My Father Is the Number One Under Heaven - Chapter 22

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 22. A Share to Bear
“What are you doing?”
Peng Wu-gang’s expression hardened as Yeo Un-hui suddenly bowed his head without warning.
Yeo Un-hui then lifted his gaze and replied.
“If we were ever to meet again, I wanted to offer you this apology with all sincerity.”
“You mean you regret it—that choice you made back then?”
“No. That’s not it at all.”
“Mm?”
Peng Wu-gang’s brow twitched at an answer far removed from what he’d expected, and his bearing shifted subtly.
It was a minute change, yet pronounced enough that an ordinary person would have gone pale.
And yet the scholar Yeo Un-hui, who supposedly knew nothing whatsoever of martial arts, seemed oddly unmoved as he continued speaking.
“I do not regret the choice I made that day. My wife remains the reason I live—then and now. And now I have my daughter So-yul as well. So even if I returned to that moment, I would make the same choice. To protect our love, I would ultimately leave this place again.”
“Then what are you apologizing for?”
“My apology concerns the worry and burden our actions have brought upon you both, whatever the outcome.”
Peng Wu-gang’s eyes narrowed as he regarded Yeo Un-hui.
Something felt profoundly different from the Yeo Un-hui he remembered from long ago.
That man he’d seen back then—he couldn’t even lift his head in his presence, much less speak.
“You’ve changed, it seems.”
“Have I?”
Yeo Un-hui smiled faintly.
“I’m prepared to bear any burden gladly if it’s for the sake of protecting my family. That’s what it means to be the head of a household.”
……
“I imagine you must be wondering why we’ve returned.”
Indeed, Peng Wu-gang had not yet heard the reason for their return.
It seemed too simple to attribute it merely to regret over the past—neither his daughter nor this man gave that impression.
“To speak plainly, what we desire is neither wealth nor glory. We simply ask that you allow us to live here within the Peng Family.”
“Audacious words.”
“Yes, I know how they must sound to you. But I no longer wish to see my wife turn her back on her clan and live in pain, bearing it in silence. And I want So-yul to know that she has another family as well.”
“And the one who caused all this speaks with a loose tongue……”
“But I speak from the heart. I wish now to restore family to my wife. Please, accept us—sir.”
Yeo Un-hui met Peng Wu-gang’s gaze with unwavering sincerity.
……
Peng Wu-gang merely looked back in silence.
Leaving aside the question of why they’d returned, he never expected that timid scholar to present himself like this.
Above all, there was something in Yeo Un-hui’s eyes—that light within them……
Yet even so, in Peng Wu-gang’s eyes, Yeo Un-hui remained a thief who’d absconded with his daughter in the dead of night.
Hmm……
Peng Wu-gang peered down at Yeo Un-hui with narrowed eyes.
However, despite his displeasure, his deliberation was brief.
“Very well. Have it your way. I grant you leave to dwell here.”
“Thank you!”
Yeo Un-hui’s head snapped up at once, his face bright with gratitude.
“But mark this—as for yourself, unlike Seo-yeon and my granddaughter, you’d do well to steel yourself. Peng Seo-jin may be too soft-hearted to pose a problem, but the Ha Buk Peng Family is no comfortable haven for a mere scholar to adapt to.”
“I’ve come prepared.”
Hm, you speak well enough. But don’t expect me to lift a finger on your behalf—I have no such intention toward you.”
“Yes. I accept that readily as well.”
Peng Wu-gang waved his hand dismissively as he watched Yeo Un-hui respond with steady composure.
“Enough. Now go.”
Yeo Un-hui offered a proper bow to Peng Wu-gang before withdrawing slowly from the Patriarch’s Chamber.
A quiet laugh escaped Peng Wu-gang as he watched the man’s retreating form.
A scholar who didn’t know the first thing about martial arts could never overcome the resistance of the Ha Buk Peng Family.
Within days, he’d be whimpering.
‘What is he thinking, exactly?’
That unwavering confidence in his eyes—as if he were truly prepared to shoulder any burden for his family—struck Peng Wu-gang as excessively presumptuous.
He found that point deeply puzzling.
On what basis did he have such certainty?
Peng Wu-gang’s gaze drifted toward the door through which Yeo Un-hui had departed.
Something had certainly changed about him.
***
From that day on, So-yul’s family took up residence within the Peng Family.
The room Peng Seo-yeon had once occupied remained, but her family came to stay in the Annex Building instead.
Now Peng Seo-yeon was no longer alone.
For a husband and daughter to live together, her old room was far too cramped.
So Dan Hee-young had hastily arranged a separate quarters for them.
No matter how long Peng Seo-yeon had been away from the family, nor how many years had passed since her return, the fact that she was the eldest daughter of the Ha Buk Peng Family remained unchanged.
Moreover, the Head of Household, Peng Wu-gang, had not cast her out—he had, in fact, accepted her; and since everyone could see that her mother Dan Hee-young and the Crown Prince Peng Seo-jin were delighted by her return, no one dared treat her carelessly.
And then there was Peng Seo-yeon’s daughter, Yeo So-yul.
It took only a week for that small, charming child to win the hearts of everyone in the Peng household.
From the elders of the family to the martial artists and servants, all grew fond of her.
By this point, it seemed she must have been born with a gift for inspiring affection.
And so her family was naturally and smoothly accepted into the Peng household.
All except for one person: Yeo Un-hui.
“That’s him, isn’t it? The one who fled in the dead of night with Miss Seo-yeon.”
As Yeo Un-hui passed by, the martial artists whispered behind him.
Their eyes held no warmth whatsoever.
If anything, they bordered on outright hostility.
“That’s right. Handsome enough, I suppose—though he certainly looks the part.”
“But what good is a pretty face when the man can’t master a single martial art? A mere scholar, they say.”
“Not one martial art? Good heavens, what is this world coming to?”
“I can’t fathom what he was thinking, coming back here with Miss Seo-yeon. Bold as brass, the lot of it.”
“Exactly.”
“Mark my words, he’s after the money. What else could it be?”
“Or perhaps he means to ride on Miss Seo-yeon’s coattails and live off the family’s generosity for the rest of his days.”
“Either way, it’s absolutely reprehensible. Don’t you think?”
“Bah, as if our Head of Household would stand by and allow such a thing.”
“You speak without thinking. Even the heavens cannot control a parent’s love for their child—what chance has our Head of Household? Isn’t that so?”
“Ha! And so a parasitic cur has managed to nest himself in our Peng Family. Disgraceful.”
The martial artists clicked their tongues in unison.
Yeo Un-hui was the husband of Peng Seo-yeon, the eldest daughter of the Ha Buk Peng Family.
Ordinarily, even whispered behind his back, it would have been proper to speak to him with deference.
But in their eyes, in their hearts, Yeo Un-hui was nothing more than a parasite come to siphon the lifeblood of the Ha Buk Peng Family—someone beneath them.
Such was the uniform disdain that surrounded him.
Yet what could be done?
Yeo Un-hui had resolved to bear all of this willingly, and so he paid no mind to the gossip that reached his ears.
What mattered most to him was that his family remained safe.
That was enough.
But this very composure only fueled their contempt further, and they spoke of him as shameless and devoid of honor.
***
“Sigh……”
Mid-sip of her tea, Peng Seo-yeon sat lost in thought.
Beside her, on a small bed, Yeo So-yul slept soundly.
“…You seem to carry a great many worries.”
Dan Hee-young, seated across from her, spoke as she observed her daughter.
Peng Seo-yeon started slightly at this, then shook her head.
“No? Ah, it’s nothing, really.”
“Nothing? As if I wouldn’t know. It’s your husband, isn’t it?”
……
Dan Hee-young had already begun calling Yeo Un-hui by the familiar name of “her son-in-law.”
The sight of him caring for and cherishing her daughter pleased her greatly.
He had once been the most hateful man in the world to her.
But given the circumstances, Dan Hee-young had resolved to accept him as her son-in-law for the sake of her daughter’s happiness.
Even if he knew no martial arts, that was of little importance to her.
At Dan Hee-young’s pointed words, Peng Seo-yeon nodded in acknowledgment.
She could hear for herself what the world around them thought of her husband, and what they whispered about him.
Though she tried to ignore it, day by day the ridicule and slander directed at him grew more vicious, and it was a constant torment for her.
Yet there was nothing she could do about it just now.
This helplessness weighed heavily on Peng Seo-yeon’s heart.
“I understand your feelings, but that is a burden your husband must bear.”
……
“Of course, if your father were to intervene, he might ease things for a time. But what comes after? There are limits even to what he can do. In the end, it is your husband who must endure this trial.”
Above all, her husband Peng Wu-gang had made it plain from the start that he would never lift a finger for Yeo Un-hui.
So even that slender possibility was no possibility at all.
“Yes, Mother. I understand.”
Yet watching her daughter’s face darken further despite the words, Dan Hee-young’s own heart grew heavy.
How could she not know what her daughter was feeling?
But there was no choice but to speak the truth.
Of course, Dan Hee-young herself had no idea how Yeo Un-hui might earn the recognition of this household and be accepted as one of them.
Only one thing was certain: that task would not be easy in the slightest.
The Orthodox Faction was a martial arts family where martial strength was everything and nothing else mattered.
It was a world where a man’s worth rose or fell by the power of his martial arts alone.
And the Ha Buk Peng Family was among the most illustrious of all such families—one of the Five Great Families of the Martial World.
No one here expected that a mere scholar could possibly adapt to such a place.
No one, that is, except Yeo Un-hui himself.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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