Chapter 10

“What the hell are you? How dare you hit our child! Children’s play is children’s business. As an adult, do you have the face to lay hands on them? You look refined and pretty—how can you do things only beasts would do?”

Ye Wanqing’s almond eyes were cold, a half-smile on her face. “I have plenty of face. And from now on, if I see anyone bullying our Ge Yue, I’ll beat them every time I see them! As for who is the beast—whoever starts it first is the one.”

“An adult arguing with children—do you still want any face?”

“If I want face I have to take a beating. Only by not wanting face can people talk behind others’ backs and openly let their own little troublemakers run wild. In that case, better not to want face at all.” Ye Wanqing spoke leisurely. “I advise you not to lecture me with big principles. I’m uneducated and won’t understand. Want me to let Ge Yuan out to talk with you?”

“You……”

Thinking of the fierce and terrifying Ge Yuan, the parents who had originally been aggressive suddenly had their voices catch. They pulled their loudly crying children into the house.

While closing the door they still cursed and lectured the children, pointing at the mulberry while scolding the locust.

Ye Wanqing did not care.

She pulled up the curled-up Ge Yue, patted the dust off her body, and checked carefully. Only after confirming she had just scraped a little skin did she relax.

Ge Yue was only six years old, short and small. Her withered yellow hair was as messy as straw. Her face and body were filthy; who knew how long it had been since she was properly washed……

Thinking about it, it made sense. Ge Yuan himself was so rough; of course he could not take care of the little girl in a very refined way.

“You act so fierce toward me usually, always going ‘hmph hmph,’ so why is it that when someone really bullies you, you curl up like a little mouse at the base of the wall and don’t even know to fight back?” Ye Wanqing could not hold back and pinched Ge Yue’s face in anger.

She had long wanted to do this. This little girl ate the food she cooked yet still would not give her a good face.

Ge Yue turned her head, carrying a bit of stubbornness. “I already stopped hmph-ing yesterday.”

“Oh, then should I still thank you?” Ye Wanqing stood up and extended her hand toward her. “Let’s go back. Otherwise your brother will get anxious if he waits too long.”

Ge Yue raised her head. Her large eyes examined Ye Wanqing for a few seconds, then she carefully placed her dirty little claws into Ye Wanqing’s palm. Ye Wanqing suddenly recalled the way she had held the stray cat and felt as if she herself was like a pitiful stray cat waiting to be carefully cared for.

Little girl.

Ye Wanqing pressed her lips into a smile and led her toward the small courtyard.

After walking a few steps, Ge Yue suddenly tugged at Ye Wanqing’s hand and stopped.

“What’s wrong?” Ye Wanqing turned back to look at her.

Ge Yue put on a serious little face and corrected very solemnly, “Just now you said ‘let Ge Yuan out.’ That’s not right. Big Brother is not a dog.”

Ye Wanqing tried to hold it in but could not. She “pfft” laughed out loud.

Ge family small courtyard.

When Ge Yuan saw Ye Wanqing leading the filthy Ge Yue back, his eyes sank for a moment, yet he did not ask anything.

He said to Ye Wanqing, “The rice is cooked.”

“All right. I’ll make the dishes right away.”

It was the season for eating spring bamboo shoots. The spring bamboo shoots Ge Yuan had brought over earlier had not been eaten yet. Ye Wanqing wanted to reward him and also make something delicious for the little one, so she set her sights on the spring bamboo shoots.

There were many ways to eat spring bamboo shoots. They paired well with both meat and vegetables, and could be stir-fried, braised, boiled, simmered, or stewed.

Ge Yuan had brought back quite a few spring bamboo shoots. She planned to make one spring bamboo shoot three ways.

Before she returned, Ge Yuan had already prepared the chicken and chopped it into pieces. She first blanched the chicken, stir-fried it fragrant in oil, then put it into an earthenware pot. Next she cut the peeled spring bamboo shoot bases into long strips and stewed them together with the chicken into soup.

The ingredients at this time were all locally grown and original in flavor. Brought to a boil over high heat and then slowly simmered over low heat, once the spring bamboo shoots absorbed the essence of the chicken soup the taste would certainly be unimaginably rich and delicious, making people pour bowl after bowl into their stomachs.

The middle part of the spring bamboo shoots was firm and dense with a relatively crisp and tender texture. Ye Wanqing cut them into shreds with a knife and set them aside.

She also cut a small piece of cured meat, slicing the evenly fatty and lean cured meat into thin slices. She fried them in oil, and when the aroma burst forth she added the cut bamboo shoot shreds. A clear, fresh fragrance immediately filled the nose.

Then she added garlic leaves and salt for seasoning. No need for many seasonings—the fragrance of the smoked cured meat and the crispness of the bamboo shoot shreds were fully displayed.

When making food, sometimes one simply pursued the character “fresh.”

The most essential part of the bamboo shoot was the tip—the most tender, the freshest, and also the least. Such a small amount was not enough for stir-frying other things, but adding a little when stir-frying eggs was perfect. The soft glutinous texture of the eggs mixed with the freshness of the bamboo shoot tips was extremely delicious and had an especially good mouthfeel.

With meat, vegetables, and soup, tonight’s dinner was very abundant.

Ge Yuan was glad he had cooked extra rice; otherwise there definitely would not have been enough to eat tonight.

He held his stomach and leaned back against the chair to rest. Ge Yue also did not hurry to jump down from the chair—whether because she was too full to move or because she was no longer awkward. The brother and sister were truly siblings; their movements and expressions were as if carved from the same mold.

Ye Wanqing looked at them and wanted to laugh.

However, she kicked the leg of Ge Yuan’s chair and urged him to move. “I remember your house has a large wooden basin. Go heat some water. I’ll give Ge Yue a bath.”

Ge Yue immediately widened her eyes, like a cat whose fur had been ruffled. “I’m a big child. I can do it myself!”

“But you’re dirty! And smelly.” Ge Yuan glanced at Ge Yue, then looked at Ye Wanqing with a bit of embarrassment. “This girl can’t wash herself clean. Her neck is still black. Someone has to teach her.”

He was the older brother and it was not convenient for him to teach. It would be better for Ye Wanqing to do it.

He just felt a little embarrassed.

Compared with Ye Wanqing, the two siblings were simply as different as clouds and mud. Fortunately she did not mind.

Ge Yuan efficiently went to heat water and wash the dishes. Ye Wanqing busied herself with the preliminary work of preparing the sour plum drink. Only Ge Yue was left at the dining table.

Once everyone had left, she carefully pinched her own collar and sniffed it.

Her little face wrinkled as she muttered softly, “It’s not that smelly. Just ordinarily smelly.”

“Hmph!”

Ye Wanqing first washed the black plums, black dates, licorice, hawthorn, and other ingredients she had bought from the pharmacy, then added three liters of water to soak them.

After adding water they needed to sit for twelve hours before they could be boiled. In the time that followed, Ye Wanqing planned to scrub the Ge family’s dirty “little horse.”

Scrubbing a little colt and bathing Ge Yue—wasn’t it about the same?

Ye Wanqing used a full five buckets of water and spent an hour before she finally washed the filthy little girl clean.

At first Ge Yue still puffed out her cheeks, but once the dirty things scrubbed from her body turned the water in the wooden basin turbid, she immediately stopped making a fuss. She obediently sat in the wooden basin, her little face red—whether from the heat of the steam or from shyness was unclear.

After washing and changing into clean clothes, Ge Yue was fair and clean. A pair of ink-grape-like eyes were black and bright. Apart from her still-yellow hair and a bit of thinness, she looked both pretty and cute, surprising even Ge Yuan as her older brother.

“You’re this fair?”

He had always thought his little sister was a dark girl. He never expected she simply had not been washed clean.

“Hmph!” Ge Yue wrinkled her little nose and pointed at her small clothes. “And fragrant!”

“Yes yes yes, you’re the most fragrant.” Ge Yuan snorted with laughter and gently ruffled the yellow hair on his little sister’s head, while secretly glancing at Ye Wanqing.

This scene suddenly gave him an illusion—that they, together with this little Ge Yue, were like a family of three.

Father, mother, and child.

Ye Wanqing did not know what Ge Yuan was thinking. Looking at the clean Ge Yue, she felt a sense of achievement as if after completing a major cleaning.

It was getting late. She arranged with Ge Yuan to come over around three or four the next morning to boil the sour plum drink, then prepared to leave.

Yet she had only just taken a step when the hem of her clothes was tightly grabbed by a small hand.

Ye Wanqing looked back at the little one in surprise. “What’s wrong?”

“Will you really come again tomorrow?” Ge Yue’s eyes carried expectation.

“I will.”

“That’s good. Adults must keep their word. Hook fingers.” Ge Yue nodded like a little adult and extended her hand toward Ye Wanqing.

After hooking fingers with Ye Wanqing, she only then put on a serious face and returned to her own room.

Ye Wanqing: “……”

Ge Yuan, however, knew exactly what his little sister was like and particularly cheerfully sold her out. “She can’t bear to part with you, yet she’s too embarrassed to say it. She’s being awkward.”

“Isn’t that the same as you?” Ye Wanqing laughed softly and glanced sideways at him.

Ge Yuan: “……”

No, he would never admit it!

In the thin night, Ye Wanqing and Ge Yuan walked side by side. They were not very close, yet a strange atmosphere permeated between the two of them that made anyone who looked know they were companions.

Ge Yuan held a flashlight in his hand, shining it slanted one meter in front of Ye Wanqing, not caring about the path in front of himself.

“You should also watch the road.” Ye Wanqing reminded him.

“Mm.” Ge Yuan answered, yet the flashlight did not so much as waver.

Ye Wanqing felt warm inside and also wanted to laugh. She was about to find a topic to chat with Ge Yuan to deepen their understanding or to tease him a little more, when his low voice rang out first.

“I have something I want to tell you.”

Ye Wanqing: “Go ahead.”

“About my little sister—you must have heard quite a few rumors today, right?”

“……Mm.” Ye Wanqing thought for a moment and comforted him, “Some people just like to gossip and spin groundless words into something spectacular. But even if their words are ugly, we don’t need to take them to heart. Just don’t associate with them.”

“No…… what they said is all true……” Ge Yuan suddenly stopped walking. A pair of pitch-black eyes looked deeply at Ye Wanqing in the night. His voice carried the cold of a spring night, along with a bit of unease.

“What?” Ye Wanqing subconsciously looked at him.

Ge Yuan’s Adam’s apple slid up and down. His voice was rough as he said, “My little sister…… she…… was conceived after my mother was violated by a beast. My mother never knew she was pregnant. By the time she discovered it she was already five or six months along. The doctor said her body was not good and she could not have an abortion. My mother also did not want to…… so there was my little sister.”

“I want to kill that beast. All these years I have never given up investigating.”

“I am the same—not anything good either. I haven’t read much. Fighting is a daily occurrence. The moment others see me it’s as if they see a vicious dog that bites people. They’re very afraid and can’t avoid me fast enough……”

And her—was she foolish or what, actually treating him so well!

But……

“Neither I nor my family is good. We have nothing. You……”

At this point Ge Yuan could no longer continue.