The child’s eyes were red from the ointment, but he didn’t make a sound, his small face buried in Wei Cheng’s embrace as if enduring pain.

The husband, standing nearby, was silent for a moment before asking, “Cheng, what made you bring this child home?”

Wei Cheng explained how he found the child, adding, “Uncle, I came to buy medicine. After buying it, I planned to take him to the village head’s house.”

The husband sighed in relief, “Unfortunately, I remember the village head’s family is away visiting relatives and hasn’t returned to the village yet.”

Wei Cheng was startled. He coughed, pulling a plump gray rabbit from his backpack. “Uncles, can I exchange this rabbit for some medicine? And…” He glanced down at the child hidden behind him, “…some smaller clothes and shoes for him? Even worn ones would be fine. Just something to keep him warm in this cold weather.”

Wei Cheng knew the herbalist had a son about the same age as the child. The herbalist, having practiced medicine for many years, was one of the wealthier families in the village, and likely had extra clothes made for his only son.

The herbalist weighed the rabbit, exchanging a look with his husband. The husband sighed, “Cheng, you… Oh, alright, wait.”

The herbalist examined Wei Cheng’s pulse, frowning. “Your tongue is pale, your pulse is weak, you have chest congestion, and a cold affecting your lungs. Fortunately, the coughing up blood is only from prolonged coughing and throat sores. I need to add a dose of blood charcoal to stop the bleeding and help your qi. This medicine is expensive, but you must take it. Otherwise, it will damage your foundation, and you might…” The herbalist trailed off, deciding against scaring the poor child with talk of death.

A rabbit usually sold for around fifty cash, a good one for seventy or eighty. In winter, with less meat and valuable fur, this large gray rabbit could fetch one hundred and twenty or thirty cash in town.

However, medicine was always expensive. Listening to the herbalist list the herbs and calculate the cost, Wei Cheng, though not good at math, realized the medicine would cost most of the rabbit’s price.

The herbalist’s husband emerged with a thin, patched jacket and a pair of worn tiger-head shoes.

“These shoes are too small for our son. He only wore them for two years, and the cotton inside is old. We feel sorry for the child, so we’ll give them to you cheaply.”

Though worn, the shoes had cotton filling and good fabric, better made than Wei Cheng’s own.

The husband added, “This jacket is an autumn jacket. It won’t keep him very warm, but it’s better than that ragged piece of cloth he’s wearing.”

Wei Cheng accepted them, saying, “Thank you, Uncle.”

He knelt, putting the jacket on the child and helping him into the shoes. The child was quiet and obedient, not crying at all.

Seeing the child’s curious, watery eyes fixed on his new tiger-head shoes, Wei Cheng asked, “Warm enough?”

Guan Guan smiled at Wei Cheng. His small face was red and chapped, looking both pitiful and adorable.

Watching Wei Cheng leave with the child on his back, the herbalist sighed, “Wei Cheng is usually quiet and reserved, only focused on work. The Wei family calls him heartless, but he seems to have a good heart, just like his father.”

“What good is a good heart? In these times, it’s the good-hearted who suffer the most.”

The herbalist’s wife shook her head, “Let’s hope this Wei Cheng doesn’t turn out like his father, raising a bunch of ungrateful brats!”

Wei Cheng visited the village head’s house, finding the only blue-tiled house in the village locked up, the snow in front of the door untouched. They hadn’t returned.

Looking at the child, barely reaching his knees, Wei Cheng looked into the child’s clear black eyes and said seriously, “I can’t take you with me. I… I don’t have a home either. You’d only suffer with me. There are many kind people in the village. Maybe you should try to find someone else?”

The child sniffed and nodded.

Wei Cheng released the child’s cold hand, shouldering his backpack and walking away. He went some distance before hearing any sound from behind.

He felt his legs heavy, unable to move. Looking back, he saw the child still standing there, his chapped red face streaked with tears, his dirty little hands wiping away the tears.

Wei Cheng took a deep breath, his eyes suddenly reddening. He somehow remembered being like this when his mother remarried.

But his mother didn’t look back. If she had, would she have…

Forget it.

“Don’t cry,” Wei Cheng sighed, returning to the child. “I can only take you back for a while. As soon as the village head returns, I’ll take you to him, and he’ll find you good parents.”

Guan Guan nodded, his eyes swollen from crying.

This older brother was kind and warm, and he found him shoes and a jacket. Guan Guan understood, but he was very sad when the brother left.

Wei Cheng patted his head, “What’s your name? Do you have a name?”

Guan Guan hesitated, offering a small clay pot to his brother. He spoke very slowly and with difficulty, his voice tiny and milky, “Guan… Guan.”

“Your name is Guan Guan? Wait… You’re not mute? You just don’t speak well?”

Wei Cheng was surprised.

This child wasn’t mute, which made finding adoptive parents easier. He didn’t have the birthmark on his forehead that girls have, so he was a boy.

Wei Cheng pointed at himself, “Brother?”

Guan Guan, with red eyes, opened his mouth and called out like a little kitten, “Brother.”

“I heard my mother also had a younger brother. I imagine he was as cute and obedient as Guan Guan.”

Wei Cheng coughed and smiled, then worried about how to secretly bring Guan Guan back to the Wei family.

His eyes fell on Guan Guan and the backpack. Guan Guan was small enough to fit perfectly in the backpack.

Wei Cheng returned to find the Wei family courtyard empty. He hurried to the woodshed, but before he could put Guan Guan down, he heard someone banging on the door.

“Wei Cheng! Wei Cheng! What are you sneaking back there? Open the door! This is my house! Open the door! If you don’t listen, I’ll make you sleep in the outhouse!”

“Hahahaha, bastards should sleep in the outhouse!”

Wei Cheng gritted his teeth, clenching his fists.

If it weren’t for Guan Guan, he would have beaten those two brats to a pulp.

The entire Wei family belonged to Wei Cheng. How could Wei Tian and Wei De say such shameless things?

Wei Cheng was the son of Wei Da Nian, the eldest of the Wei family. Wei Da Nian was a hunter who, with his skill, cared for his paralyzed father until his death, raised his younger half-siblings, built a house, bought land, and found wives for his two younger brothers. The whole family prospered thanks to him. He was injured hunting when young, delaying marriage until he was almost twenty-four.

Then his stepmother, Fang Pozi, became unreasonable. After Wei Da Nian was mauled by a bear and died a month later, she refused to give Wei Cheng and his mother anything and split the family.

But they hadn’t anticipated Wei Cheng’s mother, Qin Shi, wasn’t docile. She secretly sold Wei Da Nian’s remaining four acres of land, took forty taels of silver and four-year-old Wei Cheng back to her natal village, remarried a wealthy man after the three-year mourning period, and abandoned seven-year-old Wei Cheng in Maoxi Village.

Wei Cheng still remembered his uncle and maternal grandfather’s words last year when they left him at the Wei family: “This is your Wei family’s child. If you don’t want him, then the Qin family doesn’t want him either.”

The two families fought, until the village head intervened.

The village head was a sensible man, making the Wei family ashamed and letting the Qin family leave, leaving the emaciated Wei Cheng behind.

Wei Cheng didn’t mind. He was unwelcome and hungry in both his maternal and paternal homes.

Both families despised him, calling him heartless because he fought back when attacked, enduring beatings without crying or begging for mercy. He ate when given food, found his own if not; he worked when asked, but he always secretly took advantage of opportunities, or he would have starved to death.

The woodshed was once Wei Cheng’s family’s room, but it had become a storage place for firewood and junk, leaving only a bedboard.

He hid Guan Guan in a small gap between the piled firewood and the wall, then opened the door to see Wei Tian and Wei De.

Wei Tian, a thin, dark, short boy, was the second son of his second uncle, a year older than him. Having a scholar brother, Wei Zhi, he often acted arrogantly in the family and village.

Wei De was the only son of his third uncle, spoiled by his grandmother and unmarried aunt, Wei Linlang, often given extra food. He was fat, his eyes barely visible at eight years old.

Wei Cheng coldly asked, “What is it?”

Wei De, small and agile, slipped into the woodshed, pointing to the empty backpack, “I saw your backpack was heavy when you came in. Why is it empty now?”

Wei Tian shouted, “Tell us! Did you hide something good?”

They started searching. Wei Cheng panicked, saying, “What could I hide? Just some firewood and grass. I saw my aunt leave the dairy room, go to the third aunt’s room, then to my elder brother’s study, carrying an oil-paper package. It smelled delicious, maybe roast duck or chicken…”

“Idiot, it was chicken legs! Oily and delicious! I ate a whole one!”

Wei De blurted out, covering his mouth. Wei Tian’s eyes reddened, kicking open the woodshed door and wailing, “Grandma! You’re biased!”