Favoring the concubine and killing the wife? She divorced the concubine and lived with her concubine

Although it was spring, the night dew was heavy, and the forest was damp and chilly. Deep in the woods, in a small, shabby hut, Xia Wen huddled beside Fang Feiyan, shivering with cold. This must have been a hunter's resting place, but for some reason it had become deserted. Inside, there was only a little damp firewood.

Fan Zhixing tried to make a fire to keep warm, but he was in a hurry to go out and didn't bring any fire starter. He heard someone say to make fire by rubbing two sticks together, but he tried for a long time without success.

Frustrated and cold, he was in a very low mood. Looking at Xia Wen shivering in the corner, he felt sorry for them.

"Aunt Fang, I was impulsive..."

In a fit of rage, Fan Zhixing killed Mother Wang. Only after calming down did he realize he had been impulsive. Xia Wen was, after all, the son of the Xiao family's second master. How could he be sold to another family as a servant? He hung his head, stirring the firewood until it crackled, unable to shake the pain in his heart.

Fang Feiyan patted Xiao Wen and let him rest for a while. She squatted next to Fan Zhixing and held the frail 15-year-old boy in her arms. She had raised this child for three years and had long regarded him as her own son. She had heard Fan Zhixing talk about his experience, so she felt sorry for him from the bottom of her heart.

"You're just worried about Wen'er..." Fang Feiyan patted his shoulder and pulled Fan Zhixing to the corner. She hugged Xiao Wen and Fan Zhixing at the same time.

"If the soldiers come after us, just leave. I'll explain everything myself." Fan Zhixing looked up at the person who was sending waves of warmth to him, his eyes full of dependence. His mother died early, and Fang Feiyan was like a mother to him. This woman was very gentle to him. What Xiao Wen ate, he also ate, and what Xiao Wen wore, he also had. Even Fan Zhixing knew that these things were not easy for them to obtain.

"No!" Xiao Wen's hand reached over his mother and grabbed Fan Zhixing's wrist, "Let's go together!"

Fan Zhixing was Xiao Wen's only friend. He was ostracized and laughed at when he went to school, and everyone would slap him in the face. So since Fan Zhixing came to his house, he finally had a playmate to talk to.

"Zhixing, don't overthink it. You're half my son, and I won't just hand you over like that." Fang Feiyan placed her hands over theirs. "Besides, even if this hadn't happened, I would still take you away."

"Aunt Fang..." Fan Zhixing's eyes were full of guilt, but he also knew that the Xiao family would not let Xiao Wen go back, nor would they give them a good life.

"Wen'er is Mr. Xiao's only son, but we haven't been able to bring him back in all these years. As Wen'er grows older, Mrs. Xiao Li will keep a closer eye on him. We're just concubines and their daughters in this South City. If Wen'er wants to take the imperial examinations or start a business, it'll be difficult." Fang Feiyan stared at the shadows of the trees outside the broken window. The darkness only deepened, with no light at all. "But it's different in Beidu. I can just say I came back because my husband died, and no one will ask any questions. The people there are simple and honest, and Wen'er's uncle is still there, so he won't ignore us."

Fang Feiyan opened the package behind her, revealing several silver ingots and several large-denomination banknotes. Fan Zhixing had never seen so much money before, and Xiao Wen had no idea when his mother had saved up so much.

"Mother...was all this silver given by father?" Xiao Wen asked in surprise.

Fang Feiyan nodded. "Although your father has little influence in the Xiao family, he actually treats us well. He never owes us money. It's just that Mrs. Xiao Li is too strict, and the mothers are too strict in checking, so I only hid this much. But it's still a lot, enough for us to do business and live a good life in Beidu."

Fan Zhixing looked at the silver and heard her say "you treat us well", and he always felt suffocated.

"Does giving money mean you're not being stingy? If you really cared, why would you let those people beat and scold you like this?"

"There's nothing I can do. With the old lady guarding him, my father can't say a word." Xiao Wen's feelings for Xiao Cheng are innate, because his father often accompanied him when he was a child, so he can never forget this family affection.

Fang Feiyan smiled bitterly and said nothing more.

At dawn the next day, the three of them continued their journey. Afraid of the Xiao family reporting their murder to the authorities, they only dared to take the side roads, not the official roads. The side roads were longer, but fortunately, they would occasionally come across a village, where they could stay for the night and buy some food to get by.

As they saw the North Ferry approaching, the mood of the three of them became better and better. Fang Feiyan's eyes finally lit up. She looked longingly at the place in the north where she had lived as a child, and excitedly told Xiao Wen and Fan Zhixing about the places she had been to.

Under the sunlight, Fang Feiyan seemed to have returned to the time when she amazed the whole city. Her hair was shining in the sunlight and her eyes were rippling with green waves.

Xiao Wen had never seen his mother so happy, and Fan Zhixing was also in a good mood. The three of them were more anxious to get on their journey because of their longing to cross the river to the north.

We hadn't wanted to travel at night, but we remembered there was a village that had been abandoned. Looking at the dilapidated houses, we decided to travel at night and reach Beidu a day early.

Tired from walking, the three of them found a sheltered spot to rest. Xiao Wen had become quite adept at making fire these days, so he placed his rations next to the fire to warm them up, while Fan Zhixing went to look nearby for any fruit that might quench his thirst.

Fang Feiyan was resting against a tree. Now that her child was older, she could worry less.

Before Xiao Wen delivered the dry food to his mother, Fan Zhixing came running from a distance, shouting as he ran, as if he had encountered some ferocious beast.

"Run! Quick!"

Without time to pack up, everyone got up and ran. Fang Feiyan was slow to react, and before she had run a few meters, she was frightened by an arrow flying at her feet and stopped in her tracks.

In Xiao Wen's eyes, the four or five men who rushed out were more terrifying than the wild beasts in the forest. They held torches and shouted recklessly. Fan Zhixing tried to fight them with branches, but it only added to the bandits' amusement. Fang Feiyan stood in front of the two children, arms outstretched, trying to protect them, but what could she do? To the bandits, the two boys were nothing; Fang Feiyan was their surprise attack today.

The leading bandit gave a few orders, and his men tied Xiao Wen and Fan Zhixing to a tree. The ropes squeezed their flesh until they bled, and their struggles were in vain, leaving only a pool of blood on the ground.

The bandit leader had no idea where Fang Feiyan had been dragged off to, and Xiao Wen and Fan Zhixing couldn't see her. They could only hear their mother's screams, which gradually turned into sobs and then died away. Xiao Wen and Fan Zhixing cursed her with every word they could muster, but it had no effect. The nearby bandits didn't even glance at them, their conversation continuing among themselves.

"When my sister-in-law is not around, my brother will never change his nature!" A robber leaned against a tree and poured the wine from the wine bag into his mouth.

"My eldest sister-in-law has gone back to her parents' home these days. My eldest brother will be well behaved when she comes back."

"I think I won't be allowed to rob people when I come back. I'll do something else and earn clean money."

"Can it come as fast as this?"

"Don't think about it, just go have some fun later..."

As they were laughing, a bandit stared at a place in the distance in a daze, then suddenly stood up and pointed his knife at the front, and the others followed suit and looked.

Until the man gradually approached, the bandits fell silent.

"Sister-in-law..."

Xiao Wen watched as the woman everyone called "Big Sister" slew the bandits one by one, leaving them no chance to escape. Without even a glance at Xiao Wen and Fan Zhixing, she stepped over the bodies and headed deeper into the woods where Fang Feiyan had been dragged away.

After a while, Fang Feiyan came running over in a panic. Even with blood flowing like a river under her feet, she couldn't wait for a moment. She picked up the knife on the ground and untied Xiao Wen and Fan Zhixing from the tree.

Xiao Wen threw himself into her arms and burst into tears, but Fan Zhixing hurried to the bodies of the bandits and put away the packages and silver that they had not had time to take away.

Xiao Wen was still worried that the "sister-in-law" would catch up with him, so he pulled his mother and Fan Zhixing and ran away in a hurry.