Song Xia was turning it over in her mind when she got home, only to see two small, bright red berries rolling right to her feet.
“Sigh, this brat…” Song Xia sighed. She really had no idea how to communicate with such a spoiled, stubborn child. His own older brother wouldn’t even manage him, so how on earth was she supposed to do it?
However, with the autumn planting fast approaching, Song Xia had to set Shen Chunming’s issues aside for the moment and focus entirely on preparing the wheat seeds.
It took Song Xia nearly a week of sorting to categorize the wheat grains into superior, medium, and inferior batches. Early this morning, she brought all the seeds out, hoping to take advantage of the decent weather to dry them in the sun first.
Just as Song Xia finished spreading the wheat seeds across the courtyard, Shen Chunming stumbled out of the room, rubbing his sleepy eyes and immediately demanding food.
Over the past few days, Shen Chunming had seemingly resigned himself to his fate. He had run away, thrown tantrums, and in the end, besides making himself look thoroughly wretched, he had simply gone hungry day after day.
Now, he simply acted like a young lord holding court at home: whenever he was hungry, he’d ask Song Xia for food; whenever he was tired, he’d head back to his room to sleep.
Waking up hungry once again today, he saw Song Xia busy in the courtyard but acted as if she wasn’t even there, straightaway asking for food.
Occupied with her wheat and unable to spare a moment for him, Song Xia replied without turning her head:
“The food is in the pot, go dish yourself a bowl. Oh, and by the way, your brother had another spell of feeling unwell last night. Once you’re done eating, take his medicine inside for him.”
As Song Xia finished speaking, she only heard a “Hmph!” from behind. Turning her head, she saw that Shen Chunming had already retreated back into the room.
Too lazy to deal with this bad-tempered kid, Song Xia had to hurry and spread the wheat evenly before the sun climbed too high so she could finish the first round of drying.
She had been exceptionally busy lately. Without the common modern chemical fertilizers and pesticides of her past life, she had to rely entirely on her own ingenuity. Recently, she had been racking her brain to organize various standard modern formulas and agents in her head, figuring out which components she could recreate here to tailor her pre-planting preparations specifically for this plot of land.
After spreading out the seeds, Song Xia stepped inside to check on them, only to discover that neither of the two brothers had eaten.
Song Xia was speechless. Was she hired as an all-inclusive maid for these two?!
Since their finances were tight, they hadn’t made major modifications to the house.
Before Shen Chunming arrived, Song Xia and Shen Huaijing had barely managed to share a single bed for the first night. By the second day, she had used a piece of cloth to partition off a small private space, and with Brother Shen’s help, she dismantled a door panel from the adjoining room to build a simple cot.
When Shen Chunming first arrived, Song Xia originally planned for him to sleep on that cot while she made do with a temporary pallet on the floor for a couple of nights. However, Shen Chunming complained that the bed was small and shabby, and he was terrified of sleeping alone in a room for fear of ghosts, so he insisted on sharing a bed with Shen Huaijing from the start. That was likely the very first concession Shen Chunming had made.
At first, Song Xia hadn’t thought much of it, because Shen Huaijing was an extremely quiet and proper person. Aside from meal times and taking his medicine, he practically blended into the background. Coupled with his frail health that required constant attention and the nominal cover of their fake marriage, Song Xia had reluctantly managed to live under the same roof this way.
However, ever since Shen Chunming showed up, Song Xia abruptly realized how terribly inconvenient it was to have a male presence in the house—even if that male was just a pre-adolescent boy.
Barely two days later, Song Xia asked Brother Shen to build two more small cots: one placed in the neighboring room for her own use, and the other put into the original room so Shen Chunming could sleep by himself without disturbing Shen Huaijing.
Therefore, the moment Song Xia walked into their room, she found both brothers still sprawled across the bed—one because he was feeling too poorly to get up, and the other because he was simply too lazy to rise.
“Get up!” Song Xia stood right before Shen Chunming’s bed and yanked his blanket away.
“Hey! What are you doing?!” Although imperious, Shen Chunming was, after all, raised in an affluent household, and his sense of shame remained intact. Seeing a young woman pull his blanket off, he scrambled up in a flash, clutching the quilt tightly against his chest like an aggrieved young bride.
“What time of day do you think it is? You’re still here sleeping in! Even Shen Jiang and the kids have already finished cutting grass and come back! Let alone Shen Jiang, even little Shen Flower wouldn’t still be lingering in bed at this hour!”
“I’m nothing like them! They’re just a bunch of wild kids!” Shen Chunming hollered back.
“Well, you still need to get outside! If you have nothing else to do, come help me turn the wheat over and get down to the fields! Lying around cooped up in the house day in and day out looks pathetic! I’m your sister-in-law, which means I have every right to manage you! Furthermore, Little Jiang and the others have been so nice to you—if I ever catch you yelling at them again, see how I deal with you!” Song Xia’s anger was genuine this time. If this child continued to be left to his own devices like this, he would truly grow up into a useless parasite!
Since she was his sister-in-law, she had every right to set him straight!
Unconvinced, Shen Chunming recalled the first few days after his arrival when he had nothing to do and wandered around the village. Shen Jiang, considering himself on good terms with Sister Xiaxia, had proactively invited him to play along, but Shen Chunming looked down his nose at these country kids and stomped back home with a dark face without giving them a single pleasant look.
Song Xia had only learned about this incident later when she visited Sister-in-law Xing’er’s house, courtesy of Shen Yun.
While she couldn’t meddle too deeply in children’s affairs, Song Xia had given each of the three Shen children a small piece of candied fruit to thank them for being willing to include Shen Chunming, which conveniently prevented him from getting bullied the next time he wandered around the village.
Shen Chunming knew nothing of this. He merely found this place profoundly boring—the people were dull, the village was dull—so after a few days he stopped going outside altogether, holing up in the house every day to flip through the random picture books he had brought with him.
Yet, catching sight of Song Xia’s stern expression and noticing that his older brother beside him also wore an approving look, Shen Chunming grumbled under his breath as he finally got up to dress.
Seeing that Shen Chunming was listening, Song Xia turned her attention away from him and looked toward Shen Huaijing.
“I know your health is poor, but you can’t just lie here like this every single day either. Same goes for you—what good is cooped up indoors all the time? No matter what, you need to get moving. Half of this illness of yours, if you ask me, is brought on entirely by staying in bed!” Launching into another rapid-fire lecture, Song Xia widened her large almond eyes.
When she finished, she caught sight of a faint trace of a smile on Shen Huaijing’s face.
Was this man actually smiling right after she had just scolded both him and his younger brother? Was there something wrong with him?
Song Xia gazed at him suspiciously.
“Alright. Actually, over the past couple of days, I’ve felt my strength improve a bit. Those chores of yours—I believe I can handle some of them. You can just teach me when the time comes,” Shen Huaijing said with unexpected gentleness.
“Uh, well, it doesn’t need to be quite that fast.” Seeing Shen Huaijing being so agreeable, Song Xia suddenly felt a bit embarrassed. “My main point is just that patients shouldn’t stay cooped up indoors without moving around; lingering in one place is actually detrimental to recovery. I happen to know a little bit about medicine too, though I don’t know how to take a pulse. Once I find a local physician to check your pulse, I’ll see if I can remix some alternative medicine for you to try. Since you’ve taken those prescriptions from the Shen estate for years without improvement, why not give mine a shot?”
Her voice trailed off defensively as a wave of self-doubt hit her. She was terrified he would think her arrogant—a mere rustic country girl claiming that prescriptions from the finest physicians in the county town were no good.
“You know medicine?” Shen Huaijing asked in surprise. He remembered that this young wife of his came from an ordinary peasant background; especially when they first met, Song Xia had been as skinny as a refugee fleeing famine. How could someone like that possibly know medicine?
“Just a little bit, learned from an old village physician…” Song Xia fudged vaguely, hurriedly changing the subject. “So, do you dare give it a try?”
“Why ever not? Feel free to try whatever you like.” Shen Huaijing offered a light chuckle, the cold detachment around his brow softening significantly. It was the first time Song Xia had seen Shen Huaijing smile like this, and for a moment, she was left momentarily dazed.
Quickly checking her inner infatuation, Song Xia blurted out, “Then get some good rest, I’ll go look for a physician,” and hurriedly bolted from the room.
That left Shen Huaijing sitting alone in the room, chuckling softly to himself.
This young wife of his turned out to be completely different from what he had imagined.
Meanwhile, rushing outside, Song Xia gave her own face a fierce rub.
“Song Xia! Pull yourself together!”
Once she calmed down, she spotted Shen Chunming strolling leisurely out of the kitchen with a steamed bun clamped between his teeth.
Song Xia slapped a hand to her forehead.
Oh well, progress takes time.
True to her word today, once Shen Chunming finished breakfast, she stood over him and watched him wash his own bowl. After nearly dropping and shattering it half a dozen times, Shen Chunming finally managed to wash the very first bowl of his life.
Before he could even feel sorry for himself, Song Xia shoved a small basket into his hands and told him to carry it and follow her.
Shen Chunming protested, but Song Xia countered by threatening to cut off his meals. Sure enough, that chunk of baby fat on Shen Chunming wasn’t for nothing; upon hearing the threat of starvation, he finally tagged along behind Song Xia, carrying the basket with extreme reluctance.
Halfway through the walk, Shen Chunming realized that Song Xia was actually leading him up into the mountains.
His eyes lit up with sudden excitement—he had never been up a mountain before!
Noticing Shen Chunming perk up, Song Xia smiled inwardly: Just wait, a little later you’ll find out whether this is a good time or not!
Reaching the foot of the mountain, Song Xia instructed Shen Chunming on how to tie his trouser legs and cuffs tightly. Catching the boy’s puzzled look, she decided to indulge in a bit of playful mischief.
“Because there are lots of snakes up on this mountain! They’ll crawl right up through your trousers, sleeves, and collar to bite you from the inside!” Song Xia exaggerated with dramatic flair, even mimicking a snake slithering up onto his body.
“Ah!!” Terrified out of his wits, Shen Chunming dropped the basket instantly and spun around ready to sprint back home.
“Hey, are you really that much of a coward? Even little Shen Flower dares to go into the mountains!” Seizing Shen Chunming by the arm, Song Xia flashed him a look of utter disappointment—the kind that clearly said you’re awfully fragile—which instantly provoked the boy’s pride.
“I am not! I’m way tougher than that little girl!”
“In that case then…?” Song Xia drew out her tone.
“I—I’ll go! Show me how to tie those trouser legs again!”
Snickering internally, Song Xia patiently demonstrated once more, finishing up by thoroughly inspecting whether Shen Chunming’s ties were secure.
There really are snakes on this mountain anyway! Song Xia thought to herself: I wasn’t even lying.
With everything prepared, the two set off up the mountain to forage for the materials Song Xia needed.
Her trip into the mountains today was to collect dry twigs, fallen leaves, and firewood, alongside picking some wild hawthorns while she was at it.
Shen Chunming couldn’t comprehend why Song Xia needed to gather so much firewood when there was already plenty stacked at home. As the hawthorns in his basket piled higher and the bundle of firewood on his back grew heavier, Shen Chunming gradually fell behind Song Xia’s pace.
Marching ahead with her head down, Song Xia soon noticed that the footsteps behind her had vanished. Turning her head back, she spotted Shen Chunming with a bright red face, dragging a stack of firewood behind her while gasping for breath.
Hurrying back to his side, Song Xia could see he wasn’t faking it. She promptly fed him a few sips of lightly salted water and helped him sit down to rest.
“Why didn’t you say you were struggling earlier?” Seeing Shen Chunming drenched in sweat, a pang of pity hit her—in the modern era, a kid this age would only be a third-grade elementary student!
“I—I am tougher… than Shen Flower!” Shen Chunming wheezed out, gasping for air, yet still stubbornly maintaining his pride.
“Yes, yes, yes, I can see that. Ah-Ming is the toughest of all!” Touched by his unexpected stubborn streak, Song Xia offered a soft, comforting word.
Glancing at the firewood on both their backs and estimating the weight, Song Xia said, “We’ve gathered plenty of things for today. Let’s head back down the mountain, and in a couple of days, your sister-in-law will cook you something delicious, alright?”
Hearing that they were heading down immediately, Shen Chunming visibly relaxed; and upon hearing Song Xia’s promise of delicious food, his face brightened up instantly.
“Alright.” Shen Chunming nodded with a great show of aloof dignity, though the way he swallowed his saliva didn’t escape Song Xia’s sharp eyes. He really is just a kid at heart! she thought with a silent grin.