Chapter 5: Cutting Off the Source — The Letter of Report

Inside the small house, Chu Yaoyao’s room.

Chu Yue plopped down onto the small bed covered in a pink sheet. In front of her on the floor sat a large red washbasin, the kind every household had in the 1970s.

[Image: Red Washbasin from the 70s]

Whoosh—
Two thermoses of hot water and a bucket of cold water had just been poured into it. Wisps of white steam floated upward.

Chu Yue dipped her hand in to test the temperature. A little hot.

But in this kind of weather, a hot bath was the only way to feel truly clean and comfortable.

She looked up at Lu Xiaobao, who was curled up in the corner.

Earlier, the little boy had practically been frozen stiff, staring blankly like a little dummy. But after being brought into the warm room, his body temperature gradually returned, and with it, his clarity. His eyes now had a spark of life, and his real nature began to show.

His tiny body was curled up tight in the corner, looking like a pitiful little thing. But those bright black eyes and his tightly clenched fists gave him away.

Chu Yue glanced at him, and it felt as though she was looking at a small wild beast.

In the cruel post-apocalyptic world she had once lived in, you’d often come across young beasts who had been separated from their packs because they lacked survival ability.

Some people, seeing how small and weak those beasts looked, would mistakenly think they had found easy prey.

But those people would be dead wrong.

A wild animal was still a wild animal — no matter how small — and their vicious instincts ran deep. It was often the careless humans who became their prey.

The little boy in front of her was just like that.

Lu Xiaobao had survived in a backward, feudal village with no father or mother. He was no ordinary child.

Chu Yue waved to him and gave a command:

“Come here. Strip and take a bath.”

Lu Xiaobao only slightly raised his head. His dark eyes glanced at Chu Yue, but his body remained perfectly still.

The warm steam rising from the basin should have been irresistibly tempting to a child who’d just been frozen.

And yet, he didn’t even look at it.

Seeing how unmoved he was, Chu Yue didn’t get angry. Instead, she smiled faintly.

Interesting. A stubborn one.

She didn’t waste more words. She simply got up and walked over.

She reached out to grab him—

But in that exact moment, the little boy struck like lightning, grabbing her wrist in a tight hold.

The little beast showed his claws.

Unfortunately for him, Chu Yue was ready.

She had anticipated this and, in that instant, flipped her wrist and caught his shoulder instead.

With just a bit of strength in her arm, she had him locked in her grip, completely restrained.

Even in this body that hadn’t regained its full strength, her instincts in grappling and hand-to-hand combat were second nature — refined through years of brutal survival. She could suppress a little boy in her sleep.

In the next second—

Chu Yue stripped off the little boy’s old, torn, filthy clothes and tossed his bare body into the red basin!

Thud.

Before Lu Xiaobao could even process what had happened, he was already sitting in the warm water, butt naked.

So warm.

A rush of heat instantly spread through his frostbitten limbs, gradually enveloping his entire body. His resistance froze along with it.

His clenched fists loosened for a brief moment — but when he looked over and saw Chu Yue standing nearby, he quickly balled them up again.

Such a small child, and yet he’d already suffered so much that he guarded against everyone who came near him.

Even if that person now bore the title of his so-called “mom.”

Chu Yue narrowed her eyes, taking in all his subtle reactions.

She didn’t comfort him — instead, she warned him coldly:

“If you dare try to scratch or grab me again, I’ll throw you outside right now!
You choose: go freeze your naked self to death, or be good and take your bath.”

Three.
Two.
One.

Lu Xiaobao sat motionless in the warm basin.

Earlier, when he’d been hidden outside in his clothes, he’d nearly frozen unconscious. If he was thrown out now, completely naked, it would take only a few minutes for him to freeze to death.

Faced with life or death, Lu Yuanbao yielded to Chu Yue.

Chu Yue smiled with satisfaction.
“Good. Since you’ve chosen to take a bath, then behave yourself.”

As she spoke, she picked up a towel, dipped it into the water basin, and began wiping Lu Yuanbao’s body from top to bottom.

Her hands were covered with chilblains—and fingers like that would sting painfully when touched by hot water.

Yet Chu Yue didn’t even frown. She bore the pain without a sound and kept moving her hands steadily.

Lu Yuanbao was filthy and smelly. After scrubbing, the basin was filled with black water, and what was revealed underneath was a skeletal little body, not just thin but also covered in countless bruises and scars.

New injuries layered over old ones—the kind that absolutely shouldn’t be on a child.

Chu Yue frowned slightly. Toward this child who resembled a little wild animal, she began to feel a trace of pity.

She rubbed his face with the towel, then casually tossed the wet cloth onto his crotch area, covering his “little chili pepper.”

“The water’s getting cold. You can’t wash anymore. Wring out the towel and dry yourself off.”

This time, Lu Yuanbao didn’t resist. Whatever Chu Yue said, he did, struggling to wring out the towel with his small hands and carefully drying his wet body.

When he was done, he stood in the basin, hesitating as he looked at his ragged old clothes thrown off to the side, unsure if he should reach for them.

Chu Yue stepped up behind him, scooped him up, and stuffed the naked little boy directly into the quilt.

This room belonged to Chu Yaoyao, and so did the quilt—made from the best cotton, fluffy and soft.

Once inside, Lu Yuanbao felt like he’d fallen into a cloud of cotton.

He had never felt anything so soft before. He blinked in disbelief.

Chu Yue tucked him in tightly, head to toe, and instructed him:

“Lie in there and don’t move.”

Then she strode to the door and opened it.

She carried the heavy red water basin outside with ease and shouted:

“Chu Yaoyao! Come dump out the bathwater!”

Without waiting to see how Chu Yaoyao reacted—bam!—she slammed the door shut again.

Chu Yue couldn’t care less about the stomping fury on the other side of the door.

“Mom, did you see that?! She actually made me clean up bathwater! That’s my room! I haven’t even taken my stuff out yet—how could she let that little beggar bathe in there?”

“Yaoyao, just bear with it—only one night left. Once the two of them get on that train tomorrow, this house will be ours to run as we please!”

“But…”

“But what?! If Chu Yue doesn’t marry him, are you going to? Are you planning to become that little beggar’s stepmother?”

“Mom! I’m not crazy! Why on earth would I want to marry Lu Zhanlin? He’s already thirty! The village head said he’s injured—his face is ruined, his leg’s broken! Why else would he have been sent back from the front lines? There’s no way I’m marrying him!”

“Well then, if you don’t want to marry, keep quiet and do as I say. I’ve arranged everything. Once Chu Yue leaves, you’ll go to university in Shanghai. Once you’re in the city, what kind of man can’t you find?”

The mother and daughter thought they were plotting quietly, unaware that walls have ears. Inside the room, Chu Yue heard every word of Li Amei and Chu Yaoyao’s scheme loud and clear.

No wonder Li Amei had schemed to force the marriage on the original Chu Yue from the start—Lu Zhanlin was a disfigured, disabled old man.

Chu Yue stepped away from the door and immediately began rummaging through the room.

From the original Chu Yue’s memories, she knew that Chu Yaoyao’s grades were a complete disaster—she failed every single subject.

If that was the case, then the report cards must reflect those grades.

A few minutes later—

Chu Yue found the report cards hidden in the bottom corner of a drawer in the desk.

Not just one—all of them. From first year to third year of high school, every single report card was stuffed in that one spot.

Truly, it was like finding treasure with no effort.

Chu Yue also found envelopes and stamps, and sat down immediately to start writing.

She was going to write a report letter!

But it wasn’t going to the local admissions office—Li Amei had clearly pulled strings there to swap grades between Chu Yue and Chu Yaoyao. If the letter went there, it might be intercepted by someone on the inside.

Chu Yue had to cut the problem at the root.

This report letter was going directly to the admissions office of the university in Shanghai that had accepted Chu Yaoyao.

That office was full of teachers and officials from the university. No matter how far Li Amei’s reach extended, she couldn’t touch them.

Chu Yue quickly wrote out the contents of the letter, enclosed all three years of Chu Yaoyao’s report cards, sealed the envelope, and stuck on a stamp.

Solid evidence. Mission complete.

After everything was done, Chu Yue noticed she hadn’t heard a sound from Lu Yuanbao for a while.

She turned to look—