In times of chaos and famine, I traded one pound of rice for two royal flushes.

Two sisters-in-law?

Su Jin glanced quickly at Qin Shaolang, then at Chu Wu.

"Are these the brothers my husband swore brotherhood with today?"

Qin Shaolang glanced at the smug Chu Wu and nodded.

I guess so.

As a modern person, Qin Shaolang was naturally not interested in sworn brotherhood. The suggestion came from Chu Wu, and the process of forming the sworn brotherhood was quite hasty. The friendship formed after the sworn brotherhood was theoretically very fragile.

He couldn't understand why people in ancient times liked to make brothers in this way.

The three brothers of the Peach Garden and the more than one hundred heroes of Liangshan were all like this.

Chu Wu was a year younger than him, so Qin Shaolang became the elder brother.

Qin Shaolang nodded.

Su Jin quickly bowed and said, "Greetings, Second Uncle."

A smug look immediately appeared on Chu Wu's face, and he patted his chest.

"Don't worry, sisters-in-law. If anyone causes trouble in the future, just send someone to find me at the dilapidated temple on the hill to the left of the village entrance. I, Chu Wu, may not be good at much else, but I'm definitely good at fighting."

Su Jin secretly glanced at Qin Shaolang's reaction before politely agreeing.

By the time everything was moved inside, the sky had completely turned black.

"Husband, Second Uncle, please have some tea first. I'll go prepare some food."

Seeing that Su Jin was about to bravely storm into the kitchen again, Qin Shaolang coughed lightly.

"Wild boar meat has a strong gamey smell. After charring the skin with fire, scrape off the charred layer with a knife, wash it, and then boil it in warm water for about 15 minutes. After that, take it out, wash it again, add soy sauce, vinegar, salt and other seasonings, and stew it for about an hour. Today, let's stew pork ribs."

Su Jin quickly wrote these words down in her mind, gave a reply, and hurriedly went into the kitchen.

Chu Wu smiled evilly.

"I didn't expect you to know so much, brother. By the way, is there anywhere in the village that sells alcohol? It's so boring just sitting here."

Qin Shaolang rubbed his eyes and saw Su Tang standing there timidly, clearly waiting for Qin Shaolang to arrange things for her.

"Su Tang, go help your sister. You don't need to wait here."

……

After arranging things at home, Qin Shaolang looked at Chu Wu.

"We'll have to put off accepting the county government's reward for now. What are your plans for the near future?"

When the topic turned to business, Chu Wu immediately became interested.

"Of course we should go hunting in the mountains again. The half pig we killed today will only last us for half a month at most, not enough to get through the winter."

Qin Shaolang nodded in agreement. There were three mouths to feed in his family, and this amount of meat was definitely not enough. He would have to go into the mountains to hunt.

"In that case, we'll go up the mountain again tomorrow morning. Traveling together will help us look out for each other, and we'll still split the prey equally between the two of us."

Chu Wu chuckled.

"Okay, I'll listen to you, big brother!"

While shopping in the county town today, Qin Shaolang asked the locals for information quite a bit.

The beasts in this world were far more formidable than he had anticipated, possessing a degree of intelligence. Animals that lived in groups even had some methods of fighting back, making them truly difficult to deal with.

The body inherited from her predecessor was frail, so going hunting with Chu Wu was the best choice.

As the two were talking, suddenly a woman came to the door. She was holding her old winter clothes tightly with both hands and carrying a basket of wild vegetables. She stood at the door and asked the woman inside.

"Is Dr. Qin Shaolang here? My daughter has a high fever that won't go down, and I'd like to ask you for help."

Qin Shaolang looked at the woman suspiciously.

"Who are you?"

The woman quickly smiled apologetically.

"My surname is Huang, and I'm Er Mazi's wife. This trip wasn't in vain; here are some wild vegetables I picked today, please take a look..."

Er Mazi?

Qin Shaolang raised his eyebrows slightly. He still remembered the scene of Er Mazi leading his men to block the road today.

He didn't have much affection for Er Mazi, so naturally he wouldn't have any affection for the woman in front of him either.

"Not empty."

Qin Shaolang's words were relatively tactful, but Chu Wu, standing to the side, was not going to tolerate her and shouted directly.

"Today your man even tried to steal the wild boar my brother hunted, and dared to draw his knife against him! You still have the nerve to come begging us to save your daughter? What, you want to save her so Er Mazi can come and cause us trouble?"

The woman's face immediately turned extremely ugly. She hurriedly put down the vegetable basket in her hand, knelt down with a thud, and kowtowed twice.

"Er Mazi is ignorant. I kowtow to you and admit my mistake. Please don't hold it against him."

The woman kowtowed loudly, but Chu Wu ignored her and instead smiled at Qin Shaolang.

"Brother, look how loudly she kowtows, how sincerely she apologizes. It's a pity she doesn't know she's wrong; she only knows that if she doesn't beg for mercy, her daughter will die."

Chu Wu's words made the woman's body freeze instantly, unable to move an inch.

That's right, she didn't know about the conflict between Er Mazi and Qin Shaolang. She only chose to kneel down and apologize in order to find a way for her daughter to survive.

The disguise was exposed, and the truth hidden beneath it was revealed.

Seeing the woman stand up, Chu Wu simply chuckled.

"What, you've been exposed and you want to make a move?"

The woman bit her lip tightly, tears streaming down her face, but she didn't cry out.

The officials who sold her here disliked seeing women cry; whoever cried would be beaten until they stopped crying or were beaten to death.

Her body was trembling, but she couldn't do anything about it.

Suddenly, she squatted down, picked up the vegetable basket, bowed slightly to Qin Shaolang, then turned away in despair and walked into the boundless darkness.

She didn't say a word, but it was as if she had already said everything.

"Wait a minute."

The woman suddenly stopped, slowly turned around, and looked at Qin Shaolang, who had called her to stop. Her voice was filled with utter despair.

"Do you still want to humiliate me?"

In this chaotic world, she was just a woman, a woman who was slightly luckier, but their tragic fate has never changed.

They are merely commodities, commodities that, once bought, lose all dignity.

Even Er Mazi, who bought her, didn't care whether she lived or died, so how could outsiders like Qin Shaolang care?

She could only imagine what would happen next: being severely beaten by these two men.

Her only prayer was that Qin Shaolang's humiliation and beating would allow him to completely vent his anger.

In that case, they might be able to take pity on their daughter and give her a chance to get treatment.

Even if I get beaten to death...

It was worth it.

Qin Shaolang rummaged in his pocket for a while, but couldn't find any money, so he looked at Chu Wu.

"Didn't you just say you wanted to drink? Give her some money and have her bring us back a few jugs of wine. Consider this money a loan from you."

Chu Wu laughed heartily, quickly took out an ounce of silver, and precisely dropped it at the woman's feet.

"You heard what my older brother just said, don't make me repeat myself."