On this side.
Jian Yue had already searched the kitchen for quite a while before finally finding a small bag of broken rice in a tiny corner. It wasn’t much—looked to be about seven or eight liang, not even a full catty.
This was something the original owner had stashed away. She had to dig through her memories for a long time to find it. Yet aside from the firewood and the water in the bucket, there was nothing else in this kitchen.
This level of poverty… impressive.
Jian Yue sighed as she started a fire in the stove. These stoves were still fairly primitive, but fortunately, as long as you could get a fire going, they worked.
Yesterday while roasting meat, she had already figured out how to use the flint to start a fire. Still, Jian Yue was a novice at it, so it took a bit of time.
Jian Yue crouched there, focused on building the fire, but didn’t notice that the smallest of the little ones in the nest was making their way toward her.
As Jian Yue gradually got the fire going, she suddenly felt a tug on her sleeve.
Jian Yue turned around and nearly jumped out of her skin. She had been so absorbed in starting the fire that she hadn’t noticed the little one approaching.
Besides, this original owner’s body was a bit stiff in terms of reflexes and awareness. She wondered if it was because she hadn’t fully merged with this body yet after becoming the original owner.
Jian Yue instinctively pulled her clothes back from where the little one was gripping them.
Little Five, Ye Xile, seeing that Jian Yue was now looking at him, his big round eyes brightened a few shades. In a soft, adorable, crisp voice, he called out:
“Mother~”
“…Mm.” Very cute, very soft.
Jian Yue took a step back to put some distance between them.
But this little one was different from the others—he didn’t seem afraid of her!
Little Five watched Jian Yue take a step back, then toddled two small steps forward to follow her. Jian Yue stepped back again, and Little Five shuffled his short legs to keep up.
Jian Yue moved back; Little Five moved forward.
Little Five even thought Mother was playing a fun game with him. He blinked, tilted his head, and grinned at Jian Yue with a giggle.
Jian Yue: …
The kitchen wasn’t big, and by now Jian Yue had backed herself against the wall. There was nowhere left to retreat.
Little Five stared at her with somewhat bewildered eyes, as if wondering why Mother had stopped backing up.
“…Go play with your brothers.” Jian Yue pressed a hand to her heart, afraid of any contact.
But whether the little one understood or not, he actually reached out his arms for a hug!
“Mother, hug~”
“…No hug!” You’re not afraid, but I am!
“Mother.” The childish voice carried a hint of pitifulness.
Jian Yue shook her head. Hugging was absolutely out of the question—firmly no.
Jian Yue turned a corner, dodging the little one, and quickly returned to the front of the stove.
She figured that if she just ignored the little one, he’d probably leave soon enough. Kids didn’t have much patience.
Jian Yue added a few more sticks of firewood to the pit.
But the little one seemed determined to match her stubbornness. He pursed his lips and walked over without a word.
There was a certain persistence to it—like “if the mountain won’t come to me, I’ll go to the mountain.”
Jian Yue’s head was starting to ache. Maintaining the fire’s size in the stove, she sidestepped away, putting at least a meter of distance between them.
Outside, the eldest, Ye Xixing, and the second, Ye Xihua, had witnessed this little scene clearly.
For a moment, neither knew what to say.
The two looked at each other, then back again.
They had thought that would be the end of it.
But then they noticed the stepmother, who had been avoiding Little Five, was now approaching him—and even reaching out a hand. They had no idea what she intended to do.
But the eldest and the second still carried the psychological shadow of being beaten by their stepmother. Without a second thought, they rushed in to protect their youngest brother.
“Little brother!”
“Don’t you dare touch Mother!”
The two came rushing in.
…Only to find that Jian Yue was merely reaching out to grab the back collar of Little Five’s clothes, pulling him away to create some distance.
And her movements were even a bit cautious?!
Jian Yue turned around.
For a moment, Ye Xixing, Ye Xihua, and Jian Yue all stared at each other, a little awkward.
“M-Mother.” Ye Xixing paused before speaking.
“Mother.” Ye Xihua followed suit.
The little ones were still too young to control their emotions well, so she naturally knew these two had misunderstood her.
But that was fine. With these two half-grown boys around, she could breathe a sigh of relief.
“Take him outside.”
Jian Yue, carefully pinching the back of the little one’s collar, set him down near the two of them.
“Okay, okay.” Ye Xixing instinctively took his brother.
He even held him in his arms—he had been scared to death just now, thinking the stepmother was going to hit his little brother.
“Go outside and hang around here.” Jian Yue quickly shooed them out.
Such a tiny little one in the kitchen was dangerous too. Just now, she had broken out in a cold sweat from fright.
She had originally wanted to put more distance between herself and Little Five, but when she saw the little one standing so small right at the mouth of the stove, where the fire was burning fiercely…
Jian Yue was afraid of facing such small arms and legs, worried that the little one wouldn’t stand steady and might bump into the fire.
With that thought, Jian Yue took a deep breath.
And just as she thought that, she saw the little fifth child’s body sway!
It startled Jian Yue.
She had no choice but to reach out and pull the child farther away from the stove.
If that happened twice more, her heart might not hold up.
Looking again at that soft, adorable little fifth child, the little rascal was heartless and giggling at her.
Jian Yue’s voice grew a bit urgent:
“First child, second child, take him away quickly.” She couldn’t bear to watch anymore.
“O-okay.” Perhaps because Jian Yue’s words were urgent, her tone was two shades heavier.
Ye Xixing and Ye Xihua both instinctively scooped the child up and ran out.
The few of them burst back into the room, and Ye Xixing felt his heart still pounding loudly in his chest.
“Big brother, second brother, what’s wrong?” The now no-longer-crying fourth child, Ye Xiqi, looked at her two brothers with some confusion.
“N-nothing.” Ye Xixing had also walked too quickly just now, and was still calming his heart.
Ye Xiqi found it strange, and the held Ye Xile was struggling to get down.
“Want Mama to hold me!”
“No.” Thinking of the stepmother who hit them and scolded them holding the little brother, Ye Xixing, as the eldest brother, refused.
And that image was also hard to believe.
“Big brother, did little brother just go to find Mama?”
After Ye Xixing nodded, Ye Xiqi leaned over, took the little fifth child’s hand, and whispered to him:
“Little brother, don’t look for Mama. Mama is fierce, like this, hitting hitting hitting, it hurts a lot. Let’s not look for Mama, okay? We need to be good.” As the fourth child spoke, she demonstrated by patting her own arm, which was quite evocative.
But the little fifth child seemed set on something, insisting: “Mama, pretty.”
“Mama… she is pretty, but you can’t say that. Mama is also very fierce… Ask third brother, third brother knows Mama is fierce too.” Ye Xiqi coaxed him on one side while not forgetting to pull in the third child, Ye Xisu.
“Yeah.” Ye Xisu nodded in agreement from time to time.
The eldest and second child watched these three little ones and relaxed for the moment.
They were discussing what they had just seen.
“Stepmother seems to not like being around us.” The eldest, Ye Xixing, said.
“Yeah, since yesterday, she seems to have been keeping a certain distance from us.”
Ye Xihua nodded. Little fifth’s actions just now, the stepmother’s avoidance, even carefully pinching the back of little fifth’s collar, all seemed like subconscious avoidance.
“Speaking of which, it seems like when we ate meat yesterday, do you remember the stepmother pointed out a place for us to sit, and also in the early morning.” The more he thought about it, the more Ye Xixing recalled and noticed some strange things.
Ye Xihua was silent for a moment, the young boy looking a bit like a little adult, then he suddenly said:
“Maybe she’s afraid of us.”
“What?”