RUHIP Chapter 002

“You’re still not letting go—don’t you have any shame? A ge’er actually grabbing onto a man, and you’re even already married!” Chen Yinling fiercely kicked Yun Jiu once.

The other two ge’ers were even more excessive—one even tugged at Yun Jiu’s clothes with reddened eyes. Lin Ye slightly furrowed his brows and said, “Let go first. Otherwise, they might hurt you.”

Hearing Lin Ye’s words, Yun Jiu seemed to awaken from a dream. He quickly let go of his wrist. Yun Jiu said an apologetic “sorry” somewhat at a loss, then hurriedly lowered his eyes, not daring to look at Lin Ye again.

At the side, Yun Xiaohua said unhappily, “Brother Lin Ye, what do you mean he’ll get hurt? Yun Jiu is so strong, he wouldn’t get hurt. Look at Xiaohua’s wrist—it’s already red!”

Lin Ye didn’t respond to Yun Xiaohua but instead looked at Yun Jiu in confusion and asked, “Is something wrong?” Otherwise, why did he suddenly grab him?

Lin Ye wasn’t narcissistic enough to think this big guy had fallen for him. In Lin Ye’s eyes, this honest and simple person probably had something he wanted to say to him.

Yun Jiu subconsciously nodded, but then felt that wasn’t right, and quickly shook his head.

Now even Lin Ye was confused by Yun Jiu.

This big fool—had he been frozen silly?

In the end, this incident spread throughout the entire Yun Family Village. Adding on the exaggerations and embellishments from Yun Xiaohua and the three ge’ers that day, things quickly got out of control.

However, none of this affected Lin Ye, because during the time when rumors were flying around, he was being forced by Lin A’mo to practice calligraphy.

Lin Ye had transmigrated over back then and his short hair had attracted quite a bit of curiosity. It was around that time that Lin Ye met Lin Chunfeng. At that time, Lin Chunfeng was in a very bad situation—Lin Ye had rescued him from a group of disaster victims.

Because both of them had the surname Lin, Lin Chunfeng felt it was fate and took Lin Ye in as an adopted son. This way, Lin Ye could get registered as a resident here.

Lin Ye was someone who had experienced the brutal apocalypse. He was extremely lucky to awaken a wood-type ability when the apocalypse came. This ability wasn’t especially strong in offense, but it had many other excellent capabilities—for example, he could accelerate the growth of various plants, use them to monitor the surroundings, and even use wood ability for healing.

Lin Ye was very fortunate in terms of abilities, but extremely unfortunate in terms of his complicated family background. Moreover, Lin Ye himself was kind-hearted and tightly bound by ethics and morals—a social elite. Before the apocalypse, he had received the best education and had become an outstanding psychologist.

However, even such an outstanding psychologist was ultimately unable to treat himself. In the end, unable to bear the pressure from his family members, he resolutely leapt into the zombie tide.

What Lin Ye didn’t know was—the reason Yun Jiu kept standing there that day was because he had nowhere to go. He understood his family too well. Now that he had returned just like this, what awaited him was endless humiliation and scolding. No one would feel sorry for him. No one would care whether he felt wronged.

Yes—”wronged”—these two characters probably didn’t match someone with his kind of appearance at all.

That day, Yun Jiu was nearly frozen to death by the heavy snow. It was only because a kind-hearted uncle from the village saw that he looked so pitiful that he helped send Yun Jiu back home. Yun Dali was someone who cared deeply about saving face. Though he was displeased inside, he reluctantly let Yun Jiu in through the door in front of the outsider.

As soon as that uncle turned and left, Yun Jiu’s A-mo started scolding at the top of her lungs, saying whatever harsh words came to mind.

Yun Jiu could only stiffly stand there, silently enduring Yun Xushi’s insults, as well as the indifference from the rest of the family. At that moment, Yun Jiu’s heart turned completely cold, like a block of ice frozen stiff in the depths of winter—cold and numb.

“Truly a money-losing good-for-nothing. Other people’s ge’ers, once married, can even send some money back home. But you? Let alone supporting the family—now you’ve even been sent back. Great! Our family is going to be laughed at by everyone. What kind of sin did I commit to give birth to a money-losing thing like you? Such a bitter fate!”

Even after scolding him, it seemed she still couldn’t let out her anger. Yun Jiu’s A-mo grabbed the broom nearby and struck Yun Jiu hard with it.

There was only a loud bang, and Yun Jiu’s head immediately started bleeding.

A few of Yun Jiu’s ge’er siblings—one went up to hold back Yun Xushi, another went to pick up the broom from the floor.

Yun Xiaoxiang glanced at Yun Jiu and said coldly, “Why are you still standing there? Hurry and get inside. But your room’s now being used for storage, so just stay in the grain shed for now. You were already married off—who would’ve thought you’d come back?”

Yun Jiu was very tall. With so many people blocking the doorway, he could only shrink his body and squeeze his way inside. When passing by his A-mo, he was struck hard by her once again.

Yun Xiaoshu pulled Yun Xushi over to sit aside and said, “A-mo, don’t be angry anymore. Although Eldest Brother coming back is a bit shameful for our family, think about it—he’s back now, so we have one more person to help with the work. And Eldest Brother is very capable. In the future, A-mo won’t have to work so hard.”

Yun Xushi glanced at her youngest ge’er, and after hearing his words, some of her anger dissipated.

Over there, after Yun Xiaoxiang put away the broom, he also chimed in to persuade, “That’s right, A-mo. With Eldest Brother, we can rent a few more plots of land after the New Year. Then we’ll have more time to do embroidery and sell it for money. When Yushan studies, we can give the teacher a bigger gift, so he’ll pay more attention to Yushan’s schooling.”

Yun Xushi thought it over and found it made sense. After all, Yun Jiu was someone who could endure hardship and hard work.

In the following days, Yun Jiu slept in the grain shed at home. There was no bed there—only a pile of dry straw spread on the floor with bedding laid on top to sleep. Fortunately, he had brought a quilt with him when he returned. Otherwise, in such winter weather, he could very well have frozen to death.

When Lin Ye saw Yun Jiu again, it was still a snowy day.

And it was that kind of heavy goose-feather snow—snowflakes falling madly from the sky.

Lin Ye was a typical southerner and had never seen such heavy snow before. After staying inside for a while, he couldn’t help but walk out of the house.

The whole world seemed to be instantly drowned in white, with only the distant mountains still holding a trace of inky color.

Lin Ye walked slowly through the snow, one deep step and one shallow step, like a child. Then he ran into Yun Jiu head-on.

Yun Jiu was still wearing the same patched-up clothes as last time, only this time he looked much thinner. The whole person seemed spiritless.

Yun Xiaoshu was walking in front of Yun Jiu and grumbled impatiently as he walked, “Can you walk faster? So slow—I’m about to freeze to death.”

Hearing Yun Xiaoshu say he was going to freeze to death, Lin Ye instinctively looked over at him.

Yun Xiaoshu’s clothes were also very shabby, but not to the extent of freezing to death—especially compared to Yun Jiu, who was carrying a large bundle of firewood behind him. Yun Xiaoshu looked much warmer. At least his clothes were intact and looked thick.

Yun Jiu was different—because of his tall build, his wrists and ankles were exposed. Just looking at him made Lin Ye feel cold.

Yun Xiaoshu’s originally disgusted expression instantly flipped like a page in a book when he turned and saw Lin Ye. It gave Lin Ye the illusion that perhaps he had mistaken the person who, just now, had spoken so nastily and looked so annoyed.

Yun Xiaoshu walked over with a bright smile, wearing a face full of innocence. “Brother Lin Ye, what are you doing out in this heavy snow?”

Lin Ye couldn’t say he had come out just to look at the snow, so he casually said, “Uh, I came out to chop firewood.”

Yun Xiaoshu looked at Lin Ye. Lin Ye wasn’t carrying anything. His eyes landed on Lin Ye’s slender and beautiful hands. The thought of those hands being used to chop firewood made Yun Xiaoshu feel a surge of heartache.

“How about this—since we’ve gathered a lot of firewood, we’ll give some to Brother Lin Ye.”

As he said that, Yun Xiaoshu turned and walked over to Yun Jiu, not giving Lin Ye any chance to refuse.

Yun Xiaoshu glanced at Yun Jiu. “Quick, put the firewood down. Give some to Brother Lin Ye.”

Yun Jiu dumbly looked at Lin Ye. Today, Lin Ye was wearing an ink-colored long robe, his shoulder-length hair loosely tied back. In this world of ice and snow, he stood out more than ever.

Seeing Yun Jiu dumbly staring at Lin Ye like that, Yun Xiaoshu was instantly both angry and amused. This guy really is a toad trying to eat swan meat.

Yun Xiaoshu had originally wanted to lift his foot and kick him, but with Lin Ye right next to them, he could only grit his teeth and hold it in.

“Didn’t you hear me talking to you? Still standing there like an idiot—what are you doing?”

Lin Ye quickly walked over and smiled, “No need, no need. I can do it myself.”

The moment Lin Ye approached, Yun Jiu instinctively stepped toward him, nearly knocking Yun Xiaoshu over.

Looking at the big guy walking toward him, Lin Ye suddenly remembered the day Yun Jiu had grabbed his wrist.
In his heart, he thought: This big brother… what’s wrong this time?

“Yun Jiu! What are you doing?”

Yun Xiaoshu’s raised voice instantly startled the distracted Yun Jiu awake. Yun Jiu paused in a daze before snapping back to his senses.

Seeing Yun Xiaoshu looking like he was about to raise his hand and hit someone, Lin Ye frowned slightly—almost imperceptibly.

“What’s your relationship?” Lin Ye asked.

He hadn’t been in Lin Family Village for long and wasn’t yet clear on many people’s relationships. Just now, seeing the two walking together, he had assumed they were brothers. But Yun Xiaoshu’s attitude didn’t seem like how one would treat an older brother. Rather, it felt like… the way one treated a servant.

The words “servant” flashed across Lin Ye’s mind for a brief moment, but he immediately found the thought ridiculous.

In a village like this, how could anyone afford to buy a servant?