In the early autumn of ’67, the summer heat had yet to fade.
Golden light sprinkled down on the tree-lined path.
A chubby, dark-skinned little Zaizai, just over two years old, wore a small tunic made of banana leaves. The tunic was too big, revealing one of her fleshy little shoulders.
The tunic was also too short, barely covering her little bottom, while her two chubby, dark, and short little legs dangled below.
She was gleefully stomping on the soft, loose fallen leaves with her small, bare feet.
Her fine, soft hair lay flat against her round, chubby little head, making her look almost like a little bald-headed child from a distance.
In her hand, she clutched a dirty, old baby bottle, taking a sip from it from time to time.
Other than that, she had nothing, looking even more pitiful than a little beggar.
[Little Master, stop playing. We need to hurry into the city and find your family.]
Baba was a high-level Childcare Robot produced by an Interstellar Civilization.
Unluckily, it had just come off the production line when it encountered a Spacetime Storm, was sucked into a Wormhole, and ended up on Ancient Earth, where it was reduced to a string of data bound to its Little Master.
Although its form of existence had deviated, that didn’t stop it from continuing its factory-set mission: raising a child.
It had exhausted its virtual heart raising its Little Master from a wailing infant into a chubby, dark-skinned little ball.
“Baba?” Zaizai sipped her bottle, tilting her little head as she called out.
[Yes, yes, I’m here, Little Master. Baba is here. Little Master, let’s find your Father and Mother first, then we can come out to play, okay?]
Speaking of his Little Master, Baba’s heart ached for her.
He had been bound to the Little Master at her birth. She was adored by her father, loved by her mother, and doted on by the entire family. But they had the misfortune of hiring a wicked nanny who, on the day of her one-month celebration, stole her away and abandoned her on a mountain to fend for herself.
If he still had a physical body, he could have saved the Little Master. But he was just a string of data, unable to do anything but communicate with her.
Two years and five months had passed. He first found ways to keep the Little Master alive. Once she could crawl, move, and understand words, he taught her how to survive. When she could finally toddle on her short little legs, he guided her down the mountain and back home.
The journey home, taken on the Little Master’s tiny legs, had lasted a full year. It truly hadn’t been easy.
Fortunately, the Little Master was blessed with innate good fortune. She had never been sick or injured, had avoided all dangers, and had grown up healthy.
“Find Baba, Mother.”
Chubby Zaizai couldn’t distinguish between “Baba” and “Father,” and Baba’s words left her looking bewildered.
Sometimes, Baba also couldn’t tell if the “Baba” his Little Master mentioned was him or her father, so he just nodded based on his gut feeling.
[That’s right, find Father and Mother. Little Master, we’re already on the outskirts of the city. We’ll find them soon. Let’s hurry before it gets dark.]
Baba recited “find Father and Mother” every day, so Chubby Zaizai was already very familiar with the phrase and felt a sense of mission to find them.
“Okay, find Baba, Mother.”
She set her short legs in motion, pattering along as the chubby flesh on her cheeks bounced, duang, duang.
Fearing she would fall, Baba quickly shouted, [Little Master, don’t run so fast, you’ll trip.]
Chubby Zaizai weighed thirty catties, with twenty-nine point nine of them being pure defiance. The more Baba yelled, the faster she ran.
“Hee hee hee…”
A string of bell-like laughter cut through the crowd. Someone turned to look, but upon seeing a chubby, dark-skinned little beggar, they paid her no more mind.
[Right, right, Little Master, turn right. Hey, hey, hey… Right, no, Little Master, that’s left. The other way, the other way…]
They had been in the city for three days, and Baba was mentally exhausted from correcting his Little Master’s sense of direction.
Fortunately, victory was in sight.
[Yes, that’s the mansion up ahead. That’s your home, Little Master.]
Jingshi, the Fu Family residence.
The Fu Family’s ancestors were imperial relatives, and they lived in a Three-Courtyard Siheyuan at the foot of the imperial city walls.
The once grand, solemn, exquisite, and rustic mansion was now smashed to pieces, dilapidated and unsightly.
Crowds of onlookers were gathered three layers deep, both inside and out.
[Huh, why are there so many people?] And the house is in such a state. He remembered it being perfectly fine when they left.
“So many people?” Chubby Zaizai’s round eyes widened as she mimicked Baba.
[Little Master, quick, squeeze in and see what’s happening.]
“Squeeze,” Chubby Zaizai nodded emphatically. She loved joining a crowd. In the past, when the wolves and tigers on the mountain fought, Baba never let her watch.
She took a sip from her bottle and charged into the crowd.
With her small, soft body, she weaved between legs and easily reached the front row.
“Huh?” Her chubby head tilted. In the messy courtyard, a group of people was surrounding another group, punching and kicking them. “They’re fighting.”
The sixteen members of the Fu Family, from the eldest to the youngest, were being manhandled by a group of people wearing Red Armbands.
The men of the Fu Family had bloodshot eyes. They shielded the elderly, women, and children in the center, not daring to fight back, only able to passively endure the blows.
Hui Wu grinned ferociously. He pushed aside a subordinate blocking his way and reached into the crowd for a young woman in her early twenties.
The woman’s eyes were vacant, and she seemed somewhat abnormal. Even as someone made a move on her, she remained dazed and unresponsive.
Huaming Fu’s eyes darkened, and he slammed a fist onto Hui Wu’s wrist.
Hui Wu yelped in pain and retracted his hand, turning to stare at Huaming Fu with a sinister smile.
“Heh, Fourth Master Fu, you’ve got some nerve, still daring to challenge me at a time like this.”
Huaming Fu shielded Qingqing Yin behind him. The rest of the Fu Family also shifted instinctively, hiding the elderly, young, and women more securely as they watched Hui Wu and his gang of thugs with vigilance.
“You want to arrest us, deliberately humiliate us, or show off your power, we can tolerate all of it. But if you dare touch the old, the young, or the women in my family, we’ll all go down together.”
Huaming Fu was not old, merely twenty-five, yet he was the current head of the Fu Family.
He had taken over the family at fifteen. Now, ten years later, the family had not declined in the slightest; on the contrary, it had risen to a new level compared to when it was in the hands of his father’s generation.
The aura of a superior emanated from him, an overpowering presence that even his disheveled state couldn’t hide, making Hui Wu subconsciously take a step back.
Feeling humiliated, Hui Wu surged forward again, glaring fiercely at Huaming Fu.
“You, surnamed Fu, what are you so arrogant about? You’re nothing but a prisoner now. Do you think you’re still the high and mighty Fourth Master Fu? That you can still turn the world upside down? I spit on you. Now that you’re in my hands, if I don’t skin you alive, I’ll take your surname.”
Huaming Fu’s eyes flickered. He didn’t know this person, but the man’s hatred for him was very targeted.
But it didn’t matter anymore. There was more than one person targeting his Fu Family; otherwise, they wouldn’t have fallen to their current state.
“My Fu Family has only fallen on hard times; we haven’t been wiped out. And even if we were, it would be a simple matter to make you pay a price. If you don’t believe me, you can try.”
Hui Wu gritted his teeth in anger.
There it was again. What right did he have? Even as a prisoner, what right did he have to be so high and mighty?
Back then, he had just used his position to take a little money from the factory, an amount the factory wouldn’t even miss. Yet this man had ruthlessly fired him without a shred of mercy.
He didn’t even know of his existence.
Even now, he still didn’t know who he was.
In his eyes, he wasn’t even an ant.
On what grounds?
Just because he was lucky enough to be born into the Fu Family.
Without the Fu Family, he was just an ant too.
“Beat them! Beat them to death.”
So he wasn’t allowed to touch the women, old, and young, was he? Then let’s see just how tough the men of the Fu Family are.
Seeing Huaming Fu curled up on the ground like a dog, being punched and kicked, devoid of his former noble bearing, Hui Wu felt a sense of satisfaction.
He stepped forward, grabbed Huaming Fu by the collar, and sneered, “Huaming Fu, remember this. My name is Hui Wu. Hui Wu.”
Huaming Fu looked at him with cold eyes. “Pah… You animal.”
A mouthful of bloody saliva spat into Hui Wu’s eye.
Hui Wu squeezed his eyes shut. When he opened them again, they were filled with malice. “You’re asking for death.”
He raised his fist and brought it down on Huaming Fu’s face.
The sound of flesh meeting flesh made the onlookers clench their teeth.
That must hurt.
“What a pity. A century-old prestigious family, gone just like that.”
“The Fu Family members are all good people, how could they have committed so many crimes?”
Seizing state resources, profiting from national disasters, dereliction of duty, using one’s position for personal gain, deceiving superiors and oppressing subordinates, taking human lives…
A mountain of charges had been piled on them, turning a century-old family, a pillar of the nation, into prisoners.
It wasn’t that they had committed so many crimes, but that they had offended too many people. “A tall tree attracts the wind.”
…
The observing system, Baba, was frantic. How did they end up being attacked?
[Little Master, the ones being beaten are your family. The one being beaten the worst is your Father.]
“Father?” Chubby Zaizai got it right this time.
[Yes, yes, your Father! Where did these people come from? How can they beat people like this? They’re too wicked.]
“Wicked.” Chubby Zaizai’s cheeks puffed out as she pattered over.
“Bad uncle, you can’t hit my Father.”