Upon his return, he placed his horse in a cave behind the mountain. But when he got back to his home, Wang Zhijiao was nowhere to be found.
Fearing that something might have happened to her, he went out to search for her. The village was already in complete chaos. Shi Zhongtian had brought back news that the men belonging to Hu Mazi had been killed. Crucially, they had been killed not far from the village. Everyone was terrified that Hu Mazi would wrongly suspect the villagers of being the culprits. Consequently, the village elders had all gathered at Shi Zhongtian’s home to discuss how to handle the situation.
Shi Yi searched the village, but could not find her. To be honest, he felt a flicker of disappointment. In his previous life, he was a bachelor who had never married. In this life, he admitted that when he first saw Wang Zhijiao, it was simply because she was beautiful and seemed like someone no one else wanted. Driven by a man’s instinct, he had "bought" this treasure for a mere pound of rice. He had thought that although this woman was somewhat aloof, he would eventually win her over, and she would bear him a houseful of children, allowing him to experience the family warmth he had missed in his past life.
Chapter 24