Gu Lin naturally saw the reactions of Gu’s father and mother. From the moment they appeared until now, they had not shown a shred of pity for the original owner’s plight. Instead, their eyes were full of greed, plotting to squeeze out the original owner’s last bit of value and sell him to another family.
Gu Lin’s expression gradually grew cold, and no longer willing to put on a polite face, he said, “You should go back. I will not go back with you to the Gu family.”
Putting aside whether he, a grown man, was willing to marry, given the Gu parents’ mercenary nature, never acting without the prospect of profit, what kind of good family could they possibly find for him?
Gu’s father and mother did not see it that way. Hearing Gu Lin’s refusal, they felt he had grown too big for his britches, and threatened him, “We are talking to you nicely and you will not listen. Today, whether you want to or not, we are going to tie you up and drag you back!”
With those words, Gu’s father wore a ferocious expression, pulled a bundle of hemp rope from his coat, and together with Gu’s mother, advanced to surround Gu Lin.
Looking at the two figures closing in, Gu Lin’s expression darkened slightly. He had not expected Gu’s father and mother to be bold enough to attempt a kidnapping right here in Xiahe Village.
He cast a peripheral glance around. At noon, every household was empty. People were either working in the fields or delivering lunch, leaving Gu Lin with no one to call out to for help.
He stared at the steadily approaching Gu’s father and mother, compared their strength to his own, and felt his heart sink continuously.
Though elderly, Gu’s father and mother were tall and robust from years of farm work. In contrast, Gu Lin, being a ge’er, appeared excessively slender and thoroughly vulnerable before them.
With such a disparity in strength, Gu Lin estimated that if he tried to run, the hope of success was extremely slim.
Yet, no matter how panicked and anxious he felt inside, Gu Lin maintained a calm exterior. Glances darted toward Gu’s father and mother, and his cold expression was intimidating enough as he bluffed, “Father, Mother, you better think this through. I am now a resident of Xiahe Village. If you brazenly kidnap me, are you not afraid of provoking a conflict and ruining the relationship between Taohe Village and Xiahe Village?”
“Humph!” Hearing this, Gu’s mother cast a sidelong glance, the whites of her eyes almost filling her sockets, making her look even more spiteful. “Who are you trying to scare! The Zheng family has no surviving elders left in Xiahe Village. Do you really believe that even if I dragged you right past the villagers of Xiahe Village, anyone would stick their neck out to meddle?”
Did Gu Lin believe it?
Naturally, he did.
Many things that seemed unbelievable in modern times were entirely logical here.
Take the matter of Gu’s father and mother kidnapping him back to remarry him: if the Zheng family still had elders alive, and they were unwilling to let him go, then no matter how overbearing Gu’s parents were, taking Gu Lin away would have been impossible.
Yet, as it happened, the hunter Zheng was dead, and the hunter’s parents had passed away long ago. There was no one left in the Zheng family who could make decisions regarding Gu Lin’s future.
Zheng Hao was not yet fifteen years old, considered merely a child in the eyes of others, and no one regarded him as a fully autonomous person. Therefore, although Gu Lin was nominally his stepfather, he was powerless to fight against Gu’s father and mother regarding his own departure.
Even if Gu Lin cried and struggled as Gu’s father and mother dragged him away, not a single person in Xiahe Village would step forward to stop them.
Such was the nature of a patriarchal society.
Ever since the hunter Zheng drew his final breath, Gu Lin had lost his safety net, unless Zheng Hao reached adulthood, allowing Gu Lin to rely on him according to the customary rule of a widow depending on his son. Only then would Gu’s father and mother lose their ability to threaten him.
Yet, with Zheng Hao still growing up, if Gu’s father chose to take complete control of Gu Lin’s fate, no one could fault him according to convention.
However, Gu Lin was a living, breathing human being. How could he willingly allow himself to be handled and controlled like an object?
His eyes chilled as he stared at the Gu parents closing the distance ahead of him. A thought flashed through his mind: at worst, they would just go down together.
Seeing that the ge’er in front of him had stopped talking and was standing quietly in place, Gu’s mother assumed he had accepted his fate. “If you had just been this sensible earlier, would it not have been better? What is so great about the Zheng family? Having a drag-along oil bottle like that kid by your side will only hold you back. Once you marry into the Peng family, you will eat delicious food and wear fine clothes every day, and there will be servants waiting on you. When you give birth to a big, chubby baby boy, the whole family will treat you like a treasure. Is that not the kind of life you want? Lin ge’er, you must understand, Mother is not going to harm you. This is all for your own good.”
Gu Lin let out a cold laugh, displaying for the first time since transmigrating such a sharp, aggressive demeanor, “Since it is so good, why did you not just marry Gu Erhu off to them instead?”
Gu’s mother’s absolute lifeline was her only son, Gu Erhu. Seeing that Gu Lin was not only ungrateful but also uttered such malicious words about Gu Erhu, her expression immediately darkened.
“Why are you still wasting words on him? Just tie him up and teach him a lesson for a few days. Let us see if he stays so disobedient then,” Gu’s father said, his expression extremely ugly.
Gu’s mother stopped trying to persuade Gu Lin and helped Gu’s father box him in.
A thick hemp rope was swung forward. Just as Gu Lin raised his foot to run, a heavy shout came from behind: “Stop right there!”
Then, Gu Lin saw a figure charge forward. Before the three of them could react, Gu’s father was heavily struck and crashed to the ground. That figure, having knocked the man down, stood right over him.
Seeing this, Gu’s mother shrieked in horror and rushed forward to check on Gu’s father’s condition. At that moment, Gu Lin looked closely and was stunned to discover that the figure was none other than Zheng Hao.
Gu’s mother also spotted the culprit. She lunged out to grab Zheng Hao, her voice sharp, “You little wild bastard, I will teach you a lesson.”
Gu Lin’s expression tightened. Fearing the woman would harm Zheng Hao, he hurriedly stepped forward, only to see Zheng Hao swiftly dodge the descending palm and deliver a kick straight into Gu’s mother.
Gu’s mother let out a startled cry, her body tilting sideways as she crashed into Gu’s father. Instantly, groans of pain escaped from both of them.
Walking up to Gu’s father and mother, the village chief’s face turned iron-clad: “Old Gu, you have a lot of nerve! How dare you lay hands on someone from Xiahe Village?!”
Earlier, when Zheng Hao had come to ask for his help, saying Gu’s father and mother had come to Xiahe Village and he was afraid they would harass and abduct Gu Lin, the village chief had thought the boy was just being overly young and making a fuss over nothing.
In the chief’s view, even if Gu’s father and mother were not good people, coming to Xiahe Village meant abiding by Xiahe Village’s rules. He simply had not expected them to actually dare lay hands on Gu Lin.
If he had not arrived today and Gu Lin had been successfully abducted by Gu’s parents, he, the village chief, would have lost all face.
Shoving Gu’s mother off of him, Gu’s father endured his full-body aches to stand up and said to the village chief, “Village Chief Zhang, this is a family matter for the Gu family. I advise you not to meddle.”
Village Chief Zhang was almost laughed to anger by Gu’s father’s brazen attitude. He darkened his face and said, “Gu Lin is a daughter-in-law of the Zheng family, and the Zheng family are villagers of Xiahe Village, which makes Gu Lin a person of Xiahe Village. Yet you show up, do not even ask permission, and decide to tie people up at will. You really think you can treat Xiahe Village as your personal playground like Taohe Village?”
“I am his father! Even if the King of Heaven himself came down, it would be entirely justified for a father to manage his own child. What business is it of you outsiders?”
Faced with Village Chief Zhang’s warning, not only did Gu’s father show no restraint, but his arrogance soared even higher.
He cast a contemptuous glance at Village Chief Zhang. A mere village chief of a mixed-surname village, what kind of real sway could he possibly have? His own younger brother was the village chief of Taohe Village, where his word was law across both the clan and the village. That was what a real village chief looked like.
Unlike this one, who brandished a chicken feather as if it were a command arrow.
“Does your Xiahe Village manage the sky and the earth, and now you want to manage a widow returning home to remarry?”
Gu’s father’s words were exceedingly ugly, practically pointing at Village Chief Zhang’s nose to curse him.
The village chief’s face darkened further, yet what the man said was technically true: the Zheng family had no elders left, and even as the village chief, he was an outsider with no legal standing to block the Gu family from taking Gu Lin back.
Looking at the unrepentant Gu’s father before him, Village Chief Zhang knew how utterly troublesome the man was and truly did not want to deal with this farce any longer. He glanced at Zheng Hao. At worst, he could have every household in the village spare a mouthful of rice to support the boy in the future.
That would still be cleaner and more straightforward than bickering with Gu’s father.
Seeing the village chief fall silent, Gu Lin felt a wave of bad premonition wash over him. Never had he hated this era so intensely. Even when weathering countless hardships and setbacks in later decades, he had never felt this helpless and resentful.
Zheng Hao stood in front of Gu Lin, isolating him from Gu’s father, the village chief, and the others. He looked at Gu’s father, his eyes flashing with a fierce, brutal light: “My father already bought Gu Uncle. You cannot take Gu Uncle away.”
With those words, the previously confident expressions of Gu’s father and mother shifted dramatically. Zheng Hao pulled a piece of paper from inside his tunic and looked at the village chief: “Village Chief, this is Gu Uncle’s deed of sale.”
The village chief’s expression changed right along with them.
He had almost forgotten that back then, Gu Lin had not simply married into the Zheng family. He had been purchased by the hunter Zheng. However, out of respect for Gu Lin’s dignity, the hunter Zheng had never made it public. Still, when the hunter Zheng bought Gu Lin from the Gu family, the chief had been present as a witness.
The village chief turned to look at the ugly expressions on Gu’s parents’ faces, and there was nothing left that he did not understand. The Gu family had seen that the man was dead and wanted to turn their backs on the agreement and deny it.
With stern eyes, he said to Gu’s father, “Old Gu, back then the hunter Zheng paid ten taels of silver to buy Gu Lin from you. What is the meaning of this now? The moment you see he has passed away, you want to act like scoundrels and break your word. Gu Lin’s deed of sale was drawn up in triplicate, with one copy filed at the yamen. If you want to renege now, do you intend to take this to the magistrate’s court?”
Veins bulged on Gu’s father’s forehead. Zheng Hao showed not a shred of fear, his eyes locked straight onto the man: “Gu Uncle is a member of the Zheng family, and the deed of sale is in my hands. Even if we go to the yamen, we are the ones in the right.”
A flash of malice, imperceptible to others, crossed Zheng Hao’s face. The Gu father, meeting his gaze, felt a chill creep up his spine. According to the Great Zhou Code, whoever disdains the laws and stirs up trouble at the yamen without cause shall receive one hundred strokes of the heavy staff and be exiled one thousand miles.
Gu’s father did not know whether what Zheng Hao said was true or false, but the situation before them was growing increasingly unfavorable. Guilty at heart, he had originally planned to take advantage of Zheng Hao’s youth and ignorance to drag Gu Lin back for a remarriage. He had not expected that before the hunter Zheng died, he would actually hand Gu Lin’s deed of sale over to Zheng Hao.
If Gu Lin had been a free person, no one could have stopped them from taking him away. But unfortunately, Gu Lin was nominally a Zheng family wife, yet legally a Zheng family bondservant. No matter how much Gu’s father craved those fifty taels of silver, he still had to weigh the consequences.
Gu’s mother began to panic. She scrambled up from the ground and cried out to Gu’s father, “Old man!”
Even with all his internal resentment, Gu’s father had no choice left. He did not want to push the Xiahe Village chief into a corner where things went all the way to the official yamen. Turning his head, Gu’s father glared at Gu’s mother and snapped, “Stop making a fool of yourself. Let us go!”
Gu’s mother usually appeared fierce, but she was merely a paper tiger devoid of any real threat. Once Gu’s father gave the order, she did not dare to talk back.
The two of them had arrived arrogantly, and now they slunk away in disgrace.
Looking at the young ge’er beside him, who appeared unfazed and completely calm on the outside, yet had fine beads of sweat breaking out across his forehead, Zheng Hao pressed his lips into a thin line.
“Aunt Zhao.”
Zheng Hao looked toward Sister-in-law Zhao and said, “Please help me escort Gu Uncle back home.”
Sister-in-law Zhao had arrived around the same time as the village chief, but since she had not had a chance to speak earlier, she could only watch anxiously from the sidelines.
Now seeing an opening, Sister-in-law Zhao hurriedly stepped forward to support Gu Lin.
Under normal circumstances, Gu Lin would certainly have felt too embarrassed to let someone else support him, but after what he had just been through, his hands and feet felt somewhat weak and rubbery.
After calming himself down for a moment, he felt his composure return. He turned to the village chief and offered a solemn expression of gratitude: “Thank you, Village Chief, for your help today.”
Though the man had briefly considered abandoning him, from a rational standpoint, he could not strictly blame him. At the same time, for Gu Lin to feel not a single trace of resentment would have been impossible.
However, since they still lived in Xiahe Village, to prevent the village chief from harboring a grudge and making things difficult for them in the future, Gu Lin forced himself to put on an unconcerned front.
Sure enough, seeing Gu Lin’s reaction, the village chief was quite satisfied, feeling that his help had not been wasted. He offered some comfort: “Head on back. For a while at least, your parents should not dare come around again.”
Gu Lin left together with Sister-in-law Zhao, and Zheng Hao followed closely by his side back to the Zheng household.
Once they were back home, Gu Lin turned to Sister-in-law Zhao and said, “Sister-in-law, I am fine now. You can go on home and rest easy.”
Sister-in-law Zhao still looked somewhat uneasy, but seeing that apart from a rather pale complexion, Gu Lin looked no different than usual, she nodded: “I will be right at home. If you need anything, just give a shout.”
“Okay.”
Sister-in-law Zhao turned and left the Zheng courtyard.
Watching her figure disappear completely from view, Gu Lin raised his head to look up at the azure sky, where a flock of birds soared past beneath fluffy white clouds. Reflecting on the scene that had just transpired, besides anger, Gu Lin felt a heavy dose of sympathy for the original owner, or rather, a sense of shared destiny.
After all that shouting and quarreling, Gu’s father and mother had not even realized that their son was now inhabited by a completely different soul. Or perhaps, even if they had known, they would not have cared. In their eyes, the original owner was merely a commodity. As long as this son could bring them sufficient profit, it did not matter who he actually was.
This was the tragedy belonging to the original owner: having parents was worse than having none. In contrast, Gu Lin’s own parents were not like this pair. Watching a large bird lead its flock across the sky, Gu Lin recalled two loving, affectionate faces. He had been old enough to retain memories when he lost his parents. In those memories, his parents had deeply loved each other and cherished him dearly. Yet decades had passed in the blink of an eye. Seas had turned into mulberry fields, and the memories of his parents in his mind were growing fainter and fainter. Now that he had transmigrated into a book, he did not even have a single photograph left of them. In a few more years, he feared he would even forget what his parents looked like.
Gu Lin thought to himself that he could not blame the original owner for also being named Gu Lin. Their experiences were so startlingly similar, both growing up from childhood without parental affection, stumbling and scraping their way to adulthood on their own.
Gu Lin was slightly better off than the original owner, having at least experienced parental love and having had a say in his own marriage. However…
Gu Lin felt a coolness on his cheek. He raised a hand to wipe it and discovered he was crying.
He was actually crying.
“Gu Uncle.”
A familiar voice came from behind him. Gu Lin’s body stiffened slightly before he turned to face the speaker.
By this time, he had already swallowed back his tears, but his eyes remained wet, glistening, and red-rimmed, a fact he was entirely oblivious to.
Looking at Zheng Hao, and hearing the young boy’s address, a flash of surprise crossed Gu Lin’s expression, because over the past few days, Zheng Hao had never once proactively addressed him by name or title.
Zheng Hao pulled the deed of sale, the one he had used to threaten Gu’s father and mother moments ago, from inside his tunic, handed it over to Gu Lin, and said, “Gu Uncle, do not worry. My father crossed out your deed of sale long ago. You are a member of the Zheng family, not a Zheng family bondservant.”
Gu Lin glanced at the dark ink on the paper, which bore no resemblance to a standard deed of sale. His eyes widened slightly, a droplet of moisture trembling on the edge of his eyelashes, ready to fall. Watching the tears of the ge’er before him, Zheng Hao felt a surge of anxious restlessness in his chest. But being naturally reticent and unaccustomed to comforting others, he could only blurt out stiffly, “Do not cry.”
The Zheng family never treated you as an outsider. After my father passed away, the Zheng family let you suffer, but from now on I will protect and honor you, and I will not let anyone bully you ever again.
Thinking of the events that had just unfolded, a beast-like ferocity flashed through Zheng Hao’s dark eyes.
Looking at the half-grown teenager standing before him making such a vow, Gu Lin reined back his remaining tears and smiled softly: “I believe you.”
Zheng Hao’s expression grew even more steadfast as he replied, “Mn.”