My First Husband After Transmigration

Chapter 100

“You wouldn’t believe it, would you? I’m the one who’s treating you now,” he laughed. “I never expected you to still be alive, brother.”

younger brother.

Overwhelmed with the relief of surviving the ordeal and the excitement of suddenly meeting our loved ones, we held hands tightly and smiled through our tears for a long time under the lamplight.

I have brothers, my closest people, so whether I have friends or not is no longer important.

Even your closest and most trusted friend will ruthlessly betray you for a woman. Making the wrong friends was the greatest tragedy of my father's life.

I made friends very quickly.

Two excellent friends, leading others to my door seeking help from the friend who caused me to lose five hundred taels of silver.

They are really something else. One is very blunt, and the other is too lazy to be funny. They even like to bicker. They always seem to be very happy. With them around, no matter how many tragic things happen around you, they will never make you feel sad or upset for long.

Sharing drinks and jokes with two such people, chatting about the world, is indeed a pleasant and relaxing experience; it's a wonderful kind of joy.

However, this kind of pleasure never lasts long.

They are by no means villains. I tried to convince myself, but I couldn't help but smile bitterly. When a person decides to make friends, they will use the same words to cover it up. Did my father do the same back then?

I have made the same choice now.

revenge?

"The imperial court will never admit its mistake, and besides..."

“You swore an oath to the old garden master, but I did not.”

My younger brother hasn't changed. Once he's made up his mind about something, he'll do it no matter what. Just like when he was little, he was smashed and bled profusely while trying to get the inkstone from the table, but he still crawled over without a word, grabbed the fallen inkstone, and held it tightly in his hands.

I didn't try to persuade them any further.

But he is my only brother, my only family. Even if I avenge him, with those two around, his identity will inevitably be exposed. How could the imperial court let him go? Those two are so clever, and they are our friends...

He said arrogantly, "If we destroy the evidence, how will they even begin to investigate?"

To destroy the evidence?

I did not agree.

He looked at me for a while, then suddenly laughed: "You look just like your father."

You can't hide it from him.

"We can't take the risk."

"If you're soft-hearted towards others, aren't you afraid of killing your own brothers?"

He sighed softly, stood up, and left, but I felt a chill run through my body.

Years later, a bottle was placed on the table in front of me, its blood-red color so striking.

"After thinking about it, I still think poison is the most suitable," he said with a faint smile, his expression completely unconcerned. "This poison is extremely rare. It took me three years to refine it. Even if they discover it, they won't be able to detect its toxicity. They will come looking for me then."

He didn't give up.

I hesitated: "Father doesn't blame them."

He sneered: "But you still have your mother, how do you know she doesn't hate you?"

I was speechless.

“Mother is innocent. The 146 lives of the Tao family are also innocent. Back then, that woman surnamed Bai kept pestering Father, which brought about the annihilation of our family. Now she and Tang Jingfeng are living happily and carefree. How do you know that Mother doesn’t hate them, and Uncle Ming and the others don’t hate them?”

"Do you know that my mother had both her legs cut off while protecting me?"

It was like a bucket of cold water being poured over my head, making me shiver uncontrollably.

He remained remarkably calm, as if he were talking about something unrelated: "Even without her legs, she still refused to faint. She couldn't close her eyes in peace until my master rescued me. Do you think she hated him?"

Do I hate him? I dare not think about it too deeply. If I don't avenge him and let my younger brother risk his life alone, my mother will not forgive me, nor will the more than one hundred wronged souls of the Tao family forgive me.

How can I face my godfather in the afterlife if I break my vow?

"If you don't avenge your grudges, what have you been trying to do all these years?" The faint voice seemed to be a murmur to itself, yet every word struck my heart.

I cannot answer.

For over twenty years, ever since I promised my adoptive father that I would not seek revenge, I have tried my best not to think about what happened that night. I have been managing my family business, composing poems and painting, traveling through mountains and rivers, and drinking and chatting with two friends. I thought that this was how my life would go by, but I never thought about this question.

Why were we born?

What am I living for? To live a peaceful life as the young master of Nangong Villa, helping the poor and weak, and laughing and joking about life? In fact, isn't that how many people in this world live their lives?

But I am different from them.

That night, I dreamed again of the sky ablaze with fire, of my father, and of my mother…

I couldn't let him go on this risk alone. Perhaps he already knew I would agree. Since he didn't know why he was born, being schemed against by his own brother was better than being schemed against by others.

"I'm glad you're here to help me," he said, showing no surprise whatsoever, and simply smiled. "If you really want to protect me, how many people are you willing to sacrifice?"

Innocent people.

Why must there be so much killing in the world? A strong sense of sorrow welled up inside me. This plan was not perfect. I must not pity others, or I will kill them.

Why was I born? Perhaps only for revenge.

A girl fell from the sky.

She was young, dressed in strange clothes, and spoke incomprehensible words. She was surprisingly bold when she saw men, but became terribly timid when she heard about the dead. Her every move was unlike that of a young woman. She clearly had nowhere to go, yet she acted completely indifferent, showing no trace of the pitiful state one would expect.

What girl wouldn't cry and feel sad if she suddenly ended up like this? I almost suspect she had ulterior motives.

But she's really not good at lying.

Just as she said, she had no relatives or friends, just like I did back then. It seems this girl doesn't know how terrible it is to be helpless and alone. Perhaps it's better if she never does.

No one could have imagined that a constable and a murderer would work together to solve a case. Actually, it's not bad. With them around, the journey isn't lonely, especially with that interesting girl along the way.

She told me to call her Xiao Nian.

It was my younger brother who saved Hei Shilang, but he didn't know it. I decided to let him go, though. He was Li You's friend, and if things continued, something unavoidable would happen.

In the world of martial arts, aren't there always many things we have no choice but to do?

They trusted me so much, believing I was framed, yet I still chose to betray them. It's a sad thing, isn't it? Did Tang Jingfeng and Liu Ru feel the same guilt when they betrayed their fathers?

Xiao Nian actually came to comfort me.

This girl followed us all the way, and she wasn't too annoying. She wasn't as delicate as ordinary girls, and she was very open-minded. Sometimes she didn't even seem like a girl at all. She always liked to pat Li You on the shoulder to make bets and bicker. She even made up a set of "three obediences and four virtues" for men.

What did she see?

I only breathed a sigh of relief after I was sure she was just afraid I would feel sad or guilty. She's a silly girl; it's best not to let her get involved in these things. I'm not as good as she thinks.

To my surprise, she told me sadly that she had been abandoned by her friends when she was in danger.

Women have friends? I found it both funny and surprising. Young girls are mostly pampered by their parents and confined to their rooms. When they occasionally get together, it's just for competitions, jokes, and little tantrums. After they get married, they obey their husbands and rarely have any contact with each other. How could they know anything about loyalty, trust, or betrayal among friends?

She really knew.

By the way, she's not from here. People from her area would sue their husbands for taking a concubine. Thinking about this, I couldn't help but laugh again. Which of these things are true and which are false?

No one feels good about doing something to wrong their friend, so it's best not to disappoint her.

She was very forgiving and quickly recovered from her sadness. That evening, she even brought me a plate of strange snacks, saying she wanted to wish me a happy birthday.

Happy birthday? She actually remembered that.

cake?

The dessert had a peculiar name, but it didn't taste very good. In my twenty-odd years of life, I've never eaten anything worse. Seeing that her face was flushed with nervousness, it turned out to be her first time making it. No wonder Li You and He Bi were silent. Naturally, I couldn't refuse her.

I ate the cake as slowly as possible, and I found it quite amusing. If she were to do this for my birthday every year, I'd rather not do it anymore.

What about the future? Suddenly snapping back to reality, why am I thinking about these things! Could it be that I've already considered her a friend?

To be friends with a woman.

Seeing her relieved and happy expression, I suddenly realized that the cake wasn't actually that bad.

Xiao Nian's parents had already separated and were divorced.

"...To support each other or to forget each other, which do you think makes more sense?"

I felt quite embarrassed, as she was the only one who would talk so openly about love and romance with a man. I never imagined that this girl, who always seemed so carefree, was actually lonely and had so many worries on her mind.

To cherish each other, or to forget each other?

Suddenly, I remembered Aunt Bai—no, I should call her Aunt Ye now. She loved my father so much back then, and was even willing to become his concubine. Yet, in the end, she married Uncle Tang the second year after my father's passing. And my father, already married to my mother, still wanted to take another woman.

Isn't it incredibly easy to forget matters of love and affection?

She drew a cartoon rabbit, not very realistic, but incredibly cute and playful, almost like herself. The lines were simple, and you could remember it at a glance. I specially drew it and gave it to her, only to discover that her real intention wasn't what she wanted. That girl!

"She has nothing to do with this."

"You can't bear to part with it?"

"She will always be our friend."

Even I know that this excuse is utterly ridiculous.

He laughed, "I never imagined that my brother would make friends with a woman."

"There was no need to kill her."

He didn't listen to me and still poisoned her. Seeing that the mischievous girl, who had been talking to Li You about "love of beauty" during the day, was now lifeless and on the verge of death by night, I felt a strange pain in my heart. In the end, he came out in time to detoxify her; otherwise, I might have really gone to find him.

Am I really being too nervous?

Afterwards, Xiao Nian's courage did not decrease but instead grew. She even started joking with me, leaving me speechless. This girl is talking nonsense. Will she never be able to get married?

"Isn't there you? If you can't get married, you can come and torment me!"

She grinned and said, "Didn't you say I'm great? Besides, having such a handsome, rich, and gentle husband is so prestigious and makes me look good, isn't it?"

"Shameless!" I glared at her, annoyed, but for the first time in my life, I felt a little flutter in my heart. Perhaps this really is good, if none of this had happened...

A chill ran through me.

Finally, one day, she put on Li You's hairpin.

It actually makes me feel sad.

That's fine, that's fine. I can't give her anything, so I don't have to think about it anymore. Isn't it easy to forget these things?