Gao Chuwu took big strides and walked toward Xing Honglang.

Although there were many villagers surrounding them, Xing Honglang, as a salt smuggler who had long roamed the world, had extraordinary alertness. Gao Chuwu had only walked halfway when she sensed someone charging toward her. She turned her body aside and fixed her eyes on him.

Gao Chuwu grinned and said, “Hello there.”

Xing Honglang said warily, “Do you have something to sell me? I’ve run out of money; whatever you want to trade, wait until my next visit.”

Gao Chuwu replied, “I haven’t found a wife yet. Would you be willing to marry me?”

“Whump!” The nearby villagers rushed over at once, and instantly seven or eight hands covered his mouth: “You fool, is that any way to speak?”

Xing Honglang couldn’t help but be stunned. What strange twist was this? She was tall and solidly built, with coarse features. Raised like a boy since childhood and hardened by her travels, she had become blunt and careless. The people in her line of work gave her the nickname Xing Honglang, meaning she was as ferocious as a she-wolf.

No one ever saw her as a woman—what odd turn could have brought someone here to propose today?

She glared sharply at Gao Chuwu. He was being muffled by the villagers and seemed unable to speak, but out of the blue, he gave his shoulders a shake. The crowd around him were all pushed back, stumbling several steps with thuds, scattering into a wide circle.

Xing Honglang felt a jolt of surprise inside: such raw power—he was a fine man.

Gao Chuwu grinned and said, “I have a house, and heaps of rice, flour, oil, sugar, meat—everything under the sun. Marry me, and I’ll make sure you eat well at every meal.”

Secretly, Xing Honglang shook her head: He was a fine man, but also a fool. Did he think she lacked any of those things? In truth, she had more than him.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! The group pounced again and covered his mouth once more.

The Village Chief bowed awkwardly to her and said, “Brave woman, please don’t be upset. His mind is a bit simple; he didn’t mean to offend you.”

Xing Honglang snorted, swung onto her horse, and turned to her subordinates: “Let’s move. We need to get to Chengcheng County before noon. We’re broke and must hurry to Xi’an to offload this batch of goods.”

Her subordinates replied in unison: “Yes, boss!”

Without giving Gao Chuwu another glance, she led her crew away proudly.

Now, the villagers took their hands off Gao Chuwu’s mouth.

At last, he understood. That woman had mounted her horse, surrounded by thirty to forty subordinates—she was clearly a remarkable lady. He looked at himself, then sighed heavily.

Gao Chuwu scratched his head and said, “I probably can’t marry this wife, can I?”

Everyone nodded as one: “No, you can’t.”

Gao Chuwu murmured, “Alas!”

Li Daoxuan saw this and couldn’t help sighing for him: The gap in status and wealth was just too big. He had to be like the lead in “101st Proposal” or “Densha Otoko,” blessed with protagonist luck, to bridge that divide and win such a woman’s hand.

But was he?

Li Daoxuan glanced at his own tacky oversized silver chain. If he took off one silver link right now, sent it in to Gao Chuwu, maybe it could close that wealth gap? Make that woman give him a second look?

No, that kind of thinking was wrong.

If he helped Gao Chuwu win her over that way, he’d just be a tasteless meddler, pushing the wrong values.

Every action he took now could shape the future of Gaojia Villagers. When it came to steering values, he had to keep his hands firmly tied.

He locked his attention onto that small salt smuggler team, watching Xing Honglang and her group stride off toward the southwest, listening to their chatter.

Xing Honglang said: “There were so many good things in this village. After we finished selling this batch of goods in Xi’an Prefecture and had money in hand, we would return to this village to stock up again. The profit from dealing with such fine goods was much greater than selling smuggled salt.”

Her subordinates laughed and said: “We no longer had to travel far to transport salt.”

Xing Honglang grinned: “Yes, stocking up was too tiring. Being able to buy quality goods right here was truly wonderful, haha.”

Upon hearing this, Li Daoxuan couldn’t help but smile. Good, you intended to return, so Gao Chuwu’s love story hadn’t ended, and there would be more updates.

He had now transformed from the Deity Who Shields His Own into the Gossiping Deity, desperately begging for the love story to update and urging them to hurry up, as even a donkey from a work team wouldn’t dare rest that much.

It felt like ants crawling all over his body, twisting and creeping darkly—he yearned eagerly for the next chapter.

With a click on “Gaojia Village,” his view instantly snapped back above Gaojia Village, and he saw villagers joyfully counting silver and copper coins.

The villagers who had seized the chance to offload a wave of goods were stuffed with profits and were incredibly happy holding their money.

In truth, the original inhabitants of Gaojia Village, especially the earliest batch, had received so many things from Li Daoxuan that many among them lost their motivation for working, often acting a bit lazy and sluggish, since they had more than enough food—why earn more rewards?

It was better to just lie flat!

But Xing Honglang’s arrival consumed some of their surplus food, suddenly giving them back a source of drive.

They suddenly regained their energy.

“I want to request permission from the Deity to learn driving the sun chariot, to earn an extra coachman’s reward; later, when more merchants come, I could exchange it for money.”

“I’ve been lazy lately and haven’t done carpentry in ages; I’ll go do some carpentry work again.”

“Selling pottery jars!” Gao Laba also shouted at the top of his voice: “Families needing jars, hurry to me to have them made.”

“Hey, I’m telling you all, the major Chinese New Year is approaching soon, and aren’t we preparing for the festival? How did you suddenly go off on a tangent?”

Someone yelled out, though no one knew who, and the group’s attention instantly refocused: “Right? We were clearly preparing for the New Year—how did we get sidetracked? Aiya, hurry home to cut red paper flowers.”

“Prepare some festival goods.”

“You just sold all the festival goods!”

“So I want to work and earn some now.”

“Hahaha!”

Everyone was laughing heartily, overjoyed.

Only Gao Chuwu sat alone, lowering his head, and gloomily perched on a large stone at the village entrance, gazing toward the road leading to the county town.

Li Daoxuan was amused: Tsk, now he’d learned to put on a serious front.

They said a man suddenly grew up in two situations: one was when his mother died, the other when he met his beloved woman.

Put simply: losing an important woman and encountering an important one—it always tied back to women somehow.

Zheng Daniu plopped down beside Gao Chuwu and passed over a jar of beer: “Do you truly like that woman?”

Gao Chuwu took a sip and nodded: “She was so beautiful.”

“Sput!” Zheng Daniu sprayed beer out three feet. Beautiful? He must be blind! But even foolish as he was, he knew better than to say it, so he just patted Gao Chuwu’s shoulder: “How about we chase them down, knock her unconscious with a stick, and bring her back?”

Gao Chuwu raised his fist: “I’ll thump you!”

Zheng Daniu said: “I was kidding!”

Gao Chuwu said: “Sigh! She’s a forest hero with so many followers. I’m just a fool in Gaojia Village…”

Zheng Daniu didn’t know how to console him, so they drank.

The two brothers sat shoulder-to-shoulder on the large stone, one taking a sip of beer, the other taking a sip. Soon, the beer jar ran dry, and they collapsed to the ground, completely out cold.