Ch 23: The Cannon Fodder Won’t Play Along Anymore [QT]

He stood up and shouted toward the creek, “Second Sister, Third Brother!”

In the water, Mu Jiajia and Mu Jiafeng heard his voice and quickly ran out, shaking the water off their hands as they came over.

“Xiaobao, what’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell?” Seven-year-old Mu Jiajia reached out to touch her little brother’s forehead, only relaxing when she felt no fever.

When Mu Xing was born, Mu Jiajia was already four years old and old enough to remember things.

In her memory, this little brother was different from everyone else in the family—always small and skinny, and falling sick several times a year.

She had seen their mother quietly crying while holding him, and had seen him in high fever, unconscious no matter how they called him.

So from a young age, Mu Jiajia knew: this little brother was fragile and needed careful protection.

Normally, Zhang shi (Madam Zhang) never dared let Mu Xing go out in the heat or cold. Today, he’d been too restless at home, and after repeatedly promising that he’d sit only under the shade of the tree and not run into the sun, she finally allowed him to come out with his siblings.

Mu Xing truly wasn’t feeling hot—his body was naturally cold. In winter, he couldn’t stand even a bit of wind, but in summer he didn’t mind the heat much.

Hearing Mu Jiajia’s concern, Mu Xing obediently shook his head.

“Are you tired? Third Brother will carry you home!” Mu Jiafeng said, crouching down.

He was six this year—mischievous enough to get their mother chasing him with a stick, but he never messed with Mu Xing.

Not because he was afraid, but because he couldn’t bear to.

Xiaobao was different from the rest of them—white-skinned and delicate from birth, quiet and refined, and unlike that annoying Jiajia, who was always picking fights with him.

Mostly—it was because he was good-looking!

Mu Jiafeng really liked this little brother.

Mu Xing looked at his two siblings.

That ball of light was always telling him how luxurious life in the marquis’s household was and how poor the Mu family was. But in Mu Xing’s eyes, life here wasn’t so unbearable.

Yes, the Mu family was poor, but they were honest people. The fields weren’t very productive, Mu Dazhu hunted in the mountains, Zhang shi did odd jobs in town, and Madam Mu took embroidery work.

The children, though a bit naughty, were sensible.

And they had never treated him badly—Mu Xing had always enjoyed the best treatment in the family.

He would never forget that when he was born, it was the family’s poorest time. There was almost no rice, Zhang shi had no milk, and Madam Mu had borrowed a sack of rice from her family. Every day she cooked porridge for Zhang shi and fed rice soup to Mu Xing.

The rest of the family only had hard, coarse cornbread to gnaw on. Mu Jiafeng and Mu Jiajia would swallow their saliva at the smell of rice but never made a fuss—because their mother was “ill” and the kitten-like little brother couldn’t have his food taken away.

Mu Xing patted his third brother’s shoulder. Mu Jiafeng turned around curiously, only to see his little brother pointing to the back of the tree trunk.

On the other side of the trunk lay a big, fat rabbit, motionless.

Mu Jiafeng: “!”

His eyes lit up instantly!

He grabbed Mu Xing and whispered excitedly, “What happened with this rabbit?”

Mu Xing whispered back, “I was just sitting here, and it ran over by itself, crashed into the tree, and died.”

“There’s luck like this?” Mu Jiajia clapped happily. “Let’s take it home quick—we’ll have meat for dinner!”

Thinking of meat, she couldn’t help swallowing.

Mu Jiafeng quickly added, “Right! Let’s hurry and take it home before anyone sees. If that annoying Liu Dapeng spots it, he’ll definitely try to steal it from us!”

Mu Jiajia hugged the big rabbit tightly, while Mu Jiafeng picked up a large straw hat from the ground and put it on Mu Xing’s head. After confirming again that Mu Xing didn’t want to be carried, he took his hand, and the three of them went home together.

That day there was a celebration in the neighboring village, so Mu Dazhu had taken the eldest son, Mu Jiawang, to help out, and Zhang shi had gone to the back mountain to dig wild vegetables. Only Madam Mu was home.

Seeing the three return, Madam Mu smiled. “Back so soon?”

Mu Xing, as usual, was the focus of concern. “Xiaobao, are you hot? Do you feel unwell anywhere?”

Mu Xing shook his head. “Grandma, Xiaobao isn’t hot and doesn’t feel unwell.”

Mu Jiajia couldn’t hold back any longer. “Grandma, don’t you see what I’m holding?”

Of course Madam Mu saw it—what could a little girl hug so tightly except something valuable? But for a moment she couldn’t tell what it was.

She asked, “What are you holding, Jiajia?”

Unable to contain herself, Mu Jiajia loosened her grip. She failed to catch it, and the rabbit fell to the ground with a thud.

Madam Mu froze. “Where did this come from?”

Mu Jiafeng eagerly told the story of Mu Xing’s encounter, complete with dramatic detail.

He grinned. “I’ve never seen a rabbit kill itself before! Xiaobao’s amazing.”

Madam Mu, hearing this, was just as overjoyed. She stroked Mu Xing’s hair with a smile. “Yes, Xiaobao’s the best.”

Mu Jiafeng was already shouting, “Grandma, let’s have rabbit meat tonight!”

Mu Jiajia nodded like a pecking chick. “Rabbit meat!”

Madam Mu agreed. “Alright, rabbit meat tonight.”

Efficient as ever, Madam Mu had water boiling and the rabbit cleaned by the time Zhang-shi returned from the mountain.

Mu Jiafeng once again recounted the rabbit’s origin in vivid detail.

Zhang-shi looked at Mu Xing and smiled. “See? Our Xiaobao is blessed. Ever since he was born, our days have been better than before.”

It was the truth—back then, the Mu family had been truly poor, the kind of poor where they couldn’t even put food on the table.

Now, though still living frugally, there was no problem feeding everyone until full, and they could even have meat from time to time—mainly because Mu Dazhu had been bringing home more and more game from the mountains.

By coincidence, Zhang-shi had dug up half a basket of wild vegetables that day.

The fire was already lit, and the rice was steaming.

The rabbit was extremely plump. Zhang-shi couldn’t bear to cook it all at once. She took half—one leg and a few chunks of meat—and simmered them in a small pot. The rest she chopped into small cubes, added chili and garlic, and stir-fried them with wild vegetable roots into a heaping plate.

A mouthwatering aroma filled the air.

As dusk approached, the family sat down to dinner.

One plate of rabbit meat, one plate of stir-fried greens—that was the day’s meal.

Only in front of Mu Xing was there an extra bowl—a bowl of rich rabbit soup, with a plump rabbit leg inside.

The meat had been stewed until it was falling-apart tender; at the touch of chopsticks, pieces would tremble and fall away.

Looking closer, Mu Xing saw that only his bowl was filled with pure white rice. Everyone else’s bowl had not just rice, but also cornbread that had been steamed along with it.

This blatant “special treatment” was something the whole family acted as though they didn’t even notice.

Mu Xing stayed silent.

It wasn’t the first or second time he’d been treated like this.

This family had been raising him like a treasured jewel since he was born, giving him the best of everything. He wondered—if they knew he wasn’t their biological child, how would they feel?

Then his thoughts turned to the little beggar from his dream.

If back then the Mu family hadn’t feared he wouldn’t survive and thrown him away, would he have avoided the kind of misery he’d lived through in that dream?

❣╰(⸝⸝⸝꒳⸝⸝⸝)╯❣