Chapter 675: Dad

Chapter 675 Father

"Oh, right, I almost forgot. This is your fifth brother. He just made his own way back yesterday," Chi Baishui said, introducing his newly returned son to his eldest daughter.

Catching sight of the tattoos covering Yang Xiaohai's skin, the eldest sister nodded in smug approval. "Fifth brother, it is good to have you back. Are you wed yet? Do you need your sister to play matchmaker for you?"

"Ha ha ha! No need for that, this lad is quite something. He managed to fetch himself a woman old enough to be his mother for a wife."

The moment the two of them stepped into the boat canopy, Zhao Xiumei approached Yang Xiaohai's side in sheer terror, taking his hand with fingers that had gone ice-cold. "Husband, that is the Dharma Sect, the ones committing treason! We must flee, and quickly!"

A flicker of inner torment crossed Yang Xiaohai's eyes. In the end, he reached out and patted the back of her hand before following the others into the canopy. "Let me see if I can talk some sense into them."

They were his flesh and blood after all; he could not simply stand by and watch them drag themselves into the abyss without trying to stop it.

With the eldest daughter of the Chi family returning to her maternal home, the midday feast was exceptionally grand, though Yang Xiaohai clearly had no appetite for the food, his mind entirely consumed by how he might persuade his eldest sister.

"Father! How much silver do we have left in the house? Give it all to me. I will go pull some strings and see if I can get our entire family enlisted to eat the imperial grain."

Hearing her words, Yang Xiaohai grew instantly anxious. Casting all else aside, he abruptly stood up. "Eldest sister, you mustn't do that! This Dharma Sect is a wicked, rebellious cult! You are pushing our family straight into a fiery pit!"

With that, Yang Xiaohai recounted everything—how the Dharma Sect had besieged Niuxin Village, and the horrific deeds that old hag of the cult had committed in the county seat.

Yet, the moment he finished speaking, he watched as his eldest sister and his father exchanged a look, bursting into uproarious laughter.

"Fifth brother, you are still young and ignorant. Of course I know they are rebels, but before a rebellion succeeds, they are a wicked cult. What if the rebellion triumphs?"

The eldest sister shot Yang Xiaohai a deeply meaningful look, taking a sip of her fish wine. "If a rebellion succeeds, it is no longer rebellion—it is called an uprising! And the Dharma Sect will no longer be a cult, it will be the state religion! Do you understand what I mean?"

"I do not!" Yang Xiaohai shook his head violently, his expression resolute. "A wicked cult is a wicked cult! They have slaughtered countless people! They treat human life like grass!"

"Nonsense!" Chi Baishui slammed his hand against the table in a sudden fury. "Did the officials of the former Later Shu kingdom not treat human life like grass? It is all the same! It was to dredge up those massive clam pearls for them that your mother's ears went deaf! It is a blessing that those dogs were wiped out!"

"Now that the new court has just risen, they are starved for men everywhere. If we don't go scramble for an official post now, are we supposed to rely on fishing and pearl-diving to turn our lives around?"

Seeing Yang Xiaohai standing there with clenched fists, an impatient Chi Baishui dismissed him with a wave of his hand. "Forget it, forget it. You're still wet behind the ears, you wouldn't understand even if I told you. Just listen to your father from now on."

Having spoken, he turned to his eldest daughter. "We will do exactly as you say. The money you sent back hasn't been spent carelessly, and your fifth brother brought back quite a bit of silver too. You can take all of it to use."

Father and daughter both possessed fiery tempers, and they set to work the moment the meal ended, unearthing the silver and strings of copper coins hidden away at the bottom of the chests.

Furthermore, Yang Xiaohai's carriage was uncovered, and everything he had brought out from Niuxin Village was hauled out.

"Don't be begrudging. Giving this silver to your eldest sister so she can buy me an official post is far more useful than hoarding it!" Chi Baishui declared with an air of immense smugness.

Holding his wife's hand, Yang Xiaohai watched with a numb gaze as his belongings were carried out piece by piece.

He did not ache for the silver; rather, he suddenly felt that his family was somewhat different from what he had imagined, and a strange, suffocating discomfort bloomed in his chest.

Shouldn't family members love and cherish one another, even if only to the extent of the Lyu Troupe?

"Father, this really won't do! The Dharma Sect murders people! They truly kill without blinking an eye! You are turning our entire family into villains!" Yang Xiaohai attempted a final plea, still unable to watch his family march to their deaths.

"What the hell do you know, boy? In this world, there are no villains or good men! Do you think this is a child's game of house?"

The hauling continued unabated until even the carriage and horses were sold off, without a soul ever consulting Yang Xiaohai.

As if sensing the shift in the air, the monkey children and Zhao Xiumei silently huddled close to his side, going nowhere, the joy that had previously graced their faces entirely vanished.

"Husband, let us return to Niuxin Village. How can people act like this?" For the first time, Zhao Xiumei pleaded with Yang Xiaohai to leave.

Watching his biological mother approach him with a bowl of food, Yang Xiaohai forced a smile onto his face and stepped forward to meet her. "Wait a little longer, I need to think of a way."

Throughout the entire day, Yang Xiaohai's mind was in utter disarray. He had considered using force to stop his family, but he was surrounded by his own relatives; starting a fight would be unseemly, and he could not bring himself to deal a fatal blow.

That night, Yang Xiaohai tossed and turned in his hammock, wrestling with the dilemma.

"The monkey children are agile. What if I simply have them steal all of eldest sister's silver in the dead of night? That way, they won't be able to join the Dharma Sect."

Just as a semblance of a plan began to take shape in his mind, he suddenly caught the faint sound of chattering monkey cries from outside—a sound no ordinary person could make, unique to the monkey children who were accustomed to living as beasts.

"What is happening?" Yang Xiaohai flipped out of his hammock, treading stealthily as he leapt over his third brother's head and slipped out of the boat.

The moment he stepped outside, Yang Xiaohai was met with a sight that struck him with absolute horror. His father and his second brother were binding the three monkey children with ropes, dragging them into the distance.

"Father! What are you doing?!" Yang Xiaohai cried out, his voice trembling violently.

Chi Baishui looked up to see Yang Xiaohai, his face devoid of any panic, speaking with complete matter-of-factness. "These three brats, didn't you just pick them up along the way? They are useless anyway, so I might as well sell them for cash."

At that moment, Yang Xiaohai felt a searing ache, a pain that pierced straight through his heart. His lips quivering slightly, he took a step forward. "Father, I gave you all that money from my carriage, I even gave you the carriage itself. Why must you sell children?"

"Can anyone ever have too much money? These three brats look remarkably like monkeys and have likely been trained; they will fetch a handsome price. Once we have the coin and your eldest sister buys a government post for you, you will earn it all back in two or three months."

Looking at the father before him, Yang Xiaohai found him utterly unrecognizable, and a sudden wave of terror flooded his heart. "Was I truly sold off back then only because there was no food to eat? Why does he find it so effortless to sell human beings?"

Chi Baishui could not be bothered to waste breath on Yang Xiaohai. He cast a meaningful glance at his son, and the two resumed dragging the monkey children away.

"Stop! I said stop!!" Yang Xiaohai blocked their path, the last shred of hesitation vanishing from his eyes as he drew the Decayed Wood Ruyi from his breast. "Release them!"

"Hey! How dare you speak to your father like that! Are your bones itching for a beating?!"

"By what right?! By what right?! By what right did you sell me back then?!" His eyes bloodshot, Yang Xiaohai glared at him and bellowed.

"By what right? By the right that I am your father! Kneel down before me!" Chi Baishui rolled up his sleeves.

The shouting of the two men roused the inhabitants of the other boats, and soon, the surrounding Tanka people gathered around.

Once they gleaned the basic nature of the dispute, they began to chime in one after another, attempting to mediate.

"Fifth child of the Chi family, you cannot do this. He is your father after all. You must defer to him in such trivial matters; you cannot be unfilial."

"Indeed, these three brats aren't of our Dragon Clan anyway. Selling them is no great loss."

"Alright, alright, let it end here. Quickly kowtow to your father and admit your wrong. We are all one family, do not make an ugly scene over such a trifling matter."