Early the next morning.
A simple breakfast was laid out on the Qiao family’s wooden table. Steam curled up from bowls of thin rice porridge served in coarse porcelain.
“Mom, I’m going out to play!”
Twelve-year-old Qiao Yi stuffed an egg into his mouth and dashed out of the courtyard. It was the first day of summer vacation, and there was no way he could stay home.
“Slow down! Don’t fall!” Chen Xiuying called after her son.
For once, she acted kindly. She peeled an egg, placed it into Qiao Qingyan’s bowl, and spoke in a gentle voice.
“Qingyan, your sister’s marriage to Runsheng has already been settled. The wedding banquet will be held before long. We’ve already accepted the Xiao family’s betrothal gifts, so you’ll marry into the Xiao family in your sister’s place.”
What?
She wanted her to be a substitute bride?
On what grounds?
Qiao Qingyan picked up the egg and calmly dropped it back into Chen Xiuying’s bowl.
“I can’t afford to eat your egg.”
In this family, every meal came with exactly three eggs.
One was for Qiao Nianshan, who worked in the fields.
One was for precious Chen Xiaomeng.
The last belonged to their beloved son, Qiao Yi.
Qiao Qingyan had never once been allowed an egg.
Chen Xiuying glanced at her husband and nudged him under the table with her foot.
Qiao Nianshan set down his chopsticks and sighed.
“Qingyan, just listen to your mother. We’re doing this for your own good.”
Qiao Qingyan didn’t bother hiding her contempt.
“I’m not marrying him! Whoever wants to marry him can do it! I was never the one engaged to the Xiao family in the first place.”
She had long since lost any sense of affection or belonging toward this family.
Her mother had died when she was seven.
Less than six months later, her father had remarried.
Once there was a stepmother, there was practically no father anymore.
Qiao Nianshan was weak-willed and never had any say at home. Chen Xiuying ruled the household, and Qiao Qingyan had suffered countless injustices growing up.
Fortunately, when she was eight, her aunt had taken her to the city to attend school. Living with her aunt and uncle, she had finally experienced what a real family felt like.
But two years ago, something happened to her aunt’s family.
At seventeen, she had been forced to return to this suffocating home.
“You think you can refuse just because you say so?” Chen Xiuying slammed the table and shot to her feet, her eyes blazing. “We’ve already accepted the Xiao family’s bride price! That money paid your little brother’s school tuition! Whether you want to or not, you’re getting married!”
Qiao Qingyan clenched the hem of her clothes until her knuckles turned white. Her lips pressed into a tight line as she looked at her silent father.
The man irritably tapped his chopsticks against the worn wooden table, avoided his daughter’s gaze, lowered his head, and quietly sipped his porridge.
Qiao Qingyan let out a cold laugh.
“So Chen Xiaomeng stole my fiancé, and now you’re forcing me to marry the Xiao family in her place? This is what you call ‘doing it for my own good’?”
“Qingyan, don’t put it that way,” Chen Xiaomeng said with an innocent smile. “Runsheng and I love each other. I didn’t steal him. Don’t be so selfish. Think about Father and Mother. We’ve already accepted the Xiao hunter family’s bride price. Since we’re sisters, does it really matter which one of us marries into the Xiao family?”
“Then why don’t you marry him?”
Qiao Qingyan’s sharp gaze pierced straight through her.
Chen Xiaomeng was left speechless.
“I… my marriage to Brother Runsheng has already been arranged. How could I back out now?”
She sighed as if wronged.
“I know you’re bitter because Brother Runsheng broke off his engagement to you and became engaged to me instead. But love can’t be forced. He doesn’t love you. Even if the two of you were together, you wouldn’t be happy.”
Qiao Qingyan quietly curled her hands into fists at her sides, her fingernails digging into her palms.
Chen Xiaomeng’s fake, pitiful act disgusted her beyond words.
Qiao Nianshan put down his bowl.
“Girl, you’re already eighteen. You can’t keep living at home eating for free forever. You’ll have to marry sooner or later.”
The night before, Chen Xiuying had spent hours convincing him.
Qiao Qingyan was still young enough to be worth the bride price. Even if they switched brides, the Xiao family probably wouldn’t complain. Their son was tall and strong, a hunter by trade. Becoming relatives with them meant there would always be meat to eat.
Besides…
The bride price had already been spent.
There was no way they could return it now.
After thinking it over all night, Qiao Nianshan had concluded that his wife was right.
Qiao Qingyan’s heart finally turned cold.
“Father, how many years did you actually raise me? Aunt took me away when I was eight. I’ve only been back for less than two years. Can you really say these things without feeling ashamed before my late mother?”
“What are you bringing up the dead for?” Qiao Nianshan snapped, his voice rising as he assumed the authority of a parent. “Parents decide a child’s marriage! If I tell you to marry, then you marry! Why are you so disobedient? Learn from your sister. Be sensible. Think about your mother and me for once!”
“I think your aunt spoiled you rotten. You don’t know the first thing about proper manners!”
Seeing that she still refused to yield, he added,
“To tell you the truth, the Xiao family already went to the production brigade this morning to register the marriage. This marriage is happening whether you agree or not.”
Qiao Qingyan stared at him in disbelief.
Her eyes filled with shock…
…and heartbreaking disappointment.
Was this really her biological father?
After saying those words, Qiao Nianshan seemed to realize he’d gone too far. He sighed heavily and couldn’t bring himself to meet his daughter’s disappointed gaze.
Seeing the situation, Chen Xiuying immediately put on the mask of a loving mother.
“Qingyan, your father has worked himself to the bone all his life. His health is already failing. Please don’t upset him anymore, alright?”
Chen Xiaomeng also chimed in.
“Father, Mother, don’t be angry. If she really doesn’t want to marry, then forget it. Qingyan is still young. It’s normal for her to be a little selfish.”
At that very moment, Chen Xiaomeng’s vicious inner voice rang clearly in Qiao Qingyan’s ears.
[Mother and I already discussed this. If Qiao Qingyan refuses to marry into the Xiao family in my place, we’ll sell her to the old bachelor living on the west side of the village! Either way, she won’t have a good life. I want to watch her fall into hell with my own eyes. I want her to spend the rest of her life beneath me!]
The old bachelor from the west side of the village?
Qiao Qingyan’s fists tightened even harder, her teeth grinding audibly.
The man never bathed.
His teeth were yellow.
Only a few gray hairs remained on his head.
He was so filthy and repulsive that people avoided him whenever they could.
He was also depraved and lustful.
Rumor had it that every wife he had ever married had ended up dying because of his abuse.
They actually planned to sell her to that man?
How deep did their hatred have to be to come up with something so monstrous?
Qiao Qingyan’s lips trembled as blazing anger surged through her chest.
She stared fixedly at Chen Xiaomeng, wishing she could rip that hypocritical face apart.
“Chen Xiaomeng… do you hate me that much? What exactly have I ever done to deserve your hatred?”
Until now, Qiao Qingyan had only thought Chen Xiaomeng was narrow-minded and mean.
She had never imagined the woman hated her to this extent.
When Chen Xiuying first brought Chen Xiaomeng into the Qiao family years ago, the girl had sweetly called Qiao Nianshan “Father.”
Thinking she had gained an older sister, young Qiao Qingyan happily reached out to hold her hand.
Not long afterward, she discovered that the cloth doll her late mother had sewn for her had been cut to pieces with scissors.
The culprit had been none other than this “sister.”
Later, whenever Chen Xiaomeng broke one of the family’s coarse porcelain bowls, she shamelessly blamed Qiao Qingyan.
She secretly slipped a classmate’s pencil into Qiao Qingyan’s schoolbag and accused her of stealing, causing the other children to ostracize her.
During school breaks, when the corridors were crowded, she’d deliberately shove or trip her, making her fall.
She would lean close and whisper cruel words into her ear.
“Your mother’s dead. Nobody loves you anymore.”
“Your mother must’ve been a terrible woman. That’s why she died so early.”
Whenever Qiao Qingyan finally lost her temper and fought back, Chen Xiaomeng would instantly curl up in a corner, crying pitifully.
“Little Sister doesn’t like me… she even hit me…”
Every single time, Qiao Nianshan never asked who was right or wrong.
He simply grabbed a willow switch and whipped his own daughter.
Meanwhile, Chen Xiaomeng hid behind Chen Xiuying, covering her mouth as she laughed smugly.
Only after her aunt took her to the city did Qiao Qingyan finally escape that living hell and enjoy several peaceful years.
But after being forced to return two years ago, Chen Xiaomeng had become even more vicious.
She would tug at Qiao Qingyan’s floral dresses and sneer that they were ugly, yet secretly steal them from the wardrobe to wear at night.
She constantly reminded her not to forget her humble origins, mocking her for pretending to be refined.
“So what if you lived in the city with your aunt for a few years? You’re nothing but a mountain pheasant wearing phoenix feathers.”
Knowing Qiao Qingyan loved cleanliness, she deliberately dirtied her bedding and clothes.
In front of the elders, she acted like a caring sister.
Behind their backs, every word she spoke belittled, humiliated, and bullied her.
Sometimes Qiao Qingyan thought that if Chen Xiaomeng had been born into an opera troupe, she’d surely have become a star performer.
“What?” Chen Xiaomeng looked utterly innocent. “Qingyan, we’re sisters. How can you say something like that? Why would I ever hate you…?”
“What are you making a fuss about now?” Qiao Nianshan slammed the table. “Your sister is trying to help you.”
Qiao Qingyan let out a cold snort.
Slowly, she closed her eyes.
A single tear slipped from the corner of her eye, falling onto her clothes and leaving behind a dark wet stain.
What was left in this family worth holding on to?
A stepsister who wished she would go to hell.
A hypocritical stepmother who cared only for her own children.
A father who sided with outsiders against his own flesh and blood.
She had always been an outsider in this family.
An unwanted burden.
She knew that if she refused, Chen Xiuying and Chen Xiaomeng would eventually come up with something even more vicious.
Rather than stay here, living in constant fear and waiting to be sacrificed…
She would rather marry into the Xiao family and escape this place first.
She had heard of Xiao Jinye, the hunter’s son, though she had never met him.
People said he was in his early twenties and made his living hunting in the mountains.
He wasn’t educated.
But at least he was young.
That alone made him a hundred times better than those filthy old bachelors old enough to be her father.
After a long silence, Qiao Qingyan slowly opened her eyes.
The sorrow inside them had faded, replaced by calm determination.
“I’ll marry.”
The triumph in Chen Xiaomeng’s eyes was impossible to hide, and her inner voice echoed once more in Qiao Qingyan’s ears.
[Wonderful! Xiao Jinye’s family is dirt poor. He’s got a crippled mother and a mentally disabled younger sister. He has to support two burdens all by himself! Once Qiao Qingyan marries into that family, she’ll spend the rest of her life in poverty. She’ll never be able to compare to me again!]
Qiao Qingyan lowered her eyes.
Being poor wasn’t frightening.
As long as a person had integrity and wasn’t lazy, life could always improve.
After thinking for a moment, she calmly added,
“But I have one condition.”
“What condition?” Chen Xiuying asked immediately.
“I want a dowry.”
“Of course we’ll prepare one for you. What’s there to discuss?”
“I want everything you originally prepared as Chen Xiaomeng’s dowry…”
“…and I want twice as much.”