The entire hall of elders felt so full with a sickening level of pressure that it seemed to turn almost physical. The gasps of the elders echoed through the very walls and foundations of the hall, a collective sound of shock that Lu Feng, the mad failure of the family, had finally bared his teeth.
"How dare you!" one of the younger elders roared, his face reddening with unquenchable fury. "You are a disgrace to the Lu name! To speak to the Great Elder with such insolence after we have provided for your every need for eighteen years?"
"Ha! Haha!..." Lu Feng let out a dry, hollow laugh. The sound was devoid of humor. "Provided for my every need? You provided me with pill experts who called me crazy. I was provided with siblings who treated me like a stain on their silk robes. I was born with a life where my own mother would rather strike me than look at the blue box I keep telling her is right there. You all look at me like I’m some mentally unstable child like I asked to be born in the first place."
He looked around the room, his two-colored eyes glowing with a sharp stare that made several elders uncomfortable where they sat.
"You people are not sending me to Crystal Palace City for my own good," Lu Feng continued, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper that was still loud enough for them to hear. "You are sending me away so you don’t have to explain the mad failure to the family’s business partners. You want to clean the house before the next succession battle even though I have no plans to succeed anyone."
Great Elder Meng narrowed his eyes, his long white beard trembling slightly. "Lu Feng, mind your tongue. We are your elders. We have secured a future for you that most commoners would kill for."
"Then give it to the commoners," Lu Feng retorted almost immediately. He took a deep breath, the anger in his chest suddenly cooling and hardening into stone. He realized then that arguing with these geezers was a waste of breath. Whether they had good or ill intentions no longer mattered to him.
Leaving this place was not a punishment; it was a release. It was a blessing for him.
If he stayed, he would spend the rest of his life as a ghost in his own home, haunted by the successes of siblings who didn’t care to know their baby brother and parent who did everything they could to avoid even seeing him.
"I will leave," Lu Feng uttered, his voice now flat and final as he declared his own decision to the elders. "But I will not take your carriage nor will I take your house in the city. I do not want the Lu family following me like a shadow, waiting for me to fail or die foolishly so you can feel justified in your own cruelty."
He held out his hand. "I will take the coins. Nothing more."
The Great Elder stared at him for a long moment, perhaps searching for a flicker of the madness everyone spoke of. The madness they’d all come to believe he possessed. However, he found only a terrifyingly clear resolve in the young boy’s eyes. With a wave of his hand, the Great Elder signaled to a servant.
A small, heavy, brown leather pouch was brought forward. Third Uncle Lu Bao, who had been watching the exchange with an excited smirk, stepped forward to take the pouch. He walked toward Lu Feng with a swagger, his footwear tapping loudly against the marble.
Lu Bao stopped just inches from Lu Feng, the scent of expensive wine and arrogance rolling off him. He held the pouch out, but he didn’t let go immediately.
"Here you go, little freak," Lu Bao whispered, his voice almost too low for the other elders to hear. "Make sure you spend it wisely. Once you cross the city gates, don’t bother coming back. We’ll make sure the guards have your description."
Lu Feng looked at his uncle’s smug face. He saw the excitement in the man’s eyes—the pure, unadulterated joy of finally ridding the family of its imperfection. More than that, he could tell his uncle was after something but couldn’t identify it yet.
Lu Feng leaned in, his silver hair brushing against his uncle’s shoulder. "I know you’re the most excited one here, Uncle. Out of everyone in this room, you’ve worked the hardest to make sure I was kicked out. Does it feel like a victory? Or does it just make you feel less small?"
Lu Bao’s smirk vanished, replaced by an expression of genuine rage. His mouth opened to deliver a biting retort, his face contorting with the need to humiliate his own nephew one last time.
In one swift but smooth motion, Lu Feng reached into the pouch he had just received from his uncle. He took out a single gold coin and, before his uncle could utter a word, flicked it with an accuracy that stubbed everyone present.
Ting!
The gold coin flew into Lu Bao’s open mouth, clicking against his teeth.
Third Uncle Lu Bao gagged, his eyes widening in shock as he nearly swallowed the metal. He coughed violently, spitting the coin into his palm as the entire hall fell into a stunned silence.
"Keep that one, Third Uncle," Lu Feng said, his voice loud enough for everyone to hear. "Consider it a wholesome tip from me to you for your services. Spend it on feeding my beloved cousins. Every time I see them, they look quite starved. Perhaps you’ve been spending too much on your own silk and not enough on their growth. Get them some milk with that money."
The elders didn’t know whether to laugh at the absurdity of the scene or erupt in fury at the blatant disrespect Lu Feng had just displayed. Lu Bao stood there, trembling, the gold coin clutched in his shaking hand, his face transitioning from red to purple. He was boiling.
"You... you little..."
"That is enough!" Great Elder Meng’s voice boomed, shaking the very rafters of the building. "Lu Feng, you are dismissed. Leave the hall. Leave the manor. Your ties to the Lu name are severed from tomorrow."
Lu Feng didn’t wait for a second invitation. He turned on his heel, his cloak swirling behind him, and walked out of the hall without looking back once. He felt lighter with every step he took away from the ancestral altar as though a burden was being taken off him with each step.
He made his way back through the winding paths of the manor, past the servants who whispered behind their hands and the guards who pointed at his mismatched eyes. He didn’t care anymore. The blue box in his vision, which had been silent for so long, seemed to pulse with a faint, expectant light.
’I hope you’re not going to manifest now. You’re years too late.’ He thought to himself.
When he arrived back at his quarters, the scent of roasted chicken and tofu still lingered in the air. Han Lin was busy clearing the table, but she stopped the moment she saw his face.
"Young Master? What happened? Your face... you look different," she said, her voice laced with worry.
"Sit, Han Lin. Let’s finish the chicken," Lu Feng said, pulling up a chair.
"But the elders—"
"The elders gave me exactly what I wanted," he interrupted, his tone gentle but firm, laced with a gentle smile. "They gave me my freedom."
They sat back down under the shady tree. Lu Feng ate with a renewed appetite, savoring the flavors as if he were tasting them for the first time. Han Lin watched him, her brow furrowed, repeatedly asking what the elders had said and why he had been summoned.
Lu Feng didn’t answer at first. He watched the way the sunlight filtered through the leaves, casting dancing shadows on the grass.
He thought about his Third Aunt, Lu Ruoxi. He would have to find her before he left. She was the only one who deserved a goodbye. Not his siblings and absolutely not his parents who had even approved his kicking out.
He would prepare his small bundle of belongings, see his third aunt one last time, and then walk out of the Silver Jade City gates forever.
As the meal drew to a close, the reality of the situation finally settled over the small courtyard.
Lu Feng set his chopsticks down and looked Han Lin directly in the eye. He saw the loyalty there—the only true thing he had possessed in eighteen years.
He sighed, the weight of the announcement heavy on his tongue.
"I’m leaving the family, Han Lin," he said quietly.
The silence that followed was absolute. The breeze stopped, the birds went quiet, and the blue box in front of Lu Feng’s eyes seemed to suddenly flicker.