Back to the 60s: The Struggle Career of a Charmed Wife
Chapter 1054: Causes and Consequences 4

Chapter 1054: Chapter 1054: Causes and Consequences 4

Feng Qingxue felt a bit embarrassed and withdrew her hand, "Stop saying the same thing over and over, what’s there to thank among family? Tianjun and Tianzhi, they are my children. Hurry up and eat, let’s see if Shan Xiazhe left anything behind."

Lu Jiang was worried about her leaving, and she was just as concerned about suddenly leaving herself.

"Alright!"

After they finished lunch and rested for a moment, they got up and hit the road.

Shan Xiazhe secluded himself in a nearby mountain village, which was especially remote and scarcely populated. After the founding of the country, most of the villagers had moved to other villages, with only Shan Xiazhe living in a cave.

"How did you know he lives here? My uncle didn’t mention it at the time." At the entrance to the cave, Feng Qingxue asked with curiosity.

"I was very mischievous as a child, giving my parents as much trouble as Xibao does now, and I was beaten quite often for it. Hearing the elders talk about Shan Xiazhe’s abilities, I became curious, so I came looking for him. I was ten that year, and I came with my elder brother behind our parents’ backs. Of course, my brother must have been curious too. He came to ask Shan Xiazhe about his marriage prospects. Shan Xiazhe looked at my brother and sighed deeply, saying that his fate was to die young with no chance of redemption. My brother didn’t believe him and pushed me forward instead."

Lu Jiang had not thought about the past for a long time, and it was only upon hearing Shan Xiazhe’s pronouncement about his family that he remembered this episode.

Feng Qingxue was stunned, "You’ve met Shan Xiazhe? What did he tell you? I’ve never heard you mention it."

Lu Jiang coughed, "Just like my uncle said, Shan Xiazhe told me I was destined to have no wife nor children, a bachelor’s fate, to live in sorrow until my old age. I was young at the time and thought being called a bachelor sounded bad; I had seen enough bachelors in the village, all without wives, very pitiful. I got angry and made a big scene, saying, ’I want a wife, too. I will have a wife. You say I won’t have one, so you owe me a wife!’"

"He owes you a wife?" Feng Qingxue covered her mouth, her eyes curving into crescents, "So you did such a thing. Did Shan Xiazhe pay his debt? Whether or not you can find a wife is your own business, why blame him? How did he ’pay’ you?"

Lu Jiang declared with conviction, "Didn’t he end up ’paying’ me with someone like you?"

"Me?" Feng Qingxue pointed to her nose, utterly baffled.

"Yes! I think, your arrival might be tied to Shan Xiazhe."

Feng Qingxue’s expression changed, "What are you saying? Why didn’t you mention a word when I talked about my origins?"

Lu Jiang’s eyes darted around, and only after Feng Qingxue lost patience and smacked the back of his hand did he stammer, "The details I can’t quite remember, but Shan Xiazhe, relenting to my pestering – I think I was tugging at his beard and wouldn’t let go – nodded and agreed to ’pay’ me a wife."

"How did he ’pay’?"

Lu Jiang pondered, "I remember he asked for my birth details, wrote them on a piece of paper, folded it neatly into a red silk pouch, and placed it into an iron box, which he made me bury with my own hands under a tree root at the entrance of the cave, with three prostrations and nine knocks of the head!"

"That tree?" Feng Qingxue pointed to a tree at the entrance of the cave.

Upon close inspection, she noticed it was a very old, intertwined tree, but it had since died.

"That’s the one!" Lu Jiang tried hard to recall and asked Feng Qingxue for a shovel. Following his memory, he began to dig. After digging three feet, he found nothing, "Perhaps I remembered the wrong spot. Let me try again."