Two Brothers

It was not until the sky had gone completely dark, until no villagers could be seen moving about anywhere in sight, that Chu Mu seemed to come back to himself. As if relieved of a heavy burden, he slumped against the tree trunk.

Through the dense canopy of branches and leaves, the starry night sky came into view, and memories so distant they had become somewhat blurred could not help but rise in his heart.

If he remembered correctly, this village was called Double Stone Village.

Its name came from the two enormous boulders outside the village. As for the specifics, they were difficult to verify. His memories of this village were not many; it could even be said that they were quite vague.

In his memories, both of his parents had been from Double Stone Village. They had grown up together as childhood sweethearts.

When the two of them went south to work after coming of age, they officially became a couple. By the time they returned to the village for the New Year and got married, his mother was already pregnant with him.

His father declined the plan to head south again after the New Year. Instead, he stayed home to farm, preparing to lease the hill behind the village and carve out a career for himself.

Everything should have been perfectly ordinary. Even if there had been setbacks, they should only have been setbacks in business—nothing more than a matter of wealth.

But reality...

Heaven did not grant their wishes.

When he was two years old, his father's business began to show promise and earned a rather substantial profit.

Near the end of the year, his father took him to the county town to purchase New Year goods. On their return, they encountered a reality cruel beyond