Ch 6: The Scumbag’s Daily Wife-Doting Life [QT]

Xie Li had no intention of growing vegetables forever.

Growing vegetables required constant harvesting. He had to enter the space frequently to gather crops, otherwise he would miss the harvest window and the produce would become overgrown and old. Since that was the case, he thought it would be better to switch to plants with much longer production cycles.

Squatting on the black soil inside the space, he grabbed a handful of dirt, crushed it apart carefully between his fingers, then finally looked toward the spiritual spring, a plan gradually forming in his mind.

The next day, Xie Li once again went to borrow Li Dasheng’s bicycle to head into the city.

Everyone in the village was busy with spring planting, sweating away in the fields. Only Xie Li, who was still on leave, had spare time, so borrowing the bicycle went smoothly once again.

And perhaps familiarity bred comfort. This time, when Xie Li arrived, Li Dasheng no longer looked reluctant. Original translation at HololoNovels dot com. Instead, he seemed completely relaxed and even casually asked where Xie Li planned to go.

Xie Li casually handed him half a packet of fruit candies. Hearing the question, he only smiled, waved his hand without answering, then rode off on the bicycle.

He did not return until afternoon.

Fatigue was written all over his face, yet his eyes shone brightly with energy and determination. Returning to the educated youth dormitory courtyard and finding it empty as usual, Xie Li sat on a bluestone slab, pulled out a booklet, and began reading intently.

Several characters were written on the cover. Because it was so worn and damaged, many had faded beyond recognition. Only the words “Chinese medicine” could still vaguely be made out.

The text inside was not written in the currently standardized script either. Instead, it was traditional Chinese written vertically from top right to bottom left in brush calligraphy…

As the sun set, the young man’s figure sat quietly harmonious, blending into the golden light.

When the educated youths finished work and returned home, this was the scene they saw.

“What are you reading?”

Hu Dezheng asked first. The others also grew curious and leaned over to peek, but the moment they realized it was a book about Chinese medicine, they immediately lost interest.

“Why are you reading that stuff now? Don’t tell me you’re planning to go into the mountains digging for ginseng?”

Behind Xiaoxipo stretched endless mountain ranges filled with countless wild birds and beasts. One could practically call it a living meat factory. Besides meat, the mountains also contained rare medicinal herbs.

During their two years in the countryside, the educated youths had heard many stories about villagers who accidentally dug up wild mountain ginseng and became rich overnight.

But actually finding such things was far from easy. Aside from the wild boars constantly harassing villagers downhill, wolves and bears also roamed the mountains. Only villagers desperate enough to risk their lives ventured inside hoping for luck.

Many went in.

Few came back out.

Life was hard for the educated youths too, but they still had support from their families and did not need to gamble with their lives. Worried Xie Li might really be considering it, they immediately tried persuading him:

“Xie Li, the mountains are dangerous. Don’t do anything foolish.”

“You misunderstood. I’m not planning to go into the mountains.” Xie Li looked helpless as he closed the booklet. Seeing everyone gathered around him, he lightly changed the topic. “Since you’re all back, when are we eating dinner?”

Right.

Dinner had not started yet.

The others immediately got distracted, loudly criticizing whichever unlucky person had kitchen duty for still not starting the cooking. The accused person fled toward the kitchen at top speed while everyone burst into laughter and scattered to wash up.

With nobody around to bother him, Xie Li quietly sighed in relief and moved somewhere more secluded to continue reading.

The booklet contained detailed explanations about ginseng’s medicinal properties and growing environment. Originally, it had been meant as a reference for herbal gatherers. Now, however, it had become Xie Li’s guide for cultivating medicinal herbs.

That’s right.

Xie Li planned to grow medicinal herbs.

Not just any herbs either, but specifically things like ginseng, lingzhi mushrooms, and he shou wu.

These herbs were relatively well known, and in an era before artificial cultivation existed, their prices were extremely lucrative. They were also low-maintenance. Once planted in the space, caring for them required almost the exact same effort as growing napa cabbage.

This idea had come from necessity.

After careful calculations, Xie Li realized the space contained two entire mu of farmland. Combined with the tenfold time acceleration, managing everything alone was exhausting. He practically needed to enter the space every four or five hours, then spend another four or five hours harvesting vegetables. By the time he finished harvesting one side, the other side had already ripened again, trapping him in an endless cycle.

Yet if he left the land unused, staring at the empty soil made him feel as though the space was being wasted.

So he decided to dedicate one and a half mu to medicinal herbs. Harvesting them every few months while only managing half a mu of vegetables daily would be perfect. Not only would it greatly reduce his workload, but selling fewer vegetables would also make outsiders less suspicious.

Having made up his mind, Xie Li spent the entire day traveling through various villages searching for old medical books.

In this era where books had been heavily destroyed, he easily discovered many unknown out-of-print texts. Aside from the ginseng manual he currently carried, the rest had all been stored inside the space, to be swapped out only after he finished reading each one.

Nobody else cared about what he was reading, and Xie Li himself remained cautious. Even though he had already finished seven or eight booklets, not a single person realized the secret behind them.

Over the following days, Xie Li’s sick leave ended and he returned to work with the production team.

Yet whether during breaks in the fields, while eating at home, or during leisurely study sessions in the courtyard…

He was always reading.

…

The sight of Xie Li reading gradually became a strange little landmark within Xiaoxipo Production Brigade.

Li Jianguo silently observed him for a long time, and his opinion slowly began changing.

The reason he disliked his daughter associating with educated youths was because a terrible incident had once happened in a neighboring village. A female educated youth there had gotten together with the production team leader’s son, later obtained a worker-peasant-soldier university recommendation, then vanished after leaving for school. Everyone believed she had no intention of returning, and Li Jianguo believed the same. As a fellow production team leader, he was deeply afraid his daughter would be deceived.

But people differed from one another.

Before, he had not truly understood Xie Li. Now that he had watched him more carefully, he realized the young man probably was not the type to use people.

Combined with what Li Tiantian had told him that night, Li Jianguo thought that if Xie Li proved himself outstanding enough, perhaps he could be magnanimous and allow the two young people to be together after all.

The only question was…

Would Xie Li be willing to marry into the Li family?

Li Jianguo had only one daughter his entire life and no son. That was why he had tolerated his nephew so much. After the enormous conflict with his nephew’s family, he finally understood something clearly:

If there was no son, then so what? He could simply bring in a live-in son-in-law.

As long as Xie Li agreed to marry into the family, Li Jianguo would approve the marriage even if Xie Li had neither money nor a house.

Now…

Everything depended on what Xie Li himself wanted.

The outsiders still knew nothing of Li Jianguo’s thoughts. But because of his growing tolerance, Li Tiantian now often came to the fields to visit Xie Li.

They always kept their distance and never touched physically, but anyone with eyes could tell what was happening. The closeness between the two had already become public knowledge throughout the village.

Naturally, there was no shortage of teasing.

Xie Li only smiled without speaking. These people were joking kindly, so there was no need to take offense.

Only one person spoke with obvious bitterness.

Jia Xiaotao, who had already fallen out with the Li family, had also appeared in the fields. Original translation at HololoNovels dot com. Without any fools willing to support her anymore, she and her husband had no choice but to earn work points themselves. Watching everyone chatting happily together, she muttered disdainfully:

“A young girl not even married yet, already bringing things to a man and acting like she can’t wait to throw herself at him. Absolutely shameless. Acting like nobody else would want her…”

Her voice had already been very quiet, but unfortunately, after drinking the spiritual spring water, Xie Li’s hearing had improved tremendously.

He still heard every word.

His eyes narrowed dangerously, his gaze turning sharp and cold like a drawn sword stabbing straight toward Jia Xiaotao.

“Even if someone’s marrying up, it’s me marrying up into her family. Did you misunderstand something?!”

Jia Xiaotao froze.

“What?”

It was her first time hearing a man speak so confidently about “living off a woman,” and for a moment she genuinely could not process it. After a long pause, she finally recovered and cursed:

“Are you sick in the head? Men without backbone really are shameless these days. Since you know you’re the one clinging to her, then behave yourself! Is that how you speak to your elders?”

Her voice grew too loud, immediately drawing everyone’s attention.

Before Xie Li could respond, Li Tiantian could not bear it any longer and angrily interrupted:

“Can’t you keep your mouth clean?”

“Oh my, listen to that. What exactly about my mouth isn’t clean?” Jia Xiaotao planted her hands on her hips and sneered contemptuously. “Wasn’t I just speaking the truth? He admitted it himself, so what are you even arguing about?”

“You…” Li Tiantian became so angry she could not speak.

The young girl was still too shy. She was embarrassed to argue publicly in front of everyone, and she could never outfight someone like Jia Xiaotao anyway. After all, not everyone could behave like a shameless shrew.

Watching Li Tiantian’s cheeks redden with anger, Xie Li found the feeling of being defended strangely amusing and pleasant. Chuckling softly, he raised his voice toward Jia Xiaotao:

“The Li family refusing to bother with your family lately must’ve made life pretty miserable, huh?”

“…!”

Jia Xiaotao froze.

Panic flashed across her face for a split second before she hurriedly cursed in a smaller, guiltier voice:

“What nonsense are you babbling?! My husband and his uncle have a great relationship. They were eating together just a few days ago! If you keep spreading rumors and ruining the relationship between our two families, don’t blame me for tearing you apart today!”

Even if they could no longer freeload food or use the Li family’s belongings, merely carrying the Li family name still brought enormous benefits to Li Erniu’s household. Borrowed money went uncollected. Borrowed items never needed returning.

But if people discovered the two families had fallen out…

If all those creditors came knocking…

Just imagining it made Jia Xiaotao feel like going insane.

“Really?” Xie Li’s gaze remained casual as he looked at Jia Xiaotao the way one might look at a clown jumping around foolishly. Curling his lips into a faint smile, he said leisurely:

“Then stop appearing in front of me. Otherwise I might accidentally ‘babble nonsense,’ and once word spreads, don’t regret it.”

His words carried deeper meaning beneath the surface.

Jia Xiaotao’s face immediately paled, though she tried masking it beneath anger.

“Y-you…” You know about it? Before she could finish speaking, she turned to glance at Li Tiantian, whose expression was full of confusion.

There was no need to ask.

It must have been Li Tiantian who told him.

In an instant, hatred surged within Jia Xiaotao. She resented Li Tiantian for not giving her face and blabbing everything outside. At the same time, she found Xie Li utterly hateful for using the matter to threaten her. Deep disgust and bitterness filled her eyes.

Yet hearing Xie Li’s threat, she did not dare utter another word.

“I can’t be bothered wasting words with you people!”

With an ugly expression, Jia Xiaotao gritted her teeth and stormed away. Like a stray dog with its tail stepped on, she fled the area in embarrassment and humiliation, moving to another field to work.

Xie Li did not move.

From afar, he cast one final glance toward Jia Xiaotao, his eyes frighteningly cold.

…

With the gossip finally gone, Xie Li felt the world become much quieter.

Lowering his head to look at Li Tiantian, he revealed a helpless expression as though he did not know what to do with her.

“You were much braver this time. You even stood up to defend me.”

Li Tiantian lowered her head guiltily.

“It’s all because of me…”

“It has nothing to do with you.”

Xie Li comforted her for a while, but seeing she still looked downcast, he suddenly changed the topic after a moment of thought.

“In a few days, once the busy farming season ends, I’m planning to go to the county city again. Do you want to come with me?”

Li Tiantian found it a little strange that he kept going into the city so often. But the chance to go out together with the person she liked was simply too precious.

Before she could even think properly, she immediately nodded enthusiastically.

“Yes! Yes!”

Her face lit up with delight.

Xie Li could not help laughing softly, his gaze turning tender as he looked at the young girl.

Just like that, the matter was settled.

Of course, the two of them were both young and unmarried with no official engagement yet, so going alone together to the county city would definitely be inappropriate.

Thus, Xie Li additionally invited Hu Dezheng, who also planned to go buy daily necessities in the city, as cover. Meanwhile, Li Tiantian brought along Qian Lanxiang.

The trip became a group of four.

However, with four people, riding bicycles became impractical. So they agreed to first walk to the town together, then take transportation from there into the county city.

╰───♡───╯

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