A Year of Seasons in the Mountain Home (Farming)

[Stoic, rugged man vs. country girl]

As the New Year approached, several matchmakers showed up at Meng Xian's home before she had even broken in her new coat.

At first, she thought they were here to arrange a match for her cousin. But when she became the ear on the other side of the wall for the first time, she overheard something shocking: Grandma wanted to trade her and her older cousin for new brides for their two male cousins.

When Jiang Sui heard that the men being matched with her and her older cousin were one a widower and the other a cripple, she initially didn't mind. As long as she had enough to eat and drink, she could happily be a couch potato anywhere.

But when she saw her usually gentle older cousin secretly wiping away tears in the wheat field, her eyes red from crying yet still forcing a smile even more miserable than a cry, Jiang Sui felt a pang in her heart.

*

With the betrothal gifts about to be sent and no solution in sight, Meng Xian came back down the mountain carrying a man on her back.

The man had broad shoulders and a narrow waist, and was handsome and dignified. He claimed to be a hunter.

In a moment of reckless courage, Meng Xian forcibly took him as her live-in son-in-law...

*

After their wedding, Meng Xian and the man cleared a little courtyard and built a few earthen houses.

They worked the fields through the seasons, first helping her older cousin escape that disastrous marriage, then happily returning to the life of a couch potato.

In spring, mugwort filled the fields, perfect for gathering wild vegetables and mushrooms.

In summer, the apricots turned golden. They might as well go up the mountain to pick fruit and carry back spring water.

In autumn, the wheat flowers turned white. Freshly husked rice mixed with richly seasoned pheasant left her mouth glistening with oil.

In winter, they would have a steaming hot pot. No matter how bitterly cold it was outside, the warmth wouldn't let it touch them.

Later, the earthen walls were rebuilt as tiled houses, fences were turned into walls, and the fields lay in neat plots as the sound of threshing filled the air.

Their family welcomed a few new members, and Meng Xian settled into their mountain home by the fields and streams, waiting for the mountain fruit to ripen and watching the water sparkle.

Reading Guide

1. A food-and-farming story about the warm, peaceful life of the countryside.

2. The leads have an eight-year age gap, and neither has been with anyone before.

3. A slow-paced slice-of-life story, set in a fictional world that's very loosely based on anything.

4. The female lead was born into this life with memories of her past life, but they are incomplete. She's half a native of this world.

5. Blurb written on December 22, 2023.

Theme: The joy of life, found in every meal.