On the day Shi Huai turned one month old, Qinghe didn’t come to deliver his meal. Instead, a plump older woman he had never seen before showed up.
The woman set a bowl of completely cold leftovers on a stool, shot Shi Huai a sidelong glance, and said sarcastically, “Well, well, you’re still alive? The Marquis said that if you died, they should find somewhere to bury you so you wouldn’t be an eyesore. Since you’re still breathing, make do with this.”
With that, she waddled away.
Shi Huai stared at the bowl of cold leftovers, and his heart sank.
Something had happened to Qinghe.
He was right. Qinghe didn’t appear in the side courtyard again until three days later. Her eyes were red, and there was a bruise at the corner of her mouth. The porridge she carried was much thinner than usual.
“I’m sorry. I couldn’t come these past few days.”
Qinghe crouched beside the bed, feeding him spoonful by spoonful as she spoke in a quiet, choked voice.
“The head maid said that I was breaking the rules by sneaking over to the side courtyard to take care of you. She docked three months of my wages and beat me.”
Shi Huai stared at the bruise at the corner of her mouth, an indescribable emotion swelling in his chest.
In his previous life, he had been an orphan who grew up in a welfare home. No one had ever taken a beating for him, and no one had ever been punished because of him.
Qinghe wiped her eyes and forced a smile. “It’s fine. It’s only three months’ wages, and I don’t spend much money anyway. What about you? You must have been starving these past few days, right?”
Shi Huai opened his mouth, wanting to speak, but all that came out was the indistinct babbling of an infant.
For the first time since transmigrating, he experienced the deepest sense of powerlessness.
Not when his birth mother had squeezed his neck.
Not when the Marquis had thrown him into the side courtyard like a piece of trash.
But now.
An eight- or nine-year-old girl had been beaten because of him, yet he couldn’t even say the words “I’m sorry.”
Shi Huai closed his eyes and silently told himself, Become stronger. Stay alive. Then make every person in this marquis’s residence who has ever bullied him pay the price.
Four months later, Shi Huai could roll over and make a few simple sounds.
His face had undergone a visibly remarkable change during those four months.
The enormous blue-green mark that had once covered his entire face had shrunk inward by a full circle.
He was still a hundred thousand miles from being called handsome, but at least he no longer looked so horrifying that people wanted to flee after one glance, as he had when he was first born.
Well, now it looked more like he was wearing a mask.
Every time Qinghe came to feed him, she would stare at his face for a long while before scratching her head and saying, “How strange. Maybe I’ve just gotten used to seeing you? I’ve heard that babies can look completely different as they grow, but I’ve never seen one change this quickly.”
Shi Huai had no way to explain the system’s existence to her, so he could only flash her a toothless grin.
Qinghe froze for a moment. Then she patted her own cheeks and muttered under her breath, “Am I losing my mind?”
Just then, the door to the side courtyard was kicked open.
Shi Huai and Qinghe turned toward it at the same time and saw a maid standing in the doorway. She wore a pink sleeveless jacket, and her face was filled with haughty disdain.
“So you’re that ugly little thing the Marquis brought back?”
The maid looked Shi Huai up and down, her eyes full of contempt. “Madam sent me to bring you a bowl of soup. She said it was your reward.”
Qinghe’s expression changed. She instinctively stepped in front of Shi Huai, her voice trembling. “W-what kind of soup is that?”
The maid gave a mocking laugh. “Who do you think you are, a mere scullery maid, to ask questions? Madam said that since the Marquis brought the child back, he’s part of the Marquis’s household now. It’s only a calming decoction. It’ll help him sleep better.”
Shi Huai stared at the bowl of soup, alarm bells ringing in his mind.
What did a four-month-old infant need with a calming decoction? This was obviously an attempt on his life.
Qinghe had clearly reached the same conclusion.
She stood firmly between Shi Huai and the maid. Although her voice trembled, she refused to back down.
“I... I’ll go call the Marquis. He can’t drink this. He’s too young—the medicine in a calming decoction will be too strong for him.”
The maid’s expression darkened. She reached out and shoved Qinghe. “Who do you think you are? Do you really think you can refuse something Madam has bestowed?”
Qinghe staggered and struck her forehead against the bedpost, splitting the skin and drawing blood.
But she gritted her teeth and threw herself back in front of Shi Huai, clutching him tightly in her arms.
“What are you trying to do? He’s just a baby!”
Shi Huai was trapped in Qinghe’s embrace.
The faint scent of soapwort on her body mingled with the smell of blood. Without warning, tears welled up in his eyes.
It wasn’t fear. It wasn’t hurt.
It was an emotion that made his nose sting—one he had never experienced in either of his two lives.
The maid advanced step by step, still holding the bowl of soup.
Qinghe hugged Shi Huai and shrank back into the corner of the bed. Her entire body was trembling, but she showed no intention of letting go.
Just as the maid reached out to pry Qinghe’s arms apart, an aged yet authoritative voice suddenly rang out from beyond the door.
“Stop.”
Everyone froze.
An elderly woman in a dark purple jacket entered the side courtyard, leaning on a cane. Four or five maids and older servants followed behind her, making the procession seem grander than it had any right to be.
The bowl in the maid’s hands fell to the ground with a loud crash and shattered. Her face went deathly pale.
“G-Grand Madam...”
Grand Madam—the family matriarch of the Yongning Marquis’s household, the Marquis’s mother, and the one person in the entire residence whose word was law.
She walked to the bed and lowered her gaze to Shi Huai, who was huddled in Qinghe’s arms.
There was no emotion in her cloudy old eyes, making it impossible to tell what she was thinking.
Qinghe was already too frightened to speak. Her entire body shook like a leaf, but she still held Shi Huai tightly and refused to let go.
Grand Madam studied them for a long while. Then she suddenly reached out and used her cane to lift Shi Huai’s chin, forcing him to face her.
Shi Huai met the old woman’s gaze. He clearly saw a flash of surprise in her eyes.
“This child...”
Grand Madam turned to the trusted old matron beside her. “Didn’t you say that when Eldest brought him back, his entire face was covered in blue marks?”
The matron leaned closer for a look and was stunned as well. “In reply to Grand Madam, this old servant remembers clearly. The day the Marquis brought him back, that birthmark really did cover his entire face. Everyone in the residence said he looked... looked like a ghost.”
Grand Madam glanced at Shi Huai again and brought her cane down heavily against the floor.
“Go call Eldest.”
The Marquis arrived quickly. When he entered, his face still bore clear traces of impatience.
But the moment he saw Grand Madam standing in the side courtyard, his impatience immediately turned into caution.
“Mother, what brings you here? This place is filthy.”
Grand Madam looked at him coldly. “I’m asking you—is this child your biological son?”
The Marquis froze. He stammered, “Y-yes... He’s my son. That year, I was recovering from an injury away from home, and I... I had a child with a village girl.”
“Then why did you bring him back?”
