"Shrew! Do you dare to sell my family's ancestral property?"
The wooden stick hit me in the wind, and I dodged sideways. The back of my head was still covered with bloody scabs from the beating I received from the gambler and ghost lover yesterday.
At our feet is a mud house in a deserted village, with cracks in the walls leaking air. There are three children in the courtyard who are as skinny as reed sticks. The eldest one, Xie Heng, the future chief minister who will dominate the country, is glaring at me with his fists clenched, his eyes filled with ice-hardened hatred.
I touched the half bag of brown rice left in my pocket, and then looked at the moldy grain seeds in the corner, my head pounding.
On the first day of time travel, the original owner sold all his property, leaving only this dilapidated house and three oil bottles. He will run away with the wild man tomorrow.
And I, Lin Wei, a doctor of science in the 21st century, just burst out of the laboratory and became the vicious stepmother in the imperial examination essay who did not hesitate to die.
Xie Heng rushed over: "It's only been half a year since my father left, and you can't wait to remarry? I'll beat you to death, you vicious woman!"
I grabbed his wrist with my backhand, using the principle of leverage. The force was not strong but it prevented him from moving.
"Let go." My voice was dry, staring at his cracked hands from the cold, "From today on, I will not marry."
The third child Xie Zhu burst into tears: "You are lying! Yesterday you said you would sell us to the town as apprentices!"
"That was before." I let go of Xie Heng and glanced at the barren fields, "Now, I want this broken place to grow food."
Xie Heng sneered: "Idiots are talking about dreams! This land has been deserted for three years, and even the gods can't grow crops!"
I ignored him, turned around and went into the house, digging out a pottery bowl from the original owner's tattered dowry - the first step was to make fertilizer.
