Great Xia Calendar, Year 385.
A great drought descends upon the land.
After winter sets in.
A snow disaster arrives again.
Continuous snowfall for over a month.
The townsfolk whisper that it's Heaven's discontent with Great Xia, thus sending down these calamities.
At this moment,
In Celestial Water Commandery, Yunze County, Shuanggang Village.
Under the silver moonlight, a man covered in snow stands before a small bluestone house.
With a bow and quiver on his back.
In his right hand, he holds a flax-colored sack.
The sack emits squeaking sounds.
"Phew...."
A white mist appears out of nowhere.
After patting off the thick snow from his body, the man steps forward to knock on the door.
"Knock knock knock."
A knocking sound echoes from the scratch-marked wooden door.
A moment later.
A faint female voice comes from behind the door.
"Who?"
"Sister-in-law, it's me, Brother Xuan, open the door!"
The man's name is Chen Xuan, a hunter.
Soon after,
there's a sound of friction coming from behind the door.
"Creak!"
The old wooden door makes a piercing sound.
A crack appears in the door.
"Brother Xuan, come in quickly, it's so late, I was worried sick about you."
A woman whose face is full of freckles appears and speaks with concern.
As soon as Chen Xuan enters, the woman hurriedly closes the door.
Then she pushes a wooden table against the door.
The friction sound arises again.
Shuanggang Village backs onto the mountains and often has wild beasts descending, so at night, every household secures their doors with tables or stones for safety.
.....
The room is dimly lit.
There's only an oil lamp,
A thumb-sized flame dances slightly upon the wick as the door closes, and a wisp of black smoke from the flame bends.
"The snow is too heavy, only managed to hunt a rabbit."
Chen Xuan says apologetically while handing the sack to the woman.
"You just recovered from illness, I already told you not to go, yet you insisted. If something happened, I wouldn't know how to explain to your Chen Family ancestors."
The woman's words sound accusatory, but they hide more concern.
Her name is Su Wanqiu.
She's Chen Xuan's elder sister-in-law.
Five years ago,
Elder brother Chen Tian was seriously injured while hunting in the mountains and never recovered.
Later on,
An elder in the village suggested marrying him to bring good fortune.
And so,
Su Wanqiu became Chen Xuan's sister-in-law.
But,
Elder brother Chen Tian couldn't hold on, passing away one cold winter night.
Three years ago,
The village was struck by a plague,
And Chen Xuan's father, being too old, also didn't make it.
Now,
In this household, there's only Chen Xuan, the widowed sister-in-law, and her younger sister, the three relying on each other for survival.
Su Wanqiu places the sack on the ground, then proceeds to help Chen Xuan remove his hat and outer raincoat.
With the demeanor of a loving mother.
Just then,
A clear voice travels from the inner room, "Brother Xuan is back."
The sound of clothing rustling.
Soon, someone wrapped in a quilt, dressed casually in a small vest underneath, crouches as they come out from the inner room.
She is Su Wanqiu's younger sister, Su Yun.
"How can you come out wrapped in just a quilt, what are you like!"
Seeing her sister's nonchalance, Su Wanqiu reproaches her.
"I was too lazy to dress."
Su Yun sees her sister's displeasure, huddles beside her, acting spoiled.
She's most afraid of this sister.
With their parents passing away early, she was raised by her sister.
To her,
Su Wanqiu is both a sister and parental figure.
After playfully acting spoiled, she sticks her tongue out at Chen Xuan.
"Alright, alright, it's just us, it's fine, sister-in-law."
Chen Xuan speaks up in her defense.
"You just indulge her like this."
Su Wanqiu shakes her head and sighs.
She then instructs Su Yun beside her, "Go pour Brother Xuan a cup of hot water, I'll heat up the food, you must be starving this late."
"Hehe, indeed, a bit, sister-in-law."
Chen Xuan chuckles naively.
Being on the mountain all day, his stomach had long been protesting.
"You rest a bit, I'll be right back."
Su Wanqiu says and quickly heads towards the back kitchen.
Chen Xuan watches his sister-in-law's figure, lost in thought.
Since marrying into the Chen Family.
She has always been frugal and diligent, keeping the household in perfect order.
"It's a pity, she's only in her early 20s, yet already a widow."
He sighs inwardly.
But as for Su Yun,
After handing him a cup of water,
she squats on the ground, looking at the rabbit in the sack.
"Wow, it's so cute."
The fluffy white rabbit, with its two shiny black eyes, round and luminous, instantly captures her girlish heart.
At this time,
Su Wanqiu approaches with a steaming bowl of sorghum porridge and three sorghum pancakes.
"Hurry, eat."
"Mmm, thank you sister-in-law."
Chen Xuan doesn't stand on ceremony.
He sits at the small table and starts eating heartily.
Hunting is demanding physical work,
Moreover,
the snow on the back mountain is nearly waist-high now,
truly making every step a struggle.
"Life is getting harder and harder."
Su Wanqiu looks on empathetically at Chen Xuan wolfing down his food, but then, worry creases her brow.
"Indeed." Chen Xuan, head bowed, takes a mouthful of sorghum porridge, then a bite of sorghum pancake.
The pancake is indeed hard... and it... has a mysterious bitter taste.
But,
under these circumstances, ensuring three meals a day was already a luxury.
"Life was better in my past life, at least we ate well!"
Yes,
Chen Xuan is not from this world.
In his past life, he was a war correspondent for Central Mom,
assigned to a hospital shelled by Agge.
Covering the condition of frontline wounded,
not expecting a shell to fall from the sky,
Boom!
The ground shook as mountains tumbled.
As he awoke, he found himself in this world.
The original Chen Xuan had succumbed to cold ailments and died, only for him to occupy this body.
The inexplicable bitter taste in his mouth.
Although he had been in this world for over a month,
eating countless sorghum pancakes, the taste was still rather hard to accept.
In his past life, due to his work, he had savored countless delicacies,
never expecting,
to fall to such a state.
Though Chen Xuan furrowed his brow, he had no choice but to gulp it down.
While the two worried about future days,
Su Yun, on the other hand,
had a carefree demeanor, amusing herself with the injured rabbit.
She was having a wonderful time.
Just then,
Su Wanqiu spoke, "Yun'Er, go back to your room!"
"Ah?... Okay!"
Su Yun's faint response is very small, also very odd.
"This girl usually is carefree, why is she behaving like this?"
The strange behavior prompted Chen Xuan to raise his head,
only to see Su Yun nearly hiding her head under the quilt, her tender cheeks flushed with red.
This made him all the more puzzled.
Once she had gone back to her room, Su Wanqiu spoke up, "Brother Xuan, I was thinking you and Yun'Er should get married, what do you think?"
"Brother Xuan?"
Chen Xuan looked utterly surprised.
But he quickly composed himself.
Su Yun was only 16, about a meter and a half tall.
When he first saw her, he was stunned even then.
He was surprised at first because Su Wanqiu brought up such an unexpected topic.