Father

1,535 words

Chapter 678: Father

"Oh, I almost forgot—this is your fifth brother. He walked back home on his own just yesterday." Chi Baishui was introducing his newly returned son to his eldest daughter.

Seeing the tattoos on Yang Xiaohai's body, his elder sister nodded with satisfaction. "Fifth brother, it's good you're back. Have you married yet? Want your sister to play matchmaker for you?"

"Hahaha, that won't be necessary. This kid's done well for himself—he found a wife who could be his mother."

Just as the two of them stepped into the boat's awning, Zhao Xiumei came rushing to Yang Xiaohai's side in terror. She grabbed his hand with fingers gone cold. "Husband! These people are from the Fa Sect—the rebels! We have to run!"

A flicker of conflict passed through Yang Xiaohai's eyes. In the end, he patted the back of her hand and followed them into the awning. "Let me see if I can talk some sense into them."

No matter what, they were still his family. He couldn't just stand by and watch them walk straight into a trap.

With his eldest sister back for a visit, the midday meal was especially lavish. But Yang Xiaohai's attention clearly wasn't on the food. He was turning over how to persuade his sister.

"Father! How much silver does the house still have? Give it all to me—I'll work some connections and see if I can get the whole family into an official post with a regular salary."

Hearing this, Yang Xiaohai panicked. He forgot all discretion and jumped to his feet. "Elder Sister, you can't do this! The Fa Sect is an evil cult rebelling against the throne! You'd be throwing our whole family into a pit of fire!"

He quickly recounted everything—how the Fa Sect had besieged Niu Xin Village, and what that old Fa Sect woman had done in the county town.

But as soon as he finished, he saw his elder sister and his father exchange a glance and burst into loud laughter.

"Fifth brother, you're still young—you don't understand yet. Of course I know they're rebels. But before the rebellion, they're an evil cult. What happens if the rebellion succeeds?"

His elder sister gave him a meaningful look, then picked up her bowl of fish wine and took a sip. "If the rebellion succeeds, it's no longer a rebellion. It's an uprising. And the Fa Sect stops being an evil cult—it becomes the state religion. You understand what I'm saying, don't you?"

"I don't!" Yang Xiaohai shook his head forcefully, his expression resolute. "An evil cult is an evil cult! They've killed so many people! They treat human life like dirt!"

"Ridiculous!" Chi Baishui slammed the table in anger. "Back when the Later Shu was in power, those officials didn't treat human life like dirt? It's all the same! Just so they could collect bigger pearls! Your mother's ears went deaf because of them! It'd be a blessing if that dog regime was wiped out!"

"Now that the new court has just risen, they're short of people everywhere. If we don't grab an official post or two now, what are we supposed to do—spend our whole lives fishing and diving for pearls to make a living?"

Seeing Yang Xiaohai standing there with clenched fists, Chi Baishui waved a dismissive hand in annoyance. "Forget it, forget it. You're just a kid whose fluff hasn't grown in yet. It's not worth discussing with you. From now on, just listen to your father."

He turned back to his eldest daughter. "Do as you said. The money you sent back hasn't been touched. And your fifth brother brought quite a bit of silver home too—you can use all of it."

Both father and daughter shared the same hot temper. Right after the meal, they started moving. Silver coins and strings of copper cash that had been hidden at the bottom of chests were dug out.

And Yang Xiaohai's cart was uncovered too. Everything he'd brought back from Niu Xin Village was hauled out.

"Don't be stingy with it. Give that silver to your elder sister—let her trade it for a post for me. That's worth far more than hoarding it!" Chi Baishui said, looking quite pleased with himself.

Yang Xiaohai held his wife's hand, watching numbly as his belongings were carried out one by one.

It wasn't the silver he begrudged. It was that he suddenly realized his family wasn't quite what he'd imagined them to be. An inexplicable discomfort settled in his chest.

Wasn't family supposed to love each other? Even the Lyu Family Troupe was like that.

"Father, please—you can't do this! The Fa Sect kills people! They kill without batting an eye! You're turning our whole family into monsters!" Yang Xiaohai made one last attempt at persuasion. He still couldn't bear to watch his family march toward their deaths.

"You don't know anything, boy. In this world, there's no such thing as 'monster' or 'good man.' Do you think this is some kind of children's game?"

The moving continued. In the end, even the cart and the horse were sold off. No one thought to ask Yang Xiaohai's opinion.

As if sensing something, Houwa and Zhao Xiumei silently gathered close to him. Neither of them went anywhere. The joy on their faces from earlier was already gone.

"Husband, let's go back to Niu Xin Village. This isn't right." Zhao Xiumei was persuading Yang Xiaohai for the first time.

Yang Xiaohai watched his birth mother walking toward him carrying a bowl of something. He forced a smile onto his face as he went to meet her. "Wait a little longer. I need to figure something out."

His mind was in turmoil the entire day. He considered using force to stop his family, but relatives were everywhere, and a real fight would be messy. Besides, he couldn't go all out against them.

That night, Yang Xiaohai lay in his hammock, tossing and turning as he wrestled with the problem.

"Houwa is nimble. What if I had him sneak in tonight and steal all of Elder Sister's silver? That way they wouldn't be able to join the Fa Sect..."

Just as a plan was starting to form, he suddenly heard chattering monkey-calls from outside. That sound couldn't be made by an ordinary person—only Houwa, who had lived as a monkey for so long, could produce it.

"What's going on?" Yang Xiaohai rolled off the hammock and tiptoed past his third brother's sleeping head, making his way outside.

The moment he stepped out, he saw something that filled him with shock. His father and his second brother were tying up the three little Houwa with ropes, dragging them away into the distance.

"Father! What are you doing!" Yang Xiaohai's voice trembled as he shouted.

Chi Baishui looked up and saw Yang Xiaohai. There wasn't a trace of panic on his face. He spoke as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "These three brats—you picked them up on the road, didn't you? They're useless anyway. Might as well sell them off for some cash."

Yang Xiaohai felt a stabbing ache in his chest. His lips quivered as he stepped forward. "Father, I gave you all that silver from the cart. I gave you the cart too. Why do you have to sell the children?"

"Money? Who ever has enough of it? These three little ones look especially like monkeys—they've probably been trained before. They'll fetch a good price. Once we sell them, your elder sister can buy you an official post in the court. You'll earn it all back in two or three months."

As Yang Xiaohai stared at his father, the man before him suddenly seemed like a stranger. A cold dread crept into his heart. "Was it really because we couldn't afford to eat that they sold me back then? Why does he look so comfortable selling people?"

Chi Baishui couldn't be bothered to argue with Yang Xiaohai anymore. He signaled his other son with a look, and the two of them continued dragging the Houwa away.

"Stop! I said stop!" Yang Xiaohai blocked their path. There was no more hesitation in his eyes. He pulled the Rotten Wood Ruyi from his chest. "Let them go!"

"Heh! Is that how you talk to your father? You itching for a beating?"

"Why! Why did you sell me back then!" Yang Xiaohai's eyes were bloodshot as he glared at his father and shouted.

"Why? Because I'm your father! Now kneel!" Chi Baishui rolled up his sleeves.

Their shouting woke up the people on the other boats. Soon, the surrounding Dan-min families came out one after another.

Once they learned what was going on, they began chiming in to mediate from all sides.

"Fifth boy of the Chi family, you can't do this. He's your father after all. You should go along with him on such a small matter. You can't be unfilial."

"That's right. These three brats aren't Dragon-Household Dan-min anyway. Selling them off is no big deal."

"Alright, alright, that's enough. Just kowtow to your father and apologize. You're all family. Don't make things ugly over something so trivial."

(End of chapter.)

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Reading Guide Decoding

Blood and Silver: Yang Xiaohai's Reckoning

Cultural / Xianxia Notes

Dan-min (疍民) were a historically marginalized boat-dwelling community in Southeast China, often barred from land ownership, civil service exams, and intermarriage with land people. Their existence on the fringes of society made them vulnerable to exploitation—and sometimes, to radical movements that promised a way out. The Fa Sect's appeal to the Chi family isn't ideological; it's a practical survival bet on which side will win.

Filial piety (孝) in traditional Chinese ethics isn't just respect—it's a binding social contract. A child who openly defies a parent in front of the community loses moral standing. The surrounding Dan-min family members aren't being cruel; they're enforcing a social rule that keeps the group stable. Yang Xiaohai is breaking that rule by treating his father like a stranger who can be challenged.

Selling children and the "useless mouth" logic—in times of extreme poverty, rural Chinese families sometimes sold children (especially daughters or younger sons) as a survival mechanism. The practice was justified by a brutal calculus: fewer mouths to feed, and the sale price could keep the rest alive. Chi Baishui's casual ease with selling the Houwa shows how deeply this logic is normalized in his world. Yang Xiaohai's horror is the realization that he was once the commodity in that same equation.

Chapter Overview

Yang Xiaohai tries to convince his blood family to abandon their plan to join the Fa Sect rebellion, only to watch his father and siblings strip him of every resource he brought back. The chapter escalates into a raw confrontation about filial piety, the exchange value of children, and the gap between the family Yang Xiaohai wanted and the family that actually exists.

Key Plot Points

Yang Xiaohai returns to his Dan-min family, hoping to reunite. Chi Baishui and his eldest daughter reveal they have already committed to the Fa Sect's rebellion, believing a successful rebellion makes them patriots rather than criminals. Yang Xiaohai's goods, cart, and horse are sold off without his consent to fund bribery for official posts. His desperate attempt at persuasion fails against his father's pragmatism. That night, he catches his father and second brother trying to sell the three Houwa children for cash. When he blocks them physically, drawing the Rotten Wood Ruyi, the surrounding Dan-min community gathers to pressure him into submission—family is family, and unfilial behavior is the real crime here.

Reading Guide

This chapter is a knife to the gut. After everything Yang Xiaohai has survived—flesh-eating monsters, apocalyptic battles, the constant horror of the Dao-Twisted World—what breaks him isn't an eldritch god. It's his father looking at three children the way a fisherman looks at a good catch.

The Dan-min community's response is almost more chilling than Chi Baishui's greed. They aren't angry about the sale; they're angry that Yang Xiaohai won't obey his father. The tragedy isn't that one family is bad—it's that the whole community has normalized this kind of betrayal as how things are done.

Watch for the moment Yang Xiaohai draws the Rotten Wood Ruyi. He doesn't attack. He blocks. He's still trying to stop harm without causing harm. That restraint—after everything he's been through—tells you more about who he is than any battle scene ever could.