Meeting her gaze, Mo Lingxi walked silently in the direction of home.
Tao Lengshuang watched Mo Lingxi's receding back and sighed for her future life.
This man had been injured five years ago and drifted here, where he was saved by the original owner's family.
Later, the original owner's family, leveraging their past kindness, demanded that Mo Lingxi marry the original owner, who was lazy, gluttonous, and obese.
However, the original owner was a troublemaker. Not only did she steal chickens in the village, but every hunted prey Mo Lingxi brought back was taken to her maiden family, without any regard for her husband and son's well-being.
Thinking of the barren land of Shilipo, the long winters, and now autumn, the season for stocking up supplies, especially in this chaotic era, she felt a splitting headache.
Without further thought, she quickly caught up with Mo Lingxi.
She saw a river nearby and stopped to look at the original owner's reflection.
The blurry reflection in the water showed a fat and ugly face. This was not her original appearance, and her body was as round as a ball.
Clearly, the villagers were struggling to eat and stay warm, yet the original owner had managed to become this fat.
She was truly an oddity.
Mo Lingxi, hearing no sound behind him, stopped and looked back.
In the setting sun, Tao Lengshuang stood by the river, gazing thoughtfully into the water.
Mo Lingxi suddenly felt that Tao Lengshuang had changed. In the past, if he had brought a rabbit to apologize to her, she would have cursed him all the way and never let it go. Today, her calmness was something he had never seen before.
"Hurry up, Xiao Feng will be hungry at home."
Hearing his indifferent voice, Tao Lengshuang immediately snapped out of her thoughts and smiled at him, "Oh, coming right up."
Mo Lingxi narrowed his sharp eyes, realizing that this ugly woman seemed different. Normally, she would have started cursing him, calling him useless, a good-for-nothing who only knew how to hunt.
Mo Lingxi looked at Tao Lengshuang with increasingly deep eyes.
Tao Lengshuang walked up to him and smiled faintly, "Are you very angry with me for being like this today?"
From the original owner's memories, Mo Lingxi was a good man, responsible for the family, and wholeheartedly trying to improve their living conditions.
But the original owner was a spendthrift. With just a few sweet words from her second sister, she would empty the family's coffers for her maiden family.
Her maiden family lived a prosperous life, while her own family struggled to eat and stay warm.
And each time, Mo Lingxi would just watch, never saying a word to the original owner. Yet, the original owner looked down on him for being a hunter, despising him in every way.
"Yes!" Mo Lingxi nodded indifferently. His distant and detached gaze scrutinized Tao Lengshuang, his suspicion growing with her unusual attitude.
Tao Lengshuang showed an apologetic expression, "I'm sorry, this won't happen again."
Facing her apology, Mo Lingxi felt only mockery and disgust. Most likely, she had some ulterior motive, hence this pretense.
Towards him, she only ever cursed, her gaze always filled with disdain and contempt. She would never smile at him.
"Let's go home." Mo Lingxi didn't believe that a person's personality could change so quickly.
He endured it all to achieve his goal, to avoid being discovered by those people.
Receiving his indifferent response, Tao Lengshuang was not surprised at all.
There was nothing the original owner did that didn't hurt Mo Lingxi's heart.
Tao Lengshuang silently followed behind Mo Lingxi.
Their home was not far away. Although Tao Lengshuang had mentally prepared herself, she almost fainted when she saw the two thatched huts.
She also came from a rural background and had seen thatched huts when she was young.
But those thatched huts were built with adobe. These two thatched huts were built by surrounding them with wooden stakes.
A simple courtyard was enclosed by wooden stakes. There was an empty plot of land, also overgrown. The original owner was lazy and did nothing, not even cooking. When hungry, she would steal chickens and other things from others.
Then she looked inside the house.
Forget "empty walls," her house wasn't even that.
The inner room, used for sleeping, had only a bed and an old wooden chest.
The wooden chest was intact, but the bed was discarded by someone else and was missing a leg. Mo Lingxi had propped it up with stones, and the family of three slept there at night.
Next to it was the kitchen. The stove was built with stones, blackened all over by smoke. A chain hung from the beam, with an iron hook at the end.
Having grown up in the countryside, Tao Lengshuang recognized it. It was used to hang a teapot for boiling water.
Tao Lengshuang's eyes welled up with tears of sorrow.
She had finally managed to escape the mountains and become the doctor she had always dreamed of, only to be thrown back to square one.
This living environment... she didn't know what to say for a moment. It was as if she had instantly returned to the impoverished mountainous regions, where everything had to start from scratch.
"Daddy, Mommy." At this moment, a thin little boy walked out of the kitchen.
Hearing the word "Mommy," something in Tao Lengshuang's heart was pricked.
In her previous life, she had never even dated. Here, she was suddenly a wife and a mother, skipping over major life events.
That was good; she had avoided the difficult period of pregnancy and childbirth.
The little boy was dressed thinly, his small face smudged with dust, but his large eyes sparkled. He was as delicate and cute as a carved jade.
Upon seeing Tao Lengshuang, he fearfully skirted around her and rushed into Mo Lingxi's arms.
Tao Lengshuang closed her eyes. What kind of karma had the original owner created that even her son saw her as a man-eating tiger?
"Daddy, Xiao Feng is hungry!" Xiao Feng leaned weakly into Mo Lingxi's arms.
Mo Lingxi put Xiao Feng down and said gently, "Xiao Feng, play for a while. Daddy will go cook now."
"Okay!" Xiao Feng nodded obediently and sat quietly on a nearby wooden stake.
Tao Lengshuang then noticed that the house didn't even have stools. Next to the table, made of spliced wooden boards, were four flattened wooden stumps.
Seeing Mo Lingxi about to enter the kitchen, she stepped forward and blocked him, "Let me cook dinner."
Mo Lingxi was startled. His deep black eyes stared at her with suspicion and scrutiny.
Since marrying him, Tao Lengshuang had never cooked a single meal. All of Tao Lengshuang's behavior today made him very suspicious.
What was she trying to do, to harm them, father and son?
"What do you want to do?" his indifferent tone carried doubt.
"Cook. Don't worry, I can cook." Tao Lengshuang nodded with a smile, her tone very firm.
Ignoring Mo Lingxi's expression, she looked down at Xiao Feng, who was sitting obediently, and smiled, "Xiao Feng, Mom..."
She suddenly stopped. She hadn't yet adapted to the role of "Mommy," but it was an undeniable fact. "Mommy is going to cook for Xiao Feng, it will be ready soon."
Xiao Feng looked up at his mother in surprise. His timid, large eyes suddenly brightened. Mommy hadn't scolded him today, which was great!