Since some people didn’t want to sleep, then they could spend the whole night scratching.
The night wind howled, making the dry thatch on the roof rustle noisily.
No lamp was lit inside the hut. The room was pitch-black. Feeling her way through the darkness, Chen Zui pulled a small paper packet from her clothes and stuffed it into Chen Laosan’s hand. The packet was still warm from her body, and fine powder filled its interior.
“Father, sprinkle this into the cracks of the windowsill and under the doorstep,” Chen Zui whispered. In the darkness, her voice sounded unusually calm. “The old immortal from my dream taught me how to make this insect-repelling powder. It works especially well on filthy things.”
Holding the packet, Chen Laosan glanced at his daughter by the faint moonlight filtering through the window.
He didn’t ask any questions.
Too many unbelievable things had happened today. In his heart, his daughter was already practically one with that mysterious and all-powerful “old immortal.”
Carefully, Chen Laosan climbed to his feet.
Holding his breath, he stepped barefoot onto the packed-earth floor without making a sound. He first sprinkled the powder evenly along the broken window frame, then scattered another handful into the cracks around the rickety wooden door.
After finishing, he quietly returned to the straw bed, gripping the wooden stick they used to brace the door shut.
In the second half of the night…
A series of faint rustling footsteps stopped beneath the wall of the hut, like rats creeping through an alley.
Chen Zui’s eyes snapped open.
She didn’t move. She simply listened.
“Brother Ergou, did Third Brother’s family really strike it rich? Why’s it so quiet inside?” a suppressed male voice drifted through the drafty wall.
“Of course! I saw that cartload of meat with my own eyes!” Lai Ergou’s voice dripped with greed. “They’ve definitely hidden it under the bed. The eldest branch said that if we sneak in and steal some silver, we’ll get thirty percent.”
A hole was poked through the window paper.
A grimy hand reached inside and began fumbling around the windowsill, trying to lift the latch.
In the darkness, Chen Zui curled her lips into a smile.
Go ahead.
Feel around as much as you like.
The hand rubbed across the windowsill several times, inevitably picking up some of the powder.
Immediately afterward, a faint gasp came from outside.
“Hiss… why’s it so itchy?”
“Keep your voice down! Open the door already!”
“I can’t… damn it, it’s itching me to death! Are there poisonous bugs on this windowsill? Ah! The more I scratch, the worse it gets…”
The commotion outside quickly escalated.
The deliberately muffled footsteps became frantic stomping, accompanied by the sound of cloth violently scraping against skin.
“Retreat! Hurry! This place is cursed!”
The two figures fled into the night as if their backsides were on fire, stumbling over themselves. They didn’t even dare leave behind a threat.
Chen Laosan finally loosened his grip on the wooden stick.
Listening to the chaos outside, cold sweat broke out across his back. Then he looked at his peacefully sleeping daughter, and an inexplicable sense of security filled his heart.
At daybreak, the sky shone bright.
The village well had always been the center of gossip and news in Qingshui Village.
Today, however, it was unusually lively.
Lai Ergou and another village loafer, Chen Sandan—the eldest branch’s distant nephew—were standing shirtless beside the well, frantically pouring cold water over themselves.
Their skin had been scratched raw. Bloody marks crisscrossed their bodies, and in some places yellow fluid oozed from the wounds. Yet even so, they couldn’t stop scratching.
“Ahhh… it’s itching me to death…”
“Help…”
The villagers gathered around in a circle, pointing and whispering.
“What happened to those two?”
“Did they catch some filthy disease?”
“Looks like it. Just look at all that swelling. Terrifying.”
Holding her father’s hand and carrying a battered basket, Chen Zui slowly wandered over.
Dressed in her patched old jacket, with dull yellow hair, she still looked like the same malnourished little girl.
When she saw Lai Ergou’s miserable state, she stopped, blinked her large eyes, and innocently asked in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear:
“Oh? Isn’t that Uncle Ergou? Did you go ‘visiting’ someone’s house last night?”
At the sound of her voice, Lai Ergou shuddered.
For a moment, he even forgot how itchy he was.
He looked up in horror and met Chen Zui’s smiling eyes.
“Y-you… it was you…”
He wanted to accuse her, but the words died in his throat.
What could he say?
That he’d tried to break into an orphaned family’s home in the middle of the night to steal and had gotten cursed?
If word got out, he’d be hauled off to the authorities.
Chen Zui didn’t give him a chance to speak.
Turning to the villagers, she put on a solemn expression, looking every bit like a little fortune-teller.
“The Mountain God Grandpa visited me in a dream again last night. He said there are people in our village with rotten hearts and thieving intentions. They wanted to steal a family’s life-saving food. The Mountain God got angry. He said anyone with sticky fingers would grow poisonous sores and have their skin rot away!”
The crowd erupted immediately.
The villagers looked at Chen Zui, then at the horribly scratched Lai Ergou and Chen Sandan.
Their expressions changed instantly.
It was too accurate.
Only yesterday she’d spoken of divine retribution, and today these two hooligans had already suffered punishment.
“My heavens… Third Brother’s family really is under the protection of immortals now…”
Aunt Wang shrank her neck and quietly withdrew the hand she’d been about to use to sneak some wild vegetables from Chen Laosan’s basket.
Feeling the villagers’ disgusted gazes and tormented by the unbearable itching, Lai Ergou and Chen Sandan couldn’t stay any longer.
Covering their faces, they fled in humiliation.
Chen Laosan straightened his back.
Holding his daughter’s hand, he strode home proudly beneath the villagers’ awed stares.
Back at the thatched hut, after shutting the rickety door behind them, the innocence vanished from Chen Zui’s face.
She jumped onto the earthen kang bed, crossed her legs, and called her eldest sister, second sister, father, and mother before her.
“Father, Mother, we need some rules.”
Her little face was stern—more serious than the village head during a council meeting.
“Last night was just a couple of petty thieves. We could handle that. But if the whole village starts eyeing our meat, we won’t be able to defend against everyone.”
Li Shi was comparing the newly purchased cotton cloth when she heard this. Her hands trembled.
“Then what do we do? Hide everything?”
“We can’t hide it forever.”
Chen Zui shook her head.
“We have to pretend.”
She pointed at the breakfast her eldest sister was preparing.
It was porridge made from fine white rice, with diced meat mixed in. The aroma alone was enough to make anyone drool.
“From now on, inside the house, we’ll eat meat and white flour. We’ll build up our health. But…” Her gaze swept across everyone present. “The moment we step outside, we’re still the dirt-poor Third Branch.”
She looked at her second sister, Chen Erxiu.
“Second Sister, once your new clothes are finished, you can only wear them indoors. Whenever you go out, you have to wear the old patched jacket over them. The more patches, the better.”
Chen Erxiu froze for a moment before understanding.
She nodded vigorously.
“I get it. Wealth shouldn’t be flaunted.”
Chen Zui turned to her eldest sister.
“Eldest Sister, whenever you cook, seal every crack around the doors and windows. Also, we need a pot in the yard. Every day we’ll boil wild vegetables and tree roots in it. Burn it a little too, so the smell drifts outside.”
Chen Yinuo covered her mouth and laughed.
“Xiao Liu is so clever. They’ll smell wild vegetables and think we’re still chewing tree bark.”
Listening to his daughter’s arrangements one after another, Chen Laosan was full of admiration.
What three-year-old child could do this?
She was clearly a master strategist.
“And Father.”
Finally, Chen Zui looked at him.
“When you go out, hunch your back a little. Don’t look too healthy and energetic. The more miserable we appear, the more reassured the old family house will be, and the less trouble they’ll cause us.”
Chen Laosan touched his face and laughed honestly.
“Alright. Father will listen to you. I’ll go boil that wild vegetable soup right now!”
After assigning everyone’s tasks, Chen Zui watched her family spring into action.
Her eldest sister sealed the window cracks.
Her second sister searched for old clothes to use as disguises.
Her father lit a fire in the yard and began boiling bitter wild vegetables.
A feeling called security slowly spread through the dilapidated hut.
Chen Zui took a bottle of iodine from her storage space. It was meant for treating her father’s injury.
But the house was simply too rundown.
Wind leaked in from every direction. Once winter arrived, being well-fed alone wouldn’t be enough.
She looked up at the roof that still leaked light, then at her father’s leg, which no longer bled but still left him limping.
If they wanted to quietly grow wealthy, they first needed to turn this “nest” into a fortress.
And Father’s leg…
Ordinary spiritual spring water could stop the bleeding, but it wasn’t enough to cure the injury completely.
For that, she’d need stronger medicine.
Hidden inside her sleeve, Chen Zui gently rubbed the bamboo tube containing the spiritual spring water.
A plan was already forming in her mind.