Huo Ye jumped out of bed with a vigour which belied the sorry state he had been in the day before. He was on a mission to raise the standard of living of his household.

Squinting from the glare of the sun as he opened the door, Huo Ye bounded out with full confidence. The audience to admire his complete recovery was conspicuously absent. His good vibes evaporated with the morning dew. For him to put his plans into action he needed Ling Su’s help.

His first move was to secure a constant supply of water. The charges required for a basic necessity were outrageous. His plan was to dig a trench behind the house to collect rainwater. He also wanted to grow a few plants to have something to live off.

Shengu had an unusually high concentration of spiritual energy. This made growing plants rather difficult as they tended to absorb spiritual energy making them unfit to be eaten by ordinary people.

Luckily, the area the Lings lived in was unable to support spiritual life. It was as though a plain had been cleared just for them, though spiritual energy permeated the forest surrounding them, surrounding it in a dense fog.

If one came up without the help of the Ling siblings, they would be lost in the miasma and eventually die from a saturation of spiritual energy, bleeding from their qiqiao.¹the seven orifices of the head; two eyes, two ears, two nostrils and one mouth Because of this, members of the Shaluyu only came up once a year to make sure the siblings were complying with their rules.

The taxes for growing plants were rather high as Shaluyu had to dispatch members to cultivate next to farms. It quite a good payoff for them. Shengu was the ideal place for cultivation and over the years the number of members had tripled.

Huo Ye put all this from his mind. The most important thing right now is to make money. The income from the medicinal plants was little as their market was very small. Gathering spiritual herbs to sell to cultivators, who were constantly fighting or their lives, was a much better option.

Spiritual herbs could only be dug up by alchemists and so were priced rather high. Practitioners could attempt to do so but would corrupt their golden core over time. If lucky, they’d only experience a drop in cultivation otherwise experience a qi deviation which could cripple or kill them. A regular person would be poisoned after repeated exposure to the herbs.

The Ling siblings seemed to be immune to any effects from handling spiritual herbs, though they couldn’t ingest them directly.

Till now, the reason Ling Su hadn’t seized this moneymaking opportunity was because Xiao Ye adamantly refused to cooperate with Shaluyu. He had no interest in ‘caving to the system’, only succeeding in making both their lives miserable.

Huo Ye was definitely not a masochist and had no intention of living a life of poverty once again. He’d surely have difficulty adjusting to a new life, but he couldn’t bear to have it be a repeat of his old one. He might be fifteen years younger but Huo Ye wasn’t about to let any childish mentality hold him back.

While he was stuck in his musings, Ling Su had returned with a basket full of herbs.

“You’re back. I need your help with something.”

Ling Su looked up at him with a bemused face.

BAM

 “Since when did you speak so casually to your elder sister? Have you not been taught to greet?”

Huo Ye cringed inside. He had thought he’d be able to smoothly take over Ling Ye’s life but had failed to consider the obvious differences in their mannerisms.

Ling Ye was an overeager thirteen year old who felt as though the world owed him something. Huo Ye was twenty-eight and finally feeling comfortable with his achievements in life. He saw no need to defer to a girl eleven years his junior. He may have absorbed most of Ling Ye’s memories but he’d still need a bit of practice to get used to being him.

“Elder sister, welcome home. You have worked hard.”

 Ling Su scoffed before asking, “What do you need my help with?”

“I know that going out each day to gather medicinal herbs is hard work. It would be much easier if we could sell some spiritual herbs as a supplement.”

Ling Su’s head whipped around as her jaw dropped open.

Did this deviant of a brother just suggest that we sell to Shaluyu? He who had been so opposed to helping our father’s murderers that he’d rather we starve.

Xiao Ye’s bright smile winking back at her brought tears to her eyes. Ling Su had always compared herself to Xiao Ye. His determination to cut themselves off from Shaluyu made her seem weak. She’d rather they live happily than suffer for a deed long finished. It was the guilt from these feelings that made her opt to listen to a child’s filial piety than consider their wellbeing.

Xiao Ye’s request was rather sudden so though she was grateful, she couldn’t help but be suspicious.

 “Why now?”, a soft whisper from a pale face.

Huo Ye frantically thought of an excuse. He had neglected to consider that his idea was out of the blue. Ling Ye had been stubborn all these years and a sudden change in demeanour was unusual.

“Elder sister, we have suffered for years in the name of our father. After having such a close brush with death, I finally realised how precious life is. We should take advantage of the opportunities we have received.”

With an awkward smile on his face, Huo Ye glanced briefly at Ling Su, desperately hoping she had been deceived.

Ling Su stumbled forward, pulling Xiao Ye into her embrace. She wailed with her face buried in his chest.

Huo Ye felt his heart clench. He had never thought that Ling Ye was such a selfish bastard. After compelling Ling Su to live in such conditions, he turned to look for a solution out of it for only himself. He claimed to have been sacrificing for his father, a father whose face he could barely remember. He claimed to love his sister, a sister whose bones were now prodding Huo Ye through her worn out clothes. He’d turned tail when he couldn’t bear it any longer.

Huo Ye sorely wished that the life Ling Ye was experiencing now would be worse. He hoped that his apartment would catch fire and that precious queen-sized bed would be nothing but ash. He was saddened by the thought that such a person would take over his life and be a son to his parents. If only he’d use Huo Ye’s life experiences to be a better person.

Huo Ye had been absentmindedly rubbing Ling Su’s back. She finally looked up, a soft smile on her face.

“When do we start?”