Chapter 2

"It's Yang Xuan!"

Someone cried out in surprise.

Yang Ding and his wife exchanged a glance, and the look of disappointment in their eyes quickly vanished.

"Yang Xuan has killed a tiger!" someone shouted.

Yang Ding and his wife's eyes lit up, and they rushed out together.

"We're rich!"

The Yang family gathered around the tiger, and Yang Xuan was pushed to the outer circle.

He was very hungry, and his gaze swept over his mother, Wang Shi.

"The marriage of Eldest and Second Son is settled," Wang Shi said, clapping her hands in joy.

Yang Xuan slowly entered the kitchen, found a piece of dry bread, and squatted by the stove, leaning against the stove opening, gnawing on the bread with the residual warmth from the ashes.

The cold wind blew from outside, but his body did not move.

Behind him, a thin stream of warm air came, while in front, it was as cold as frost.

Just like the world.

"Third Son!"

The woman who had spoken well of him came in and, seeing him squatting and gnawing on the dry bread, sighed, "Are you starving? Why didn't you hunt some game and cook it in the mountains?"

Yang Xuan looked up and smiled, "I'm young, I'm not afraid of hunger."

Outside, Yang Ding's voice could be heard, "This tiger skin has only one arrow wound, it can fetch a lot of money. Lord Ming promised to give us benefits. Fourth Son is only nine years old, and we'll ask Lord Ming to let him study. The Yang family will have a scholar."

Wang Shi's voice was filled with pride, "If this tiger had delayed for another half day, its waist would have been spoiled. Hurry up and cut it open, and send it to Lord Ming."

"Did you rush here, hungry and exhausted, to keep the tiger's waist fresh?" The woman looked at Yang Xuan, her lips trembling, "Your parents... don't be angry."

Yang Xuan said calmly, "I'm not angry."

The dry bread stuck in his throat, and he took a sip of water from a ladle to swallow it down.

The icy well water chilled him all the way down.

The woman tried to persuade him for a while, then sighed and left.

After eating the dry bread, Yang Xuan went to the backyard to rinse himself.

Splash!

A basin of water poured over his head, and his lean body turned slightly red.

He unconsciously rubbed his thigh, where there was a birthmark that looked like a bird. The villagers would joke about it without restraint, and both men and women would smile strangely when mentioning the bird, making the young boy embarrassed to say he had a bird birthmark.

Above, his lean chest and abdomen were marked with over a dozen scars, the deepest one running diagonally from his left chest to his right lower abdomen. It was a memento from a leopard that had feigned death when he was eleven. He had stayed in the mountains for over ten days, and fortunately, the practice he had learned from a young age helped him survive.

The practice was given to him by Yang Lue, who said it could make him live to a hundred years.

Yang Lue...

Yang Xuan's eyes darkened.

Since he could remember, Yang Lue would often appear in his bedroom at night, quietly taking him outside the village to teach him how to read, practice, and use weapons.

He didn't know what Yang Lue was to him, and Yang Lue wouldn't say. When he was five, Yang Lue told him to ask Yang Ding and his wife if he could study. But he was scolded by Yang Ding and Wang Shi, and the matter of studying was dropped. In the end, it was Yang Lue who taught him.

This made Yang Xuan somewhat confused. He even felt that Yang Lue was his real father, but Yang Lue wouldn't even let him call him Uncle.

Five years later, when he was ten, Yang Lue suddenly disappeared, cutting off all of Yang Xuan's speculations.

"Thinking about women?"

A tall, strong man with thick eyebrows and a cold demeanor appeared in front of him, like the cold wind at the peak of Dongyu Mountain.

"Yang Lue!" Yang Xuan stepped forward in joy, then instinctively reached for his clothes.

Yang Lue's gaze swept over the scars on Yang Xuan's chest and abdomen, and his cold demeanor became even more intense.

"Who did this?"

A sudden killing intent arose, and Yang Lue's clothes billowed without wind. The window frames rattled, and the door moved slightly.

The window frames shattered, and the fragments fell silently.

Yang Xuan looked down at his chest and abdomen. He knew Yang Lue was well-practiced, probably on par with the bad-tempered captain in the county, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to silently leap over the Yang family's fence.

"I was careless."

The front door was noisy again, with Yang Ding and Wang Shi discussing the marriages of their eldest and second sons, and how their fourth son would surely go to Chang'an to take the imperial exams and become a scholar...

But none of the arrangements included Yang Xuan.

"How did you spend the past five years?" Hearing the words outside, Yang Lue knew that the young man in front of him must have endured a lot in the five years he was away.

Yang Xuan wanted to tell him about the past few years. He looked at the well, where a deep groove had been worn by the rope. Every time he saw this groove, he felt warmth. When he was six and sick, Yang Lue was not around, and the doctor said he needed to soak in hot water. He vaguely heard Yang Ding drawing water in the backyard and Wang Shi scolding the eldest son to start the fire... The urgent voices made him feel safe for the first time. He wiped his hair, his expression calm, "I spent it like this."

What is this child hiding? Yang Lue hesitated, "You are not their child."

Yang Xuan, who was dressing, was taken aback, "Have you been drinking? I'll get you a cup of hot tea, but the leaves are rough, and there are no spices, so don't be picky."

"I haven't touched alcohol in fifteen years." Yang Lue stood still, his cold demeanor seeming to solidify, making him even more convinced of the correctness of what he said.

Yang Lue had always been a man of his word, never lying.

"You're lying to me!" He said in a trembling voice, "Then... whose child am I? Yours?"

His eyes even showed a glimmer of hope.

Yes, Yang Lue must have some unspoken reasons, so he entrusted him to the Yang family. Or... am I his illegitimate child? His wife didn't allow me to enter, so he sent me here.

Yang Lue shook his head, "You are the child of my friend. Your parents passed away when you were less than a year old. I brought you to Yuanzhou Xiaohetown and gave Yang Ding and his wife a thousand coins. Since then, I gave them five hundred coins every year, enough for them to live and raise you."

"People bought with money can also betray for money... I underestimated human nature."

Yang Xuan was not stupid, but rather very intelligent. He instantly understood why his parents treated him so coldly, even to the point of abuse.

Five years ago, when Yang Lue disappeared, the annual five hundred coins also stopped.

"Where have you been for the past five years?" Yang Xuan asked, his voice hoarse, his heart filled with mixed emotions.

There was some commotion outside, and Yang Lue said indifferently, "Five years ago, I had to travel far. I came back this time to arrange a marriage for you."

Arrange a marriage?

"I'm only fifteen." At the founding of the country, to replenish the population lost due to war, the Tang Dynasty encouraged early marriage. Since then, the age of marriage has been raised.

Yang Lue shook his head, "I can't stay here long. Before I leave, I will arrange everything for you. The girl is the daughter of a scholar, but..."

He thought of how Yang Ding and his wife treated Yang Xuan, and his killing intent grew even stronger, "After the marriage, you can go to Chang'an and never come back. I will visit you from time to time."

Yang Xuan felt his mind in chaos, and he tried to dispel those thoughts, knowing that Yang Lue must have some unspoken reasons.

Yang Lue took out a document, "This is a travel permit. Keep it well."

A travel permit needed to be approved by the village chief, but Zhang Qiyuan had not mentioned it, indicating that it must be forged by Yang Lue. Yang Xuan wondered if Yang Lue was a notorious bandit or a wandering knight who liked to spy on women bathing... otherwise, how could he have such skills?

"I will send a matchmaker soon."

Yang Lue regretted it, thinking it was too early to arrange a marriage. But he wouldn't break his word to Yang Xuan.

Yang Xuan, however, was not concerned about this, "Yang Lue, that practice..."

Yang Lue frowned, "That practice was left to you by your father, and he said it was the most stable."

Stable often means mediocre.

Yang Lue looked at Yang Xuan with a complex expression.

Someone came, and Yang Lue felt a great sense of relief, then flew away.

"Do you want to get some things from the mountains? Are there any good hunters in the village?"

Outside the village, Yang Lue, who had disguised himself with some unknown means, wandered to the water channel and found a woman washing clothes. Two copper coins fell on her dirty clothes, and she picked them up, fearing he would change his mind, and hurriedly said, "Yes! What do you want to hunt?"

Yang Lue was surprised, "Can you choose?"

The woman looked at him and suddenly laughed, "Yes!"

"Who?" Yang Lue asked.

The woman rubbed her back, "Yang Sanlang."

"That's still a boy!" Yang Lue clenched his fists, thinking of the scars on Yang Xuan's chest and abdomen.

The woman shook her head, "His parents are cruel! They beat and scolded Yang Sanlang when he was ten, forcing him to work, or they wouldn't give him food. But what can a ten-year-old do? There's only so much work in the fields. So Yang Sanlang carried a bow and a long knife into the mountains. How tall was he then? I remember the scabbard dragging on the ground, and he dragged it along. He walked... and looked back, wiping away tears. Later, I never saw the boy cry again."

...

Yang Xuan returned to his room in a daze, opened a wooden box, and took out a bundle.

Inside were some miscellaneous items, all left by Yang Lue.

Now, it seemed, this was all his parents had left him.

He took out a scroll and skillfully pressed a button.

"Click!"

A small dot glowed green, and Yang Xuan was excited, "Got it, got it."

He pressed a few more buttons, and the sounds changed.

"Pop songs..."

"Prehistoric classical music..."

Yang Xuan pursed his lips, "The worst are these."

He pressed the button again.

"Economics..."

A girl's voice came, and Yang Xuan hesitated. He didn't want to listen to it today, so he pressed the button again.

"Solar storms can affect satellite safety and interfere with communication between space carriers and the ground..."

Yang Xuan sat on the ground, hugging his knees, as if hugging the entire world...

After half an hour, the green light turned red.

The girl's voice became urgent, "Battery low, automatic shutdown... Battery low, automatic shutdown..."

The sound gradually faded away.

Yang Xuan sat on the ground, lost in thought.

Outside, the Yang family was rejoicing.

Inside and outside seemed to be two different worlds.

...

There is one more chapter.