A Good Country Wife

The back hill was a place where Dalang and his friends often went to play. It wasn’t a large area, just a rather steep slope, so Lin Yue didn’t ask and ran straight to the back hill. In her hurry, she nearly stumbled over a stone on the ground. Hadn’t she told Dalang and the others not to go out and just play at home? How could they have run off to the back hill again? And she had warned them many times not to play near that steep slope. How could something have happened!

"Sanlang! Sanlang!" Lin Yue ran to the back hill, but it was quiet and she didn’t see anyone. There were hardly any children’s figures on the steep side either. Could they have gone down the slope? Lin Yue hurried over, stuck out her head to look; the slope was over twenty meters high, and looking down like this, she could see the bottom very clearly. There was obviously no one below. Even if something had happened, they wouldn’t have left so quickly.

Could someone have deliberately lured her here? Just as Lin Yue became alert in her heart, she hadn’t yet had the chance to defend herself when suddenly, a pair of hands from behind forcefully pushed her. Lin Yue didn’t have the time to react before she was pushed and tumbled down the slope.

"Ah!" After a bout of world-spinning agony and sharp pain, Lin Yue didn’t know what she had hit, but finally, she came to a stop and lost consciousness.

At that time, Zhao Erhu was driving a horse-drawn carriage, planning to go to the city with Zhao Xing to make some purchases. It was Zhao Xing who had originally taken on the task of buying supplies, but he found using an ox cart to haul the goods back too slow and inconvenient, whereas a horse-drawn carriage was more efficient. Moreover, Lin Yue had instructed them to keep accounts and compare prices when making purchases. Zhao Xing couldn’t skim any money off the top, so he simply handed the job over to Zhao Erhu as well.

"Erhu, you’re here. I’ve been looking for you for a while. Quick, go to the back hill, someone just saw Sanlang fall down the slope, and we don’t know the state he’s in. Your wife has already rushed over; you should hurry up and check too, lest something serious has happened!" A woman who was helping in the kitchen got Lin Yue’s instruction and knew the matter was serious, so she immediately went to look for help. It took her a while to find Zhao Erhu, and as soon as she did, she relayed the situation.

Hearing this, Zhao Erhu was also startled and dropped what he was holding to run towards the back hill. That scamp Sanlang, how had he instructed him when he left the house? How could he have gone to play on the back hill at this time, and even got into trouble? Wasn’t this adding chaos? If nothing happened this time, he had to give him a good beating for being so disobedient.

Although Zhao Erhu was worried, he was in a much better state than Lin Yue and didn’t think it was that serious. Kids are tough and resilient to falls. He himself had tumbled down slopes when he was a child, just getting some scrapes and external injuries that looked scary, but there was nothing else wrong. At that time, his grandfather had already passed away, and nobody paid attention to him. No one even knew about it, and he didn’t even see the village’s folk healer. Later, he turned out just fine.

Zhao Erhu, with his quick pace, got the news and soon arrived at the back hill. However, it was eerily quiet, without a sign of any commotion. Having spent years hunting in the mountains, Zhao Erhu’s alertness was higher than most. He immediately sensed something was amiss. When he reached the top of the steep slope and looked down, there weren’t any shadows of the little scamps. Instead, there was a person lying there, too far to see clearly, but looking at the color of the clothes and the figure, it seemed so much like his wife. And hadn’t Aunt Li said his wife had already arrived at the back hill? What was going on?