This man looked in his early twenties; tall and strong with a straight disposition. He was wearing a gray open-slit duanda[1] on his upper body, tied a simple knot with a black belt on his waist with pants of the same color on his lower body rolled up to a small belly and a pair of old straw shoes on his feet. This man was rather handsome. He had waist-long black hair which simply bundled up with a mere blue cloth and a wooden hairpin. His thick eyebrows were slanted towards the sideburns with bright and deep eyes. Due to being basked in the sun often, his skin was bronze, which made him look more imposing. However, there was a scar on his left cheek, extending from the inner corner of his left eye all the way to the bottom of his earlobe. The wound looked old, but the scar was very obvious; it seemed somewhat intimidating.

He was this man’s.. wife? Qin Mian coughed and stood up. His knees were a little soft that he couldn’t help sitting back down.

That man had sharp eyes and agile hands; he tightly held Qin Mian’s arm in one hand.

Qin Mian felt like a chick being picked up. He took a look at the man but he didn’t say anything and only murmured in his heart that this man was too tall, almost two heads taller than his present self. At the same time, he was surer that this body he possessed was ill and that this kind of weakness was not normal at all.

Du Shi’s face eased up as she put down the broom. “Eldest[2], mother is angered by him. He said he couldn’t feed the pigs! What’s this if not to piss me off? Properly manage your wife!”

Qin Mian didn’t make a sound. He could feed the pigs. He lived in the countryside with his maternal grandparents from birth to the age of 15, where they farmed, raised chickens and pigs at home; he could do it all. But now he was in a strange environment and had no memory of the original body’s owner. He didn’t know what the pig feed was, where it was and how much it was to be fed. If he did something wrong, it would lead the old woman to be suspicious of him, which was not good. As it was well known, people in ancient eras were superstitious. If someone found that the body had changed its core, he might have to die again. Therefore, he said directly that he could not, even if contrary to the fact, the old woman at most only thought he was deliberately looking for trouble.

Lei Tie took a look at Qin Mian; contrariwise, he didn’t look displeased and without saying a word, he strode away.

Du Shi gave Qin Mian a fierce look.

Qin Mian did not fear her. He silently thought about what to do next while he wondered about that man, who walked in a windy way, with an unspeakable sense of out of sorts. He did not know what went wrong.

After a while, that man came up with a bucket, went to the pigsty and quickly poured the rotten vegetable leaves and some kind of grass in the bucket into the trough.

Du Shi’s face was a little blue but her tone was as warm as possible: “Eldest, you are an adult man; why would you want to do this thing?”

Qin Mian was angry. He’s a man but I’m not a man?

Lei Tie didn’t say a word as he put the bucket on the ground. He led Qin Mian into the thatched room and sat him down at the edge of the bed.

Qin Mian was taken aback by him. He hadn’t remembered to speak yet and he watched the man go out and brought in a basin of water. He took a brand-new cloth towel from a rope tied behind the door and put it in the basin. Then, he also sat down at the edge of the bed with three fists distance with Qin Mian and looked at the opposite wall with no expression, silence without utterance.

“Thank you.” Qin Mian thought to himself: truly airtight[3]. But despite their abnormal relationship, he had nothing to dislike this man so far. He didn’t say much and used the cloth towel to wash his face and hands. When he was about to pour the water out, the man took the basin and washed his face and hands silently.

Qin Mian was a little uncomfortable. Two men share a washcloth...

“Have a meal.” After Lei Tie washed his face, he took the basin in one hand, stood up and looked at Qin Mian.

Qin Mian nodded and followed him out.

The man splashed the water on the corner of the wall and put the basin beside the well before he walked into the main house.

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Qin Mian followed.

At this time, several people came in from the entrance door; men and women all dressed in ancient costumes, carrying farm tools, walking and talking at the same time. Those several people were followed by three small children.

Speaking of this, let’s talk about the Lei Family. The head of Lei Household Lei Daqiang was 40 year old and married to Du Shi[4], 38 year old. The eldest child of Lei Family Lei Tie was 22 year old and his wife was precisely Qin Mian, only 14 year old. The second child Lei Xiangren was 21 year old and his wife was Zhao Shi with his eldest son Lei Dabao was 5 year old and his youngest son Lei Xiaobao was 3 year old. The third child Lei Xiangyi was 19 year old and married to Qian Shi and had a daughter named Lei Xinxin, 2 year old. The fourth child Lei Xiangli was 17 year old and had not married yet. The fifth children were twins Lei Xiangzhi and the only daughter Lei Chuntao, 15 year old.

At this time, it was precisely Lei Daqiang and the others who came in. Except for Lei Xiangzhi, others were there.

Lei Xiangren put down the farm tools and upon seeing that Qin Mian’s face looked a little strange, he called out “eldest sister-in-law”.

Qin Mian, who had just transmigrated, was feeling uneasy. Afraid to be seen abnormal, he did not look at them carefully and only vaguely nodded. Now that he had transmigrated, it was impossible to transmigrate back. He had some ideas in mind. No one knew that he had a magical space. As long as there was this magical space, with his wit, it was not a problem to live a good life. But at the moment, all he could do was to remain calm.

Zhao Shi and Qian Shi went to the well to draw water for the men to wash. While drawing water, they talked in low voices, with a strange smile on their faces and consciously or unconsciously, their eyes also drifted to Qin Mian.

Qin Mian didn’t care. There were two old-fashioned square tables for eight people in the main hall. Seeing Lei Tie sitting at one table, he went to sit on the empty seat beside him and secretly took note of Lei Tie’s reaction.

Lei Tie glanced at this out-of-ordinary wife of his. He had no expression but there was a little unexpected in his eyes, yet he didn’t say anything.

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“Second family’s[5] and third family’s, still haven’t come in to help?” When Du Shi came out of the kitchen and saw Zhao Shi and Qian Shi chatting there, she was furious that she shouted coldly with arms akimbo.

“Coming!” Zhao Shi and Qian Shi immediately put away their smiles and sped up washing their hands.

A while later, all the people outside came in after they had washed up. Upon seeing Qin Mian sitting at the men’s side, their footsteps faltered at the same time and they looked at each other in dismay.

Father Lei didn’t speak as he went to sit down at the seat of honor. As a matter of fact, he was only in his early 40s, but he looked very old because of the hard work all year round; he looked like he was 60 year old.

When the few men saw that their father didn’t speak, they also took their seats at the table where Qin Mian was sitting.

After a moment, Du Shi, Zhao Shi and Qian Shi came in with their meals.

As soon as Du Shi saw Qin Mian, her face changed. Restraining her displeasure, she motioned to the other table: “Eldest’s [wife], are you confused? Your seat is here.”

Both Zhao Shi and Qian Shi wore a face like watching a show. It was enough for them to be happy when the eldest son married a man as his wife, whom after just a few days of marriage had started to work with mother-in-law, which gave them a topic to talk for several days.

Lei Chuntao’s eyebrows wrinkled. She took a dish from Du Sh’s hands and put it on the table. When she went to pick up another dish, Du Shi did not let go. She looked up; her mother’s face was taut and her eyes were full of anger as she stared at the eldest [male] sister-in-law, as if wishing her eyes could be turned into two needles to poke him a few times.

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Qin Mian saw that the other table was full of women and children. He laughed in his heart. Without changing his expression or talk, he turned to look at the man beside him to see how he would react.

This man’s attitude would determine the direction of his future plans.

Lei Tie didn’t look at the person beside him, but he pressed the other person’s leg, not letting him get up. He said dully and succinctly: “My wife will sit here henceforth.”

Du Shi put on a straight face and slammed the dish on the table with all her strength.

Qin Mian thought to himself that this plate was still very strong that it hadn’t broken under such strength.

Du Shi’s allowed no doubt as she said: “How can this work? All the daughters-in-law are sitting at that table; no matter which family, the rules are the same. You come here, Eldest’s [wife].”

Lei Tie didn’t loosen his hand, dully but determined: “Just sit here.”

“Mother, between the sexes there should be a prudent reserve. Isn’t it embarrassing for them if I were to sit there? There is even a girl[6].” Qin Mian pushed away Lei Tie’s hand and smiled at the old woman. He didn’t know which dynasty this was, so he didn’t dare to say “men and women with seven years different could not be seated and eat together”. That little girl didn’t have her hair bound, so he knew that she was not married.

Du Shi’s face was red with anger. The reason why she let the Eldest’s [wife] and the other two daughters-in-law sit together was to straighten him out, but she forgot that her daughter had reached the age of marriage. Although Eldest’s [wife] was a “sister-in-law”, he was a man after all. Thinking of this, though she was angry, she couldn’t say anything against it. She only gave Qin Mian a fierce look when people didn’t pay attention.

She looked at the plate of steamed buns in her hand that was going to be sent to the big table (the table where the men were sitting). She wanted to put two less but was afraid that the few of the family’s labor forces would not eat enough, so she had to give up. She then hated Qin Mian even more.

Zhao Shi and Qian Shi were secretly disappointed that they didn’t see a good show and they were a little puzzled. The other day, “eldest sister-in-law” looked timid and cowardly. Today, he was calm and dared to talk back to Du Shi. Remarkable ah. Was this relying on Eldest’s support?

Note:

[1] the labouring people’s townwear, with Chinese-style jacket and trousers. The jacket has slit on both side, with narrow sleeves

[2]老大lǎo dà = eldest child in a family. I just short form it into Eldest. It can be Old One, Old First just like Old Two or Old Three.

[3] I think QM refer to LT being too silent, like his lips was sealed tightly

[4] Shi is clan name; maiden name. For example: the mother’s maiden surname is Du. Basically, the author didn’t give some characters a specific names, only the maiden names.

[5] Du Shi called her daughters-in-law 老大家的 [lao da jiade]; 老二家的 [lao er jiade]; 老三家的 [lao san jiade]. Only referencing them to which Lei children’s family they belong to.

[6] 姑娘 gū niang = [unmarried] girl; young woman; young lady; daughter

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