There were hardly any vacant houses in the village, and Jiang Chengzhou certainly couldn’t feel at ease leaving Linlin to stay with someone else.
He had money, but his household registration belonged to the army’s collective account, so he couldn’t buy a house in the village.
Jiang Chengzhou had searched for several days, but still hadn’t found a suitable place.
Only with Linlin under his watch could he feel at ease.
Besides, he trusted Yan Yuan’s character. Yan Yuan wasn’t a bad person, and he had no particular interest in women.
Yan Yuan was just about to speak when a faint rustling suddenly came from inside the room. A girl’s sleepy, nasal voice called out, “Brother?”
Jiang Chengzhou turned and answered. He walked to the doorway, pushed it open, and led her out by the wrist.
Yan Yuan looked over.
The girl had gone back to looking the way she had before.
Her head was lowered, the loose strands of hair over her forehead covering most of her face. Only her thin chin and a small section of her pale neck were visible.
Her shoulders were hunched, and she seemed to be shrinking into herself, as though she wished she could hide completely.
“This is Yan Yuan, your brother’s good friend. We’ll be staying at his place for the time being. You can call him Brother Yuan.”
Linlin didn’t lift her head. Her eyes remained fixed on the tips of her shoes as she called softly, “Brother Yuan.”
“Mm.”
Yan Yuan’s gaze fell on the hand Jiang Chengzhou had wrapped around Linlin’s wrist.
They were siblings, but at their age, it seemed they shouldn’t be so physically close anymore.
He withdrew his gaze and raised a hand toward the wooden door on the west side. “You’ll stay in that room. I’ve cleaned it up. The bedding is in the cabinet in the main room. If you need it, have your brother bring it to you.”
He paused. “It’s all been washed.”
Linlin clenched her fists. “Okay. Thank you, Brother Yuan.”
Jiang Chengzhou rubbed the top of her head and smiled. “All right, go put your things away. If you need anything, just tell me.”
Linlin was much less restrained around Jiang Chengzhou. She gave him a sweet nod.
The Yan family’s house was L-shaped, with the room on the west side separated off almost like an independent space.
When Linlin left the Zhou household, she had brought only a small bag containing a few old pieces of clothing and her textbooks. She hadn’t taken anything else.
She carried the bag into the room.
It wasn’t large, but it was very clean.
A wooden bed stood against the wall, covered with a bamboo mat.
The window faced south, and when she opened it, she could see a small stretch of the distant blue sea.
Linlin knelt beside the bed and leaned over the windowsill, gazing outside for a long while.
When she had first arrived at the Zhou household, she’d had a tiny room of her own. Once a bed was put inside, there was barely enough space to turn around.
Later, after her younger brother was born, her room had been given to him.
Linlin was then made to share a room with Zhou Yue.
Zhou Yue had never liked her and was always on guard around her.
She would lock the drawers and hang an old bedsheet between them as a curtain.
Linlin didn’t actually hate Zhou Yue.
Compared with her adoptive father’s indifference and her adoptive mother’s sharpness, Zhou Yue had been the gentlest person in the family toward her.
It was just that the two of them could probably never become sisters or friends. Linlin had known from a very young age that Zhou Yue disliked her.
She hadn’t experienced what it felt like to have a room of her own in a very long time.
When Jiang Chengzhou entered the room, she was still leaning against the windowsill in a daze.
“What are you looking at? Come eat breakfast.”
“Brother.” Linlin turned around, her voice soft. “You can see the sea from here.”
Jiang Chengzhou smiled. “Isn’t seeing the sea easy? If you like it, I’ll take you out to gather seafood by the shore in a few days.”
“Really?”
The army base wasn’t far from the sea, but Linlin had rarely gone there.
She had to do the housework and take care of her younger siblings.
Besides, she hadn’t wanted to go outside.
Apart from school, she almost never left the house because of the way other people looked at her.
Song Fang had said that Linlin’s mother was a temptress who had seduced Zhou Jianjun, which was why he had adopted her.
She had also said that Linlin had inherited those temptress genes, and that once she grew up, she would seduce men too.
Linlin no longer remembered what her mother looked like, but children naturally believed their mothers were good people.
Song Fang had said it over and over until Linlin had begun to doubt herself as well.
When she was in sixth grade, boys from the nearby middle school had already started coming to her classroom to see her. Some would even follow her home, walking behind her and sending her off.
By then, Jiang Chengzhou had already graduated from middle school and stopped studying.
Linlin had been terrified.
After Song Fang caught one of the boys doing it, she became even more vicious, saying that Linlin was seducing men at such a young age.
If even her adoptive mother said such things about her, outsiders would only look down on her more.
Even those boys who supposedly “liked” her would despise her while continuing to hover around her.
Linlin didn’t dare tell her brother. Jiang Chengzhou often got into fights, and Song Fang was always saying that he would end up in prison because of it sooner or later.
She was afraid of dragging him into trouble.
Eventually, she learned to hide her face.
She always wore ill-fitting clothes that made her look dowdy, dull, and gloomy.
Little by little, those people lost interest in her and stopped following her around, jeering and making a spectacle of her.
She had originally thought that everything would be fine if she could get into a university far away and leave this place.
But Song Fang refused to let her go. She had grown used to having a free, capable “maid” in the house, and if she married Linlin off, she could collect a bride price too.
Linlin didn’t want to marry a man she knew nothing about, so for the first time in her life, she had gathered up the courage to run away from home.
Fortunately, she still had her brother.
Things couldn’t be worse than they had been in the Zhou household.
After breakfast, Linlin poked her head out and glanced into the courtyard. “Where’s Brother Yuan?”
Jiang Chengzhou smiled. “He’s probably gone to tend those two little plots of his. He just can’t sit still. Don’t be afraid of him. He doesn’t talk much, but he’s actually a very kindhearted person.”
Linlin nodded.
At noon, Linlin volunteered to cook for everyone.
Jiang Chengzhou pushed her back into the room to rest. “You’ve only just arrived. Take some time to settle in. Today, you can try your brother’s cooking.”
“Then I’ll help tend the fire.”
Jiang Chengzhou patted her hair. “All right.”
The siblings walked into the kitchen one after the other. Yan Yuan was already crouched beside the stove, tending the fire.
Jiang Chengzhou smiled and walked over to pat him on the shoulder. “Move over. My sister’s going to tend the fire for me.”
At that, Yan Yuan raised his eyes and glanced at Linlin standing behind Jiang Chengzhou.
His gaze quickly shifted away, and he said nothing. Instead, he extended his foot, hooked a small stool over from the side, and kicked it toward Linlin’s feet. “Sit.”
He sat down in front of the stove, taking up all the space and leaving no room for anyone else.
It was summer, and the kitchen was unbearably hot. Jiang Chengzhou hadn’t really intended to have Linlin stay beside the fire in the first place.
He turned to her and said, “Just sit there, or go outside for a walk if you want. We’ll be eating soon.”
Linlin swallowed and obediently sat down on the little stool, her back ramrod straight and her hands placed properly on her knees.
She looked like an elementary school student.
Jiang Chengzhou chuckled inwardly. He lifted his foot and gave Yan Yuan’s lower leg a light kick. “Don’t scare my sister. She’s timid.”
Yan Yuan frowned and turned his head toward Linlin.
Was she afraid of him?
Yan Yuan was a man of few words, and Linlin was even quieter around people she didn’t know well. Only Jiang Chengzhou kept the conversation going at the table, talking nonstop.
After the meal, Linlin began gathering the bowls and chopsticks.
Yan Yuan snatched them away. “You don’t have to.”
