Clang~
The trembling sound of the gong echoed from afar. The kitchen door was suddenly pushed open, and Yang Xiaohai rushed toward the direction of the sound while pulling up his pants in a hurry.
The long gong attracted everyone's attention in Cowheart Village. When Yang Xiaohai arrived at where the sound was coming from, he saw a group of eunuchs in front of a neat convoy.
They were in the middle of delivering various goods to the village.
There were live pigs, cows, sheep, bolts of silk and satin, as well as piles of gold and silver.
The other villagers were amazed, and they started whispering among themselves.
“Did I hear it correctly? Are these gifts from the emperor to us?”
“No, they’re not for you; they’re for the Daoist master.”
“Wow, could it be that Puppy wasn’t lying? Is the emperor really his senior? Wouldn't that an that we're related to the emperor, too?”
“What’s going on? What’s happening?”
Yang Xiaohai squeezed through the crowd and saw Senior Li talking to an old eunuch with a golden whisk. “Go back and tell Gao Zhijian not to worry about Cowheart Village. I’m here, and everything is fine. Cowheart Village isn't that poor as well, so tell him to spend his ti learning to beco a competent emperor rather than mulling over what to send here. After all, his subjects will have a better life if he gets better at his job.”
“Yes, I’ll convey the ssage to His Majesty.” The old eunuch with a powdered face bowed respectfully to Li Huowang.
The old eunuch noticed Yang Xiaohai's glance, so he excused himself from Li Huowang and walked up to Yang Xiaohai.
“Kid, you’re Yang Xiaohai, right?” asked the old eunuch with a kind smile.
Yang Xiaohai nodded in confusion.
The old eunuch glanced at the bustling crowd. “It’s crowded here. Let’s find a place to talk about your parents.”
Yang Xiaohai’s mind buzzed. He was suddenly overwheld with fear at the idea that he was about to face the truth.
“Let's go.” The pear-faced woman appeared and followed the old eunuch sowhere else.
It hadn't been that long since New Year's Eve, so the fields were still frozen. The old eunuch stopped between the field ridges and extended over a piece of paper from his pocket. “Here, take a look for yourself.”
Yang Xiaohai retrieved the paper with trembling hands, and he hesitated for a mont before he handed it back to the old eunuch, “Can you read it for , please? I’m too scared to read it.”
“Oh, what’s there to be afraid of?” the old eunuch asked. However, he still reached out his hand with long nails and grabbed the piece of paper. Then, he said, "The letter says that your parents are not from Great Liang but from Hou Shu. That’s why it took us so long to track them. We investigated the three generations of your family and found out that your family are all boat people.”
“Sir, what are boat people?”
“Boat people are those who live permanently on the sea without their own land. The won gather pearls while the n fish with nets. Do you understand what I'm saying?”
“Yes... I understand,” Yang Xiaohai said, but he looked confused as he nodded.
“Then... how did my parents lose ?” Yang Xiaohai asked. The pear-faced woman beside him rubbed his arm gently.
The old eunuch glanced at Yang Xiaohai's face before looking down at the paper in his hands. “There was a shortage of fish and pearls a few years after you were born. Your father couldn’t feed you, so he decided to sell you.”
Yang Xiaohai’s face turned pale, and he would have fallen to the ground if the pear-faced woman next to him hadn’t supported him. “Sir, is that really the truth? They sold just like that?”
Yang Xiaohai had been thinking about many different scenarios while waiting for the results of the investigation. However, he didn't expect that the truth would be so brutally simple.
“What do you think your father could have done? Your family had nine children, and it's normal to sell a child to ease the burden on everyone. My family couldn’t support all of us either, so we were castrated and sent to the palace as eunuchs,” the old eunuch said, and then he stuffed the paper into Yang Xiaohai’s hands. “Your mother has been pearl diving her entire life, so she's already deaf and weak. She's probably going to die soon. Your father is still out fishing at sea. Out of your father's nine children, two were sold, three have died, so only four are remaining. Half a year ago, your elder brother went out to fish, but he never ca back.
"Anyway, they are all boat people and are fishing and diving in a certain region. The location is written on the paper. If you want to find them, find soone literate to help you. We have other things to do, so we’ll be leaving first.”
With that, the old eunuch left with his golden whisk, leaving Yang Xiaohai and the pear-faced woman by themselves between the field ridges.
Yang Xiaohai stared deeply at the piece of paper, even though he couldn't read the majority of it.
After a while, he folded the paper neatly and put it away. He then looked up at the woman and smiled wryly. “You see, I thought I was the descendant of soone important, just like Senior Gao. It turns out that I was wrong, and my parents sold away to ease so of the burden on them.”
Yang Xiaohai then turned around and was about to return to the village when the pear-faced woman pulled him from behind.
“Don’t hold it in. Cry it out.”
The pear-faced woman's words had just fallen, but Yang Xiaohai was already squatting on the ground, crying in frustration.
Yang Xiaohai had always been a steady and sensible individual in the eyes of his seniors, but Yang Xiaohai had never really wanted to be that kind of person all this while.
However, none of his seniors noticed that fact—no, no one noticed it except for the pear-faced woman.
The pear-faced woman hugged Yang Xiaohai and patted his back gently to comfort him.
Yang Xiaohai vented for a long ti before standing up once again and walking toward the village with the pear-faced woman.
“Hey! Xiaohai, where are you going? Look at these fat sheep; let’s roast one tonight!”
“I can’t forget the taste of that roast lamb back when we were in Qing Qiu. I had no idea that sheep is so delicious once it's roasted.”
“All right! Senior Cao, there are so many people of us, so you should roast a few sheep rather than just one!
Yang Xiaohai smiled along with everyone else. When he arrived at the kitchen, he took out his butchering tool and started sharpening the blade with a whetstone.
"Ah." He accidentally cut his finger, and blood flowed profusely out of the wound.
“What’s wrong?" the pear-faced woman asked upon hearing Yang Xiaohai's cry. "Don’t move; I’ll go get so dicine for you."
The pear-faced woman turned around and was about to leave, but Yang Xiaohai stopped her by raising his bleeding finger. “I want to go see my family.”
The pear-faced woman nodded gently and said, “Okay. I’ll go wherever you go.”
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