Chapter 1: Ordinary
At the entrance of Mushroom Village, Lu Yunxi sat on the grass, staring blankly ahead.
Nearby, plumes of smoke began to curl up into the sky. It was the universal signal that it was time for the farmers to head home for dinner.
Yunxi fixed her gaze on the solitary dirt road leading into the village. Right about now, Third Uncle should be walking by, followed shortly after by Third Grandpa.
Almost the exact moment the thought crossed her mind, Third Uncle appeared from the far side of the road. He strolled past the village entrance, a rigid smile plastered across his face.
Watching his retreating figure, Yunxi began to count silently in her head.
One, two, three, four, five…
Right on cue, Third Grandpa came into view.
She didn’t even need to think about what would happen next; she knew the entire sequence by heart. First, Aunt Wang would approach from the left side of the road. Then, Grandma Li would trudge right down the middle, clutching a wicker basket. Finally, Uncle Liu would follow behind, slinging a hoe over his shoulder.
Did she have prophetic visions? Could she see the future?
Of course not.
The only reason she knew their schedules down to the exact second was because these people passed by at the precise same time every single day. They walked the exact same way, took the exact same steps, and even repeated the exact same greetings.
Sometimes, it felt downright creepy. They were less like human beings and more like programmed robots.
An ordinary child might not see anything wrong with this picture, but Yunxi wasn’t actually a normal five-year-old.
Due to some cosmic oversight, she had retained all the memories of her previous life. It was as if she had completely bypassed drinking Meng Po’s soup of forgetfulness before being reborn. At first, she genuinely believed she had just reincarnated into an ordinary, historical era. But ever since her mother started letting her go outside to play, Yunxi realized that something was deeply wrong with this world.
Unfortunately, she still hadn’t figured out exactly what that “something” was.
With a heavy heart, Yunxi picked herself up and headed home.
Before she even stepped through the front door, a familiar aroma wafted into her nose.
“Mom, what’s for dinner today?” she asked routinely.
She already knew the answer. It was going to be brown rice, stir-fried cabbage, and a fried egg.
Before she turned one, her diet consisted entirely of milk. Once she passed that milestone, her daily meals were strictly limited to those three items. Three meals a day, year after year, without a single deviation.
To be fair, her mother’s cooking was fantastic. But no matter how delicious a meal was, no ordinary person could stand eating the exact same menu for four straight years.
It wasn’t that Yunxi hadn’t tried to source other ingredients. The problem was that their yard only grew cabbage, and there wasn’t a single butcher or meat vendor in the entire village. To make matters worse, her mother strictly forbade her from leaving the village boundaries to look for food. She had no choice but to endure it.
Yunxi let out a quiet sigh, her feet dragging heavily across the floor.
But no matter how much she procrastinated, the house was small. It took only a few steps to reach the dining table.
However, the moment she raised her eyes, she froze.
Sitting right next to her mother was a man.
A man?
Yunxi’s jaw nearly dropped to the floor.
In the five years she had lived here, not a single soul had ever visited their house, let alone a strange man!
She stared blankly at the tall, unfamiliar figure. Was her mother finally looking for a second chance at love? Yunxi was already five years old, and aside from some incredibly vague, blurry memories from when she was a newborn, she had never seen a single trace of a father figure.
With that thought in mind, Yunxi scrutinized the stranger carefully.
He had sharp, deep-set features, though the lower half of his face was heavily obscured by a thick beard. His skin was a rugged, sun-kissed wheat color, and his frame was built with powerful, dense muscle. He practically radiated peak health.
Yunxi gave an approving nod in her mind.
Not bad. If he wants to take care of Mom, he definitely needs a strong physique. Now, I just need to check his personality.
Just as she braced herself to interrogate him, the man spoke up first.
“Xi’er, you’re back?”
Yunxi blinked, caught entirely off guard. A strange wave of emotion washed over her, balancing somewhere between touching familiarity and sudden wariness.
Whenever she spoke to the other villagers, they would only spout the same few pre-programmed phrases no matter what she said. Yet, this man had actually broken the mold and called her by her nickname on his own initiative. It felt miraculous. For a split second, she almost felt like she was back in the modern world, having a genuine conversation with a real person.
But wait…
Isn’t he acting a bit too familiar? Calling her “Xi’er” the very first time they met? Talk about thick-skinned!
“Hello, Uncle,” she said politely, tilting her head. “May I ask who you are…?”
“I’m your father!” The man looked genuinely wounded, his eyes widening. “Xi’er, have you really forgotten me? I used to hold you in my arms all the time when you were a baby!”
This time, Yunxi’s jaw truly hit the floor.
“Father?!”
For five long years, this man had been entirely absent. Her mother had never once mentioned him either. Yunxi had naturally assumed that he had either met an untimely demise or abandoned the family. Because of that, she had never dared to bring up the topic, terrified of opening old wounds for her mother. Yet here he was, the long-lost “missing person,” sitting right at their table.
No wonder she was completely stunned.
“You’re five years old now,” her father continued, oblivious to her inner turmoil. “It’s time for you to start learning. Naturally, I had to come back to teach you properly.”
Hearing those words, Yunxi’s chopsticks froze mid-air.
Suddenly, everything clicked. She remembered hearing that once the children in the village turned five, they would begin apprenticeships under their fathers. If the father was a farmer, the child learned to till the fields; if he was a doctor, they studied medicine; if he was a blacksmith, they swung a hammer.
Now that she had hit the five-year mark, it seemed she wasn’t exempt from this rule.
But…
Her mother had never mentioned what her father actually did for a living.
“Dad, what exactly are you going to teach me?” she asked tentatively. Please let it be farming. After all, the vast majority of the village survived on agriculture.
“Our Lu family,” the man said proudly, puffing out his chest, “has been hunters for generations!”
A hunter?!
Yunxi was stunned. She had traveled all over the village and had never seen a single hunter. Was her father the only one?
But before she could dwell on the logistics of his profession, a much more pressing realization crashed over her.
She remembered that once the village kids turned five, their days were consumed by relentless training and chores. They barely had any time left to just play and relax.
Was she about to suffer the same fate? Was her freedom going to vanish into thin air just because she turned five?
She!
She was just an ordinary person!
All she wanted in this life was to live the peaceful, effortless existence of a salted fish!
Yunxi vividly remembered her past life. She had been right on the cusp of being promoted to vice president of her company, only to drop dead from sheer exhaustion due to working too much overtime. Thinking about all the money she had painstakingly saved, only to never spend a single cent of it, made her heart bleed.
To prevent history from repeating itself, she had made a solemn vow while she was still a swaddled infant.
In this life, she would embrace the salted fish lifestyle.
She was absolutely, positively done with the grueling 996 grind!
The next morning, the sky was barely a pale shade of grey.
A violent, rapid knocking suddenly shattered the morning silence. Bang! Bang! Bang!
Yunxi groaned, pulling her quilt tightly over her head to drown out the noise.
However, the house was far too small. Even with the blanket muffled against her ears, the deafening pounding outside her bedroom door vibrated right through the floorboards.
Staring blankly at the wooden ceiling, she remained completely motionless, desperately praying that whoever was making the racket would give up and go away.
Instead, the knocking only grew louder and more aggressive, threatening to take the door off its hinges.
Unable to take the ear-splitting noise for another second, Yunxi snapped. She kicked her blanket aside, stomped over, and yanked the door open.
Her father stood on the threshold, his face a mask of stern discipline. “Time to get up. Come out to the yard and exercise with me.”
Yunxi stood frozen, utterly speechless.
What ungodly hour was it?! By modern standards, it couldn’t have been past 5:30 in the morning!
“Dad… I need to wash my face first,” she mumbled, trying to buy time.
Her father, completely unmoved by her pleas, grabbed her arm and dragged her straight out into the yard. Without missing a beat, he forced her right into a low, grueling horse stance.
