Chapter 2612: Chaos

Guan Youde bid farewell to Zhong Ji and dragged himself home, his head still foggy. He passed acquaintances along the way without so much as a nod.

The door opened with a drawn-out squeak. Inside, the adobe house stood empty—bare walls, a few meager possessions. Calling the family destitute would have been generous.

After dozing on the dilapidated bed for a while, he rose and lit a fire in the small stove to brew his medicine. Every tael of silver the family had earned over the years had vanished into that medicine jar.

He didn't know what sins he'd committed in a past life to be struck down with this strange illness in the prime of his years. Over the past decade, he'd consulted every renowned physician in the region. He'd invited Daoist priests to pray for him and choked down talisman water from shamans and witches. Nothing worked. His body deteriorated day by day, yet Heaven refused to let him die. After the Australians arrived, he'd pawned what remained of the family property to scrape together enough silver for treatment at the Provincial and Port General Hospital. A doctor named Fu had diagnosed it as some intractable condition and prescribed a Chinese medicine formula. Strangely enough, it actually stabilized his illness. For two years now, this prescription had kept him alive.

After drinking his medicine, Guan Youde's thoughts drifted to a chance encounter during one of his trips to Guangzhou—a childhood friend, now a businessman, who had invited him to make a fortune together. The idea took root in his mind. He fingered his empty money pouch and ransacked the house, finding only a small piece of broken silver. Not even enough for travel expenses to the city.

I'll have to squeeze some silver out of that stinking woman and that rebellious son of mine, he thought.

At dusk, Guan Youde made his way to a mulberry dike just outside the village, where several silkworm farmers had built thatched huts. The walls were woven from mulberry branches cut in winter and plastered with mud; the roofs were covered with rice straw. These crude structures served as homes for the poorest silkworm farmers, who lived and worked in the same space—silkworm room and bedroom undivided. Simple and cheap to build, such huts dotted the landscape wherever mulberry fields grew.

Guan Youde pushed the door open. In the dim interior, a haggard middle-aged woman in ragged clothes was feeding mulberry leaves to silkworms. She glanced at him, her face darkening, and said nothing. Her hands never stopped working, as though if she just kept moving, he might simply disappear.

"Give me two taels of silver," Guan Youde said. "I'm going to Guangzhou." He didn't use her name. He didn't use a title.

The woman's expression soured further. "Bao'er manages the silver."

Guan Youde scowled. "You slut, what kind of attitude is that? Do you even remember I'm the head of this family?"

"Then perhaps the head of the family should act like one." Her words carried thorns.

His temper flared. "Betrayed by everyone, abandoned by wife and child—and it's all because of you, you cheap woman! If you hadn't cuckolded me, would I have ended up like this?"

The woman snorted. Betrayed by everyone, he says. Abandoned by wife and child. I am his wife. I've followed this man my whole life without a single day of blessing. He brought this strange disease on himself. The family fortune—he consumed it all. And now he blames me. He's the one who was fickle and faithless, who chased after other women, who beat me and threw me out of the house. Now he has the gall to heap crimes on my head. Why is Heaven so blind? Why won't the King of Hell just take him?

This woman was Huang Shi—Lady Huang—Guan Youde's first wife. He had driven her out in one of his rages two years ago.

Guan Youde ranted on. Huang Shi endured in silence. Then the leaky door creaked open, and a boy of fifteen or sixteen stepped inside. This was the "Bao'er" she had mentioned—Guan Zongbao, the only child she and Guan Youde had together.

Seeing his father there, Guan Zongbao's spirits plummeted. He refused to look at the man, refused to greet him. He walked straight past and began helping his mother work.

Guan Youde exploded. "Guan Zongbao! Do you even acknowledge me as your father? Are you my son or not?"

Huang Shi flared up as well. "Of course he's your son!"

"If he's my son, why won't he even call me Dad? Is there a shred of respect in him for his own father?" Guan Youde's voice was shrill with indignation.

"Ask yourself," Guan Zongbao shot back, the words surprising even him, "what you've done in all these years that deserves my respect?" Usually he hid when he could, avoided the man whenever possible. But something in him had snapped.

"Then you're not my son! Go on—dare to come to the ancestral hall with me. We'll drip blood before the whole clan and settle this once and for all. If it proves you're not my blood, I won't bother you again. You won't owe me a thing." Guan Youde pulled out matches and cigarettes, striking a light.

Huang Shi shrieked in alarm. "Don't smoke in here! You'll kill the silkworms! Get out!"

Seeing his mother's panic, Guan Zongbao stepped forward. "Get out!"

Guan Youde felt the world turning upside down. This stinking woman and worthless son, daring to shout at him? Rage consumed him. "You dare throw me out? This is my home! I am the head of this family!"

"Go back to Guan Family Village and be the head there!" Guan Zongbao shouted back without flinching. "These huts—my mother and I built them with our own hands, branch by branch, handful of grass by handful of grass!"

How could Guan Youde stand such insolence? He backhanded the boy across the face. Guan Zongbao stumbled back two steps, fury rising in him, and lunged forward to grapple with his father. Since ancient times, a son striking his father was the most despised act under feudal ethics. Guan Zongbao didn't dare hit hard—he only tried to pin the man down, to stop him. But Guan Youde showed no such restraint. Fortunately, years of illness had left him weak, and he couldn't match his teenage son's strength. After landing a few blows, he found himself pressed to the ground.

Huang Shi watched father and son fight, tears streaming down her face as she wailed.

But Guan Youde wouldn't give up. Seeing he couldn't win, he opened his mouth and sank his teeth into Guan Zongbao's calf. The pain was excruciating—the boy released him at once. The exertion had left Guan Zongbao's limbs weak and heavy as lead, and now Guan Youde gained the upper hand.

Terrified her son would be seriously hurt, Huang Shi threw herself at her husband, striking at him. "Don't hit my son! If you must hit someone, hit me—"

Guan Youde released the boy and turned on her instead. Chaos erupted in the thatched hut—crying and shouting, bodies crashing about. Neighbors drawn by the noise finally arrived to separate them. Seeing it was a family affair, they offered only gentle words of mediation. No one was willing to get involved.

Guan Youde spat on the floor. "Give me two taels of silver. I'm going to Guangzhou."

Huang Shi sobbed. "Two taels! With the war these past two years, don't you know how hard life has been? If we give it to you, how will we buy charcoal for drying cocoons? How will we afford silkworm papers for the next crop?"

Guan Youde snorted. "Steal it. Sell something. What do I care? You're my wife—giving me money is only right. I raised that son. Now it's his turn to support his father."

Guan Zongbao knew the man would never leave without silver. Resentment churned inside him with nowhere to go. Through gritted teeth he said, "Silver! Silver! That's all you ever think about! When have you ever thought about us?"

He began searching the hut, digging out small pieces of broken silver from hiding spots—the roof, the walls, beneath the floor—until he'd gathered roughly one tael. He threw it at Guan Youde's feet. "You want silver? Take it. And don't come back to bother us again."

Guan Youde picked up the pieces, weighed them in his palm, and sneered. "I'll be back." Then he turned and left without a backward glance.

After the fight, Guan Zongbao's body felt drained, his mouth parched. Adrenaline still coursed through him, leaving his face pale and his head spinning. Desperately thirsty, he scooped a bowl of cold water from the bucket and drank it down. Minutes later, his stomach rebelled, and he vomited into the chamber pot.

Huang Shi had endured in silence for years. But now that neighbors had witnessed her family's shame, she poured out her grievances before them. If she didn't speak now, within days the village would be buzzing with rumors unfavorable to her and her son. The bystanders couldn't do much—they listened, sighed, and that was all. The kinder ones might speak a word against Guan Youde when gossip circulated.

After the neighbors dispersed, only wreckage remained. Guan Zongbao found a candle and struck a match. The weak flame set mother and son's shadows flickering on the walls.

He looked down at his calf. A gruesome bite mark oozed blood. He remembered the clan elders saying that human mouths were filthy—any bite wound had to be washed with burning wine. He rummaged through the clutter until he found a small bottle and poured it over the wound. The pain brought tears to his eyes.

Huang Shi sat with a vacant stare, tears sliding silently down her cheeks. The burden of survival already crushed her, and still this plague of a man came to torment them.

After tending his wound, Guan Zongbao asked, "Mom, what are we going to do?"

She wept. "That god-cursed man—why won't Heaven take him? I don't know what sins I committed in a past life to deserve this. I can't bear these days anymore..."

Hearing the despair in her voice, Guan Zongbao said quickly, "Mom, if you don't want to live with him, then don't."

"I've thought about it," she said. "But the way he is now, he'd never agree to a divorce. If he were a beast, he'd have been beaten to death and sold for meat long ago. But he's human. There's nothing to be done."

"Then let's leave. Move somewhere far away and never come back."

Huang Shi hesitated. "If we disappear, he'll go to my maiden home and make trouble. Your grandfather is old. Your uncle is useless..."

Guan Zongbao's heart seethed with resentment. The neighbors were poor too, but their families were harmonious—their lives would improve with time. Why was his home always in turmoil? All of it traced back to one person. He had to find a way to be rid of him.

(End of Chapter)