Chapter 2: Accepting Reality
As Yu Ying was lost in thought, Fu An suddenly charged at her.
Despite her injured foot, Yu Ying managed to agilely dodge Fu An, who nearly collided with her.
The original owner had fallen down a hillside, and though not seriously injured, had twisted her ankle.
After steadying herself, Yu Ying frowned and looked at the skinny, fiercely glaring boy in front of her.
Yu Ying initially wanted to explain that she had not bullied his grandmother, but then she remembered that the original owner had a bad temper and treated everyone in the Fu family condescendingly, as if they were servants.
If her behavior deviated too much from that of the original owner, it might arouse suspicion, so she decided against explaining.
The original character was too strong-willed, and the gentle-natured Yu Ying couldn't mimic her, nor did she plan to act according to the original character's temperament.
She gave a cold glance at Fu An, who resembled a fierce wolf cub, then turned her gaze to the other skinny little girl.
The little girl, upon meeting Yu Ying's eyes, immediately turned pale with fear, shrinking her neck in fright, clearly terrified of the original owner.
From the original owner's memories, Yu Ying knew that she often abused these two children, which explained their fearful attitudes.
Yu Ying said nothing, just turned around with a cold face and walked towards the thatched hut where she had lived for a few days.
Fu An, who had expected to be beaten, stared blankly at Yu Ying's retreating figure.
Luo Shi, groping blindly, grabbed her grandson's hand, scolding, “What are you showing off for? Grandma doesn’t need your protection!”
Hearing this as she approached the thatched hut, Yu Ying sighed silently, feeling a tinge of sadness.
When she first read the novel, she hadn't been deeply moved by the hardships of the characters, merely contemplating the unpredictability of life at the moments of separation and death, with little emotional turmoil. But now, living it, she understood the complexity of these emotions.
She lifted the reed-made curtain and entered the dimly lit thatched hut.
There were two thatched huts in the Fu family. The smaller one she was entering was previously Luo Shi's.
The larger one housed the family of the eldest son of the Fu family, along with his wife and children, still accommodating four people.
Luo Shi, the two children, and the male protagonist, whom she had never met, were the occupants.
Luo Shi and her grandchildren were wary of the original owner, fearing that she might harm them, so naturally, they couldn't share a room with her.
However, Yu Ying didn’t quite understand where the true young master, who was mistakenly switched at birth, had lived before, given there were only two thatched huts.
Not dwelling on this, Yu Ying entered the dim hut and saw it was only about six or seven square meters.
In the dimness, half of the room was filled with firewood, and in the corner, there was a so-called "bed" made of straw stalks, the only piece of furniture in the hut.
Yu Ying carefully inspected the straw stalks and, finding them dry and free of insects and ants, dared to lie down on it.
However, fearing snakes and insects, she had gathered some mugwort yesterday, burning half and keeping the rest, leaving a faint scent of mugwort in the hut.
The hut was dark, damp, and stiflingly hot, truly discomforting.
Yu Ying picked up the worn reed fan previously used by Luo Shi, fanning herself as she sat on the bed.
Sitting quietly for a while, she thought of the skinny siblings she had seen earlier and suddenly remembered the plot of the novel.
The male protagonist turned dark after all his relatives died one after the other, and the first to die was not Luo Shi but his eldest brother, whom he had never met.
Fu Zhen, the eldest son of the Fu family, was currently doing hard labor in a quarry.
Despite the recent amnesty, which included the Fu family, the quarry was short of labor and couldn’t release everyone at once.
Moreover, the corrupt officials in charge demanded money to redeem the remaining term of service for freedom.
The eldest son of the Fu family and his wife still had three years of service left, with no money and no power to change their situation, so they had to continue with their hard labor.
Three months after the male protagonist acknowledged his ancestry, the eldest son of the Fu family was killed by a falling stone in the quarry. Soon after, Luo Shi died of grief.
The sister-in-law, seeking justice, was beaten by unreasonable yamen runners. After returning, she weakly managed the funerals of her husband and mother-in-law, and struggled to support two children and her disabled brother-in-law. Overworked, she eventually passed away too.
The male protagonist, having lost the will to live, had to take up a job as a staff member for the magistrate of Cangwu County, Yuxian, enduring humiliation throughout his tenure.
Even so, he couldn’t save the two children.
His nephew was kidnapped, and his niece, weakened by years of starvation, died young.
Thinking of these events, Yu Ying’s expression turned solemn.
Although being overly compassionate wasn’t advisable, knowing the plot and doing nothing was something she couldn’t reconcile with herself.
The thought of watching these living people turn into lifeless bodies was unbearable, so Yu Ying decided to do what she could within her means.
It was the first month of the male protagonist's exile, giving her two months to prepare for changing the plot.
She resolved to do her best, saving those she could. If she failed, at least she knew she tried, which would be enough to ease her conscience.
As the sky darkened, Yu Ying gathered her thoughts and went out to fetch water for washing.
June in Lingnan was unbearably hot and humid, making one sweat profusely even without exertion, leaving a sticky and uncomfortable feeling.
Yu Ying stepped out of the thatched hut and walked to the water jar, glancing at the only wooden basin of the Fu family.
It was a wooden basin starting to blacken and almost unusable.
Under these circumstances, Yu Ying couldn’t afford to be picky.
Suppressing her discomfort, Yu Ying filled half a basin with water and, under Fu An's watchful eyes, carried it into the hut.
She let down the curtain, secured it with a few thick branches, and then undressed in the dark, using a cloth towel from the original owner’s belongings to clean herself.
Although there was no food left, fortunately, the original owner’s luggage had been sent back.
The luggage consisted of seven coins, a coarse cloth dress for changing, two hairpins made of thorns, a towel, and finally some herbs and black berries wrapped in a torn cloth.
Yu Ying had carefully examined them; the herbs were somewhat poisonous, and the partially fresh berries had dark juice that stained the skin black-purple, not washing off for four or five days.
When she first arrived, she saw from her reflection in the water that the original owner had uneven black spots on her cheeks.
There was a large black spot the size of half a leaf beside her right eye, one on her nose bridge, one on her left cheekbone, and two smaller spots below.
Initially, Yu Ying thought the original owner was ugly and felt somewhat hopeless, but after carefully recalling the original owner’s memories, she realized the black marks were stains from the juice of the black berries.
In Lingnan, known as a barbaric land full of dangers, a woman with even a slight beauty, if lacking self-defense skills, would only attract trouble.
Understanding the original owner's purpose in disguising her appearance, Yu Ying reapplied the berry juice every two days and planned to look for more of these berries in the coming days.
Apart from the berries, she kept the poisonous herbs for self-defense.
The original owner had these belongings because the official escorting the Yu family had once received favors from them and showed them some care during the escort.
The official also turned a blind eye, allowing the Yu family to keep some simple clothing and a little money.
It was thanks to the protection of this official that the Yu family's women were spared from violation.
The original owner was beautiful with fair, delicate skin. Without the official’s protection, she might not have safely reached Lingnan.
The Yu family knew medical skills and, before reaching Lingnan, the women applied the juice of the berries to their faces, pretending to poison and disfigure themselves to avoid being violated.
The juice of the fruit was so dark that it was difficult to clean off even with water.
The dense forests of Lingnan were home to fierce wild beasts and a plethora of herbs, including many poisonous plants. Those skilled in medicine could easily find a variety of herbs.
If the original host had lived peacefully, life wouldn’t have been too hard. However, she insisted on being arrogant and aggressive in Lingnan. After a quarrel, she poisoned someone, which led to her forced marriage to the protagonist, who was crippled in both legs.
Being pampered since childhood, the original host couldn’t bring much when she was forced to marry the male lead. The Yu family could only provide her with a coarse linen dress without any patches and two thorn hairpins. Besides these, there was also... silver!
As Yu Ying washed herself with cold water, memories of the original host suddenly came to her mind. She quickly dressed in clean clothes and picked up the belt she had placed on the mat.
She carefully felt along the belt and finally found a slightly hard spot. She looked around in the dimly lit room and picked up a dry twig.
Breaking the twig with both hands, she used the sharp end to laboriously cut open the belt.
Soon, she took out a small object wrapped in cloth from the belt.
Unwrapping the cloth, she saw two leaf-shaped silver pieces, looking like they were detached from a piece of jewelry, about half the length and width of a little finger, and quite thin.
Yu Ying, who grew up in a traditional medicine clinic, was sensitive to weight and could roughly estimate the heaviness of the two silver leaves.
After weighing them, the two small silver pieces turned out to be less than one qian in weight.
Yu Ying, familiar with the value of silver, knew that one qian of silver, if exchanged for copper coins, would be about a hundred wen.
But these two small silver pieces, worth less than one qian, couldn't even be exchanged for a hundred wen!
Her initial excitement quickly dissipated like a bucket of cold water had been poured over her when she converted the value.
Yet, she soon realized that being penniless was far worse, so she didn't feel as disheartened.
Yu Ying calmed herself, securely hid the silver pieces, and then turned her attention to her swollen foot.
She had been too despondent in the previous days to care for her sprained foot, but now, having come to terms with her situation, she planned to look for anti-inflammatory and bruise-healing herbs nearby the next morning.
Withdrawing her gaze, Yu Ying carried the basin and limped out of the hut.
Stepping outside, she immediately smelled the strong scent of wild vegetable soup, not a particularly pleasant aroma.
At the fire stand, the wild vegetable soup was ready. Fu An laboriously removed the clay pot from the fire stand and used a crude wooden spoon to divide the soup into several rough wooden bowls.
After dividing the soup, he looked up at Yu Ying with a fierce gaze.
Yu Ying ignored his hostile look, instead lowering her eyes to the five bowls of wild vegetable soup on the ground.
Including the three family members and the male protagonist she had not yet met, the Fu family had four people. With her, that made five, hence the five bowls of soup.
Having eaten tasteless, oil-free, salt-free wild vegetables every day, Yu Ying felt like she was chewing grass.
Despite her intense hunger, days of this diet had diminished her appetite.
But to survive, she needed to fill her stomach, whether it meant eating wild vegetables or grass.
Likely due to this long-term diet, both siblings were thin and small, with waxen complexions and hardly any flesh on their cheeks.
Luo Shi’s near blindness was probably due to malnutrition, excessive fatigue, and the miasma of Lingnan.
After fetching water and setting down the wooden basin, Yu Ying walked over, picked up a bowl of wild vegetable soup, and returned to her hut without a word.
Watching Yu Ying leave, Fu An exhaled the breath he had been holding and asked his grandmother, "Grandma, why isn't she scolding anyone anymore?"
Luo Shi, numbly, responded: "Don’t worry about it."
Then she added, "Take the soup in for your uncle."
After speaking, Luo Shi turned to look towards the other thatched hut. Although her vision was unclear, she could vaguely make out the silhouette of the hut.
It had been a month since she brought her biological son back, and Luo Shi’s feelings were complex, uncertain how to interact with this son.
After sitting down in the hut with her bowl of wild vegetable soup, Yu Ying looked at it for a long time, finding it hard to muster any appetite.
Despite the unbearable hunger in her stomach, Yu Ying scooped a spoonful of wild vegetables and ate them.
Even though ecologically grown wild vegetables are popular in modern times, not all wild vegetables are tasty.
Boiled without any seasoning, these wild vegetables were indeed hard to swallow.
Yu Ying swallowed the vegetables without much chewing.
Only after finishing the bowl of wild vegetable soup did she feel full.
Having eaten, and as darkness fell, Yu Ying lay down on the bed.
Outside, intermittent sounds of barking dogs and the roar of wild animals could be heard.
These sounds frightened Yu Ying every night, fearing that wild animals might come down the mountain and break into the Fu household. The two thatched huts, lacking proper doors, offered no defense against any wild beast.
Originally, Yu Ying was uncomfortable due to the old and torn quilt, but hearing the roar of wild animals, she was too scared to care and pulled the quilt tightly around herself, seeking a sense of security.
The roars of the wild animals seemed distant yet also alarmingly close, leaving Yu Ying restless.
As the night deepened, just like the previous nights, coughing sounds intermittently came from the next hut.
It started with Luo Shi's cough, followed by the intermittent coughing of the two children.
Amidst the coughing of the three, she seemed to hear a few low, muffled coughs from an adult male.
Yu Ying paused for a moment.
Without any further guesswork, she knew she wasn’t mistaken: the coughing belonged to the male protagonist, Fu Wei, whom she had never met.
The male protagonist’s name might be unusual, but she vaguely remembered an explanation for his name in the novel.
The character "Wei" signifies sitting upright with seriousness, denoting integrity and propriety.
Chapter 2: Accepting Reality
As Yu Ying was lost in thought, Fu An suddenly charged at her.
Despite her injured foot, Yu Ying managed to agilely dodge Fu An, who nearly collided with her.
The original owner had fallen down a hillside, and though not seriously injured, had twisted her ankle.
After steadying herself, Yu Ying frowned and looked at the skinny, fiercely glaring boy in front of her.
Yu Ying initially wanted to explain that she had not bullied his grandmother, but then she remembered that the original owner had a bad temper and treated everyone in the Fu family condescendingly, as if they were servants.
If her behavior deviated too much from that of the original owner, it might arouse suspicion, so she decided against explaining.
The original character was too strong-willed, and the gentle-natured Yu Ying couldn't mimic her, nor did she plan to act according to the original character's temperament.
She gave a cold glance at Fu An, who resembled a fierce wolf cub, then turned her gaze to the other skinny little girl.
The little girl, upon meeting Yu Ying's eyes, immediately turned pale with fear, shrinking her neck in fright, clearly terrified of the original owner.
From the original owner's memories, Yu Ying knew that she often abused these two children, which explained their fearful attitudes.
Yu Ying said nothing, just turned around with a cold face and walked towards the thatched hut where she had lived for a few days.
Fu An, who had expected to be beaten, stared blankly at Yu Ying's retreating figure.
Luo Shi, groping blindly, grabbed her grandson's hand, scolding, “What are you showing off for? Grandma doesn’t need your protection!”
Hearing this as she approached the thatched hut, Yu Ying sighed silently, feeling a tinge of sadness.
When she first read the novel, she hadn't been deeply moved by the hardships of the characters, merely contemplating the unpredictability of life at the moments of separation and death, with little emotional turmoil. But now, living it, she understood the complexity of these emotions.
She lifted the reed-made curtain and entered the dimly lit thatched hut.
There were two thatched huts in the Fu family. The smaller one she was entering was previously Luo Shi's.
The larger one housed the family of the eldest son of the Fu family, along with his wife and children, still accommodating four people.
Luo Shi, the two children, and the male protagonist, whom she had never met, were the occupants.
Luo Shi and her grandchildren were wary of the original owner, fearing that she might harm them, so naturally, they couldn't share a room with her.
However, Yu Ying didn’t quite understand where the true young master, who was mistakenly switched at birth, had lived before, given there were only two thatched huts.
Not dwelling on this, Yu Ying entered the dim hut and saw it was only about six or seven square meters.
In the dimness, half of the room was filled with firewood, and in the corner, there was a so-called "bed" made of straw stalks, the only piece of furniture in the hut.
Yu Ying carefully inspected the straw stalks and, finding them dry and free of insects and ants, dared to lie down on it.
However, fearing snakes and insects, she had gathered some mugwort yesterday, burning half and keeping the rest, leaving a faint scent of mugwort in the hut.
The hut was dark, damp, and stiflingly hot, truly discomforting.
Yu Ying picked up the worn reed fan previously used by Luo Shi, fanning herself as she sat on the bed.
Sitting quietly for a while, she thought of the skinny siblings she had seen earlier and suddenly remembered the plot of the novel.
The male protagonist turned dark after all his relatives died one after the other, and the first to die was not Luo Shi but his eldest brother, whom he had never met.
Fu Zhen, the eldest son of the Fu family, was currently doing hard labor in a quarry.
Despite the recent amnesty, which included the Fu family, the quarry was short of labor and couldn’t release everyone at once.
Moreover, the corrupt officials in charge demanded money to redeem the remaining term of service for freedom.
The eldest son of the Fu family and his wife still had three years of service left, with no money and no power to change their situation, so they had to continue with their hard labor.
Three months after the male protagonist acknowledged his ancestry, the eldest son of the Fu family was killed by a falling stone in the quarry. Soon after, Luo Shi died of grief.
The sister-in-law, seeking justice, was beaten by unreasonable yamen runners. After returning, she weakly managed the funerals of her husband and mother-in-law, and struggled to support two children and her disabled brother-in-law. Overworked, she eventually passed away too.
The male protagonist, having lost the will to live, had to take up a job as a staff member for the magistrate of Cangwu County, Yuxian, enduring humiliation throughout his tenure.
Even so, he couldn’t save the two children.
His nephew was kidnapped, and his niece, weakened by years of starvation, died young.
Thinking of these events, Yu Ying’s expression turned solemn.
Although being overly compassionate wasn’t advisable, knowing the plot and doing nothing was something she couldn’t reconcile with herself.
The thought of watching these living people turn into lifeless bodies was unbearable, so Yu Ying decided to do what she could within her means.
It was the first month of the male protagonist's exile, giving her two months to prepare for changing the plot.
She resolved to do her best, saving those she could. If she failed, at least she knew she tried, which would be enough to ease her conscience.
As the sky darkened, Yu Ying gathered her thoughts and went out to fetch water for washing.
June in Lingnan was unbearably hot and humid, making one sweat profusely even without exertion, leaving a sticky and uncomfortable feeling.
Yu Ying stepped out of the thatched hut and walked to the water jar, glancing at the only wooden basin of the Fu family.
It was a wooden basin starting to blacken and almost unusable.
Under these circumstances, Yu Ying couldn’t afford to be picky.
Suppressing her discomfort, Yu Ying filled half a basin with water and, under Fu An's watchful eyes, carried it into the hut.
She let down the curtain, secured it with a few thick branches, and then undressed in the dark, using a cloth towel from the original owner’s belongings to clean herself.
Although there was no food left, fortunately, the original owner’s luggage had been sent back.
The luggage consisted of seven coins, a coarse cloth dress for changing, two hairpins made of thorns, a towel, and finally some herbs and black berries wrapped in a torn cloth.
Yu Ying had carefully examined them; the herbs were somewhat poisonous, and the partially fresh berries had dark juice that stained the skin black-purple, not washing off for four or five days.
When she first arrived, she saw from her reflection in the water that the original owner had uneven black spots on her cheeks.
There was a large black spot the size of half a leaf beside her right eye, one on her nose bridge, one on her left cheekbone, and two smaller spots below.
Initially, Yu Ying thought the original owner was ugly and felt somewhat hopeless, but after carefully recalling the original owner’s memories, she realized the black marks were stains from the juice of the black berries.
In Lingnan, known as a barbaric land full of dangers, a woman with even a slight beauty, if lacking self-defense skills, would only attract trouble.
Understanding the original owner's purpose in disguising her appearance, Yu Ying reapplied the berry juice every two days and planned to look for more of these berries in the coming days.
Apart from the berries, she kept the poisonous herbs for self-defense.
The original owner had these belongings because the official escorting the Yu family had once received favors from them and showed them some care during the escort.
The official also turned a blind eye, allowing the Yu family to keep some simple clothing and a little money.
It was thanks to the protection of this official that the Yu family's women were spared from violation.
The original owner was beautiful with fair, delicate skin. Without the official’s protection, she might not have safely reached Lingnan.
The Yu family knew medical skills and, before reaching Lingnan, the women applied the juice of the berries to their faces, pretending to poison and disfigure themselves to avoid being violated.
The juice of the fruit was so dark that it was difficult to clean off even with water.
The dense forests of Lingnan were home to fierce wild beasts and a plethora of herbs, including many poisonous plants. Those skilled in medicine could easily find a variety of herbs.
If the original host had lived peacefully, life wouldn’t have been too hard. However, she insisted on being arrogant and aggressive in Lingnan. After a quarrel, she poisoned someone, which led to her forced marriage to the protagonist, who was crippled in both legs.
Being pampered since childhood, the original host couldn’t bring much when she was forced to marry the male lead. The Yu family could only provide her with a coarse linen dress without any patches and two thorn hairpins. Besides these, there was also... silver!
As Yu Ying washed herself with cold water, memories of the original host suddenly came to her mind. She quickly dressed in clean clothes and picked up the belt she had placed on the mat.
She carefully felt along the belt and finally found a slightly hard spot. She looked around in the dimly lit room and picked up a dry twig.
Breaking the twig with both hands, she used the sharp end to laboriously cut open the belt.
Soon, she took out a small object wrapped in cloth from the belt.
Unwrapping the cloth, she saw two leaf-shaped silver pieces, looking like they were detached from a piece of jewelry, about half the length and width of a little finger, and quite thin.
Yu Ying, who grew up in a traditional medicine clinic, was sensitive to weight and could roughly estimate the heaviness of the two silver leaves.
After weighing them, the two small silver pieces turned out to be less than one qian in weight.
Yu Ying, familiar with the value of silver, knew that one qian of silver, if exchanged for copper coins, would be about a hundred wen.
But these two small silver pieces, worth less than one qian, couldn't even be exchanged for a hundred wen!
Her initial excitement quickly dissipated like a bucket of cold water had been poured over her when she converted the value.
Yet, she soon realized that being penniless was far worse, so she didn't feel as disheartened.
Yu Ying calmed herself, securely hid the silver pieces, and then turned her attention to her swollen foot.
She had been too despondent in the previous days to care for her sprained foot, but now, having come to terms with her situation, she planned to look for anti-inflammatory and bruise-healing herbs nearby the next morning.
Withdrawing her gaze, Yu Ying carried the basin and limped out of the hut.
Stepping outside, she immediately smelled the strong scent of wild vegetable soup, not a particularly pleasant aroma.
At the fire stand, the wild vegetable soup was ready. Fu An laboriously removed the clay pot from the fire stand and used a crude wooden spoon to divide the soup into several rough wooden bowls.
After dividing the soup, he looked up at Yu Ying with a fierce gaze.
Yu Ying ignored his hostile look, instead lowering her eyes to the five bowls of wild vegetable soup on the ground.
Including the three family members and the male protagonist she had not yet met, the Fu family had four people. With her, that made five, hence the five bowls of soup.
Having eaten tasteless, oil-free, salt-free wild vegetables every day, Yu Ying felt like she was chewing grass.
Despite her intense hunger, days of this diet had diminished her appetite.
But to survive, she needed to fill her stomach, whether it meant eating wild vegetables or grass.
Likely due to this long-term diet, both siblings were thin and small, with waxen complexions and hardly any flesh on their cheeks.
Luo Shi’s near blindness was probably due to malnutrition, excessive fatigue, and the miasma of Lingnan.
After fetching water and setting down the wooden basin, Yu Ying walked over, picked up a bowl of wild vegetable soup, and returned to her hut without a word.
Watching Yu Ying leave, Fu An exhaled the breath he had been holding and asked his grandmother, "Grandma, why isn't she scolding anyone anymore?"
Luo Shi, numbly, responded: "Don’t worry about it."
Then she added, "Take the soup in for your uncle."
After speaking, Luo Shi turned to look towards the other thatched hut. Although her vision was unclear, she could vaguely make out the silhouette of the hut.
It had been a month since she brought her biological son back, and Luo Shi’s feelings were complex, uncertain how to interact with this son.
After sitting down in the hut with her bowl of wild vegetable soup, Yu Ying looked at it for a long time, finding it hard to muster any appetite.
Despite the unbearable hunger in her stomach, Yu Ying scooped a spoonful of wild vegetables and ate them.
Even though ecologically grown wild vegetables are popular in modern times, not all wild vegetables are tasty.
Boiled without any seasoning, these wild vegetables were indeed hard to swallow.
Yu Ying swallowed the vegetables without much chewing.
Only after finishing the bowl of wild vegetable soup did she feel full.
Having eaten, and as darkness fell, Yu Ying lay down on the bed.
Outside, intermittent sounds of barking dogs and the roar of wild animals could be heard.
These sounds frightened Yu Ying every night, fearing that wild animals might come down the mountain and break into the Fu household. The two thatched huts, lacking proper doors, offered no defense against any wild beast.
Originally, Yu Ying was uncomfortable due to the old and torn quilt, but hearing the roar of wild animals, she was too scared to care and pulled the quilt tightly around herself, seeking a sense of security.
The roars of the wild animals seemed distant yet also alarmingly close, leaving Yu Ying restless.
As the night deepened, just like the previous nights, coughing sounds intermittently came from the next hut.
It started with Luo Shi's cough, followed by the intermittent coughing of the two children.
Amidst the coughing of the three, she seemed to hear a few low, muffled coughs from an adult male.
Yu Ying paused for a moment.
Without any further guesswork, she knew she wasn’t mistaken: the coughing belonged to the male protagonist, Fu Wei, whom she had never met.
The male protagonist’s name might be unusual, but she vaguely remembered an explanation for his name in the novel.
The character "Wei" signifies sitting upright with seriousness, denoting integrity and propriety.
