Chapter 237: Tianhu Village

Xiao Li followed them all the way to their mountain stronghold. It was located in a pass, with two natural boulders serving as a gate and a wooden fence built between them. Carved into one of the boulders were the two words "Tianhu Village."

The entrance might not have been much to look at, but the village itself was quite large.

It covered half the mountainside with countless stone and thatched-roof houses. A good number of people lived there—men and women, young and old.

However, it felt less like a bandit stronghold and more like a small village.

Xiao Li drifted around and used a bit of her unfamiliar power. She learned that the leader of the village was the hulking man from earlier, Niu Tianhu, and the young woman was his only daughter, Niu Jiahua.

The father-daughter duo’s names were just as striking as their appearances.

The village was established ten years ago. It started with just Niu Tianhu and a few of his sworn brothers who had offended an official and fled here to save their lives.

Later, when an enemy nation invaded, people from the villages below moved into the pass to escape the ravages of war. Over time, the population grew to more than a thousand.

They survived by farming and hunting, but occasionally they had to descend the mountain to trade for essential supplies like salt and iron tools. However, they were mountain bandits without household registrations, so the government wouldn’t recognize them. Unable to enter large cities, their only recourse was to rob merchants transporting goods.

They hadn’t intended to become bandits, but in the end, that’s what they became.

"Ms. Jiuhua, are you pregnant with a little one yet?"

"No."

"Then are you still going to try to have one?"

"Mhm."

The two girls’ conversation caught Xiao Li’s attention. She floated down lightly, landing on the table. The two girls, busy whispering to each other, had no idea a third person was listening in.

Niu Jiahua might seem fiery, but she was only an eighteen-year-old girl. The girl next to her looked even younger, perhaps fourteen or fifteen, and wore her hair in two braids.

The younger girl, Fang’er, wrinkled her nose, looking terribly worried. "That scholar seems like bad news. I still think Aiyang is better than him. Aiyang likes you the most, Ms. Jiuhua."

The Aiyang that Fang’er mentioned was sitting not far from them, a tall, powerfully built man with dark skin.

He had a great physique and his features were plain but not ugly. Dressed in a coarse cloth vest that left his torso bare, he sat with a casual air—the very picture of a rugged countryman.

He chatted with a few friends beside him, turning to look their way every so often. The affection in his eyes was unmistakable.

But Niu Jiahua didn’t like him.

According to this world’s customs, Niu Jiahua was well past the age of marriage. The birthmark on her face was unsightly, but as the chieftain’s daughter with such a curvy figure, there were definitely men who had their eyes on her, even if not for love.

But Niu Jiahua wasn’t interested.

She loathed her own face and wanted to find a handsome man. She didn’t care if he liked her much; her sole purpose was to have a beautiful child with a beautiful man.

A boy or a girl, it didn’t matter, as long as the child was beautiful and didn’t inherit the birthmark on her face.

This was Niu Jiahua’s obsession. It was a secret only her best friend, Fang’er, knew. Well, now Xiao Li knew, too.

Though she had forcibly taken that delicate-looking man, Niu Jiahua was actually quite reliable and sensible in the village.

Her father, Niu Tianhu, was all brute strength. He only knew how to fight, farm, cook, and... embroider.

Yes, embroider.

Xiao Li had found it strange when she saw Niu Tianhu hunched over, busy with something. The posture seemed completely at odds with his domineering air.

But when she floated over for a look, she saw his fan-sized hands, one with its pinky elegantly raised, pinching an embroidery needle to sew a quilt.

Xiao Li had to admit, he was quite the homemaker. But the sight was certainly a bit of a shock.

Niu Jiahua, on the other hand, was in charge of managing all the village’s affairs, big and small—from the grain stores in the warehouse and the distribution of hunted game to settling squabbles among the children.

They seemed like minor tasks at first glance, but she handled everything in an orderly, fair, and just manner, guided by her own principles. Xiao Li found it quite admirable.

It didn’t take long for Xiao Li to get a rough idea of her location.

She was still in the same world, but in a rather remote location, likely on the border between Nanqi and Beicang. The only problem was, she couldn’t figure out the current year, so she had no idea how long she had been gone.

What she had to do now was rush back to Longsheng and return to her body.

But the situation was hopeless. She had no map and didn’t know which way to go. No one could see her, so she couldn’t even ask for directions.

But no matter how long the road ahead, she had to start walking. She couldn’t just keep floating around like this forever.

"Jiuhua, that man is awake."

Niu Jiahua immediately got up and went over. Hearing this, Xiao Li curiously followed.

However, Niu Jiahua took just one step inside and froze on the spot.

A devastatingly handsome man sat on the edge of the bed. His face was stern, his skin fair, and he possessed an indescribably noble air.

’Was this the man she had tried to force herself on yesterday?’

’The face was the same, but... something wasn’t right.’

Sensing Niu Jiahua’s presence, his gaze swept over her, carrying an indescribable, authoritative pressure. But he retracted it the next moment, his expression becoming polite and distant.

"Thank you for saving me, miss."

Niu Jiahua opened her mouth but was too stunned to utter a single word.

The moment Xiao Li saw the man, she was startled, too. It had been too dark to see clearly last night. Only now did she realize that his face was remarkably similar to her own.

They were at least sixty percent similar.

’Besides, his aura was completely different from last night, as if he were a different person. Surely Niu Jiahua didn’t rescue the wrong man?’

Xiao Li was stunned for a moment. Then Niu Tianhu arrived. The man rose and said politely, "I am Xu Nianqing. It is an honor to meet the chieftain."

’Xu Nianqing... Nianqing...’ Xiao Li suddenly understood why she was here.

’How absurd.’

Before her death, Liu Xueyin had mentioned the child Princess Xuanyang bore in their past life. She’d said that Lu Yanzhi had named him Lu Nianqing and that the boy longed to meet his birth mother. Xiao Li couldn’t have cared less about all that, but one thing had puzzled her: Liu Xueyin’s claim that Lu Nianqing was the future Emperor.

According to the plot as Xiao Li knew it, the male protagonist, Xiao Jingyu, was supposed to ascend the throne and have several children with Liu Xueyin. Lu Nianqing was meant to be the Crown Prince’s playmate and a future high-ranking court minister. There was no way the throne would ever be his.

But after she had leaped into that abyss, she learned of a different plot.

In the future, Lu Nianqing would learn the truth of his birth: his father was unknown, and his mother had been tortured to death by Lu Yanzhi and Liu Xueyin.

After verifying the truth, he would seize the throne to take his revenge.

If Xiao Jingyu and Liu Xueyin were the conduits for the invaders, then Lu Nianqing was the golden world-consciousness’s counterattack.

For more than twenty years, it had hidden its hand, allowing Lu Nianqing to be raised with the finest education, only to reveal the truth at the end and set things right.

The invaders had brought back the Liu Xueyin from the previous life in an attempt to reverse the situation. In response, the golden world-consciousness had brought forth Lu Nianqing, intending to set things right once more.

And she... she was the "wrong" that needed to be righted.