The Hwangbo Clan’s Beloved Live-In Son-in-Law - Chapter 1

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 1

Everyone said she was crazy.

Not me, but my wife.

…Well, she wasn’t my wife back then, so I just called her ‘Hee-mae’ at the time.

I’m talking about Huangbo Lüli.

Yes, that Lüli from the Huangbo family. Have you heard of her?

The precious daughter of the prestigious Huangbo family.

A tomboy who could make even the bear-like and tiger-like brothers of the Huangbo family submit, a talented woman called the greatest beauty of Shandong.

A beauty.

Yes. Yes. That crazy woman who married a penniless beggar with nothing.

What? She wasn’t a beauty? You crazy bastard. Then who would be a beauty if not her?

The Hundred Day Sword? Ha. That one from Nangong? That woman who looked so frail she’d break with a touch – what’s so pretty about her?

Ah. Hyeseo? She’s just a cunning wench from the Jie Gal family. Sure, her eyes are big, but they’re so sharp and fierce.

Enough. Enough. No matter how many names you list, they’re all inferior. I’m not one to make hasty judgments, but I’ll say this definitively. They all pale compared to Hee-mae.

…Yes. They all pale compared to Hee-mae.

That’s how it was back then.

A heavenly fairy just dropped down to me, who was living by gathering herbs and catching rabbits at the foot of Mount Tai.

Ha. I really thought she was a fairy. I served her as such.

…Love?

Would you harbor romantic feelings for a fairy?

Would you want to clip the wings of a great roc when you see one?

Would you want to steal the pearl from a dragon when you see one?

I don’t know. Maybe if you were some great hero.

I was just an ordinary common man.

Well. In my youth, I did go to war once. But still. How could a general who commands ten thousand men be the same as a mere soldier in a squad?

Back then, I was truly just a commoner.

So well. I just served her.

Even after I realized she was a woman who had lost her memory, it was the same. Perhaps the impression of her as a fairy was too strong.

Love…

Only came after she left.

Was it only about three weeks?

Before those burly men came crowding to my humble thatched cottage to take her away, during that short time, my soul had already become hers.

That’s when I realized it.

My heart hurt more than my body that ached from the beating, but well. What could I do?

Whether a fairy in the heavens or the precious daughter of the Hwangbo Family Estate.

To someone like me, they’re the same status.

Like that for about 3 years.

Just when I thought I had finally forgotten, she appeared again.

She said let’s get married.

…Haha.

And so I, Xie Baowei, became a son-in-law who married into the great Hwangbo Family Estate.

Ah. Your name is also Baowei? Wang family? Are you also the eldest? Right? Yes. Well. It’s a common enough name, isn’t it?

That’s how ordinary our family… Well. There’s not much of a family to speak of. No. Even a one-person family is still a family, I suppose.

So you see.

Naturally. We grew distant, didn’t we?

.

.

.

Xie Baowei looked up at the blue sky with eyes full of alcohol.

His beloved horse Chun-gil, carrying him, walked steadily forward, unaware of his master’s feelings.

It had already been well over several years since he left his hometown.

Rabbit…

Yes, you’d ask how I could leave behind Manola, who was as lovely as a rabbit.

Actually. Rather than a rabbit, she was more like a tiger, and it was natural for that tiger to live in a tiger’s den.

Considering that tiger’s den was crawling with tigers, it wasn’t something incomprehensible, was it?

“Bitter.”

The cheap liquor he bought from the tavern was truly bitter.

Yet his mind remained clear, refusing to get drunk.

The Wang family member with the same name who sold him the alcohol listened well to his complaints, but what he brought out was this kind of stuff.

“Sick? Me. Missing? …Hee-mae missing me?”

So what he said was completely unbelievable.

The precious daughter of the Huangbo family fell ill from missing her runaway foolish husband.

Not only that, but the family members were searching everywhere for their son-in-law.

As a result, their power was declining and their reputation was diminishing.

“…That can’t be.”

What was he to those family members?

An obstacle blocking a genius’s path.

A thief who stole their precious daughter.

A cowardly turtle young master.

A despised son-in-law!

“What an unfunny joke. Really.”

However, it was a story he heard quite often on the way to this hometown.

Not only the Wang family from the tavern who mocked him saying they saw fake Xie Baoweis a dozen times a day, but even the Do family from the fabric shop and the Ju family from the blacksmith shop were spreading similar talk.

So even without drinking, the world felt dizzy as if drunk, which is why he ended up putting alcohol to his lips.

“Hee-mae. Missing me. …Sick?”

Xie Baowei felt suddenly dizzy, closed his eyes, and stopped.

Chun-gil snorted once softly and stopped according to his master’s will.

When he opened his eyes, the sky was still clear and the wind was cool.

Suddenly looking up, he saw the rugged mountain ridges and the uneven vegetation of the fields looked familiar.

Why am I standing on this road?

I left saying I would forget everything about the old people of this hometown.

Why couldn’t I forget and came back?

Xie Baowei couldn’t understand his own heart.

Whether his pounding heart and restless mind were due to the sweet fragrance of peach blossoms, the fresh scent of cornelian cherry flowers.

Or perhaps, because of news of my beloved whom I missed so much I resented, and resented so much I missed.

-By the way. The young lady is really stubborn too. With so many matchmakers coming and going. It seems she still has no intention of remarrying.

No matter how much he shook the bottle upside down, no alcohol would come out since it was all finished.

Xie Baowei roughly tied the empty bottle and shook his head.

Let’s go. I’ll only believe it when I see it with my own eyes.

Chun-gil plodded along. His body swayed like his heart.

***

Jinan in Shandong is a large city.

There are many martial families in that large city, but if you ask which is the greatest, everyone would lift their heads to look at Mount Tai.

The large complex of halls rising majestically beneath Mount Tai was what referred to the great Hwangbo Family Estate.

Although their power had greatly diminished due to several incidents that occurred over the years, the Hwangbo Family Estate was still the premier family of Jinan.

What proved this was Daming Street.

It was because the Hwangbo Family Estate was located at the end of this street where commercial districts stretched endlessly around the beautiful scenery of Daming Lake.

A person entered the main central road of Daming Street.

Since this was one of the largest cities in the region, one person entering wouldn’t be unusual, but at least this person had something that caught people’s attention.

First, he was big.

He was very, very large. The horse the man was leading was also large. That fellow was also very, very large.

So even though he wore an old bamboo hat pulled down, his eyes and the area below his nose bridge were clearly visible.

His lower face was covered in scars. Small wounds were noticeable on his lips, chin, and everywhere else.

His nose bridge and cheekbones were the same. Fortunately, they had healed well, so while they made him look rough, they weren’t unsightly.

The hands visible on the outside also had many scars. His left hand in particular seemed to have been used roughly, with several wounds that appeared to pierce through front and back.

His left pinky finger was also missing, apparently cut off, and the remaining fingers couldn’t fully extend.

His back was straight and his gait was upright. But someone with quick eyes would notice he limped slightly on his left leg.

His gaze was so sharp that people naturally avoided him, but if you looked closely, he had a gentle impression.

There just wasn’t anyone who would look closely.

A short sword dangled at his waist. It was shorter than an ordinary sword, but too long to be called a dagger—it was ambiguous.

Seeing the blunt, long rod-like thing he carried on his horse’s back, you could figure out how it was used if you thought about it.

Rather than a martial artist, he had the scent of a soldier about him.

No. Anyone could see he was a returning veteran fresh from the battlefield, a shabby wounded soldier.

This was Xie Baowei.

He quietly surveyed the people coming and going with eyes full of deep emotion.

Though enough time had passed to change the landscape, there were many familiar things.

“So you’re saying that Silk Road has been reopened? If we take our Shandong silk and those Jingdezhen ceramics, we could make millions!”

“When would we ever travel that nine-thousand-li road? Haven’t you heard the stories about those big-nosed monsters eating people?”

“Oh my, this fellow. What have you been doing all this time without hearing the war ended? We won a great victory!”

“How many people have been ruined believing those stories?”

“…Well. What can you do. We’ll die either way. We have to try something!”

“Just stay here. Don’t you know Jinan’s situation is the best around?”

The market was still bustling and noisy.

People chattered about all sorts of things. Though he could feel that life was harder than expected, it still overflowed with the scent of human living.

The affectionate hometown dialect gradually loosened Xie Baowei’s heart.

Even so, he couldn’t help feeling nervous.

He would take one step and stop, take two steps and catch his breath twice.

Chun-gil, who had been following obediently, seemed frustrated and started complaining.

Though he only needed to go a little further, despite having traveled nine thousand li, that remaining distance felt truly far.

So Xie Baowei stopped at a small teahouse.

“Is there a seat available?”

“Yes. Please sit wherever you’re comfortable. How shall I prepare your tea?”

“Hmm. Do you happen to have Yizhichun?”

“Uh… Yes! Please sit and I’ll prepare it right away!”

Yizhichun was expensive tea.

It was hard to find even in Shandong, but since this was Jinan, even small teahouses like this seemed to stock it.

The tea boy seemed a bit flustered and quickly studied Baowei’s expression, so he lightly tossed him a coin.

The child’s face immediately brightened.

Xie Baowei looked around and sat in a quiet spot with a view outside.

Even though it was midday in the third month of spring, there were many people.

Each talked about business, about children, about the world.

Since it was a place frequently visited by common people, it was full of the quiet sounds of daily life.

Xie Baowei was listening absent-mindedly when suddenly, catching the subtle tea fragrance that had arrived, he smiled broadly.

“What a fine fragrance. Beautifully brewed. Thank you.”

It wasn’t the highest grade fragrance, but the nostalgic scent he hadn’t smelled in so long naturally brought a smile.

The tea boy glanced sideways at the scars all over his face, the missing finger, and such, and flinched, but seeing his gentle voice and smiling face, he stared blankly at that face for a moment.

“Ah… Um.”

“Yes?”

“Ah. It’s nothing. Well then. If you need anything, please call anytime.”

“Thank you.”

“Yes.”

Xie Baowei deeply inhaled the fragrance again.

-It’s a fine fragrance. Please try some too, young master.

-I just prefer green tea.

That fragrance brought back memories of his young, immature self and Hee-mae’s gentle voice.

Back then it was like that. How much he hated hearing that “young master.”

How distant that word felt.

Not my Hee-mae. Just. The Hwangbo Family’s.

“So you’re saying they already sent a marriage proposal?”

“That’s what I’m telling you. Those Taeamun bastards are really serious?”

“Geez. No matter how well they’re doing these days, how dare they touch Hwangbo Ok?”

“…Well, what. Is that Ok the same Ok as before?”

“Hey now. How dare you! Is that a flaw? Huh? Is that a flaw?”

“Exactly! Huh? How dare those bandits with such filthy origins approach the Huangbo Family’s Jingjiyuye. We’re already worried because her illness won’t heal.”

Crack.

His hand tensed momentarily and the cup developed a slight crack.

Xie Baowei glanced at the owner and tea boy, then covered the cracked part with his large hand.

People talked about all sorts of things.

Mostly their own stories, but also stories about those around them.

Not all the circulating rumors would be true, but at least he could read the atmosphere from them.

Among these various stories were so many things he was curious about. And among them were names he could never dare forget.

Hwangbo Ok. There couldn’t be two Hwangbo Oks in this Jinan.

Xie Baowei was unconsciously holding his breath when it happened.

“Of course that’s a flaw. What else would it be?”

The people’s conversation suddenly stopped.

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