After leaving the Yu family, Yu Li did not return to the Fu family but instead headed toward the mountain behind Qingshi Village.
Qingshi Village was located at the foot of the mountain, with a river winding through it. It was said that the other side of the mountain was where the Yi people lived.
Although the mountain did not appear particularly tall, it was vast and deep. Poisonous snakes and ferocious beasts resided within, and few people could pass through the mountain safely. Ordinary folks rarely dared to venture deep and would only linger around the periphery.
Wherever Yu Li went, she had the habit of surveying the surroundings to check for potential dangers and to eliminate them in advance whenever possible.
Over the past few days, because her body was truly unwell and she was busy adapting to a new life after living through another lifetime, she had suppressed her desire to explore and stayed put.
Last night and this morning, she had eaten her fill, and her body finally didn’t feel as miserable. Coupled with the fact that her strength seemed to have partially recovered, she decided to take a walk and investigate the environment.
As Yu Li made her way up the mountain, she encountered several villagers.
Some of them were working in the fields, others were gathering firewood in the mountain, or heading to the bamboo forest to dig bamboo shoots or collect their husks.
When they saw Yu Li, they greeted her and kept glancing in her direction.
Their gazes were more out of kind-hearted curiosity than anything else.
What Yu Li had done when she returned to the Yu family yesterday was not publicized, as Old Master Yu was keen on maintaining face. As a result, the villagers were unaware of her “notable achievements” at the Yu family. At the moment, they were mostly curious to see whether this so-called “Lucky Star” was truly as remarkable as rumored.
“Isn’t this Li Niang? Where are you off to?” asked a square-faced older woman.
Qingshi Village consisted of about a hundred households, and everyone frequently crossed paths. Although the second branch of the Yu family rarely went out, the villagers could still call out their names when they met them on the road.
This was largely because the four sisters of the Yu family’s second branch were all exceptionally thin. There weren’t many young women in the village as skinny as them, making them very recognizable.
Yu Li recognized this as Da Zhuang’s mother, the Fu family’s next-door neighbor. Her husband’s surname was Zhou, and it was said that she and the Zhou family were related. Everyone called her Aunt Zhou. Beside her stood a young woman, Da Zhuang’s newlywed wife from earlier this year.
Yu Li responded truthfully, “Aunt, I’m heading up the mountain.”
Aunt Zhou noticed her empty hands, carrying nothing, and couldn’t help but feel puzzled.
“What’s Li Niang doing in the mountains?” she asked casually. “By the way, I heard Xiao Ge’er has woken up. Is his health alright?”
Because Fu Wenxiao’s health was always poor, they rarely disturbed him. Although they knew he had woken up, they didn’t know how he was doing.
Recalling what she saw of Fu Wenxiao last night, Yu Li replied, “He’s fine, able to open his eyes and speak.”
But when he slept, his breathing was still extremely faint, as if it could stop at any moment, making her worry that he might not wake up the next day.
What kind of answer was that?
Aunt Zhou was a little taken aback. What did she mean by “able to open his eyes and speak”?
Seeing that Aunt Zhou had no further questions, Yu Li politely said her goodbyes and continued up the mountain.
Watching her retreating figure, Aunt Zhou was still deeply puzzled, wondering what she intended to do in the mountains.
Who went up a mountain with nothing? No basket, no hatchet, not even a bit of water. If she got thirsty in the mountains later, it wouldn’t be easy to find water to drink.
Aunt Zhou’s daughter-in-law glanced at her and quietly asked, “Mother, is this the ‘Lucky Star’ that the villagers were talking about? Why is she so skinny?”
What kind of Lucky Star was this skinny? At a glance, it was clear she wasn’t living well.
If she really were a Lucky Star, wouldn’t her life be much better?
“What Lucky Star?” Aunt Zhou chuckled, half amused, half exasperated. “Those stories are all nonsense. If Li Niang were truly a Lucky Star, would the Yu family mistreat her? It’s just a tale the Yu family cooked up to secure the twenty taels of betrothal money from the Fu family.”
Although many believed Yu Li was a Lucky Star because of Zhou’s firm assertions, most villagers were well aware of the truth and understood the real situation.
Thinking about how Yu Li had been pitiful since childhood, even though they knew the truth—that she wasn’t a Lucky Star—no one would bother to refute it or run off to tell Zhou that it was all a lie.
After all, Fu Wenxiao had indeed woken up.
Da Zhuang’s wife felt a bit disappointed. So, she wasn’t really a Lucky Star.
It made sense, though. If she truly were a Lucky Star, how could the Yu family bear to marry her off to someone on the brink of death?
With some sympathy, she remarked, “She’s really just a pitiable soul…”
“Exactly,” Aunt Zhou agreed. “The Yu family is infamous in the village for favoring boys over girls… No, to be precise, they just look down on the four daughters of the second branch. The eldest branch’s Yu Qin has never been mistreated.”
“That’s no surprise. Her parents and brother are capable people. Her mother, Chen Shi, is the daughter of a scholar and holds a high status in the Yu family. Even the Yu family’s old matriarch doesn’t dare to cross her lightly. With her protection, Yu Qin’s life is naturally much better than the girls in the second branch.”
—
The mountain was lush with vegetation, and the temperature was noticeably cooler than at the base.
Not long after entering the mountain, Yu Li felt the stifling summer heat dissipate. Sunlight filtered through the treetops, and as the wind blew through the mountains, the shifting shadows of the trees rustled and danced.
Yu Li found a spot to sit and rest, wiping the sweat from her face with her sleeve.
This body was simply too weak. Climbing a mere mountain left her utterly exhausted, her breathing growing labored.
Looking down at her emaciated, skin-and-bones hands, she clenched them into fists.
Her strength had increased somewhat, but because her body was still frail, the most she could do with that strength was knock down a house. Fighting against mutated creatures was out of the question. If one from her previous life appeared before her now, she’d be the one killed.
Yu Li was not satisfied with this and hoped to regain her strength from her previous life as soon as possible.
Even though she knew from the original owner’s memories that there didn’t seem to be any pollutants or mutated creatures in this world, there were still other threats to human life, like the ferocious beasts in the mountains.
She at least needed enough strength to handle a wild beast, right? What if one day a beast came down the mountain?
Her purpose for climbing the mountain today was to scout its situation.
She wanted to see what kind of beasts lived in the mountains. If she could handle them, fine. If not… she’d need to start training her body immediately. She planned to practice the martial arts she was familiar with from her past life to compensate for her physical deficiencies.
Having set her plan, and after a sufficient rest, Yu Li stood up and continued onward.
She was still on the outskirts of the mountain, an area frequently visited by villagers gathering firewood. They had cleared a path specifically for that purpose, which Yu Li followed.
But the further she walked, the less distinct the path became. After another hour, the trail had almost disappeared entirely. This must be the point where villagers stopped venturing, as they rarely came this far.
Yu Li walked while remaining vigilant, her ears attentive to any sounds and her eyes scanning in all directions.
However, after walking for so long, she hadn’t encountered any traces of wild animals, not even a small critter. She couldn’t help but feel puzzled. Was it because villagers often came here to gather firewood, scaring away the animals?
But Yu Li did spot plenty of wild fruits.
She didn’t know if they were edible, so she observed them for a while and only picked the ones that birds had nibbled on. After tasting one, her eyes squinted in delight.
So sweet! So delicious!
There was another type of wild fruit that frequently appeared in the original owner’s memories. It ripened in the blazing summer heat, turning blackish-red when fully mature. The fruits were small, bite-sized, and tasted sweet.
Yu Li couldn’t help but feel her mood brighten.
So there were such delicious things in the mountains! Truly, this mountain was a treasure trove.
With newfound motivation, Yu Li walked along, eating as she went. She consumed a fair amount of wild fruits and surprisingly managed to fill her stomach.
Some of the wild fruits grew high up in the trees, but that posed no challenge for her. She swiftly climbed the trees, perched there eating, and even ended up competing with birds for the fruit.
Sure enough, fruits “snatched” from someone else’s mouth always tasted sweeter.
“Chirp chirp chirp!”
The bird whose fruit she had stolen chirped angrily at her.
Suddenly, Yu Li shushed the bird. Of course, the bird didn’t understand what this two-legged creature meant and chirped furiously at her for a while longer before flying off.
With the noisy bird gone, Yu Li could hear a certain sound more clearly now—it sounded like someone calling for help.
She blinked, jumped down from the tree, and followed the sound.
The path ahead was rough and difficult to traverse. The vegetation here was exceptionally dense, with no signs of human activity. Yu Li picked up a stick from the side of the path to clear her way forward.
The cries for help were intermittent and growing closer. The voice was hoarse, as if the person had been shouting for a long time.
Yu Li used the stick to push aside the overgrown plants and finally saw a pit about a zhang deep (approx. 3 meters). In the pit lay a person.
The person appeared to be injured—there was a faint smell of blood in the air.
The dense vegetation around the area blocked much of the light from above, making it hard for Yu Li to see the person clearly. She could only tell that it seemed to be a man.
Leaning over the edge, she asked, “Are you alright?”
The man in the pit weakly lifted his head upon hearing her voice. When he saw that someone had actually come, his expression lit up with joy. Summoning his strength, he rasped, “My leg is injured. Could you help pull me out?”
Yu Li gauged the height and replied, “Wait here.”
Seeing her disappear from sight, the man in the pit grew anxious, worried that she might not return.
Sitting in the damp, cold pit, he smiled bitterly to himself, thinking how unfortunate he was to have ended up in this situation.
And just now, judging by the voice, it seemed like the person was a young girl…
He couldn’t figure out why a young girl would be in a place like this, but he doubted she would have the strength to pull a grown man out of the pit.
As he was worrying and letting his thoughts wander, something suddenly came crashing down on him from above.
The man was momentarily stunned by the impact. Then, from above, the same girl’s voice rang out: “Tie the vine around your waist, and I’ll pull you up.”
“I’m heavy…” the man instinctively said.
Yu Li thought he was scared and kindly reassured him, “Don’t worry, I won’t drop you.”
The man: “…..” Was that what he was worried about?
In the end, the man chose to tie the vine around his waist and let Yu Li pull him up.
Before she pulled him out, he braced himself by pushing off the ground with his uninjured leg. He figured that if she couldn’t manage to pull him up, she could tie the vine to a nearby tree, and he could climb up on his own.
The next moment, his body suddenly flew upward, directly out of the pit that had trapped him for a day and a night, landing in the grass nearby.
The man stared up in bewilderment.
In the sunlight, Yu Li saw that he was a very young man, likely not yet twenty. Although disheveled, his handsome and striking features were still evident.
After pulling him out, Yu Li prepared to leave.
The young man, seeing her turn to leave, quickly called out, “Wait! Are you just going to leave like this? Benefactor, I haven’t even thanked you yet.”
Yu Li waved her hand, indicating that it was just a small effort and didn’t require his gratitude.
Even if she saw a struggling dog on the road, she would rescue it—let alone a living human. As long as it wasn’t a monster, she would save them.
Seeing that she was about to leave, the young man became anxious. “But my leg is broken—I can’t walk.”
Yu Li suddenly understood and asked, “Do you want me to carry you down the mountain?”
The young man looked a bit embarrassed. “If it’s possible, I’d appreciate it.” Then, realizing she was just a young woman, he hastily added, “You’re probably from a nearby village, right? How about you go find someone from the village to come help…”
“No need for that,” Yu Li said as she walked toward him.
Under his confused gaze, she extended her slender hand and hoisted him up in one swift motion, carrying him over her shoulder.
The tall and sturdy young man: “…”