Chapter 87

I didn't realize it would come to this.

Bai Yiming swallowed hard, his eyes wide as he looked at Dan Mugu, who had attached himself to his side.

"I'm going to go crazy..."

"Sir, sir! I can do anything you ask!"

"Then."

Shall we go home?

The words rose to his throat but then sank back down. Seeing that earnest expression, he couldn't bring himself to say it.

Bai Yiming hunched his shoulders and shuffled his feet.

Until a moment ago, he had been practicing stealth techniques with enthusiasm, but now he wanted to proclaim his existence to the whole world. His sorrow.

'Why did it come to this?'

Following the boy, Bao La, the elder—Bai Yiming had started calling the rejuvenated old man "elder" in his mind—had come this far, and it was good.

Honestly, there were many times when he felt like giving up. It started when they left Hangzhou.

He didn't say it would be such a long journey!

All he had was enough money for a cup of cheap wine on the street. Still, he trudged along.

Leaving the room at Huanbi Tower without saying when he would return, he even sent an expensive messenger bird.

Following that boy...

— You failed, and only the Xie family's son passed? What does that mean?

— Didn't I tell you repeatedly that you had to do well?

— You couldn't even pass that one test, what do you plan to do?

— And you were expelled from the main house? What does that mean? Who told you to do that?

Slap!

At that moment, Bai Yiming was truly shocked.

The old man, who seemed to be his grandfather, didn't even let the child into the inner chambers but stood him outside in the cold autumn wind and slapped him.

Then he urged the servant to bring a cane. He held a dark wooden stick and struck the child with all his might.

The child couldn't even scream. How could he just stand there and watch?

— Waaah! Stop! Stop!

Bai Yiming, who had been secretly watching, rushed in. He had to block the wooden stick with his body, but after the elder's acupuncture, his body felt so light that it didn't hurt at all.

The eyes of the bloodied, submissive young boy, who stared at him blankly.

'This crazy old man is still in good health.'

Even when Bai Yiming suddenly intervened, the old man in the family only became more furious.

Starting with "Where did you come from, you scoundrel?" and demanding that all the unnecessary people be thrown out, the scene turned chaotic, and there was this boy.

— I... I don't need this kind of family!

And that's how it ended.

"I'm going to go crazy..."

'This isn't what the elder sent me to do.'

The boy, whose lips were bleeding from the hard slap, glared at his grandfather with venom in his eyes, but the old man didn't flinch.

Behind the old man, a thin, small girl stood with her shoulders hunched, looking defeated.

Bai Yiming understood the situation at a glance. It seemed the family had pinned their hopes on the eldest son, but after he disappointed them, they turned their attention to the second son.

When the chaotic scene finally ended, the boy, with his wounds, hatred, and confusion, clung to him desperately.

Bai Yiming was taken aback.

He could tell. In this family, no one had ever stood up for this child.

'What kind of parents are they?'

That's why this child, who had just met a stranger, was looking at him with such earnest eyes, just because he had protected him once.

— I'll really do anything you ask. It doesn't matter where we go, please take me with you...

No matter how much he tried to dissuade, scold, or yell, the child wouldn't listen.

The child's parents and grandfather didn't even think of coming to look for him.

Instead, the second son ran out to Bai Yiming and Dan Mugu, and the parents came looking for the youngest child, wearing only a thin coat in the cold.

When Bai Yiming told them not to hit the child like that, they only told him not to meddle in their family affairs.

The parents, crying, took their daughter, who insisted on staying with her brother, and left, leaving Dan Mugu behind.

The mother secretly gave Bai Yiming a small bag and quickly left with her husband and daughter.

Dan Mugu watched them go, his shoulders shaking.

'Returning a child to a family that would beat him with a wooden stick for failing an exam is not something a person should do...'

That's how he ended up here, unable to refuse.

"You'll regret this. No matter how... trashy they are, having a family is different from not having one."

"What about you, sir? Do you have a family?"

"...No, I don't either... But I had no choice, and you..."

"Can I be like you, even without parents and family?"

"You brat. Listen to me!"

"Then I want to be like you."

At that moment, Bai Yiming glared at Dan Mugu sternly.

"You little brat! Do you know what it means to be like me? I couldn't go to a proper Daoist temple because I had no parents, so I learned from strange places, and my qi and blood became twisted. I've been struggling with external techniques until now!"

He had always pretended to be confident, complete, and sufficient, but if he truly was, he wouldn't have been shouting "I'm fine!" while pretending to be fine.

In reality, he wasn't fine. The lack gnawed at him, and he envied those who had everything, to the point where he couldn't bear it.

Stealing from the young master, who knew nothing, and tricking people into thinking he was superior, while secretly laughing to himself...

When Dan Mugu heard this, he glared at Bai Yiming with red, tear-filled eyes, clenched his fists, and started hitting himself in the stomach.

"Ow, ow! Ouch!"

"No, no! Hey! You brat, are you crazy?!"

"I don't need a dantian without you!"

"You're going to kill yourself. You need it! I have one! I just got it recently!"

"..."

After a long journey, after being beaten by his grandfather and almost being cast out by the adults who had chased after him, Dan Mugu looked up at him with a blank expression.

Bai Yiming wiped his face and said,

"Listen. I didn't come here to protect you."

"..."

"Actually, I came to watch over you to make sure you don't do anything strange."

"I... do something strange?"

"Yes. Did you do something during the exam?"

He had already figured out that the incident Dan Mugu was involved in was related to the Dan Mu family's recent branch recruitment. He had also caused trouble there.

His elder must have been connected to the Dan Mu family. Under Bai Yiming's questioning, Dan Mugu hesitated but then spoke honestly.

"I... fed them meat."

"What kind of meat to whom?"

"Rotten chicken... to... Xie Jilin, who was likely to get first place..."

"What?!"

"But if I didn't get first place, my grandfather would be angry..."

"No, how could you...?"

He had wanted to kill someone in his life, but he had never thought of poisoning them to death, let alone actually doing it. He had only beaten them up after gaining strength later.

'The elder had a good reason to watch over you!'

But deep down, he understood Dan Mugu's desperation.

If he knew he would be beaten with a stick for not getting first place. That doesn't mean feeding them rotten meat was right, but...

As Bai Yiming just breathed, Dan Mugu quickly lowered his eyes and mumbled.

"I was wrong..."