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Zhou Miao was a troublemaker from a young age. At just three years old, he dared to hit people with bricks and would even claim self-defense after causing trouble. This little brat knew about self-defense at such a young age, and it was no surprise that he grew up to be quite the character! His father was so furious that he took off his belt and whipped Zhou Miao, leaving bruises all over his small body. Zhou Miao's mother was so upset that she almost divorced his father, accusing him of domestic violence.
The Zhou family was matriarchal, and as the youngest child, Zhou Miao was spoiled rotten, which contributed to his fearless personality. After starting elementary school, he quickly became a local bully and embarrassed the Zhou family on numerous occasions.
Later on, when Zhou Miao's sexual orientation was revealed, he faced even more beatings from his father. His father had always been tough, but he never expected that this rebellious son would bring him such shame. Despite the pressure, Zhou Miao refused to back down. After one particularly severe beating, he ended up in the hospital for a whole month. During that time, he had a crush on a boy who looked androgynous; from afar, he resembled Jia Baoyu and remained charming up close. They were inseparable at that time and nearly ran away together with their little backpacks.
Unfortunately, ideals are often grand while reality is harsh. After Zhou Miao was hospitalized due to his father's beating, the boy visited him once but never returned again. Zhou Miao later learned that the boy couldn't handle it and had taken his father's money to go abroad. This experience left Zhou Miao deeply affected and subdued for a long time; it was as if he suddenly gained clarity about how fragile relationships between men could be.
Years later, he discovered the relationship between Li Yan and Li Ming, which filled him with envy and resentment towards Li Yan—not because he was with his brother but because Li Yan had a partner who would never betray him.
After a few years, Zhou Miao was sent to a military camp by his father. There were also some boys in the camp who couldn't resist forming relationships with each other. Zhou Miao tried it out but found it uninteresting after a few attempts. He considered himself somewhat refined; without genuine feelings involved, it felt as bland as eating plain rice—filling but tasteless.
Perhaps his father still cared for him; just when he was about to drown, Yu Tian saved him. Looking at Yu Tian's pale face—despite being on the verge of death himself—he insisted on pulling Zhou Miao up first. Zhou Miao felt faint but secretly delighted; what a foolishly good person Yu Tian was—almost like a second Li Xiaoming! Zhou Miao's mind was filled with plans for nurturing this new connection.
He stayed in Yu Tian's temporary tent for three days, spending his time watching Yu Tian closely. After all, he wanted to keep an eye on what belonged to him. However, the more he looked, the more appealing Yu Tian became; something inside him began to grow—like wildfires that could not be extinguished.
It wasn't until a week later that Yu Tian received news of his family's tragic accident. On the day he went to identify their bodies, he held up under the weight of everything that followed with his frail body. Standing in the wind that day, soaked through and shivering with purple lips from the cold, Yu Tian stood by his family's gravesite with tears mingling with rainwater—it was heart-wrenching! Zhou Miao realized then that he had truly fallen for Yu Tian.
The next morning, Li Ming woke up early; he was the only one in the family who seemed lively enough to get out of bed. He took Wonton and Dumpling out to stand at the front door while villagers passed by and greeted him.
The villagers found it amusing to see the child walking their two fierce dogs; initially, they were too scared to approach them. However, over time their wariness faded as Li Ming's childlike demeanor made them feel comfortable enough to tease him occasionally. Sometimes when villagers passed by and saw Li Ming, they would offer him corn cobs or boiled sweet potatoes.
Li Yan's three acres of land were not entirely planted with rice; two acres were rice while one acre was corn. Most families in the village did the same thing; last summer there had been a near drought, and this year weather patterns were already abnormal—everyone became cautious.
After sowing seeds came fertilization; of course, they didn't use human waste but rather chemical substances like fertilizers and urea pellets. Now they were somewhat experienced farmers as villagers helped explain things to them; after several attempts, they grasped the general process.
By the time everything was settled, it was already May—the weather gradually warmed up. By mid-May, temperatures reached around 15-16 degrees Celsius; thus greenhouses could no longer be used since seedlings would suffocate inside them. Fortunately for the Li family, dismantling greenhouses wasn't too difficult either.
The weather changes every day, almost like a leap of three levels; in just three or four days, it has reached 28 degrees. The large landowners in the village, seeing that time was running out, sought help from Li Yan and the others. Li Yan readily agreed, as this was a good opportunity to integrate into the village; after all, they were outsiders and could not miss such a chance.
Li Xiaoming also wanted to help, but Yu Tian found it amusing to see the child looking like he was heading into battle. It’s true that while they worked in the fields every day, their child also bounced around in the fields daily. After a few days of hard work, the child had also been quite busy.
Many villagers helped the large landowner dismantle greenhouses for two whole days. They were not asked to work for free; the landowner slaughtered a pig at home. With pig liver, lungs, intestines, trotters, and tail, they prepared a full pig feast that left everyone in the village with greasy mouths.
This winter, every household lacked oil and fat, so the feast was a joyous occasion. However, Li Yan and the others did not face food shortages due to their space. Naturally, they had little interest in the greasy pig feast; even their least picky child couldn't eat it. After dinner, Li Yan returned home and made some noodles, adding a few tomatoes and eggs from the space along with a small vegetable. The four of them shared a pot of noodles and were quite hungry.
Days passed like this, and the four of them had fully adapted to rural life. They rose with the sun and slept at sunset; leisure activities in the countryside weren't abundant. By seven or eight in the evening, there were hardly any people around. Everyone was tired from the day’s work; at night they either watched TV or went to bed early.
The college students had all gone to school, and their parents worriedly sent some rice with them. The children felt embarrassed and stubbornly refused to take it; in the end, their parents had no choice but to give them extra money instead. When leaving, they asked Zhou Miao to drive them since it was still somewhat far from their village to town. Parents would rather suffer themselves than let their children feel wronged; Li Yan looked at her adorable child and understood how those parents felt.
Recently, Li Yan's space had expanded again; she guessed it might be because those fruit trees had matured and many chicks and ducklings had hatched in her space. The prices of fruits outside were outrageously high; Li Yan took apples, duck pears, bananas, and other fruits from her space every day. The variety of fruits changed daily. Perhaps the fruits from her space had some spiritual energy; eating them made their complexions much better than others'. Everyone thought this might be due to city dwellers' influence and didn’t think much more about it.
Meanwhile, Zhang Liang, who had always caused trouble for the Li family, suddenly started doing serious business lately—busy buying empty houses every day.
What is an empty house? It refers to houses left vacant because families have moved to the city. It was unclear whether he had genuinely matured; now he knew how to spend money on buying houses instead of resorting to theft.
What puzzled everyone most was that everyone in the village knew his financial situation; how could he afford such a large sum for a house? Many speculated that Zhang Liang must have struck it rich somehow or that some wealthy person wanted to buy a house. As this rumor spread, it began to seem more credible; people said rural housing prices would rise soon. Those with multiple houses at home were particularly delighted and wondered when they could ask Zhang Liang about it.
Li Yan and Zhou Miao discussed this as well but concluded that such significant movements indicated that news of an "apocalyptic crisis" was becoming increasingly difficult to hide.
As the weather grew hotter, Li Yan and Zhou Miao went to town to buy two air conditioners. Upon arrival, they discovered that air conditioners were sold out; fortunately for them, new stock had just arrived last night. With temperatures reaching over thirty degrees and many people returning from working outside for years deciding to stay now meant they needed to buy home appliances too.
Zhang Liang looked enviously at the Li family’s house; it was the best house within a hundred miles. Currently, Azure Brick was so valuable that one couldn't even buy it if they wanted to; if Li Yan's family decided to sell their house, it would take at least five or six hundred thousand dollars to acquire it. The more Zhang Liang looked at it, the more frustrated he felt; if only he acted faster, perhaps this house could have been his—forget about laws! After all, Boss had said that laws are just green lights for wealthy people.
"What are you doing?" Li Ming came out wearing a short sports outfit printed with small gray patterns and immediately spotted Zhang Liang dressed in a new black suit. He looked at Zhang Liang with sympathy; surely he must be ill—who else would wear long pants and long sleeves on such a hot day?
Zhang Liang's eyes lit up upon seeing Li Ming; he realized this was Li Yan's family member. "Is your family at home? I need to talk to them."
"Clearly, I'm an adult." The child, just beginning to understand the world, hated being treated like a kid.
"......" Idiot, Zhang Liang thought disdainfully, but he still wore a smile on his face. "Yes, yes, you are an adult. Adults can make decisions!" After rolling his eyes a few times and contemplating, he felt this was truly a golden opportunity.
"Zhang Ming, how about I give you some candy?"
"No way! My brother said I can't take anything from strange uncles." Li Ming looked at Zhang Liang and increasingly felt he resembled those creepy uncles on TV who abduct children. He wore odd clothes and had an annoying smile, instinctively taking a step back.
Zhang Liang seized the chance to enter the Li Family's yard and closed the door behind him. "Zhang Ming, is anyone else at home?" As he spoke, his beady eyes began to scan the surroundings. "Where does your brother keep the valuable things? You're an adult now; you should know, right? If you don't know, then you're not really an adult."
"Bad person!" Li Ming watched as Zhang Liang kept getting closer and instinctively wanted to turn and run back inside. Children often see things more clearly; with Zhang Liang's fake smile, he looked just like Wolf Daddy. "You know perfectly well!"
"Then where is it?" Zhang Liang's greed drove him, causing his smile to fade little by little into something more avaricious and sinister.
"Roar~~~." Just as Zhang Liang was about to take another step forward, suddenly a Tibetan Mastiff lunged out from inside the house, knocking him to the ground and biting down on his arm. Following closely behind, another one pounced on him, sinking its teeth into Zhang Liang's leg. Zhang Liang yelped in pain, struggling wildly; damn it, how could he have forgotten about these two dogs?
Yu Tian rushed out of the house with a pale face and hugged Li Ming tightly. "Don't be afraid." He wasn't sure if he was comforting Li Ming or himself; just moments ago he had been bathing Wonton and Dumpling when he came out to this scene.
As soon as Li Yan and Zhou Miao entered the house, they were hit by a strong smell of blood. They stepped inside to find Zhang Liang covered in blood, desperately trying to escape from the jaws of the Tibetan Mastiffs. The two quickly moved in and grabbed their own child, comforting him before calling off Wonton and Dumpling.
Zhou Miao's sharp eyes noticed a sharp spring knife lying next to Zhang Liang; the blade was already extended and glinting coldly.
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