Reborn a day later, I emptied my enemy's possessions beforehand.

Zhou Haibing turned around and looked at his father standing at the door. His face was expressionless, and his gaze was indifferent, as if he were looking at someone who had nothing to do with him.

"Sever ties if you will."

Zhou Fuxiang's face looked as if he had been slapped hard, and he froze on the spot.

Zhou Hailong rushed out of the house, grabbed Zhou Haibing's arm, and shouted urgently:

"Big brother, are you crazy! You actually want to sever ties with Dad? Have you lost your mind! Dad raised you all these years, is this how you repay him?"

Zhou Haiqing also ran out of the house. She stood behind Zhou Hailong, twisting the hem of her clothes with both hands.

Her face showed a mixture of surprise and fear; her lips trembled several times, and her voice was soft, timid, and hesitant.

"Big brother... don't be impulsive... talk to Dad properly, he'll listen to you..."

Looking at his younger sister's thin, worried face, Zhou Haibing's coldness softened somewhat.

He walked over, squatted down so that his gaze was level with his sister's, and softened his voice, as if coaxing a frightened kitten:

"Haiqing, your brother isn't acting impulsively; he's very calm right now."

He looked into his sister's eyes, paused for a moment, and then asked a question that silenced everyone around him:

"Haiqing, if your older brother leaves this family, would you be willing to go with him?"

Zhou Haiqing was stunned.

Her mouth was slightly open, and her eyes were wide open, as if she hadn't understood what he meant.

She glanced at her elder brother, then turned to look at her father standing at the door—his face was ashen, his lips were tightly pressed together, and the flesh on his cheeks bulged out.

She then turned to look at her second brother beside her—Zhou Hailong, who was frowning.

Her hands clenched even tighter, the hem of her clothes crumpled into a ball, her nails digging into her palms until they turned slightly white.

Her mind was a jumbled mess, like a ball of hemp thread spinning around in her head.

She had never thought about this question.

She never imagined she could leave this home.

From childhood to adulthood, she was like an appendage in this family; whatever her father said, she did; whatever he told her to do, she did.

She was never asked "Are you willing?", and was never given the right to choose.

She always thought this was how her life would be, a burden in this family, doing the heaviest work, eating the least, and enduring the most scolding.

When she grew up, her father would randomly choose someone to marry her off to in exchange for a dowry, and she would go from living in one stranger's home to living in another stranger's home.

But with her older brother gone, her life will only get harder than before.

Her lips moved slightly, her voice barely audible, like a whisper squeezed from her throat: "Big brother...where are you going?"

Zhou Haibing squatted down so that his line of sight was level with his sister's.

His voice was soft yet firm, as if he had already thought it through many times in his mind:

"No matter where you go, your older brother will take you with him. Your older brother will take care of you for the rest of his life and will never let you suffer in the slightest."

"If you stay in this family, you'll only suffer. Do you believe your older brother?"

Zhou Haiqing looked into his eyes.

She saw something different in those eyes than before—a certainty and determination that she couldn't quite describe, like someone who had traveled a long way and then returned.

She remembered the bowl of stir-fried potatoes and pork she had just eaten, the hurt she felt when her father knocked the meat out of her bowl with his chopsticks, and the mixture of surprise and joy she felt when her older brother poured all the meat into her bowl.

She pursed her lips slightly, then pressed them together tightly.

She thought about it for a long time.

It wasn't actually that long. To others, it might have been just a minute or two of silence, but to her, those minutes felt like an eternity.

Her two hands were tangled together, and her fingernails dug several white marks into the web between her thumb and forefinger.

Then she let go of his hand, looked up at her older brother, and spoke in a soft voice, but much more steadily than before.

Like a fledgling bird that has just learned to stand on a branch, its wings are still trembling, but it has already dared to take its first step forward:

"Wherever my brother goes, I will go."

Zhou Haibing's eyes lit up.

That light was not superficial or fleeting; it rose from the depths of the eyes, like the light emitted from an oil lamp that had been relit.

He looked at his sister's thin face, her sallow skin, and her sunken eye sockets.

Looking at her missing front tooth and those eyes, which were filled with tears but shone brighter than ever before,

The determination he had repeatedly confirmed in his heart was finally settled at this moment.

He reached out and grasped his sister's hand, which was still twisting the hem of her clothes.

"Alright, I'll take you away. From now on, neither of us siblings will have to worry about the other's feelings."

Zhou Haibing did not let go of his sister's hand.

He held her thin, small hand with prominent knuckles, and could feel the warmth and slight dampness of her palm—she was probably sweating from nervousness.

He glanced at her sideways; her face was tense, her lips pressed into a line, and her eyes were fixed straight ahead, as if afraid that something terrible might happen if she blinked.

"Let's go," Zhou Haibing turned around and said to his father, who was standing at the door, "Let's go find the village chief now and have him be a witness."

Zhou Fuxiang stood on the threshold, one hand holding onto the door frame, the other hand still trembling slightly.

His face changed from a furious expression to a mixture of red and white, and his lips moved several times as if he wanted to say something but didn't know what to say.

He shouted the words about severing ties with Li Su'e himself, to scare Zhou Haibing and prevent her from going to Li Su'e.

He had been planning this his whole life. Every time he threatened to sever ties with his eldest son, hang himself, or disown him, his eldest son would always back down.

But this time the eldest son did not back down.

Not only did he not bow his head, but he also climbed up the pole, saying that he would go to the village chief to be a witness right now.

Zhou Fuxiang stood on the threshold, caught in a dilemma.

He couldn't take back his words about severing ties with his father; it was too shameful for him. After all, he was the father, and how could he take back what he had said?

But he couldn't actually go to the village chief. If the village chief were to bear witness, his relationship with his eldest son would be completely severed, and half of his family would collapse.

His eyes darted around in their sockets twice before finally settling on Zhou Hailong.

He frantically winked at his second son, his eyebrows, eyes, nose, and mouth all moving, as if he were giving some kind of secret signal with his whole face.

Standing in the courtyard, Zhou Hailong was stunned for a moment after receiving his father's series of winks and gestures, but he quickly realized what was going on.

He took a step forward, standing between Zhou Haibing and Zhou Fuxiang, and rubbed his hands together in front of him.

He forced a smile that looked more like a grimace, and his voice trailed off as if he were trying to hold up something that was about to fall.

"Brother... stop talking nonsense. What do you mean by breaking off ties or not? We're all family. If you break off ties over a few arguments, the whole village will laugh their heads off."

"Dad was just saying that in anger, don't take it seriously."