A Mountain Adventure Throughout the Four Seasons

[A husband-and-husband couple's mountain-gathering life, complete, and please support the official version. Thank you very much]

The next novel will be The Prosperous Little Peddler, a transmigration-to-ancient-times story about business and farming, following a young peddler on his way to becoming a shopkeeper. See the blurb at the bottom. If you're interested, feel free to add it to your collection.

(Blurb for this novel)

Huo Ling's great-grandfather was once a bandit in the northern mountains, robbing the rich to help the poor and commanding a territory of his own.

By the time of his father, the family had completely turned over a new leaf, becoming mountain folk who lived in peace and seclusion deep in the mountains.

After their parents passed away, the two brothers divided the family property. The elder brother became a farmer, but Huo Ling alone refused to change his trade.

He inherited the little courtyard in the mountains that his elders had left behind. His biggest worry was that he couldn't find a wife or husband willing to go into the mountains with him.

That changed when a group of refugees from elsewhere arrived in Xia Shan Village. Among them was a sickly young man whose family had all died.

Huo Ling asked him, "Would you be willing to marry?"

The young man said yes.

Huo Ling asked again, "Would you come into the mountains with me to gather and hunt? There are wild beasts and snakes up there. Are you afraid?"

The young man said he wasn't.

So Huo Ling decided: this is the one.

After countless bowls of medicine, the young man, Yan Qi, recovered. Once the two had married, Yan Qi followed Huo Ling to his home in the mountains.

Mountain folk live off the mountains. As Huo Ling put it, aside from crops that couldn't be grown there, the mountains had everything.

They picked mushrooms, dug up wild ginseng, gathered pine nuts, and picked fruit.

They caught big fish, crayfish, and forest frogs, and hunted roe deer.

Every season had its harvest. Even when famine struck the villages below, they never went hungry in the mountains.

Wild mushrooms stewed with pheasant, live fish braised in sauce, frog meat stir-fried with chili, crayfish boiled in plain water...

They sold their mountain goods for grain, then ate steamed buns, flatbreads, and noodles, never the same thing two days in a row.

When the long winter season arrived, Huo Ling had so much pent-up energy and nowhere to use it, so he had to find another way to work hard.

Another year passed. The ice melted, spring arrived, streams flowed free, and buds sprouted on the bare trees.

The villagers of Xia Shan, young and old, noticed that Yan, the sickly young man who had married into the mountains, had been cared for by Huo Ling until his complexion was rosy and his features bright. But how had his belly grown big, too?

[Reading Guide]

1. Farming is the main focus, and the couple dote on each other. This story features the setting of men who can bear children, pregnancy, and raising children, so please skip it if those aren't for you. The focus is everyday mountain life in a rural household: earning a little money and enjoying good food. They won't go to the city or become rich overnight.

2. This is set in an alternate ancient world, with a fictional era and region. Please don't equate it with reality.

3. In real life, hunting or eating protected wild animals and gathering protected wild plants are illegal. Please do not imitate this behavior. Protecting nature is everyone's responsibility.

(Blurb for the upcoming novel)

After transmigrating to ancient times, Chang Xiao, who had once enjoyed a successful career, got a disastrous start.

One house, gambled away by his gambling-addict father.

One arm, injured after his father got him beaten by creditors.

One mute young husband, whom his grandfather forced him to marry on his deathbed.

The original owner was a scholar who had repeatedly failed the examinations and was useless at everything.

Now, with a possible permanent injury to his fingers, his path to the imperial examinations might be over for good.

Chang Xiao: It's fine, it's fine. I was never cut out for that anyway.

With that, he promptly pawned his scholar's robes, brushes, and ink. He used half the money to rent a place and the other half to buy stock, changing careers to become a little peddler who went from village to village and street to street.

As the saying goes:

A shoulder pole of goods rests across your shoulder, bearing treasures and finery.

Pots, bowls, basins, chopsticks, needles, thread, and scissors; oil, salt, sauces, vinegar, sugar, wine, and tea.

Fans for sale in summer, hats for sale in winter, all kinds of goods, a complete selection.

With a shoulder pole, a little handcart, a silver tongue, and a pair of feet,

The more silver fills the box, the better life gets.

Years later, the family owns a general store stocked with goods from north to south.

Keeping watch over his well-stocked shop, Chang Xiao takes a sip of delicious, warming wine and tells his two children about the old days.

As he gets carried away with his story, his fingers feel a little warm. His husband, Ruyi, has just pulled a fragrant roasted sweet potato from the brazier.

"Eat."

The young man smiles, his eyes curving as he slowly says, "It's so sweet."

A moment later, the two little rascals run off after tasting the sweet potato.

Chang Xiao leans over and gently brushes his lips against the young man's...

Mm, it really is sweet.

Theme: Diligence makes nothing difficult, and harmony at home brings success in everything.