Chapter Thirty-Seven: Enlightened Parents

  After dinner, Zhao Fei bid farewell to his parents and returned to his room.

  Lying on the bed, Zhao Fei's thoughts were a thousand miles away. Recalling his father's words, Zhao Fei felt deeply moved. No matter what era it was, there existed privileged classes, while ordinary people like them could only struggle to survive. A small official could intimidate common folk, let alone those with even higher positions.

  Zhao Fei lay in bed, tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep. His mind kept flashing back to Zhao Cai's despicable image, and then his parents' wrinkled faces would appear, making Zhao Fei feel extremely guilty. His parents had worried about him so much, but he had never done anything for them. Perhaps it was because he was really too tired from a busy day, forcing Zhao Fei to enter dreamland with a tangled heart. It was another sleepless night, and Zhao Fei's mind kept flashing back to various images in a daze.

  Early in the morning, Zhao Fei got up early again, squinting his eyes to look at the sun rising slowly. "I didn't sleep well again, how did I become so sentimental and fond of daydreaming?" Zhao Fei shook his head, rubbing his still slightly sore eyes. While yawning, he walked to the middle of the courtyard and started practicing Wudangquan. Before long, Li came out, looked at Zhao Fei who was practicing in the courtyard with a strange expression, then turned around and went back into the house to cook breakfast.

  Before long, Zhao Fei finished the entire set of fist techniques. After exercising his muscles and bones, Zhao Fei felt much more comfortable, so he washed up with water and then returned to the house to prepare for dinner. When he arrived at the house, he saw that Zhao Hu was still not out, so he turned around and asked Li Shi, "Mother, why hasn't Father come out yet?"

  "Your father was too tired yesterday and hasn't gotten out of bed yet. You go ahead and eat." Li told Zhao Fei without thinking much about it.

  After hearing this, Zhao Fei's calm mood was stirred up again. He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists tightly, his eyes wide with anger. Seeing Zhao Fei's expression, Li realized she had misspoken and hastily comforted him, "Alright, little Fei, don't be angry anymore. Besides, our family can't compete with the Zhao family anyway, let it go." Li sighed softly, her face filled with sadness.

  Seeing Li's sorrowful expression, Zhao Fei's heart immediately softened. "I know, Mother, I won't be reckless."

  "It's fine if you know." Li looked at Zhao Fei with relief. "You go eat first, I'll go take a look at your father and Duor." After saying that, Li went into the inner room.

  Watching Li's departing back, Zhao Fei made a silent vow in his heart. Dad, mom, rest assured, I will work hard to make you live a good life.

  After having breakfast, Zhao Fei did not go to the village chief's house as usual. Because of the busy farming season, the village chief specially gave Zhao Fei a few days off, so that he could help his parents with more work. After all, after harvesting the rice, they still had to dry it and do other things. Once everything was done, they also had to store the grain needed for the family to spend the winter, and the remaining ones would be taken to the city to exchange for money. So every time this season came, every household would be very busy.

  After sitting in the house for a while, Zhao Hu walked out with a yawn. Zhao Fei quickly got up and said, "Dad, you're up."

  "Hmm." Zhao Hu had just woken up and his spirit hadn't fully recovered. Upon hearing Zhao Fei's greeting, he only slightly nodded and responded with a soft "hmm".

  Looking at Zhao Hu's appearance, Zhao Fei's anger was again unbearable, but he had nowhere to vent it, and the emotion was quite tangled. "Dad, why don't you just stay home and rest today, don't go to the fields, my mom and I can handle it."

  "How can that be, I'm a big man lying at home, letting you two go to work. If it gets out, the villagers will laugh me to death." Zhao Hu said with a glance at Zhao Fei.

  "But your body won't be able to take it." Zhao Fei said worriedly.

  "Haha." Zhao Hu smiled, then rushed to Zhao Fei and said: "You also underestimate your father's body too much, it's okay. Your father is still very strong, I'm still waiting for you to marry a daughter-in-law and hold a grandson."

  Zhao Fei's face turned red, "Dad, what are you talking about? I'm still young, how can we talk about getting married?"

  Zhao Hu laughed. "Haha, you're not young anymore." Seeing Zhao Hu laugh, Zhao Fei's expression became awkward. At just over ten years old, he was already looking forward to finding a wife; if this were modern times, his parents would have to be very open-minded indeed.

  "What are you father and son talking about that's making you so happy?" Li asked hastily as soon as she came out of the house, hearing Zhao Hu's hearty laughter.

  "No... nothing's wrong." Zhao Fei hastily denied, he didn't want to get married at just over ten years old. Although this wasn't a big deal in ancient times, in other words it was the mainstream, but Zhao Fei after all had a modern person's way of thinking.

  Seeing Zhao Fei's anxious look, Zhao Hu couldn't help but laugh again. Looking at the mysterious father and son, Li Shi also had no choice but to shake his head. "Go ahead, I won't ask anymore."

  When Zhao Fei heard Li say that, he couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief. Fortunately, his mother hadn't gotten involved, or else it would have been really hard to get out of this situation. In his past life, he was over 20 years old and still hadn't had a girlfriend, and his parents weren't worried about it at all. Now that he was in his teens, his father had already started worrying about his marriage, which made Zhao Fei feel like he couldn't take it anymore. He shook his head and threw off these annoying thoughts.

  "Alright, let's go." Zhao Hu finished his meal, picked up the farm tools and strode out of the door. Zhao Fei hastily followed behind him, while Li stayed back to tidy up the household chores, planning to head out later. The father-son duo walked side by side towards their field, and before they even arrived, they saw a figure in the distance standing at the edge of their own field.

  Who would be by their own field at this hour? Zhao Fei was somewhat puzzled, but the figure seemed a bit familiar. After walking for a while, it was Zhao Cai! Zhao Fei made sure to take a good look at who that person was, and his anger suddenly flared up. The more he looked at Zhao Cai, the more displeasing he became. What could be a good thing about coming so early?

  "Haha, old brother, how did you come so early." Seeing Zhao Cai, Zhao Hu smiled.

  "No big deal, just came to take a look. Younger brother, you're here so early too. Xiao Fei is also early." Zhao Cai said with a smile after glancing at Zhao Hu and then at Zhao Fei.

  Looking at Zhao Cai's hypocritical smile, Zhao Fei originally wanted to ignore him, but because of his father's face, he couldn't show it. He could only reluctantly walk forward and cupped his hands. "Uncle Cai, you're up early too." Although he disliked Zhao Cai, he couldn't show it.

  "Haha, this kid is quite polite." Zhao Cai still had that silly smile on his face. If you didn't look closely, you'd really be fooled by his smile. Looking at Zhao Cai's expression, Zhao Fei couldn't help but curl her lip in disgust - how could there be such a shameless person?

  "Little brother, your family's harvest is quite good this year!" Zhao said hypocritically.

  "Haha, it's not bad there, Brother Zhao's home is quite good." Zhao Hu was indeed very honest.

  Listening to Zhao Cai's words, Zhao Fei felt another wave of anger in his heart. Your family's good harvest is not entirely thanks to my father's help, and you don't even say thank you. Too lazy to listen to Zhao Cai's hypocritical words anymore, he said to Zhao Hu: "Dad, you chat with Uncle Cai first, I'll go work now."

  "Alright, go ahead Little Fei, take care of yourself." Zhao Hu nodded.

  "Good luck, little brother! Having a good kid like Xiaofei is a blessing."

  "Haha, brother is overpraising, my little Fei is just filial." Hearing Zhao Cai's praise for Zhao Fei, Zhao Hu also showed a satisfied smile.