"Hehe."
Bai Chao lowered his head, eyes crinkled, grinning at the person crouching in front of him.
His daddy had told him that when looking for a husband, he should find someone tall, good-looking, and kind-hearted—and he felt this big fellow was exactly that kind of person.
The man had said they would be married in name only, without sharing a bed, and that once the family had saved up some silver, he would help him find his daddy and send him home.
He knew that once you were married, once you became someone's husband, you had to bear children for them. But somewhere in his muddled mind, he vaguely remembered that bearing children was no easy task—it could even kill a person.
This big fellow had married him without asking him to bear children, was willing to feed him, and was even willing to take him home. He was truly a good, good person!
With another layer of wariness lifted from his heart, Bai Chao was overjoyed. Luo Yang, for his part, also breathed a sigh of relief. Earlier, his mother had pulled him aside and told him not to touch the boy—she suspected this young brother might be the child of a respectable family, and feared that if the family came looking later, it would bring trouble to their household.
In truth, even without his mother's warning, that had been his plan all along.
This young brother had helped him escape the hard labor corvée, so he would provide him a place to stay, keeping him fed and warm. Neither would owe the other anything.
Getting a husband for free—worse, a foolish husband who knew nothing—would be too unconscionable. He couldn't do such a thing. If he was truly going to marry someone, it had to be done properly, with matchmaking, betrothal gifts, and all the rites observed in full.
The Luo family was to harvest rice the next day, so once Luo Yang had laid everything out clearly, he planned to rest. But he never expected that this young brother, having agreed so readily just moments before, would change his mind the very next instant.
"We haven't drunk the nuptial cup yet. You have to drink the nuptial cup at a wedding." Bai Chao gazed earnestly at the water cup on the stool not far away, even shooting Luo Yang a look. He thought Luo Yang was the fool—he didn't even know you had to drink the nuptial cup at a wedding.
Luo Yang was struck dumb by the remark. He frowned, a great many words on the tip of his tongue, but they all jammed up in his chest—stuffy and uncomfortable as it was, not a single word would come out. He knew he couldn't explain it clearly.
This brother was single-minded about everything, strict about following all the rules.
"Sigh." Oh, forget it.
Luo Yang let out a long sigh and, without a word, obediently went over to fetch the water. When he returned, he was holding two coarse clay cups. He bent slightly and handed one over. "Our family is poor right now—we can't afford wine, so the nuptial cup is out of the question. Let's just make do with nuptial water instead. It's still crossing cups, either way."
"Mm!" Bai Chao nodded obediently. Whether it was wine or water didn't matter—what mattered was crossing cups. He quickly accepted the cup from Luo Yang's hand, and you could even see a trace of excitement on his face.
Luo Yang resigned himself to drinking this nuptial water with him. Once the cup of cold water was down, he took the empty cup back. Just as he was about to set the cups away, he heard the person by the bed murmur softly and contentedly, "This is what a real wedding is."
Luo Yang was amused by his earnest expression and gestured toward the inside of the bed, indicating he should go sleep there. Bai Chao was very compliant at this point—he obediently took off his clothes, climbed onto the bed, and burrowed into the covers.
In August, the nights carried a slight chill, but this light, faint coolness was refreshing rather than cold.
Luo Yang looked at the person with the thin blanket pulled up to his chest and felt a bit overheated on his behalf. In summer he himself slept bare-chested; it wasn't until September that he would bother with a blanket. If he covered himself with a blanket in this weather, he'd surely sweat buckets.
Carefully taking off his wedding robes, Luo Yang also gathered up the robes Bai Chao had casually tossed on the stool by the bed, putting them away together with his own before climbing into bed.
Luo Yang's wooden bed had been made many years ago, back when his family was still doing well. It had been built from fine timber—the bed board was not only wide but sturdy, and the headboard was even carved with patterns. But no matter how good the bed was, it was useless; in recent years the family had been poor, and the bedding was quite old, the covers washed to a faded white, the quilts pressed flat with no fluffiness left at all.
"Ah." After lying down, Luo Yang mentally counted the days. Recently was one thing, but come winter, this brother would surely not be able to bear the quilt he slept under. It looked like he would have to make a new quilt this year, or else winter would be real suffering.
Besides quilts, there were so many things the household needed to buy. Luo Yang was tallying up in his head all the places that would cost silver when a faint rustling suddenly came from beside him. He followed the sound with his eyes—the little brother who had just closed his eyes as if ready to sleep was staring fixedly at him, clearly still having something to say.
"Why aren't you asleep yet?"
"Big guy." Bai Chao spoke carefully, his voice much softer than before, looking as if he was asking a favor or anxious to confirm something.
Seeing him like this, Luo Yang's heart jumped. His instinct told him there was trouble brewing again.
Luo Yang grew wary, afraid this little brother was about to do something that would put him in a difficult spot. But Bai Chao paid it no mind, inching over toward him bit by bit, finally stopping at a body's length away, then tugging at Luo Yang's little finger as he carefully asked, "You really won't hit me, and you'll give me food?"
"……" All of Luo Yang's wariness suddenly melted away. His bed had no curtains, and the light of the pair of red candles was enough for him to clearly see the bruises on the little brother's hands and fingers.
It went without saying that he must have suffered a great deal on the road after being kidnapped.
"Of course it's true. Not only will I give you food, I'll give you candy too. Once the rice harvest is sold, the family will have money, and then I'll buy you candy."
"Really?" The cautious look in Bai Chao's eyes changed at once, turning bright and sparkling, full of joy. "You're so nice, Big guy."
Luo Yang felt a little embarrassed at the praise. He scratched his head, thinking, isn't that just how it should be? Hardly anything praiseworthy.
As the saying goes, marry a man and he'll clothe and feed you. Even if theirs was a marriage in name only, he wouldn't let his fake husband go hungry before seeing him safely home.
Luo Yang's gaze softened, and his voice grew gentler as he spoke like he was coaxing a child: "Hurry up and sleep. I have to get up early tomorrow. You can help out with chores around the house. We're stewing meat tomorrow—more meat to eat."
"Mm!" Hearing there would be meat again, Bai Chao quickly shut his eyes while nodding vigorously, wanting people to know just how obedient he was.
Meat! The corner of Bai Chao's mouth curled up. He was going to eat meat!
Bai Chao kept his eyes squeezed tightly shut, breathing in the clean scent at the tip of his nose, listening to the even, light breathing beside him, his hands clutching the quilt pulled up to his chest, his heart full of peace and security. But just as he was drowsily drifting off to sleep, he was still softly murmuring, "Have to get up early tomorrow."
The person whose heart was full of peace slept soundly through the night—but today, he did not sleep deep until dawn.
"Why are you awake? It's not even light yet. Go back to sleep. Around nine in the morning, Mother and Grandmother will be back, so don't be scared." After waking up, Luo Yang just yawned, stretched, and rolled out of bed. As soon as he sat up, he noticed movement from the inner side of the bed—Bai Chao had woken up too.
Bai Chao rubbed his eyes, yawning, and even managed to shake his head at the same time. He couldn't sleep; he wanted to get up and help.
Besides, he had slept soundly for several days in a row and wasn't as sleepy as before.
While the two of them fumbled around dressing in the dark, sounds of activity arose in the courtyard outside.
The two had gotten married yesterday, and people from both the Luo family's and the daughter-in-law's sides of the family had come. Some had hurried back home overnight, while those who stayed behind were there to help with today's harvest. They had to take advantage of having extra hands to get the grain in quickly, saving time to go work for the wealthy landlord and earn a decent day's wages.
The whole family was getting ready to head to the fields in the dark. Just as they were about to leave, they heard Luo Yang telling the family's new husband to stay home obediently, and only then did they learn that Bai Chao wanted to help out too.
Luo's Grandfather had actually been quite pleased at first, thinking this new husband was very sensible. But he hadn't planned to assign him heavy work—he had something else in mind.
That little fool didn't know anything about losing face, so he planned to have him glean rice from other people's fields.
During the rice harvest, not all the grains fall into the threshing tub to be carried home—some drop in the field. Occasionally there's a whole dropped stalk, but mostly it's grain by grain, which is terribly troublesome to pick up, and the amount is small—you couldn't even gather a handful from a whole field.
So no one bothered with gleaning except families in dire straits, and even they only sent the old folks and children to do it. The head of a household could never swallow that kind of pride.
"Big guy, I'm very strong. I can help." Bai Chao was a little afraid—afraid of being disliked for only eating and not working.
Before Luo Yang could even react to being called "big guy," Luo's Grandmother was already displeased. "What's this 'big guy'? You're married now and still calling him 'big guy'? You should call him husband. What will people think if they hear that?"
"Husband?" Bai Chao went along easily, because it took him only the blink of an eye to understand. Grandmother made sense—once married, one should call him husband.
"Husband~"
Both of them said it as if it were the most natural thing in the world, while Luo Yang stood in the darkness, his face burning with embarrassment.
Husband? How could he just call him that? They weren't really married. But he didn't dare explain. He knew his grandparents' temper—if Bai Chao weren't truly his family's husband, they wouldn't feed him for free.
In the few minutes of this exchange, Father Luo and the others had already headed out. Luo's Grandmother glanced at the sky, feeling anxious. During the autumn harvest, not a moment could be wasted. This year they were lucky, only setting out an hour or two early; in past years, the busy season meant working day and night—as long as there was a moon in the sky, there were people in the fields.
Anxious to leave, Luo's Grandmother's tone grew impatient, and she waved her hand, shouting, "Enough! Go where? You're skinny as a lamp wick—you'd be no help in the fields. With those little arms and legs of yours, can you cut rice stalks or thresh the grain? You probably couldn't even tie a sheaf of straw. And when the sun gets high, you'd faint right there in the field—that would be a real bother."
Luo's Grandmother's words were full of disdain, but hearing them, Luo Yang felt quite pleased. Bai Chao, however, didn't accept them.
He wasn't a fool. There were many things he could do.
"I can do it, I can serve tea, pour water, wipe sweat, and bring snacks."
"Oh my! My dear ancestor, we have no tea and no snacks in this house—those things are expensive! Enough now, stop rambling, hurry back to sleep. When morning comes, pick a basket of cucumbers from beside the house, then sweep the front and back yards clean. That's all." Luo's Grandmother grumbled as she left.
Luo Yang pushed her toward the house while making a gesture of closing the courtyard gate. "There, there, listen to Grandmother, go to sleep now."
In the blink of an eye, the whole family had gone, and Bai Chao stood alone in the courtyard, frightened. He quickly felt his way into the room and burrowed under the blanket.
"Don't be afraid, there's a wall around the yard, no bad people will come."
After taking several deep breaths, Bai Chao finally calmed down a little. Even though he was alone now, even though it was a terrifyingly quiet, dark night, he was on a sturdy bed, in a clean quilt, and no bad people would come to chase or beat him.