humiliation

Shen Yunqiu's outstretched hand froze in place, but he was not surprised and just silently withdrew his hand.

He knew that Shen Wenzhao came here in person to pick a fight with him.

"Okay, eat."

"Eat? How do you eat?"

"How else can you eat it? Do you need me to bring the big yellow dog from the mansion over to show you how?" Shen Wenzhao scoffed, "A useless person like you is only fit to eat things on the ground."

"Okay, I'll eat it."

Shen Yunqiu nodded with gritted teeth, cranked the wooden wheel, and was about to bend down to pick up the dumplings on the ground.

Seeing this, Su Xi no longer cared about the others and hurried forward to grab the young man's thin wrist: "Chen Yunqiu, you can't..."

Before he could finish his words, he saw the boy's other hand reach over him, grabbing a dumpling from the ground and feeding it into his mouth. Su Xi was shocked, but when she met Shen Yunqiu's warning eyes, she immediately understood what he meant.

He did this for her, and didn't want to create any trouble at this critical juncture, causing all his previous efforts to go to waste.

After a moment of stunned silence, Su Xi finally stepped aside, but his body couldn't stop shaking.

"Okay, I'll eat it, okay?"

"No." Shen Wenzhao shook his head and pointed to the dumplings scattered on the ground: "Eat them."

After he finished speaking, as if he still felt unsatisfied, he jumped down from the small table and crushed several dumplings in a row. Seeing Shen Yunqiu's increasingly gloomy and terrifying face, Shen Wenzhao was very pleased. He jumped back on the small table and looked at the anger that was almost bursting out of the eyes of the little maid beside him. He watched the young man sitting in the wheelchair bending down silently to pick up the crushed dumplings on the ground one by one, swallowing them again and again before he had time to chew them. In the end, he saw Shen Yunqiu's face turned pale, and he held his chest and retched uncontrollably. Even the corners of his mouth were covered with oil stains mixed with dust and sand. He looked very miserable.

Shen Wenzhao suddenly laughed, and his laughter was particularly hearty. For a moment, Shen Yunqiu suppressed the nausea in his throat and stared straight at the almost crazy person in front of him. For a moment, he could not even remember what Shen Wenzhao looked like as a child.

By now, he had completely lost hope in this madman, and he finally couldn't help but ask that question.

"Why?" He asked, his voice trembling uncontrollably, "Why do you hate me so much? Shen Wenzhao, you clearly used to..."

"Mingming what? Mingming and you have a deep brotherly bond, helping and protecting you in every way?" Shen Wenzhao sneered, his expression full of disdain and sarcasm. "I was too young then, and my mother always taught me that as an elder brother, you should set an example and be friendly and respectful to your younger brothers. I actually got close to you and even broke my leg trying to save you! How stupid... Shen Yunqiu, I've been jealous of you since I was a child. You're naturally smarter than me and learn everything faster than me. Even though you're always pampered by my father, mother, and grandmother, how could I not know that I'm stupid? When I was little, it took me six months to learn to ride a horse, and you learned it in three days. In school, you were always the one praised by the teacher. Even though you became disabled, you still copied books and wrote articles to make money. And me? I'm not good at literature or martial arts, and I only know how to visit brothels and prostitutes. Aside from my parents' love, I'm inferior to you in every way! I'm inferior to you in every way!"

"Just because of this?"

Shen Yunqiu could hardly understand, "Just because of this, you want to poison me and kill me?"

Hearing this, Shen Wenzhao snorted lightly, looking like a dandy and romantic man.

"Of course not, my dear brother. Do you know that day at the horse farm, I broke my leg while trying to save you? Fearing that my father would punish you, I went to him on crutches to plead for you. But when I got outside, I heard my father and mother arguing fiercely inside the house, even smashing several vases. Chen Yunqiu, don't you want to know why I hate you? Well, since you don't have much time left, I'll tell you..."

Shen Wenzhao paused and took a deep breath. "That day outside the door, I finally understood why mother always asked me to look after you and help you. It turns out that you are her biological son, and I am just a concubine's illegitimate son. My biological mother was beaten to death by your mother shortly after giving birth to me. Not a single bone is left... Shen Yunqiu, if it weren't for you, I would be the only legitimate son of the Shen family, the only child that mother loves. She wouldn't be showing love and care for me on the surface, but in fact she would always be thinking about you and missing you, doing it for father to see. There would be no one who would always be superior to me, and I would be ridiculed and mocked when I was drinking in the brothel!"

"Chen Yunqiu, actually, my father didn't intend to break your leg that day. It was just a family punishment, a punishment of kneeling in the ancestral hall. It was because I cried in front of my father, saying that you deliberately tripped me and broke my leg, that my father took the heavy hand..."

After saying this, Shen Wenzhao looked at Shen Yunqiu's increasingly shocked and ferocious expression and could hardly hold back his laughter.

"Chen Yunqiu, do you know how much pleasure I felt when I saw you, this proud child of heaven, wailing in agony after your legs were broken? There was a chance your legs could have been reattached, but I deliberately changed the medicine, causing your injuries to worsen. You're in pain every night and can't sleep. Whenever I noticed your mother favoring you, or heard rumors praising you outside, I'd poison you. This went on for a long time, and I'm finally going to kill you, this unlucky thing..."

"Oh, I forgot to tell you that my brother will be going to Beijing to take up his post tomorrow. What's the use of your talent? What's the use of being a legitimate child? In the end, you'll still be a useless person who can only be stepped on by me!" Shen Wenzhao stood up and walked over, patting Shen Yunqiu's face, which was pale with shock and anger. "Don't worry, brother, when the news of your death reaches the capital, I will be the first to come back to mourn for you..."

In an instant, the wheelchair was kicked over, and Shen Yunqiu fell to the ground in dejection. He looked up at the figure gradually moving away at the door. Finally, he could no longer hold back the nausea in his throat. He propped himself up and lay on the ground, vomiting non-stop, as if he wanted to vomit out his heart, liver, spleen, and lungs.

"Chen Yunqiu..."

For a moment, his heart was tightened and he couldn't breathe. Su Xi walked over and squatted beside the boy, but he didn't know what he could do at the moment. He could only gently pat his back, which was constantly rising and falling due to panting, to help him breathe more smoothly.

After a long time, so long that the sun's shadow shifted, the young man lying on the ground finally calmed down and stopped breathing heavily. Su Xi leaned over and saw that his eyes were frighteningly red, almost bloodshot, with a layer of hazy tears covering his eyes, like two blood-red glass beads.

"Can you still get up?"

Su Xi asked softly, but saw the young man turned his head and nodded weakly, then suddenly his eyes lost focus, his lips slightly opened, and he completely fainted.

It was almost noon, and smoke rose from every chimney. Even the air was thick with the smell of pepper from dumplings. Suxi finally dragged Shen Yunqiu to bed, wiped the stains off his face, changed into a clean set of underwear, and cleaned the plush carpet. Just as he was about to take it outside to dry, he opened the door and ran into Yinzhen returning with two large bags of pork and green onions. The bags swayed, and a live chicken suddenly popped its head out, howling at the top of its lungs, a truly comical sight.

Su Xi was holding a carpet dripping with water in his hand. He saw Yin Zhen grab the chicken's neck with one hand and twist it. The living chicken opened its mouth wide and died.

Suxi had never seen such a strange scene before, and was so frightened that he quickly took two steps back.

"Yin...Yinzhen, why did you take so long to come back today?"

"Oh, don't mention Xiaoxi," Yinzhen said, looking dejected at the mention of this. "Today is the beginning of winter. When I rushed to the market early this morning, all the meat filling and green onions were sold out. I thought it was the beginning of winter and I had to eat dumplings, so I ran all the way to the farmer's house to buy them. I bought half a pig, green onions that were picked directly from the ground, and this free-range chicken. The meat is so tender! Just wait, I'll go chop the filling and make dumplings for you and the young master!"

"Hey, Yinzhen, wait a minute!" Suxi saw Yinzhen turning around and about to run to the kitchen, and hurriedly called out to him, "Yinzhen, we're not eating dumplings today. The young master is not feeling well and has gone to bed."

"Asleep?"

Yinzhen hesitated and looked towards the person lying on the bed in the main room. "Then I'll wrap it first and eat it when the young master wakes up?"

"Farewell, silver needle. I won't make dumplings today."

"Then pack it tomorrow?"

"I won't pack it tomorrow either."

"Why?"

Yinzhen scratched his head, confused.

Suxi was speechless for a moment, but didn't know how to explain it to him. After thinking about it, he finally decided that it would be better not to say anything.

"The young master said he doesn't like dumplings. You might as well put these dishes aside for now, or stir-fry something else, or pickle some bacon or something. In short, don't make dumplings."

"Master, you don't like it? But I asked you yesterday, and you clearly agreed..."

Yinzhen stuttered and walked into the kitchen carrying the cloth bag, looking confused. Suxi then breathed a sigh of relief, hung the carpet on the bamboo pole and went back to the house.

The next morning, after the cockcrowed, deafening firecrackers suddenly rang out outside the Shen Mansion.

In Xiyuan, Shen Yunqiu, who was awakened by firecrackers, slowly opened his eyes and looked at the gray ceiling above his head. Without thinking too much, he could guess that Shen Wenzhao must be going to Beijing to take up his post, and firecrackers were set off outside the gate of Shen's house to see him off.

It’s really a big event.

For a long time, the crackling sound of firecrackers rang in his ears, and Shen Yunqiu's heart ached with bitterness, and he couldn't help but sneer. He moved his fingers and was about to stand up, but suddenly felt something tightly gripping his fingers, making them numb. He looked sideways and saw the girl sitting on a small stool at the head of the bed, half lying on the edge of the bed, sleeping soundly, but her two hands tightly grasped her own hand hanging at her side, unable to pull it away.

Suddenly, the sound of firecrackers seemed to stop. Shen Yunqiu half-raised himself with his elbows and subconsciously reached out to lift the strands of hair from the girl's forehead. However, his hand suddenly pulled back while moving. Su Xi woke up instantly and raised her eyes in a daze, only to meet the eyes of the man in front of her who was staring at her blankly.

The distance was too close, almost face to face, and the fine hair on the cheek was tickled by the boy's tall nose.

The air was stagnant for a moment, and after a moment, the two of them retreated almost at the same time. Chen Yunqiu sat up straight, and Su Xi also stood up from the stool. However, someone's heartbeat was deafening, thumping, and the silent room was suddenly filled with an eerie atmosphere.

After a long stalemate, Suxi finally heard the mosquito-like voice of the person on the bed: "You...you stayed by my side like this yesterday? Didn't you go to rest?"

"Don't think too much." Su Xi muttered, realizing that his voice was also very stuttering. "I just sat here for a while, and then I fell asleep while sitting there."

"Oh, is that so?"

Shen Yunqiu looked down at the red marks on his fingers and smiled imperceptibly.

Not long after, after the silence, the sound of firecrackers rang out again at an inopportune time.