Manifestation

Lin Ye went to bed very late and was woken up by the chirping of birds outside the window in the morning.

He rubbed his eyes, sat up in bed, yawned, quickly washed his face, ate a few bites of breakfast in the cafeteria, and then sat back down at his desk.

Today is the weekend, no classes, a rare day of leisure.

Wang Dong'er disappeared early in the morning; she probably went to Shrek City with Ning Tian and Xiao Xiao.

I didn't see them when I went to the cafeteria. Where else could they have gone but Shrek City?

Lin Ye glanced at what he had written yesterday and felt that it wasn't finished, that something was missing.

The entanglement between Dai Hao and Huo Yuhao, father and son, goes far beyond the issue of an illegitimate child.

Their feud spanned two generations and involved far too many things.

Family ties, hatred, guilt, making amends, the glory and decline of a family—each and every one of these matters is incredibly complex.

After thinking for a moment, Lin Ye prepared to start writing today's diary.

Yesterday I compared Dai Hao and Huo Yuhao, and the conclusion was that Huo Yuhao was more ruthless than Dai Hao.

Today I want to talk about these two people from a different perspective, not about how they treated their illegitimate child, but about how they treated the identity of "father" itself.

Both Dai Hao and Huo Yuhao became fathers, and both did so without their knowledge.

Dai Hao was unaware because the Duchess kept it from him, Huo Yuhao was unaware because Ju Zi kept it from him.

The beginnings were exactly the same, but as time went on, their attitudes towards the role of father were worlds apart.

Let's start with Dai Hao.

You can say Dai Hao is careless, you can say he neglected his duties, but you can't say he's irresponsible.

He may not have much affection for Huo Yuhao's mother, after all, it was just a fleeting relationship, but when he learned that Huo Yuhao was his son, his reaction was not to shirk responsibility or run away, but to acknowledge it.

He publicly acknowledged this son and had his name engraved in the genealogy of the White Tiger Duke's Estate.

What is a family tree? A family tree is the foundation of a family. Inscribing a person's name on it signifies that that person is now part of the family, and no one can deny it.

Dai Hao will have to pay the price for what he did.

The White Tiger Duke's Estate doesn't belong to him alone; he also has a legal wife, legitimate children, and a whole bunch of collateral relatives.

By engraving the name of an illegitimate child into the family genealogy, he was essentially announcing to everyone. "I, Dai Hao, have made a mistake, and I am now going to make amends for it."

This is not just a matter of his personal face; it also involves the inheritance rights, reputation, and balance of power among various factions of the White Tiger Duke's Estate.

Dai Hao withstood the pressure and recognized Huo Yuhao as his son.

You could say this is belated compensation, worthless, but belated compensation is still compensation, and it's better than nothing.

Moreover, Dai Hao's efforts to make amends were not just empty words; he truly took action.

After engraving Huo Yuhao's name into the family genealogy, he expressed his approval and pride in this son.

At that time, Huo Yuhao was already the renowned Spirit Ice Douluo, and many people said that Dai Hao was benefiting from his son's fame, but Dai Hao didn't care.

He didn't care if others called him a snob, or that he only acknowledged Huo Yuhao because he thought he was powerful. He accepted it openly and honestly, and that frankness is at least commendable.

[Look at Huo Yuhao from another angle.]

What did Huo Yuhao do after learning he had a son? He did nothing.

He denies it, refuses to see it, and ignores it.

From birth to adulthood, Huo Yuhao never appeared in Xu Yunhan's life, not even for a single day.

At least Dai Hao publicly acknowledged Huo Yuhao after he became famous, giving him a formal status.

What did Huo Yuhao give Xu Yunhan? Nothing.

This raises a question.

What does the identity of "father" truly mean to Huo Yuhao?

Shrek City.

Wang Dong'er was with Ning Tian Wu Feng and Xiao Xiao at the moment. They had come to a dessert shop and were chatting by the window.

Sunlight streamed in through the window, falling on her long, light blue hair and casting a soft glow on her profile.

She read the contents of Lin Ye's diary, especially what the identity of 'father' meant to Huo Yuhao, and sneered inwardly.

What does "father" mean to Huo Yuhao? If this question were asked in the past, Wang Dong'er felt she could answer it for Huo Yuhao.

He hates Tang San to the core, so he would definitely say, "Being a father means responsibility, it means not being able to abandon one's own child."

But what's the use of saying nice things? When it comes to his own turn, he does even worse than the person he hates.

Wang Dong'er recalled the things she had read in her old diary.

She is the daughter of Tang San and Xiao Wu. Tang San arranged for her to be placed next to Huo Yuhao as a pawn in his plan to conquer Douluo Continent.

What she believed to be love, what she believed to be fate, was all orchestrated by her aloof and superior father.

Huo Yuhao is merely a piece in this game.

She no longer has any expectations of Huo Yuhao.

But she couldn't help feeling ironic. Huo Yuhao had hated Dai Hao for half his life, constantly saying that Dai Hao didn't deserve to be a father, but after he became a father himself, how was his behavior any different from Dai Hao's?

No, he's even worse than Dai Hao.

Dai Hao at least made amends, while Huo Yuhao didn't even bother to make amends.

To understand Huo Yuhao's attitude towards the role of "father," we must first go back to his childhood.

What was Huo Yuhao's childhood like? In two words: lacking a father.

He had no father since he could remember; his mother raised him alone in a side courtyard of the Duke's Mansion.

That side courtyard was basically a servants' quarters, not much better than a woodshed.

When other people's kids are bullied, they have their dads backing them up when they get home.

Huo Yuhao was bullied, and when he got home, he could only hug his mother and cry.

Other children get treats and toys from their fathers during holidays, but Huo Yuhao doesn't even know what his father looks like.

Children raised in this environment will have two extreme imaginations about the identity of "father".

The first type is extremely idealistic. He fantasizes that his father is a great hero who will one day ride a tall horse to take him and his mother away and give them a warm home.

The second type is extreme hatred, where he blames all his misfortunes on his father's absence, imagines his father as an utterly wicked bastard, and wishes he could kill him with his own hands.

Huo Yuhao clearly falls into the second category.

He hated Dai Hao; he had hated him since he was a child.

This hatred reached its peak after his mother's death.

My father wasn't by my mother's side when she died; he didn't even get to see her one last time.

From that moment on, Dai Hao was no longer a specific "person" in Huo Yuhao's heart, but a symbol.

A symbol representing "irresponsibility" and "abandonment."