Chapter 4
“Are you feeling unwell?”
Xie Yan’s eyes shifted slightly as if he had been pulled back from his wandering thoughts.
He shook his head. “No.”
Lu Liu asked again, “Then do you have something you want to tell me?”
Xie Yan opened his mouth, hesitated, and then just shook his head again. “It’s useless to say anything.”
Lu Liu was puzzled. “Why?”
Xie Yan: “We’re getting married anyway.”
Lu Liu: “…”
Hearing this, he felt wronged.
In a small voice, he told Xie Yan, “I went to Shangxi Village a few days ago.”
Xie Yan’s eyebrows twitched slightly, but he only responded with a faint “Oh.”
Lu Liu continued, “I saw a lot of your family members…”
Xie Yan turned to look at him, showing the biggest reaction since their meeting—his eyes were full of expectation.
“So, what do you think?”
Lu Liu: ?
What was Xie Yan expecting?
What was he supposed to think?
Was he supposed to say he wanted to break off the engagement?
Lu Liu had already tried; backing out of the marriage wasn’t an option.
Now that the wedding date was approaching and the Xie family hadn’t shown any signs of regret, the only thing left was to find a way to deal with the situation.
Lu Liu thought that since Xie Yan was a scholar, he must have some plan in mind. Maybe he had an idea but lacked the support to carry it out, which was why he kept getting bullied.
Filled with hope, Lu Liu’s heartbeat quickened, and his face flushed as he eagerly asked, “Do you have a solution? What do you need me to do?”
Xie Yan’s joy and expectation instantly crumbled. He looked at Lu Liu with a bit of confusion. “What? You don’t have a way to deal with them?”
Lu Liu was stunned, his mind going blank.
When he finally came back to his senses, he heard Xie Yan say, “Then you’re in for a tough life after you marry in.”
Lu Liu almost burst into tears.
Xie Yan, completely indifferent to his distress, continued, “How could your father bear to send you?”
Lu Liu started crying.
The two fell into silence.
Lu Liu wiped his tears several times, his mind flashing through many memories—most of them of the times he’d been bullied growing up. But his father’s firm words that he would have a good life in the future always echoed in his mind.
He knew that changing their family’s fate was difficult and that the previous marriage proposals they had received were far from ideal.
Recalling his father’s words over and over, he tried to encourage himself. Taking a deep breath to steady his emotions, he asked Xie Yan once more, filled with anticipation, “Will you continue taking the imperial exams?”
Xie Yan replied, “Of course. After all, I don’t know how to farm.”
People always said Xie Yan was a bookworm, but Lu Liu had never realized he could be so infuriating.
Sensitive at heart, Lu Liu could hear Xie Yan’s dissatisfaction—not just with the marriage but with him as well.
He bit his lip, mustering the courage to ask again, “Then will you aim to pass the provincial exam in the future?”
Xie Yan’s surprised expression felt like a hammer pounding Lu Liu’s heart, making his head ache and his vision blur.
“I’ll take it, but I won’t pass. Don’t get your hopes up for me.”
Lu Liu could no longer continue the conversation. He wiped his tears again, pressing his sleeve so hard against his face that it left a wet stain. His eyes were red.
He quickly walked over to his father’s side, clutching a basket of eggs in his arms, his expression stubborn. Lu Erbao glanced at him, his body stiffening slightly. His neck moved as if he wanted to turn around but never actually did.
Xie Yan watched them indifferently, his last bit of hope for this marriage completely extinguished.
Some people climb the mountain to slay the tiger.
Others walk straight into the tiger’s mouth.
Clearly, Lu Liu was the latter.
………………………..
Lu Yang took the money but didn’t immediately go looking for Old Chen. Instead, he avoided Old Chen’s usual path and wandered around the market.
Old Chen wouldn’t let him sell tofu, and the Li family’s mother and son didn’t get along with him. Lu Yang figured this engagement wouldn’t last long, so he needed to find another way out.
Growing up in the county, he had never learned how to farm, but he had picked up a little of everything else.
He could make various household goods like straw and bamboo weavings.
Aside from tofu, he also knew how to make stuffed buns—thin-skinned, juicy, and flavorful. He had learned from multiple masters, charming them with sweet words as a child to get them to teach him.
Now that he was older, learning new skills wasn’t so easy anymore.
Other than weaving and cooking, Lu Yang counted his skills and realized he could barely read and knew a bit of woodblock printing.
As he pondered, he found himself near a bun stall.
The market had several cooked food vendors. From his perspective, this wasn’t a good location—the spot wasn’t fixed, and most village visitors brought their own dry food instead of buying buns. Plus, they had to pay for the stall space, making it less profitable.
Still, the foot traffic was high, and there were always people willing to spend on hot food or show off a little, keeping the business going.
Lu Yang found a spot by the wall and carefully observed the stall’s business.
They sold a variety of buns, both vegetarian and meat-filled. They also had mantou, flower rolls, and large steamed buns the size of an arm. The best-sellers were the flower rolls and big meat buns, while the others sold more slowly.
What he didn’t expect was that while he was observing the stall, someone was observing him.
From a distance, Lu Liu stared in disbelief—how could there be someone who looked exactly like him?
After being upset by Xie Yan, he couldn’t stay at the stall any longer. He told his father and moved to another spot to sell eggs.
Turning a corner, he suddenly saw Lu Yang.
Shocked, he recalled something.
After his engagement was arranged, one night when he got up, he overheard his two fathers talking about another child—a child given to his Aunt Lu Sanfeng to raise.
It turned out that when his father, Wang Fengnian, was pregnant, he had twins. Since their family was too poor to feed both, they had given the older one to Aunt Sanfeng.
All these years, his fathers never dared to look for him, and Aunt Sanfeng never brought him back to visit.
Now that Lu Liu was engaged, his twin brother, being the same age, should also be getting engaged soon. His fathers had sighed, wondering which family he would marry into and how far away he would be.
Lu Liu stared blankly at Lu Yang, instinctively pulling the cloth covering his basket of eggs over his face.
Not many people knew he was a twin, so hiding his face felt like the right move—even if he wasn’t sure why.
He still didn’t know his brother’s name, where he lived, or how he had been all these years.
Questions crowded his mind, but he never doubted his instincts.
Somehow, he just knew—the young man staring at the bun stall had to be his brother!
Oh.
Right.
The bun stall.
His brother had been staring at the bun stall all this time—he must be hungry!
Lu Liu’s spirits lifted. He immediately pushed aside the frustration of his engagement and Xie Yan’s annoying attitude.
Patting his small money pouch, he decided to buy some buns for his brother.
He had never bought cooked food in the county before. He had always been too scared to even ask about the prices. He had only heard other village boys mention noodle prices—he knew nothing about buns.
But he had money. His fathers had given him five hundred copper coins as part of his dowry, telling him to buy things he liked or needed. He had also just earned some spare change from selling eggs.
The bun stall was busy, and he noticed most people were buying either meat buns or flower rolls. Not knowing which one his brother liked, he bought two of each.
Meat buns cost four copper coins each, and flower rolls cost two. Altogether, he spent twelve coins.
Carrying the warm buns, he carefully watched the passersby and then eagerly walked up to Lu Yang, offering them.
Lu Yang, who had been observing the stall: ?
He crossed his arms and leaned against the wall, scrutinizing Lu Liu from head to toe.
Lu Liu wore a dark red jacket, his face partially covered with a patched cloth. His exposed skin was fair, his eyes red but bright, and his brow had a distinct beauty mark.
A little ger.
Lu Yang relaxed slightly, glanced at the basket of eggs, and smirked. “I’m not buying eggs.”
Lu Liu was stunned.
Why was his brother reacting like this?
He blurted out, “I’m not here to sell eggs! I bought these buns for you!”
