The next day.
Fearing that Mother Ning might come bother her mother again, Xie Yunzhen went to Ning Yankui’s home early in the morning.
But to her surprise, she had barely sat down for half a quarter of an hour when Ning Yankui actually took the initiative to propose calling off the engagement.
Xie Yunzhen could hardly believe her ears, suspecting he was joking—after all, everyone in the village knew how stubborn he had been about this matter.
She was about to speak when she saw Ning Yankui frown and look behind her, calling out a stiff “Mother.”
Xie Yunzhen’s heart tightened. She turned her head as well and saw Mother Ning holding a sickle and carrying a basket on her back. Although the Ning family had nearly exhausted their savings because of Ning Yankui’s accident this time, the blacksmith shop had done good business in the past, and Ning Yankui had never shortchanged his mother—not that she wore silks and satins, but adding a new garment from time to time was common enough. Yet the woman was stubborn as ever, still wearing the same faded, heavily patched clothes as before, standing at the door with a smile that was both fawning and deliberate.
“Oh, it’s Yunzhen! You two go on and chat, I won’t disturb you.” Even as she said “no disturbance,” she stared eagerly at the two people inside the room, shuffling outward at a snail’s pace.
Xie Yunzhen only gave a soft “Aunt Lan” as a greeting, then turned her back to face Ning Yankui, stood up to pour him a bowl of water, pretending to be busy.
She didn’t much care for Ning Yankui’s mother. She had heard that the woman had married into Ning Village from Shikou Village down the mountain, and her surname was Chen—Chen Erlan. At first, Xie Yunzhen had been deceived by Mother Ning’s warmth, but as time went on, she came to understand just how terrifying this widowed mother with two faces could be.
In public, she’d curse and rant with filthy language, the very picture of a shrew. In private, before her own son, she could instantly switch into a gentle, understanding, good-mother persona.
At first, she had looked down on the Xie family as outsiders with no land and no proper labor force, and had been unwilling to form a marriage alliance. Later, for reasons unknown, she relented—but she always liked to secretly spy on Yunzhen and Ning Yankui’s interactions, filling Yunzhen with deep resentment.
On top of that, after the engagement was settled three years ago, she took on the air of a future mother-in-law, frequently going to the Xie home to gossip and criticize, or finding ways to make Xie Yunzhen come to the Ning house to do this and that, until the villagers mistakenly believed that Xie Yunzhen was desperately chasing after Ning Yankui, and the talk behind her back turned truly ugly.
Yunzhen had once hinted at this to Ning Yankui, but he didn’t take it seriously. Occasionally he would explain that his mother had lost her husband young, and that a widow raising an only son alone in the village hadn’t had it easy—and with his grandfather also passing away three years ago, her tough attitude was just her way of keeping others from bullying her.
When he put it that way, what more could Yunzhen say? Force him to see his mother’s true face? At first she had obediently done whatever Mother Ning ordered, but later she avoided her whenever possible. After all, it was his family’s business—until the day she actually married him, there was no need for her to wade in and invite trouble.
But Xie Yunzhen dared not think—with a mother-in-law like that, even if she did eventually make it to marriage with Ning Yankui, she feared she’d never know a peaceful day.
Once Mother Ning had left, Xie Yunzhen closed the door.
She sat back down by the bedside, her voice soft: “What you said just now—were you serious?”
Ning Yankui nodded. “I… I’m serious. What about you, Yunmei? What do you think?” Heaven only knew how hard it was for him to be the one to bring up calling off the engagement.
Xie Yunzhen unconsciously furrowed her brow, her heart stirring slightly, unsure of what to say.
She had indeed been resistant to this marriage from the bottom of her heart, planning to bring it up once she had saved enough money.
But she was not made of stone—how could she remain unmoved by his unwavering kindness year after year?
She gazed quietly at Ning Yankui. Summer was approaching, and he wore an indigo short-sleeved tunic. Besides the fractures in both feet and the external wounds on his limbs, a large patch of skin had been shaved off his head, leaving half of it tightly wrapped in bandages. In just a single month, he had grown so thin that the firm, well-built muscles he once had were nearly invisible now.
He was actually not bad-looking at all. From years of blacksmithing and traveling outdoors, his skin was a shade more bronze than most people’s. Though he might not measure up to that gentleman, if one were to speak plainly, no one in the surrounding villages was better looking than him. That was why, even after he and Yunzhen were betrothed, quite a few young women still refused to give up on him.
“Your wounds haven’t healed yet—once they do—”
“—Mother!!”
Before Xie Yunzhen could finish her sentence, Ning Yankui suddenly caught sight of a pair of sneaky yet familiar eyes peeking through the crack of the half-closed door. In a fit of rage, he grabbed a bowl from beside him and hurled it at the doorway.
Enough. He had had enough!
Had it not been for an accidental return home before the accident, he would never have known what his good mother was really like behind his back. And that matter—he had been deceived by her for so many years!
“Yunmei, I’m sorry. From now on, I’ll make sure my mother behaves herself.” Ning Yankui looked ashamed. “I had no idea she had been bothering your mother behind my back so many times…”
Xie Yunzhen pressed her lips together and let out a long, silent sigh of relief. She was glad she hadn’t spoken the truth just now. Ning’s mother had always paid lip service while acting otherwise. If she had overheard, she might have panicked and called her two thuggish younger brothers from the city back to the village to cause trouble.
However, in that brief moment of eye contact with Ning Yankui just now, Xie Yunzhen couldn’t help but doubt her own eyes—for some reason, when he mentioned his mother, a flicker of disgust had flashed in his eyes.
She thought she must have misseen it. Ning Yankui was the most filial person she knew. Even if he had learned of his mother’s true nature differing from what he had always seen, he wouldn’t go so far as to feel disgust toward her.
“She’s just worried about you.” Since she was someone else’s mother, Xie Yunzhen naturally couldn’t truly echo any criticism.
Ning Yankui didn’t respond, only gazing at her steadily before speaking. “Yunmei, I truly don’t want to be apart from you. I genuinely like you…”
Though this wasn’t the first time she had witnessed Ning Yankui’s directness, Xie Yunzhen still blushed, opening her mouth as if to speak but hesitating.
“But the way I am now—not only did I fail to earn money back, I’ve squandered the family’s savings. I don’t want to be a burden to you.”
“Wasn’t that for the betrothal gift? If anything, it’s because of me…”
Her mother was a perceptive woman. Though the blacksmith shop did good business, with a mother-in-law like that in the household, she looked down on the Ning family. But she knew nothing of the entanglement between Yunzhen and Ning Yankui, assuming only that the two were deeply in love. So she had deliberately raised the betrothal price—both to test Ning Yankui and to signal the Ning family to back off.
But who would have thought that Ning Yankui, ignoring his mother’s objections, had taken on a large order from an outsider half a year ago, and a month ago went to a neighboring county to deliver the goods. Not only did he fail to collect payment, but he was beaten half to death by that group of people, then thrown into the river. He was only saved by a fisherman who happened to pull him out, barely clinging to life. He returned to the village in a sorry state, and not long after, was taken away by the government soldiers of Raocheng, only being released after ten or fifteen days.
This matter was truly secret. Had Ning Yankui not confessed it to her in private, how would she have known that he was bold enough to take on a commission to forge weapons for mountain bandits! If he didn’t want to be imprisoned and tortured, he had to pay up. Thus the Ning family, once fairly well-off in the village, was left with nothing after paying a large sum to the authorities to save their lives.
“Yunmei, don’t say that! How could this be your fault? I’m a man, and naturally I wanted to earn more silver for my future wife. Blame my wishful thinking and greed—I shouldn’t have taken that job. It was all my own doing, and has nothing to do with you, Yunmei.”
“Besides, didn’t you dislike me from the very beginning?”
He spoke the truth with his eyes closed. In truth, over the years he had faintly sensed that from the moment Yun Zhen nodded in agreement to their engagement three years ago, he had truly and completely lost her.
But he would rather immerse himself in the joy of having his wish fulfilled than wake up from the truth.
“…I did dislike you, but that was in the past.” Xie Yunzhen looked at the sun outside, then stood up. She needed to go home and take care of some matters, or she wouldn’t make it into town in time. “You should focus on recovering first. With injuries like this, it’s not the right time to discuss these things.”
Ning Yankui watched Xie Yunzhen walk away. She said she didn’t dislike him now, and he couldn’t tell whether he felt disappointment or relief.
Although he was the one who had initiated the dissolution of their engagement, he so wished to hear Yun Zhen refuse him. But he also knew that the wrong beginning had left her no choice—no way to return his feelings.
Xie Yunzhen walked back along the road, quietly pondering the possibility of dissolving her engagement with Ning Yankui. If his mother had a better temperament, Ning Yankui would indeed be a good choice. But now she had already…
“…Have any of you seen Atao? No? …Atao, come home, Atao—”
From a distance, Xie Yunzhen spotted an acquaintance—the village’s only doctor, surnamed Liao, who had a medicinal herb field to the north.
He had an unmarried young daughter who, a few years ago, had suddenly developed a mental illness after some unknown incident, and now wandered about in a daze all day. However, since she had never harmed anyone, Doctor Liao, out of pity for her, didn’t lock her in the house. Atao often slipped away from home, so she was frequently nowhere to be found.
It was the season for planting grain, and the fields were full of people bent over in busy labor. Even if Atao had truly passed through here, no one would have noticed.
Xie Yunzhen watched the direction Doctor Liao had come from and guessed that on his way to look for his daughter, he had probably also delivered the medicine to her house.
She greeted Doctor Liao and returned to the Xie household. Sure enough, before she even entered the house, she saw several packets of medicine placed on the table in the main hall, whose door stood wide open.
“Mother, didn’t I say yesterday that I’d find someone else to treat you? Why are you still taking Doctor Liao’s medicine?”
She had been taking this medicine on and off for two or three years without any improvement. It would be better not to take it at all.
Ever since she had swallowed her pride and agreed to that matter with Lord He, her first thought was naturally to take the money and find a better physician in town to examine her mother.
She spoke as she walked inside, only to run straight into Xie Yunqi and Xie Yunzhuo, the twin sisters.
“Big Sister?!”
Xie Yunzhen’s sudden return startled Xie Yunzhuo, who had been about to head out.
She had been distracted to begin with, and for a moment didn’t react, instinctively pushing Xie Yunzhuo back toward the house. Catching sight of her younger sister nearby, she suddenly snapped back to reality. “Wait—what’s going on? It’s this late already—why haven’t you and Yunqi gone to the village school yet?” She had gone to the Ning household early, before the sisters had woken up, but by now, why were the two still at home?
She was referring to the village school in Shikou Village at the foot of the mountain, established last year by an old juren who had returned to his hometown. Originally, it didn’t accept young girls, and it had only been after she and her mother had gone back and forth, wearing down that old scholar with repeated pleas, that they had managed to squeeze both younger sisters in.
Now nine years old, Xie Yunqi sat at the doorway, fanning the stove fire as she decocted medicine. Watching her twin sister about to storm off in a huff, she spoke with the wisdom of someone beyond her years: “It’s all because of Ning Erlang, the headman’s son. After school yesterday, he insisted on pestering the two of us, and no matter what, we couldn’t shake him off. Big Sister, you know her temper—pfft—”
Xie Yunqi laughed as she spoke, then realizing her slip, immediately covered her guilty face with the palm-leaf fan: “She punched Ning Erlang, and the teacher saw it. He’s suspended us for two days.”
“What happened? Why didn’t you tell me yesterday? Does Mother know?” Xie Yunzhen stopped outside the house, peered inside, then pulled Xie Yunzhuo aside and asked in a low voice.
Xie Yunzhuo kicked irritably at the loose stones at the base of the wall, mumbling: “Big Sister, you know I—I—”
“How would Big Sister dare to say anything? If it weren’t for Ning Erlang being guilty himself, the headman’s family would have come knocking yesterday.”
At the mention of Ning Erlang, Xie Yunzhuo flew into a rage, and throwing caution to the wind, shouted: “Ugh, so annoying! Next time he pulls that nonsense, I’ll hit him again!”
Xie Yunzhen quickly clamped a hand over her mouth and dragged her over to the well: “Keep your voice down! Do you want Mother to hear?!”
She drew up some water, then pulled a handkerchief from her waist—embroidered with lifelike magnolia blossoms, a gift from her mother on her birthday last year.
She crouched down, gently drew Xie Yunzhuo close, and wetting the cloth, wiped the mud from her face. “Yunzhuo, you’re different from other people, you know that?”
“Some things, you have to endure. Otherwise, you’ll bring trouble to Mother and Yunqi.”
Xie Yunzhuo kept her head lowered, staring at the trail of ants passing by her feet, saying nothing, her heart churning with frustration.
Of course she knew. If for no other reason, it was because she was actually a boy. So she had to endure, couldn’t let anyone discover the truth.
But Ning Erlang had simply gone too far!