Chapter 2 – A Timely Help in Snow, or Hidden Malice?

When Fang Yu dug out a neatly wrapped bundle from the chest, her heart leapt with joy—but at the same time, a wave of helpless grievance washed over her. Still, remembering her father’s threadbare clothes and her own rumbling stomach, the unease of “taking someone else’s things” was finally pressed down.

“Daughter, what are you doing with your dowry?”
Fang Yu turned her head. Her father, Fang Fusheng, stood there holding a chipped earthen bowl, looking at her with curiosity.

“Father, I’m going to sell Mother’s dowry for some money, so we can pay back Aunt Xu first.”

“No! Absolutely not!”
Her father rushed forward, ignoring the hot water sloshing from the bowl onto the ground. He set it aside and tried to snatch the bundle from her hands.

Unfortunately, he overestimated his strength. No matter how hard he pulled, the bundle didn’t budge in her grasp.

Frustrated, he burst into tears again:
“Good girl, let go of it. I’ll think of a way to repay Aunt Xu. This won’t do. You know this is your mother’s dowry for you. The He family must’ve just been delayed, they’ll come to propose sooner or later. Once I marry you off to them, even if I die, I’ll have the face to meet your mother in the afterlife!”

Saying that, he covered his face and sobbed harder.

Doesn’t he ever get tired? Fang Yu silently complained. Still, she could see clearly—this family truly cherished one another. Husband and wife, parent and child—genuine affection bound them. It was enviable.

Fang Yu herself had lived alone for over a century, long accustomed to solitude. She’d nearly forgotten how to communicate with people. Her feelings toward this “father” were tangled and contradictory.

That she bothered to explain even a single extra word was already her being patient. But their family was already this destitute. She couldn’t believe listening to him would change anything for the better. If he had a solution, he wouldn’t have let his daughter go digging for tree roots alone… which had led to that incident.

Her brow furrowed, and the pressure of her aura subtly dropped.

Sensitive to the change, Fang Fusheng shivered. Somehow, his daughter—always quiet—suddenly seemed frightening.

His sobbing tapered off. One by one, his fingers loosened from the bundle.

Wuwuwu… just one look from those beautiful eyes of hers, and I feel like crying again…

He watched as his daughter untied the bundle with a few swift motions. She lifted away the small cloth cover, revealing inside: two silver bangles, a pair of small earrings, a plain silver hairpin, and beneath them, a red wedding robe.

Fang Yu took only the jewelry, repacked the robe neatly, and told her father to stay put. Then she turned and left.

It was still early. She needed to make a trip to Qingzhou County.

Fortunately, Willow Village wasn’t too far—just seven or eight li away.

Her mind fixed on the matter, she walked quickly, and upon reaching the county seat, she went straight to a pawnshop. The jewelry was exchanged for three taels of silver.

Outside, she immediately noticed many families carrying bundles, passing through town in groups. She asked a pawnshop assistant, who told her these were refugees fleeing from the north.

At that, Fang Yu’s heart sank. Things are already this chaotic?

She quickly asked about the situation in nearby prefectures. The assistant, with little business to attend to, was more than willing to share what he knew.

Piecing together the information: Guang’an Prefecture was still relatively stable for now, but uprisings in the south were growing frequent. Large waves of people had already begun migrating north to escape.

But the north wasn’t exactly safe either. The borders suffered constant raids. Rumors even spread of steppe raiders attacking villages, slaughtering innocents, looting, and burning.

In short, the storm was coming.

Fang Yu first went to a grain shop. Prices had soared—thirty wen per dou. She bought two dou of millet for the time being. She needed food first, and time to decide whether they should join the flow of refugees.

Here, even water was scarce. Forests were withering, rivers dried up. Natural disasters and man-made chaos were piling together. The last straw to crush this fragile peace could fall at any time.

Better to act early than wait for death. Trees move to live, people too. Besides, this environment was unbearable for her wood spirit root.

With her next steps in mind, she hurried home. By the time she arrived, dusk had fallen.

“Yu-meimei!”

Hearing this, Fang Yu froze. She had been called junior sister, Fangfang, Little Yu—but never such a cloyingly intimate “little sister.”

Pushing open the door, she saw a sturdy, honest-looking young man standing under the eaves. The moment her eyes landed on him, her brows knit together.

“Little Sister Yu, I heard you woke up, so I hurried over to check on you.”
Seeing the probing look in his eyes, Fang Yu sneered inwardly, but kept her face calm as she asked, “And who are you?”

“You… you don’t remember me?” Clearly caught off guard, the man stared at her wide-eyed, stunned.

“Should I?” she frowned and turned back into the house.

“Uncle Fang, what’s wrong with Sister Yu? How can she not even recognize me?” Chen Ping asked Fang Yu’s father in puzzlement.

“I don’t know either. She woke up this morning with such a bad temper, won’t even listen to me. Wuu wuu wuu…”

“Uncle Fang, don’t cry first. When you called the doctor, what did he say?”

“What did he say? That she wouldn’t talk to anyone?”

The two men’s muttering wasn’t loud, but Fang Yu heard it clearly—and couldn’t care less.

She walked out to the kitchen. Seeing her emerge, the man immediately followed, holding something out to her.

Fang Yu looked at him expressionlessly, saying nothing.

After a moment’s stalemate, Chen Ping asked tentatively, “Sister Yu, do you really not recognize me? I’m your Brother Chen from the Chen family. I brought some rice from home. I heard you were sick, so I wanted Uncle Fang to make porridge for you.”

Without so much as a blink, Fang Yu walked right past him.

She didn’t know how the old Fang Yu interacted with people, but she had no intention of maintaining relationships in this place.

Charcoal in the snow?

She had never believed in kindness without a price. Now, with grain so expensive, and he still came to give some away? His intentions were anything but simple…

Hearing her father outside inviting the man out, she didn’t even lift her head, focusing instead on figuring out how to light the fire.

When Fang Yu’s father returned, she didn’t so much as glance up. He stood at the doorway, fidgeting for a long time, but in the end said nothing.

Her stomach growled. By her own effort she managed to light the fire and boil a pot of porridge to barely fill her belly. For some reason, though, she kept smelling a nauseating odor in the porridge. If not for the need to survive, she’d rather starve.

That evening, father and daughter sat outside cooling off. Her father fanned himself nervously as he tried to persuade her:
“Daughter, that Chen Ping seems like a good one, but he’s already married. And you still have a betrothal. We can’t go back on it. Let’s wait a little longer for the He family, hmm…”

Saying that, he quickly slipped back inside and didn’t come out again.

Fang Yu chuckled coldly. If the He family could be relied on, wouldn’t they have come long ago with a formal proposal? Why wait until the original owner had already reached the prime age of sixteen?

The He family’s son was the child of her late mother’s close friend. When she was seven, the two families had met by chance. At that time, Fang Yu’s mother was still alive, her father was making a living in the county by copying books, and their family was doing decently.

The He family were small merchants from the neighboring county—respectable enough that the families were well-matched.

But after her mother died, the Fang family declined further and moved to the countryside. The two families stopped having contact.

Only Fang Yu’s parents still treated the engagement as real. If the He family had truly intended to honor it, they would have come to ask long ago—how could they let a young woman’s years slip away?

Her father was likely still dreaming of his daughter marrying into the neighboring county and living a comfortable life.

But to Fang Yu, the He family’s silence was already the clearest answer.

Still, it was fortunate—otherwise, she might have crossed over only to end up saddled with another woman’s husband and child. For now, her father’s fondness for crying was still within her tolerance.

She didn’t plan to explain too much to him. She didn’t fully understand human nature, but seeing how chaotic things were outside while the people of Qingzhou still seemed unalarmed, she knew that talk of fleeing famine wouldn’t be easily accepted.

She needed to find ways to gather more information. Right now, she was blind here, and that was dangerous.

That night, she secretly sat down to cultivate. Once again, she had to struggle immensely to extract a wisp of spiritual energy from the chaotic aura around her and guide it into her body.

When she finished, she looked at the filth on her skin and sighed. Where could she even fetch water to wash now?

After wiping herself down as best she could, she returned to her room to rest. Tomorrow, she had more important matters to handle. With tomorrow’s plan set in her heart, she finally allowed herself to sink into darkness…