RUHIP Chapter 004

When Lin Ye came back to his senses, he was already at the place where the villagers had gathered.

That was the place where he had first met Yun Jiu. This time, it was the third time he saw Yun Jiu.

Yun Jiu—this person really resembled who he used to be.

And the ending, it seemed, was also very similar.

Looking at Yun Jiu, who was hung up with only a single thin garment on, Lin Ye’s vision kept going black in bursts. The ability within his body began to stir restlessly again. That big tree, as if it could sense Yun Jiu’s sorrow, also silently wailed along with him.

At this moment, Yun Jiu had a piece of torn cloth stuffed in his mouth. His body was covered in blood. Because his whole body was suspended from the tree, his wrists had already become swollen and bruised. His face—was it flushed from suffocation, or was it because of a high fever? He didn’t look good to begin with, and now he looked even more swollen and ugly.

Everyone was pointing at Yun Jiu and cursing something. Lin Ye couldn’t hear clearly. At this moment, he had a bit of a headache. He only felt that the surroundings were abnormally noisy, and every person speaking looked extremely unfamiliar and frightening.

“Brother Lin Ye, are you feeling unwell?” Yun Xiaohua walked up to Lin Ye and cautiously tugged at his arm.

Lin Ye turned his head to look at him, which startled Yun Xiaohua.

Lin Ye usually appeared gentle and refined, like a particularly cultured and kind person. But just now, when he turned his head, his whole face was twisted.

Yun Xiaohua was so scared he took a step back, timidly saying, “Brother Lin Ye, y-you’re okay, right?”

At that moment, Lin Ye’s pupils contracted slightly, then returned to normal. He furrowed his brow and glanced at Yun Xiaohua, then once again shifted his gaze back to Yun Jiu.

“What’s going on here?”

Hearing Lin Ye’s inquiry, the crowd that had been chattering instantly quieted down quite a bit.

Yun Xiaohua inched closer to Lin Ye, “He… he was having a tryst with Liu Laizi from the village… in the small grove, and was caught by the villagers.”

Yun Xiaohua was too embarrassed to say “adultery,” his face turned red, and he stammered for a long time before coming up with the word “tryst.”

Off to the side, upon hearing Yun Xiaohua’s words, Yun Xu-shi spat harshly in Yun Jiu’s direction, “What tryst! Our family must be cursed! That worthless thing actually had an affair with someone else? Aiya, this is going to be the death of me!”

As he spoke, Yun Xushi threw himself to the ground, wearing a face of utter grief and despair, tears and snot streaming together.

The people around hurried to pull him up—they really didn’t dare let him fall.

Yun Yushan stood in the crowd, one hand behind his back. Except for being a little short, he was actually rather neatly dressed and well-groomed. But the words he spoke made Lin Ye furrow his brows uncontrollably.

“Such a scandal happened today… originally, for my brother’s sake, I didn’t want to expose it. But the teacher always taught me to be an honest and trustworthy person. After thinking it over, I finally—painfully—reported it to the village chief. It’s said that even a prince breaking the law should be punished like a commoner. Even though this person is my brother, I still couldn’t bring myself to cover up his wrongdoing.”

What he said sounded admirable—almost like he was subtly praising himself. Lin Ye couldn’t help but give him another two glances.

Standing beside Yun Yushan was Yun Xiaoshu. When Lin Ye looked over, Yun Xiaoshu even gave him a shy smile.

Yun Xiaoshu was very good-looking—one of the most attractive in Yunjia Village. That shy smile, paired with those watery, bright eyes, should have been especially moving. But this Yun Xiaoshu made Lin Ye feel like he had fallen into an icy pit.

That person hanging on the tree was his own blood brother. He didn’t care whether his brother lived or died—and he still had the heart to throw flirtatious glances at someone?

What kind of people were these? What were their hearts made of?

“Well said! Truly worthy of being a scholar—knows propriety, knows how to behave,” the village chief couldn’t help but praise.

Since the village chief had spoken, the others immediately followed suit in agreement. Most of these people were farmer’s children, none of whom had been educated. Their thinking was easily swayed by others. Without understanding the full situation, they would habitually follow the crowd.

“Yes, yes, Yushan is one of the few people in our village who studies. He really said it well, really well.”

“Mm, a scholar really is different. What’s that called again—something like ‘aunt destroys kin’?”

A ge’er burst out laughing and pointed at the person who just spoke, saying, “That’s sacrificing kin for righteousness, not ‘aunt destroys kin’! Haha, you’re killing me with laughter.”

The man who was made fun of by the ge’er chuckled foolishly a couple of times. Everyone was amused by his simpleminded, honest demeanor.

“So from what you’re all saying, the one who caught him in the act was actually his own brother?” Lin Ye asked with interest. His gaze didn’t look at anyone’s face but was fixed on the snow-covered ground under Yun Jiu’s feet, where quite a lot of blood had already pooled.

“Oh, now that Xiao Ye asks, it really does seem that way.” The village chief froze for a moment. He had only just arrived not long ago and saw Yun Jiu already hanging when he got there. He asked the villagers nearby and heard that Yun Jiu was having an affair with Liu Laizi, which made him fly into a rage. In such a simple farming village, a widowed ge’er having an affair was a massive transgression against morals. He was so furious that he overlooked this detail.

Everyone else looked at each other for a long time. It seemed Yun Jiu had already been hung when they arrived. No one really knew who had caught Yun Jiu first or who had seen the alleged affair first. For a moment, the scene fell into an awkward silence.

After waiting quite a while without getting an answer, Lin Ye finally moved his gaze away from Yun Jiu. His slightly cold gaze fell on Yun Yushan’s face, which made Yun Yushan feel a little panicked.

“What are you looking at me like that for? So what if I saw it? Sanzi was with me at the time too.”

Sanzi was the neighbor of Yun Dali and the third son of Yun Erniu’s family. Everyone called him Sanzi.

Sanzi was a very honest person—someone who wouldn’t lie. Hearing that Sanzi was a witness made everyone feel like this affair was probably true.

Suddenly called out by name, Sanzi timidly stepped forward.

Lin Ye’s narrow eyes shifted slightly. Compared to the cunning people of the apocalypse, these rural folk were far too easy to read and transparent. Just a few glances and expressions, and Lin Ye had already guessed about seventy to eighty percent of the truth.

Seeing Sanzi step forward, Lin Ye asked kindly, “Sanzi, I’m asking you—what exactly did you see at that time? Please tell me everything you saw, in detail.”

Sanzi actually didn’t know exactly what had happened. Yun Yushan, who normally had a poor relationship with him, suddenly came to find him early that morning. At the time, Sanzi was already puzzled, wondering what kind of wind had blown Yun Yushan over today. Even stranger, Yun Yushan brought him to the small grove, saying there was no firewood at home and he needed to gather some.

But Yun Yushan never did those things. Usually, such chores were done by Yun Jiu, or someone else if not him. Yun Yushan was going to be a scholar; he always looked down on such labor.

“I-I don’t really know either. Yushan suddenly came to me this morning, saying he wanted to gather firewood in the grove. As soon as we entered, we saw Yun Jiu and Liu Laizi together. Honestly, I hadn’t seen clearly what was happening yet when Yushan said they were having an affair, and then pulled me to go get people. W-when I was being dragged away, Yun Jiu and Liu Laizi didn’t seem like they were having an affair. It—it looked more like they were arguing and fighting.”

Yun Yushan glared at Sanzi. He hadn’t expected the usually dull and quiet Sanzi to say so much in one go today. He had calculated that Sanzi was someone who couldn’t spit out a word for ages, so even if someone asked him, he’d just foolishly nod. But unexpectedly, Sanzi had turned uncharacteristically talkative and even described things in detail.

Actually, it wasn’t that Yun Yushan miscalculated. He really was quite bold and meticulous. His ability to gauge people was very good, and he had accurately judged Sanzi’s personality. The only thing he hadn’t counted on was that Lin Ye was an ability user.

A wood-type ability user. A wood-type ability user who used to be a psychologist.

When Lin Ye saw Sanzi’s timid and hesitant appearance, he had already guessed that Sanzi’s personality might be a problem. So he used his ability to surround Sanzi, making him feel no pressure from his surroundings and entering a state of extreme relaxation.

Seeing everyone looking at him, Yun Yushan couldn’t help but argue stubbornly, “Early in the morning, two people sneaking around in the grove—if that’s not an affair, then what is it? And one of them is that lecher Liu Laizi, the other is a newly widowed ge’er. To anyone, this would look like an affair, wouldn’t it?”

Lin Ye rubbed his throbbing forehead. Ever since he transmigrated, his ability had been restless, constantly giving him headaches.

“To anyone, maybe. But to one’s own brother—it becomes strange. Sanzi said you only saw them from afar. You didn’t even go over to take a closer look. You weren’t worried your ge’er brother might be getting bullied—instead, you immediately decided they were having an affair? Don’t you think that’s an awfully hasty conclusion?”

As a psychologist, Lin Ye’s tone of voice was always very gentle, making people feel like they were being respected. Even though his words now were pressing step by step, there was nothing uncomfortable about them. On the contrary, they made people feel that what he said made sense.

People in Yunjia Village more or less understood Yun Dali’s family and were especially familiar with Yun Jiu.

Yun Jiu was the one doing most of the chores, while Yun Yushan was the delicate one. Just looking at his hands—hands like a ge’er—you could tell he had never done any real labor.

Moreover, Yun Dali’s family had always had a poor relationship with Yun Erniu’s family. Yun Yushan usually acted superior and rarely played with the village children.

How was it such a coincidence that he wanted to collect firewood that day—and insisted on dragging Sanzi along?

And when he saw his own brother with the village’s infamous rascal, his first reaction wasn’t concern that his brother was being taken advantage of—but immediately claimed he was cheating? Is that how a real younger brother thinks?