Chapter 2

Chapter 2

In truth, the fear the two children felt for her, and their later descent into darkness, were all bitter fruits sown by the original Yan Xue.

Yan Xue, an orphan living with her aunt, was beautiful and always presented herself as docile and obedient. By chance, she met the male lead, Wei Heng, and began discreetly inquiring about him, biding her time to approach him. Eventually, she succeeded in marrying into the wealthy Wei family.

Though she knew Wei Heng wasn’t favored within the Wei family, Yan Xue consoled herself with the saying that a starving camel is still bigger than a horse, and her heart swelled with secret delight.

It didn’t matter that there was no love between them, nor that Wei Heng was often absent from home. At least she could perfectly feign being a virtuous wife and loving mother in front of him, deceiving everyone in the household.

After all, given the Yan Xue’s background, she would never have had a chance to marry into a prominent family if Wei Heng hadn’t been unfavored and slightly crippled.

Life started quite well for her. It was the first time Yan Xue had so much money to spend.

She bought dozens of bags at a single go in the mall, with handsome sales assistants from brand stores respectfully seeing her off to her car.

Unfortunately, man proposes, God disposes. Yan Xue never imagined that only a few months after marriage, Wei Heng’s father’s legal wife, fearing Wei Heng might have a son before the eldest son and thus compete for the family inheritance, painstakingly colluded with relatives to send Wei Heng’s family to this godforsaken backwater place.

Ever since they were framed and exiled to the countryside, the merciless Yan Xue concluded that Wei Heng was no longer a reliable prospect.

This vicious stepmother then shed her hypocritical facade, beating or scolding the two children daily, taking advantage of the male lead’s absence to unleash all her frustrations and misfortunes upon them.

The two children were covered in bruises and cuts from her pinching and hitting. Sometimes, to prevent the male lead, who returned only once a month, from discovering the wounds, she would even prick them with needles. It was utterly inhumane.

Let alone asking the two children to eat.

This barren land could barely sustain anyone, and the village was underdeveloped with few job opportunities.

Most young people had chosen to leave for work in the cities over a decade ago, leaving behind only a handful of elderly and abandoned children.

They toiled in the fields every day, relying on the small plot of land outside their homes, waiting for money sent by relatives from afar, with the goal of simply not starving to death.

In this harsh environment, the lazy and gluttonous Yan Xue made the two children work every day while she enjoyed the fruits of their labor.

She ate meat, but the two children didn’t even get a share of the soup.

With only one cooking pot, the children could only cook a thin gruel for themselves after she had finished eating and lay down. A large pot contained only a tiny bit of rice, barely enough to satisfy their hunger, yet they dared not complain.

She made the children wash her clothes, but the children’s clothes were changed only once every half-month. The two children’s hands were covered in chilblains from the icy well water.

–

The novel was quite thick, with the first major part describing the stepmother’s vicious acts, setting the stage for the two children’s complete descent into darkness later on.

The book piled countless words before her, describing these scenes. When she was reading the book, Yan Xue found these passages annoying; she only felt she didn’t want to see the two children suffer so much and deliberately ignored those descriptions.

But now, every paragraph had transformed into a real, tangible scene before her eyes.

The characters seemed to jump, swirling around her, repeatedly zooming in on the several people in the frame.

Currently, the two children did not trust her.

Yan Xue considered it; after all, the two children had been abused for over three months. No one would drop their guard just by hearing a single sentence from her.

The two children huddled in the corner, eyes closed.

Yan Xue gently touched Wei Siao’s head in front of her, then turned to the kitchen. Right now, a little less talk and a little more action would be best.

Wei Siao, eyes closed, bit his teeth uncontrollably and clenched his small fists when he felt the hand on his head.

Getting beaten three times a day had become a daily routine over the past three months, yet a part of him still couldn’t help but hope that one day, misfortune wouldn’t befall him.

Thinking this, he bit his teeth harder, closed his eyes, and waited for the tempest.

He was the older brother; he had to at least protect his younger brother from getting beaten as much.

He waited anxiously with his eyes closed for a few seconds, only hearing footsteps receding. Wei Siao waited a few more seconds before slowly fluttering his eyelashes open.

The gentle touch on his head still lingered. She hadn’t hit him…?

He looked in surprise at the door that had just closed, then turned and hugged his shorter younger brother.

“Little Xiang, be good. It’s okay now, you can open your eyes.”

Wei Sixiang blinked his big eyes, which were already brimming with tears but stubbornly refused to fall. His dirty little face was both beautiful and full of grievance.

“Brother, Mom… is she going to get something to hit us with? My tummy didn’t mean to growl, brother, I’m hungry, brother, I’m hungry.”

He spoke while clinging tightly to his brother, simultaneously pulling hard on his brother’s sleeve.

Wei Siao didn’t understand either, but usually, that bad woman’s habit was to grab whatever was at hand to hit them with.

Right now, there was a broom nearby, and a wooden stick.

Wrinkling his face, Wei Siao’s six-year-old brain truly couldn’t come up with an answer. He could only secretly plan how to make that bad woman suffer greatly.

He couldn’t let his brother continue to suffer like this.

Yan Xue, who had entered the kitchen, had no idea what the two children were thinking on the other side.

She looked at the impoverished kitchen with a worried expression.

Although the novel’s setting was contemporary, the male lead’s malicious relatives had thrown them into an extremely destitute place, making it resemble the old rural villages seen on television.

It was impossible not to be shocked. Even though her parents had died early, she had been raised by her grandmother.

Her grandmother’s pension was not small, and they also had the house her parents left and some savings. The old and young relied on each other and lived quite well. Growing up, Yan Xue wasn’t spoiled to the point of being waited on hand and foot, but she had never lacked food or clothing. They could even enjoy more expensive snacks and seafood two or three times a month.

It was just that her grandmother was getting old, and many things needed Yan Xue to do, which she enjoyed. After her parents passed, helping her grandmother was her favorite pleasure in life.

Later, after she graduated from university, her grandmother passed away peacefully at over 80 years old. After that, Yan Xue had no living relatives.

She lived in her own house and used the remaining savings until she graduated with her master’s degree. After graduating, she stayed to work in a provincial biological research lab, easily supporting herself.

For over twenty years, her life had been relatively peaceful and smooth.

Now, having transmigrated into the book, facing an unfamiliar environment and two small children who needed protection, she didn’t know if she could do well. She just told herself she had to try hard in everything she did.

Fortunately, before she pursued her master’s in microbiology, her undergraduate major was agricultural science. Although she didn’t grow up in the countryside, she had learned about these things in school and should be able to manage.

There wasn’t much in the kitchen in winter. The most common foods were some large cabbages with frozen outer layers, piles of dried corn, and a heap of white radishes.

Eggs and meat were pitifully scarce, and white rice and white flour were not abundant either.