Traveling back to the Northern Song Dynasty: Picking up a princess as my wife

As night fell, the entire Li Family Village was filled with laughter and joy, creating two worlds separated by just a wall. Outside the village, the people lived in dire straits, while the people of Li Family Village had no worries about food.

With a flushed face, Yue Peng walked up to Li Zhen with a wine bowl in his hand: "Chief, thank you for giving us the opportunity to kill the Jin soldiers. It can be considered as avenging our families."

After finishing his drink, Yue Peng wiped his mouth with his sleeve, smiled, and returned to his seat.

Seeing this, the rest of the villagers came over to offer him a drink. At first, Li Zhen drank a little to appease them, but later, with so many people around, he didn't eat much meat and ended up drunk and lying on the ground.

Except for the soldiers responsible for guarding Li Family Village, almost everyone else got drunk. This was because the liquor Li Zhen had brought was from modern times and was far superior to the wines of the Northern Song Dynasty.

Li Zhen, drunk, didn't even know how he got back to his room. In his hazy state, he vaguely smelled a wonderful fragrance, which made him even more intoxicated.

When Li Zhen woke up the next day, he had a headache. Just as he was about to turn over, he felt something soft in his hand.

This immediately brought Li Zhen to his senses. He opened his eyes and sat up halfway, seeing a naked woman lying next to him. He peeked inside and realized it was Zhao Yingluo.

Zhao Yingluo woke up at this moment. She slowly got up and covered herself with the blanket: "Young Master Li, does your head still hurt?"

Li Zhen stammered, "No, it doesn't hurt anymore. This...?"

Zhao Yingluo's heart tightened: "You're not going to go back on your word, are you?"

Li Zhen said nervously, "That's not what I meant. I meant how we ended up together last night."

Compared to Li Zhen's nervousness, Zhao Yingluo was much more relaxed and explained the situation from the previous night to him in detail. It turned out that Li Zhen had been carried back here after getting drunk the night before, and Zhao Yingluo had been taking care of him closely.

Seeing that Li Zhen had vomited all over his body, she thought she would wash him with warm water. However, she accidentally touched a place she shouldn't have and was pulled into Li Zhen's arms by the drunk man.

Adding to what Li Zhen had said during the day, Zhao Yingluo felt that she should indeed repay him, so she took off her clothes and snuggled into Li Zhen's arms.

As Zhao Yingluo spoke, she prepared to put on her clothes. Seeing this scene, Li Zhen could no longer control himself. His male instincts kicked in again, so he took advantage of Zhao Yingluo's inattention and pressed her down onto the kang (a heated brick bed).

Zhao Yingluo said somewhat anxiously, "Young Master Li, it's dawn. Can't we do it tonight?"

Li Zhen ripped off the clothes she had just put on and tossed them onto the hanger next to him: "I was so drunk last night that I've long forgotten what it felt like. Now that I still have the chance, I need to get down to business first."

Unbeknownst to Li Zhen, several people were waiting outside his door, all ready to discuss matters with him.

Hearing the faint sounds coming from inside the house, Wang Changdao, who had been through it all, stood up and whispered to everyone, "Let's all disperse for now, the chief is busy."

So everyone exchanged knowing smiles and got up to go about their own business.

Wang Changdao glanced at Li Zhen's house and muttered, "Ah! It's good to be young."

About an hour later, the door was opened from the inside. Li Zhen pulled Zhao Yingluo, whose face was flushed with shyness, out of the room. After coming out, he stretched in the sun and felt full of energy.

In fact, whether in modern times or in the Northern Song Dynasty, this was the first time Li Zhen, who had been single for a long time, had encountered a woman. Therefore, Zhao Yingluo was the first woman in Li Zhen's two lifetimes. In the later life, Li Zhen was an ordinary office worker. Because he had not yet solved his housing problem, his goddess had not yet agreed to be with him, which gave Zhao Yingluo an opportunity.

Just then, Widow Zhang came over carrying two steaming bowls of egg noodles.

"Chief, I saw you missed breakfast, so I specially saved some for you. Eat it while it's hot. This bowl is for the chief; I put two extra eggs in it to help you recover."

Upon hearing this, Li Zhen and Zhao Yingluo immediately felt embarrassed. Seeing this, Widow Zhang retorted, "What are you afraid of? Isn't this how everyone gets through it?"

After saying that, he turned and left on his own.

Zhao Yingluo placed two bowls of noodles on the table inside the room and brought over a basin of hot water for Li Zhen to wash up quickly.

After finishing their meal, the two sat by the door, staring at the white clouds drifting overhead.

Zhao Yingluo rested her head happily on Li Zhen's shoulder: "Husband, I'm so glad you saved me back then, otherwise I would definitely have died at the hands of those Jin soldiers. You have no idea how cruel those Jin soldiers were to us Song women. On the very first night after they entered Bianjing, hundreds and thousands of women were tortured to death."

Li Zhen gently stroked Zhao Yingluo's hair and comforted her, "Don't think about the past anymore. Since you've met me, it's our destiny. I will spend my whole life treating you well. After I'm done with these few days, I'll go back and have a few wedding dresses made for you. Then we'll properly arrange our wedding."

Just as the two were being all lovey-dovey, Yue Peng came running over, looking a little embarrassed.

"Chief, several dozen more villagers have arrived outside the stronghold. They all want to join our Li Family Stronghold."

The combination of war and drought resulted in widespread crop failure across the north. Many local officials not only failed to act but also extorted grain from the local population to supply the Jin army, leaving these people with no means of survival.

Li Zhen stood on the stockade wall, looking down at the nearly one hundred people below. Most of them had brought their families, having heard that there was food here and that Li Family Village had just repelled countless Jin soldiers. The Jin soldiers were incredibly powerful in this era, and anyone who dared to fight them must be very strong. Therefore, these people were even more eager to join Li Family Village, seeking its protection.

At this time, the houses in the mountain stronghold were basically full, and it would take some time to build more. Moreover, Li Zhen estimated that more people would join them in the future, so he decided to find another place to settle these people first.

Li Zhen raised the megaphone and said loudly, "Fellow villagers, I am the chief of Li Family Village. I welcome you to join Li Family Village, but the houses in the village are already full. I have decided to build some more houses next door for you to live in. Don't worry about the food, Li Family Village will provide it in full. But you must obey our arrangements and must not gather crowds to cause trouble."

Upon hearing that there was food to eat, the people knelt down and kowtowed to Li Zhen. In their hearts, as long as they were given food, whether they had shelter or not was secondary.

Li Zhen instructed Yue Peng to organize people and lead the villagers to the hillside on the left. The hillside was not very big to begin with, and now it was the only place suitable for building houses.