The Hwangbo Clan’s Beloved Live-In Son-in-Law - Chapter 26

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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 26

It had already been over a month and a few more days since Xie Baowei returned to Jinan.

He had waited nearly a month for the Taishan Alliance and whatnot, so adding the time before and after, he had stayed about two more weeks.

Among all that time, these past three days seemed the longest.

The treatment was exceptional.

Meals came punctually at proper times, and seasonal fruits for dessert along with snacks were within arm’s reach.

They even assigned him a personal servant, and a physician came to tend to his wounds when needed.

He had also started taking herbal tonics to restore his vitality.

Warm water was always prepared for bathing, and they took away his bedding to wash it again even though it had been washed just the day before.

Yet Xie Baowei was not in good spirits.

“Just two months or so.”

Right.

In that time of not even a full two months.

Being left completely alone now felt painfully lonely.

“Seokpil.”

“Yes, Master Xie.”

“…Never mind.”

The newly hired servant was a clever boy. He was from Bukbinga, apparently.

He resided in the household along with his younger sister and attended to Xie Baowei’s needs.

Though he had tried telling him to speak casually, the boy rarely listened.

“Seokpil.”

“Yes, Master Xie.”

After just basking in the sun like that, he called for the boy again, who came running over hurriedly.

“It’s been a while since you’ve seen your sister’s face. Is she adapting well?”

“Yes! …Th-there are many guests staying so she’s having a hard time, but the guests give her lots of spending money and take good care of her, so we’re very grateful!”

Seokpil’s young sister stayed with Seokpil and helped with small errands.

However, since Xie Baowei didn’t have much need to call for her, she was currently working elsewhere.

She was probably much busier than Seokpil, actually.

“That’s fortunate.”

No one would bully her.

The atmosphere had changed from before, and there wouldn’t be time for such things anyway.

The family had regained its vitality. Should it be called the former prosperity?

Would all those who had gathered to curry favor with the Taishan Alliance just leave empty-handed?

The Ju Clan Trading Company and Yan Jia Trading House were the first to cross the Huangbo Family’s threshold.

“Isn’t the studying at Taehakdang too difficult?”

“The newly arrived scholars are very kind. I heard the previous Taehak master was quite strict…”

The Huangbo Family moved with moderation.

They didn’t expand their business like before, nor did they accept many guests to increase their clientele.

They simply expanded their existing trading companies a bit more and hired a few more people.

Even so, young people who wanted to learn again continuously knocked on their doors.

“…How is the Five Elements Master doing these days?”

“Ah…! Yes! He’s very healthy!”

“He must be very busy with the increase in guests?”

“Hmm. That’s true, but he doesn’t seem that busy…”

That would be the case.

The master of the Five Elements Martial Arts Stage, who should have been the busiest, was still just turning guests away.

Though there were rumors among people that they would recruit for Taoshantan again, nothing had been definitively decided.

The same was true for Bielian.

There was talk of increasing the reduced personnel, but it had never been easy to catch Lei Dao’s eye there either.

So, Hwangbo Yeontak, Huangbo Lüyan, and Yeon-gung were all at leisure.

Of course, the family’s core members like Ilcheon Gakju who assisted the Household Head, Boujindangzhu who handled money, and Banjindangzhu who was in charge of food and guest reception would be very busy.

Even so!

Setting aside the uncles who used to visit every other day, there was definitely a reason why even his brothers, sisters-in-law, and their children had all completely stopped coming.

“It’s not that I can’t guess the reason.”

“Pardon?”

“Seokpil. Have you heard anything about where Hwangbo Ok is?”

Xie Baowei asked with a gentle smile.

.

.

.

Hwangbo Seungjeong is the third of five brothers. Hwangbo Seungjeong’s father was the second of four brothers.

Hwangbo Seungjeong’s grandfather was the eldest of three brothers, and above him was the youngest of six brothers, or so it was.

Hwangbo Seungjeong had three sons,

and the first and second sons each had three sons of their own.

So how precious would the first daughter born to the third son be?

“Do you remember? When all of Shandong was in an uproar because Hwangbo’s Ok had disappeared?”

Excluding the brothers who died young, the Huangbo Family brothers who didn’t become household heads left the family when they got older, except for some.

Whether they started martial arts schools, opened trading houses, or worked the land.

They lived their own lives.

Even so, distant relatives led by those old men had come to the Huangbo Family to see Hwangbo Ok.

“But you see, it’s strange. No one has ever actually seen that Hwangbo Ok.”

Rumors were rampant.

She was too sick and being treated in seclusion. She had shaved her head and become a nun.

She was staying at some hermitage.

Some even said she had died.

Even the family servants didn’t know her whereabouts.

The long-serving servants said with pained faces that she was healing her heart at a small hermitage.

That’s what Seokpil said.

-Ah! There were also rumors that she ascended to immortality while cultivating her mind!

What did the brothers and adults who used to dote on her say?

They all just scratched their heads and played dumb.

As if she were far away somewhere.

They just said things like she’d return since the news had been delivered.

Still, he believed.

That she would return.

“Where is Yulhui?”

“She ran away from home.”

Hmm. As expected.

“Pardon?”

Huh?

Xie Baowei asked in confusion.

Hwangbo Seungjeong smiled bitterly.

“…I didn’t deliberately hide it. I was just pondering how to tell you.”

“When did she run away…”

“About two years after you left?”

They say Yulhui was truly ill.

She wouldn’t eat or sleep, just cry until she collapsed from exhaustion, then wake up and cry again. They tried coaxing and comforting her, but nothing worked.

“There were times I paced outside her door all night, worried she might die in her sleep.”

But no one could stay by her side.

But no one could stay by their side.

It was because Lüli refused to forgive them.

“Back then, all the shit they pulled on you was exposed. Even those who said it was nothing couldn’t dare look Lüli in the face.”

Every time the words or actions done to Xie Baowei came up, Lüli lost all expression.

Hwangbo Seungjeong still saw that face in his dreams.

“Lüli living is also thanks to you.”

After hearing that she should at least see your face once before going, she started eating, sleeping, and moving again.

Half a year lying down, half a year recovering.

And truly secluding herself in some hermitage for a year.

When things were quiet for a while and we went to check, there was no one at the hermitage.

“You don’t know where she is?”

“How could that be.”

It was different from Xie Baowei’s case.

How could a young lady from a respectable family who left a great house disappear without a trace.

She was a woman who had lived a life where she never needed to mature.

Hwangbo Seungjeong smiled bitterly again as he recalled the news from that time.

How absurd it was.

However, unlike with Xie Baowei, this time he couldn’t bring her back.

“She abandoned her name. Now that girl is no longer called Huangbo Lüli, but goes by Hahee.”

She changed her surname following her mother, and changed the meaning of her name to sever ties.

Hahee.

It was a name Xie Baowei had heard before.

“That’s right. And so called Bifeng, Pagon. A rising star of the martial world.”

Xie Baowei closed his eyes and spoke.

“Then she is.”

Hwangbo Seungjeong confirmed.

“At the Wulin Alliance.”

Xie Baowei traced distant old memories.

-What’s your name?

-I don’t know. I can’t remember.

-Hmm. Then what should I call you?

-You decide. Big brother.

What should I call her.

Since she lost her memory, perhaps Wang for forgetting, or Wang for her clear intelligence and hope.

Her eyes are fierce so perhaps Seong for nature, but that sparkle is like stars so it’s confusing.

Her temperament is fiery so perhaps Hwa for fire, but she’s entirely like a flower that cannot be broken.

Everything suits her, so what would be good.

Just.

Big brother. That one word brings joy.

-…Hee.

In my gray world, you’re the first existence like this.

Feeling this emotion is also a first for me.

I can only be purely joyful.

That’s all.

-Good. It feels familiar somehow too.

Lüli, no. Hee-ae smiled.

Joy came into the life of the young woodcutter Xie Baowei at the foot of Mount Tai.

***

The sound of weapons rang out day after day in the mountains of southern Sichuan Province.

After the rebel king led the traitors and died gloriously in battle, the Crown Prince led his army and ‘purified’ the land of Guizhou, practically turning it upside down.

After such harsh times that half the people of Guizhou were said to be buried in the ground, where would the surviving ‘remnants’ have gone.

Thud.

Urgh!

“You damn bitch!”

The leader of Black Forest Sect, Doksoo, continuously swung his black-stained whip.

Every time he swung the whip, the ground was deeply gouged.

However, it looked more like struggling than attacking.

In the mountain stronghold that was clearly hastily built, only dozens of bandits in beggar-like condition were rampaging.

Originally there had been hundreds of them.

Thud.

Argh!

“You! Leech-like bitch!”

Crack. Bang!

The whip tore through the air again.

The opponent dodged with an expressionless face.

And then.

Thud.

Urgh!

One by one every time the staff was swung.

The subordinates who had been lined up were now all fallen, bleeding from their heads.

Thud.

Thud.

Arghhhh!

“Arghhhh!”

Surprised by the familiar voice, he turned his head to see Seokdu, who had been rampaging like a madman, with his head and body separated.

“…Damn it.”

Thud.

Arghhh.

Doksoo ground his teeth.

It had been months of chase.

Those damn bastards who came looking every time they moved around those high mountain ranges of southeastern Sichuan.

Thanks to them, the recent month had been nothing short of hell.

“That’s why, fuck. I said don’t steal from the Wulin Alliance.”

That damn vice-leader bastard.

But the vice-leader who had served as treasurer had already fled. The cunning bastard had secretly run away the night before.

Along with the Alliance’s treasures.

Fucking bastard.

Doksoo spat along with his curses and assessed the situation.

The battle was already all finished, leaving only himself and the witch before him.

Huff. Huff. Fuck. You won’t spare me, will you?”

He tried probing carefully, but there was no mercy or negotiation on this ice-cold bitch’s face.

Rampaging like a crazy woman while showing not a single emotion on her face – isn’t that why she’s called a yaksha, a witch.

They say rumors are several times exaggerated, but rather the rumors fell short of reality.

Indeed, a rising star of the martial world.

Pagon, or,

“Bifeng is, fuck. Acting like that, no wonder your husband.”

Crack!

In an instant, Doksoo’s head was smashed.

Doksoo’s falling body convulsed in rhythm with the beating.

His prized poison and whip couldn’t even be used once.

“St, stop!”

Thwack!

Only after a young man cried out did the already lifeless body of the poison expert collapse with a thud to the ground.

“P-please stop.”

The woman who had been repeatedly beating the poison expert’s body looked at the young man with indifferent eyes.

The young man cautiously approached, reading the mood.

“M-maybe go a bit easier. We still need to question that poison expert…”

Glare.

The young man carefully brushed the woman’s shoulder but quickly shut his mouth at her fierce gaze.

The woman brushed off her shoulder as if annoyed. However, once her gaze turned away, the young man began to speak again.

“There was nothing good about keeping that bastard alive anyway. Of course. Of course. Haha.”

The woman walked away without a word.

The young man followed behind her.

“You’re not hurt anywhere, are you?”

His gaze was both playful yet careful as he checked for bloodstains or tears.

“I’m fine.”

The woman spoke for the first time.

Though her voice was cold, the young man smiled warmly as if accustomed to it.

In this aspect, she really didn’t resemble her father.

“Oh my, there you go again. You’ve been particularly cold lately.”

“Be quiet, Yeonghil.”

The young man, Hwangbo Yeonghil, smiled brightly.

Still, when she called his name like this, she was no different from the ‘aunt’ he used to follow like a sister.

Though now she pretended not to know him.

“Don’t smile. I’ll get attached.”

I don’t want to be hurt again in the name of family.

And,

Hahee, or rather the one who was once called Hwangbo Family’s Jingjiyuye, Huangbo Lüli, shook her head.

Her eyes were once again filled with sorrow.

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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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