Xu Lingyue: I Must Repay Big Brother's Kindness for the Rest of My Life

PS: I'm actually a little nervous, because my stockpile of chapters ran out completely today. From now on, I'll have to write each day's chapters that same day. Although I've had six months free, I was writing side stories the whole time. After I stopped those, I worked my ass off on the worldbuilding and character settings. I also scrapped tens of thousands of words from the opening.

Once the novel goes premium, I'll repay the bonus chapters owed for alliance leader rewards day by day. As for a mass release when it goes premium, don't count on it.

I'm not lying. More chapters mean more subscriptions, after all. Unless I had no choice, who wouldn't want to rake in more cash, right?

Auntie was furiously dissing her nephew when she heard the steward calling. She raised her voice in reply, "So he's back. Do you expect me to go out and welcome him?"

The steward stamped his feet in anxiety. "Madam, there's blood on Miss Lingyin, and Miss Lingyue looks like she's just been crying. Master and Erlang look grim too. And Dalang didn't come back. Something must have happened."

Something clattered in the room, as if it had been knocked over. Then came the concerned voices of the maids and older servants. "Madam!"

"Out of my way!" Auntie gathered her skirts and rushed out, running toward the front hall with an anxious look on her face.

Auntie raced back to the front hall, tears pooling in her eyes. When she saw her husband holding their youngest daughter with a grave expression, the girl unconscious in his arms, she nearly burst into tears.

"She's fine. She's only asleep," Xu Pingzhi said at once to calm her down, handing their youngest daughter to his wife as he added:

"Take her back to her room to sleep."

Auntie held her daughter tight, then looked her eldest daughter over several times. Once she was sure the girl was all right, she breathed a sigh of relief. But she didn't leave. Her voice quavered as she asked, "What happened? How did things end up like this after one trip out?"

Xu Lingyue immediately began crying again.

Xu Pingzhi let out a breath and told his wife everything that had happened that morning, leaving nothing out.

When Auntie heard that a lecherous young bully had harassed Xu Lingyue, her delicate brows shot up in fury. When she heard that Xu Lingyin had nearly been trampled under a horse's hooves, her face turned deathly pale. She clutched her youngest daughter tightly, afraid she might lose her.

She froze when she learned that Xu Qi'an had saved both daughters and been injured in the process.

Then, when she heard that her nephew had been taken to the Ministry of Justice, she seized her husband's hand, all color draining from her beautiful face. "Ningyan. He, he..."

"He's fine. He's already out. This matter is settled for now." Xu Pingzhi patted his wife's hand reassuringly.

"Just think. If it hadn't been for Ningyan this time, Lingyue and Lingyin would have been in danger. He's a bit stubborn, but he's never treated his family badly. Would an ordinary person have risked his life like that for our daughters?"

"You're always finding him an eyesore. You think he spends too much silver on martial arts, and that since you raised him, what's wrong with saying a few words to him? You think he never says anything pleasant and is always opposing you."

"But have you ever thought about him? Is it really so easy to live under someone else's roof for twenty years? Wouldn't he be sensitive about it?"

"Women are so shortsighted. They like sweet words but don't look at what people do. When Lingyue was bullied, he charged in and risked his life. Thank goodness it was a close call without any real harm. If Ningyan really hadn't come back, wouldn't your heart have ached?"

As Xu Lingyue listened, tears streamed down her face again, and she sobbed too hard to speak. She felt she had to repay her big brother's kindness for the rest of her life.

"I..." Auntie sniffled, lowering her head as tears fell.

Xu Xinnian looked at his usually forceful mother, whose eyes were now full of lingering fear and regret, and something stirred in his heart.

Though she was always calling that fellow a "gold-swallowing beast" and a "jinx," Mother did have Big Brother in her heart after all.

She had raised him for nearly twenty years, after all, and had grown attached to him.

Xu Pingzhi glanced at his son and snorted. "If it had been your son accompanying them instead, he might have been carried off and bullied along with them."

Xu Erlang: "???"

After handing her youngest daughter to the maid assigned to care for her and comforting her eldest daughter, Auntie returned to her room, her mind full of worries.

She glanced at the maids and older servants hurrying to finish the winter clothes and suddenly said, "Lü'e, make one fewer winter garment each for Master and Erlang. When Dalang returns, take his measurements."

Lü'e looked up in surprise, unable to believe it. "Madam, you've changed your mind?"

Auntie snorted. "Do you think I'm that kind of mean aunt?"

You are. The maids and older servants filling the room all thought the same thing at once.

Xu Qi'an left the Star-Gazing Tower and hired a carriage on the street. It took him an hour to return to the Xu residence.

While heating water for a bath, he discovered that the wound on his waist had nearly healed.

He applied some wound medicine himself, then returned to his room, ground some ink, and wrote several hundred words about chemistry. As usual, he then began writing in his diary.

"November 16. This is a day worth remembering, because I've finally decided to give up the simple, unadorned, and boring life of a rich man. I need power, and I need martial strength. I have two ideas about that:

"First, change my cultivation path and follow the Confucian Dao. As long as I suck up to the two great scholars and keep them happy, I believe they'll give me their full support. That would be much better than stumbling and struggling along the martial artist's path on my own.

"Ah, when other people transmigrate, they use poetry to show off, but I use it to make deals. Maybe that's what makes a luck emperor different.

"Second, put in some effort and hook up with Miss Caiwei from the Bureau of Astronomy and roll in the sheets with her. With the director backing me, I could live comfortably even without working hard.

"Third, sell one of the Law Artifacts I got from the Bureau of Astronomy in exchange for a chance to open the heavenly gate.

"The drawback of the first idea is that I'd have to remember the terror of being ruled by life in my final year of high school, and I might not be cut out for studying. I'm almost twenty, so it's a little late to change cultivation paths.

"The drawback of the second idea is that I might have to say goodbye to a life with three wives and four concubines, and to the leisurely pleasure of listening to music in pleasure houses. The sacrifice is a bit much.

"The drawback of the third idea is that even at the Qi Refining Realm, I still wouldn't be able to defeat the vice minister of revenue. Besides, without a backer, it would be hard to keep advancing boldly on the path of the Martial Dao. Second Uncle has been stuck at the peak of Qi Refining for nearly ten years, which is the best example.

"For now, I'll cling tightly to the Bureau of Astronomy and Cloud Deer Academy, then plan my next steps. I have a feeling the turmoil over the tax silver case won't end here."

The Xu residence, front hall.

At dusk, Xu Qi'an climbed over the wall to Second Uncle's home next door for dinner. In the courtyard before the front hall, he saw Xu Lingyin holding a wobbly horse stance, punching left and right with her little fists and providing her own cries of "Hah! Hoh!"

She wore a little lotus-colored outfit, bundled up like a zongzi, with her hair in the spiral buns worn by young children.

"What's gotten into you?" Xu Qi'an gave her little bottom a gentle kick.

The little one fell with a plop.

"I'm practicing martial arts!" Xu Lingyin scrambled up, planted her hands on her hips, and stuck out her round little belly. Deeply displeased by Big Brother's sneak attack, she drew her little brows together. "Big Brother, are you challenging me?"

Perhaps the morning's events had cast a shadow over her young heart. The five-year-old child felt she should learn martial arts.

"I am," Xu Qi'an said.

"Daddy said people have to fight for their pride, and martial artists do too. It's called dig... dig..."

"Dignity?"

"Mm!" Xu Lingyin nodded vigorously, then glared at her big brother. "I'm going to fight you."

She charged over on her two short little legs, waving her fists and howling.

Xu Qi'an pressed one hand against her forehead. The tiny girl grew frantic, howling as she flailed her fists wildly.

But no matter what she did, she couldn't hit her big brother.

Her little face scrunched up in distress.

Finding her annoying, Xu Qi'an proposed a deal. "I'll give you a chicken drumstick, and we'll call it your loss."

"Okay!" Sure enough, Xu Lingyin stopped flailing, her face lighting up with delight.

"What about your dignity?"

"Big Brother, what's dignity?"

"...You've got promise."

He led the little girl into the hall. Soon afterward, dinner was served, a feast as lavish as if it were a festival.

Whether deliberately or not, the maids and older servants placed the best dishes in front of Xu Qi'an. He couldn't help glancing at Auntie. She wore a dress embroidered with muted patterns. Her face was exquisite, and her beautiful, limpid eyes and thick lashes held a charm unique to a mature woman, like a full-blown crabapple blossom.

She was as aloof as ever, as though what Xu Qi'an had done that day was nothing of consequence.

But without her approval, the older servants wouldn't have dared give Xu Dalang such preferential treatment.

Xu Lingyue ate in little bites, then finally worked up her courage and said, "Brother, Mother is making winter clothes for the family. I'll take your measurements later. I... I want to make yours myself."

His younger sister had changed into a rather splendid outfit, her dress embroidered all over with vivid lotus blossoms and her goose-yellow shawl covered in intricate cloud patterns. She was only sixteen or seventeen, and such a gorgeous outfit, paired with her exquisite, delicate face, instead gave her an innocent charm untouched by worldly affairs.

"Is... is that all right?" Xu Lingyue was easily embarrassed. When he said nothing, she blushed and lowered her head.

Little sisters are better in this era. They know to make clothes for their brothers. Unlike my younger female cousin from before, who can only be described with two words: "heh heh." Xu Qi'an nodded. "Thank you."

Xu Lingyue smiled radiantly, complementing Auntie beside her.

Xu Qi'an looked away and said, "Second Uncle, Erlang, come to the study after dinner. I have something to discuss with you."

The study!

After serving three cups of hot tea, Lü'e took her leave.

Xu Qi'an picked up a cup and moistened his throat. Once again, he reflected that food without MSG always seemed to be missing something.

"What do you make of what happened this afternoon?" Xu Qi'an got straight to the point, asking his second uncle and younger cousin for their opinions.

Wasn't that matter already over? Second Uncle Xu looked somewhat bewildered.

Xu Xinnian frowned. "You mean that Young Master Zhou might still take revenge?"

The son of a dignified vice minister of revenue had stumbled at the hands of a mere petty clerk. He surely wouldn't let it go.

Second Uncle Xu waved a hand. "No, no. It might be different under normal circumstances, but today a great scholar from Cloud Deer Academy and a white-robed member of the Bureau of Astronomy stepped in. I don't think that Zhou fellow would dare stir up trouble again."

That wasn't a wrong way to think. It was perfectly reasonable.

It was common enough for officials' sons to prey on ordinary people, but they became considerably more cautious when officialdom or major powers were involved.

Half of that came from what they had seen and heard growing up: even the most reckless officials' sons knew the waters of the capital ran deep. The other half came from warnings from their fathers.

Xu Xinnian shook his head. "Father, since Big Brother brought it up, he must have a reason."

He looked at Xu Qi'an.

Xu Qi'an said gravely, "I just got word at the Bureau of Astronomy today. The mastermind behind the tax silver case was Vice Minister Zhou."

This chapter is three thousand Chinese characters long. I'm so damn generous.