppers! You will hand over your earnings today to cover the medical fees and fulfill your filial duty!"
Xu Ming stepped down from the porch, walking out into the rain to stand right beside Shen Li. The cold water dripped from his hair, but his eyes were burning with a fierce, modern intellect that completely outmatched the primitive greed of the people before him.
"Filial duty?" Xu Ming let out a sharp, mocking laugh that cut through the sound of the rain. "Father, you use such grand words. Let me ask you this: when Madam Wang locked me in the woodshed for three days without food before my wedding, where was your parental duty? When she took the five silver taels from Shen Li as a bride price and didn't even give me a torn blanket or a chipped bowl as a dowry, where was your family care?"
"You—that was for the family's survival!" Liu Guofu stammered, his face turning an ugly shade of red. "A child must always obey his parents! It is the law of the land!"
"Then let's talk about the law of the Great Qi Dynasty," Xu Ming countered smoothly, stepping forward. In his past life, he had audited corporate contracts for years; tearing apart a basic family dispute was child's play. "According to the Imperial Household Registry, once a ger or a woman is married out and the bride price is fully paid, their name is struck from their natal family's register and moved to their husband's household. Legally, I am a member of the Shen family. My earnings, my labor, and my property belong solely to the Shen household."
Madam Wang stepped forward, her umbrella shaking. "You sharp-tongued little freak! Do you think the village elder will care about your fancy city laws? If we tell the village council that you are an unfilial son who hoards wealth while his parents starve, you will be driven out of this valley!"
"Go ahead and call the village elder," Xu Ming said, his voice entirely unbothered. "In fact, let's go right now. We can tell Elder Zhou how Liu Da attempted to commit daylight robbery in the public market yesterday. We can ask him if the law protects a thief who tries to steal from an imperial hunter's household. Shen Li pays his hunting taxes directly to the county magistrate every winter. If we take this to the county court, do you think the magistrate will side with a lazy village bully or a law-abiding taxpayer?"
The mention of the county magistrate and the imperial court struck immediate terror into the hearts of the Liu family. To simple villagers, the local officials were terrifying figures who could throw a person into a dark dungeon on a whim.
Liu Da shifted uncomfortably behind his mother, his face turning pale. He knew very well that he had been the one to initiate the fight in the market.
Liu Guofu looked at his son as if he were looking at a complete stranger. The timid, silent boy who used to take their beatings without a word had completely vanished. The youth standing before him possessed a sharp, terrifying confidence that made it impossible to suppress him.
"You... you really intend to sever all ties with your own blood?" Liu Guofu asked, his voice shaking, attempting to use emotional manipulation where force had failed.
"The ties were severed the moment you sold me for five silver taels," Xu Ming said, his voice dead of all emotion. "From this day forward, the Liu family and the Shen family have nothing to do with one another. If you come to this mountain again to cause trouble, we will not argue with you. We will go straight to the county yamen."
Shen Li stepped forward, the heavy muscles in his arms tensing as he placed a hand back on the hilt of his knife. The dark, murderous aura that had terrified Liu Da the day before began to bleed out once more. "Get out," the hunter commanded, a low growl vibrating in his chest.
Liu Guofu swallowed hard, his courage completely collapsing. He realized that they wouldn't get a single copper coin from this courtyard today, and staying any longer might truly land his son in jail or result in another broken bone.
"Unholy monsters... the both of you!" Madam Wang screamed spit, turning around and dragging her injured son back down the muddy path.
Liu Guofu gave Xu Ming one last resentful glare before turning and hurrying after his wife, his boots splashing loudly in the thick mud as they fled back down the mountain.
Xu Ming watched them go until their figures were completely swallowed by the gray fog of the valley. Only then did the rigid tension leave his shoulders, a long, exhausted sigh escaping his lips.
Suddenly, a warm, dry hand wrapped around his shoulder. Shen Li pulled him close against his broad chest, shielding him from the driving rain.
"Let's go inside," Shen Li murmured softly, his voice a stark contrast to the terrifying tone he had used moments ago. "You are soaking wet. I will stoke the fire."
Back inside the warm kitchen, Xu Ming changed into a dry outer robe while Shen Li added fresh logs to the stove. A pot of hot water was quickly brought to a boil, filling the room with comforting steam.
Xu Ming sat by the fire, his hands wrapped around a warm clay cup. Despite the unpleasant confrontation, he felt an incredible sense of freedom. He had officially drawn a line in the sand; the ghosts of the original owner's past would no longer have power over his new life.
"You spoke well," Shen Li said quietly, sitting down on a low stool across from him. The hunter was looking at him with an intensity that made Xu Ming's cheeks turn slightly warm. "I did not know you knew so much about the imperial laws."
Xu Ming chuckled softly, taking a sip of his warm water. "When you have to survive in a harsh world, A-Li, you learn to use every weapon you have. My weapon just happens to be my tongue and my mind." He looked at Shen Li, his eyes shining with deep gratitude. "But my mind wouldn't mean anything if I didn't have your strength to back it up. Thank you for standing by me."
Shen Li reached out, his large, scarred fingers gently brushing against Xu Ming's damp hair, tucking a stray strand behind his ear. The touch was incredibly tender, full of a deep, silent emotion that didn't need words to be understood.
"Always," Shen Li promised softly.
As the rain continued to fall outside, sealing them away in their own private paradise, the bond between the modern soul and the ancient hunter grew stronger, forged in the fire of shared adversity and the warmth of a shared home.
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