Chapter 2: A Different Background

Every night, the previous owner's memories appeared in Fang Xiu's dreams like scenes from a film played in reverse, one after another.

He saw the previous owner kneeling before a grave, fingers dug deep into the dirt, weeping bitterly.

Beside him stood a furious middle-aged man, his originally clean and handsome face full of malice, veins bulging on his neck, coldly staring at the handwriting on the tombstone.

Kneeling beneath the middle-aged man's feet were three people, one in their teens and two in their twenties, kowtowing unceasingly on the ground and begging desperately.

Only this child completely ignored those beside him, did not beg the middle-aged man for mercy, and was too lazy to even glance at him, his mind fixed on the deceased in the grave.

Finally impatient under the pleas of the three, the middle-aged man suddenly struck out, severing the tendons of the two young men's feet; then his gaze softened slightly as he broke the left leg of the boy in his teens, before turning to look at the child who had kept his back to him.

The child also realized what was about to happen; he turned his head and coldly watched the middle-aged man, straightened his back, held his head high, seemed to say something with his mouth, and his eyes held no fear—only three parts hatred.

The middle-aged man seemed enraged by the boy's words; he reached out, grabbed the boy's neck, threw him into the air, then snapped his right finger to strike the boy's left leg.

Every time he dreamed of this, the searing pain in his left leg woke Fang Xiu instantly, drenched in sweat; Fang Xiu silently cursed Huang Yaoshi in his heart, furiously venting with language unique to the twenty-first century, and could only arrive at one helpless conclusion.

"Thieving heavens, I am Fang Xiu, not Wu Mianfeng."

Fang Xiu shook his head, trying to shake off the images in his mind and his hatred for Huang Yaoshi, and continued to struggle forward; by the time he returned to the ruined house, more than half an hour had passed.

Only A Ku was in the ruined house; Mo Laodao had gone into the mountains early that morning to gather herbs.

A Ku curled up on the haystack like a kitten, covered with a few rags, twitching unconsciously a few times, muttering something in her mouth.

Fang Xiu walked over and saw that A Ku's complexion was pale; though she was already six years old, her figure looked like she was only three or four, so thin it made one's heart ache; long-term malnutrition had left her hair sparse and yellow, her eye sockets sunken.

Even so, during the days after Fang Xiu had just transmigrated and could not get up, it was her daily hard work begging for food that allowed Fang Xiu to barely survive.

Children of later generations would never suffer like this; every one of them was a little fairy.

Fang Xiu reached out and touched her forehead, exhaling a breath; the little girl's fever had finally subsided.

Mo Laodao was a man with a hard mouth but a soft heart, given to mystical mumblings; he claimed to be a Daoist but was no different from a beggar; fortunately, he really knew a bit of medicine—Fang Xiu's leg gradually improving and the little girl's fever quickly subsiding were both his doing.

Fang Xiu could not rest; he dumped the steamed cakes into the earthenware jar, pounded them with a wooden stick, added some water, then threw in those vegetable leaves, barely counting as a bowl of mixed vegetable porridge; then he lit the extinguished fire and placed the earthenware jar over the fire.

A Ku's stomach could not handle such hard food now; a sick person always needed to drink something thin.

The firewood in the fire crackled; he stared blankly at the earthenware jar on the fire, his eyes gradually losing focus.

He saw again that gentle and virtuous woman in green, rowing a light boat carrying the young Wu Mianfeng on Taihu, the lake surface full of lotuses; the woman reached out to pick a lotus pod, shelled the lotus seeds, removed their bitter cores, and stuffed them into Wu Mianfeng's mouth, smiling with eyes full of love.

The scene shifted, becoming a stark mourning hall; the woman was dressed entirely in white mourning clothes, weak beyond bearing, while Wu Mianfeng, dressed in mourning clothes and looking lost, knelt beside her, kowtowing in return to every person who came to offer incense and pay respects; on the spirit tablet in the hall was written: The position of the late Lord Wu, named Zhengkang; respectfully made by filial son Wu Chengyu of the Wu family.

Finally, the woman collapsed to the ground; the young Wu Mianfeng looked at his mother in terror and wailed aloud.

The woman finally fell ill and could not rise; on her deathbed, another woman in green came to her bedside, held her hand, and wept softly; beside them stood a middle-aged man holding a jade xiao, silent and speechless.

Wu Mianfeng stared blankly at the woman he had never seen, who bore an eighty percent resemblance to his mother; his mother said this was his Aunt.

The last scene Fang Xiu saw was Wu Mianfeng kneeling before the grave, unable to shed tears anymore; he would never see his mother again.

He turned to look at his Aunt behind him, head bowed and weeping; his Aunt resembled his mother too much; Wu Mianfeng could not help but walk over and tightly grab his Aunt's hand.

A ten-year-old child's memories were not complex; Fang Xiu soon discovered the hidden story within.

Huang Yaoshi had six great disciples; Wu Mianfeng was the youngest, and from beginning to end only one name was left, with no further news, but in terms of birth and origin, he was completely different from his senior brothers and sisters.

The other disciples, such as Qu Lingfeng, were all orphans whom Huang Yaoshi had saved from fire and water when their families suffered great calamity.

They felt great gratitude to Huang Yaoshi, revered him extremely, and were also afraid of him to the bone.

But as for Wu Mianfeng, his feelings for Huang Yaoshi were extremely faint; the person closest to him on Peach Blossom Island was always Feng Heng, his Aunt, Huang Yaoshi's wife.

Wu Mianfeng's mother was named Mu Qingyin; she and Feng Heng were female cousins; Feng Heng was the daughter of Mu Qingyin's aunt.

Mu Qingyin was a few years older than Feng Heng; they had been close since childhood, but after Mu Qingyin married and they were separated by distance, their contact lessened.

And Wu Mianfeng's paternal clan, the Wu Clan of Wu Family Slope, passed down martial arts through farming; their family's Yan Qing Fist was quite famous in the Jiangnan region.

The clan also operated an escort agency called Yangwu Escort Agency; Wu Mianfeng's father, Wu Zhengkang, was one of the agency's escort masters.

Five years ago, while escorting goods, Wu Zhengkang encountered a Jiangnan bandit called A Gust of Wind, a group of bandits who roamed everywhere burning, killing, and looting.

A Gust of Wind never left survivors when robbing escorts; the Wu family's escort masters fought fiercely and killed half the bandits, but were ultimately outnumbered and all died in battle.

When the disastrous news returned, Mu Qingyin fell ill and could not rise; Huang Yaoshi and Feng Heng happened to be traveling there; Mu Qingyin and Feng Heng only had time to meet one last time before passing away.

At that time, Wu Mianfeng was only five years old and had experienced a human tragedy; Feng Heng, mindful of her feelings for her sister, and out of endless pity, proposed to adopt Wu Mianfeng.

The Wu Clan had extremely upright family traditions; clan members would naturally be properly cared for and carefully cultivated; they never did the dirty work of cutting off a line of succession; Wu Mianfeng could originally have lived without worry.

But Wu Mianfeng, having just lost his parents, relied extremely on Feng Heng and was unwilling to be separated from her for a moment.

Finally, the Wu Clan respected Wu Mianfeng's wishes and let Feng Heng take Wu Mianfeng away; he thus naturally became Huang Yaoshi's sixth disciple.

In the five years after arriving on the island, Wu Mianfeng, under Feng Heng's careful care, gradually emerged from his grief; in his heart, Feng Heng had long since replaced his mother.

Somewhat unfortunately, Wu Mianfeng's aptitude was average, his martial arts progress slow, and he completely failed to catch Huang Yaoshi's eye; Huang Yaoshi usually treated him extremely coldly, paying him no mind, but Wu Mianfeng did not care much about this, and he rarely called Huang Yaoshi Master.

So Wu Mianfeng, a Peach Blossom Island Disciple who did not even count as a bit player, was actually a Peach Blossom Island in-law, Huang Rong's male cousin, and the future brother-in-law of some great hero.

New book released; the most important data; hope everyone can collect and follow as much as possible; if there could be some recommendation tickets, that would be even better.

New book and this struggling author both rely on everyone moving their money-making little fingers; please, please.

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(Chapter End)