Expelled from the Duke's mansion, the fake heiress is richer than a country.

Yu Wanran heard her mother complaining, came out to find out what was going on, and after thinking for a moment, she spoke.

“Father, Mother, if I can sign a contract with the cloth merchants when I return from the capital, you may not have time to cultivate this land. If it really doesn’t work out, you can hire people then, and the ten acres of public land can be returned to the government.”

Yu Man and his wife looked at each other in bewilderment.

What is my daughter saying?

If they didn't farm, would they still be peasants?

The next day, the Yu family father and son went to the fields with hoes. They loosened the soil and weeded. As the weather gradually warmed up after the New Year, they leveled the fields to make it easier for spring plowing.

Yu Wanran, along with Yu Xiaoxiang, went up the mountain to chop firewood as usual, and also looked for any sprouting wild vegetables. The tender tips of those vegetables were the most delicious.

There were also groups of villagers in the village, all with the same thoughts, heading into the mountains.

Yu Wanran and Yu Xiaoxiang are both reserved and quiet in front of others. Yu Wanran avoids people, while Yu Xiaoxiang only calls out to particularly kind-looking elders in a very soft voice.

After walking along a mountain path for a while, I noticed several burly men in tattered clothes, whose faces I didn't recognize, following behind me. They carried crudely made bows and arrows on their backs and held machetes in their hands. They were exchanging glances and making me feel an urge to fight.

Listening to their casual conversation, calling themselves "Brother Shanzi" and "Brother Huzi," they sounded like hunters heading into the mountains. But it was only early spring, the weather was freezing, and there was hardly any sign of small animals.

Yu Wanran became alert and pulled Yu Xiaoxiang aside, letting them pass and see what was going on.

Sure enough, these men had ulterior motives. They stopped as they passed by her.

A lean, wiry man whistled loudly at Yu Wanran, his triangular eyes revealing a lecherous, disgusting smile as he shouted at her.

"Which family's pretty little sister is this? Come hunting in the mountains with us brothers! If we catch anything, we'll all share a piece of meat with you!"

His companions laughed and swayed their heads along with him.

Yu Wanran recognized them as a group of thugs and hooligans. They were from some unknown village, and this habit of harassing the village girls had become a regular occurrence. Villagers who were cutting firewood or grass in the distance saw this and quickly turned away, clearly not wanting to get involved.

Holding Xiao Xiang's hand, she noticed her niece trembling with fear and didn't want to cause any more trouble. She swallowed her anger, picked up Xiao Xiang, and turned to walk down another fork in the road.

Footsteps thumped behind them; the group of people, incredibly audacious, had caught up.

"Little sister, don't go! Play with us brothers, and you'll get great benefits..."

Yu Wanran was shocked to see a filthy black hand ruthlessly reaching for her chest—

In broad daylight, if the other party were to actually touch her, who knows what kind of rumors would spread among the other villagers? In that instant, she realized that the group of people were not just passing by by chance, but had come straight for her with a very specific purpose!

Abducting her in public might be out of the question, but ruining her reputation and forcing her into a marriage of lower status would be easy for an ordinary village girl.

A surge of ferocity erupted from Yu Wanran's chest. She whirled around and grabbed the skinny thug's wrist!

Amidst the opponent's earth-shattering screams, he dislocated his entire arm. Simultaneously, he shifted behind the opponent, delivering a powerful knee strike to the back of the opponent's knee, sending the opponent sprawling to the ground.

In the blink of an eye, she stepped on the skinny thug's neck, preventing him from turning over no matter how hard he struggled. Then, she glared fiercely at the other thugs with a murderous look, deterring them from making any rash moves.

Yu Xiaoxiang stood there dumbfounded, her little hands tightly covering her mouth. At that moment, she almost forgot her fear, only thinking that her third aunt was incredibly beautiful!

Hearing their accomplices' heart-wrenching screams, the thugs panicked.

Isn't it just dealing with a pampered fake heiress? Why didn't anyone tell them that this girl from the Duke's mansion was so capable?

In the blink of an eye, her accomplice was knocked down and trampled under her feet. This skinny guy was someone they had learned a few days of martial arts in middle school; he was a ruthless character, and no one in several villages dared to mess with him.

"Speak! Who sent you? Was it Xiao Yao?"

Yu Wanran relentlessly interrogated him, stomping on the skinny man until he could barely breathe. And she used a declarative sentence, not an interrogative one.

The Duke and Duchess wouldn't resort to such dirty tricks to deal with her, after all, she was nominally their adopted daughter. Besides, in this life, they hadn't completely broken ties.

Only that fool Xiao Yao brought her rustic, vulgar ways into the Duke's mansion. She thought that by ruining her reputation, she would be forced to marry a notorious scoundrel!

That's utterly foolish.

Having lived two lives, why would she still care about such an ephemeral reputation?

Wealth and military power are the most important!

The villagers, who were initially hesitant to approach, gradually gathered around and kindly advised her.

“Miss Yu, these men are seasoned thieves from the next village, always up to petty theft. Reporting them to the authorities won't do any good unless something serious happens. You should let them go… otherwise, you'll have a lot of trouble later.”

The principle is that it's better to offend a gentleman than a petty person.

Yu Wanran looked up at the sky. Disappointed, why was it daytime now?

She nearly stomped the skinny monkey to death, but he gritted his teeth and refused to reveal who was behind it. He seemed more afraid of Xiao Yao. With a hint of helplessness, she raised her foot and kicked the skinny monkey away.

He shouted at the pale-faced thugs, "Get out of here! If I see you harassing innocent women again, I'll tie you all up and send you to the authorities!"

The thugs scrambled to carry the skinny monkey down the mountain to find a doctor. What bad luck! They thought it was an easy windfall, but instead they encountered a deadly female demon.

If someone offers even more money next time, they won't easily get involved in this mess.

After everyone dispersed, Yu Wanran bent down, took Yu Xiaoxiang's hand, and looked into her eyes.

"Xiao Xiang, don't tell your family about this when you get back, okay? Don't be afraid, your third aunt has already taken care of it."

Worried that Yu Man and his wife would be frightened if they heard about this, they forbade her from going out freely in the future. Two days later, when they heard the rumors circulating in the village, she was already on her way to Beijing.

Yu Xiaoxiang nodded understandingly.

Since her third aunt had made a special request, she would naturally help her keep it a secret. Besides, apart from her third aunt, she didn't like to talk much with other people in the family.

Yu Wanran had no interest in continuing to look for wild vegetables, so she casually picked a few handfuls of withered grass that no one wanted and took Yu Xiaoxiang home.

At home, Zhu Xiaozhen, leaning on her cane, asked me to take out her treasured kudzu root powder, mix it with flour and salt, and bake it into a large, yellowish-black pancake to be used as dry food.

As for water bladders, since they couldn't afford the fine leather ones, each person simply carried an old bamboo tube to hold water. Although the craftsmanship was rough, it worked.

The further north you go, the colder it gets. Find three of the thickest blankets, wrap them around your body and warm yourself by the fire at night; you can endure sleeping in the wilderness. Zhu Xiaozhen also packed three wooden bowls, three pairs of chopsticks, and a small earthenware jar.

It can be used to cook porridge and boil water, killing two birds with one stone. Just be careful on the road; if it gets cracked by even the slightest bump, it will be unusable.

Despite packing a lot of luggage, Zhu Xiaozhen still felt something was missing. She wandered around the room, wanting to stuff more things into the baskets. She only stopped when Yu Wanran reminded her that the luggage was overweight and the escort agency would charge more.