Chapter 22: Crisis Resolved, Staying with the Xie Family...

Zhu Mingyue peeked out from behind the door and stared wide-eyed at the scene.

He looked at the villagers, and the villagers looked at him. Among them were young men who were seeing Zhu Mingyue for the first time, and upon seeing his face, they couldn't bring themselves to say anything harsh.

Wang Dezi felt a pang of regret; if it weren't for the money, it would have been such a waste to burn such a beautiful person alive.

He raised his torch and shouted, "Arrest him!"

Zhu Mingyue was baffled: "I have no grudge against you, why are you arresting me?"

Wang Dezi stepped forward and said bluntly, "You are a jinx. If you are allowed to stay in the village, everyone will be implicated by you."

"Why do you call me a jinx? What evidence do you have?" Zhu Mingyue frowned.

"You caused Xie Hong's death, that's irrefutable proof, don't try to deny it."

Zhu Mingyue: ...

Xie Pei is a master strategist. He killed someone and no one suspected him, but he still had to take the blame.

Perhaps sensing Zhu Mingyue's resentful gaze, Xie Pei rushed over.

"Xie Pei, you're here just in time. We've come to let you know that if you don't want to die, you'd better move out now. We're going to burn this house down later too."

What does "burn it all down too" mean? Who wants to burn it down along with the house? Could it be—

Holy crap!

"Since you insist that I have a problem, I will leave today." He was already preparing to leave the village, but the villagers were even faster than him and wanted to burn him.

Wang Dezi: "You can't leave today. You're destined to bring disaster wherever you go. Why don't we, Gouhe Village, eliminate this calamity?"

Knowing that further discussion was pointless, Zhu Mingyue stopped arguing with them, grabbed Xie Pei's sleeve, and pulled him back, whispering in a voice only the two of them could hear, "It's all your fault, you have to save me."

Xie Pei remained silent, coldly observing the villagers before him, his heart filled with an uncontrollable disgust.

Without making a sound, he picked up the axe and walked step by step to Wang Dezi.

Wang Dezi swallowed hard and asked nervously, "What do you want to see?"

Xie Pei: "I'll do whatever you want?"

"What do you mean?" Wang Dezi feigned anger. "I'm doing this to rid the people of a scourge, and you're taking my good intentions for granted."

Xie Pei continued, "If you want to kill my sister-in-law, I will kill you today. If you want to burn down my house, I will burn down your house as well."

"You dare!"

"You'll see if I dare."

Although Xie Pei was thin, he had grown tall. At the age of seventeen, he was already half a head taller than Wang Dezi. Looking down at Wang Dezi from his superior position, he was incredibly intimidating.

Wang Dezi's eyes flickered. He wouldn't be afraid of anyone else, but Xie Pei was different!

There's a saying, "Those who have nothing to lose are not afraid of those who have something to lose." Xie Pei is all alone, but if you push him too far, he's capable of anything.

He wanted his life, but he hadn't even had a chance to warm the money in his pocket, and he didn't want to return it either.

“I don’t want to make things difficult for you either, but you can see these people are still waiting for the outcome! If this drags on, I won’t be able to explain myself!” Wang Dezi compromised, “How about this? We’ll handle your sister-in-law, and we won’t burn down the Xie family’s house, how about that?”

Wang Dezi thought to himself, "He has already conceded, so Xie Pei should have nothing to say now."

To everyone's surprise, Xie Pei didn't listen and put an axe to Wang Dezi's neck.

"No, no, no!" Wang Dezi had never encountered anything like this in his life. He closed his eyes and didn't dare to move. A strong smell of urine emanated from his genitals.

The villagers dared not go up to rescue him, so they surrounded the two of them in a circle. Upon closer inspection, they saw a puddle of water on the ground. Anyone with eyes could see that Wang Dezi had been scared to death.

"Whatever you say, we'll do it! It's all negotiable! Everything is negotiable!"

"Get out of here with these people."

Wang Dezi was so blinded by the gleaming blade that he didn't dare to open his eyes. He immediately shouted, "Let's go!" and ignored the villagers. As soon as he finished speaking, he ran faster than anyone else.

When the villagers saw that the leader had run away, they were initially confused and still holding torches, but eventually they all scattered.

Once everyone had left, Zhu Mingyue breathed a sigh of relief, jogged over to Xie Pei, and awkwardly said thank you.

Xie Pei still didn't respond to him.

Zhu Mingyue was already used to this and wasn't annoyed.

The crisis is temporarily over, and he can finally run away!

"Um...I..."

"You can stay."

Zhu Mingyue was about to say goodbye to him when she was interrupted before she could finish speaking. She was very puzzled by Xie Pei's sudden attempt to persuade her to stay.

Xie Hongdu is dead. He had no relation to Xie Pei, so why was he allowed to stay in the Xie family?

Xie Pei guessed what he was thinking and explained, "Consider it compensation." He paused and added, "From now on, we'll be even."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Mingyue felt embarrassed. It was true that she had been implicated by him, but it was also her bad luck. The other party originally intended to kill Xie Hong, but he accidentally married him before he died, thus earning the reputation of being a jinx.

Wait a minute? Zhu Mingyue was jolted awake. Why had she made an excuse for Xie Pei? Even though he had helped her, he was a murderer! In a harmonious society, he would go to jail!

But her thoughts only lasted three seconds before Zhu Mingyue deflated again; she truly had nowhere to go.

The dilapidated temple was so cold, so very cold. Although the Xie family's house was simple, at least it was draft-free at night and they had a bed to sleep in...

Moreover, with Xie Hong gone, the villagers dare not touch him for the time being. As long as he doesn't cause trouble, he can probably get through the winter peacefully.

After weighing the pros and cons, Zhu Mingyue's determination to stay at the Xie family's house temporarily ultimately overcame her fear of Xie Pei.

Zhu Mingyue has one advantage: she's thick-skinned. In order to live a better life, she's willing to abandon her principles to some extent.

So, no sooner had Xie Pei spoken than Zhu Mingyue readily agreed, fearing that if she hesitated for even a second longer, he would change his mind.

In the end, Zhu Mingyue remained in the Xie family as Xie Pei's widowed sister-in-law.

After Wang Dezi caused a scene, he developed a high fever upon returning home. Wang Dezi's father was summoned back from town, and after learning the whole story, he was so angry that he slapped his cheating son on the spot.

The money that Wang Dezi had swindled was also collected and returned to the villagers.

The villagers had no idea what this meant, and they speculated that it was because Zhu Mingyue's matter had become so serious that even the Wang family couldn't handle it, and they didn't want to get into trouble, so they returned the money.

Those who had come with him to cause trouble at the Xie family that day were trembling with fear, but they dared not provoke Zhu Mingyue, this plague god, so they could only avoid the Xie family on ordinary days.

Zhu Mingyue was unaware of the many thoughts in the villagers' minds, and she was too lazy to understand them.

It snowed heavily again last night, and now the cold wind outside is blowing snowflakes so hard that the window paper is crackling.

Zhu Mingyue warmed her hands with a hand warmer, curled up in bed, and lazily yawned.

The hand warmer was Xie Hong's keepsake. When Xie Hong used it, it was filled with charcoal, but he used it so much that he had to change the charcoal several times a day. So by the time Zhu Mingyue used it, the charcoal in the house was almost gone.

The hand warmer is currently filled with stove ash that I got from Xie Pei. It's not as good as charcoal, but it still has some residual heat, which is better than nothing.

Hearing the constant cracking of wood outside, Zhu Mingyue knew that Xie Pei had started chopping firewood again.

As she drifted off to sleep, Zhu Mingyue couldn't help but recall...

Having lived under the same roof as Xie Pei for several days, he had come to understand the other's personality.

Xie Pei is a person who is cold on the outside but warm on the inside. Although he speaks coldly to him and often ignores him, he does things that are not malicious at all.

He once passed by Xie Pei's room and saw the blanket he was lying on; it was a thin layer, far inferior to the one covering him.

Even so, Xie Pei did not take advantage of being the head of the Xie family to keep the best quilts for himself.

And this hand warmer, whenever it's used and placed in the kitchen, is immediately filled with fresh ashes after Xie Pei finishes cooking.

Xie Pei isn't a bad person, at least not to me. Although I benefited from this, I'm not ungrateful. Once the weather gets better and I find a way to make money, I'll definitely repay him...

In the courtyard, Xie Pei reached out and brushed away the snow water that had quickly melted after it landed on his face. He frowned as he looked at the snow outside, which showed no signs of stopping and was even falling heavier and heavier.

We've run out of rice and grain at home, and now we eat boiled taro for every meal.

Zhu Mingyue was very sensible. She ate very little at each meal. In order to reduce calorie loss, she would often eat only half a taro before crawling into bed.

Zhu Mingyue also cheerfully said that as long as she falls asleep quickly enough, she doesn't feel hungry at all.

Even with such frugality, there was still only enough taro for two days.

He still had some money left, money he had saved from hunting and selling hides. If he used it all to buy millet, it could last him for a while. But seeing the snow piling up thicker and thicker, he couldn't go to town to buy food at all.

Xie Pei bent down, stacked the firewood in a corner, and sighed softly, wondering when the snow would stop.

Perhaps it was his and Zhu Mingyue's prayers that worked, because the snow stopped the day before the family ran out of food.

The sun was high in the sky, and its rays shone on the snow, melting it layer by layer.

As soon as Zhu Mingyue stepped out of the courtyard gate, her toes were wet by the clear, flowing snow water, and she quickly pulled her feet back.

He wandered around the house but couldn't find Xie Pei. He looked around and saw that many families in the village had come out, and some were walking out of the village in twos and threes.

Zhu Mingyue understood immediately; Xie Pei must have gone out early, taking advantage of the melting snow.

Even as noon approached, Xie Pei was still not home.

Zhu Mingyue decided not to wait for him anymore. She went to the kitchen and cooked two taro. She sat in front of the stove and ate half of one by herself, leaving the other one and a half for Xie Pei to eat when he came back.

Zhu Mingyue waited and waited. At the beginning of the afternoon, people started returning from town carrying their belongings. She became a little anxious. It wouldn't take long to go to town to buy some food. Could something have happened on the way?

As Zhu Mingyue was thinking, she caught a glimpse of a gray figure out of the corner of her eye, and her eyes immediately lit up with surprise.

Xie Pei carried a bulging sack on his shoulder, which didn't look like rice or grain, but whatever it was, as long as it was edible, it was fine.

As soon as he entered, Zhu Mingyue immediately closed the door, squatted down in front of the sack, and quietly waited for Xie Pei to untie it.

Xie Pei took a sip of hot tea and slowly opened the bag.

It was dark and huddled together inside. Zhu Mingyue couldn't resist poking it.

"It's meat!"

Xie Pei remained silent, nodded with pursed lips, and then pulled out a whole wild boar cub and laid it on the ground.

The pig had a gash nearly a foot long split open on its side, with flesh and blood gushing out. It was clear that it had been killed by Xie Pei with an axe while trying to escape.

Zhu Mingyue, no longer bothered by the smell of blood, playfully flicked the pig's rump and excitedly asked, "Did you hunt this pig in the mountains? That's amazing!"

Xie Pei: "Mm."

"This pig must weigh thirty or forty pounds! We can get a lot of money from it in town!"

A pound of pork would cost at least ten or so coins, and selling it could buy a lot of grain.

“We’re not selling it,” Xie Pei glanced at him, then added, “We’ll keep it for ourselves.”

A note from the author:

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Poor Mingyue is about to have a good life!