Siheyuan came through and sent Jia Zhang to prison

Chapter 696 The Plan Succeeded

"Cai'er, be good, have a piece of rice cake." She held the rice cake to Jia Cai's lips, her voice soft and gentle, as if coaxing her own little brother. Jia Cai smelled the sweetness, sniffed with his little nose, and his toothless little mouth took a bite, munching happily with his eyes half-closed. In just a few bites, he swallowed the whole rice cake. A moment later, his eyelids began to droop, his little head tilted against Xiao Dang's chest, and he fell into a deep sleep, his breathing becoming even and long.

Xiao Dang hugged the child tightly, wrapping him completely in the dark cloak she had prepared beforehand, even covering his head, to ensure that from the outside it was impossible to tell that it was a child, only that she was holding a bundle. She glanced one last time in the direction of the main room, where Jia Dongxu was still snoring loudly, sleeping like a log, drool dripping from the corner of his mouth onto the pillow.

She dared not go through the main gate, fearing she might run into Jia Zhangshi who had suddenly returned, or the neighbors in the courtyard, so she could only go around to the dog hole at the back of the yard. That hole was dug a few years ago by Jia Dongxu, who was too lazy to climb over the wall. Later, Jia Zhangshi blocked most of it with stones, leaving only a narrow gap barely wide enough for a person to pass through, where cats and dogs usually squeezed in and out. Xiao Dang took a deep breath, cradled the child, and crawled on the ground, knees and elbows on the ground, inching her way out. The pebbles on the ground hurt her knees, and her back was cut by several shards of glass at the hole's entrance, burning with pain. But she gritted her teeth and didn't utter a sound until her entire body was out of the dog hole. Only then did she collapse in the shadows of the alley, catching her breath, her forehead covered in cold sweat.

The alley was quiet, save for the whistling sound of the wind blowing through the cracks in the walls, like someone sighing in the shadows. Xiao Dang didn't dare delay, carrying Jia Cai, she quickly walked towards the alley entrance, where a pedicab had already been arranged. The driver was mute; she gave him two yuan and told him to wait at the alley entrance without asking why.

After a bumpy journey, involving three transfers—from a pedicab in the city to a long-distance bus in the suburbs, and finally hiring a donkey cart halfway through—it took most of the day to reach the town, dozens of miles away. The agreed meeting place was an abandoned, dilapidated temple at the town entrance. The temple was covered in cobwebs, and half of the face of the statue was collapsed, giving it an eerie feel. When Xiao Dang carried the child inside, the couple was already waiting. The man wore a faded gray cloth jacket, his trousers stained with mud, and he clutched a bulging blue cloth bag, his knuckles white from gripping it so tightly; the woman kept rubbing her hands, her face full of anxiety, her eyes fixed intently on the doorway.

“I brought the child.” Xiao Dang lifted a corner of her cloak, revealing Jia Cai’s sleeping face. The little guy’s long eyelashes cast a small shadow under his eyelids. Her voice was a little tense, “Have you prepared the money?”

The woman immediately approached, a smile plastered on her face, and tried to touch the child's cheek, but Xiao Dang dodged her. "Don't rush," Xiao Dang's eyes turned cold, filled with a wariness beyond his years, "Let's make it clear first, fifty silver dollars, cash on delivery. Not a penny less, I can count it clearly."

“We need to check if the child is healthy and has any problems first.” The man tightened the cloth bag around his chest, looking at her warily, as if afraid she would try something. “We’ve been fooled a few times before. Some gave us sickly babies who died after only a few days; others were even more unscrupulous, simply using young girls with their hair cut off to impersonate the child.”

Xiao Dang didn't object, and took two steps forward with the child in her arms so they could see him more clearly. The couple watched for a while, then tentatively touched Jia Cai's face, arms, and legs. They saw that he had fair skin, a plump and firm body, and his breathing was even and long, clearly indicating that he was a healthy child. Especially when the man reached out and felt Jia Cai's crotch, the woman's eyes lit up, and she excitedly pulled the man's arm, nodding repeatedly, her mouth wide open in a grin.

“He’s a young man, and he looks strong. He’ll do.” The man finally relented and handed over the cloth bag he was carrying. “There are fifty silver dollars in here, not a penny less. Count them.”

Xiao Dang took the cloth bag; it was heavy. She weighed it in her hand, then opened it to look inside. The white silver dollars gleamed coldly in the dim light, neatly stacked, the exact number correct. She handed the child to the woman, turned, and wanted to leave, not wanting to stay a second longer.

"Wait!" the man suddenly called out to her, his voice tinged with suspicion. "This child... is he really yours? You don't look like a mother at your age."

Xiao Dang's heart tightened, as if pricked by a needle. She then gave a cold laugh, her voice hard and stern: "Whether it's mine or not is none of your business. Anyway, the child is a healthy boy, and you've already checked. The money is paid, and we're done. From now on, we're strangers. Don't come looking for each other." With that, she clutched the cloth bag tightly, the cold, hard touch seeping through the fabric as if she were holding the lives of her entire family in her hands. Without looking back, she ran out of the dilapidated temple, her steps so fast they seemed to fly.

Xiao Dang clutched the heavy cloth bag, walking step by step along the rugged dirt road. The gravel underfoot hurt the soles of her shoes, each step feeling like walking on needles, but the bag in her arms was even heavier, making her arms ache. Her heart felt like a tangled mess of waterlogged knots, swollen and constricted. This wasn't the first time she'd done this kind of "matchmaking." The previous two times, she'd helped infertile families in neighboring villages find hope, introducing them to honest families for a small fee. But this time was different—the fifty silver dollars she carried were obtained by exchanging them for her younger brother, Jia Cai, each one chillingly cold.

She looked down at the texture of the cloth bag; the rough cotton fabric had been deeply etched by the silver dollars, making her palms feel hot and numb. The image of Jia Cai sleeping soundly kept flashing before her eyes: his chubby face flushed pink, his little brows furrowed even in his sleep, and his little hand that always clung to her clothes, soft as a ball of cotton. He was the younger brother she had raised from a baby, who would giggle in her arms, wipe his drool on her sleeve, and obediently lie in his cradle watching her while she worked… But now, she had “given” him to complete strangers, and whether he lived or died, she might never know.

She couldn't quite describe the feeling in her heart; it was sour like having an unripe plum in her mouth, numb like being gnawed by ants, and there was a fierce determination to force herself to be strong. More than once, she cursed herself inwardly for being heartless, even selling her own brother. But when she thought of the hell waiting at home—that poor little boy coughing so hard he couldn't straighten up, his face turning purple—and her father's legs swollen like buns, the pain unbearable even with the cheapest herbal remedies, and her mother's constant tears, she forcefully suppressed that guilt. In the face of survival, what was conscience worth? Could it be used as medicine, or chewed as food?

Inside the courtyard, this brief period of peace had already been quietly shattered.