I won't be a prince's concubine; I'll cook delicious food and raise two villainous cu

Ya'er reached out her little hand and carefully took the candied hawthorn, holding it tightly in her palm. Looking at the string of bright red fruit, the image of her older sister involuntarily appeared in her mind, and tears immediately fell like beads from a broken string.

Her two older brothers, standing to the side, panicked and became anxious when they saw her like this.

"Ya'er, please stop..."

Before Li Erlang could even utter the word "cry," Ya'er reached out her little hand and hastily wiped away the tears on her face.

Sniffling, she said with a stubborn yet incredibly strong voice, "My sister said that if you cry too much, your tears become worthless and less precious. I won't cry! I won't cry!"

Looking at her, so well-behaved and sensible, yet pale and haggard due to illness, Li Xiaoyun couldn't help but feel a pang of pity.

He reached out, intending to pat her head and comfort her, but Ya'er slightly turned her body to the side, avoiding his touch.

Li Xiaoyun's hand froze in mid-air. He clenched his fist tightly, his knuckles turning white from the force, and his expression became extremely ugly.

"I know that you all resent and hate your eldest brother, don't you?"

"But... Ya'er, tell your elder brother, why is that? Why are you so dependent on that woman?"

Li Xiaoyun's heart was filled with incomprehension and confusion.

She's just a girl he's known for a little over half a month, how could she be more important than his own biological older brother?

Ya'er still had glistening tears in her eyes. She raised her head, staring stubbornly at Li Xiaoyun, and said in a soft, childish voice, word by word, "Big brother, I think... she looks like mother."

Ya'er's words were like a boulder thrown into a calm lake, leaving her two older brothers standing to the side stunned and speechless.

Ya'er could no longer hold back her grievances and longing, and tears silently streamed down her cheeks once again.

"My sister's arms are soft, and she smells wonderful. She would hold me while I slept and tell me stories."

"When she looked at me, her eyes were bright, as if stars were twinkling, and my image was clearly reflected in them."

"I can feel that she genuinely likes me..."

"I like her a lot too, especially her cooking; it's the best food I've ever eaten!"

"My sister smells just like Mother... warm and sweet..."

"Big brother, Da Niu was laughing at me yesterday, saying I'm a motherless child, a wild child, someone I picked up from the roadside... Am I really someone I picked up?"

Li Xiaoyun could no longer hold back. She quickly stepped forward and pulled Ya'er's thin, frail body into her arms. Her voice was filled with deep heartache and self-reproach as she said in a low voice, "Of course not! You were definitely not adopted! You have a mother. Ya'er, you must remember, your mother... is the gentlest and most beautiful woman in this world. You look exactly like her, so alike."

Upon hearing this, Ya'er's eyes widened in surprise.

Because this was the first time in his life that his older brother had mentioned anything about their mother in front of her.

However, no matter how much she pressed her for answers, Li Xiaoyun simply kept her mouth tightly shut and refused to say another word.

Li Erlang, who was standing to the side, had also been eager to know everything about his mother. Seeing Li Xiaoyun's silent and unyielding demeanor, the flames that had been suppressed in his heart for a long time were instantly ignited, and he suddenly lost his temper.

"Big brother, you're always like this! You bear everything on your own, never telling us anything, keeping Ya'er and me trapped in these deep mountains, year after year. So many years have passed, and we can't go anywhere. We know nothing about the outside world!"

"We've grown up now; we're no longer three-year-olds, ignorant children who know nothing!"

"You were the one who brought that woman into our lives, to take care of us and keep us company. It took us so long to get used to her presence and accept her from the bottom of our hearts. But you, because she violated your taboo, ruthlessly drove her out of our lives!"

"Brother, did you ever ask for our consent? Did you ever consider our feelings?"

"Are we willing to let a stranger suddenly enter our lives? And are we willing to accept that our sister will disappear from our lives without any warning?"

After saying all the words that had been building up in his heart for so long, Li Erlang could no longer contain his anger and stormed off.

Ya'er stared blankly at Li Erlang's departing figure, then turned to look at the silent Li Xiaoyun.

Li Xiaoyun was still in a daze, recalling the words that Li Erlang had just blurted out.

When did Li Erlang, who was always cold and aloof to strangers and kept at arm's length, unknowingly accept the existence of that woman from the bottom of his heart?

Li Xiaoyun remained silent for a long time, until she suddenly stood up, as if she had made up her mind.

His gaze fell on Ya'er's pillow, where a jade pendant lay, which had fallen out of Ya'er's clothes while she was sleeping last night.

Li Xiaoyun reached out, picked up the jade pendant, and held it tightly in his palm. He looked down at Ya'er and asked in a deep voice, "Tell your elder brother, when did you take this jade pendant from my room?"

Ya'er, her small body shrunken, was once again gripped by the chilling and oppressive aura emanating from her brother, just as she had the day before.

But she was still just a child, lacking Li Erlang's keen observation skills. Clutching her clothes, puffing out her cheeks, she innocently asked in a tearful voice, "Big brother, I want my sister to come back. Can you bring her back?"

Li Xiaoyun's voice was as cold as ice, each word striking down: "She will never come back."

As soon as she finished speaking, Ya'er's lips trembled, and the sob that had been held back for so long could no longer be contained. She burst out of her throat with a "waaaah," crying her heart out.

Li Xiaoyun seemed not to hear the heart-wrenching cries. Without pausing, she turned and walked straight to the corner to gather the game she had just brought back from the mountains, its fur still damp with dew.

As night deepened, a chill, carried by the mountain wind, seeped through the cracks in the window. In the latter half of the night, Ya'er developed a high fever; her face flushed red, and her body convulsed intermittently, clearly a sign of a seizure.

Fortunately, Li Erlang hadn't slept soundly. Hearing soft moaning coming from the inner room, he quickly put on his clothes and got up to check. He touched Ya'er's forehead and found it was alarmingly hot. He immediately panicked and scrambled to call Li Xiaoyun.

Li Xiaoyun rushed into the room, only to reach out and check Ya'er's temperature before her brows furrowed deeply. Without a word, she grabbed the cloth strip from the headboard and carefully and quickly tied Ya'er to her back.

He had just straightened up when his movement was too hasty, and he pulled out a jade pendant that was under the mattress. The pendant fell to the ground with a "thud," its lustrous luster flashing briefly in the dim light.

Li Xiaoyun glanced down and frowned even more, but saving lives was the priority right now, so he didn't care about anything else. He bent down, picked up the jade pendant, threw it on the bed, and then carried Ya'er on his back and rushed out the door.

Before leaving, he turned back and solemnly instructed Li Erlang, who was standing there with a pale face, "Erlang, watch the house and don't wander off!"

Li Xiaoyun's figure quickly disappeared into the dark night of the tree-lined path. Li Erlang stood at the empty doorway, his heart feeling like it was being tightly gripped by a hand, extremely anxious, yet he could only desperately guard the house, his whole body exuding a sense of powerless exhaustion.

Li Xiaoyun carried Ya'er on his back and ran down the mountain like the wind, soon rushing into Chenjia Village.

Night had fallen, and most of the houses in the village had turned off their lights, except for a few barks that pierced the silence. A few families were awakened by the barking, lit their oil lamps, and peered out through their paper windows.