Hearing this, Ah Zheng suddenly understood.
“But what if others grow jealous even of this bowl of porridge?”
Gu Heng sighed. “That’s only human nature. In times like these, everyone is struggling just to survive—jealousy is understandable.” Then she changed the tone slightly, “But starting tomorrow, I’ll be giving out porridge on the street, until this epidemic is over.”
At that, Ah Zheng fell silent.
After a while, he asked, “That must cost quite a bit of money… Do we have enough?”
Those words struck right at Gu Heng’s concerns.
She had only just returned, and money was needed for everything. Just renting a place for Ziyun’s mother and younger brother had cost her two taels of silver. Then she promised to brew medicine for that group and gave the couple in the village a fair amount of money.
All of it had come from selling dendrobium earlier, but at the rate she was spending, it wouldn’t last much longer.
Still…
In her dream, she would soon be recognized and brought back to Yongning Marquis’s household. She wouldn’t be staying in Changle County for long.
So spending it wasn’t a problem.
Though she feared the part of the dream where the crown prince would seize her by force, the Marquis household was still her home, where her real family was. She would eventually return.
Thinking of this made her a bit downcast.
She shook her head to banish the messy thoughts and smiled to reassure Ah Zheng. “It’s fine—we’ll take things one step at a time.”
“Mm.”
That night, as soon as Gu Heng reached the courtyard and laid her head on the pillow, she fell asleep.
But Ah Zheng tossed and turned, unable to rest.
He couldn’t shake the feeling that the couple they saw in that village weren’t as honest as they seemed.
Since he wasn’t sleeping anyway, he simply got up and headed out toward the outskirts.
When he arrived at the village, everything was pitch dark.
The house where Qin Momo was staying had already extinguished its light and was silent inside.
But not far away, a faint sound of arguing came from another house.
Just as Ah Zheng reached the door, he heard the man inside shouting in fury.
“You wretched woman! Give me back the silver—that’s my money!”
The woman’s voice was hoarse, tinged with sobs. “No! That money’s for Old Two to get married later. Of all our children, only Old Two and Four Ni are still alive. We have to think about them!”
This only made the man angrier. It sounded like he kicked over a table and chairs, followed by a loud crash. “What’s there to think about for Four Ni? She’s just a girl! We’ll marry her off for a sum and use that to get Old Two a wife. Give me the money now—I’m in a hurry to go gamble!”
Hearing this, the woman nearly broke down. “Gambling again? Look what you’ve already done to this family! I won’t let you out today! And if it weren’t for Four Ni today, we wouldn’t have even gotten that silver!”
Seizing on her point, the woman’s tone grew firmer. “And we still have to feed that old woman next door three meals a day! If you take the money and she starves to death, how will we explain that to those two benefactors?!”
But the man, enraged by her boldness, slapped her across the face. The sharp sound made Four Ni cry out in fright.
“That old hag next door? Just give her scraps to eat! As long as she’s not dead, who cares? And even if she dies—it’s her fate! She’s already badly injured, so dying wouldn’t be a surprise. You think those two would kill me over her?!”
At that point, Ah Zheng was seething. He kicked the door open.
The dilapidated wooden door couldn’t withstand the blow and fell flat on the ground, raising a cloud of dust.
The scene inside stunned the people within.
Four Ni’s face was red with tears, the woman was crouched in the corner clutching her face, and the man had his hand raised high, about to strike them again.
When he saw Ah Zheng, the man’s expression instantly turned to panic, and he stumbled backward.
The next second, he felt himself being lifted by the neck—Ah Zheng had grabbed him by the throat and hauled him into the air.
The fury in Ah Zheng’s chest was burning hot.
Gu Heng had always been in poor health, and today she’d run around tirelessly just to find a place for Qin Momo.
He’d thought this couple, at least, being poor farmers, might be a bit more honest—but behind the scenes, they were treating them like this?
If, one day, Gu Heng came to check and found only a corpse in Qin Momo’s room—he couldn’t imagine how heartbroken she’d be.
Thinking of this, he swung a fist and landed it hard on the man’s face.
The punch was heavy, and blood sprayed instantly from the man’s mouth.
Pain seared through him, making it nearly impossible to breathe.
The woman was terrified. She rushed forward to pry Ah Zheng’s hand away, trying to rescue her husband.
But when she met Ah Zheng’s eyes, she froze in place.
His gaze was filled with murderous intent and wild savagery—the kind she’d only ever seen in beasts on the mountain.
If she angered him further, who knew what he might do?
The man finally caught a breath and choked out, “Please… please spare me, I won’t… I won’t dare again…”
But Ah Zheng didn’t let go—in fact, he gripped tighter.
He stared at the man’s reddening face, gasping for air, and suddenly felt a kind of thrill.
He even wanted to snap the man’s neck right then and hear the crisp sound of it breaking.
But just then, he remembered something Gu Heng had once said back on the manor: she didn’t want his hands stained with blood.
His heart skipped a beat, and he slowly relaxed his grip.
The man dropped to the ground, gasping for air, eyes filled with terror as he looked up at Ah Zheng.
At that moment, Ah Zheng was suddenly a little glad—if he had actually killed the man just now, how would he explain it to Gu Heng when she came to check?
“I heard everything you two just said,” Ah Zheng stepped forward and stomped on the man’s hand. “You said you were going to gamble with the money Ah Heng gave you, right?”
Still shaken from his brush with death, the man now burned with shame.
He was bigger than this pale young man—yet had been utterly overpowered!
All his life, he bullied others. When had anyone ever humiliated him like this?
With defiance flaring, he stiffened his neck and snapped, “Yeah, so what? The money’s already mine—you have no right to say how I spend it!”
As he spoke, he felt a surge of false confidence and tried to get up—but Ah Zheng casually pressed down on his shoulder with one hand, and the man realized he couldn’t budge at all.
“Fine. Still so defiant? Then you can die.”
At that moment, Ah Zheng felt a dark violence swelling in him. He once again grabbed the man’s neck and squeezed tightly.
The woman panicked, kowtowed repeatedly, and when that didn’t work, she quickly shoved a handful of silver into Ah Zheng’s face.
“Please, I beg you! Spare my husband! He didn’t even get the money—it’s still with me! I won’t let him gamble again!”
That moment snapped Ah Zheng partially out of his frenzy. He let go and took a deep breath. “You’re lucky—your wife saved you.”
The man choked on fresh air, coughing violently. He didn’t dare act up again.
Just now, he’d clearly felt it—this man knew martial arts. And unlike the woman from earlier, he didn’t bother reasoning. If he wanted to kill, he really would.
For a moment, all his wicked thoughts vanished. He just wanted to live.
Looking down at the man’s groveling, pathetic state, Ah Zheng found it boring.
He pressed down with his foot, grinding the man’s fingers. “Since you love gambling, I’ll ruin your hands—let’s see what you gamble with then!”
The man tried to cry out, but this was the middle of the night—if he made a sound, the whole village would hear.
Ah Zheng frowned and stuffed a dirty rag into his mouth, muffling the screams.
Even as the man wept in pain, Ah Zheng didn’t let up.
“You coward. You beat your wife, and now you want to sell your daughter for money? If you weren’t still useful, I’d have killed you already.”
Finally, when the man’s hands were swollen and bruised beyond recognition, Ah Zheng lifted his foot. “Now, are you still going to neglect the old woman in the next room? Still going to gamble?”
The man sobbed, “Never again! I won’t dare again!”
By now, Ah Zheng was feeling a bit drained. He rubbed his temples and spoke lazily, “From now on, I’ll drop by every few days to check on you. If I find out you’ve wasted this money and let that old woman starve or die from illness—I’ll have no problem killing you both.”
Upon hearing this, the couple’s faces were filled with terror. They immediately dropped to their knees and kowtowed repeatedly.
The woman, her voice trembling, vowed, “Young Master, please be at ease! Please be at ease! We will take care of her as if she were our own mother.”
Seeing that he had scared them enough, Ah Zheng lifted his foot, ready to leave. Suddenly, something occurred to him, and he turned back to warn them, “I forgot to tell you—if either of you dares to utter a single word about what happened today, and Ah Heng gets wind of it, I will kill you both. Even your two children won’t be spared.”
Upon hearing this, the man collapsed onto the ground in complete despair.
That young lady who had come during the day was clearly this young master’s soft spot. He had originally thought of complaining to her, hoping she would seek justice on their behalf.
But now, with those words, even their last hope was cut off.
Ah Zheng looked at them sprawled on the ground, knowing exactly what they were thinking. He let out a cold laugh. “The last person who dared to lie to me has weeds three feet high growing on their grave. I hope you won’t disappoint me.”
With that, he turned and walked out, vanishing into the night.
From that moment on, the couple no longer dared to even think of mistreating Qin Momo.
After settling all of that, Ah Zheng returned to the residence.
He saw that Ziyun had already fallen asleep under the corridor, so he gently pushed open Gu Heng’s door and sat down by her bed.
Almost instinctively, he warmed his hands before daring to touch Ah Heng’s face.
In his heart, he swore: as long as he remained by her side, he would never allow anyone to bully or humiliate her.
If anyone did—he would make sure they went straight to h*ll.
Since Ah Heng didn’t want him to get blood on his hands, he would do things secretly, thoroughly, and flawlessly—so that no one would ever discover his true nature.
