Madam Chen finished her half of the wild vegetable bun quickly, but she could not return to her room yet; she had to wait for the entire family to finish eating before she could clean everything up.
She went to the kitchen and used a corncob to light the fire, setting a large pot of water to boil so everyone could wash up. As she watched the flames, she drifted into a daze, thinking of Zhao Yan still lying on his sickbed and her own current plight. Yet, she had no choice but to pull herself together and continue tidying the kitchen.
Younger Mrs. Li walked in, opening her mouth to snap, "Second sister-in-law, you're too slow with that water! My Wei'er and Yu'er are still waiting for it. If you delay their studies, can you afford to pay for it?"
"Big sister-in-law, it will be ready soon," Madam Chen replied, looking down.
Younger Mrs. Li snorted. "You’d better hurry up, or Mother will kick you out of the Zhao Family. Honestly, you can't even finish a simple chore properly." With that, she turned on her heel and left.
Madam Chen let out a sigh of relief.
A moment later, Zhao Gao snuck into the kitchen. Seeing Madam Chen still busy, he brought a bucket over and filled a dipper with half a bucket of hot water. This was to wipe Zhao Yan’s body; the couple dared not delay this.
Neither of them spoke, fearing someone might hear. Once the water was ready, Zhao Gao quickly carried it out. Madam Chen continued to scoop water from the vat to refill the pot, adding more firewood to make the blaze even stronger so the rest of the family wouldn't realize the second branch had used the water first.
Otherwise, there would be another scene in the house.
Zhao Gao pushed the door open, and it let out a "creak." The door was too old and severely weathered; even though it had been patched with wood and bamboo, it still looked dilapidated.
Hearing the noise, Zhao Yan slowly opened his eyes.
There was no helping it; his body was far too weak. He spent his days drifting in and out of consciousness.
"Sanlang, you're awake? Are you still feeling uncomfortable? If you are, tell your father—don't try to endure it alone," Zhao Gao said hurriedly upon seeing his son wake up.
He knew his son had always been sensible, often suffering in silence when sick because he feared the cost of seeing a doctor and buying medicine.
It was all his fault as a father for being so useless; he didn't even have enough money to treat his own child, forcing the boy to live his life walking on eggshells.
Zhao Gao helped Zhao Yan wipe his body. Zhao Yan felt much more comfortable; the sticky, grimy sensation was finally gone. Although he could still smell the mildew on his quilt, Zhao Yan was already satisfied.
In this house where walls were all that stood, Zhao Yan didn't have much hope—mostly because there was no basis for it.
After helping Zhao Yan clean up, Zhao Gao took out the two remaining wild vegetable buns from the evening.
His mother would never care about Sanlang. Though it sounded contrary to common sense, for over a dozen years, his mother had never once looked at Sanlang with kindness. Zhao Gao was well aware of this.
Even when Sanlang fell into the river and developed a high fever, Zhao Gao had knelt and kowtowed to his mother, begging for money to find a doctor, but she refused, eventually alarming the Village Chief.
It was only when his father finally spoke up that his mother begrudgingly gave three hundred wen. The remaining seven hundred wen were borrowed by Zhao Gao from the Zhang Family and other villagers; that was how they scraped together the medical fees.
Even now, his mother was still angry about it, feeling they were wasting money.
"Sanlang, eat some of the bun. Don't go hungry; your body is very frail right now." Zhao Gao tore off a small piece and slowly fed it to Zhao Yan.
A single bun was only the size of a fist. Before long, Zhao Yan had finished both.
With something in his stomach, Zhao Yan finally felt much better.
Only then did he begin to size up his new "father." Although this was their first meeting, Zhao Yan felt a sense of familiarity. In his memories, Zhao Gao was only thirty-six, but to look at him now, one would easily believe he was forty-five.
There was no reason for it other than that he looked weathered. Because he dealt with the land year-round, his skin was dark, making him look even older.
His father looked like an honest, hardworking man at a glance, and based on the events in his memory, he was a responsible person. After all, despite the poor constitution of the original "Zhao Yan," his father had repeatedly scraped together money to hire doctors and had even managed to send him to school for a few years, leading him to successfully earn the title of scholar.
Medical care was a huge expense, and schooling even more so. Zhao Gao had been worked like an old ox for years without complaining, mostly so that Zhao Yan could receive treatment and education.
However, in this environment where filial piety was paramount, it was difficult for Zhao Gao to defy Zhao Dahe and Madam Li. The magistrate’s paddle was no joke, and the gossip in the village could make life impossible for the second branch.
Public opinion was a fearful thing.
Zhao Yan had originally not understood why the second branch had such low status in this house, but with the added memories in his mind, he slowly began to piece things together.
The more he processed it, the more speechless he became. He truly didn't know how the brains of the Zhao Family were wired; they were a collection of blooming eccentrics.
Because a great drought had occurred the year Zhao Gao was born, causing a seventy-percent drop in harvest, Madam Li had always believed that Zhao Gao was a curse on the family. She thought that because everything had been fine until his birth, the bad luck must have been brought by him.
Furthermore, when Zhao Gao insisted on marrying Madam Chen, whose family was impoverished and whose mother was bedridden, Madam Li decided she was a jinx too. Because Zhao Gao refused to marry the girl she had chosen, Madam Li felt he was slipping from her control, and she blamed it all on the seduction of that "bitch" Madam Chen.
Zhao Gao was already unloved in the Zhao Family, and with the addition of a wife Madam Li disliked, the second branch had no status at all. The farm work and household chores fell entirely on them. After Zhao Yan was born, he was frail and sickly, and the couple had worked themselves to the bone just to earn money for his treatment.
Even so, with Zhao Dahe’s cold indifference, Madam Li’s sharp-tongued cruelty, Younger Mrs. Li’s bullying, and Zhao Yuan’s coldness—if his own brother was this heartless, Zhao Gao couldn't rely on anyone else. Over the years, Zhao Gao had long since given up; he only hoped his son could study and find a good job in town, and that his daughter could find a good husband. That was all Zhao Gao needed to be satisfied.
Zhao Yan knew that if he continued to live in a daze like this under the second branch's situation, he would either die of illness or, sooner or later, be angered to death.
This was simply too cowardly!
He, Zhao Yan, had received nine years of compulsory education in the modern era and had successfully become a Doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine. He had intelligence and capability. If circumstances allowed, he really wanted to take the pulses of those eccentrics in the Zhao Family to see exactly which brain circuits were misaligned.
If he were Zhao Gao, he would have been angered to death long ago by such cold-hearted family members. It was only because Zhao Gao was honest and constantly gaslit by Madam Li that he had been exploited by this old Zhao Family for so many years.
The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. Zhao Yan placed a hand over his heart and decided to stop thinking about it. He had already died of a sudden cardiac arrest in the modern world; he didn't want to die of anger in this bizarre ancient era. If he wanted to break away from this family, he would have to plan it slowly.
His first task was to nurse this broken-down body back to health; otherwise, let alone being pushed over by someone, a slight breeze would easily give him a cold.
It was truly pathetic!