In the evening, Qin Xiangyang fell asleep first, perhaps out of sheer exhaustion, or possibly because he was ill.
Qin Xiangnuan pulled the blanket over Qin Xiangyang, then placed her hand on his forehead. It seed his fever had subsided, and only then did she allow herself to breathe a sigh of relief. Today, she had no intention of selling pancakes; as long as the Qin Family’s issues remained unresolved, her mind would be occupied.
The fire pit emitted a cozy warmth. Even though they were covered in a tattered blanket, they felt quite warm and not a bit cold. She finally withdrew her hand, which was clenching a tiny jade pendant. There was blood on her palm and on the pendant as well.
Mother’s jade...
She pressed the jade pendant against her face; its icy coolness was soothing.
However, it had beco a bit dirty. She rubbed it against her clothing several tis to clean the blood off before looking for a string to hang it around her neck. But for so reason, as soon as she put it on and the pendant touched her skin, she felt a burning, painful sensation.
She held the pendant in her hand again, feeling the sa chilly sensation typical of jade, without any burning heat.
Strange, she thought, releasing the pendant and burrowing under the quilt. The jade pendant still felt sowhat hot, but it was tolerable. Today had been filled with so much ordeal, and although she had been beaten, her small body had managed to endure due to her strong willpower—far stronger than most. But no matter how strong her will was, after all, she was still young, still a child.
She snuggled into the blanket, listening to the breathing of Qin Chuyang beside her. Her whole body relaxed along with his rhythm, and soon, she too had fallen asleep.
Early in the morning, she had already opened her eyes, a habitual inner alarm clock for chores. At this hour, she was expected to sweep the yard, fetch water, and start the fire. Once past this ti, she wouldn’t be able to fall back asleep even if she wanted to.
She rubbed her eyes and sat up. The fire pit seed to have gone out, so it wasn’t very warm. She turned her head back and got quite a scare.
"Brother, bro..."
She quickly crawled over and placed her hand on Qin Xiangyang’s forehead.
"So hot!" She recoiled her fingers as if they had been scalded.
"Brother..." She shook Qin Xiangyang, but he was so feverish he was delirious and didn’t wake up. She quickly pulled her clothes from under the blanket, jumped down from the fire pit to find her shoes, fetched so water from the well outside, soaked a towel in it, then wrung it out and placed it on Qin Xiangyang’s forehead.
The damp towel had just touched his forehead when Qin Xiangyang sighed as if he felt relief.
"Brother, don’t worry, Nuannuan will save you."
After changing the towel once more, she ran out the door to find Aunt Hua.
"Eh, what’s wrong, Nuannuan?" Aunt Hua was taken aback when she saw Qin Xiangnuan running up, panting. What happened, did sothing go wrong?
"Auntie..." Qin Xiangnuan stepped forward and grabbed Aunt Hua’s sleeve.
"Auntie, please, save my brother, he has a fever, it’s very hot."
"My goodness!" Aunt Hua was also shocked and quickly called for Uncle Hua. By the ti they arrived at Chen Laosan’s old house, Qin Xiangyang was still lying there, burning up with fever.
"It’s this hot?" Uncle Hua touched Qin Xiangyang’s forehead. "How did this child get such a high fever?"
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