The Rugged Hunter Whose Wife Tugs His Ears Every Day!

Everyone in the village says the man I married, Shen Qingshan, is a savage who eats raw flesh and drinks blood. They say he’s as strong as an ox, can tear tigers and leopards apart with his bare hands, and has a terrible temper, ready to throw punches at the slightest disagreement. On my first day as his wife, I hid in the kitchen, determined to show him that I, Liu Ya’er, wasn’t someone to mess with. But my egg-drop soup was either too salty or missing the scallions. Just as I stared at the bowl of “mystery liquid,” close to tears, Shen Qingshan came in. I jumped, thinking he was about to flip the table. Instead, he rolled up his sleeves, nudged me aside, and got to work. He weighed the ladle, chopped the vegetables, heated the oil, and tossed everything into the wok in one fluid motion. In less than the time it takes an incense stick to burn, he had three dishes and a soup on the table. They looked and smelled delicious, and tasted even better than my mother’s cooking. He filled a bowl to the brim with rice for me, then used the same hands that had beaten a wild boar to awkwardly place a piece of braised pork in my bowl. Grinning, he showed off two rows of bright white teeth. “Eat up. You’re so skinny, even a pig would complain you’re bony.” I froze on the spot, with just one thought in my head: This man seems... a little different from the stories I’ve heard.