Chapter 4: Old Witch
After lunch, Xu An coaxed the two little ones to take a nap, finally getting a moment of free time.
He moved a rocking chair under the longan tree in the courtyard. The tree was already bearing lots of small fruit, which would be ready to eat in another two months.
The gentle, cool breeze made Xu An drowsy. Just as he was about to fall asleep, the courtyard gate was thrown open with a BAM.
A stocky boy with a buzz cut, wearing a floral shirt and large shorts printed with palm trees, walked in, shouting at the top of his lungs, "Xu An! Xu An!"
Startled awake by the commotion, Xu An saw that it was his childhood friend, Xu Heping. He cursed under his breath, "It’s the middle of the day. Why aren’t you napping? What are you yelling about?"
"I just got back from my grandma’s and heard you got into an accident. You scared me to death." Xu Heping pulled over a stool and sat down next to Xu An. "What happened?"
In his past life, Xu Heping had asked the same question. He’d forgotten how he answered back then, but it ended with Xu Heping showing up from time to time with two fish, claiming it was his contribution for meals.
Xu An lowered his voice again, afraid Granny Xu might hear. "I just went down to the river to catch some fish. Didn’t expect the water to be so cold that my leg cramped up. It’s nothing serious."
"Hey, if you wanted fish, you should’ve just told me! I could’ve just gone to the pond and netted a couple for you."
"The fish in your family’s pond are raised for business. The fish in the river are wild. It’s not the same."
"It’s not like you’re eating it every meal. What’s wrong with a couple of fish every now and then? If I don’t have a problem with it, why should you?"
Xu An was left speechless by Xu Heping’s words, because that was exactly what he had done in his previous life.
"Better not. I don’t want your parents to get annoyed with me every time they see me."
"Annoyed? What’s there to be annoyed about? They’re always going on about how good your grades are, how you’re a hard worker and take care of your family. They praise you to the high heavens. They wish we could switch places and you were their son."
Xu An just smiled and didn’t respond. He pushed off the ground with his right foot, setting the rocking chair into a CREAK... CREAK... motion. ’It’s a good thing Heping is so easy-going. Anyone else would have gotten a rebellious streak and started to hate me by now.’
Xu Heping looked at Xu An, then suddenly leaned in close to his ear and whispered, "I heard something at my grandma’s place. It’s about your aunt."
’My aunt, Xu Juan?’ Xu An immediately perked up and turned his head to look at Xu Heping, waiting for him to continue.
Xu Heping cleared his throat pretentiously. Just as Xu An was getting impatient and considering whether or not to put him in a chokehold, Xu Heping finally spoke in a mysterious tone.
"There’s a Witch in my grandma’s village. A lot of people who can’t have children or who want a son go to her. A few days ago, I saw your aunt go to the Witch’s house with a few people I didn’t recognize.
I heard that Witch say your aunt is fated to be childless. If she wants a child of her own, she has to adopt one first to break that fate. As long as she treats the adopted child well, she’ll be able to have her own."
It all clicked for Xu An.
’She didn’t show up when Granny Xu got hurt, and she didn’t show up when she came home to recover. It’s been almost a week, and only now is she showing up, saying she wants to visit Granny. It looks like she believed that Witch and has her eyes on Xu Kang and Xu Le.’
Xu Heping was still gossiping enthusiastically. "Your aunt is really picky. There were a few orphans in my grandma’s village. She took one look and decided they weren’t suitable, but she didn’t stop there. She even started finding fault with them.
One spoke a little slowly, and she thought he was a stutterer, afraid her future child would stutter too. Another had a few moles on their face, so she called them pockmarked. Then there was one who was malnourished, with a large head and a small body, and she said they had a contagious disease.
The person who introduced them got so mad they kicked her out, saying she deserved to be childless. Your aunt started arguing with them right on the spot. If people hadn’t held her back, it looked like a fight was about to break out."
’She wasn’t just finding fault. She was already scheming how to take Xu Kang and Xu Le.’
’Although Xu Kang and Xu Le are also a bit malnourished, their faces are just a little sallow. They’re healthy and quite good-looking.’
’When she compared the other kids to Xu Kang and Xu Le, of course she’d find fault with everything.’
He didn’t know if it was a coincidence, but in his past life, just two months after his aunt took Xu Kang and Xu Le, she found out she was pregnant. After getting pregnant, she immediately had someone send Xu Kang and Xu Le back to the Xu Family.
The moment Xu Kang and Xu Le stepped through the door, his aunt took a fall and nearly lost the baby.
After that, she completely believed the Witch’s words. To ensure a smooth birth, she took the two back again and even registered them under her household. This time, there were no problems all the way until her child was born.
Coincidence or not, there was no way Xu An would let his aunt take his brother and sister in this life.
’As for whether my aunt can have her own child? None of my damn business.’
Xu An pushed off with his right foot again, and the rocking chair started to CREAK... CREAK... once more.
He hadn’t rocked more than a couple of times before Xu Heping held the chair still. He looked at Xu An in astonishment. "Something’s not right with you. Usually, when your aunt comes up, you’d curse her out a few times. Why are you so quiet today?"
"You’ve got a lot of energy, don’t you? This courtyard is full of junk that needs to be cleared out. Perfect timing for you to lend a hand."
As he spoke, Xu An went to the kitchen, took out two pairs of sleeve protectors, and tossed a green pair with big red flowers to Xu Heping.
"You really don’t hold back, do you?" Xu Heping caught the sleeves, a look of disgust on his face. "Your taste is so tacky. Bright red with bright green."
"A perfect match for that floral shirt and your palm tree shorts."
The Xu Family’s house wasn’t that big, but the courtyard was large, nearly sixty square meters. However, the yard was piled high with all sorts of junk, mostly various kinds of firewood.
Most of this firewood was scavenged by Xu An on his way home from school. Once he got home, he had to cook, take care of his younger siblings, and study, so he never had time to deal with it. It ended up in random piles scattered across the yard.
They cleared an empty space, placed two tree stumps at the bottom, and laid long branches across them in the opposite direction. The base of the woodpile was now ready.
They chopped the remaining firewood into uniform lengths and stacked it layer by layer. Then, they found a few urea sacks and stuffed the scattered dry leaves into them, placing the bags against the wall.
Of the remaining miscellaneous junk, they threw out what was useless and bagged up what could be sold, waiting for the scrap collector to come by.
After all that cleaning, the courtyard instantly looked much tidier.
’If I have time, I’ll pave this dirt ground with bricks and pebbles and plant some flowers and grass. It’ll be the kind of rustic courtyard that city dwellers dream of in the future.’
Xu Heping took over Xu An’s rocking chair, lying back and kicking his feet against the ground. "Anzi, how’d you get so strong all of a sudden? All that CLANGING and banging around while cleaning and you’re not even out of breath."
Now that he mentioned it, Xu An realized something was off. Normally, he struggled to carry even one of his siblings, but this morning, he had actually picked them both up at once, one in each arm. On top of that, he’d been active around the yard all day.
"Maybe I’ve just been doing more physical labor recently, so my strength has gone up a bit."
Xu An guessed it was a bonus from his rebirth, but he couldn’t tell Xu Heping that, so he just fudged his way through the question.
"WAAAH! Brother, I want my brother!"
Suddenly, the cries of Xu Kang and Xu Le erupted from the room on the right. Xu An shot into the room like a bullet from a gun. When they saw him, their crying weakened into breathless sobs, and they stretched out their arms, asking to be held.
Maybe from the heat, or maybe from crying, their faces were flushed red. Their sparse, yellowish hair was plastered wetly to their faces, and they looked utterly miserable.
Xu An gathered them into his arms, gently patting their backs and coaxing them in a low voice. "Brother’s here, brother’s here. Did you have a nightmare?"
They both nodded and, talking over each other, began to tell Xu An about their dream.
"We dreamed that brother didn’t want us anymore. We were taken away by a very scary Old Witch. She didn’t give us food and made us do lots and lots of chores. When we said we wanted our brother, she hit us. It was so scary."
"It’s okay, brother’s here. If that Old Witch dares to come, brother will chase her away. Brother will never leave you."
Xu Heping followed Xu An into the room. Seeing that the children were fine, he went back to the courtyard, resumed his CREAK... CREAK... rocking on the chair, and muttered with no small amount of envy, "These three siblings are so close. Not like that little brat at my house. All he does is try to get me in trouble."