"Ah!"
Wu Xueyan, his cousin-in-law, was mortified. Covering her body with her hands, she hurried into her bedroom to change.
"Wow! Sister has such a great figure! I want to be just like her when I grow up!" Wu Xiaohua said, brimming with envy.
"What do you mean, 'sister'? You should be calling her 'mom'!" Zhao Dachuan teased, ruffling Wu Xiaohua's hair.
"No way! I'm not her biological daughter anyway!"
Wu Xiaohua turned her head away, ladled herself a bowl of lobster porridge, and started eating. "So good! This is seriously delicious!"
"Oh, right! Zhao Dachuan! Are you really not 'simple-minded' anymore? If so, will you still play house with me?"
"Don't worry, Zhao Dachuan! When I grow up, I’ll be your bride!"
Even with Zhao Dachuan’s thick skin, he couldn't help but blush at Wu Xiaohua’s words. Back when he had been "simple-minded," he had spent his time playing games with Wu Xiaohua where they pretended to be a married couple, cooking meals and raising children.
"What are you thinking about? You should be focusing on your studies right now!" Zhao Dachuan flicked her forehead lightly and put on a stern face.
Wu Xiaohua rubbed her forehead in pain, pouted, and said, "Where would we get the money to send me to school? I want to go, but what can we do?"
Zhao Dachuan froze, feeling a pang of guilt. Although he wasn't directly responsible for the death of Wu Xiaohua's parents, it was he who had insisted on adopting her. After he lost his faculties, her schooling had been left on the back burner. In the end, it all came down to money.
Zhao Dachuan made up his mind: he had to find a way to earn a decent living.
"We’ll talk about school later. If you want to learn to write, I can teach you myself."
Wu Xueyan walked out, having finished changing. Hearing their conversation about school, her mood dampened. She knew she would have to be the one to teach Wu Xiaohua how to read and write.
"Cousin-in-law, you aren't exactly literate yourself. Xiaohua still needs to go to school," Zhao Dachuan noted.
"But... our family is just too poor. We’re almost out of rice, and the only money I have left is the 196 yuan you gave me." Wu Xueyan felt embarrassed; she had been managing the household for years, yet they remained in such dire straits.
"Cousin-in-law, have you forgotten? Before I went off to university to study medicine, I was the best fisherman in the village! I can slaughter pigs, ducks, chickens, and geese, and farming is no challenge for me at all," Zhao Dachuan said with great confidence.
Having inherited the full capabilities of the True Dragon Immortal, he felt extremely confident about making money; it was only a matter of time. Besides, he felt that the mysteries left within his body by the True Dragon Immortal had yet to be fully unearthed.
"Farming still requires capital. Besides, the market in the village isn't doing well; nobody is selling chicks or piglets," Wu Xueyan said, frowning.
Zhao Dachuan thought for a moment, and his eyes lit up. "Isn't there a big-time poultry farmer next door?"
"You mean Zhang Ting, the educated youth and widow? She does have at least three hundred chickens, doesn't she?" Wu Xueyan realized.
Zhang Ting, who lived next door, had originally come to the village as a volunteer teacher. She had intended to stay for three years to pad her resume before returning to the city to secure a stable government job. However, she had caught the eye of Zheng Hai, a local village teacher who began to pursue her relentlessly. Eventually, a soft-hearted Zhang Ting stayed behind to marry him and used the knowledge she had gained at an agricultural college to start a poultry business.
It felt as though fate had played a cruel joke on her, though: on their wedding night, Zheng Hai had celebrated too hard, and the excessive alcohol had triggered a fatal heart attack.From then on, Zhang Ting became a widely known young widow, drawing the attention of all the bachelors in the village, who coveted her with thirsty eyes.
"Right! That's it! I'm going over there right now to borrow some chicks!"
"Our families are so close, after all. I even helped her fix her leaking roof before!"
Zhao Dachuan was a man of action. No sooner had he finished speaking than he slipped away and headed toward Zhang Ting’s house.
Before long, Zhao Dachuan arrived at Zhang Ting's door. Seeing it wasn't latched, he assumed she was inside cooking, so without a second thought, he pushed the door open and walked in.
Then—
Zhao Dachuan witnessed a scene he would never forget for the rest of his life.
In a large half-barrel, Zhang Ting was bathing.
Surrounded by swirling mist, Zhang Ting’s graceful figure appeared as clear and flawless as jade, impossibly perfect, breathtakingly beautiful.
Although Zhang Ting was nearly thirty, she was, after all, a girl from the city who took excellent care of herself. Her skin was supple and tender, white with a rosy glow, just like a twenty-year-old.
Yet, having been married, she carried a certain mature charm.
Coupled with the scent of flower petals in the tub, Zhao Dachuan felt as though he had stumbled into a celestial garden.
Like a lotus rising from the water, her beauty was truly city-toppling.
The sight sent a rush of heat straight to Zhao Dachuan’s head; he nearly suffered a nosebleed on the spot.
But this beautiful, picturesque scene lasted only for a fleeting moment.
He heard Zhang Ting let out a bashful, startled cry:
"Ah! Silly Dachuan! What are you doing here!?"
Burning with embarrassment, Zhang Ting leaped out of the tub and scrambled to hide herself and get dressed.
The awkwardness of the situation left both of them at a loss.
When Zhang Ting finally walked out, dressed, and saw that Zhao Dachuan was still staring at her with a dazed expression, her face reddened even further. Shy and indignant, she snapped at him:
"Silly Dachuan! How can you just barge into someone’s house like that? Don't you know how to knock? How did you even get in?"
"Sister Ting! You can't blame me for that! Who told you not to lock the door? I thought you were in here cooking!"
Knowing he was in the wrong, Zhao Dachuan said sheepishly.
Zhang Ting then remembered that she had returned in a hurry to draw a hot bath because she had gotten covered in the smell of pig manure while feeding the hogs, and had completely forgotten to lock the door.
Being a widow, no one usually came to her house, so she never imagined Zhao Dachuan would drop by.
This was incredibly awkward.
However, thinking of how Zhao Dachuan was a bit dim-witted, Zhang Ting’s eyes twinkled as she decided to tease him. She said:
"Alright then, silly Dachuan! You've seen everything, so you have to take responsibility. You have to marry me!"
"How about I, Zhang Ting, become your wife?"
As she spoke, Zhang Ting offered a seductive smile, looking at Zhao Dachuan with a thousand charms.
Her soul-stirring peach-blossom eyes were incredibly alluring.
She looked exactly like a temptress.
Facing such temptation, this was a first for Zhao Dachuan; he had no idea how to handle such an assertive Zhang Ting.
Thinking that she had the slow-witted Zhao Dachuan right where she wanted him, Zhang Ting felt a surge of mischief. She swayed her slender waist and walked right up to him.
She reached out to lift his chin, looked him in the eyes, and said:
"Zhao Dachuan! Even if you are a fool, you're quite handsome—it would be a pleasure just to look at you while I eat. I’ll take a loss this time, so why don't you marry me?"
"I'm a great cook; I can make anything."
"And the wedding night? That won't be a problem either. I know plenty of tricks—I guarantee you'll love it."