Chapter 9: 009 I Must Have Boarded a Pirate Ship

Fortunately, that cave was the last of the strange places; otherwise, she surely would have slept until she turned into a ten-thousand-year-old stone. When she woke up, she was already inside an inn. Rising while still fully clothed, she discovered that her husband was already sitting at the table, calmly eating his meal.

"Why didn't you call me for dinner?" she asked fiercely, before immediately picking up the bowl and chopsticks at hand to dig in.

"I did call you," Yi Huang replied, casting a glance at her.

That meant he hadn't managed to wake her up. Although she was a bit dissatisfied, with such delicious food in front of her, she didn't bother to argue. She simply wolfed down the food, stuffing her mouth full before swallowing it all. Once full and satisfied, she rolled and crawled her way back to the bed.

"That night was an accident. Please, sir, do not touch me tonight." After issuing her warning, Su Zhirui immediately closed her eyes, acting as if she were the one who had carried three bundles and a woman across a single-plank bridge and through the Black Curtain Cave without stopping for a single moment.

Yi Huang raised an eyebrow; it seemed she was the one who had insisted on clinging to him, wasn't it? He didn't say anything more, simply taking off his outer robe and lying down beside her. The night wind picked up, and she instinctively began to search for a heat source. As she searched, she ended up sparking a fire. This time, she wasn't completely asleep; she opened her eyes to look at the man when it hurt, opened them again when it grew hot, and even opened them once more during her low moans.

The revolutionary pioneer Mr. Lu Xun once said that one must either erupt in silence or perish in it. She wasn't used to perishing, so she could only erupt. Upon waking, she was covered in red marks once again. Su Zhirui glared fiercely at the man beside her and kicked out at him, never expecting that she wouldn't even manage to move a single strand of his hair.

"Why did you touch me again?"

"You are my wife," Yi Huang replied calmly, still not turning around.

"And so?"

"You are to bear my children," the man answered with certainty.

"I'll make you an idiot first." Having said that, Su Zhirui immediately pounced onto the man's back and, without another word, began biting him wildly.

"Have you had enough?" After a moment of silence, Yi Huang asked with a disdainful smirk.

"Tastes pretty good," Su Zhirui replied, lifting her head.

"You're courting death." As it turned out, thanks to the woman's vigorous contributions, the man's entire body had been set ablaze. Before he could even catch his breath, her soft hands were grabbed firmly, and what followed was a living lesson, until the woman couldn't crawl out of bed at all.

"I'm leaving," Yi Huang said as he stood up and put on his long robe.

"Where to?" Su Zhirui asked, lying limp on the bed, still not fully conscious.

"To take care of business."

"Please 'roll' away," Su Zhirui replied hatefully as she turned over in pain, falling back into a deep sleep a moment later.

This time, her husband really did "roll" away, and she didn't know how far he had rolled, as he didn't return for ten whole days.

It was only after waking up that day that Su Zhirui realized they had arrived at the legendary Ruo River, and she was currently in an extremely dilapidated little wooden hut. She had no idea when the man had brought her there. As for the hut, it was truly as simple as it could be; aside from a bed, a table and chairs, a wardrobe, and a small kitchen, there was nothing else—not even a single grain of rice left for her, only a large pile of unhusked grain.

And Yi Huang’s talk of farming was no joke, for outside the small clearing in front of the door, the hut was surrounded by fields. The fields were full of weeds, and the weeds were full of grasshoppers. Further out were lush green mountains, with a thin layer of mist lingering all around, faintly illusory, as if it were a fairyland.

But that was not what she was concerned about right now!

"I must have boarded a pirate ship," Su Zhirui muttered, looking up at the sky.