Chapter 15 A Clash Once More 3

Wei Qingfeng stormed in like a gust of wind, hurling himself straight at Wei Qingshan. His roar shook the rafters, sending dust trickling down from the ceiling.

“Wei Qingshan! You still remember you have a home? Our parents are already gone! What are you coming back for now?!”

Wei Ci tried to reach out to stop them, but her two brothers gave her no chance. They were already trading blows—fists and palms flying. From the looks of it, Wei Qingfeng was clearly the one being overpowered. Since awakening in this body, Wei Ci had spent the most time with her second brother, and naturally, he was the one she cared for most.

“Little sister of the Wei family, you’d best not interfere. This is just the way your two brothers… express their brotherly affection. You’re so thin, if you rush in you’ll just get hurt.”

A tall, scruffy soldier with stubble blocked Wei Ci from running forward. He looked at the brawl between his commander and the younger brother with interest, clicking his tongue as though watching a good show—he was only one bag of sunflower seeds short of making himself comfortable.

When the brothers finally finished their special exchange, everyone sat down to talk. Both men’s faces were battered and bruised.

Brothers were brothers. They fought for real—and they made sure to aim for the face, where the marks would show the most.

“How did Little Sister end up being sold? And how did Father and Mother pass away?”

All he had received was a brief telegram with just a few words. After finishing his mission, he rushed home immediately, only to arrive at the gate and overhear Ah Ci’s confrontation with Third Aunt.

Thinking of their parents, and everything that had happened lately, Wei Qingfeng scrubbed his face with one hand. His reddened eyes stood out against the purpling bruise that already blackened one side of his face, making him look both pitiful and comical.

“Father and Mother… it happened half a month ago, when they were coming back from delivering the public grain…”

Wei Qingfeng recounted everything in detail. When he came to the part about their parents’ brutal death and their little sister being sold off, his emotions surged. The veins stood out on his forehead, throbbing with rage.

Wei Qingshan tapped his fingers lightly against the table, frowning in deep thought, silent for a long time.

“You said… your parents weren’t even on the original list for delivering grain?”

The low, deep voice that broke the silence was as smooth and resonant as the notes of a guqin. Wei Ci glanced over curiously. The man who spoke had been quiet until now, his presence barely noticeable, but the moment he opened his mouth, he commanded everyone’s attention. He had a close-cropped head, sharply defined features, and eyes so deep they seemed almost green-black if one looked closely.

Only then did Wei Qingshan remember to introduce his siblings to his comrades, who were also his sworn brothers.

“These are all my comrades-in-arms. You can call them ‘brother.’ Or ‘uncle’ if you like, since they’re not exactly young anymore.”

Hmph. As if he hadn’t noticed the way these bastards’ eyes lit up when they looked at Ah Ci. Rabbit or not, no one was allowed to nibble the grass at his doorstep. She was his sister—and therefore their sister. None of them better dare think of anything improper.

The men rolled their eyes at him. Uncles? Who was old here?

Wei Qingfeng didn’t pay attention to his elder brother’s sudden, inexplicable protectiveness. Instead, he pondered seriously and answered the man’s question.

“That’s right. Delivering grain usually rotates among the families in the village. Our family already did it last year, so this year it should’ve been Second Uncle’s and Third Uncle’s turn. I don’t know what happened in between, but in the end, it was Father and Mother who went in their place. They went with more than thirty people from the village, but in the end, only four or five made it back alive.”

The man frowned, feeling there was something wrong, though he couldn’t quite put a finger on what exactly was off.

“You suspect your parents’ deaths weren’t an accident? That Second and Third Uncle deliberately set them up? But… that seems unlikely. The weather that morning was perfectly clear—who could’ve known a thunderstorm would hit by evening?”

Wei Qingfeng scratched his head. At first, he had suspected Second and Third Uncle of plotting against his parents. But later, he realized it didn’t add up. There was no way they could’ve known a sudden storm would come that day. How could they possibly be the culprits behind Father and Mother’s deaths?

The man arched his brows and exchanged a glance with Wei Qingshan. With their unspoken understanding, the two fell silent and simply listened as Wei Qingfeng continued.

When they heard how Wei Qinghao and Wei Qingmiao, while Wei Ci’s mind had still been foggy, had gone so far as to sell her to traffickers, Wei Qingshan’s face instantly darkened. His fists clenched so tightly that the veins bulged across the backs of his hands, as though he might strike someone dead with a single punch.

But when the story turned to how Wei Ci, relying on her clever little head, not only saved herself but also rescued others—and even exposed a hidden spy in the process—Wei Qingshan’s expression shifted. A tangle of pride and distress flickered across his face.

Distress that his little sister, upon just waking, had immediately stumbled into such danger and stirred up such chaos.
Pride, because—wasn’t this exactly the kind of courage and brilliance he himself possessed? Fearless in the face of evil, quick-witted, unafraid to shoulder responsibility.

Wei Ci’s cheeks flushed red at the praise, her embarrassment written all over her little face. No one had ever complimented her like this before—making her sound as if she were some benevolent Guanyin Bodhisattva, haloed with light and holding a pure-water vase.

“Ah Ci did absolutely right!”

Wei Qingshan finally allowed some joy to show on his face. He untied the large bag he had brought and began pulling things out. Apart from a change of his own clothes, everything inside was for his little sister.

“I didn’t know what you’d like, so I just bought the things city girls usually favor. If there’s anything else you want, just tell me—your brother will buy it for you!”

Wei Ci looked at the small mountain of gifts piled in front of her, then glanced at the pitifully empty spot in front of her second brother. She couldn’t hold back a laugh. The little dimple at the corner of her lips deepened, and her big round peach-blossom eyes curved into crescent moons.

“Thank you, big brother. I really like them.”

From the shadows, the green-eyed man raised his head, quietly watching the siblings’ interaction. He listened carefully to every word exchanged, unconsciously analyzing their conversation. At last, his gaze lingered on the dimple at the corner of the young girl’s lips. Only after a long while did he lower his eyes again, hiding the flicker of awe within them.

【Beep～】

Wei Ci tilted her head, blinking in confusion as she looked around. What was that sound?

“What’s wrong?”

Wei Qingshan reached out to ruffle his sister’s soft black hair, his gaze indulgent and gentle.

Snapping back to herself, Wei Ci met his eyes, then smiled and shook her head. “It’s nothing. I must’ve misheard.”

Meanwhile, Second Aunt—who had already fled the house earlier—hadn’t even lingered a quarter of an hour. She hastily grabbed a couple of clothes, dragged her little son along, and bolted back to her mother’s home. She was so terrified of being implicated if she tarried even a moment longer that she completely forgot to warn the others in the household. The living Hades of the Wei family’s main branch had returned.

Wei Qingshan had always been outwardly calm and prematurely mature. But everyone in the family knew the truth: he was a ruthless, vengeful man, never forgetting a slight, striking hard when crossed. As a child, many villagers had whispered that the Wei family’s eldest must have been born of guilty blood, for he was cold and cruel. Inevitably, their children took after them—bullying young Qingfeng and Wei Ci behind their backs.

Until one day, when little Wei Ci was shoved to the ground and cut her hand. Wei Qingfeng snapped, and stormed off carrying a wood-chopping axe taller than himself, chasing the other children around the entire village. Only the intervention of adults had put an end to the rampage.

At first, everyone thought the matter would end there. But that was just the prelude.

Afterward, the families of the bullies suffered one “misfortune” after another: missing chickens, ducks gone from their coops, outhouses mysteriously blown apart. Their children stumbled for no reason at all, or in the worst case, one almost suffocated after falling into a latrine at night. No one ever thought to blame a ten-year-old boy.

That was, until Wei Ci was bullied again, and Wei Qingshan himself exploded. Only then did the villagers realize just how darkly cunning this child could be.

But since it had always been their own children who started the trouble, there was nothing those families could do except swallow the humiliation and go home to discipline their kids.

From childhood on, anyone who dared bully his little brother or sister would find Wei Qingshan on them like a mad dog, biting whoever came near. It wasn’t until he was recruited into the army that these incidents finally ceased.

Now that he was back—if he learned what had been done to his sister, how could he not erupt again?

And indeed, she was right to expect it. Wei Qingshan had not only returned, he had brought with him a band of brothers cut from the very same cloth.

As the saying goes, things of a kind flock together, people of a kind gather as one. Anyone who could get along so well with him, in perfect tacit harmony, could hardly be a gentle soul.