Chapter 4 – Protective

If it were any other time, Yan Fengru definitely wouldn’t have let her eat so much. The child was still young, and overeating could lead to indigestion.

In the countryside, children were raised rough and tough. Being able to eat was considered a blessing. But in years of poor harvest, both adults and children could go hungry. If there was food, wasn’t it natural to let the children eat their fill?

But Yan Fengru thought differently. She had once overheard the family doctor at her master’s house say that young children had small stomachs, and overeating wasn’t good for them.

Privately, Yan Fengru also reasoned that her precious daughter had been born prematurely and hadn’t competed with her older brother in the womb. She was such a tiny little thing—shouldn’t she be raised with extra care?

But now, she was so happy that she was on the verge of tears. Having a good appetite meant her daughter could get strong and healthy.

“Eat slowly. After you finish this bowl, I’ll bring you another later. Our sweet girl can take her time eating!”

Madam Li just stood there awkwardly, beginning to regret coming in to deliver the bowl of brown sugar egg soup.

Gu Yuzhu also noticed Madam Li. But Gu Yuzhu was fiercely protective. In the short five years of the original host’s memories, her mother Yan Fengru had played a deeply important role. So Gu Yuzhu decided—whoever her mother didn’t like, she wouldn’t like either.

That was how protective she was!

Once she was almost done eating, Gu Yuzhu obediently lay down. Her round eyes followed Yan Fengru wherever she moved. The mother and daughter stared at each other affectionately, like they could never get tired of looking.

Yan Fengru, finding Madam Li an eyesore, finally said coldly, “Zhu’er doesn’t want your food. Eat it yourself. Now hurry and leave—don’t stay here being an eyesore.”

Even though Madam Li had mentally prepared herself, she was still infuriated by those words. However, since Yan Fengru was an elder and Gu Yuzhu was still lying there, she forced herself to hold it in. The moment she stepped out of Gu Yuzhu’s room, she immediately drank the bowl of egg and brown sugar soup herself to vent her frustration.

Back when she first married into the family, Madam Li had thought Yan Fengru was not a bad person. She had even tried to ease the relationship between her husband and his stepmother.

But her husband and sister-in-law held deep prejudice against Yan Fengru. If she kept urging her husband to get along with his stepmother, it would only damage their own relationship. Eventually, Madam Li gave up on trying.

Still, she thought today’s effort shouldn’t go unnoticed by her father-in-law.

She had shown good intentions, after all. Regardless of how things looked, the younger sister-in-law falling from the tree wasn’t entirely unrelated to her son and daughter.

But with children, could anyone truly say a young child did something on purpose? It was just an accident. As a sister-in-law, she had sincerely come to apologize—it was Yan Fengru who refused to accept it.

In any case, her father-in-law was her husband’s father. He needed to know that his daughter-in-law was a reasonable person, someone who knew how to behave. That way, he wouldn’t favor the youngest son born from the stepmother and hand over the majority of the family assets to them in the future.

With that thought, Madam Li instantly found herself standing on the same side as her husband and sister-in-law.

But thinking more carefully—first the younger brother had fallen into the pond, and now the little sister had fallen from a tree—were these really accidents? Madam Li didn’t dare dwell on it.

At least she had never spoken ill of the stepmother or her children in front of her own children. And while her husband was wary of the stepmother, he wasn’t someone who liked to gossip.

That only left her biological sister-in-law, Gu Caihe.

Thinking about Gu Caihe’s personality, Madam Li couldn’t help but feel unsure…

Back in the room, Yan Fengru didn’t regret for a second that she hadn’t put on a good face for her stepdaughter-in-law.

Maybe Yan Fengru didn’t understand grand philosophies, but she knew very well that she and her stepdaughter-in-law stood on opposite sides. Given the prejudice her stepchildren held against her, the resentment from the childbirth, the near-death experiences of her two children—just being a nice person wasn’t enough to resolve such deep grudges or allow for reconciliation.

Since that was the case, they might as well tear off the pretense.

She would be the “evil stepmother,” and they could go on guarding against her like she was. At least then, things would be more comfortable and straightforward.

“Zhu’er, why did you fall from the tree? Didn’t I tell you not to climb trees? You’re a girl—how could you climb such a tall tree?” As she moved to the main point, Yan Fengru’s tone suddenly turned stern.

Gu Yuzhu furrowed her brows, trying to recall. Her head throbbed a little.

No surprise—falling from that height had killed the original host. This body had at the very least suffered a concussion.

As for how she was still alive after the original host died, Gu Yuzhu refused to dwell on it.

She had already transmigrated, after all. Compared to that, minor plot holes like this didn’t matter. What was important was that she was still alive—even if it was in a different world. And to her, that was a good thing.

“What’s wrong, Zhu’er? Don’t be scared. My sweet Zhu’er, just tell Mama—I will stand up for you.”

Seeing her daughter like this, Yan Fengru frowned even more deeply.

There were many children in the village. They often played together, sometimes by the river, sometimes near the pond or at the foot of the mountain. Children were naturally carefree and energetic; they always found ways to entertain themselves.

Usually, the villagers didn’t think much of it. They even felt that it was a good thing for the kids to have company. Country children were sturdy, after all, and growing up running around the mountains wasn’t likely to cause serious harm.

But Gu Yuzhu had always been weak. Yan Fengru had never let her out much. So, until she turned four, because of her poor health, Yan Fengru took her everywhere she went.

After turning four, her health had improved somewhat, and things got a bit easier.

But not long ago, her son had nearly drowned in the pond, and that incident had already consumed much of Yan Fengru’s attention. Afraid of her stepchildren, Yan Fengru had sent her son to live with her sister in town as soon as he recovered.

And yet, now her daughter had an accident too…

Yan Fengru’s younger sister, Yan Fengjiao, had married into a family that ran a shop in town.

Her father-in-law had traveled far and wide in his younger years and saved up quite a fortune, eventually buying a storefront and starting a legitimate business.

By the time Yan Fengjiao’s husband came of age, the family had already become relatively wealthy. Their home had two courtyards, and they had even hired maids and servants.

Yan Fengjiao’s husband, Lü Hongzhuo, was the only son in his family. The reason he had married a farmer’s daughter like Yan Fengjiao had a bit of fate to it.

Old Master Lü had traveled around as a peddler in his youth and had developed friendships with hunters and farmers in the mountains.

Yan Fengru’s father had a full-blooded younger brother—her and her siblings’ uncle—named Yan Yong, who was a hunter.

At first, the two men simply had a transactional relationship—one handed over goods, the other paid money.

Then one day, Old Master Lü entered the mountains to collect goods as usual but accidentally fell into a ravine and was severely injured—almost died. Coincidentally, he was rescued by Uncle Yan, who had been checking his hunting traps nearby.

Uncle Yan was a child born late in his parents’ lives, about ten years younger than Yan Fengru’s father and five or six years younger than Old Master Lü. But because of the life-saving debt, the two quickly became sworn brothers.

Unfortunately, Uncle Yan later went into the mountains to hunt and never returned.

When their parents were still alive, they had accepted that Uncle Yan had probably died. Though Qing Mountain Village was beautiful and close to both river and forest, the deep mountains were full of wild beasts and deadly predators.

If nothing had happened, how could he have disappeared without a trace? At the time, he hadn’t even married yet.

After the deaths of Yan Fengru’s parents, she had been forced to sell herself into servitude. It was all because the family had no adult male left to hold up the household. If Uncle Yan had still been around, how different things might have been.