The Hwangbo Clan’s Beloved Live-In Son-in-Law - Chapter 14

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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 14

His eyes carefully observed the people around him.

He moved through areas where gazes wouldn’t reach as much as possible, naturally heading outside.

“Wait, where are you going!”

“Ahaha. Over there. Just outside for a bit.”

Still, there were those he encountered.

His limping gait was bound to catch attention.

Moreover, people who would have pretended not to see him in the old days were now showing interest without exception, making him stand out even more.

“Yes?”

“No. Please say you didn’t see me.”

After giving even more suspicious answers and hurriedly changing locations several times, he finally made his way near the main gate.

However, the main gate remained firmly closed and the side gate had many people coming and going.

Furthermore, gatekeepers had started standing guard at some point. It was too early to finish their shift, so he couldn’t wait.

Xie Baowei looked around and now moved truly stealthily to find the outer wall.

Then he quickly scanned the surroundings and with a “heave” sound, put strength into his legs.

His body flew up like a bird and crossed over the high wall.

It was such light movement that one couldn’t believe he was someone with leg pain.

His figure disappeared into the shadows.

***

While every city has its poor, nowhere in Shandong had as many as Jinan.

How else could there be such a cruel saying that even the Son of Heaven cannot (or does not) look after Jinan’s poor?

Whether they fled the harsh governance of Beizhili, the bandits of the northwest, were driven out by rebels from the south, or chased by pirates from the East Sea.

Those who struggled across the Yellow River, sea routes, and land routes to reach Shandong were as poor, discriminated against, and ignored as they had been in the lands they fled from.

Thus, the land where they were driven out and gathered to settle in Shandong was right below Zuoshan, north of Jinan.

Originally called Bukjinga, even that name was forgotten, and now it’s simply called Bukbinga—that place is exactly there.

“…Still the same.”

Actually, Xie Baowei’s hometown isn’t this place but Taian.

However, since he too was from an orphaned background, he knew very well how this underworld operated.

“Move aside! You beanpole bastard!”

Thud. Someone bumped into Xie Baowei and passed by.

Xie Baowei limped back. Then without even looking at his opponent, he just gazed at Zuoshan visible far behind Bukbinga.

He acted this way knowing that if he responded to every provocation that came his way, he wouldn’t be able to take a single step forward.

“Hey, be careful walking around.”

“Sorry.”

Then the man briefly looked Xie Baowei up and down, spat dry saliva with a “ptui,” and disappeared.

Zuoshan is a small mountain—not very large and not abundant in trees either.

Since the surroundings were all rice fields and near the Yellow River, those who had no land of their own and only their bodies gathered there to live doing day labor.

When Xie Baowei entered the entrance of Bukbinga, the sun had almost set and darkness had fallen.

Those who had been working until late hours entered staggering like zombies.

The stench greeted him before the people did.

The streets were narrow, houses were packed tightly together, and filth was stepped on wherever one went.

People avoided each other as if they were each other’s plague.

Thud.

“Here. You dropped this.”

“Ah! My goodness, thank you.”

As he moved forward again, someone bumped his shoulder once more.

This time he stopped walking and turned around to see a young woman picking up Xie Baowei’s money pouch for him.

The money pouch was a bit light, but it was still there.

It only contained a few copper coins anyway, so it wasn’t precious.

All places where the poor gather are like this.

While the house next door kidnaps children and sells human flesh, the one beside it offers milk to nursing mothers.

Like how they pick visitors’ pockets but leave a way to survive for disabled soldiers.

“I should have brought some silver coins.”

If he had, he would have spent days trembling in anxiety.

It would have been better if they had taken everything.

Xie Baowei felt the weight of the few copper coins remaining in his money pouch and put it in his chest.

The money pouch felt as heavy as the weight of his own guilt.

“I wonder if the children are doing well.”

Xie Baowei sighed and moved forward.

Xie Baowei first set foot in Bukbinga about a year after he married into the Huangbo Family.

True to his background, Xie Baowei was the type who didn’t reveal his inner thoughts well, so no one really knew his situation.

Well, who would know?

Everyone only envied his fortune of entering a great family.

If he had spoken of his hardships or worries, it would have only sounded like the complaints of the well-fed.

So no one would believe that Bukbinga was a more comfortable place for Xie Baowei.

“You bastard! Hand over that bundle right now!”

“Get lost, you damn bastard!”

“You worthless piece of shit!”

Back then it was like this too…

Oh. What a welcome sight.

No. Is this really welcome?

Xie Baowei’s face crumpled.

“Sofung! Cheongcheong!”

“Huh?”

“What?”

“Who’s that!”

At Xie Baowei’s voice, those who had been surrounding one man turned their heads one by one.

When had those scrawny boys and girls grown so much?

They had become grown young men and turned around.

“You rascals! You’ve become street thugs!”

Thump.

Though no sound was made, it felt like something heavy was pressing down on the ground.

For a moment, Xie Baowei’s body seemed to lower slightly, then he suddenly appeared in front of the young men.

The young men also hardened their faces and stiffened their postures.

In an instant, hands and feet became entangled and scattered chaotically.

“…Big brother?”

The sound of crashes mixed with groans of “ugh.”

The middle-aged man who had been surrounded clutched his bundle and opened his eyes wide.

“…Big brother?”

“Ugh. What?”

“Big brother?!”

One of the young men who had been scattered like leaves in the wind was cursing when he saw Xie Baowei’s face and opened his mouth in a daze.

At those words, the young men looked for Xie Baowei while rubbing their bruised spots.

“Big brother!”

“They said you came!”

“But you didn’t look for us!”

“We were going to come find you!”

These were the children who had just gotten hit unexpectedly.

Nevertheless, they jumped up as if they had never been hurt and gathered around Xie Baowei, chattering like sparrows.

Their reaction actually flustered Xie Baowei.

“What on earth. What kind of.”

things are you doing. Such words would have come out.

If not for someone’s shout.

“Hey! Hey! Look. He’s running away! Catch him! He’s a medicine thief!”

Taking advantage of the moment when attention was focused on Xie Baowei, the man holding the bundle ran away hastily.

He was so fast that he had already reached the end of the alley.

In the ant-hill-like complexity of Bukbinga, once you lost sight of someone, it was over.

As the young men sighed, Xie Baowei, who finally grasped the situation, frowned.

“Oh no.”

Once again, there was a thud and the ground seemed to shake.

This time Xie Baowei’s arm bent like a bow and then snapped forward as if the bowstring had broken.

Yet his body remained in place, so all that tremendous force was contained in the copper coin in his hand.

If the dead Guieosa Guard had seen it, he would have involuntarily admired this throwing technique.

Immediately there was a thud sound and the man collapsed.

“…Hmm. Well. If this works, then it’s settled for now?”

Xie Baowei scratched his head.

The young men who had welcomed Xie Baowei without knowing any better now looked at him with expressions as if seeing a complete stranger for the first time in their lives.

This was really that pathetic older brother?

“Are you really Brother Wei?”

“The one who just protected Mimi blindly and got beaten up?”

“The one who knelt and begged, saying ‘I’ll give you everything, so please go back’?”

“That fool?”

At these words that revealed their true thoughts, Xie Baowei frowned.

Yet looking back, the faces that were becoming handsome men no longer showed their former childishness.

Still, the clear spirit in their eyes remained. No, had it become even clearer?

Xie Baowei grinned.

“That’s right. It’s me, you brats.”

No matter how Xie Baowei had changed, Xie Baowei was still Xie Baowei.

The same smile appeared on the young men’s faces too.

It was a longed-for smile.

“”Big Brother!””

The flock of sparrows rushed at him again.

***

Just as being poor doesn’t necessarily make one good, being destitute doesn’t necessarily make one evil.

Wherever you go, places where people live have countless different aspects.

If there are people like this, there are also people like that.

In that sense, Bukbinga also had an almshouse.

It was said to have been built by high officials in the peaceful old days, but when it was left abandoned and about to crumble, unknown saints pooled their resources to revive it.

There had been groups from the Black Dao who targeted it and sucked it dry like parasites, but they disappeared after Xie Baowei’s time.

“So. You received help?”

“Yes! After Big Brother disappeared like that, people came from the Huangbo Family.”

Not long after he had entered the Huangbo Family as a son-in-law, many people came looking for Xie Baowei.

It was the Huangbo Family’s will to somehow shape him into a useful member of the family.

However, after some time passed, it only continued with beatings and mockery disguised as education.

Xie Baowei had come to the almshouse in Bukbinga almost daily to escape that, but there wasn’t much he actually did.

He simply blocked with his body the parasites that fed off the almshouse.

“…From the Huangbo Family.”

“Yes. Brother. From the Huangbo Family.”

There were always people sending goods like food and clothing to the almshouse.

Sometimes much, sometimes little, from rich and poor alike, sometimes even from enemies.

Many had targeted these goods, but now they had all disappeared.

Unlike the past, there were no beggars idly sucking the marrow, and no ruffians extorting medicine and money every month.

Instead, there were neatly repaired decent buildings, warehouses, and infirmaries.

Though they weren’t here now due to the late hour, doctors would visit at the proper times to provide free examinations.

Teachers would also come to educate anyone who wanted to learn.

So naturally, who would dare touch the almshouse?

All these changes were thanks to the Huangbo Family’s grace.

“Though we’re the ones delivering it, everyone knows it’s all the Huangbo Family’s doing.”

“Hmph. That’s all because of Big Brother. As if the Huangbo Family is so great on their own?”

Moreover, they said talented children would be taken and given education.

So these children were the first class of the newly reformed Five Elements Martial Arts Stage.

“Do you know how much the people here hated the great family after you disappeared like that?”

“Of course they did. After you settled here, how much did the number of people dying senselessly decrease? How many little ones, sisters, and parents did you buy with your own money?”

That was about all Xie Baowei had done.

Taking all the meager goods sent down from the Huangbo Family to buy medicine and food.

He had only blocked with his body the black hands that came for even those small amounts, but he never fought back, never persuaded with words, never borrowed the authority of the great family.

Even so, people gradually gathered and followed Xie Baowei, but nothing changed.

Beggars and fake patients still nibbled away at the goods bit by bit.

The teaching was clumsy and learning was slow. Those who needed help overflowed, but Xie Baowei’s hands couldn’t reach outside the almshouse.

And so in the end, he couldn’t even protect that small pittance.

He abandoned it.

Xie Baowei abandoned them again.

“What about the Black Dao groups? Those famously cruel people became cripples overnight and were thrown onto the streets?”

“That’s right.”

Xie Baowei smiled bitterly.

No wonder, even though there were conflicts, the darkness of the old days seemed to have disappeared.

The old Bukbinga had been a place truly full of sinister and dangerous smells.

Amidst the smell of despair and wailing, only the almshouse had given off a dim light.

“Yes. How truly remarkable.”

What he had protected with such difficulty, the Huangbo Family had easily created.

Look at this magnificent hall.

Look at the children’s laughter.

Look at the changing streets.

Even now, pickpockets still roamed the streets of Bukbinga, people still harmed each other, extorted money, and humiliated one another.

Bukbinga was vast, and a single family with closed doors couldn’t feed everyone.

That would be difficult even if the Emperor came.

Yet it was different from before.

It had truly changed from those lawless days of the past.

“The black market also disappeared.”

With those words, a gentle smile appeared in the eyes of the children who had been chattering proudly.

Though people still died of poverty somewhere in Bukbinga, the days of people eating people were gone.

It was something Xie Baowei could never have dreamed of.

“The Household Head of the great family was so furious that he came out personally.”

Xie Baowei quietly closed his eyes.

It was truly a fortunate thing.

Laughter had come to his old friends and brothers. Happiness was here.

Yet he felt empty.

Xie Baowei was puzzled by this strange feeling.

It felt as if his place and purpose were no longer needed.

“It’s all thanks to you, brother.”

“It’s all thanks to big brother.”

No.

Xie Baowei opened his mouth that wouldn’t come unstuck.

“It’s thanks to the Huangbo Family.”

“That’s what I mean.”

The children laughed.

Xie Baowei smiled back at them.

The Huangbo Family is not me.

Just as I am not the Huangbo Family.

“You’ll come often now, right?”

“Yes.”

Xie Baowei stood up.

The children followed in a rush.

“See you again.”

The children somehow felt like it would be difficult to see Xie Baowei again.

“If you don’t come, we’ll come find you.”

“…Yes.”

Xie Baowei turned his back.

Darkness fell over the alley of Bukbinga.

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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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