Chapter 2: The Ostracized Step-Brother…

Just before the sun was about to set, Cheng Songer finally returned to Cheng Village carrying Cheng Qingzhi on her back, inevitably passing by several households along the way.

It was just the time when every family was preparing for dinner. The villagers liked to set up small tables in their courtyards to eat. When the few households they passed by saw Cheng Songer carrying Cheng Qingzhi back, their eyes nearly popped out of their heads.

A middle-aged woman with an honest face stared maliciously at Cheng Qingzhi’s feet.

When Cheng Songer had just checked his wounds, she hadn’t put his shoes back on. Although his feet were wrapped in socks, such a direct and flimsy gaze was extremely embarrassing.

Cheng Qingzhi’s face suddenly changed, and he struggled to get down from her back.

Cheng Songer naturally noticed where this ‘honest’ woman’s eyes were peering.

But Cheng Qingzhi’s shoes were already too worn to wear, and his injured feet couldn’t touch the ground…

“Don’t mind her, it’s okay,” she comforted softly. And she used the hem of her clothes to wrap his feet tightly.

Cheng Qingzhi bit his lip, looking at Cheng Songer with a strange expression.

The villagers were particularly direct in their speech. Seeing that she couldn’t take advantage of the situation, the ‘honest’ middle-aged woman leaned on the fence and asked her, “Sister Songer, weren’t you going to sell your brother? Why aren’t you selling him anymore?”

Cheng Songer glanced at her. This woman’s name was Cheng Li. Despite her honest appearance, she had been coveting Cheng Qingzhi for who knows how long behind the scenes.

She desired Cheng Qingzhi’s beauty, yet despised him for having a father who didn’t uphold male virtue.

In this matriarchal country, men strictly upheld male virtue. For someone like Cheng Qingzhi’s father, it was fortunate he ran away quickly, otherwise if caught, he would have been drowned in a pig cage.

Although Cheng Li liked Cheng Qingzhi’s heavenly appearance, she feared he might turn out like his father, and had no intention of marrying him to save him from his misery.

Instead, she watched coldly from the sidelines and married a dexterous man from the neighboring village.

But the sordid thoughts in her heart had never ceased.

After hearing that Cheng Songer planned to sell Cheng Qingzhi, she secretly brought money and went to Yihong Tower, intending to satisfy her desires after rich people had deflowered him.

In fact, it wasn’t just her; many women in Cheng Village harbored such sordid thoughts.

Usually, everyone in the village lived in harmony, but in reality, they all had their own ulterior motives. The women coveted Cheng Qingzhi’s beauty, watched him suffer without lending a hand, and even added fuel to the fire, hoping his situation would worsen so they could sleep with him.

Although Cheng Qingzhi had a father who didn’t uphold husbandly virtues, Cheng Qingzhi himself strictly adhered to male virtues, preventing them from making a move.

So they spread rumors behind his back, saying he was fickle and promiscuous.

Seeing their wife-masters all thinking about the beautiful Cheng Qingzhi, the village men became jealous and angry. They said he had a promiscuous father and would surely become one too, collectively ostracizing and slandering him. Even children would throw stones at him when they saw him.

In short, Cheng Qingzhi’s situation was truly miserable.

The violence inflicted upon him was far more than just from Cheng Songer. It’s truly saddening that someone like this, instead of becoming twisted and taking revenge on society, chose to die alone in silence.

It was precisely because Cheng Qingzhi was so pitiful that Cheng Songer, who had transmigrated into the original body, wanted to protect him even more, at least to give him a normal life that a person should have.

She didn’t stop in front of the ‘honest woman’s’ courtyard, only coldly saying, “Mm, not selling anymore. From now on, my brother and I will live well together.”

Cheng Li laughed unceremoniously as if she had heard a joke.

Cheng Songer swept a cold glance at her. She was quite famous for fighting and causing trouble. Although the villagers looked down on her for being idle all day, they feared her even more.

With just one look, the middle-aged woman’s laughter immediately withered.

“Husband, come eat dinner,” Cheng Li’s husband came out carrying dishes. A disdainful and mocking gaze swept over Cheng Qingzhi. After they had walked far away, he cursed in a low voice, “Little slut.”

As Cheng Songer walked further away, Cheng Li’s husband became even more unrestrained: “Wasn’t he supposed to be sold? Why is this seductive fox spirit still lingering in our Cheng Village?”

Cheng Li sneered, “Who knows? Cheng Songer said she’s not selling anymore, and that they’ll live well together from now on. Isn’t that ridiculous?”

“Someone like Cheng Qingzhi would definitely fetch several dozen taels of silver if sold to a brothel. How could Cheng Songer not sell?” A malicious smile appeared in Cheng Li’s husband’s eyes. “Could it be that the brothel owner found out he’s damaged goods and refused to take him? Even a brothel won’t accept him, tsk, how dirty!”

Hearing her husband say this, Cheng Li scoffed, “That’s perfect then. Cheng Songer isn’t any good either. Rotten fish paired with rotten shrimp, a perfect match!”

The couple happily ate their fill amidst malicious slander of the Cheng siblings.

But Cheng Songer and Cheng Qingzhi weren’t faring so well.

Because the Cheng family was now extremely poor!

The dilapidated little house with broken windows let in drafts from all sides. Any wind or rain would turn the house into a disaster. Only a few withering small cabbages were sparsely planted in the desolate and dilapidated courtyard, and these few cabbages were the only food stores in the house.

Miserable! Too miserable!

It was dinner time now, and the aroma of other families’ meals wafted to her nose, making her stomach growl with hunger.

She first put Cheng Qingzhi on the kang bed.

Seeing only one thin quilt on the kang, which couldn’t ward off the chilly autumn wind at all, her heart sank. Sigh—they needed to buy a quilt too.

Cheng Songer couldn’t remember how many times she had sighed.

But Cheng Qingzhi heard it with trepidation, afraid that Cheng Songer would change her attitude the next second. He was about to get off the kang, disregarding the pain in his feet.

“Your feet are all injured, why are you getting out of bed?” Cheng Songer quickly grabbed his hand.

Cheng Qingzhi’s fingertips retracted, his heart trembling: “I, I’ll go make dinner for younger sister.”

The word ‘younger sister’ almost made Cheng Songer lose her composure.

“I’m not used to being called that. You can call me Songer from now on.” That’s what her friends called her.

Cheng Qingzhi obediently nodded: “Okay, then I’ll go make dinner for younger sis… for Songer.”

Cheng Songer waved her hand, covering his legs with the only thin quilt: “Don’t move, I’ll go get some water to clean your wounds.”

Saying this, Cheng Songer went out and drew a basin of water from the kitchen water vat.

When she returned with the water, she saw Cheng Qingzhi sitting tensely on the edge of the kang, his knuckles gripping the edge, looking extremely frightened.

Cheng Songer understood that he hadn’t adapted yet.

In the past, it was already a great kindness if Cheng Songer didn’t beat him, let alone fetch water to clean his wounds. It would have been good enough if she didn’t sprinkle salt on Cheng Qingzhi’s wounds.

Suddenly, Cheng Songer’s hand paused as a distant memory surfaced.

This damn original body had actually sprinkled salt on his wounds before.

Although the Cheng family’s decline was largely related to Cheng Qingzhi’s father, Xu Lan, Cheng Qingzhi hadn’t been involved at all.

Xu Lan often beat and scolded him too, saying he was a burden, hindering him from remarrying. Otherwise, with his beauty, he could have married a landlady long ago, and wouldn’t have settled for the merely well-off Cheng family.

It was said that before Xu Lan ran away, he had planned to sell Cheng Qingzhi to a family as a lucky star for marriage, in exchange for bride price money.

But because the matter was exposed too quickly, he ran away before he could carry it out.

Xu Lan truly didn’t care about Cheng Qingzhi’s life or death, only caring about himself.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have left Cheng Qingzhi in the care of the now ‘enemy’ Cheng family.

Poor punching bag!

He had only encountered bad people, with not a single ray of light in his life.

She put the water basin on the edge of the kang, trying to lower her voice so as not to scare him: “Take off your socks, I’ll wipe off the blood for you.”

Cheng Qingzhi tightly covered his feet, his face flushing red with humiliation. How could he let a woman see his feet?

Unaware of Cheng Qingzhi’s thoughts, Cheng Songer thought he was still afraid of her.

She sighed and said sincerely, “I won’t beat you anymore.”

Cheng Qingzhi’s skin was very fair, especially in the dim, lightless room, white enough to appear particularly weak and pitiful.

He was silent for a moment, looking at Cheng Songer with a wary and hesitant glance.

The tear mole under his phoenix eyes also looked pitifully cute.

“Can I do it myself?” he asked tentatively.

“Of course you can.” Cheng Songer handed him the already dampened cloth.

As Cheng Qingzhi took the cloth, the blue and purple bruises on his wrist were exposed.

Feeling a bit uncomfortable, Cheng Songer said, “You tend to your wounds yourself, I’ll go out for a bit.”

“Mm.” Cheng Qingzhi’s voice was barely audible, with a hint of relief.

Leaving the room, Cheng Songer headed straight for the kitchen. She needed to see if there was anything left to eat and how long they could last.

She lifted the rice bucket lid—less than a handful of millet remained.

That was it.

There was nothing else.

Firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, tea—they lacked everything. There were only a pile of broken pottery jars and the small cabbages in the yard that were barely clinging to life.

Cheng Songer felt like crying. At this rate, they would starve to death in a few days.

She regretted why she had nothing better to do than read some novel, while resignedly starting to cook.

Cheng Songer’s parents had died early, and she was raised by her grandmother in the village.

Looking at the less than a handful of millet, she steeled her heart and poured it all into the pot, adding a large ladle of water to start cooking.

Cheng Qingzhi was carefully wiping his wounds with the damp cloth, accidentally touching a raw and open wound, causing his fine brows to furrow in pain.

Through the tattered paper window, he saw smoke rising from the kitchen chimney.

His eyes hesitated for a moment before he crawled to the window to look.

He watched as Cheng Songer, unprecedentedly, busied herself in the kitchen. He was shocked and frightened, forgetting about his foot injury and not even bothering to put on shoes as he ran towards the kitchen.

“Songer, I, I’ll do it. This isn’t work for a woman,” he said, his pale lips trembling, whether from the cold climate or from fear.

“Why did you come out!” Cheng Songer saw his bare feet and felt a bit angry.

But seeing Cheng Qingzhi immediately shrink like a quail, she paused and changed to a gentler tone: “Your feet are all injured, didn’t I tell you not to come out?”

Cheng Qingzhi lowered his head: “My injuries don’t matter, I can still work.”

He wasn’t so delicate. In the past, even when beaten half to death, he still had to wash clothes, cook, and help with fieldwork.

He didn’t understand. In the past, Cheng Songer would only coldly watch him, no matter how severe his injuries were.

Why this time, when he had just scraped his feet a little, was she so concerned?

This wasn’t like her style.

…Why?

“What work? Stay put,” Cheng Songer directly pulled him back to the room.

Cheng Qingzhi held onto the door frame and asked softly, “Can I, can I just sit here?”

He didn’t dare go back to the room and lie down, letting Cheng Songer work for him. He felt uneasy.

The kinder Cheng Songer was to him now, the more tormented he felt.

It was as if a sharp sword was hanging over his head, not knowing when it would fall, keeping him on edge at all times.

“Alright then.” Cheng Songer gave him a stool. “Just sit here, okay?”

Cheng Qingzhi obediently nodded.

Cheng Songer turned out to be quite dexterous when it came to housework.

Cheng Qingzhi felt a bit puzzled. She had never done this kind of thing before.

He leaned his head against the doorframe and continued to watch her busy figure.

He saw her find an iron basin from somewhere and enter the kitchen, fiddling with it for a while before coming out with the basin.

The iron basin was filled with firewood, with a bright red fire burning inside, giving off smoke.

“It’s cold sitting there, come warm up by the fire,” she said, placing the fire basin by his feet before turning back to the kitchen.

Cheng Qingzhi didn’t react immediately. It wasn’t until the warm heat from the fire basin scalded him that he snapped out of his daze.

The deep autumn was cold, making him shiver. In countless past autumns and winters, he had always endured on his own. Never had anyone given him a basin of fire to ward off the cold.

…It’s so warm.

He stared at the burning flames, and without realizing it, a thin layer of moisture appeared in his eyes.

“Why are you crying?” Cheng Songer came out of the kitchen just in time to see a tear fall.

Cheng Qingzhi’s heart trembled, and he hurriedly wiped his eyes: “It must be the heat from the fire, it stung my eyes.”

“Although the fire is warm, getting too close can also hurt you. Move back a bit,” Cheng Songer didn’t think much of it. When she was young, she often stared at fires in a daze and then teared up from the smoke. She thought Cheng Qingzhi was the same.

She placed a few sturdy, thick blocks of wood by his feet and said, “If the fire goes out, add some firewood.”

Cheng Qingzhi nodded, sitting obediently by the fire.

The firelight gave his fair skin a warm color, and his overall complexion looked much better, no longer like a delicate white flower in the cold wind and rain.

Cheng Songer picked two wilted cabbages from the vegetable garden, scalded them with hot water, and the cabbages quickly cooked.

Two bowls of millet porridge, so thin it couldn’t be any thinner, and a plate of cabbage—this was their dinner.

Cheng Songer set out the bowls and chopsticks and called Cheng Qingzhi over to eat.

“We’re out of salt, so we’ll have to make do with plain boiled vegetables,” she said, trying to find joy in hardship.

Cheng Qingzhi’s beautiful eyes lifted slightly, the first time he dared to look at her directly.

He said, “There’s salt.”

Cheng Songer’s eyes lit up: “Really? Where?”

Cheng Qingzhi raised his hand to point, his voice timid: “Chinese sumac. Chinese sumac produces something salty like salt. When we didn’t have salt before, I would scrape off the white frost that forms on it to substitute for salt… but the taste is much worse than real salt.”

Cheng Songer walked to a tree in the direction he pointed, and indeed saw a layer of white frost formed on the fruits. She tasted it, and it was indeed salty, though the taste was much inferior to proper salt.

But having something was better than nothing. Cheng Songer happily scraped off some white frost and added it to the boiled cabbage, which indeed gave it a salty taste.

She couldn’t help but praise him: “Brother, you’re really something!”

Cheng Qingzhi was slightly surprised at being praised, but also showed a faint smile.

This was his first smile today. Although it was barely perceptible, like a gentle breeze that disappeared the next second, it was also the first step in Cheng Qingzhi letting go of his wariness towards Cheng Songer.

“Eh?” Cheng Songer looked at the bowl in front of her.

Her bowl was full of millet porridge, but Cheng Qingzhi’s bowl only had a tiny bit of porridge at the bottom, and it was all thin porridge. He also didn’t touch the cabbage in front of him.

“Is that all you’re eating?” Cheng Songer asked.

Cheng Qingzhi nodded, his posture humble: “I don’t eat much, this is enough.”

Is it really enough? She didn’t believe it.

When she carried Cheng Qingzhi on her back during the day, he was alarmingly thin, feeling like his bones were about to fall apart from hunger. How could he not be hungry?

She sighed inwardly. Cheng Qingzhi had humbled himself to the dust.

He was showing Cheng Songer through his actions that he ate very little, could still work, wash clothes, and cook. He was still useful, so please don’t sell him.

He was used to living at the mercy of others, and had probably long become accustomed to this unfair treatment, to abuse and beatings.

Not being sold to a brothel was already his last luxury.

Cheng Songer felt particularly uncomfortable at this moment. She snatched his bowl and scooped half of her food into it, saying in an almost commanding tone: “Eat!”

Cheng Qingzhi’s lowered eyes flickered, looking in stunned surprise at the somewhat angry Cheng Songer.

In the past, if she got angry, Cheng Qingzhi would have long since knelt on the ground to beg for forgiveness.

But at this moment, Cheng Qingzhi surprisingly didn’t feel afraid for the first time ever.

As for why, even he didn’t know.

He just looked at the food in front of him, and inexplicably felt a warm current in his heart.

The firewood by his feet made a crackling sound, and Cheng Qingzhi suddenly woke up.

He looked at Cheng Songer’s angry eyes, wordlessly took the food, and began to eat.

This was the first full meal he had eaten since his birth mother died.

————————————

After eating and washing the dishes, the sky had turned pitch black.

The old Cheng house only had two rooms. One was the main room, which was also where Cheng Songer slept and served as a living room during the day. The other was Cheng Qingzhi’s room, cold and desolate, even more dilapidated than the main room.

But for now, they had to make do.

When Cheng Songer brought the only thin quilt to Cheng Qingzhi’s room, Cheng Qingzhi was both shocked and scared, but still couldn’t resist Cheng Songer’s firm attitude.

“I run hot, it’s no problem. Sleep with it, or I’ll get angry if you refuse again,” Cheng Songer pretended to be angry.

As soon as she got angry, Cheng Qingzhi immediately obediently hugged the quilt.

That obedient and lovable appearance, no wonder it had stolen the hearts of the women in Cheng Village.

He really didn’t look like someone born in this poor and remote place, he was excessively good-looking and delicate.

However, showing off feels good for a moment, but at night Cheng Songer hugged herself, shivering with cold, until she found a few sets of clothes from the cabinet to use as a blanket before finally falling asleep.

But in the side room, Cheng Qingzhi hugged the thin quilt, unable to fall asleep for a long time.

Today’s experiences flashed through his mind like a revolving lantern, over and over again.

Cheng Songer forcefully grabbing his hair, dragging him to Yihong Tower.

Cheng Songer haggling with the madam, saying she was greedy and lustful, and the reason she hadn’t touched him all these years was just to sell him for a good price.

Everything, everything was a face he was all too familiar with.

At some unknown point, everything had changed completely.

Cheng Songer, who loved money so much, suddenly didn’t want money anymore.

She reached out her hand, saying she wanted to take him home.

Seeing his foot injured, she showed a trace of heartache and carried him on her back for over ten miles of mountain road.

She even wanted to clean his wounds, warm him by the fire, and gave him the only quilt.

She even promised to be good to him for a lifetime…

How could a person change so quickly? It was like a dream.