The Spicy Daughter-in-Law Hunts the Mountains and Hears Beast Speech, Feeding the Whole Village in the Famine Years

(Historical fantasy with a creative premise + mountain foraging and farming + understanding animal speech + stockpiling food in a famine + adorable animals who dote on her + marriage before love + bringing prosperity to the whole village)

Jiang Manyue opened her eyes to find she had become a bride sold for two taels of silver by her stepmother on a snowy day, all to bring good luck to a sick man.

Her husband's family was so poor that even a mouse would leave their home in tears. And on the bed lay her hunter husband, unconscious and said to have no more than three days to live.

The whole village expected her to become a widow. But on Jiang Manyue's first day in the mountains, wild pheasants leaped into her basket, squirrels lined up to bring her nuts, and even a ferocious wild boar dug up a nest of century-old ginseng for her.

It was all because she could understand the speech of every beast.

The fox said, "There's a lingzhi mushroom on the east slope, right beside a tiger."

The crow said, "The county magistrate hid the disaster relief grain in a cave!"

The Wolf King said, "Your man isn't quite dead. Get him up and put him to work."

With the help of the mountain's birds and beasts, Jiang Manyue gathered medicinal herbs and mushrooms, made mountain delicacies, opened workshops, and stockpiled grain. She led her dirt-poor in-laws to a more prosperous life.

Then disasters came one after another. While others fled famine, selling their sons and daughters, every family in Qingshi Village had a granary brimming with grain and meat on the table at every meal.

When corrupt officials and local bullies brought soldiers to seal off the mountain, Jiang Manyue stood with the villagers at her back and fierce beasts crouching across the hills.

Even the husband whose life she had saved stood in front of her with a knife. "My wife is timid, so you'd better watch your tone."

Everyone looked at the pack of wolves baring their teeth at Jiang Manyue's feet and fell silent.

That was timid?