Alright, Go Ahead If You've Decided

Chapter 3 Good, If You've Made Up Your Mind, Then Go Do It. That voice immediately made both Lin Tian and the Zhao Clan turn their heads.

The person who had come was Lin Tian's young aunt from the hall earlier, Lin Ci.

She jogged up to Lin Tian.

Looking at the sweat on her forehead and the way she was panting for breath, it was clear she had hurried over as soon as they left.

When she reached Lin Tian, Lin Ci said nothing and immediately took out a red cloth bundle, handing it to him.

The red cloth was a little faded, but judging from the bulging shape inside, there should have been quite a few things in it.

Lin Tian took it and opened it.

Inside were quite a lot of copper coins and bits of broken silver.

Looking at this young aunt before him, Lin Tian asked in confusion, "Aunt, what is this..."

But before Lin Tian could finish, Lin Ci said directly, "Take it and use it for martial training."

"What?"

Hearing her words, Lin Tian was immediately stunned.

Then he looked at the young aunt before him in disbelief.

At that moment, his eyes were filled with incomprehension.

Of course, it was not that he could not understand his young aunt giving him some money.

After all, back in the main hall, he had been able to tell that when the old man said his martial trial quota had been used up, her reaction had been somewhat guilty.

Especially later, when she heard the old man could not even give them any compensation.

But what he could not understand was that she would actually give all this money to him.

This small pouch of money in his hand

was clearly the dowry his young aunt had saved up for herself by doing odd jobs.

After all, in that family, with Zhang Cui there, even his father, the eldest son, had been swept out the door without a copper to his name.

His young aunt was a woman on top of that, which went without saying.

At this moment, Lin Tian could even imagine

Zhang Cui perhaps selling her off directly to some household in the village in the future.

And clearly, Lin Ci had thought of that as well.

That was why she had secretly saved up her own dowry.

So this small pouch of money in his hand

was not merely her dowry.

It was also her right to choose.

Even more, it was the safeguard for her future.

With this, Lin Ci could choose to marry a normal person and obtain a normal life.

But if it was gone...

Her future husband might be the village fool, an old man, or even worse...

Especially since his young aunt had already reached the age to be married off.

"Aunt, I can't take this money..."

"Aiya, why are you being polite with me? Isn't it just a little silver? Besides, I'm not giving it to you. I'm only lending it to you. In the future, you have to pay me back, and I'll be calculating interest."

Before Lin Tian could finish, Lin Ci immediately cut him off.

"All right, the money's yours. I still have to go work in a while, so I won't talk to you anymore."

Without waiting for Lin Tian to react, Lin Ci immediately ran toward the courtyard behind her.

Seeing this, Lin Tian knew she was dead set on giving him this money...

Jinghe Bend.

In the end, Lin Tian did not return that pouch of silver coins.

Because he knew this was now his only chance to break the current situation.

As for his young aunt's kindness, and this pouch of money.

With his fate in hand, he was confident he could pay it back twice over.

By the time Lin Tian and the Zhao Clan returned to Jinghe Bend, the sky had already darkened.

In this chaotic outer-city district, night was the most dangerous time.

Thus, the matter of Lin Tian formally taking a master and practicing martial arts was naturally pushed back to the next day.

Their family had no house of their own in Jinghe Bend.

After all, when his father had been driven out of the family back then, he had received nothing at all.

And in this world, even an ordinary person found it hard to survive, let alone save money.

After Lin Tian and the Zhao Clan returned to the small boat, he immediately saw the worry on his father's face, while his elder sister sat at the side, her face deathly pale.

Lin Tian did not even need to ask.

He already knew that while he and his mother, of the Zhao Clan, had been away just now, the men from the Shark Gang had come.

"Dad, they..."

Lin Tian stepped forward, his voice worried as he tried to ask.

But before he could finish speaking, in the next instant, his gaze immediately fell on the little rings made of waterweed on his family's boat.

And there were a full three of those little rings.

At the sight, Lin Tian's eyes twitched at once.

Dragon King Tokens.

That was what the Shark Gang called these things.

Of course, in truth, they were nothing more than ordinary grass rings made from waterweed.

And the real purpose of these things was as a tool the Shark Gang used to extort wealth by force.

The Jing River outside first passed through the inner city before flowing to the outer city.

So from time to time, livestock that had died of illness in the inner city would drift down with the river.

That was right—livestock rotting, stinking, and falling apart.

After being dressed up with pretty words by the Shark Gang, they became "gifts bestowed by the Dragon King."

And these so-called gifts bestowed by the Dragon King would ultimately be brought out and sold to them.

Yet they, these people, had no choice but to spend money to buy them.

After all, to these ruffians, there were far too many ways to force you to submit.

And the most common was to chisel a big hole in your family's boat in the middle of the night, making it impossible for the boat to fish normally.

To people like them, who depended on their boats to live, this was no different from cutting off their livelihood.

Thus, in the face of this forced buying and selling, they generally could only grit their teeth and accept it.

Of course, they could not do such things too often either.

After all, only by boiling a frog in warm water could one truly knock the marrow from the bones and suck it dry.

Those local thugs accustomed to swindling were the best at that.

So unless it was necessary, they absolutely would not truly make it impossible for common folk like them to live. At the very least, they had to leave them one breath!

But today...

Three waterweed rings meant three Dragon King Tokens!

This was an attempt to drive them completely onto the road of no return!!

Of course, their purpose in doing this was very simple.

Naturally, it was again for the sake of his elder sister.

Lin Tian's expression grew uglier and uglier.

"Dad, are they trying to force us..."

Father Lin saw that Lin Tian wanted to say something and immediately cut him off. "All right, let's not talk about that for now. How did things go at your grandfather's house today?"

Hearing his father's words, Lin Tian immediately noticed what had happened while he had been speaking just now.

His elder sister, off to the side, already had a slight glimmer of tears in her eyes.

Clearly, Lin Tian also knew that what he had said just now had been somewhat inappropriate.

He could only cast his elder sister an apologetic look.

But he still answered his father first.

Without hiding anything, he told him everything that had happened today.

After listening to all this from the side, Father Lin's gaze gradually grew uncalm.

Lin Tian could also clearly see the anger in his father's eyes.

Especially his father's tightly clenched hands, which were already covered in bulging blue veins.

But afterward, all that anger turned into a soundless sigh.

"Dad..."

Lin Tian looked at him with some worry.

But Father Lin merely waved his hand and said, "It's nothing. Little Tian, have you made up your mind about what you plan to do next?"

Hearing his father's words, Lin Tian knew he was talking about the bag of money his little aunt had given him.

"Dad, I still want to practice martial arts."

Lin Tian spoke with a firm gaze.

Looking at Lin Tian's eyes before him, Father Lin finally nodded and said, "All right. Since you've decided, then go do it. As for matters at home, you... don't need to worry about them."

After saying that, Father Lin rose directly and left.

Behind him, Lin Tian watched Father Lin's thin, slightly hunched back as he walked away.

Lin Tian understood clearly in his heart.

His father's final words just now meant that he intended to shoulder all the pressure alone.

Of course, he also did not know how his father planned to bear that pressure.

Perhaps...

Lin Tian's gaze subconsciously shifted toward his elder sister, who was still weeping off to the side.