Xianggong is a big man in men's clothing

The further she went, the more parts of her body were submerged in the river, leaving less room for her to breathe.

It wasn't until the river flooded her mouth and nose that she realized that her previous thinking was too simple.

Drowning in water is a painful and long way to die.

The body left the ground and drifted with the current without any support. The deep breath just now was quickly exhausted, and the feeling of suffocation flooded the whole body.

The body breathed subconsciously, but the river water mixed with mud and sand was sucked into the lungs, and the pain inside her body almost exploded.

She struggled instinctively, but she couldn't escape from the shackles of the river. Her body hurt more and more, and her body became heavier and heavier. The fear of dying overwhelmed the pain of not being able to breathe for a while. She had never felt the threat of death so vividly. near.

If it continues like this, within a moment, she will really be drowned in the river.

Before he died, this short half-life memory quickly passed before his eyes.

The entanglement and despair buried deep in my heart before disappeared with the fleeting images.

She asked herself, is she going to die in such a miserable and lonely way?

In the Huai'an River where she was born, no one would feel sad for her when she died alone. Parents would only feel sorry for the high betrothal gift that they missed. Whenever they think of her, with Zhang's temperament, they will inevitably Curse her why she didn't die in Landlord Liu's house, so that at least she could make a lot of money for the family, and it would be no pity to die.

Thinking of this, a sense of unwillingness and anger suddenly surged in her heart.

Obviously she walked into the river on her own initiative, but when things came to an end, she didn't want to accept her fate, and she didn't want to die alone.

The desire to survive surpassed everything else, she struggled to wave her arms, and the memory of playing and swimming in the water as a child remained deep in her mind. Her heavy limbs began to rigidly imitate the swimming movements at the beginning, and she moved towards the shore where she had just walked. direction, and swam with all his might.

Fortunately, she was not too far from the shore, so she swam back to the shore with her clumsy movements, took a quick breath of air, and came back to life.

Lu Dongfu lay exhausted on the shore with lush water plants, even if the sharp blades of grass pierced her skin, she didn't care.

The joy of surviving made her cry out.

The feeling of being suffocated gradually subsided, and the pain and despair of the past also poured into the body with the air.

She cried even harder, not caring about anything else, she buried her head and cried out all the grievance and indignation in her heart.

When she was finally tired from crying, she turned over slowly, the pain of suffocation still remained inside her body, which made her hiss several times in pain just by making such movements.

Looking at the blue sky, she had only one thought in her mind: she didn't want to die, she wanted to live, leave these ruthless parents, and absolutely never marry Landlord Liu as a concubine.

She needs to find a way as soon as possible to get through this difficult time.

She was thinking hard by the river, and didn't come home until evening. Her father, Lu Bei, had already returned from Siyuan County, and she also learned from Mrs. Zhang that Landlord Liu wanted to accept his second daughter as his ninth concubine. At the moment, he was holding his ten-year-old son and laughing heartily.

That was Lu Dongfu's only younger brother, named Lu Chengcai, who had just been born in the year she was sold.

Different from Lu Dongfu and the other two older sisters, as the only male in the family, Lu Chengcai is truly loved by his parents, and his temper has also been raised to be unruly. The attitude is also bossy.

He opened his eyes wide at the moment, and asked straightforwardly, "If the second sister marries Landlord Liu, the family will have a lot of money?"

Lu Bei nodded, touched his little head, and said happily: "Yes, the dowry is 50 taels of silver, which is much higher than the usual dowry of 20 taels of silver. When the time comes, we will take the money from the family. Rearrange the small courtyard and build a big bed for your room. When you get married in the future, I will spend [-] taels of silver to marry you a virtuous and sensible wife."

Lu Chengcai didn't feel guilty at all for spending his sister's dowry to marry a wife. He added: "There are still some beautiful ones, but the sister-in-law of Datou's family is not good-looking, so brother Datou doesn't go home and sleeps outside at night. girl is gone."

At such a young age, he knows things that he shouldn't know, and he still stares at Lu Dongfu with strange eyes.

After Lu Dongfu committed suicide by drowning before, she walked on the verge of death, and also wiped out the only remaining feelings she had for her parents.

She lowered her eyes, avoided the happy family of three, went back to her room to fetch water for a bath, and changed her clothes.

Mrs. Zhang suddenly opened the door and walked in. She said with a beaming smile, "My dear girl, Madam Li has chosen a good day. The eighth day of the next lunar month is an auspicious day for marriage. On that morning, Landlord Liu will send four sedan chairs to welcome the bride." You go through the door."

This is against the rules of taking concubines, but Landlord Liu's regular wife can't bear children, and her natal family is weak, so she can't control Landlord Liu at all.

Lu Dongfu remained silent, and Mrs. Zhang didn't care. She curled her lips, rolled her eyes and left.

It was late at night, and after washing her body, Lu Dongfu lay on the bed, thinking: the wedding date is set on the eighth day of next month, it seems that Landlord Liu can't wait to admit her in, and her time is very tight.

She had thought it over when she was by the river, she couldn't leave home.

It's not that she was afraid of implicating her parents, but after her contract of selling herself was torn up by Xue Yuan's foreign government, her household registration and identity returned to her original place in Yuehe Village. If she fled to other places, she would become a refugee, even going to the county seat. No, it was almost impossible to move an inch.

She was alone, she was still a beautiful and weak woman, she was very likely to be caught by malicious traffickers and sold to dirty places.

She also thought about fleeing temporarily to escape this period of time, but even if she escaped the wedding on the eighth day of next month, there would still be another auspicious day.

What's more, even if Landlord Liu is lucky enough to give up on her, her wolf-like parents will sell her to other people.

She wants to solve this problem once and for all. For the present, the best way is for her to find a reliable person to marry in advance to solve her own marriage affairs, and she will no longer be tied down by her parents.

But time is short, and she bears such a reputation in the village, no serious family will come to propose marriage.

If you marry a widower or a local ruffian, wouldn't you just jump out of the wolf's den and jump into the tiger's den?

What's more, Landlord Liu is not taboo about meat and vegetables, and the other party dares to marry her with such a reputation. Presumably, even if she marries someone else, the other party will use dirty tricks to force her to submit.

It seemed that she had to find an extraordinary man to marry. She didn't want the other party to be powerful, as long as she could rely on him to make Landlord Liu fearful, so that he could completely dispel Landlord Liu's idea of ​​meddling with her.

In her mind, she carefully considered the people she knew over and over again, and it really made her find a suitable candidate.

That person is also a celebrity in the village, his name is Qi Zhongyu, it is said that he is the nephew of the current village chief who returned from a trip to the village last year, and the only surviving son of the village chief's elder brother Qi Changgui.

Qi Changgui, more than 20 years ago, took his wife and young son to Lingnan Road to do maritime business. At the beginning, good news came frequently and he returned a large amount of wealth, which made the villagers envious.

But within two years, Qi Changgui's merchant ship encountered a storm at sea, and he and his ship died at sea.

Qi Changgui's wife couldn't bear the blow, and died of illness, leaving only a young son, who disappeared.

The village head was brought up by his elder brother since he was a child, and he has a deep affection for his elder brother. He would go to Lingnan Road every year to find news about his nephew, but he found nothing. As time passed, he became discouraged and reluctantly accepted the news that his nephew had also passed away.

But just last year, a 25-year-old young man came to Yuehe Village and found the village head with Qi Changgui's token.

I don't know what he said to the village head in private, but the village head immediately believed that the man's identity was his nephew who had been missing for many years.

He was very kind to this nephew, even more than his own son.

After learning that he was not yet married at this age, he specially released news in the village to ask the wife of the village chief to carefully choose a suitable girl, but Qi Zhongyu flatly refused, and said that he had a physical illness, and it was difficult for his heirs, and he didn't want to delay Other girls.

In other words, to put it mildly, he was no good at that, and most of the girls who were tempted for a while suddenly went away, because no one wanted to marry and be widowed for a lifetime.

The village head felt sorry for his nephew, not only did he not dislike him, but he treated him better, and even said that he would adopt his grandson to the nephew's family, and provide him with retirement in the future, but Qi Zhongyu politely refused.

This was not enough, the village chief was worried that Qi Zhongyu would not feel comfortable living in his own house, so he specially spent a lot of money to build an exquisite and small house next door to his house, and gave it to Qi Zhongyu to live alone.

But Qi Zhongyu was a man with a weird temper. He couldn't stay in the exquisite and comfortable house. Instead, he went to the halfway up Yuenan Mountain near Yuehe Village, built a simple thatched shed, and became the only hunter in the village.

In addition to his identity as the village chief's baby nephew, he also has a very famous name called Tiger Fighting Star.

It is said that he once killed a tiger with bare hands; he is so powerful that he can lift a huge object weighing a thousand catties; he can crush the solid ground by stomping his feet. He is a very powerful and fierce figure.

When Lu Dongfu heard it for the first time, she didn't believe it at all, she just thought it was the exaggeration of the villagers, and she was deeply hurt by this.

But no matter what, Qi Zhongyu is a real person, and the villagers dare not offend him, for fear of being beaten to death by him.

Behind him stood the village head protecting his shortcomings. Even though Landlord Liu was the richest person in Yuehe Village, he did not dare to challenge the village head.

Because the village head is the only juror in the village, he enjoys a high reputation in Siyuan County. He once taught in a government school in Siyuan County and taught many students who have already become officials. The power behind him is not small.

In addition, she also has a good impression of Qi Zhongyu.

In the past two months or so since returning to the village, she once met Qi Zhongyu. He was a very mysterious man with a rather gloomy demeanor.

He is tall and thin. When seeing him for the first time, it is difficult to connect him with the tiger-fighting star that the villagers say.

The most conspicuous thing on his body is his untied unkempt long hair, which seems to have never been properly combed and washed, just casually draped over his shoulders, covering most of his appearance, and only the messy hair can be seen through. Si saw the pale skin on his face, if not for the clean clothes on his body, he would look like a savage from the mountains from a distance.

She really couldn't remember the man's appearance, but she knew that he was a gentle man.

Because the first time they met, she watched the man play with the children in the village. The children were afraid of him at first, but he knew a lot of novel things, and quickly attracted the attention of the children. They gathered around him. play around.

He patiently accompanied the children and took care of them not to fall into the river. He said very little and was a taciturn man, but when he made a sound occasionally, his voice was gentle and magnetic, not as rough as he looked on the outside , but crisp and sweet, very beautiful.

If you can marry such a man, even if you will be a widow for the rest of your life, it's not too bad.

But she was about to make a move, but the other party had never known her before, so why would she come to propose marriage to her before the eighth day of next month?

You know, the other party has firmly told the village chief's second uncle that he never wants to get married in his life.

This is the most difficult question right now. Lu Dongfu bit her lip and thought about it, and decided to act urgently. She wanted to learn from Xue Yuan's experience in house fighting and cook the raw rice first.

It just so happens that the village chief's [-]th birthday will be held in a few days. At that time, a lively birthday banquet will be held in the village. All the villagers in Yuehe Village will be invited to the banquet. Qi Zhongyu will also come out from the deep mountains and old forests to attend the village chief's second Uncle's birthday party.

At that time, it was her chance.

At dawn the next day, she acted according to the plan, disregarding Mrs. Zhang's obstruction, took the silver to the pharmacy in Siyuan County, bought the medicinal materials and went back to make incense by herself.

When she was in Xue Yuan's foreign residence, she had taught herself how to make medicinal food, and she knew the efficacy of various medicinal materials in detail. Although she had never prepared it by herself, after trying it a few times, she successfully prepared smoked with a strong anesthetic effect. fragrant.

On the day when the village head held the birthday banquet, the birthday banquet was held in the afternoon, because the villagers were busy with farm work in the morning, and the weather was too hot at noon, so the afternoon was a good time.

Mrs. Zhang and Lu Bei were very much looking forward to this birthday banquet, so they stepped out to the village chief's courtyard. Lu Dongfu followed them quietly and obediently.

After arriving at the place, Mrs. Zhang and Lu Bei separated and chatted with acquaintances, while she left the crowd and spent a few copper coins to learn about the residence arranged for Qi Zhongyu from the granddaughter of the village chief's family.

While no one was looking, she sneaked into the house and sprinkled incense on candles, tea, and pillows and bedding.

It was also the first time for her to do such a heartless thing, and it was inevitable that she would be terrified, but God was helping her, allowing her to complete the arrangement unimpeded.

After she finished all this, she returned to Mrs. Zhang pretending to be calm, and looked at the men on the other side of the yard, drinking happily. Qi Zhongyu sat in the corner and ate food quietly, but was caught by the village chief and the village chief's son. They tugged and drank several glasses of wine.

He seemed to be overwhelmed with alcohol, and quickly leaned on his forehead drunkenly. After whispering a few words to the village chief, he staggered and left first to go back to rest.

Lu Dongfu's heart skipped a beat, she put down her chopsticks and coaxed Mrs. Zhang that she should go home and rest when she was not feeling well.

In fact, taking advantage of the gradually darkening night, avoiding other people, came to the door of Qi Zhongyu's room, gently pushed the door and walked in.

The candles in the room were lit, and someone touched the tea on the table. Qi Zhongyu was lying on the bed and sleeping at the moment.

She carefully covered her chest, which was jumping so fast, and came to the bed, looking at the man who had passed out on the bed, through the messy long hair, she could only see his white and delicate chin.

She murmured sorry, and began to take off her clothes before being affected by the incense. When only the apron and obscene pants were left on her body, she stretched out her hands tremblingly, lifted the quilt, and lay on the bed. In the narrow space left on the bed.

She smelled too much incense, and her consciousness began to become drowsy.

When she closed her eyes and waited for the dawn, she suddenly thought that it was not enough for her to take off her clothes, Qi Zhongyu had to take off as well.

She bit the tip of her tongue, and the pain made her wake up temporarily. She reached out to the man beside her, trying to untie his shirt.

However, at this moment, the man who should have fallen asleep suddenly grabbed her hand like lightning, and asked in a dangerous low voice, "What do you want to do?"