Su Yun slept deeply that night. She was awakened by Xiao Yuan pushing her.
“What is it?”
Su Yun opened her eyes in confusion.
“Fire. There’s a fire,” Xiao Yuan said as he was already pulling on his clothes.
Hearing this, Su Yun shot up immediately. Seeing the flames outside, she frowned and quickly got out of bed.
“Come, I’ll carry you.”
She put on her shoes and coat, then turned toward Xiao Yuan.
“I can use crutches…”
“Stop talking nonsense!”
Su Yun cut him off, grabbed his arm, and pulled him over.
“Hold on tight.”
“Su Yun…”
“Quick!”
The fire was growing larger by the second. She had no time for words.
Xiao Yuan climbed onto her back.
Su Yun carried him outside while also grabbing the padded jacket she had just sewn for him and their quilts.
The fire had started in the kitchen. With the thatched roof, it spread rapidly.
She carried Xiao Yuan to the well in the courtyard. Seeing that the flames had already spread to the bedroom roof, she poured a bucket of water over herself and rushed back into the house.
“Su Yun!”
Xiao Yuan braced himself against the well edge. His weak legs couldn’t support him, and he collapsed into the dirt.
“Su Yun…”
He didn’t feel pain at all—only stared desperately at the house.
Falling embers made the fire spread even faster.
Su Yun rushed out of the burning house carrying a bamboo basket in each arm. She also had Xiao Yuan’s crutches tucked under her armpit.
“Su Yun! Su Yun!” Xiao Yuan’s voice trembled.
Even he didn’t realize it.
Su Yun placed the baskets beside him and quickly helped him up.
“Why did you fall?”
He grabbed her arm tightly.
“Are you hurt?”
“Me?” Su Yun smiled. “I’m fine.”
She helped him sit down and handed him his crutches.
“Stay here for a moment.”
“Where are you going?”
He grabbed her wrist, afraid she would go back into danger.
“I’ve got something to deal with,” she said, her eyes curved.
Before sleeping, she had personally confirmed there was no fire left in the kitchen.
But in the middle of the night, the house suddenly caught fire.
If someone didn’t set it, she didn’t believe it.
If they wanted her to have nowhere to live, then they shouldn’t expect to stay untouched either.
“Wait here for me.”
With that, she left.
Not long after, the Qin family’s woodshed next door caught fire.
Su Yun climbed back over the wall.
She wasn’t sure whether it was the Qin family or the Su family who had started the fire in her home—but she suspected the Qin family.
If that was the case, they wouldn’t get away clean either.
She stood in the courtyard, coldly watching the flames at the Qin house, a faint smile on her lips.
A piece of clothing fell onto her shoulders.
She looked up. Xiao Yuan stood beside her, also staring at the fire.
“Your clothes are wet. Wear mine.”
The padded jacket on her shoulders was the one she had sewn.
The ten catties of cotton she had bought earlier had been used to make one jacket for Xiao Yuan. She had originally planned to make one for herself and a new quilt, but hadn’t had the chance.
Now the house was gone.
Fortunately, everything she bought at the commune a few days ago was stored in the two bamboo baskets Xiao Yuan had woven.
Su Yun looked at the burning house and the noisy Qin family, then smiled faintly.
She turned to Xiao Yuan.
“It looks like, thanks to me, we’ve lost even our only place to stay.”
The firelight reflected on her face.
Her thin features weren’t traditionally striking, but at this moment, she looked like the most beautiful person in the world.
At least in Xiao Yuan’s eyes, from this moment on, she was the most beautiful and best girl in the world.
The Qin house was burning.
The Qin family was in chaos, shouting and scrambling to put out the fire. Qin Aiguo barked orders at his children.
Villagers nearby, exhausted from a day’s work, were fast asleep.
No one woke up.
Thanks to Qin Aiguo, Xu Dongmei, Qin Xiao, and Qin Jiao working together, half the house was saved.
But the kitchen, woodshed, and storage room were completely burned down.
Xu Dongmei stared at the ashes of the kitchen and burst into tears.
“Our grain… what are we going to do? Our food supply is gone!”
Qin Jiao was also panicking.
“Dad! Brother! How did our house catch fire?”
“Did you forget to put out the fire when cooking?” Qin Xiao snapped.
“I cooked, yes—but I didn’t burn the house down!”
“Then who did?”
“Enough!”
Qin Aiguo shouted at them.
He looked at the still-smoking next door.
“It must have spread from there.”
His heart ached too.
If he had known the fire would spread, he never would have set fire to that broken hut.
But if that fire had killed Su Yun and that cripple, losing half a house would have been worth it.
Houses can be rebuilt.
But dead people stay dead.
“Brother Yuan! Brother Yuan, are you okay?” Su Yun’s anxious voice came from next door.
Qin Aiguo’s smile froze.
They didn’t die?
“Waaah… what are we going to do now? Our home is gone!” Su Yun wailed dramatically toward the Qin house.
“Brother Yuan, are we going to live in a cave now?”
She was clearly enjoying her performance.
Xiao Yuan watched her quietly, a faint smile on his face.
Something in his deep eyes had changed.
After finishing her performance, Su Yun sat back down on the bamboo baskets.
The courtyard gate was pushed open.
Qin Aiguo stood outside, most of his face hidden in darkness, expression unreadable.
Seeing him, Su Yun immediately stood up, pitiful.
“Uncle Qin, you’re here.”
“Our house burned down. Brother Yuan and I are injured. Could we stay at your place for a while?”
Didn’t Qin Aiguo claim publicly that he treated Xiao Yuan like his own son?
Now that their hut was gone, let’s see what he would do.
Would he let them move back?
Qin Aiguo forced a smile.
“That might not work. Our place was burned too.”
Su Yun gasped.
“Your house was burned too?”
“Then what happened? How did the fire start so suddenly? Could it be that Su Yaozu that bastard retaliating against us?”