Chapter 12

Chapter 12

“What are you holding? Bring it out.”

“Nothing, nothing at all,” Wei Siao backed away as he spoke.

Yan Xue lost her patience. The door was open and letting in the bitter cold, and besides, Siao wasn’t wearing his coat. She reached out and pulled the object from behind Wei Siao’s back, not using much force, just wanting him to hurry inside.

She took it and lowered her gaze, then froze.

It was hardly some dangerous weapon.

It was clearly a plastic bottle filled with hot water. The water inside wasn’t scalding, but it was warm. Warm enough to heat her hands and her heart.

Yan Xue felt a sting in her eyes.

Looking at the little guy in front of her, she inexplicably thought of her own parents.

When Yan Xue was very young, her family hadn’t been well-off. Her father worked as a taekwondo instructor and moonlighted as a truck driver, always driving the night shift.

The winters back then were freezing, and there was no air conditioning at home.

Every morning when her father returned, he would suddenly appear in front of her, holding a steaming roasted sweet potato.

Then, their family breakfast would consist of egg noodles cooked by her mother, paired with a fragrant, roasted sweet potato.

The warmth back then had come from her parents; the warmth that followed had come from her grandmother; and now, this warmth was actually coming from this little guy…

A suspicious flush appeared on Wei Siao’s fair, handsome face. It didn’t look like he was flushed from the cold; it looked more like he was shy.

“You go ahead and use it.”

Seeing that the bottle had been taken, he turned on his heels and bolted back to the room next door.

Inside the room, he helped his younger brother put on his clothes while feigning composure, not realizing that Wei Sixiang had already woken up when he saw his brother fetching the hot water from the stove.

He giggled, leaning in close to his brother’s ear.

“Older brother, did you go deliver hot water to mom?”

Having his little secret exposed, Wei Siao didn’t know what to say, but he quickly cleared his throat, acting like a little man.

“Yeah. I did. It’s to thank her for helping us bathe yesterday.”

“I think mom is really great now. I’m not scared of her anymore, older brother. Can we let mom sleep with us tonight? This room is warm,” Wei Sixiang asked with a grin that revealed a few of his baby teeth.

There was no response.

Wei Sixiang simply held out his small hands, waiting obediently for his brother to finish dressing him, unaware of what his brother was doing behind him.

After a while, his clothes were fastened, and a pleasant, childish voice sounded behind him.

“Then we can invite her to sleep with us tonight.”

An hour later.

Yan Xue was picking cabbage leaves, her mind clearly elsewhere.

She was sorting through the plot of the original book in her head, wondering when she could complete her mission and beat a retreat.

According to the original plot, Wei Heng wasn’t due back for another three months. Once he returned, he would take them back to the Wei Family, and it wasn’t until a month after they returned that the things Original Yan Xue had done would come to light.

So, before that happened, she needed to find a place where she could support herself and learn to live a decent life.

She would leave the two children behind before Wei Heng returned, then run away so the male lead could never find her!

In other words, even if Wei Heng managed to track her down at that point, he would likely turn a blind eye because of the kindness she had shown the children over these few months.

Surely he wouldn’t go as far as hunting her down then…

However, there was another more pressing issue at hand.

The Original Yan Xue had already squandered all the money Wei Heng had given her, and now they had no money to live on…

There were hardly any eggs left either.

Moreover, it was winter, and there was nothing left to plant or harvest.

She couldn’t possibly have the gall to ask Wei Heng for more money, especially since he had threatened her over the phone just two days ago.

Although Wei Heng’s words had been vague and she didn’t understand what he meant, they were truly terrifying!

Wei Sixiang had been playing in the courtyard for a while before following his mother into the kitchen.

As soon as he entered, he saw his mother staring blankly ahead, tossing perfectly fine cabbage hearts onto the floor while placing the wilted outer leaves into the basin.

He watched her blankly for a moment, his brow furrowing as he began to doubt himself.

Could it be that he understood backwards what his mom taught him yesterday?

Were the outer leaves the good ones, and the hearts the ones that were bad?

His tiny head was full of big questions.

Unable to make sense of it, he decided to be a diligent learner.

“Mom, can’t you eat the cabbage hearts?”

“Huh?” Yan Xue snapped back to reality, looked left and right, and realized she had been throwing the edible cabbage leaves onto the floor.

—Knock, knock, knock.

Over in the yard, Wei Siao, who was building a snowman for his brother, froze when a sudden knocking sounded at the gate.

He patted the snow off his hands and loudly asked who it was.

A young man standing outside the gate leaned in and replied, “It’s me.”

The excitement on Wei Siao’s face vanished instantly. He recognized the voice, but he didn’t want to open the door.

He absolutely did not want to open the door for this person.

His dark pupils darted around. He glanced toward the kitchen, ensuring that the person inside hadn’t heard.

He leaned close to the gap in the gate and replied, “Only my brother and I are home. Mom doesn’t let us open the door for strangers.”

The young man outside believed him easily.

Wei Siao pressed against the gate, listening quietly until the sound of the man’s footsteps faded into the distance. Only then did he trot back to the snowman.

After the meal, the two little ones pestered Yan Xue to go outside and play.

Yan Xue hadn’t had the chance to play in the snow so freely in her real life for a long time, so she took them both out.

She held one child in each hand, but they hadn’t walked more than a few steps from the house.

“Yan Xue—”

Someone called out from behind. Yan Xue turned toward the voice, failing to notice Wei Siao, who had gone completely rigid beside her.

It was a young man who had called her.

The man had a slender, straight nose and wore a pair of silver-rimmed glasses. He looked thin and fair, appearing entirely out of place compared to everyone else in the village, and he wore a gray plaid scarf around his neck.

Yan Xue identified him almost instantly as Bai Kongshu, the male teacher who had come to the village—the very man who had been carrying on an affair with the Original Yan Xue.

His elegant name and appearance fit well enough, though they didn’t quite align with his true nature.

According to the plot of the book, the Original Yan Xue and this man were currently only harboring secret feelings for one another, with no substantial developments yet.

However, Yan Xue wasn’t sure exactly how far those developments had progressed at this point in time.

The book only briefly touched upon these supporting characters during this period.

She could only feel her way forward, one step at a time.

“Good afternoon, Teacher Bai,” Yan Xue said, forcing a polite smile.

Bai Kongshu, who had been reaching out a hand, seemed to freeze for a split second. Then, seeing the two children on either side of her, he seemed to realize something, pulled his hand back, and nodded in greeting.

After returning the greeting, Yan Xue led the two children forward.

As far as she was concerned, she wanted to avoid unnecessary trouble in the village. Whatever kind of person this Bai Kongshu might be, he had nothing to do with her.

This left Bai Kongshu completely stunned in his tracks.

In his heart, he marveled that Yan Xue was truly a peerless beauty. It was rare to see someone so beautiful even in the city, let alone the village women he had encountered while volunteering here.

But just a few days ago, Yan Xue hadn’t been treating him like this at all.