Wealthy Aristocrat from Humble Origins

Thud!

The arrow embedded itself deep into the wooden post inside the house, its sharp head sinking firmly into the timber.

A black-haired boy of sixteen or seventeen, holding a rough wooden crossbow, leapt up in excitement.

“I did it! I did it!”

Qin Zhen dashed over to Liu Juan, his voice trembling with exhilaration. “Sister-in-law, with this thing, I can go into the mountains and hunt rabbits for you! We’ll never go hungry again!”

Liu Juan, just past twenty, wore a tattered dress patched all over with scraps of cloth—the only dowry she had brought when she married into the Qin family. The world was harsh, and human life was worth little.

Liu Juan’s origins were poor; rumor had it she was a convict’s daughter who had wandered here alone. When she arrived at the small fishing village, she was destitute and friendless. Qin Zhen’s elder brother, moved by pity, had taken her in, thinking they might simply scrape by together. But then, water demons wreaked havoc, and many villagers died.

Qin Zhen’s brother died protecting his neighbors, leaving only Liu Juan and the young Qin Zhen behind.

The villagers all said she would run off—women from other places were said to be selfish—but Liu Juan stayed. Alone, she raised Qin Zhen, and in a blink of an eye, ten years had passed.

For a decade, the two relied on each other to survive. With no way to earn a living and no fields to tend, they could only beg fate for sustenance. When hunger struck, they scrounged for wild greens in the hills, and after the floods, collected dead fish a