Chapter Sixteen: The Old Man Returns

  "Ying'er, Xiaozi, I'm back." A faint shout came from afar, it was Father's voice.

  "Ah, what's going on? You're back so late at night." Yang Heng said unhappily as he got up. "You child, you're not happy to see your grandfather return?" The old lady welcomed him with a smile.

  "Alas, I really can't take you two anymore." Yang Heng sighed and also got up.

  "Hmm, why are you still sleeping in the shed? I thought that house was already built." Old Dad suddenly realized that these two had actually crawled out of the shed.

  "Grandpa, it's not grandma, she said we have to wait for you to come back and then we'll move in together, are you the master of the house?" Yang Heng said helplessly.

  "Swallow, you've worked hard, I saw that you all opened up such a big piece of land outside, I'm so happy." Old Dad said to Old Mom with deep feeling.

  "Alas, I can't take it anymore, I'm going to sleep." As he spoke, Yang Heng ran back again to continue chatting with Lord Zhou.

  That night, the old father and mother didn't sleep anymore. They sat next to the fire pit and whispered all night long. Yang Heng only heard something about "Dajiao Ge" (a type of folk song), it seemed like his father was very excited, perhaps he had found a correct path for himself, which was to be a soldier.

  "Daughter, why are you staring at me?" It was rare for his mother to carefully comb Yang Heng's hair. After finishing, she didn't let him leave immediately, but instead gazed at him, occasionally pinching his cheeks. (Yang Heng found that having this hairstyle in this era was a real hassle. Every morning, he had to get up and comb it. At first, he didn't know it was his mother who combed his hair; he would just wake up, roughly tie it back, and be done with it. But then his mother scolded him, so every day she would comb his hair, though she didn't have much patience and would only make sure it was smooth before tying it back.)

  "For a mother to discover, our Heng'er is getting more and more beautiful." (A big man using the word "beautiful", okay, fine, he's still just a little kid.) "Mom, what are you talking about?" "I'm saying that our Heng'er is getting more and more beautiful. Before, I only knew him as someone who worked with iron, letting sparks burn his face so badly it was hard to see how handsome my child was." Okay, looks like mom has been stimulated by something and is just excited today. In reality, Yang Heng's face hasn't changed much, if anything, he's just gotten a lot darker from working outdoors in the wind and sun.

  "Good boy, you're awake. You've done a great job these past few days, and this whole field has been cleared." Father strode in from outside, still holding two wild rabbits in his hands.

  "Mother, is that Father?" Yang Heng was surprised. The old man used to be different from this. At that time, the old man walked very casually and looked very unconfident, with his head always lowered, as if he didn't dare to look at people. He wasn't as steady and firm in his steps as he is now. Although he spoke loudly then, it wasn't as sonorous and powerful as it is now. It seems that he's very satisfied with being a garrison soldier.

  "Grandpa, what have you been up to for the past month?" Yang Heng was very curious about his father's sudden change. "Heng'er, your grandpa is now quite something, all thanks to his good fortune." His mother said proudly from the side.

  The fire was not bad, and the old father was selected as a prefectural soldier for training for the first time. He became a Huo Chang, and the old father's path to becoming a prefectural soldier was also quite tortuous. When the old father had just arrived in the county, he was informed that it was a mistake and asked to return home. There were three conditions for selecting prefectural soldiers: first, one must have financial resources; without financial resources, how could they be equipped with weapons and food? Second, personal ability was considered; those who were incompetent couldn't even carry a long spear, let alone wear armor. How could they go to battle? Third, the number of able-bodied men in the household was also taken into account. If you went to fight, but your family members starved to death at home, what would be the point of fighting?

  So, when they saw the old man, they thought his wealth was definitely not good, and it could be seen from his clothes that he didn't have much to say. There were only three of them, and this thing called ability really couldn't be seen on the old man's body. Although the old man had great strength, his muscles weren't very developed, and he even looked a bit weak. So, when they saw the old man, they wanted him to go back, but the old man had no choice. He still held that chopping knife in his hand, so he thought of selling it to buy some things back.

  "Hey kid, what's with this knife of yours? It looks so strange and unusual." Just as Old Dad pulled out the chopping knife, it happened to be seen by the newly arrived Prefect, who had a thick back and a curved blade that looked somewhat intimidating.

  What knife, Yang Heng didn't say what kind of knife it was, just a few knives made for chopping firewood. However, Old Dad remembered Yang Heng's words, "General, this is a chopping firewood knife passed down from my family, I came out this time to sell this knife and buy some equipment. Since I can't be a government soldier, I'll sell it and buy some household items to take back." Old Dad said humbly.

  "Ah, the chopping knife, let me take a look." The lieutenant took the knife with great interest and said, "It's not light, but I don't know how sharp it is." As he spoke, he casually chopped at a small tree beside him, and the tree fell with a swing.

  "Good sword, come on, bring me a horizontal knife, boy, don't blame me if you break it," A general doesn't need to reason with a commoner, breaking it is just breaking it, what else can he compensate for? The old man naturally wouldn't say anything, but the old man was very confident in his own crafted knives. This sword had cut down hundreds of big trees, and even hit stones while cutting trees, without any damage to the sword.

  "General, the sword has arrived." "Kid, pick up your sword. Don't say I broke it for you." As he spoke, this centurion threw Dad's sword to Dad and picked up the sword that a soldier had just brought over.

  "Come on, kid." As he spoke, he grasped the hilt with both hands and assumed a stance. But Lao Die hadn't practiced swordsmanship before, so naturally he didn't have any stance to speak of - he simply held the knife in one hand and swung it at the school lieutenant's blade.

  "General, I'm here." Clang! With a single sound, the knife in the hands of this captain was immediately broken into two halves, and the captain also retreated several steps back. However, Old Dad stood still on the spot, holding that chopping knife, without any damage on it.

  If two ordinary people were chopping with knives, they might leave a gap in the horizontal knife, but they wouldn't be able to cut off the knife. However, one of them is a Xiaowei, who is about to become a Xiaowei, and it's at the beginning of the founding of the country, which means this Xiaowei must have some ability. When he encountered his father's great strength, it was impossible for the knife not to be cut off.

  "Haha, good sword, good strength! You don't have to go back, just stay in the army. Someone, give him a set of equipment and ten taels of gold. I'll keep this sword. Haha!" The centurion laughed loudly as he walked away with the sword, and Lao Die stayed behind like that.