Qi Ying was an ordinary girl in Taohua Village.
It could also be said that the only extraordinary thing about her was that she was beautiful and was a famous little beauty around the world. Many foreign landlords coveted her beauty and wanted to accept her as a concubine, but Qi Ying's parents disagreed and drove out all those matchmakers who talked about her being accepted as a concubine.
They just had this one daughter; they had been holding her in the palm of their hands for fear of breaking her, since childhood. How could they let her be a concubine for others? In the future, they must marry her in a good family. They did not seek the family to be too prosperous and wealthy, but at least the eight-carriage sedan chair[1] to marry her was required and also that the person should have a decent past.
When Qi Ying reached marriageable age, more and more matchmakers came to propose marriage. Qi Ying's parents loved her very much, so they asked her if she had any requirements for choosing her husband, and she could select the person she was satisfied with according to her requirements.
Qi Ying hugged the big peach she was gnawing on and said, "I'm looking for a husband who loves farming as much as I do."
By the way, I forgot to say that Qi Ying's biggest hobby was farming.
Seedlings must be cultivated in spring, and the fields must be fertilized. In summer, seedlings must be planted to prevent insect pests. In autumn, harvesting was required. In winter, she would gather firewood.
For Qi Ying, farming was the most important thing in her life. Harvesting food after planting was the greatest satisfaction in her world.
Thus, when looking for a husband, of course, look for a person with the same hobbies, otherwise how would they get along in the future?
Qi Ying's parents: "…"
According to their daughter's request, wouldn't it only be possible to find a tenant farmer?
Qi Ying's parents, who had been responsive to their daughter since childhood, rejected her daughter's request for the first time, and chose a very promising husband for her—the young scholar who lived next door.
The young scholar's father was once an official involved in the DPRK Treaty[2]. He was demoted for making mistakes. Later he resigned and moved to Taohua Village. His family was innocent, and the tutor was a good person, who treated people very kindly and politely.
If Qi Ying got married to such a person, she would be an official's wife in the future.
Mother Qi hinted to the little scholar several times, and the little scholar also had some thoughts about Qi Ying. He patted his chest and promised Mother Qi that he would be admitted as a scholar this year, then he would immediately come to propose marriage after his return.
Qi Ying disagreed after learning about it.
The young scholar only loved reading, not farming, she would never marry him!
She argued with her parents at home all day.
At the end of the spring, the young scholar was admitted as a scholar and returned gracefully. It was just that something happened on the way back. He encountered a mountain bandit who blocked his way and wanted to rob and kill him.
Fortunately, a blessing among misfortune arrived and a passing hero helped him and drove away the mountain bandit. The little scholar was frightened, so he took out the little money he had and wanted to hire the hero to escort him back to the village. The hero looked cold, but he was rather enthusiastic. He didn't ask for the little scholar's money, but still agreed to escort the scholar back to the village.
The scholar's family especially thanked the hero, and strongly invited him to live in Taohua Village for a period of time to experience country life.
The hero agreed.
The hero was called Ji Rang. He was proficient in sword play and had superb martial arts. He didn't like to laugh or talk coldly all day long. After coming to Taohua Village, he didn't go out much, instead he just sat beside the stone mill of the scholar's house, hugging his sword while looking at a distance in a daze.
The young scholar passed the exam and was finally able to fulfill the promise he made before the exam. He was excited to go to Qi family to propose a marriage with the betrothal gifts but was driven out by Qi Ying with a stick.
The little girl's soft and angry voice floated into the scholar's house through the courtyard wall: "You love reading, I love farming, we are not suitable! Don't come here again! If you come again, I will let the dog bite you!"
The rhubarb that Qi Ying raised was very fierce and the young scholar was afraid of dogs. Hearing this, he ran back to his yard with the betrothal gift, and never wanted to visit again.
The husband-in-law was gone. The Qi family's parents were so angry that they shut Qi Ying in her room to reflect and punished her not to eat for one day. Then they went out to work.
Towards the afternoon, Ji Rang, who was sitting in a daze on the stone mill as usual, heard the continuous voice of crying for help from the yard next door.
——"Help! Is there anyone, let me out!"
——"I'm so hungry, ooh, I'm going to starve to death."
——"My mouth is so dry without food; oh my throat is burning."
Although the voice was soft, sweet, and pleasant to the ear, it was annoying as she kept shouting like that. Ji Rang couldn't bear it anymore. With a little pressure on his toe, he jumped over the courtyard wall and walked to the locked door.
He said coldly: "Don't shout!"
Finally, someone arrived, so Qi Ying immediately grabbed the crack of the door and looked out: "Who is it? Has anyone come? Quickly let me out."
Ji Rang said, "Don't shout, it's so noisy."
He heard the little girl inside say: "You help me break the lock and I won't shout, otherwise I will keep shouting."
There was no sound outside for a while, only a vague figure could be seen. After a while, the dagger came out of its sheath, and with a clatter, it opened the door lock.
Qi Ying opened the door at once.
Then she saw a tall figure outside the door, blocking half an inch of daylight.
He looked better than anyone she had ever seen, his brows were sharp and stern, and when he looked down at her, his dark eyes were as deep as the deep well in the village.
The little girl blushed inexplicably at the tempting sight.
She hurriedly said thank you and hurried to the kitchen to look for food. When she came out with a full stomach, the man was gone.
She hadn't seen this person in the village. After thinking about it for a moment, she remembered that the young scholar was saved by a hero, and immediately realized that he was the hero.
Sure enough, he really was a hero, he came to rescue her when he heard her call for help.
Qi Ying looked at the broken lock on the ground for a while, then ran to the house and lifted a chair, moved it to the edge of the courtyard wall, put a few bricks on the chair, and then stood up.
The chair was a little unstable, so she was trembling against the wall, but her eyes were able to cross the courtyard wall to see the hero sitting on the stone mill while wiping his sword in the little scholar's courtyard.
She pursed her lips and called to him, "Hero, what's your name?"
Ji Rang turned his head and saw the little head by the wall, and he was stunned for a moment.
The little head squinted and smiled at him: "My name is Qi Ying, how about you?"
He paused and said quietly: "Ji Rang."
Qi Ying said the name in her mouth twice and found it very nice. She bent her eyes and asked him very seriously: "Hero Ji, do you like farming?"
After waiting for a while, he heard Ji Rang say: "I like it."
The eyes of the little girl who was holding the courtyard wall immediately became hot.
In the evening, when Qi Ying's parents came back from their farm work, they heard their daughter announce loudly: "I have someone who I want to marry! He's especially suitable for me!"
Father Qi: "…"
Mother Qi: "…Who?"
Qi Ying: "He lives next door!"
Father and Mother Qi excitedly said at the same time: "The Scholar?"
Qi Ying: "It's not him! It's the hero who rescued him from the bandit! He is very nice, kind and enthusiastic, has good martial arts, is good-looking, and most importantly, he also likes farming!"
Qi Ying's parents: "???"
How could the matter of marriage be decided so arbitrarily? The two of them heard their daughter say this at first but refused without even thinking about it. Qi Ying was not in a hurry. Every day, when her parents were away from home, she stepped on a chair and grabbed on the courtyard wall to chat with Ji Rang.
He was always cold and didn't like to laugh or talk. He only answered when she asked something, but he would always answer truthfully. After such a question-and-answer session, Qi Ying quickly grasped all his personal information.
Then wrote it on a piece of paper and showed it to her parents: "His name is Ji Rang. He is 27 years old this year. He has not yet married. His parents have already passed away. He is a swordsman who worked in Beijing before. He wants a quiet and plain place to spend his days. He thinks Taohua Village is good, and he intends to stay here, but he is still thinking about it. His dream is to raise dogs, ducks and chickens and farm fields. Look! It is exactly the same as my dream!"
Qi Ying's parents: "…"
The daughter, who was only interested in farming since childhood, showed such enthusiasm for a man for the first time, and the parents had to re-examine this matter.
Finally, after a series of inquiries and observations, they found that this swordsman named Ji Rang seemed to be quite reliable and suitable for their daughter.
So, the two agreed and secretly asked the matchmaker in the village to go and propose marriage on their behalf. The matchmaker got the letter and proceeded to visit the little scholar's house. Seeing Ji Rang, she enthusiastically dragged him to chat for a while, and then she started to get to the main topic.
"You are so handsome! Haven't you married yet? Look at our Taohua Village. Although the place is small, there are many girls. All of them are no worse than peach blossoms. It's better for aunt to fix a marriage for you, and you will be able to stay in this village in the future. What do you think?"
Ji Rang's deep eyes looked at the smiling matchmaker, and the matchmaker almost couldn't maintain her smile before she heard him ask, "Which girl?"
The matchmaker breathed a sigh of relief, and pointed to the side: "How about the Qi's girl?"
Ji Rang followed her hand to look over, quickly twitched the corner of his mouth, and then said as if nothing special had happened, "Yes."
So, this marriage was settled.
The two decided to be together, so then Ji Rang used his savings to build a yard next to Qi's house. According to Qi Ying's preferences, a vegetable plot was left in the yard, a chicken and duck shed was built next to the vegetable plot, and a swing was made for her under the tree in the yard.
After the new house was ready, the two married in the new house, and Ji Rang officially became a member of the Taohua Village.
After the hustle and bustle of the wedding banquet in the daytime, the night was completely silent with only the occasional barking of dogs and frogs being audible.
Ji Rang holding the delicate little girl and smelling the faint smell of new wood in the house, felt that his life full of wandering days was completely settled now.
The little girl rubbed back and forth in his arms, then positioned herself under his chin, put her arms around his waist, and said happily, "We can farm together in the future."
He bowed his head and kissed her on the cheek: "Yeah."
Her voice was soft: "Learn what you don't know. In the coming year, we will grow the most food in the village."
He said: "Okay."
She was happy alone for a while, thinking of something, and then nervously asked: "You used to live in such a prosperous place, and there will be nothing here in the future. Will you be bored after a long time? If you are bored, will you leave??"
He hugged her, as if he couldn't hug her enough: "No. I won't go anywhere if you are there."
He didn't tell her that he was not actually a swordsman, he was just a killer. A killer with countless lives on his hands.
What he was tired of was not the glitz of the world, but the corpses of human blood he had left behind.
He wanted to find a place where no one knew him and restart his life, and it was precisely at this time that he met her.
She thought he had fallen into her trap. She didn't know that those traps were actually set deliberately by him.
If he wanted to fall in, she would obviously succeed.
The killer who once made the whole world frightened, put his sword into the scabbard, and sealed it to gather dust under the bed.
After getting married, Ji Rang planted a lot of fruit trees near his home, because Qi Ying liked to eat the fruits of her own trees the most.
There was a draft well in the village. Every time Qi Ying went to fetch water, he was worried that she would fall in. So, he drilled a well in his yard and surrounded it with a fence higher than Qi Ying. No one could go in except him.
In the autumn harvest season, watching Qi Ying bend over to harvest rice in the field under the sun, he came over, and then swept with a palm, and all the rice ears fell into the ground.
Qi Ying: "!!! Are we going to farm?! What do we do now!"
Ji Rang: "…"
So, he had no choice but to put on an apologetic expression, pick up the rice ears bit by bit in the field, while begging his little wife for forgiveness.
Otherwise, his little wouldn't let him on the bed at night, it would be too miserable.
Later, Qi Ying discovered that this person had said that he liked farming, but in fact he knew nothing. He was lying to her!
But what could be done? Who was this person? He was the husband she chose at one glance.
Alas, she could only live like this for a lifetime.