RFGCF 03

Chapter – 03

What’s a Catamite? Can You Eat It?

Ye Xiaohua was simple-minded and had never been well-treated in the Ye family—everyone in the village was used to that. But a slap or a kick was one thing; the wound on her head right now was serious. If things went badly, it could very well cost her her life.

Ye Xiaohua grinned cheerfully as she showed off her injury to the crowd, enjoying the sight of Old Mrs. Ye floundering helplessly. As for Old Mrs. Ye’s attempts to explain herself—well, just look at the expressions on the onlookers’ faces. No one believed her.

After all, a fool didn’t have the cunning to lie. Whatever came out of her mouth was the truth.

Xiaodouzi was completely on Ye Xiaohua’s side. Though terrified, he still mustered the courage to speak up. “Grandma and Cousin really did hit her! Cousin even said he was going to skin her alive! I’m not going, and I won’t let Jiejie go either—if we go, we’ll be beaten to death!”

“Ingrate!” Old Mrs. Ye shot back with a glare. But knowing this wasn’t the time to throw her weight around, she forced herself to save face. “You child, you only talk about me hitting your sister—why don’t you mention *why* I hit her? It’s because she wouldn’t behave and caused trouble! Didn’t you see how badly she bit your cousin?”

As she spoke, Old Mrs. Ye gestured to the people around her. “Right here—she bit him down to the bone! A little more force and she’d have taken a chunk of flesh right out! If you don’t believe me, go take a look for yourselves! Thank goodness she bit family, and we’re not holding it against her. If she’d bitten someone else’s child, that would’ve been a disaster! Kids need discipline to learn their lesson.”

Old Mrs. Ye was practically patting herself on the back for her silver tongue. She could turn black into white. Beating the girl was for her own good—to keep her from causing trouble out there.

“Alright, as long as you behave from now on and stop biting people, Grandma promises not to hit you anymore.”

Ye Xiaohua sneered inwardly. If she went along with the old woman now, she’d be beaten black and blue before noon. And if anyone came asking questions, the old hag would just say she’d been disobedient.

She couldn’t let that happen. Ye Xiaohua concealed the slyness in her eyes and put on her best simple-minded act. “Okay, okay! Grandma won’t hit me anymore, and she won’t sell Douzi either.”

*Sell Xiaodouzi?*

*What’s this about?*

The crowd turned their gazes back to Old Mrs. Ye. The old woman had just settled her nerves, and now they were on edge again. If this kept going back and forth, she wouldn’t be able to take much more.

Damn girl—even though she was as stupid as they came, the words coming out of her mouth were harder to deal with than those of a clever person!

The buyer had already been arranged. Xiaodouzi was supposed to be handed over in just a few days. Old Mrs. Ye knew this couldn’t be kept hidden forever—it was bound to come out eventually. Since it was out in the open now, she might as well come clean. Better to clear the air than leave people with something to gossip about. After all, she still had to live in this village, and being pointed at and whispered about was the last thing she wanted.

Old Mrs. Ye let out two dry, awkward laughs, then furrowed her brow and put on a show of indignation. “You silly child, you’re truly simple-minded. Didn’t I tell you already? It’s not selling—it’s *giving him away*. There’s a wealthy family where the master and mistress can’t have children of their own. They want Xiaodouzi as their son—they’ll feed him well and treat him like a prince.

I may be reluctant, but their household is far better off than ours. Xiaodouzi would be going to enjoy a good life.”

Old Mrs. Ye wiped at her eyes and began to sob. “I really can’t bear to part with him! Our land doesn’t produce much grain—we barely have any money year-round. There are too many mouths to feed—we truly can’t afford to keep him. And with that silly girl in this state, she’ll probably have to live off the family for the rest of her life.”

Now she was making *her* out to be the villain? Ye Xiaohua wasn’t about to take that blame. This time, she wasn’t giving Old Mrs. Ye any chance to catch her breath.

Among the crowd stood a scholar—the one who wrote everyone’s Spring Festival couplets year after year. Being literate, he naturally understood more than the average villager. Ye Xiaohua lifted her face and asked with innocent curiosity, “Seventh Uncle, what’s a ‘catamite’? Can you eat it?”

The moment Guan Qiu heard those two words, his brow furrowed deeply. He sensed something terribly wrong. This wasn’t something a child should ever have heard of.

When Xiaohua’s father was alive, he’d once saved Guan Qiu’s life. Hearing that Xiaohua’s mother had run off, he’d come over out of concern for the children. But since Old Mrs. Ye was their biological grandmother, he hadn’t felt it was his place to interfere, so he’d just stood by and listened.

But the more he heard, the more wrong it felt. He grabbed Ye Xiaohua’s arm and asked urgently, “Who told you those words?”

“What’s wrong, Old Seventh? What did Xiaohua say? I don’t understand a word of it.”

Guan Qiu was a scholar. Just thinking about the sordid implications behind those two words made his face burn with shame. But he knew that if even the adults in the village didn’t recognize the term, there was no way a simple girl like Xiaohua could have pulled it out of thin air.

There had to be some filthy business going on behind the scenes.

Ye Xiaohua knew her memory hadn’t failed her. In the past, whenever the original owner had been beaten or scolded, it was always Uncle Guan Qiu who spoke up for her and Li. He’d even sneak her food from time to time. If it weren’t for him, the original owner would have died long ago.

Guan Qiu looked at Old Mrs. Ye with disappointment, then crouched down. “Xiaohua, don’t be afraid. Tell Seventh Uncle—who did you hear those words from?”

Ye Xiaohua swayed her head from side to side, wearing a goofy smile. Under the impatient urging of the crowd, she finally spoke up. “Granny Wang told my grandma. She said Xiaodouzi was going to be someone’s catamite. Seventh Uncle, Grandma said Douzi was going to enjoy a good life—I want to be a catamite too!”

“What catamite? I don’t know anything about that! You’re a fool—what do you know?! Seventh Uncle, don’t listen to her nonsense. There’s no such thing!”

If Old Mrs. Ye had truly cared for the two children, Guan Qiu wouldn’t have said anything. After all, they were bound by blood. But this was going too far.

“Auntie, Xiaodouzi is your own flesh and blood—how could you do this to him?! A catamite is… is a plaything… for wealthy men…”

The crowd was utterly stunned, their eyes wide with shock as they all turned to stare at Old Mrs. Ye.

At this point, Old Mrs. Ye couldn’t talk her way out of it even if she had a hundred mouths. In the end, she could only resort to playing dumb. “I… I really didn’t know! Granny Wang told me he’d be adopted as a son—I thought it was a good thing! You see… I… I was tricked too! Just wait—I’m going to find that old hag Granny Wang and settle the score! That rotten-hearted old thing—she’s trying to set me up!”

Afraid that she’d be drowned in a flood of spit if she stayed a moment longer, Old Mrs. Ye seized a gap in the crowd and scurried away.

Ye Xiaohua looked at the man crouched before her, meeting his gaze. She knew he’d understood her intent. But he was too kind-hearted—he’d still tried to save Old Mrs. Ye some face.

Kindness was a good thing. But being kind to someone like Old Mrs. Ye? That was another matter entirely.

Guan Qiu ignored the murmuring crowd and said flatly, “Alright, everyone disperse. There’s nothing more to see here.”

The crowd reluctantly drifted away, though even with her excuse of not knowing, Old Mrs. Ye wasn’t going to escape being the talk of the town.

Guan Qiu studied Ye Xiaohua for a moment, then affectionately patted her head, carefully avoiding her wound. “Well, well—Xiaohua’s gotten clever.”

Ye Xiaohua’s heart tightened. She wondered if he’d seen through her act. But even if he had, she wasn’t afraid—she’d already prepared an excuse. Besides, she couldn’t stay a fool forever.