Ch 201 (Extra 12): The Farmer Ger in the Apocalypse

Thingyan (translator): Super thanks to the dedicated reader 💗ྀིJennifer💗ྀི for finding the raws for the extra chapters and for all her hard work and dedication (つ｡˃ ᵕ ˂)つ ⸝♡

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Qu Weiwei Side Story 1

Qu Weiwei was wandering around Anping County alone.

Not long ago, Quan-jie’er awakened her ability and was practicing how to use it. Her power was somewhat different from ordinary water abilities, and since she was still a child and not very good at controlling it, the room often ended up flooded.

Shen Qing and Song Kaiji did not want the household servants to discover Quan-jie’er’s abnormality, so they could only dismiss the attendants who usually stayed close by. The two husbands personally watched over the child while teaching her how to control her ability.

As a result, some of the work that required traveling between the apocalypse world and Lantang Village fell onto Qu Weiwei and Tang Wenjie.

To be honest, Qu Weiwei did not particularly like this feudal society where men were valued above women. At first, she wandered around the county under the identity of Song Kaiji’s elder sister, but someone actually set their sights on her. What Lin Ning had once encountered ended up happening to her too.

Although they did not go as far as ruining her outright, they intended to publicly touch her and damage her reputation so she would have no choice but to marry down. Original translation at HololoNovels dot com. For women in ancient times, this was considered a vicious scheme. But when directed at Qu Weiwei, it only felt absurd and laughable. If she had not been worried about causing trouble for Shen Qing and Song Kaiji, she truly would have wanted to pierce that man full of holes with vines on the spot.

Qu Weiwei swiftly dodged aside. The man had not expected it and tumbled straight into the lake. That very night, Qu Weiwei even hid beneath the wall of his residence and manipulated the plants in his garden into rebelling. The man caught a chill and suffered such fright that within a few days he kicked the bucket.

“With just that much courage, he still dared scheme against me?” Qu Weiwei curled her lip. “That’s only because this is ancient times. The legal system may be incomplete, but it hasn’t vanished entirely. If someone in the apocalypse dared disgust me like that, would I really let him survive several more days?”

Shen Qing and Song Kaiji exchanged glances. Song Kaiji had just been sprayed in the face by his daughter, and half his hair was soaked. Shen Qing was wiping it with a towel.

“We were a bit careless,” Shen Qing admitted. “Since you all don’t stay here often, we never established a secure identity for you.”

Song Kaiji was now a xiucai scholar and also had an enormously wealthy husband. Wasn’t his unmarried elder sister practically a juicy piece of meat everyone coveted? No matter how despicable the method, as long as someone could marry into the family and force Song Kaiji to acknowledge it, then slowly coax the woman around afterward, even a tiny bit leaking from the cracks between Song Kaiji and Shen Qing’s fingers would be enough for endless enjoyment.

After thinking about it more, Qu Weiwei understood the logic too.

“This damned feudal society. A feudal society that doesn’t treat women as people. A feudal society that doesn’t respect women’s wishes!”

After cursing for a while, Qu Weiwei smoothly changed her identity for herself.

“From today onward, I’m not your sister anymore. I’m your sister-in-law.”

Song Kaiji: “…Where exactly am I supposed to get an older brother from?”

Yet although only the title changed from “sister” to “sister-in-law,” Qu Weiwei truly stopped encountering trouble afterward. An unmarried sister was an ownerless prize, and many people dreamed of becoming Song Kaiji’s brother-in-law. But once she became a sister-in-law, even though nobody had ever seen Song Kaiji’s “older brother,” they still feared the nonexistent man.

As for why a perfectly good elder sister suddenly became a sister-in-law… neither Song Kaiji nor Qu Weiwei explained it, yet people quickly invented explanations on their own.

“Maybe she’s a cousin who married the real older brother?”

“Or maybe she was his older brother’s child bride? Someone raised in the family from childhood might still call her older sister.”

“Why did their family raise a daughter to such an age without marrying her off? I thought her husband had died and she returned home widowed.”

“They’re relatives of Magistrate Lin. They only became prosperous seven or eight years ago… probably used to be poor and didn’t care about propriety. Look at Butcher Liu’s daughter, she’s thirty and still unmarried. Even Magistrate Lin’s own ge’er… tsk tsk.”

“Hey! Got a death wish? You dare gossip about the magistrate behind his back?!”

“I heard it was because that dead fellow frightened the young lady that she hurriedly got married! Before that she was the elder sister, but afterward she became the sister-in-law!”

“Hiss…” Many men who had dreamed of becoming Song Kaiji’s brother-in-law secretly cursed the hooligan who had already died of fright. Why did he have to resort to such underhanded methods? If he had not pushed her into desperation, a proper marriage proposal might actually have had a chance!

Regardless of whether these people felt regret or made guesses, Qu Weiwei’s days became more and more comfortable. Nobody dared covet her anymore. They only respected her as a wealthy lady.

After coming often enough, Qu Weiwei even developed a bit of affection for the place. Although the people could be annoying, the food truly was excellent.

One day, Qu Weiwei came to the northern district to feast.

Although Shen Qing also brought food back to the apocalypse world, packaged food could never compare to something freshly made.

The estate in the northern district was where Shen Qing first built his fortune. Over the years, whenever nearby neighbors wanted to sell their homes, Shen Qing bought them and offered good prices. By now, nearly all the property surrounding the northern district estate belonged to him, leaving only a few scattered households unwilling to part with ancestral property or hoping to demand an outrageous price. Shen Qing ignored them, leaving them awkwardly stuck there. Still, the northern district was far more prosperous than before. As long as someone honestly did business, even selling shaobing flatbread would turn a profit.

The first batch of children Shen Qing bought had now all grown into adults. Ruyi married Miao Yu. Before following Magistrate Lin to the prefectural city, she intentionally helped arrange matches, and many of the girls and ge’er from the household married yamen runners and minor officials. Although their descendants could not take the imperial examinations, for people born as servants it still counted as a small leap in status.

At this moment, Qu Weiwei sat inside Mudan’s shop, watching as Mudan fished five mahjong-sized chunks of braised meat from a clay pot. The meat was mostly lean with little fat, chopped finely, mixed with green pepper and cilantro, stuffed into a crispy baked flatbread, and finally drizzled with half a spoonful of meat broth.

Qu Weiwei immediately grabbed it. One bite and it was salty, fragrant, and crispy.

Roujiamo absolutely had to be eaten fresh. Once the broth soaked into the bread for a minute or two, it softened and lost its crunch.

Whenever the girls and ge’er from the estate left the household, Shen Qing gave each of them their freedom papers along with a dowry. If they were unwilling to spend the rest of their lives as inner-house wives or husbands, Shen Qing would instead give them a snack recipe. He provided both the storefront and the startup money, and the profits were split fifty-fifty.

Through Ruyi’s matchmaking, Mudan married a young man from a family that had served as yamen runners for three generations, someone who counted as a local power in the county. He also obtained the roujiamo recipe from Shen Qing. As a result, he earned respect from his husband’s family while also living comfortably himself.

Right next door to his little shop was Lian Ye’s stall, which sold brown sugar bingfen. Original translation at HololoNovels dot com. Qu Weiwei did not even need to walk over. She simply called out toward the neighboring shop, and Lian Ye answered back. But by the time she had already eaten two roujiamo, Lian Ye still had not brought over the brown sugar bingfen.

Seeing Qu Weiwei looking like she was about to choke, Mudan quickly poured her a bowl of tea brewed from roasted barley kernels.

“I’ll go check next door. The weather’s hot lately, and his bingfen sells well. Maybe he’s too busy at the moment.”

After quite a while, Mudan finally returned carrying a bowl of bingfen.

“There’s a fight going on between two families over there. Lian Ye got bumped while delivering bingfen and spilled it all over himself. He’s changing clothes right now.”

He handed the bowl to Qu Weiwei and grinned teasingly.

“I made this one myself. Double raisins and double candied fruit strips. Hurry and eat.”

Qu Weiwei took a couple bites. The commotion outside was growing louder and louder, and she became curious.

“What kind of family starts fighting right in the middle of a busy street?”

Mudan happened to know the details. When he went out earlier to look for Lian Ye, he had seen his husband together with two other yamen runners trying to stop the disturbance and maintain order, which was why he had been delayed.

“It’s a pitiful situation too,” he said. “Their family lives around here. The northern district used to be where all the poor people lived. It only gradually became lively and prosperous after Master Shen started doing business here. That ge’er used to come by our Cuihua shop often. Later he got engaged, but before the wedding, the man died. It happened not long ago.”

At this point, Mudan secretly glanced at Qu Weiwei. Strictly speaking, the matter was somewhat related to her.

“That man… used to work under Young Master Wang as one of his attendants.”

It took Qu Weiwei a while to remember who Young Master Wang was. Wasn’t he the bastard who had tried to push her into the river, then “heroically rescue” her afterward and ruin her reputation so he could marry her?

Mudan looked around. The shop was empty since everyone had gone out to watch the excitement, so he lowered his voice mysteriously.

“That Young Master Wang didn’t die from illness. He was killed by demons! Probably because he did too many evil things and finally got his punishment. I heard that night the Wang household was attacked by willow tree spirits, flower spirits, vine spirits… demons dancing everywhere. Young Master Wang died of fright on the spot. The Wang family behaved inhumanely and took their anger out on the people around him. They all got beaten. That ge’er’s fiancé was unlucky. His wounds only got worse and worse, and he died the month before last.”

Qu Weiwei: “…”

“…Sorry.”

Her original intention had only been to teach the Wang brat a lesson. She had not expected innocent people to get dragged into it. Although the Wang family bore most of the blame, Qu Weiwei still felt uncomfortable about it.

Mudan’s face showed indignation again.

“But that family isn’t good either. They’re copying the Wang family exactly! Their son died, and instead of blaming the Wang family, they’re claiming the Li family’s ge’er brought bad luck and killed his husband. They’ve been causing trouble for days, trying to force him to die and be buried together with the dead man!”

Wasn’t this exactly the same as the Wang family blaming the attendants after their young master died?

Qu Weiwei froze for a moment. It really was true that weak people only dared raise their knives against those even weaker than themselves. The more she thought about it, the more uncomfortable she felt. She lost her appetite entirely and stood up at the doorway of the shop to look toward the street.

More than twenty people had already gathered to watch the spectacle. Mudan’s husband and two colleagues stood in the middle of the crowd, forcibly separating the two families. Meanwhile, the dead attendant’s parents continued crying and shouting:

“We begged their family before! We told them to marry him over earlier to bring our son good fortune. Maybe then he would’ve recovered! Their hearts are cruel as wolves. If he didn’t bring death upon our son, then who did?! His face already looks unlucky for husbands. I regret arranging this marriage for my son…”

Then they began pointing fingers and criticizing the Li family ge’er’s appearance, saying things like his forehead was too narrow and his cheekbones too high.

Old Master and Madam Li shielded their ge’er behind them. At first they refused to argue. Ridiculous. Old Master Li had already gone to see the injured boy. His body was rotting in places, and his waist had likely been broken from the beating so badly he could no longer even crawl. Did they really expect his ge’er to marry over there only to become a widow immediately? And they still had the nerve to talk about marriage!

Now that the Zhao family boy was dead either way, the Lis only planned to wait a couple more years before finding another match for their ge’er. Ordinary commoner families were not particular about things like becoming a “gate widow” for a fiancé who died before marriage. Yet they had not expected the Zhao family to be this shamelessly troublesome.

Hearing the Zhao family parents repeatedly list all the ways their ge’er’s appearance supposedly doomed husbands, Old Master Li finally snapped. If such rumors spread, who would dare marry his ge’er in the future?

He turned around and began cursing back at them.

And the moment he turned, Qu Weiwei finally saw clearly the little ger hidden behind him.

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