Chapter 357

The New Year was approaching, the time when the village had the most people and everyone was present.

Tao Zuchang sat in the Tao family courtyard with many elders and my lords, frowning as he smoked his pipe.

Tao Fu stared at him anxiously, unable to hold back: "Chief, when Sanlang took the child away back then, he signed a written agreement promising the child would return to our home after completing his studies—now you want to take him away again? What is this?"

Tao Ji sat on the bench opposite Tao Zuchang; upon hearing this, he crossed his leg, lazily pulled his robe over it, said nothing, and stared back with an infuriating smirk.

Tao Zuchang felt a knot in his chest but still asked as usual: "Tao Ji, the written agreement still exists—what do you say?"

Tao Ji said: "I've changed my mind."

Everyone: "..."

Tao Ji's face turned cold: "First, I didn't expect him to have such talent in Daoist medicine; second, I didn't expect the Tao family to treat him like trash."

Tao Ji snorted: "I raised this child myself—he's literate, martial, and skilled in healing; he respects his teachers and gets along with his fellow disciples on the mountain—yet after coming down, you Tao family treat him like a beggar?"

Tao Fu hurried to defend himself: "Sanlang, our family's circumstances are simply this—we never deliberately mistreated him. He's my son; how could I treat him badly? But we're farmers, the whole family's livelihood rests on me—I can't match the life the Sanqing Temple gave him, but as the saying goes, a son doesn't despise his mother's ugliness, a dog doesn't despise his home's poverty..."

"Hmph, Brother, don't pretend in front of me—my Yanbai never despised our poverty. Besides, he has hands and feet and a medical skill—he can support himself." Tao Ji said coldly: "How you treated Yanbai, I've seen with my own eyes; Yanbai knows well, and every elder and child in the village has watched."

"Did I forbid him from returning home? Or did he refuse to come back? I sent him down to reunite with you father and son—yet you speak sweetly to my face, then make him sleep in the cowshed. All the money he earned seeing patients outside—didn't you take it all?"

Tao Fu cried out in protest: "I never took his money! He never earns anything seeing patients—ask the villagers, they give him at most a few eggs or a bowl of rice—never cash."

"So there are eggs and rice now? Then how did my perfectly healthy child grow so thin in just two months after coming down?" Tao Ji slammed his thigh in rage: "He won't speak ill of you, but before I came, I asked everyone—you don't even let him eat at the same table, afraid he'll eat one more bowl of rice—so you're planning to starve him to death if he can't earn food outside?"

Before Tao Fu could reply, Tao Ji kept going: "I know—stepmother, stepfather. I don't want him to ruin a marriage, so I'm taking him away—you can all live in peace. Consider it my good deed."

Tao Mu, hearing this, covered her face with a handkerchief and wept twice; seeing no one pay attention, she turned and slapped Tao Fu: "I married into your family as a virgin, bore and raised your children, managed the household, and even tilled the fields—what have I ever failed to do?"

"Your son was always sickly, just like his mother—he couldn't eat or drink, yet blamed me for not feeding him. Because he was taken to Sanqing Temple as a Daoist Priest, how many have pointed at my back? Now you say 'stepmother, stepfather'—have I ever said one word against your son?"

"Wahhh—I've been falsely accused, ruined my family's reputation, I can't face anyone, I can't go on living—"

She wiped her tears and said to Tao Ji: "Third Uncle, don't rush—aren't you just afraid my son will take Yanbai's inheritance? I'll tell you: right now, I'll smash my head against the wall and take my son with me—afterward, everything in this house belongs to Yanbai and his grandfather."

Tao Ji glanced at her and sneered: "Fine—if you and your son die, I'll perform the rites on the spot and ensure you don't become wandering ghosts—I'll even pray for your next life's wealth."

Tao Mu turned and slapped Tao Fu across the face, wailing: "Are you dead? Your wife and son are being bullied like this, and you can't even let out a fart!"

Tao Fu lowered his head in silence.

Tao Zuchang smoked faster and faster; Tao Ji sat calmly: "Sister-in-law is a woman of her word, unlike this stinking Daoist Priest who breaks promises—how do you want to die?"

"Don't worry—Yanbai isn't like me; he's a gentle, filial boy. After you die, he'll bury you in the ancestral graveyard and burn incense for you every year—he won't treat your graves like you treated my sister-in-law's. Every time Yanbai returns home, her grave is over half a man tall with weeds; if he misses a year, the next time he comes, the grave's gone."

Tao Mu was choked with rage and kept pinching Tao Fu.

Tao Fu frowned, pulled his hand away, and remained silent.

Tao Ji launched into indiscriminate attacks: "I'm used to it—I've seen the world's coldness since childhood; I know this is the Tao family's nature."

"Devouring the entire household, forgetting kindness, breaking promises, abandoning righteousness—thankfully Yanbai isn't like my brother or any Tao family member—he's like my sister-in-law, raised personally by my senior brother at Sanqing Temple, which shaped his virtue. So Second Sister-in-law, rest assured—I said he'll properly sweep your graves, and he will."

Tao Mu clutched her chest and collapsed backward; Tao Fu caught her.

He laid her on the ground, weeping loudly: "My wife, my wife—"

He looked up at Tao Ji: "Sanlang, are you really going to drive your sister-in-law to death? Juanniang is your sister-in-law too!"

Tao Ji: "I never ate her food."

Tao Fu roared: "What about me? I'm your elder brother—Juanniang became your sister-in-law because she married me!"

Tao Ji: "I never ate your food either."

Tao Fu was speechless.

Tao Zuchang realized if he didn't stop this, Tao Ji would launch another indiscriminate attack—everyone's faces flushed, many glared at Tao Ji with hostility. But times had changed: Tao Ji was now a famed Daoist Priest, renowned for his healing and reputation; outside his foul mouth, no one had ever heard a bad word about him.

If they truly broke with him, he was a lone, ordained man—why would he care?

To kill a rat and shatter a jade vase—Tao Zuchang couldn't accept that.

Before Tao Ji could speak again, he said: "Where's Yanbai? Why hasn't he returned? Is he truly determined to become a Daoist Priest, never to return for marriage or children?"

Tao Ji: "I won't let him return—he's been heartbroken by his parents, disillusioned by the world's coldness. If he doesn't leave the secular world, what else is left? Isn't it filthy enough?"

Tao Fu opened his mouth to retort, but Tao Zuchang raised his hand to stop him: "Shut up!"

Tao Fu choked.

Tao Zuchang said: "When heaven wants rain, you can't stop it; when a child seeks his future, you can't hold him back."

Tao Fu's face turned ashen.

Tao Zuchang turned to Tao Ji: "You may take him—but you broke your original promise. You can't just take him away empty-handed. Yanbai is someone's son."

Tao Ji: "You never raised him—he was raised by me."

!. Read

Tao Zuchang: "... So you're going to break all reason and just steal him?"

Tao Ji snorted: "I only reason with reasonable people. I'm just stealing..."

Master Xuanmiao placed a hand on his; Tao Ji swallowed the rest of his words.

Master Xuanmiao took a silver ingot from his money pouch and placed it on the table: "Tao Yanbai is cultivating on the mountain; he likely won't return to the Tao village to fulfill filial duties. This is Tao Yanbai's offering to his family."

Tao Fu lifted his neck to glance at the silver; Tao Mu, resting in his arms, quietly opened her eyes and nudged him.

Tao Fu immediately said: "Is this annual, or..."

Tao Ji snatched the silver in one swift motion, shoved it into his robe: "You want it every year? Dream on."

"The child was born to my sister-in-law, raised by me—don't you know how hard it is for a wandering Daoist Priest to earn money? Street by street, he barely earns enough to feed himself—yet you want a silver ingot every year? Are you trying to drive him to death?"

Tao Ji turned to berate Tao Zuchang: "Classic Tao family—your greed and shamelessness are a perfect inheritance!"

"Shut up!" Tao Zuchang couldn't help shouting at Tao Ji, then turned to berate Tao Fu: "He gives it, take it. If he doesn't give it, pretend you don't have a son—he's lived outside for ten years anyway. You're not childless—do you really need this filial silver?"

In the end, Tao Ji still pulled out a silver ingot from his sleeve. Though no one spoke it aloud, everyone knew: Tao Yanbai's bond with his father was severed—he wouldn't return.

Tao Fu held the silver in his hand; as Tao Ji rose to leave, he finally felt the impending loss of his son.

Thinking of Tao Yanbai, he felt a pang of sorrow, hurriedly called out to the departing Tao Ji, and whispered: "Sanlang, tell Yanbai to come home when he has time—I'll cook him something delicious."

He said: "Tell him not to hate me—I had no choice. My wife pities her own flesh and blood and keeps causing trouble, but in my heart, he is my eldest son, my..."

Tao Ji made a disgusted face and cut him off: "Don't ask me to deliver that nonsense—I find it revolting."

Tao Fu choked on his words, regretting having spoken to Tao Ji.

But Tao Ji wouldn't let him off: "Your second sister-in-law is vile, but you are even more vile. Yanbai is her stepson, yet he is your own son."

"When he suffers injustice, you turn a blind eye—not merely tolerating it, but inciting your whole family and the entire village to mistreat him," Tao Ji said. "You resent how he shattered the peace of your life, yet covet his ability to earn money—so you let your second sister-in-law torment him."

"You hide behind the scenes, gaining nothing but the reputation of being afraid of your wife, while all the blame falls on your second sister-in-law. Your hypocrisy—wanting to be a whore and yet erect a monument to virtue—is truly in the spirit of the Tao clan. Clan Chief, you have an heir."

The Tao Clan Chief's face flushed crimson with rage. "You, you..."

The other clan members glared angrily at Tao Ji; two young, hotheaded men snatched up their hoes.

(End of Chapter)