At this moment, even though he knew full well that those people were spouting nonsense, after hearing it so often, he still could not help thinking: if Zhao Cheng really was gone, what was he supposed to do?!
From what he knew of wicked people, this was only the beginning.
After some time had passed, they would surely become even more outrageous, beginning to say things like how the Zhao Family had gained its wealth and honor entirely because of Zhao Cheng; now that Zhao Cheng had died in battle outside, what right did the father and daughter have to go on living so shamelessly and at ease?!
He himself was not particularly afraid of such words. What worried him was that Zhao Xiang's bond with Zhao Cheng ran too deep. If she heard too much and eventually believed it, the consequences would be unthinkable.
As he thought, his face flickered between light and shadow in the tiny glow of his dry tobacco, while within his heart, threads of killing intent began to grow.
All his life, he had been a kind and honest man, never thinking to make enemies of anyone. Yet when his children were threatened, this good man found himself entertaining the thought of killing.
These people deserved to die!
But if he truly killed someone in a fit of rage, what would become of Zhao Xiang afterward?! And if Zhao Cheng returned from the front lines, what then?!
If he had been alone in this world, he would already have started sharpening his knife. But now, thinking of his children, he could only draw one stifled, bitter puff after another from his pipe.
Again and again, his mind replayed the moment his wife starved to death, when in a voice so faint it could barely be