Otherworldly Farming: The Little Husband Fiercely Raising Offspring - C6
Chapter 6 – If You Have the Guts, Let Him Climb Out of His Coffin
They hadn’t eaten much at noon — only some buns and pastries — so dinner was prepared a little earlier.
Luo Mingchen took out a variety of seasonings from his spatial storage and cooked braised pig’s trotters with sauce and winter melon stewed with pork ribs.
Drooling, Huo Xiang exclaimed, “Little Dad, your cooking is so good…”
Hearing this, Luo Mingchen smiled. “I studied under a master chef at a hotel for a year or two. My knife skills are a bit lacking, but everything else is decent.”
After his mother passed away, he had wandered from place to place, busying himself with survival, and squeezed in time to study in order to fulfill his promise to her.
He had even managed to get into university, but the world had descended into chaos before he could attend.
Huo Xiang tilted his little head. “Little Dad, what’s a hotel?”
“It’s a big restaurant — a place where many people come to eat every day.”
As he spoke, Luo Mingchen placed the braised pig’s trotters on the table. “Wash your hands and eat.”
“Okay!”
Once they had washed up, Luo Mingchen placed a bowl of rice in front of the coffin filled with clothing, adding some dishes and sticking two chopsticks upright in it.
“Now the whole family is eating together.”
The two brothers nodded hard. “Mm!”
Huo Xinyue curiously glanced at them and followed suit. “Mm.”
After the meal, they sat in the courtyard for a while to rest. The four of them burned paper money together, and when the offerings were finished, Luo Mingchen ate the food he had set aside for the spirit and cleaned up.
After trying on their new clothes, the three children once again nestled beside Luo Mingchen and fell asleep.
They slept soundly through the night. Just after breakfast the next morning, as Luo Mingchen was preparing to head out to find the village chief to purchase a burial plot, he heard urgent knocking at the door.
“Who is it?”
When Luo Mingchen opened the door, he saw an unfamiliar couple, with a sturdier, younger man standing behind them.
“Chenchen?”
The woman stared blankly at Luo Mingchen. He bore a seventy-percent resemblance to their son, Chenchen, but his skin was fair rather than the wheat-colored tone their boy had, and his entire demeanor felt different.
Because of this, the couple didn’t dare confirm it was him.
“And you are?”
Hearing them call out “Chenchen,” Luo Mingchen wondered — could it really be that coincidental?
Before the couple could respond, Lin Tianlei and Yang Cuifen — who had long been waiting nearby — stepped forward. “I told you this brat isn’t Wang Chen!”
Realizing Luo Mingchen wasn’t Wang Chen, Lin Tianlei raised his nose in disdain and demanded, “Where the hell are you from?”
Luo Mingchen, however, remained unruffled. “How should I know where I’m from? When I woke up, the children were surrounding me, calling me ‘Dad’ and saying I was their Little Dad. I don’t remember anything else.”
The two children behind him were utterly baffled.
What on earth was going on?
The woman anxiously asked, “Then where is my Chenchen?”
“I don’t know. Everyone in Xishui Village can testify — I was brought here by someone. Even the village doctor knows. When I arrived, I was unconscious and injured, and only woke up the afternoon before yesterday. I had even planned to ask around if you were my family.”
Just as the Wang family was about to ask more, Lin Tianlei shoved them aside.
“I don’t care where you came from. Huo Yan was supposed to marry Wang Chen. You’re not Wang Chen — what are you even worth? Get the hell out of here!”
Instead of getting angry, Luo Mingchen laughed. “Let me put it this way: the keepsakes and the marriage contract are in my hands. That means Wang Chen handed me over himself and sent me here as a substitute groom. Now that the documents are with me and I’m willing to raise the children, if Cousin has the guts, he can summon the children’s father out of the ground, have him climb out of his coffin, and ask him whether he’s willing to marry me. How about that?”
The marriage contract only bore Huo Yan’s name — for some reason, the other name line had been left blank — which conveniently allowed Luo Mingchen to fill in his own name later.
And in this place, once a household was registered and the marriage contract sealed, a sworn brotherhood marriage* was hardly different from a typical husband-and-wife relationship.
[*Note: “契兄弟” (sworn brotherhood marriage) was sometimes used historically to formalize male partnerships with legal recognition similar to marriage.]
“You’re twisting words to suit yourself!”
“Please, I’m a victim here too. I’ve lost my memory, been gravely injured, and got inexplicably married off. Now I’m willing to take responsibility, and the kids accept me. Cousin, you’re merely extended family, not their father. Whether their father would marry me or not is none of your business. Also…”
Luo Mingchen produced an official document from the county yamen. “I am already legally married to Huo Yan. This states clearly: Luo Mingchen, not Wang Chen. Look closely.”
After suspecting a substitute marriage, Luo Mingchen had anticipated this very issue.
Even if the Wang family refused to acknowledge him, it didn’t matter — his household was now registered in Xishui Village under Huo Yan’s name. The county yamen clerks knew Huo Yan, had seen the three children, and processed everything properly.
Lin Tianlei and Yang Cuifen were dumbfounded when they saw the marriage contract and legal papers.
Yang Cuifen reached to grab them but was dodged. She immediately accused, “You forged these!”
Luo Mingchen tucked the documents back into his robes and said leisurely, “Cousin-in-law, you give me too much credit. Could I forge the county’s official seal? If you don’t believe me, go call the constables and have them investigate.”
The Wang parents were completely bewildered.
“If you’re not our Chenchen, then where did our Chenchen go?”
Seeing the mother so anxious for her son, Luo Mingchen’s tone softened. “He’s probably the one who sent me here. As for where he went, I don’t know him, so I can’t say. Instead of wasting time here, why not search among people he knows? Without help, he shouldn’t have gotten far.”
This world was nothing like his own — traveling required road permits, with city gates guarded and records kept. A mere farmer couldn’t travel far.
Most likely, he was hiding with someone familiar — or perhaps in the mountains.
Of course, there was also the chance he’d been kidnapped while sneaking off.
The woman’s eyes turned red with panic. “Chenchen’s never traveled far. All the people he knows are here in the village — where could he go?!”
The young man behind her asked, “Mom, could Chenchen have gone to find that licentiate?”
As if recalling something, the Wang family calmed somewhat.
“Child, our Chenchen wronged you in this matter. Once we find him, we’ll make it up to you. We’re sorry.”
Luo Mingchen wasn’t bothered. “Since I’m not your biological son, you’d better hurry and look for him.”
“Alright.”
The Wang family hurried away.
Only Lin Tianlei and Yang Cuifen remained, glaring at Luo Mingchen.
“And you two? Are you calling the constables or what? Either way, I still have to choose a good burial site for the children’s father, so I won’t waste time on you.”
With that, Luo Mingchen picked up Huo Xinyue from Huo Yuhui’s arms, led them out, and locked the gate behind him.
“You—”
Whatever Yang Cuifen wanted to say, Luo Mingchen ignored her completely.
Arriving at the village chief’s home, Luo Mingchen asked about purchasing a burial plot, only to learn that according to local custom, a coffin had to remain at home for at least three days.
Normally, laborers would be hired for the burial, but to save time and money, Luo Mingchen decided to dig the grave himself. His reason was unassailable — they had no money.
To his surprise, the village chief thought for a moment and said, “On the day of the burial, my two sons can help.”
Luo Mingchen, who had been planning to use his water-type ability to dig the grave: “…Alright. Thank you, Village Chief.”
“No need to be polite. Huo Yan helped us in the past. If not for him, my eldest and I would have died in the mountains long ago.”
Hearing this, Luo Mingchen only smiled.
It seemed his cheap husband had been quite capable — and well-regarded.
That meant life in the village wouldn’t be so hard going forward.