“Yu Nian!”
His shout startled the Ger sitting opposite Yu Nian. The man whipped his head around, the smile freezing on his face.
Tian Yao was also startled for a moment, but only a moment. He quickly ignored him and walked over to Yu Nian’s side. “Is there anything you want to buy?”
Yu Nian shook his head. He had been sitting here; even the cheapest pot of plain tea he hadn’t taken more than two sips. The cup was still full.
Seeing this, Tian Yao asked, “Why didn’t you order any pastries?”
Yu Nian shook his head again. “I’m not hungry.”
He noticed Tian Yao’s lips were dry and cracking. He pushed the teacup toward him. “Have some water.”
Tian Yao finally smiled, picked up the cup, and gulped it down quickly, not even tasting the tea.
Across from him, the Ger was practically grinding his back teeth. How could such a crude Ger catch the eye of someone like him?
After drinking, Tian Yao remembered what he bought. He handed the meat pie to Yu Nian, then hoisted the man onto his back. He didn’t even glance at the Ger across from them, even purposely bumping him hard as he passed.
Back on the ox cart, Tian Yao sat in the front, stewing in anger. Even though Yu Nian hadn’t spoken to that Ger, and he knew his current relationship with Yu Nian wasn’t at a stage where Yu Nian would explain anything to him, he was still angry.
He stole a glance at Yu Nian. Under the sunlight, he looked incredibly handsome. No wonder even sitting quietly attracted extra glances.
If it were anyone else looking, Tian Yao would feel proud to have such a husband. But it had to be Tian Liu, the person he hated most.
Yu Nian sensed his low mood. He still held the meat pie Tian Yao had given him.
He leaned forward and broke the pie in half, offering him a piece. The filling inside wasn’t much; split open, it looked quite dry. Tian Yao took it and sniffled.
“He used to be my best friend.” Tian Yao slapped the ox’s rump, and the cart slowly started moving. Yu Nian leaned back, quietly listening.
Tian Liu and Tian Yao grew up together. Tian Liu was very quiet and gentle, unlike Tian Yao, who ran wild all over the mountain with his Father since childhood. But Tian Liu loved playing with him because whenever Tian Yao found something on the mountain, he’d eagerly bring it to Tian Liu. The adults always teased, saying it was a pity Yao Ge’er wasn’t born a strapping young man, or it would be a match made in heaven.
Tian Yao was too young then to understand. He just liked playing with Tian Liu.
The two families got along reasonably well at the time. Tian Yao’s father even briefly considered betrothing Tian Yao to Tian Liu’s older brother, Tian Wen. After getting a good scolding from his Little Dad, he dropped the idea. But before they could find a suitable husband for Tian Yao, tragedy struck.
After Tian Yao’s Father passed, his Little Dad was devastated and passed away just a month later, following his husband.
From then on, Tian Yao became an orphan. After gathering himself, he saw Tian Liu again, and the boy felt like a stranger.
He could feel Tian Liu’s family didn’t want them playing together anymore. Tian Yao, self-aware, didn’t push it. When Tian Liu’s family moved to Town, they completely lost contact.
After his Father and Little Dad passed, Tian Yao had to survive on his own. With his immense strength, he often followed the village men to find work.
Every year, just as winter ended, the Prefectural City would recruit workers to dredge the canal. High pay, few spots.
Tian Yao went with the villagers. Because he was strong and worked hard, the foreman really liked him. Every year, he earned a good sum this way. The money he lost was saved up from this work.
But this year, when he went as usual, the foreman said he wasn’t needed.
He later learned the foreman had always assumed Tian Yao, so hardworking, must be a man. But someone exposed him, saying he was a Ger pretending to be a man. They claimed the foreman favored Tian Yao because they had an unspeakable relationship. Even the men from Huailing Village working there got caught in the fallout. Not wanting the village to lose their livelihood because of him, Tian Yao left.
After he left, a spot opened up. Coincidentally, it went to Tian Liu’s second brother, who had come with them. At first, Tian Yao didn’t think much of it; a Ger pretending to be a man was indeed his fault.
But the accusations about him and the foreman, those he couldn’t stomach.
He was naturally a chatterbox. This incident weighed heavily on his heart. So he bought a roast chicken in Town and went to find Tian Liu, wanting to talk.
Reaching Tian Liu’s doorstep, he overheard Tian Liu talking with his mother.
“Mom, don’t worry. I’d already told Second Brother exactly what to say, just like I planned, to tell the foreman. He’s just a Ger, squeezing in with a bunch of men. It’s indecent. We’re actually helping him. And we can make some money doing it.” The two of them laughed together.
Every single word Tian Liu said hammered heavily into Tian Yao’s heart.
He couldn’t remember how he walked back to the village. He returned home, clutching the Spirit Tablets of his Father and Little Dad, softly asking them: What was wrong with earning a living by his own abilities?
No human voice answered him. He curled up in that room, crying himself to sleep. Even though it was early spring, sleeping there felt unusually warm. He didn’t know if it was his Little Dad embracing him that night.
After this, Tian Yao no longer considered Tian Liu a friend. The childhood friendship melted away like floating ice in early spring. He no longer dwelled on it.
So today, seeing Tian Liu in front of Yu Nian brought that sense of powerlessness from earlier this year rushing back. Back then, he had nothing left to lose. But now, he had a home.
Yu Nian listened silently to his story, then said gravely: “He only came over to share the table.”
“All those empty seats, yet he had to share yours.” Tian Yao pouted, his lips capable of hanging a soy sauce pot. It was all because Yu Nian was too attractive.
Back home, Tian Yao first cleaned the canopy of the ox cart thoroughly inside and out. He even fumigated it with fragrant herbs to eliminate any lingering smell of raw meat. He also selected a few pastries bought for Yu Nian and sent them along to the Village Chief.
When he returned, he sat cross-legged on the bed with Yu Nian and counted the day’s earnings.
“Sold over two hundred catties of meat to Kechanglai, got four taels, eight hundred coins. The rest, the scraps, sold piecemeal, around one tael and change. Didn’t count it precisely. Then bought household necessities. Here, this is the remaining five taels.” He placed the few pieces of broken silver into Yu Nian’s palm. “You keep it.”
Yu Nian froze, looking at the few grains of silver in his palm. Once, broken silver like this he wouldn’t deign to carry on him. It was usually just for tipping servants. And now, someone had nearly lost half their life just for this paltry bit of silver.
He had only intended to maintain a superficial spouse relationship with Tian Yao, never thought to give his true heart. Staying here was just a temporary strategy.
But Tian Yao was like this, offering his whole heart openly, unreservedly, completely, to him.
“Keep it yourself. You earned it.”
Hearing this, Tian Yao’s face fell. “What’s ‘yours’ and ‘mine’? We’re married, a family. No more dividing into yours and mine.”
Yu Nian was a bit helpless. “We agreed.”
Tian Yao didn’t take back the silver Yu Nian returned. He put on his shoes, got off the bed, and went straight into the kitchen without looking back.
Even if Yu Nian’s words were unpleasant, he couldn’t let him starve.
The Wild Boar’s meat was all stripped, only a few leg bones remained at home. Lately, Tian Yao never let that booklet leave his side. He’d mastered much of the theoretical knowledge his Little Dad left him; only practice was lacking.
Before, living alone, he just scraped by, not caring much about food—as long as it filled his stomach and could be swallowed. But since Yu Nian arrived, Tian Yao noticed his pickiness with food, so he had to improve his cooking skills.
While cooking, Little Gray kept circling his feet. Tian Yao scooped a bone from the pot, cooled it, and gave it to him. The puppy carried it back to the room.
Little Gray gnawed happily in his bed. Watching the carefree creature, Yu Nian sighed.
The leg bones, simmering since mid-afternoon, by nightfall had filled the air with a rich aroma. The soup in the pot had turned milky white, looking utterly appetizing.
His vegetable garden was sparse, but it provided daily greens. Now was radish harvest season. He pulled two radishes, washed and chopped them, and tossed them all into the pot. Eating radishes at the cusp of autumn and winter was good for the body.
Dinner wasn’t eaten in the courtyard. The two set a small table on the bed. On the table: a basin of radish and pork bone soup, and several pan-fried corn cakes.
Tian Yao was still sulking about the afternoon’s events and ate in silence. The soup was creamy white and incredibly flavorful. Even the radishes absorbed the rich broth, each bite holding both the vegetable’s own taste and the savory depth of the meat soup. Tian Yao ate two large bowls of radish, two corn cakes, and after finishing, soaked Little Gray’s flatbread in the broth, watching him eat with glee.
Yu Nian was naturally quiet; if Tian Yao didn’t speak, they remained in silence.
Though Tian Yao was silent, the nightly routine remained unchanged: soaking his feet, pressing acupoints, applying medicine.
The bedsores on his lower body, thanks to Tian Yao’s recent care, were almost entirely healed, leaving only faint, uneven marks.
At bedtime, Tian Yao also faced away from him, his stubborn back a clear refusal to communicate.
The broken silver that sparked the quarrel was placed under Tian Yao’s pillow. Finding it when he lay down only made him angrier. So angry, he didn’t know when he fell asleep.
Their silent standoff lasted for days. Tian Yao went up the mountain before dawn daily to chop firewood. Winter was near; he needed ample reserves, or the snowy days would be even harder to endure.
He also looked for nanmu wood for Yu Nian’s wheelchair, but without venturing into the deep mountains, he found nothing.
Little Gray seemed to sense the unusual atmosphere between the two adults. He tugged at Tian Yao’s trouser leg, then tried to curry favor with Yu Nian.
But both were unmoved.
It wasn’t until Aunt Shun came to deliver the clothes that their days-long cold war ended.
