Chapter 1 Hu Ma is a Little Strange

"Big Brother Hu Ma looks young, but he's very steady in his work."

While Hu Ma was feeling suspicious, the girl named Wu He also looked up.

In this world, women are mostly shy. Even the widows in the village peek at men secretly. But she seemed quite bold.

Her eyes carefully scanned Hu Ma's face, examining him very closely. While taking him in, she smiled and pushed the tea towards him, pursing her lips and saying with a smile, "I see you all the time."

"And Uncle Da told me all about how you helped deal with the evil spirits in the village. I admire you so much!"

"So it was her..."

Feeling her gaze, Hu Ma was certain once again.

She was indeed the one who had been secretly observing him from inside the house, not even hiding it in her words.

He felt even stranger and glanced at her, but with the shopkeeper present, he couldn't look too much.

While getting up to take the tea, he said with a smile:

"Not at all. I'm from the mountains, I don't know anything. I rely entirely on the shopkeeper to guide me."

"Big Brother Hu Ma is too polite."

The Wu He girl said, "But I won't be polite with Big Brother Hu Ma in the future. I'm not well and can't go out easily. I'll have to trouble Big Brother Hu Ma to bring me things like needles, thread, rouge, and powder from outside the village in the future..."

Hu Ma quickly said, "It's all part of the job."

As he spoke, he took the tea, but accidentally touched something with his finger. Looking down, her hand had quickly withdrawn.

Hu Ma sniffed, frowned slightly, and didn't say anything, just speaking politely with the shopkeeper.

He had thought that the woman who usually hid in the house was finally showing herself, and something would happen. But in the end, nothing really did. The shopkeeper just brought his daughter and drank tea in the courtyard for a while, talked about family matters, and then went back inside.

Seeing that it was getting late, Hu Ma also left the inner courtyard and continued to arrange for the workers to patrol at night and feed the horses.

Even if the workers were unwilling, seeing that the little junior sister had already hidden back in the house, they all groaned and reluctantly came to work.

Hu Ma didn't know if it was his imagination, but when he was instructing the workers, he felt like his back was being watched by someone...

He had felt a little uneasy before he even met this girl, but now that feeling was even stronger.

He didn't dare to be careless and simply went out of the village with the workers.

He just felt that this junior sister looked beautiful, but there was something strange about her that he couldn't put his finger on. These days weren't as open-minded as his past life. Young ladies from good families didn't leave the inner quarters.

The shopkeeper's precious daughter not only looked at him boldly but also smiled sweetly when she was sitting in the courtyard being watched by those workers, as if she didn't mind at all?

Strange, it all felt strange!

But the other workers didn't have Hu Ma's vigilance and were still immersed in that fleeting glimpse, each with a silly smile on their faces, lost in their memories, unable to extricate themselves.

Once they were out of the village, Zhou Datong became excited and asked repeatedly, "Brother Hu Ma, Brother Hu Ma, tell me, what does she smell like?"

Hu Ma looked at him in surprise, and then at the few guys next to him who were drooling with envy. He finally understood.

Somewhat helplessly, he said, "There's no smell..."

Zhou Datong, and even Zhou Liang and Zhao Zhu next to him, all looked disbelieving.

Judging from their expressions, Hu Ma estimated that they wouldn't be this dissatisfied even if he skimped on half a jin of their meat ration.

"Really, there's no smell."

Hu Ma thought for a moment and suddenly felt a little strange. He raised a finger to his nose and sniffed, saying, "But to be honest, it does seem like there's a faint foul smell, but it's covered up by the herbal scent..."

"Foul smell?"

Zhou Datong was stunned for a moment, and then said decisively, "That's impossible!"

"I smelled the fragrance from ten *zhang* away just now. I just didn't get close enough to know how fragrant it was."

"Yeah, yeah."

Zhou Liang and Zhao Zhu, two honest guys, actually nodded in agreement, expressing their deep approval: "Second Master also said that women have the scent of steamed buns..."

"Second Master seemed to say that the women's *mantou* were fragrant..."

Hu Ma thought to himself, but looking at their serious expressions at this time, he swallowed all the words he wanted to correct them with.

What else could he say?

It was a universal law that whether something stinks or not depends on the face!

Originally, with Hu Ma taking over the position of manager, everything in the village had entered a dull and regular routine. But with the appearance of this junior sister, everyone suddenly became lively.

Even if Hu Ma paid for them to eat and drink, he couldn't make them this excited. Each of them seemed to walk with the wind, and they couldn't help but hum a little tune when they went to the latrine.

And then there was hygiene.

Although Hu Ma didn't live in the dormitory anymore, he had trained them to be cleaner, telling them not to be covered in mud, with a thick layer of dirt on their collars, so much that Little Hong Tang had to walk around their room.

Bathing wasn't practical.

Changing clothes often wasn't practical for some workers either.

Then at least they had to wash their feet, right?

But they listened to other things, but were too lazy to do this, as if they subconsciously classified this as their own freedom, not under the manager's control. But now, these people who wouldn't listen to Hu Ma had suddenly become clean and tidy...

Not only did they love washing their faces, but they also liked to bathe outside the house.

But it was already winter...

But there was also a problem. The patrol jobs that everyone used to fight for suddenly became unpopular.

The reason was simple. Every evening, this junior sister might come out of the house and take a walk in the inner courtyard.

It was only possible. She didn't come out every day.

But because of this tiny possibility, the workers couldn't wait to go and wait for her.

Hu Ma sighed at the drawbacks of this furnace, and he adapted to the situation, thought of a few ideas, and when he had time, he randomly pointed to someone and said, "Go empty the latrine. It's almost full. Clean it out, and put down some fresh soil and ashes."

"Take the rest to the village and sell it to the village chief's family. You can exchange it for three copper coins... You can keep the copper coins yourself, and you can buy a few crispy baked buns on the way..."

In the past, no one wanted to do this job.

Even if they didn't dare disobey Hu Ma, everyone could see their unhappy appearance.

But now Hu Ma first looked at them unhappily and then said, "After you're done, go to the inner courtyard and deliver something to the shopkeeper."

"Of course, change your clothes before you go!"

Hearing this, the workers were immediately full of motivation and almost started fighting.

And looking at the shopkeeper's daughter now, how did she look like she was so seriously injured in the legends?

Now the workers outside the outer courtyard were all infatuated with her. Hu Ma wanted to avoid her, feeling that he couldn't see through her. She hadn't left her room for so long, but now she showed up from time to time.

Most importantly, he didn't know if she knew that Hu Ma was deliberately avoiding her, but one time, she even ran directly to Hu Ma's small house.

Usually, Hu Ma didn't even let Zhou Datong and others in to cultivate the living methods, and they only called him outside the door if they needed something.

Now seeing her barge in, he was a little surprised: "Junior Sister, is something the matter?"

The Wu He girl stood inside the threshold, looking at Hu Ma with a smile, and said, "Can't I come if there's nothing the matter?"

*Miss, you wouldn't want the shopkeeper to know that you secretly came to my room, would you?*

A flirtatious thought flashed through Hu Ma's mind, but he swallowed it back. Forcing a smile, he said, "I thought you had something to tell me."

"What do you mean, telling you?"

The Wu He girl said, "My father is the shopkeeper of the Niangniang Society, and you're the manager of the Niangniang Society. We're all the same. Why would I be telling you?"

She smiled and said, "But I really do have something to tell you. What about the rouge and powder you promised to buy for me?"

Hu Ma was a little embarrassed and said, "I haven't seen any peddlers around lately, and I haven't had a chance to go to the city."

"Okay then, you have to remember."

As the Wu He girl spoke, she took two steps forward. Hu Ma only smelled a faint rotting smell coming from her body.

This time, he and she were the only ones in the room, and now, she was closer to him than the last time in the inner courtyard. This rotting smell was even clearer, immediately making Hu Ma feel a chill in his heart, and he subconsciously took a step back.

Then he suddenly realized that this might cause her dissatisfaction.

Sure enough, the Wu He girl didn't know if she noticed Hu Ma's frown, or if she herself realized that it didn't look right for a single man and a single woman to be talking so close in this small house, so she took a step back and said, "I actually have something else to ask."

"How far have you gotten with the Shou Sui (Year-Keeping) Method?"

She hesitated slightly, bit her lip, and seemed to have made up her mind.

"Huh?"

Hu Ma was slightly shocked. Why was she asking this?

Thinking about it, this method shouldn't be a secret to her, so he quickly replied:

"I've just made some progress. It's not easy to cultivate."

"I've just started, and I'm cultivating very carefully, afraid of making a mistake. And cultivating this method always requires the support of blood essence..."

He had already refined his left hand and was already hesitating whether to refine his right leg, but he couldn't tell her that.

Taking this opportunity, he also mentioned the words "blood essence," silently observing her reaction.

"Okay..."

Hearing Hu Ma say that he wasn't making fast progress, she seemed a little disappointed, as if she didn't want to hear it. She muttered:

"Then you have to work harder..."

Saying this somewhat reluctantly, she walked to the threshold, but seemed to have thought of something again. Suddenly turning her head to Hu Ma, she said, "Big Brother Hu Ma, don't be afraid. Everyone is afraid of going the wrong way when refining this method..."

"My Uncle Da has a notebook, which is his notes he wrote down during his cultivation. He treasures it very much and usually doesn't let anyone see it."

"If I give it to you, will you be able to cultivate faster?"

"Ah?"

Hu Ma couldn't help but be taken aback. What exactly did he want to do?