Chapter 21: Daya Wants to Run Away
After conducting a careful, quiet investigation, Lu Yunxi finally managed to piece together a comprehensive profile of the man Li Daya’s parents had chosen to be her future husband.
The man was forty-six years old. His first two wives had tragically died in childbirth, and he had beaten his third wife to death in a drunken rage. He was an avid gambler, a heavy drinker, and notoriously violent when intoxicated. Currently, he survived entirely on the rental income from three storefronts his grandfather had built.
That was the monster they had picked out for Daya.
What on earth were they thinking?!
He was forty-six years old! By the time Daya was old enough to actually wed, he would be well into his fifties, to say nothing of the horrific baggage he carried.
Yunxi tracked down Daya and laid out every single piece of information she had uncovered. As for what her friend would do next, she could only wait and see.
The next morning, well before dawn, a frantic knocking rattled Yunxi’s front door.
The pounding persisted ruthlessly, refusing to cease. With no other choice, Yunxi dragged herself out of bed, yawning heavily as she pulled the door open. There stood Daya, her eyes red and swollen from crying.
Yunxi opened her mouth to ask what could possibly have brought her over at such an ungodly hour, but her gaze dropped. Daya was wearing a small, grey cloth pack slung over her shoulders!
The sight jolted Yunxi completely awake. Her head snapped left and right to scan the empty lane before she quickly grabbed Daya and hauled her inside, shutting the door.
“Daya, are you trying to run away?” she asked, her voice tight with shock as she stared at her friend.
Daya’s grip on the straps of her bundle tightened. Her face drained of all color, and she wore an expression of grim, tragic resolve. “Xiaoxi… will you come to the town with me?”
“Daya, breathe. You need to calm down first!” Yunxi patted her arm, trying to de-escalate her panic. “Even if your parents are planning to marry you off, they can’t just throw you to him tomorrow! You’re still far too young!”
She hadn’t expected Daya to actually attempt a midnight escape. Sneaking out into the wild might sound like a desperate, romantic solution, but in reality, it was a death sentence. Even with her own enhanced strength, Yunxi didn’t dare sleep in the mountains unprotected, let alone Daya. The girl had never learned a single combat skill in her life. Letting her run away alone was equivalent to delivering a free snack directly into a tiger’s jaws—and she’d be walking right into them of her own accord!
“But my parents said they’re sending me to that family’s house in five days!” Daya lowered her head, her body trembling with pure terror.
Yunxi choked, temporarily struck dumb. Who knew parents could be so utterly vile and unrefined?
She crossed her arms, pacing the room as she fell into deep thought. Suddenly, her eyes lit up, and she snapped her fingers. “I’ve got it! It’s almost sunrise. Go home immediately, bake a fresh batch of sweet-scented osmanthus cakes, and distribute them to the villagers later this morning.”
While Grandma Li’s everyday cooking was thoroughly mediocre, her osmanthus cakes were spectacular—the quality easily rivaled the baking of Yunxi’s late mother. Daya had inherited that specific culinary talent and mastered the recipe.
“When you deliver the cakes, say goodbye to everyone exactly the way I’m about to teach you. Remember, absolutely no crying. You have to smile… but not a joyful smile! Just raise the corners of your mouth a tiny fraction, like this.”
“Village Chief, I’m going to be leaving the village in a few days. This is just a small token of my gratitude. Thank you for looking after me all these years!”
Daya held out a neatly packed box of osmanthus cakes with both hands. Her pale, gaunt face was highlighted by red-rimmed eyes, and her lips were pulled into a slight, visibly trembling smile.
Watching from a hidden vantage point, Yunxi wanted to applaud. Daya was truly born in the wrong era; if she were living in the modern world, she would have a shelf full of acting awards! Seeing that her friend was executing the plan flawlessly, Yunxi quietly slipped away. She didn’t need to worry about the rest.
Daya spent the entire morning crisscrossing the village, ensuring a box of osmanthus cakes reached every single household.
By afternoon, the moment Daya stepped back across her own threshold, a barrage of vitriol welcomed her.
“You miserable little wretch! Where have you been all morning? How dare you slack off! Do you think just because you’re marrying into a town family soon, you can look down on us?!”
Daya flinched, instinctively taking a few steps back. However, remembering Xiaoxi’s firm reassurance that her parents wouldn’t dare strike her during this delicate window, she managed to steady her nerves.
“I…” She opened her mouth to offer the cover story.
But with Grandma Li away from the house, the rest of the family had no patience for her words. “Shut your mouth! No one wants to hear your excuses! Do you think there aren’t chores piling up around here? Take this mountain of laundry down to the stream!”
Daya blinked, then quietly picked up the massive basket of dirty clothes and headed down to the water. A quiet sigh of relief escaped her lips. Xiaoxi really is the smartest person in the village. She said they wouldn’t beat me, and they actually didn’t!
Hidden out of sight, Yunxi smiled with satisfaction. That pile of laundry was so massive it would easily keep Daya pinned down by the stream for the entire afternoon. And if Daya was safely out of the house all day…
Before long, word that Daya was washing a mountain of clothes by the creek rippled through the community. One by one, the village uncles, elders, and grandfathers noticed her absence and marched straight over to the Li family residence.
Some offered stern, grandfatherly counsel. “Ergou, Daya is a tireless worker and profoundly respectful to her elders. Wouldn’t it be a blessing to have a daughter like that care for you in your old age? Don’t do something you will live to regret!”
The more hot-tempered elders didn’t bother with pleasantries. “Li Ergou! I see that now your father has passed, you think there’s no one left to discipline you! Our village isn’t starving, yet you’re actually trying to sell your own flesh and blood! What, your daughter isn’t a human being to you? If you dare hand Daya over to that old drunkard, I will personally see to it that your precious son is shipped off to be some distant family’s servant!”
Li Ergou and his wife were thoroughly interrogated and berated for an entire afternoon, causing their resentment toward their daughter to skyrocket.
Finally, the village chief himself arrived.
“Selling children is not a custom we tolerate in this village,” the chief stated, his voice dropping to a low, chilling register. “If I discover that you have shipped Daya away, I expect you won’t be permitted to reside within our boundaries any longer. Am I understood?”
His tone was soft, almost polite, as if he were merely asking for their input, but his eyes were completely dead, staring at the couple as if they were inanimate objects. Having held his position for decades, the raw authority he projected when fully rippled through the room, leaving the Li couple too terrified to even breathe.
After the village chief departed, Daya finally returned with the clean laundry. The Li couple wanted nothing more than to strangle her on the spot, but with the elders’ severe warnings still echoing in their ears, they didn’t dare raise a hand. Instead, they barked at her to go chop firewood out in the yard—wishing to keep her out of sight and out of mind.
Li Ergou gnashed his teeth in silent fury. Having lost his employment in town, he had been desperate to secure an alternative source of income. A neighbor had casually mentioned a wealthy older gentleman looking for a young bride, and Ergou had jumped at the chance. If the arrangement went through, his family would pocket a staggering ten taels of silver!
Ten taels! That was more than enough to fully cover his son’s tuition for the upcoming academic year! Who could have predicted the busybodies in this pathetic village would interfere so aggressively? It was infuriating!
Listening to the muffled curses echoing from the tightly shut doors of the Li house next door, Yunxi let the corners of her lips curl into a sharp smile.
Now that Daya’s crisis had been effectively suppressed by the village network, Yunxi happily returned to her standard routine. Within a month of her new rhythm, she had fully mastered the local ecosystem patterns.
She truly had to say: the system was absolute perfection! With its interface tracking the real-time health bars of her targets, and the local wildlife refreshing like clockwork, she never had to worry about over-hunting or depleting the forest. From here on out, she could comfortably camp at the base of the mountain and simply watch the rewards roll in.
