The Hwangbo Clan’s Beloved Live-In Son-in-Law - Chapter 15

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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 15

The moon was truly bright.

Xie Baowei looked up at the brilliantly round moon and thought.

What is this emptiness I feel?

These are truly strange days.

The place I thought wasn’t my home welcomes me as if it were, while the place I considered home feels as unfamiliar as if it weren’t mine at all.

It felt like there was nowhere I could rest my body comfortably.

The hometown Xie Baowei had longed for wasn’t like this.

The land he had dreamed of so much while smelling the blood of battlefields felt as foreign as an expedition route.

Should I return to Taishan’s grass hut?

Xie Baowei suddenly missed his old home.

Right. Since when had Jinan been my home?

But suddenly, missing the sweet scent of cornelian cherry that lingered at his nose, he stopped walking.

-Brother. Look at this flower! How is it? You can’t resist when I hide like this, right?

Back then. What did I say?

Ungracefully, I just said, “There you are.”

At those words, the girl frowned and pouted her lips, which came back to him as vividly as a painting.

-Fool. You’re such an idiot!

Xie Baowei smiled gently.

The boy who had a dirt-stained face even as a child seemed able to smile purely and clearly, at least when he was with her.

I don’t remember what I said, but I still remembered her response.

-Eohua. Hmph. I quite like it. There’s a similar word that almost made me feel bad, but at least brother doesn’t know such words, right? You shouldn’t know!

I knew.

How could Xie Baowei, who grew up in the slums, not know even such words?

At least in that moment, there wasn’t a trace of impure intention in my heart.

If not a ‘speaking flower,’ what else could I call her?

Her voice giggling and laughing made Xie Baowei smile.

Right. What I truly longed for wasn’t some land.

Xie Baowei’s eyes sank deeply.

“…Today is not the day.”

The night in Bukbinga is dark and quiet.

Everyone falls into deep sleep when the sun sets after a day of hard labor.

Though there are cheap red-light districts with old courtesans and taverns, at least not in alleys like this.

The passersby are just three or four people walking hurriedly and beggars sleeping against walls.

Only drunkards busy vomiting their guts out.

Xie Baowei stopped walking among them and opened his mouth.

The atmosphere changed completely in an instant.

From Xie Baowei’s body, which held no blade, a frost-like sharpness seeped out.

It felt as if one would be cut just by approaching.

Even so, there was someone who approached.

A drunk staggering toward him.

“Truly.”

Crack.

“…Ugh.”

The moment the wrist holding a sharp dagger was caught by Xie Baowei, the neck of the man who had exposed his back was twisted in the opposite direction.

With a thud, as the man fell and Xie Baowei twisted the dagger from his hand, he spoke with melancholy eyes.

“It’s a day I don’t want to see blood.”

Killing intent began to explode.

***

Huangbo Lüli had said.

They were martial artists.

Different from soldiers who struggle desperately to survive.

Xie Baowei thought.

Then, what are these people?

Seeing them rush like moths to flame without knowing the value of their own lives, they’re not soldiers,

And since this is a night ambush with neither honor nor profit, they can’t be people from martial families either.

So there’s only one place left.

The demonic cult.

“Must you do this on such a bright night without a single cloud?”

Really?

Xie Baowei grumbled.

The sweet scent of cornelian cherry that had lingered at his nose was already gone.

Even the clear laughter of my beloved that I longed for even in dreams had faded.

What remained was only the fishy scent of blood and suppressed screams.

Now the drunks and beggars who had abandoned all pretense openly wielded their swords.

Xie Baowei leaped forward with his face covered, into the sword net that stabbed at him from front, back, left, and right.

His arm was torn deeply.

Instead, the enemy in front had his throat pierced.

Without time to see the light fade from his eyes, he turned around.

He immediately dug to the right, slashing as he was swung around and slitting throats.

He immediately struck forward, creating several holes in the abdomen.

After slitting that one’s throat too and turning around, all sides were filled with enemies again.

His body already had three wounds.

The forearm was deep, but the side and back were shallow.

“…You people are truly silent. Indeed.”

Though they throw their lives away like grass, do they have no regrets?

Those who appeared instantly and surrounded Xie Baowei communicated with eye signals.

Even during this, Xie Baowei moved without rest.

He never let his back be caught.

When caught, he broke through anywhere.

The more this happened, the more wounds accumulated on his body, but his opponents definitely died.

“Do you get paid well?”

If he didn’t confirm their death at a glance, the enemies would spit black needles.

Not saliva , but needles .

They were black, probably coated with poison, making them hard to see.

So he had to cut their throats even if it meant overexerting himself.

It was familiar work. Isn’t confirmation killing a rule of the battlefield?

Swish. Swoosh!

The enemies who threw off their disguises wore nimble black night clothes.

Despite the bright moon hanging in the night sky, few things reflected in the moonlight.

Rather, only presences moved between the deep shadows.

Xie Baowei stood without much panic, as if familiar with this.

“Damn work. Isn’t it?”

It wasn’t an everyday occurrence.

But they were visitors who came not infrequently.

They had been quiet, perhaps finding it burdensome to cross Hwangbo Family’s wall.

They seemed to have targeted the day he came outside.

Piles of corpses around hindered his steps.

It should be ending around now.

Xie Baowei quietly caught his breath in his blood-soaked state.

As expected, the attacks also stopped.

They always charge as if to kill, but there is an end.

“Which side are you from? Are you from the Shaanxi Governor-General? Or perhaps the Guangxi Garrison Commander?”

He threw out names one by one, but there was no reaction.

Seeing that they were quite capable fellows, perhaps they were from a bit higher up?

“Well then. Will you go back and tell them? That I have absolutely no interest in what your employer wants.”

Then, it’s good for you all to live, good for those people to be at ease, and good for me to be comfortable.

Killing three birds with one stone – how wonderful would that be.

Xie Baowei grumbled.

There was no answer at all, and it wasn’t an atmosphere where they would listen.

Still, opening his mouth was perhaps a habit to relieve tension.

So he was a bit surprised.

“Your interest is not what matters.”

Swish! Thud.

“…Oh. My. Sorry about that. It’s my first time with guests who have mouths.”

Xie Baowei unconsciously threw a dagger toward where the sound came from, then apologized.

The dagger was deeply embedded in the earthen wall next to the masked man’s slightly tilted neck.

The man was momentarily speechless.

“…Sorry about that. Would you continue what you were saying? It really is my first time.”

When Xie Baowei apologized again, the man who had been hesitating opened his mouth.

“Where does Xiaotian’s heart lie? That is what matters.”

“Well damn. What a troublesome fellow.”

“How insolent.”

When Xie Baowei grumbled, the man scolded him with a stern voice.

At that reaction, did Xiaotian send them directly? He thought for a moment, but shook his head.

That wasn’t how that person worked.

It was just that the loyal heart of those who served was excessive.

“If I die, would that person be pleased? Wouldn’t it be quite the opposite?”

“You do not know.”

The man firmly shook his head.

Xie Baowei clicked his tongue.

Well, how would they know.

That person didn’t work that way either.

Even if angry, there would be no punishment.

That’s why there’s such chaos beneath the surface.

Perhaps not naturally gifted at handling people.

It was because of disliking this that he had retreated to the countryside.

He didn’t want to remain beside monsters who raised dozens of serpents in their bellies.

“To live like that, blood must be seen. Is that it?”

There was no answer.

The man drew his sword again as if he had conveyed all he needed to say.

The meaning was clear.

Xie Baowei opened his mouth bitterly.

“Come.”

Again, blood and flesh flew wildly.

But there was no sound.

***

Blood doesn’t wash off easily.

No matter how thoroughly you wash it.

Xie Baowei submerged his body completely in a valley and sank into meditation.

It was a small Dragon Pool, deep enough to go about one span deeper even when standing on tiptoes.

“…Tiara Shabda Karma Rataya Svaha.”

Xie Baowei fights roughly.

His fighting method was to give up everything that could be given up in the gap between life and death and take the bones.

Sometimes that would only take flesh and nothing more.

Thanks to that method, he was able to survive.

Captured by bandits and sold as a slave, then caught again by horse thieves and sold to the Frontier.

Even when he became an arrow-catcher at that Frontier and was captured to become a surrendered soldier, he ultimately survived.

One reason he didn’t become crippled despite all this was the ‘mantra’.

This was something he obtained while at the Frontier, originally a hemostatic method for minor wounds and a kind of brainwashing-like dharma that made one forget pain.

It was something thrown at them to increase the utility value of arrow-catchers, but Xie Baowei had trained it to the extreme to reach where he was now.

Whether it was originally designed to be used this way was unknown, but there probably weren’t many who used it to this extent and still survived.

“Whew.”

When he emerged from the water, it was just before dawn.

Xie Baowei looked at his lightly healed wounds and moved his aching body forward.

He wasn’t worried about traces of the fight.

They would be cleanly erased.

As he always felt, such aspects made these people even more frightening.

“…I could just pretend not to know and let it pass.”

That won’t happen.

Though he grumbled, it was unavoidable.

Even if it wasn’t what ‘that person’ wanted, the reason for knowing but staying still was clear.

‘Come back.’

I refuse.

Xie Baowei had clearly answered that way.

“Damn it.”

Xie Baowei limped forward. The newly formed wounds twitched as if they might burst at any moment.

He had lost too much blood.

He needed to rest for a while.

.

.

.

“I say. Master Jin. Are you there?”

Damn it all.

Daily life had begun again.

Xie Baowei let out a sigh and got up from his seat.

Even the small leisure of watching the carp in Yuseoji was broken.

It had already been close to a month since he returned.

During that time, the Hwangbo Family Estate had regained its vitality as if nothing had happened.

Well, it wasn’t that they had regained the prosperity of old times.

Just that the servants had increased a bit and visitors began coming and going. Most of the visitors were also Hwangbo Family members or relatives.

But even just that much was enough to bring back vitality.

Food piled up in the storehouse and the guest rooms became bustling.

During this time, Xie Baowei had to greet all those guests and also receive two more night visitors.

The Taigu Pavilion (family meetings) were held twice, but Xie Baowei was not invited.

He wasn’t disappointed. He had no connection to it anyway.

Right.

No connection at all.

Just like how there was still no contact from Hee-mae.

“I thought you might be bored, so I came.”

Huangbo Yeon-gung laughed leisurely.

If there was someone Xie Baowei saw most often after returning to the Huangbo Family, it was Huangbo Yeon-gung.

He frequently sought out Xie Baowei, but wasn’t as bothersome as expected.

That is to say, he didn’t make sounds like suggesting they do Chentabeipa in preparation for Biwuyan, or offering to teach martial arts.

This was true even when the Taigu Pavilion was convened due to the incident Xie Baowei had caused.

“I just hope it won’t be boring.”

“Haha! As if!”

When Xie Baowei answered indifferently, Huangbo Yeon-gung laughed heartily.

The carp got startled and swam away.

When Xie Baowei frowned and turned his head, Huangbo Yeon-gung grinned.

His body seemed to be gradually gaining weight, overlapping with his former appearance.

“You seem to be using your body quite a bit these days.”

“It’s because of you.”

“…I’m the one participating in Biwuyan, so why is elder brother…?”

Xie Baowei asked as if he truly didn’t understand.

Huangbo Yeon-gung turned his head with a strangely uncomfortable expression.

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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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