Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Silent night.

The sudden sound of suona horns startled the village, rousing the village’s chickens and dogs, setting off a chorus of barking and crowing, the once peaceful Willow Mountain Village rippling like water disturbed by a thrown stone.

The funeral procession wound through the village. At the edge of the village, the Li family's child, awakened by the noise, burst into loud wails.

Wu Cuijuan sat up grumbling to nurse the baby, scolding the man beside her.

"Sleep, sleep, that’s all you know. Your son could cry himself to death and you wouldn’t even look at him."

Li Siniu turned over, haphazardly covering his head and continuing to snore. Wu Cuijuan, exasperated, redirected her curses toward the funeral procession outside.

"Blow, blow, blow—all that blowing won’t change a childless fate. Can’t even find someone to smash the mourning basin, yet they still put on such airs. Tch!"

"Enough already!" Annoyed by the racket, Li Siniu flung off the blanket with a roar. The baby, who had quieted after feeding, startled awake again, letting out even louder cries.

Wu Cuijuan was also jolted by his sudden outburst. Already agitated, his reaction only stoked her anger further.

"Oh, Li Siniu, finally showing your true colors, aren’t you? The other day when we passed the Zhong family, you kept gawking at that little fox of a young master. I barely said two words about his family, and you yell at me like this. You heartless wretch..."

"Oh, my bitter fate! Running around for your Li family, yet I’m worth less than an outsider. Damn seductress..."

The baby’s wails mixed with Wu Cuijuan’s melodramatic sobs and curses, carrying far into the night.

Neighbors woke up and, hearing the content of the Li family’s quarrel, rolled their eyes all at once.

In the two years since Wu Cuijuan had married into the family, she’d staged countless jealous, hysterical scenes. They were all ordinary farming households—did she really think her Li Siniu was some prize everyone was fighting over?

Wu Cuijuan truly had no restraint in her speech; she didn’t even spare a funeral from her venomous tongue.

People muttered privately in their homes but no one stepped forward to stop it.

The Zhong family had long been absent from the village; their ties had grown distant. No one was foolish enough to stick their neck out for a stranger.

As for the young master of the Zhong family that Wu Cuijuan mentioned, that was a long story.

Years ago, when disasters struck the south, Willow Mountain Village received an official order to take in several refugee families. The Zhong family was one of them.

The Zhong family originally had three brothers. The eldest brother and his family were swept away by floodwaters, leaving only Zhong Laoer and Zhong Laosan. Their father, Zhong Laohan, had injured his leg on the road and, without timely treatment, became lame. The burden of the family fell on the two sons.

The land allotted to the Zhong family was meager, not enough to feed everyone. To make ends meet, Zhong Laosan stayed to farm while Zhong Laoer went out to seek other means of livelihood.

At first, the villagers thought Zhong Laoer had simply gone to sell his labor for hard-earned cash—that was the only way they knew for a peasant family with no connections to make money.

But no one expected that within a few years, the Zhong family had actually built a house!

Only then did the villagers learn that the seemingly honest and reliable Zhong Laoer had taken up business outside and made a name for himself.

A few more years passed, and Zhong Laoer’s business grew larger. He bought a house in the prefectural city and moved the entire family there.

The village buzzed with talk. No one could have imagined that the refugee Zhong family would have such fortune.

Many were secretly envious or jealous, but even more were genuinely admiring.

Word had it that the Zhong family owned several shops in the city, with servants attending to them at every turn. They had truly become a whole different league from the dirt farmers.

The Zhong family’s story became the talk of the village for a long time. Since the Zhongs had no relatives in the village, gradually, fewer people mentioned them.

No one expected that the next news of the Zhong family would be of Zhong Laoer’s death.

Zhong Laoer died of illness in the prime of his life. His only child, a young master, brought his coffin back to Willow Mountain Village for burial, instantly causing a stir.

In a small village like Willow Mountain, decades could pass without a single wealthy household emerging. For Zhong Laoer to rise from a dirt-poor peasant to a gentleman in the city, only to end like this—it was all anyone talked about over meals and during idle hours.

Naturally, Zhong Laoer’s illness and the Zhong family’s wealth were the center of gossip. Beyond that, the young master of the Zhong family also drew much attention.

Under the Yan dynasty, social customs were more liberal than in previous eras. When villagers went to the city, they had seen pampered young ladies and gentlemen from well-off families. But even putting them all together, none could rival the fine features of the young master of the Zhong family.

Some in the village offered phony pity for Zhong Laoer, lamenting that he had no son to smash the mourning basin. Others muttered that the Zhong family had handled things poorly, sending an unmarried young gentleman to handle things without any elder present. Still more, with fanciful ideas, began scheming to forge a marriage alliance with this wealthy family. In short, everyone had their own agenda.

With the young master’s looks and background so evident, Wu Cuijuan’s outburst only made her look ridiculous to everyone else.

The next morning, Wu Cuijuan packed her things and returned to her parents’ home with the child, adding fuel to the farce.

The Li family’s neighbors urged Li Siniu to go retrieve his wife and child, but their eyes glistened with malicious glee.

Li Siniu, already feeling humiliated by the whole affair, grew even more irritable under their goading. He snapped, "Let her go if that's what she wants," then shouldered his hoe and headed to the fields.

Village gossip traveled fast. At the Liu family courtyard near the village entrance, a group of women and married men were gathered, making knotting cords.

Their hands worked steadily as they listened to Zhang Guihua vividly recount the previous night’s Li family drama.

The Liu family’s courtyard wall was low; sitting in the yard, they could see the figures working in the distant fields. Liu Fulang withdrew his gaze and curled his lip. "She’s like a dung beetle, treating a ball of dung like treasure."

Zhang Guihua spat in agreement: "Exactly. Forget the young master of the Zhong family—how many in the village actually think well of her Li Siniu? She's always badmouthing people; sooner or later her mouth will rot and her heart will turn black as coal."

Zhang Guihua’s niece had once been cursed out by Wu Cuijuan over nothing, and she had held a grudge ever since. The others knew this and chimed in.

"Evil people get what's coming to them. She used her pregnancy as an excuse to cause trouble, and now even Li Siniu is sick of her. Let’s see how she ends this."

"We said it before—she has no brains. The Zhong family is from the city, yet she dares spout such nonsense. Just wait; if the Zhongs find out, she'll have it coming."

"The young master of the Zhong family was just holding a funeral in his own yard, and she still managed to take offense. That's just rotten luck..."

The conversation circled back to the young master of the Zhong family. Liu Feng, remembering what his son had discussed with him the night before, his eyes darted. He was about to speak when he was interrupted by the sound of hoofbeats not far away.

Horses were expensive, not something ordinary families could afford. The last time a carriage came into Willow Mountain Village was a few days earlier when the Zhong family brought the coffin back. Apart from that, the villagers only saw carriages in the city, used by rich folks.

So the carriage suddenly appearing on the village road immediately caught many people’s attention.

Liu Feng and the others stopped their work, craning their necks curiously to look outside.

"Crash—" A wooden basin left in the Liu family's yard to warm water in the sun was kicked over. Startled, Liu Feng turned around to see his son rush in, panic written all over his face.

"Father! Something’s wrong!"

·

At the gate of the Zhong family’s old house.

Willow Mountain Village's head, Liu Youzong, stared at the smooth-talking Zhong family servant before him and the fully harnessed horses and carriage behind him, still not quite grasping the situation.

"You mean the young master of the Zhong family plans to stay in Willow Mountain Village?"

Wang Shun glanced awkwardly at the slowly gathering crowd of curious onlookers, then "lowered" his voice to say to the village head, "This is the wish of our old master and lady. They want the Third Young Master to settle in the village, settle down and straighten out. Our Zhong family’s household registration was originally here in the village. There shouldn’t be any problem with that, should there?"

Liu Youzong frowned. "There’s no problem, but the young master is an unmarried young man..."

Wang Shun interjected: "You don't need to worry about that. Our Second Madam, out of her deep love for her son, will also stay in the village to accompany him. We were originally supposed to travel together, but Second Madam caught a chill on the way and was unable to travel further. Worried about delaying the Second Master's burial, she let us proceed first."

The "clip-clop" of horse hooves approached from afar. Wang Shun turned to look and raised his voice suggestively: "Second Madam has arrived."

The coachman brought the carriage to a stop at the courtyard gate, set down the mounting stool, and lifted the curtain. A middle-aged woman with a sickly complexion supported herself against the carriage door and began to rise. Wang Shun was about to put on a show of helping her up when he was shoved aside.

He turned and saw Zhong Yizhu standing by the carriage, carefully helping Sun Yunniang dismount.

The surrounding crowd, who had been whispering about Wang Shun's earlier words, suddenly went silent at the sight of Zhong Yizhu.

Many villagers had come to watch because they had heard the Zhong family was leaving today. Over the past few days, Zhong Yizhu had been busy with the funeral and had rarely gone out, so only a few had seen him.

Everyone knew the young master of the Zhong family was handsome mainly by word of mouth, and some even speculated maliciously that people were exaggerating the young master's looks to curry favor with the Zhong family.

Now that they suddenly saw him in person, audible gasps of surprise came from the crowd.

Zhong Yizhu was dressed in simple mourning clothes, his black hair casually tied back with a single wooden hairpin. Yet this plain attire only made his striking features stand out more.

Only after Zhong Yizhu helped Sun Yunniang out of the carriage did the crowd's attention shift to Sun Yunniang's sickly face, and the murmuring resumed.

Wang Shun perfunctorily bowed to Sun Yunniang: "Since Second Madam has arrived, we will take our leave and return to report back."

Without waiting for Sun Yunniang's response, he turned and began shouting at the others to get ready to leave.

Only then did the onlookers really burst into commotion.

Liu Feng had just arrived and was stuck at the edge of the crowd, unable to squeeze in. Panting heavily, he grabbed a familiar villager to ask what was happening.

"What's going on? I heard the Zhong family was leaving. Are they leaving so soon?"

The villager, whose arm was grabbed, stood on tiptoe to watch the excitement and replied, "Indeed, they're leaving. But it looks like Young Master Zhong and his mother are staying in our village. It's bizarre—what is the Zhong family up to..."

Liu Feng breathed a sigh of relief. As long as they stayed, there was still hope.

He patted his chest in relief. He had originally thought that the young master of the Zhong family staying in the village meant there was other business. But when he looked up at the departing carriages, he couldn't help but twitch his eyelid. "The Zhong family didn't leave a single servant behind?"

However, no one could answer his question.

No one had expected that the young master of the Zhong family and his mother would stay in Liu Shan Village.

Zhong Yizhu helped Sun Yunniang into the house and then closed the courtyard gate. Liu Youzong frowned at the gathered villagers. "Why are you all gathered here? Don't you have work to do?"

The crowd dispersed in small groups, still discussing the Zhong family's affairs. Because of Wang Shun's two deliberately suggestive remarks, some inevitably speculated that Zhong Yizhu had been punished for some wrongdoing.

But no matter what they guessed, they only muttered among themselves. After all, Zhong Yizhu was still a member of the Zhong family, and he might be called back to the prefectural city in a few days. If he decided to make an issue of it, they would be in for trouble. They were not as brainless as Wu Cuijuan.

However, later that day, a rumor quickly spread, not only completely clearing up everyone's confusion but also shattering the noble illusion these villagers had of Zhong Yizhu, the young master from the prefectural city.

Author's note:

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Here we go~