"What?"

"You, a woman, became the village chief of our Liu Family Village?"

Liu Ji could hardly believe his ears and eyes.

But the familiar copper seal in Qin Yao’s hand constantly reminded him that it was true.

She had become the village chief!

Liu Ji widened his eyes and looked at the copper seal, then turned to look at Song Yu, who was driving the carriage, "Tell me, this isn’t real."

Song Yu smiled regretfully, "Master, it’s true. Madam has already been elected as the new village chief. The whole village voted together in the ancestral hall."

"No!!!"

A cry of collapse echoed through the mountains, like a thunderbolt in a clear sky, startling countless birds in the forest.

"Boom!" A silver lightning flashed across the clear sky.

Liu Ji, howling at the sky on the carriage, shivered violently. Wasn’t it possible that his resentment had reached the point of calling down lightning?

Apparently, he was overthinking.

Qin Yao looked up to see dark clouds rolling from afar quickly covering the clear sky, and another lightning strike followed by a dull rumble of thunder above, as heavy rain poured down without giving anyone a chance to react.

Liu Ji quickly crawled into the carriage compartment, and Song Yu hurriedly drove the carriage to the roadside and parked.

Qin Yao handed out a bamboo hat, and she also wore one, ducking out of the compartment, looking into the gray curtain of rain, remembering there was a pavilion nearby.

Unfortunately, the rain was too heavy, and the path ahead was obscured by mist and water.

"Madam, this downpour is sudden and heavy, it should stop soon. Why don’t we wait by the roadside before continuing?"

Qin Yao nodded, waving her hand to signal him to get into the carriage. The lacquered carriage cover and compartment had decent rainproof performance.

The poor horses, indeed.

But since it wasn’t their own Old Huang, Qin Yao patted the horse’s head soothingly, gesturing for it to stay calm, and then got into the compartment.

The thunder boomed on relentlessly, the loudest Qin Yao had heard this year.

Qin Yao glanced back at Liu Ji, who still wore a disgruntled expression, "You just had to shout. Not any sooner, not any later, and now you’ve called the rain. Isn’t it amusing?"

Liu Ji turned his head and snorted, knowing that Qin Yao becoming village chief had already been enough to break him down. This completely overturned everything he had known.

But that was not all. Soon, Song Yu also told him that his name was originally on the candidate list too.

Upon learning this detail, Liu Ji almost spat out a mouthful of old blood.

Last night, at a banquet at He Mansion, he secretly took pleasure, thinking that now he was also a Scholar, and the fierce woman at home should restrain herself and not dare to lay hands on him easily anymore.

After all, with his title, whether inside the community or outside, wouldn’t it be easy to smooth over a woman?

Who would’ve thought!

She actually became the village chief!

Now he had to go through her to get the paperwork to attend the academy examination in Yingtian Prefecture!

But Liu Ji was always good at comforting himself. In the time it took for a cup of tea, his sadness was gone, and he immediately thought—hey, my wife’s the village chief, this is unprecedented and will never happen again.

"Hehehe~" Unable to control the crazily upward curve of his mouth, he chuckled aloud.

If not for the timely stopping of the sudden downpour outside, Qin Yao, seeing his erratic appearance, surely would have cuffed him hard.

"Get out and drive the carriage," Qin Yao said.

Liu Ji bent his knees and clasped his fists: "As you command!"

He immediately crawled out of the compartment, took up the reins, and urged the horse to continue forward.

Song Yu hurriedly followed, "Master, let me do it."

"That works too." Liu Ji handed the reins over to Song Yu and turned back to smile innocently at Qin Yao.

Qin Yao couldn’t be bothered with him, pushing open the rear compartment door and hanging the wet bamboo hat on the back of the carriage to dry.

Liu Ji listlessly watched the muddy road ahead, when suddenly a black shadow in the roadside bushes caught his eye.

Excitedly, he stood up from the shaft to take a closer look; it was a black wild goat that had run down from the mountain, drenched by the rain, shaking its fur.

"Wife, wife!" Liu Ji reported excitedly in a low voice into the compartment, "There’s a black mountain goat."

Saying this, he couldn’t help but lick his lips, thinking that stewed wild goat meat was indeed a delicacy.

Qin Yao calmly secured the rear compartment door and glanced out. Two unmistakable goat horns peeked out from the bushes a hundred paces away.

She waved her hand, and Liu Ji quickly made way for her at the door.

Qin Yao stepped onto the shaft, bent down, reached under the carriage, and with a swift pull, drew out a heavy silver blade with gleaming sharpness.

Song Yu gasped, tensing up too, and slowed down the carriage.

As the carriage neared, the black shadow in the bushes suddenly froze, realizing something was amiss.

But it was too late.

Qin Yao flung the blade!

With a snapping sound, the goat didn’t even have time to scream before being cleaved by the flying blade.

Liu Ji immediately hopped off the carriage and jogged over, parting the bushes to see, shaking his head, "Tsk tsk tsk~"

The woman’s skill with the blade was as brutal as ever!

A complete goat head lay on the grass, next to the knife stuck in the ground.

Blood oozed from the goat’s body, and Liu Ji suddenly lost the desire to eat it.

Hearing footsteps approaching from behind, Liu Ji turned back with a pleading expression, "Wife, next time could we strike a bit softer? At the very least, leave it intact. How are we supposed to carry this bloody mess onto the carriage?"

"If it can’t be carried, then don’t," Qin Yao replied, pulling out her knife, spotless as always, with blood flowing down the groove into the soil.

She pointed to a small river on the other side of the road, "Take it over there to clean. We might as well stop and have lunch."

Relieved that they wouldn’t be taking it along, Liu Ji relaxed, quickly tidying up the poor wild goat, and called Song Yu to join him by the river for washing.

Meanwhile, Qin Yao parked the carriage, let the horse graze, and gathered firewood. Liu Ji and Song Yu finished cleaning and brought the goat over.

Liu Ji lavishly discarded the goat’s head and entrails, and carefully skinned it, carrying back just the meaty portion.

The rack was already set up by Qin Yao, and they tied the meat to it for roasting.

Thinking about how dry roasted meat could be a bit choking, Liu Ji retrieved Qin Yao’s always-bringing cooking pot, cut some of the tenderest goat meat, and put it in the pot to stew.

They lacked some de-odorizing scallions, ginger, and garlic, so Liu Ji stood up to look around. The area had plenty of wild herbs and grasses, so he sought permission from Qin Yao and went to search inside.

The inner thicket was quite overgrown; Liu Ji picked up a stick and used it to part the growth as he walked.

"Bang," the stick didn’t hit the weeds but rather seemed to smack into something both soft and hard.

Liu Ji’s eyes lit up instantly; was there another black goat?

He didn’t think about why a wild creature hit by a stick wouldn’t run away.

Just feeling especially lucky today, he quickly withdrew the stick, parted the particularly dense weeds with both hands, and excitedly poked his head out...