Just as Qi Changsheng was about to step inside, Yu Chunmiao suddenly burst out laughing like she’d gone mad. She pointed at Qi Ping, laughing harder and harder, clutching her stomach until tears streamed down her face.
Everyone froze in shock.
Still giggling, Yu Chunmiao pointed at Qi Chong with a silly grin. “You look like Rong’er… and you look like him too.” In her muddled logic, that made him Qi Changsheng.
Then she skipped over to Qi Ping and asked foolishly, “And you—who do you look like? You don’t look like him, and you don’t look like her.” She pointed at the couple, scratched her head as if thinking hard, then suddenly grabbed Qi Chong’s hand and said in a coquettish tone, “Husband, people who look like you can come in. People who don’t look like you aren’t Qi family. They can’t come in.”
Qi Chong was completely thrown off by her act. He lowered his head and stared at Yu Chunmiao, who was shaking his arm and gazing up at him with an innocent, confused expression, silently asking him to play along.
Chen Ruolan, having acted with her before, caught on quickly. She pulled Yu Chunmiao aside and scolded her loudly on purpose, “You silly daughter-in-law, what nonsense are you talking about now?”
Close to her ear came Yu Chunmiao’s whisper: *Guide it toward ‘Qi Ping isn’t Uncle’s child.’
Yu Chunmiao broke free from her mother-in-law’s hand and ran over to Qi Rong. “Rong’er, Rong’er—does Dad look like Uncle?”
Qi Rong had been stunned ever since her sudden laughter began. His mouth hadn’t closed once, and he had no idea how to respond.
*Has Sister-in-law been scared silly again?*
Chen Ruolan hadn’t expected Qi Rong to answer anyway. With a sorrowful expression, she said to Yu Chunmiao, “Oh, don’t ask that. You’ll make Rong’er sad. He always says seeing his uncle is just like seeing his father. They look exactly alike.”
Yu Chunmiao then stared blankly at Qi Ping again and shook her head. “Then who is he? He’s not Uncle’s son. He doesn’t look like him.”
After saying that, she turned and stood in front of Qi Chong, wiggling her eyebrows at him.
Only then did Qi Chong catch on. He cooperated smoothly. “Hey, don’t talk nonsense. How could Ping’er not be Uncle’s son? Look at his eyes, his brows, his nose, his—eh? Huh… well, don’t talk nonsense. This isn’t something to joke about.”
Yu Chunmiao secretly gave him a thumbs-up and made a cute face.
Qi Chong: *Her cuteness just short-circuited my brain.
Zhang Guihua finally realized where this was going and immediately said, “What are you talking about? Ping’er is Changsheng’s child. Don’t spout nonsense.”
Her tone was firm—but it only made her sound guilty.
By now, the gold bar had completely vanished from Qi Changsheng’s mind. He looked at his son, then at the Qi brothers, and then thought of his father and eldest son. Doubt quietly crept in.
Seeing his expression, Yu Chunmiao knew her performance had already worked more than halfway.
She pressed on, pointing deliberately at Qi Ping. “Whose child you are, go play at whose house. Go! Go! Go find your dad!”
Zhang Guihua flew into a rage and rushed forward, raising her hand to strike Yu Chunmiao. Qi Chong took a big step forward, caught her swinging hand, and flung her back out of the courtyard.
“My wife is simple-minded—she just says whatever she thinks. Uncle surely believes Auntie, right?”
That single sentence struck straight at the heart.
Yu Chunmiao was extremely satisfied with Qi Chong’s deadly follow-up.
This time, Qi Rong was truly stunned. Even he had been fooled. Without thinking, he blurted out, “Qi Ping kind of looks like Wang Xicai from the east side of the village.”
One sentence set off a thousand waves—at least in Qi Changsheng’s heart.
Wasn’t Qi Ping just a chubbier version of Wang Xicai? Especially those turned-out lips… the more he looked, the more alike they seemed.
“Slap!”
Zhang Guihua was struck across the face out of nowhere. She clutched her cheek, tears instantly filling her eyes as she stared at her husband in disbelief.
“You hit me? You actually dared to hit me?”
She could never have imagined that the man who usually obeyed her every word would raise his hand against her.
“You foul woman—come with me. We’re going back to settle this properly,” Qi Changsheng snapped, completely ignoring her cries. This was about bloodline—about a man’s dignity. He had to get to the bottom of it.
No matter how fierce Zhang Guihua usually was, it was only because Qi Changsheng had always indulged her. Once he got serious, she was no match for him. The couple quickly descended into a messy scuffle, while Qi Ping cried and tried to stop them—completely useless.
He truly didn’t understand. They had come full of righteous anger to demand justice. How had it turned into his parents beating each other?
Chen Ruolan shut the courtyard gate, slid the bolt into place, and patted her chest nervously.
“Is this true or not? What if it’s all a misunderstanding? What if someone gets hurt?”
Yu Chunmiao looked at her kind-hearted mother-in-law and thought to herself how complicated people really were. Protective when it came to her children genuine. Acting—also genuine. And now, fear—just as real.
“Who cares?” Yu Chunmiao pulled Chen Ruolan back inside, speaking as they walked. “As long as she’s not making trouble here, it’s fine. I still have to go pick clams and earn money. Whether it’s true or not, that’s their own mess to deal with.”
Evil people should be worn down by other evil people. It wasn’t that Yu Chunmiao was cruel—but what if that day they hadn’t found Qi Chong in time? Would he have died alone in the mountains?
Repay kindness with virtue—then what do you use to repay virtue itself?
Her thoughts drifted to the stallion Vista, the horse that had kicked her to death in her previous life. She had cared for it meticulously, brushed its coat until it shone, cleaned its hooves every single day. And yet, when it mattered most, it abandoned her without hesitation.
She’d been too soft on it during training. That was the real mistake.
Qi Rong looked at his dazed older brother and asked, “Brother, what just happened? Why did they start fighting among themselves?”
Qi Chong patted his younger brother on the back. “That move is called diverting disaster elsewhere. They came looking for trouble with us—your sister-in-law handed them a much bigger problem. Big enough that they don’t have time to bother us anymore.”
As he spoke, Yu Chunmiao’s mischievous expressions replayed in his mind—lively, clever, unbearably cute. Something inside his chest was tugged, gently but insistently. The feeling was strange… and unmistakable.
By the time Zhang Guihua’s wailing faded into the distance as Qi Changsheng dragged her away, Yu Chunmiao and Qi Rong had already shouldered their baskets.
“Mom, start boiling the medicine in a bit. Keep an eye on the clams in the back yard. We’ll stew bone soup tonight—wait for me to come back,” Yu Chunmiao said.
Chen Ruolan nodded quickly. “Don’t worry. I won’t let a single clam die.”
“I’ll cook dinner tonight,” Qi Chong added. “Don’t stress about it.”
Yu Chunmiao smiled, tilting her head slightly. “Then I’ll just wait to eat tonight. That family wasted my clam-picking time—I’ll make it up now.”
Qi Chong nodded with a soft smile and reminded her gently, “Walk slowly. Don’t go too far.”
With that, sister-in-law and brother-in-law headed out, while Chen Ruolan and Qi Chong each returned to their tasks.
Chen Ruolan tended the clams, brewed the medicine, and washed clothes.
Qi Chong split the bones with an axe so the marrow would melt into the soup, then lit the fire and rendered the pork fat they’d bought.
Yu Chunmiao and Qi Rong were out working. Though he was lame, Qi Chong still did whatever he could. He hoped his leg would heal faster—even if he remained disabled for life, as long as he could put down the crutch, there would be more he could do.
But a thought kept gnawing at him.
If he stayed crippled forever… would Yu Chunmiao come to dislike him?
The idea hooked into his heart, tugging now and then, leaving a dull, aching pain.