Many descendants

Su Yan suddenly felt extremely thirsty. She got out of bed and stood by the window, saying in a hoarse voice, "I...want...water!"

Dongfang Yi was carrying a bucket full of water and was about to pour it into the water vat.

Hearing Su Yan's voice, he paused slightly, then walked towards her.

He easily lifted the bucket in front of Su Yan's face, tilted it slightly, and the water reached the edge of the bucket, shimmering with a dazzling light. "The ladle is broken, so drink from this."

Su Yan glanced at him, her chapped lips slowly moving closer to his, taking small sips of the drink.

Seeing that she could still drink water, Dongfang Yi asked, "If you can eat, why were you hungry before?"

Su Yan felt that the golden stars in front of her had disappeared a lot. "Living... has no... hope!" she made up an excuse.

After a moment's thought, Dongfang Yi understood. A perfectly good girl was forced to marry him, a 'dead man,' and couldn't remarry. There was really no hope for her to live.

Carrying the bucket, Dongfang Yi walked towards the kitchen. Suddenly, he stopped and, without turning his head, said to Su Yan, "From now on, I'll take care of you."

Su Yan looked at Dongfang Yi in surprise.

"Why?" After drinking some water, she gradually spoke more fluently. "I'm so lazy."

Dongfang Yi poured water into the large pot and scrubbed the rusty pot vigorously. "You are the wife my mother arranged for me. I couldn't fulfill my filial duties while she was alive, but at least I will take good care of what she left behind."

"..."

"If you don't want to be with me anymore, you can leave. I will write a letter of divorce."

In this world, there is no divorce, and men are superior to women. If a couple wants to separate, the husband can either divorce his wife or write a letter of release.

The former's reputation is ruined and no one will ever marry her again.

The latter could then choose a good man to remarry. A necessary condition for writing a divorce agreement was that the couple had never consummated their marriage, and the woman was still a virgin.

Su Yan replied, "I'll keep your words to myself. Write them down for me when I decide to leave someday."

After cleaning the large pot, Dongfang Yi readily agreed, "Okay."

Su Yan stood by the window, watching Dongfang Yi throw the prepared fish directly into the pot, add a handful of salt and water, and start cooking.

Fresh fish, even without much ingredients, is incredibly delicious and fragrant once the blood and entrails are cleaned.

Su Yan smelled the aroma, her stomach aching with hunger. "Is there anything I can eat?"

Dongfang Yi looked at her, lifted the pot lid, and ladled out a small bowl of fish and fish soup for her, "Help yourself out of your hunger first."

"Thank you." Su Yan picked up the bowl, scooped up a spoonful of soup with a wooden spoon, and slowly drank it.

The hot salted fish soup made me feel alive again, and the pain quickly subsided.

Seeing how slowly and deliberately she ate, Dongfang Yi said, "Did you often go hungry before?"

"Hmm?" Su Yan looked up at him.

"If you know you're really hungry, you should eat slowly."

If it's the first time you've experienced hunger, you'll inevitably wolf down any food you see. But this way of eating is extremely bad for your health. On the contrary, eating slowly, taking small bites, is just right.

Su Yan said, "...Eating too quickly can cause choking."

The small bowl of fish soup was quickly finished.

Su Yan felt a surge of strength and looked at the pig still bound outside. "Aren't we going to deal with it?"

Dongfang Yi replied, "It needs to be dealt with, but the meat has already been sold to Master Zhang in the village."

Seeing that she was staring at it, I asked, "Do you want to eat it?"

Su Yan quickly shook her head, "No."

Dongfang Yi said, "Leave a piece of meat for me when I kill him."

Su Yan: "..."

Dongfang Yi threw a handful of potato starch into the fish soup and simmered it. After it was done, he sprinkled some spices on top to season it before serving.

Su Yan had been hungry for a long time, so she only ate until she was about 60% full and then stopped eating, even though her body was clamoring for her to eat more.

Dongfang Yi was tall and strong, and ate a lot; he took the rest.

Su Yan didn't want to freeload, so she washed the pots and pans and tidied up the messy firewood in the kitchen, making up a lot of space.

Seeing that she wasn't just lazy and doing nothing, Dongfang Yi's expression softened slightly. "I need to slaughter a pig and scald its hair. Could you boil some water for me?"

"Okay." Su Yan readily agreed, so that she could eat pork with a clear conscience.

Dongfang Yi was very skilled at slaughtering pigs. With swift and decisive strokes of his knife, he had almost finished cleaning up a pig in no time, and he even cut off a good piece of meat to save for Su Yan.

The servant of Master Zhang left two taels of silver and then took away the slaughtered pig.

Looking at the leftover heart, liver, lungs, pig intestines, and other offal, Su Yan's eyes lit up. "They don't want these?"

“Even if nobody wants these, I’ll still bury them.” Dongfang Yi said as he went to get a shovel.

"Wait, wait, I want it."

"you want?"

"This is done, it'll be delicious." Su Yan rolled up her sleeves. "Could you fetch me some water? It'll be a waste of water to prepare this. Oh, and I remember there's a jar of wine under the altar where your memorial tablet is placed. Could you bring that over for me too?"

“My memorial tablet…” Dongfang Yi entered the room.

He came out quickly, carrying a wine jar in one hand and a memorial tablet in the other.

Su Yan watched as he went straight into the kitchen, threw the memorial tablet into the stove, and soon a thick smoke rose up, flames flickered, and the tablet turned to ashes.

"Uh... that was me, my husband with whom I had our wedding ceremony, and it was just burned like that?" Su Yan said quietly.

Dongfang Yi's forehead vein throbbed. "I'm still alive!"

……

In this era, due to war, there were far more women than men, and male dominance often led to polygamy. Someone like him, tall, strong, and handsome, could probably be married to a noblewoman.

Even in the beast world, a man like him would be the object of pursuit for females.

Su Yan looked at Dongfang Yi, who was fetching water for her, and asked, "Do you have a woman you like outside?"

Dongfang Yi said, "There are no women on the battlefield."

Su Yan nodded. "What about the man?"

Dongfang Yi was speechless: "..."

Although there were such people in the military, he didn't like them.

Seeing that he didn't speak, Su Yan looked at him knowingly and said, "Yes, I understand."

"What the hell do you understand... Dongfang Yi was too lazy to pay attention to her."

After washing all the pig offal clean, Su Yan started a fire to blanch it.

Just then, someone outside the gate called out, "Does Dongfang Yi live here?"

Su Yan secretly peeked outside.

Dongfang Yi, who was fixing a window with a hammer in his hand, responded to the shout, "Who is it?"

"A letter has arrived from Chang'an," the person at the door called out.

Dongfang Yi took the letter, opened it and read it... but as he read, his brows furrowed tightly.

Su Yan was no longer curious. She threw the cleaned pig intestines into the pot to blanch them, and also blanched the pig heart, liver, and lungs...

Dongfang Yi didn't tell Su Yan the contents of the letter, but he did speed up the repair of the thatched hut considerably.

Su Yan didn't ask any questions.

She braised all the pig offal until it was fragrant.

Neighbor Aunt Zhang came over, drawn by the aroma.