Ch 34: Transmigrated to become a Koi Husband

The small mountain village was known for its simple and honest ways, with little to no petty theft.

For a moment, Jing Li was stunned before he sprinted after the thief. “Stop!” he shouted.

The man ran swiftly, quickly reaching the ridge of the fields. Jing Li, unaccustomed to walking on the uneven paths, stumbled over some loose stones and fell to the ground.

His palm was grazed by the sharp stones, and he winced in pain.

“Isn’t that Qin Zhao’s husband? What happened?” Li Dali saw Jing Li fall from a distance and hurried over to help him up. “Did you hurt yourself? You need to be more careful when walking. What’s the rush?”

Jing Li ignored the concern and pointed towards the distance. “Brother Dali, that man—”

Before he could finish speaking, a cry of alarm rang out from ahead.

The man who had been running had tripped over something and tumbled down the side of the ridge, rolling into a ditch.

Jing Li: “…”

Jing Li: “???”

Isn’t that just flat ground?

Li Dali supported him as they walked over. They found a man lying by the ditch, barely conscious, groaning in pain.

“A Yu? What are you doing here?” Li Dali recognized the man and shouted towards the ditch.

Jing Li asked, “You know him?”

“He’s my cousin.”

The man’s name was Li Hongyu, Li Dali’s uncle’s son, and also… A Xiu’s older brother.

It took Jing Li a moment to piece together the complicated family relationships, and he began to understand why this had happened.

Previously, when Qin Zhao rejected A Xiu’s advances, neither he nor Qin Zhao thought much of it. However, from the perspective of A Xiu’s brother, it likely seemed that his sister had been wronged.

Today, with Uncle Li visiting Qin Zhao’s house, Li Hongyu seized the opportunity to cause some trouble in their fields. But instead of succeeding, he ended up injuring himself.

xxx

“Did you do this to get back at us?” Jing Li asked.

Li Hongyu’s fall had been severe, likely resulting in a broken left forearm, rendering it immobile.

Hearing Jing Li’s question, Li Hongyu angrily retorted, “I wasn’t—”

“Don’t move!” he was immediately scolded by Doctor Ge, who was tending to his injury. “Do you want to lose that arm?”

Li Hongyu sulkily closed his mouth.

He was only a year older than A Xiu, still unmarried, and his appearance was quite youthful.

They were now in the village headman’s house, where Li Dali, sitting by the door with a stool, listened to the whole story. Angrily, he slapped Li Hongyu on the head. “You useless little brat!”

He hit him so hard that Li Hongyu yelped in pain. “Brother Dali, why are you siding with outsiders? They treated A Xiu so—”

“You want to shout louder so the whole village can hear?” Li Dali cut him off coldly.

The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. “This was all Aunt He and Auntie’s fault in the first place. Qin Zhao was already being polite by not making a big deal out of it, and you’re still causing trouble? What, do you want the entire village to know?”

“I didn’t, I just…” Li Hongyu’s voice grew weaker, “I just wanted to teach him a lesson.”

Li Dali scolded, “You idiot—”

“Calm down, Dali,” the village chief said as he brought them a few cups of tea, speaking in a peaceful tone. “I went to check earlier, and fortunately, Qin Zhao’s husband discovered it in time. The seedlings weren’t damaged at the roots, so if they’re replanted soon, they should survive.”

Li Dali nodded. “Alright, I’ll go and replant the seedlings later.”

“As for Hongyu, according to village rules…”

Before the village chief could finish, footsteps were heard outside.

“You little rascal, I can’t leave you alone for a few hours without you causing trouble!” A deep, powerful voice came from the entrance as a burly man walked in.

Li Hongyu, despite his injured arm, jumped up from his chair in alarm.

But the sudden movement caused excruciating pain in his arm, and he turned pale, caught red-handed by his father. “Dad, don’t hit me! My arm is broken!! Ouch—!!”

His wails were pitiful, and just at that moment, Qin Zhao also hurriedly entered the room.

Jing Li waved at him. “Qin Zhao, I’m over here!”

Qin Zhao paused for a moment before walking over to Jing Li, his eyes falling on Jing Li’s bandaged hand. “How did you get hurt? Does it hurt?”

Jing Li had intended to say it was nothing, but when he opened his mouth, the words came out differently. In a soft voice, he said, “I fell, and it really hurts.”

The once clean and tidy young husband was now covered in dirt, his clothes stained with mud, and his face and hands dirty, making him look quite pitiful.

Jing Li’s injury wasn’t severe, just a scrape from the fall that wouldn’t even leave a scar after healing.

But because his skin was so pale and delicate, the injury looked much worse than it was. Doctor Ge had decided to bandage it up after applying some medicine.

Qin Zhao gently wiped a smudge of dirt from Jing Li’s chin and helped him up. “Let’s go home.”

The village chief stopped him. “Qin Zhao, about the Li family…”

“My husband is injured, I need to take him home first. As for the other matters…” Qin Zhao glanced briefly at Li Hongyu and said calmly, “We can discuss them another day.”

With that, he paid no mind to what others thought and led Jing Li out the door.

The sun had already set completely, leaving only a faint trace of twilight on the horizon. Qin Zhao wiped the light sweat from his forehead as he walked down the stone-paved road, holding Jing Li’s hand.

Jing Li tugged gently at his sleeve. “Did you run over here?”

“Yes.” Qin Zhao replied softly, “The village chief sent someone to inform me that you had a bit of a conflict with Li Ershu’s son. I was worried about you.”

Qin Zhao wasn’t supposed to exert himself, and now his face was slightly pale, his breathing a bit unsteady.

But Jing Li felt a secret sense of happiness in his heart.

Qin Zhao was really worried about him.

Jing Li’s uninjured hand was held firmly in Qin Zhao’s warm, dry palm, which was reassuringly strong.

He covered his mouth and coughed lightly, trying to hide the smile that he couldn’t suppress, then said seriously, “You just walked away like that. Are you not going to pursue the matter with Li Hongyu?”

Qin Zhao asked in return, “Do you want to pursue it?”

Jing Li thought for a moment. “The village chief said the seedlings can be saved, and Dali Ge said he would help us replant them. It seems like we haven’t really lost anything…”

Qin Zhao paused in his steps and glanced at Jing Li’s bandaged hand. “And that’s not a loss?”

“This is just…” Jing Li hesitated, then corrected himself. “Right, this is a loss too. We can’t just let it go.”

Qin Zhao asked, “So?”

“Um?”

Qin Zhao calmly said, “He offended you. It should be up to you to decide how to pursue it, not me.”

Jing Li made a sound of agreement but didn’t immediately respond.

At first, when he saw someone messing around in their field, Jing Li was indeed very angry. But once he realized there wasn’t much damage, he wasn’t as upset.

As for falling down, that was just because he was running too fast and lost his balance. It wasn’t really the other person’s fault.

He genuinely didn’t know what to do.

Qin Zhao seemed to notice his hesitation and spoke gently, “No rush. You have a few days to think about how you want to get back at him.”

Jing Li didn’t quite understand. “What do you mean?”

Qin Zhao explained, “This matter won’t be simply brushed off.”

“This incident itself isn’t a big deal. The village chief has to mediate many such small neighborhood disputes every day. But the nature of this incident is different.”

Jing Li blinked. “Because of A Xiu?”

“Yes,” Qin Zhao replied. “For the Li family, their main concern is whether this incident will be exposed, because it could damage A Xiu’s reputation.”

Jing Li asked with some concern, “You’re not planning to spread it around, are you?”

In the village, a woman’s reputation was highly valued. If word got out, it wouldn’t just affect A Xiu, but her entire family might find it hard to continue living in the village.

He believed… Qin Zhao wasn’t that kind of person.

Qin Zhao shook his head. “Of course not.”

Jing Li breathed a sigh of relief. “Then why did you say…”

“But the Li family doesn’t know that.”

Jing Li finally understood. “So you deliberately refused the village chief’s mediation today just to make them nervous?”

Qin Zhao turned to him and smiled slightly. “Is that not allowed?”

Jing Li: “…”

He realized that although Qin Zhao seemed proper, he had a rather dark side.

As they spoke, they arrived back at their new home.

Qin Zhao had already moved all their belongings from the small house to the new one a few days ago. The small house had since been returned to its original owner, leaving it for Chen Yanan to use for his studies.

Pushing open the bamboo gate, the small courtyard appeared peaceful and cozy. A stone path led from the gate to a small stone bridge and then to the main house.

When they left earlier, it was still daylight, so no candles had been lit in the house, making the entire courtyard seem dim.

The ground on either side of the stone path had not yet been planted with flowers or grass, leaving bare patches of earth.

Qin Zhao led Jing Li to sit on a bamboo chair by the pond and then went inside to get a cloth to wipe his face.

“I told you not to go out on your own. You went to the field and came back looking like a little cat instead of a little fish,” Qin Zhao chuckled softly.

Jing Li mumbled, “It was an accident.”

Now that he had calmed down, Jing Li was still a bit upset.

He had planned to show his worth today, to change Qin Zhao’s opinion of him. But before he could even start working, this whole mess happened.

He definitely couldn’t let that Li guy off the hook.

After tidying up the little fulang, the two had dinner and retired early for the night.

Qin Zhao was making the bed in the inner room when Jing Li peeked out from behind the wooden screen, looking at him with eager eyes.

Fang Tianying had thoughtfully replaced their bed with a double bed, large enough for Jing Li to roll around on. However, since they had just moved in and everything was still new, Jing Li had been sleeping in the courtyard pond for the past few days.

But…

Qin Zhao noticed his gaze and asked with a smile, “Don’t feel like sleeping in the pond tonight?”

“It’s not that, it’s just…” Jing Li, flustered under his gaze, stammered, “It’s just that Doctor Ge said I shouldn’t get wet since I’m injured!”

Qin Zhao: “…”

Jing Li: “…”

A fish, injured and unable to touch water—he didn’t even believe it himself.

Qin Zhao didn’t expose his lie, chuckling softly. “Come up quickly, I’m about to put out the light.”

Jing Li: “Okay…”

The candlelight was extinguished, and the room was immediately enveloped in moonlight.

Jing Li curled up with his back to Qin Zhao, but his breathing hadn’t settled.

Qin Zhao asked, “Why aren’t you asleep yet? What are you thinking about?”

Jing Li turned over, clearly not sleepy at all. “Doctor Ge said today that Li Hongyu broke his arm. It won’t heal for three months.”

Qin Zhao frowned slightly. “Why are you still thinking about him?”

“No, I’m thinking about something else,” Jing Li sighed, becoming more and more puzzled. “Do you think I really bring bad luck to others? Why does everyone who even tries to harm us end up having such terrible luck?”

Jing Li continued, “I saw it clearly today—he fell on flat ground!”

Qin Zhao: “…”

Those bright, beautiful eyes seemed even more vivid in the moonlight. Staring into them, Qin Zhao gently said, “Have you… been worried about this all along?”

Jing Li froze.

He looked away, his voice growing faint. “Not all the time…”

In fact, this wasn’t the first time something like this had happened to Jing Li.

Orphaned at a young age, Jing Li grew up in a welfare home with no friends and few who liked him. He had always been unlucky, and people who got too close to him would often suffer misfortunes as well.

Over time, fewer people were willing to be around him.

Qin Zhao was the first person who had stayed by his side for so long.

Jing Li lowered his eyes, his expression hidden in the darkness.

A warm hand gently rested on his head.

“You’re a koi, a little fish. You don’t bring bad luck,” Qin Zhao said softly, his voice full of warmth. “Think about it—ever since you came into my life, things have gotten much better for me.”

“But that’s all… because you’re amazing,” Jing Li replied.

“No matter how capable I am, I wouldn’t have been able to find the Wushan ginseng, nor could I have made the old lady from the Chen family recover overnight, and I certainly wouldn’t have just happened to save the young master of the Fang family when he got lost,” Qin Zhao said. “Luck isn’t about directly giving someone something or fulfilling their wishes; it’s about creating opportunities.”

“As for the so-called bad luck…” Qin Zhao chuckled softly. “Why don’t you think about whether those who suffered bad luck did something to harm you?”

When Jing Li was a child, a boy who shared his dorm at the orphanage had a car accident during a field trip, and only that boy ended up hospitalized after hitting his head—because the night before the trip, he had locked Jing Li outside all night.

After he started school, his desk mate lost money several times within a week because he accused Jing Li of cheating on a test.

Then there was the neighbor who spoke harshly to him, the teacher who looked down on him, and the classmates who constantly teased him…

Jing Li had never thought of it that way before, but now that he did, it seemed… it really was like that.

Jing Li was surprised. “How… how did you know?”

“Just a guess,” Qin Zhao replied. “Little fish, there are many things in this world that can’t be explained, but your unique constitution isn’t something you need to doubt.”

“I don’t know if you’ve gone through something that made you accustomed to worrying, to linking these so-called bad events to yourself, but none of those things were your fault.”

He lowered his head and gently stroked Jing Li’s cool, soft cheek with his thumb. “If you don’t believe me, why don’t we make a bet?”

“A bet?” Jing Li asked.

“Stay by my side, and I guarantee I won’t suffer any bad luck.”

Jing Li’s eyes widened. “But what if—”

“No ‘what if,'” Qin Zhao said with a hint of a smile in his eyes. “But even if I didn’t say any of this, could you really bring yourself to leave? If you left, who would cook for you?”

Jing Li pursed his lips and whispered, “I suppose I wouldn’t want to leave.”

He really didn’t want to eat little fish, shrimp, and water plants in the river.

Qin Zhao smiled, patted his head, and pulled him into his arms. “Now that you’ve talked it out, it’s time to sleep.”

So… we’re really going to sleep like this?

Surrounded by the scent of herbs from Qin Zhao, Jing Li blinked. But when he gathered the courage to look up, Qin Zhao had already closed his eyes.

Jing Li’s fingers gently curled, clutching the corner of Qin Zhao’s clothes. He then closed his eyes too.

And he slept soundly through the night.