Chapter 46

Chapter 46

The Pei family had been overjoyed since early morning when they heard the news that Pei Mu had been bitten by a venomous snake, cheering and celebrating.

On one hand, they hated Pei Mu and wished him dead; on the other, they thought that Pei Mu's death might break their family's curse and resolve their current troubles.

Later, when Pei Mu returned to the village, the Pei family heard the rumors from the villagers and believed Pei Mu was dying. They felt immensely pleased. Tian Shi's eyes darted around as she whispered a few words to Pei Song, who nodded almost without hesitation.

They sent Pei Jin to keep watch near the foot of the mountain. When the courtyard was clear of others and the Wang couple had left on business, the whole family stormed over aggressively.

Pei Song, Tian Shi, Pei Jin, Pei Shui, and even the youngest, Pei Yan—all of them came. Sun Yunniang was picking vegetables in the yard when she noticed something wrong and tried to close the door, but it was too late.

Tian Shi shoved her and said arrogantly, "This yard belongs to the Pei family. Who are you, an outsider, to make decisions here?"

Sun Yunniang wasn't foolish. She stepped back to avoid the full force of the shove, still holding the door bolt in her hand. She turned and stood guard in front of the house door, watching them warily. "Aren't you the outsiders? You've already severed ties with him. What are you doing here?"

Pei Song said in a deep voice, "Even if we've severed ties, we're still connected by blood. It's perfectly reasonable for us to visit Pei Mu. What's your motive for blocking us?"

Pei Jin, standing behind him, straightened his back now that he knew Pei Mu was dying, and quickly chimed in, "That's right! Are you just waiting for Pei Mu to die so you can take over this house? No way!"

Sun Yunniang was utterly shocked by this family's shamelessness. They weren't here to inquire about his health—they were here to infuriate Pei Mu to death.

Tian Shi charged ahead, trying to push her aside and barge in. In desperation, Sun Yunniang swung the door bolt and struck Tian Shi's side. Tian Shi let out a cry of pain. Pei Jin and Pei Shui, seeing this, became enraged and moved to attack, but Zhong Yizhu, who had heard the commotion and grabbed a weapon, came out and hit them both squarely on the head with his stick, making them cry out in pain.

Zhong Yizhu shielded Sun Yunniang behind him and started swinging wildly without regard. Caught off guard, the three of them had no chance to fight back and could only retreat in panic.

Tian Shi, standing farther back, was hit less, but she was still shocked and furious that Zhong Yizhu dared to lay a hand on her. She screamed, "Rebellion! Striking an elder is the height of filial impiety! Just you wait—I'll go tell the Clan Elder and have you kneeling in the ancestral hall!"

Zhong Yizhu's face was cold, looking at her as if she were a piece of dead meat.

"Who are you to call yourself an elder? We've already severed ties—why are you still trying to claim kinship? If you know what's good for you, get out now, or don't blame me for being rude."

Tian Shi was furious, looking around for a weapon. Pei Jin, having been stunned by the hits, now realized his opponent was just a young man. Embarrassed and angry, he rolled up his sleeves and stepped forward to retaliate.

Zhong Yizhu had never been in a fight—not with girls, not with young men, let alone grown men. But in his rage, he didn't care about fear.

He gripped his stick and swung at Pei Jin's face, but Pei Jin grabbed the stick and tried to pull it away, unable to free it. Pei Jin grinned cruelly and raised his fist, only to be struck hard on the side of his face by Sun Yunniang, who had come up behind Zhong Yizhu with the door bolt.

Blood dripped from his nose down his chin onto his collar. Pei Jin immediately covered his face and screamed in pain.

Seeing Pei Jin take such a hit, Tian Shi shouted, "Husband, say something!"

Pei Song's face darkened as he looked at Zhong Yizhu. "A man who marries a jinx like Pei Mu can't be any good. Since you're so vicious, don't blame me, as an elder, for teaching you a lesson."

Zhong Yizhu's heart tightened. He pushed Sun Yunniang back and signaled her to go inside.

This family's timing was no coincidence; their intentions were clear.

Given how much Pei Mu despised them, this visit was purely to disgust him—they thought Pei Mu was dying and wanted to make sure he couldn't even leave in peace.

From their words, they might even have been planning to take over Pei Mu's house and possessions.

He couldn't let them in. Even though Pei Mu wasn't actually on the verge of death as they believed, he wouldn't allow them to disturb him.

This family was insane—who knew what they might do?

Earlier, He Agong had gone out for some air. When he saw the trouble, he started to come back to help, but Zhong Yizhu stopped him with a glance. He Agong understood and turned to head back into the village. Zhong Yizhu just needed to hold them off until He Agong brought help.

Pei Song was lean and wiry, not as foolish as Pei Jin. Zhong Yizhu knew he had no real chance to fight back. The distance was too close; he couldn't get inside and bolt the door.

He watched Pei Song approach, his mind racing. He was about to say something to buy time when he saw Pei Song's fierce expression suddenly change, and he halted in his tracks.

Zhong Yizhu's heart seemed to sense something, and he turned abruptly.

Even though he had already guessed, seeing Pei Mu walking over supported by his mother made him lose control of his expression entirely.

Zhong Yizhu dropped his stick and rushed forward to support Pei Mu. He looked into Pei Mu's eyes, wanting to say so much that he was momentarily speechless.

Pei Mu stood before him, alive and vivid, his eyes focused intently on Zhong Yizhu. That look seemed to bridge life and death, making him feel as if a lifetime had passed.

Zhong Yizhu bit his lip to hold back his tears, but when he spoke, he couldn't suppress his sobs of joy: "You're awake..."

The next moment, he snapped back to reality at Pei Yan's scream. He helped Pei Mu toward the house, saying, "Did they disturb you? Go rest. I'll drive them away. Don't look at this filth."

Pei Mu stood still. He gazed at Zhong Yizhu greedily, taking him in again and again before finally holding his hand and saying hoarsely, "I'm alright now. Don't be afraid. They can't touch me."

Zhong Yizhu felt the much stronger grip on his wrist than the night before. He looked down at it for a moment, then burst into tears.

At that moment, he didn't care about the Pei family anymore. He just wanted to cry his heart out.

Pei Mu wrapped an arm around Zhong Yizhu's shoulder and pulled him into an embrace. His own eyes reddened.

When he had woken up in the middle of the night, he truly thought he wouldn't make it. He had told Zhong Yizhu everything, except one thing—how much he really, truly didn't want to leave.

Now, to be able to touch Zhong Yizhu so vividly was beyond his expectations and all he could ever wish for.

He held him like a treasure regained, his shoulder wet with tears, a burning pain in his chest.

When he opened his eyes and saw the familiar bed curtains and the embroidered pouch with the love knot inside, he even thought he had died, or was dreaming, or living through his final memories.

Then the pain in his body came, the bedroom door creaked open, Sun Yunniang peeked in, and he caught the sounds of Pei Jin's wails and Tian Shi's curses from outside.

—He was still alive.

Realizing this, Pei Mu pushed himself up and looked around frantically.

His external injuries were minor; only the dizziness in his head and the pain in his organs made him want to frown. But none of that mattered.

Relief and surprise were overshadowed by the anxiety of not seeing Zhong Yizhu. His mind was completely filled with that one figure.

When Sun Yunniang helped him out of the bedroom and he saw Zhong Yizhu, that was when he truly came back to life.

Even while unconscious, he hadn't been entirely unaware. He remembered what Zhong Yizhu had said to him earlier.

He tightened his arms, as if that could ease Zhong Yizhu's pain.

Pei Mu said hoarsely, "Zhu Ge'er, I'm back. I'm not a little dog. You saved me."

Zhong Yizhu grabbed his collar and cried until he was almost limp, but at those words, fresh tears poured out.

He looked up at Pei Mu, then buried his face in his chest again, his voice muffled and thick with sobs: "You can't leave me again..."

Pei Mu murmured "okay," unable to hold back his own tears.

How could he bear it? How could he ever bear it?

Sun Yunniang had already slipped out silently when she saw the crowd surging toward the courtyard gate, and closed the door behind her.

In the courtyard outside, Pei Yan, having heard his father and mother repeatedly say that Pei Mu was dying before they came, genuinely thought Pei Mu was dead. So when he suddenly saw Pei Mu, he thought he was seeing a ghost and let out an earsplitting scream, but no one paid him any attention.

The Pei family stood frozen in disbelief, unable to understand why Pei Mu was standing there perfectly fine—hadn't they been told he'd been bitten by a venomous snake and was beyond saving?

Meanwhile, He Agong didn't recognize anyone from the village, so he just shouted at whoever he saw, thus summoning nearly half the village.

"What's going on? Who's trying to kill someone?"

The first to arrive was Liu Mingfeng, the village head's eldest son. He had just been at Liu Er Gou's place nearby to see the newborn puppies, intending to take one home to raise, when he heard someone shouting "Someone's trying to kill someone!" He immediately dropped the puppy and ran out.

Seeing that it was the elderly man who had been treating Pei Mu, he quickly went over to support him and asked what was going on.

Although He Agong was in good health, he was a bit out of breath from jogging over. He grabbed Liu Mingfeng's hand and said tremblingly:

"Some people from who-knows-where came shouting threats at Pei Mu's mother-in-law and his husband, Zhong Yizhu, saying Pei Mu is dead and such. But Pei Mu is alive and well. I think they want to kill someone."

Upon hearing this, Liu Mingfeng immediately ran toward the foot of the mountain. The nearby households that had heard the shouting all came out and followed him to Pei Mu's house.

As soon as Liu Mingfeng reached the courtyard gate, he collided head-on with Pei Yan, who was running out screaming "Ghost!" He grabbed the child by the back of his collar and was about to ask what was wrong, but Pei Yan, scared out of his mind, was already crying and spilling everything.

"Ghost! Sob sob sob... Mother said we came to anger the jinx to death and take his house, and the jinx has turned into a ghost! Sob sob sob..."

"Whoa—"

The people following behind all gasped in shock. Earlier, when they heard He Agong say someone was going to kill, they hadn't quite believed it, thinking the old man was just senile and talking nonsense. Who would have thought it was actually true!

Although this "killing" wasn't literal murder, a six-year-old child blurting it out so innocently was still chilling.

Pei Yan was only six years old, and exactly because he was only six, his words could only have come from hearing the adults at home. No one doubted the truth of it; they all believed him immediately.

Inside, Tian Shi snapped out of her daze when she noticed her youngest son had been scared off, and quickly told Pei Shui to go look after his brother. She thought to herself that they probably had to leave for now—Pei Mu indeed didn't look like he was about to die, and she wondered which damn person in the village had been spreading false rumors.

But was she just going to let Zhong Yizhu and his mother beat them for nothing? Tian Shi wasn't about to let that slide. She glared venomously at Sun Yunniang, who had just walked out the door not far away, and was about to step forward when she heard Pei Yan's cries and the voices of other villagers.

Tian Shi's heart skipped a beat. She hurried outside, and then heard Pei Shui loudly defending: "Pei Mu isn't dead! If you don't believe me, go in and see! That bitch Zhong Yizhu even hit us! He hit my mother too!"

"Serves you right! Pfft!" An auntie spat in contempt at Pei Shui. "Shameless! You cut ties and then tried to take his house! Knowing he was poisoned, the whole family came on purpose to anger him to death! On the surface you look all proper, but inside you're rotten—not a single decent one in the whole family!"

Once that auntie started, others joined in cursing. Tian Shi came out to argue, but the crowd was so indignant they wouldn't listen to anything she said.

No matter what Pei Mu's reputation was, he still had blood ties with this family. Even unrelated strangers who tried to kill and seize a house would be condemned, let alone the Pei family, who had voluntarily cut ties with Pei Mu just days ago and then pulled a stunt like this—utterly shameless.

The auntie who first spoke up rented land from Zhong Yizhu, so she naturally wanted Zhong Yizhu to do well, which is why she cursed so enthusiastically. Although the villagers liked to watch a spectacle, they still had basic decency in matters like this.

The crowd was so worked up that even Pei Yan stopped crying. He wriggled free from Liu Mingfeng's grip, ran back to hide beside Tian Shi, but Tian Shi pinched his ear hard, so he pouted and started bawling again.

Tian Shi's face flushed red from the scolding. What they did was indeed disgraceful, but if no one had known, they could have gotten away with it—just say they came to visit the sick. Whether Pei Mu died from anger, suffocation, or any other cause, it wouldn't be their fault. The villagers would at most gossip behind their backs, which wouldn't affect them much. That was why she had urged Pei Song to come.

But now not only had they failed, but her youngest son had also spilled everything. She could imagine how the villagers would view them from now on—how could their family continue to live in the village?

Ever since Tian Shi convinced herself that all their family's misfortunes were because of Pei Mu the jinx, she had become obsessed. First, she schemed to cut ties, and now she seized the chance to "send off" Pei Mu to eliminate this major worry.

Now, being reviled by everyone, she didn't blame herself but instead blamed Pei Mu again.

Her ears filled with the villagers' curses and her youngest son's cries, she suddenly let out a scream as if she were breaking down.

"It's all because he's a jinx! If he hadn't passed that jinx onto us, how would our family have ended up like this? What's wrong with wanting him dead? Tell me, am I wrong? You people who talk so easily—why don't you take him into your own homes and see how it goes?"

Her heart-wrenching, almost crazed appearance shocked everyone into silence.

An eerie silence fell over the courtyard at the foot of the mountain. The villagers looked at each other, and before they could say anything, Zhong Yizhu's voice suddenly came from inside.

"How is Pei Mu a jinx? My mother and I are both fine! I think Pei Song himself is the real jinx—he caused the deaths of his own father and first wife, and now he almost caused the death of the son he had already cut ties with. How dare your family blame others?"

"Hiss—" The crowd had never thought of it that way. Hearing Zhong Yizhu say this, they really felt it made some sense. The auntie who had spoken out first chimed in agreement, and others also started discussing.

Two real people had died—why not blame the living adult for causing the deaths of his wife and father, instead of blaming an infant less than a month old, just because he was abandoned in the deep mountains but survived through sheer luck?

Pei Song still stood in the courtyard, listening to the war of words between Tian Shi, Zhong Yizhu, and the people outside, with no intention of going to help or defend them. Pei Jin also cowered in the yard, and now he looked just like his father Pei Song—both equally lacking in responsibility.

Pei Song trembled with rage at Zhong Yizhu's words, but he didn't dare step forward, afraid of Pei Mu at his side.

He stared at Pei Mu with venom in his eyes, and, emboldened by the fact that those outside couldn't hear, he unleashed his malice as if he had nothing left to lose.

"I should have been more ruthless and killed you back then. Letting you live all these years was a mistake."

Pei Mu stared at him for a moment. "Too bad I'm alive and well now. It seems you don't have much life left."

After saying this, Pei Mu looked away and stopped listening to his frantic, incoherent cursing.

Pei Mu had once thought that if he died, he would become a vengeful spirit and first gut, skin, and bone the Pei family.

But according to the storyteller, becoming a vengeful spirit would lead to utter destruction of one's soul.

He hadn't been afraid before, but now he thought, these people weren't worth it.

More and more people were arriving outside—some asking what happened, some eagerly explaining, some shouting in defense, some cursing loudly... a noisy chaos.

His hatred for the Pei family would never fade, but it would never control him again.

He just wanted to protect the person beside him.

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Author's note: The Pei family should be pretty much done now~ Thanks for the mines and nutrient solution, xoxo~