Chapter 24.2

The young boy didn’t fully understand what they were up to, but he was certainly curious about their excitement.

With curiosity bubbling inside him, Chuchu rushed back into the house and started chattering to Qin Qingman about what he’d seen.

Although Qin Qingman didn’t interact often with Third and Fourth Uncle, she’d seen enough to understand their personalities.

Normally, they might fear their wives, but with some alcohol in them and a touch of pride on the line, there was no telling what they might do. She guessed it would be a chaotic evening for those households.

“Sis, what should we do? Should we go warn Third Aunt and Fourth Aunt?” Chuchu asked, a bit worried.

“Why worry so much? Look at us—one is just a young woman, and the other is a little kid. No one would listen even if we tried to warn them. Don’t stress yourself over it. If you worry too much, you might not grow tall! Now hurry up, eat your food, and get some rest.” Qin Qingman replied, ruffling Chuchu’s hair.

After having a few good meals over the past couple of days, both Qin Qingman and Chuchu looked healthier, their faces noticeably rosier—something no amount of warmth by the fire could bring.

As the siblings continued their meal in peace, Qin Shi and Qin Shu next door received the “complaints” from their nephews. Having already downed a fair amount of wine, they felt humiliated in front of Qin Lei and the younger boys.

In a fury, the two brothers stood up and stormed off to their own houses. How dare their wives embarrass them in front of Second Brother and their nephews? Did these women not respect them as the heads of the family?

Bursting with anger, each brother kicked open his own door.

As soon as they entered, both Qin Shi and Qin Shu saw a pot of pork stewed with noodles simmering on the stove, the delicious aroma wafting through the air.

Initially delighted at the sight of meat, their joy quickly turned to rage. Their wives were indulging in the meal with the children, oil gleaming on their lips, while the men were out!

The pot of meat looked half-finished.

This was a blatant case of hoarding food!

Seeing his wife eating alone without so much as bringing a bowl over to Second Brother’s house, Qin Shi’s anger boiled over. He stormed toward the stove.

“Husband, you’re back…” Yao Chunying greeted him cheerfully, unable to stand up because of her injury.

But instead of responding, he stormed past her and kicked the pot right off the stove.

Thud!

The heavy thud echoed through the room as the pot of pork stew and noodles spilled onto the ground.

Following close behind, Qin Lei and his family looked on in shock as they entered, faces frozen with disbelief.

Oh no, things weren’t just going poorly—they were on the verge of becoming a complete disaster! Realizing the situation was spiraling out of control, Qin Lei decided he couldn’t afford to get involved. This was turning into a full-blown brawl at Fourth Brother’s house, and if his family got mixed up in it, they’d likely suffer as well. Thinking quickly, Qin Lei grabbed his two sons by the scruffs of their necks and hurriedly dragged them out of the courtyard.

As soon as the three of them exited Qin Shi’s yard, they heard the explosive roar of Yao Chunying’s angry, lioness-like voice echoing from inside.

The scene was no better at Qin Shu’s house. The two brothers, drunk and blinded by rage, had let their tempers override their judgment. In their heated anger, both had kicked over the pots of deliciously fragrant pork stew, wasting all of it.

Neither Yao Chunying nor Li Meina could possibly swallow their anger after that. Ignoring their own injuries, they each grabbed a nearby cane and began beating their husbands over the head, all the while hurling every insult they could think of, as only rural women could, without restraint or sophistication.

Qin Shu and Qin Shi were immediately taken aback by the sudden assault.

Stunned back to their senses, they instinctively began to fight back.

“Father, stop! Mother’s injured! She was gored by a wild boar, and Grandpa Lin applied medicine. He said she can’t move around too much! If you keep fighting, she’ll start coughing up blood!” Qin Huihui, their daughter, was beside herself with worry as she pushed her way between her brawling parents.

In the scuffle, she was struck by both the cane and a fist, but her intervention finally made Qin Shi and Yao Chunying halt.

“You were injured by a wild boar?” Qin Shi’s mind started to clear, and the effects of the alcohol began to wear off.

“Qin Shi, you miserable wretch! I’m done with you! I’m divorcing you!” Yao Chunying spat out a mouthful of blood, threw down her cane, and lunged at Qin Shi, clawing at his face. What had she done in a previous life to deserve marrying into the Old Qin Family, a family without a single decent person in it?

Qin Shi, knowing he was in the wrong, didn’t dare resist as his wife’s nails raked his face.

In no time, his face was a mess of bloody scratches, a crisscross of red streaks that looked almost like a macabre door curtain.

“Wife, please calm down! I didn’t know you’d been injured by a wild boar. If I had known, I would’ve come straight home instead of going to Second Brother’s house!” Qin Shi, desperate to avoid a divorce, tried to explain.

“Divorce! Go back to your Second Brother, then! I’m done with you!” Yao Chunying spat out another mouthful of blood, her rage unquenched.

“Wife, I was wrong.” Qin Shi squatted down, muttering, “Second Brother didn’t say anything about you being hurt. I truly didn’t know.”

“De Fu, tell your father exactly how I was thrown out by your Second Uncle’s family!” Yao Chunying’s anger flared again as she recalled Qin Jianming’s recent visit to ask about the meat. She quickly called to her son, who was crouched on the floor, trying to salvage some of the spilled stew.

Startled by his mother’s yell, Qin De Fu hurriedly wiped the oil from his mouth and eagerly began recounting, in vivid detail, the events that had unfolded in the village after Qin Shi had left.

The origin of the meat was questioned—why hadn’t his mother delivered vegetables as expected? The entire sequence of events was recounted clearly to Qin Defu.

After explaining, Qin Defu regretfully looked at the noodles on the ground, soaked in meat juices.

“What a pity.” he thought. “After being washed with water, the flavor definitely wouldn’t be as good as the original.”

After Qin Defu explained the full reason why no vegetables had been delivered, Qin Shi let out a loud shout and stormed out of the house. He was going to confront Qin Lei and settle this; it turned out that not only had his second sister-in-law been injured by a wild boar, but his own wife and third sister-in-law were also hurt.

All of them had been hurt, yet his second brother had only mentioned his own wife.

“Some brother!” thought Qin Shi furiously.

“If he had even a bit of family loyalty, he wouldn’t have failed to warn me.” he muttered under his breath.

When Qin Shi rushed up to Qin Lei’s house, Qin Shu was already banging on Qin Lei’s door.

Qin Shu had just learned the full story too. Realizing he’d been misled, and after having had a row with his own wife, he was now equally angry with Qin Lei. So he had come to demand justice, only to run into Qin Shi, face-to-face.

The two brothers had originally tried to hide the expressions on their faces.

But, as it turned out, both bore identical “curtains” of bruises.

Sharing their grievances, the two brothers turned even more resentful toward Qin Lei. “Second Brother, open the door! What promises did you make before we went up the mountain? You said you’d help look after our households. And yet, when our wives got hurt, you kicked them out of your house in the dead of winter?”

Inside, Qin Lei paced back and forth, frowning.

His plan had been to stay silent, regardless of what his younger brothers said, until they calmed down enough for an explanation. But with the issue of Yao Chunying and the others moving out, he couldn’t entirely blame them for bringing it up. So he couldn’t help but say something in his defense.

“Third Brother, Fourth Brother, this is all just a misunderstanding. Jianjun was talking nonsense, as kids do. Don’t take a child’s words seriously. I’ll make sure he goes and apologizes to the two sisters-in-law, kneels down, and says he’s sorry.”

“Bullshit, Qin Lei, are you trying to fool us?” spat Qin Shi angrily. His wife was on the brink of leaving him; was this really just a child’s misunderstanding?

“Fourth Brother, I’m your Second Brother. Do you even respect me as such?” Qin Lei, who had been holding back, flared up upon seeing his brothers persistently confront him, even calling him by his full name.

“Second Brother, if we didn’t respect you, we wouldn’t have come here right after we got back. But what about you? You knew our wives were injured, and yet you didn’t say a word, even going so far as to mislead us on purpose.”

Qin Shi, his drunkenness fading, now realized the full weight of the situation.

“Second Brother, if you truly cared about us, you wouldn’t treat our families this way. I guess we were blind to your real nature. From now on, your family is your family, and ours is ours. We’ll no longer accept any help from you.” Qin Shu threw down this statement in anger and went home.

He had made his stance clear, and now he had to go and make amends with his wife. He was determined not to let things get to the point of divorce.

After Qin Shu left, Qin Shi kicked Qin Lei’s courtyard door hard and left as well.

In the quiet of Kaoshan Village that night, any slight sound carried far, so the neighbors all overheard the Qin brothers’ confrontation.

Jiang Linshan, especially, was filled with fear.

—o—o—o—

Today, with Wei Ling away, the siblings who had only just begun sleeping apart found themselves back on the same kang for the night.

The kang was three meters long, so they settled in different spots—one in the middle, the other at the end—each with their own blanket, undisturbed by the other.

Since the kerosene for their lamp was limited, and they were already lying down, Qin Qingman simply turned off the light to save it.

Even without the light, the room was not entirely dark. Although it hadn’t snowed, a thick layer of snow covered the ground outside, reflecting the moonlight from the night sky.

This reflection softened the night’s darkness, bringing a faint glow into the room through the window.

Chuchu, holding onto his small blanket, found himself unable to sleep and started rolling around on the kang.

This restlessness naturally kept Qin Qingman awake as well.

“Chuchu.” came her warning voice.

Chuchu, duly chastised, immediately stopped rolling and lay flat under his blanket, shutting his big eyes tight. As seconds ticked by, minutes later a small voice broke the silence in the room. “Sis, are you asleep?”

Qin Qingman, who was definitely not asleep, stayed silent.

“Sis…” Chuchu sounded like he’d turned over, now facing Qin Qingman’s direction.

Still, Qin Qingman didn’t respond, hoping he would give up. But she underestimated Chuchu’s persistence.

“Sis…” Not only did Chuchu call her again, but Qin Qingman also heard a faint rustling sound.

Unable to ignore him any longer, Qin Qingman sighed and replied, “Are you having trouble sleeping?”

Chuchu’s small hand had been reaching toward her face but swiftly retracted when she spoke, and he happily lay back down, chatting with her. “Sis, are you also thinking of Big Brother Wei so much that you can’t sleep?”

Qin Qingman was caught off guard.

Why would she be kept awake thinking of Wei Ling?

They had only met a few times; there was no reason she should be lying here, sleepless, thinking of him!

“Sis, I really miss Big Brother Wei. I wonder what he’s doing right now. Maybe he’s sleeping on a kang like us. And if he is, do you think he’s thinking of us as much as we’re thinking of him?”

Chuchu wasn’t really expecting a response; he simply wanted to share his thoughts aloud.

Qin Qingman could only silently listen to Chuchu’s innocent rambling.

“Sis, when do you think Big Brother Wei will come back?” Chuchu turned over to face Qin Qingman, asking the question he most wanted to know.

Qin Qingman decided to tease him. “I remember someone wasn’t willing to sleep on the same kang with Ah Ling before.”

Chuchu’s face turned red. “Sis, I was just not used to it. You can’t make fun of me anymore. Big Brother Wei is my Brother-in-law, and I’m fine with sleeping on the same kang with him.”

Qin Qingman hadn’t expected Chuchu’s playful response to come back at her.

The mention of “Brother-in-law” made her cheeks flush.

Not only did her face turn red, but her heart also started to beat faster.

The proposal from last night had been so sudden, and her decision to accept it was impulsive.

Now that she thought about it, Qin Qingman didn’t even know why she agreed to marry Wei Ling, considering they had just begun to get to know each other.

“Sis, are you silent because you’re thinking about Brother-in-law?” Chuchu’s little voice piped up again.

Qin Qingman, who had indeed been thinking about Wei Ling, couldn’t hold back anymore.

She stretched out both hands and moved toward Chuchu, playfully declaring, “If no one’s going to sleep, then fine, let’s all stay awake!”

“Ha ha ha, Sis, I’m sorry, I won’t ask you if you’re thinking about Brother-in-law anymore!” Chuchu repeatedly called him “Brother-in-law” with such ease that it sounded as though he wasn’t even trying to be mischievous.

Could Qin Qingman, who wasn’t one to be easily teased, let this go?

Of course not.

She quickly tickled Chuchu until he was laughing so hard that tears welled up in his eyes, apologizing profusely to make things right.

After their playful exchange, the two siblings eventually settled down and drifted off to sleep, their minds peaceful and at ease, not waking once through the night.

—o—o—o—

Meanwhile, in the mountains, Wei Ling and the others had not returned to the military camp but had instead found a shelter to rest in.

They had been following the wolf pack’s tracks in circles around the mountains, and eventually, they arrived at a valley. The valley was surrounded by thick snow, and at the bottom, they discovered a small lake—a steaming, bubbling hot spring.