Tang Dynasty Bandits

Chapter 289 Side Story: Father and Son (Part 2)

Feng Shuai Li Guochang is a person who had no childhood.

In his memory, his mother was an extremely beautiful woman, but the exact nature of her beauty had long since become a blur.

The only clear marks are the scars on his back and arms, inflicted by his stepmother, sometimes with a whip, sometimes with a branding iron, and sometimes with a steel needle.

For a child who is only a few years old, crying is the only way to relieve immediate pain and therefore has meaning.

When he discovered that crying only brought more cruel abuse, he soon stopped crying altogether.

He could only relive the scene of his mother's passing countless times—

"Mother, don't leave me..."

Li Guochang held his mother's thin hand tightly, as if he could snatch his mother's life from the clutches of illness.

The child's voice was choked with sobs: "Wait until I grow up, until the day I can protect my mother, okay?"

The woman on her sickbed was extremely weak and emaciated. Tears streamed down her face as she could only repeatedly apologize to her beloved son.

Her illness stemmed from her husband's cunning and seductive concubine. As the legal wife, she was suppressed by the concubine, who constantly gave her attitude, causing resentment to build up in her heart.

She knew that once she was gone, her child would suffer unimaginable torment in the future; her frail body was utterly powerless against the fierce disease.

With her last bit of strength, she reached under her pillow and pulled out a brocade pouch bound with gold thread, which she then placed in her son's hand.

Li Guochang untied the golden silk threads, revealing a few strands of black hair and a small wooden puppet of a woman. The puppet's features vaguely resembled his mother's, probably made by his mother herself when she was a young girl, or by someone close to her.

"When you feel bitter and can't go on, take this out and look at it," Mother said, her voice choked with emotion.

Li Guochang held the brocade pouch, sobbing uncontrollably.

His mother held his hand, her eyes filled with longing and resentment for the world, but the light in her eyes dimmed uncontrollably, and her hand finally slipped limply to the ground.

The belongings left by his mother became the support that kept Li Guochang alive.

Only at midnight did he dare to secretly take out the brocade pouch from under the covers, look at the only memories his mother had left him in the moonlight, and rub his wounds with his little hands while secretly wiping away tears.

When she was ten years old, her stepmother finally discovered the brocade pouch.

She roared as she snatched the brocade pouch from Li Guochang's hand and threw it into the fire. Li Guochang could only watch helplessly as the keepsake his mother had left him was slowly consumed by the flames and turned into pale ashes.

He trembled all over, but dared not cry out. The raging fire reminded him of the fear of being branded with a red-hot iron and having wax dripped onto his skin by a burning candle.

"Nothing that bitch left in the world will ever be left behind."

The stepmother clapped her hands, revealing an extremely smug expression.

At this moment, Li Guochang finally made up his mind.

He carried an iron hammer and hid behind his stepmother's bed curtains. While she was taking a nap, he smashed her head to pieces with the hammer.

After the revenge, all that remained was helplessness and loneliness.

His father didn't care about his life or death at all; otherwise, he wouldn't have ignored his stepmother's abuse of him for so many years.

He killed his stepmother, but his father would most likely make him pay with his life.

Death doesn't seem so terrible. Perhaps I can see my mother again in the heavenly world?
But after crying his heart out, Li Guochang still wanted to live.

He needs to find someone who can protect him.

Li Guochang recalled an uncle named Shi Xiong, a colleague of his father who had stayed with him for a few days and treated him very well. This man was clearly very cheerful and talkative, yet his stepmother was quite afraid of him and had to pretend to be kind to him, acting like a virtuous wife and loving mother. For some reason, thinking of this man stirred a sudden sense of trust within Li Guochang.

Before his father returned, he grabbed a few clothes and some copper coins and escaped from the house.

He quickly ran out of money and his clothes were worn out. He was disheveled and begged for a living. Several months later, he finally found the place where his uncle Shi Xiong worked.

The gatekeeper was a very kind man. After listening to his story, he immediately let him in.

Li Guochang will always remember that tall man who embraced him with his broad chest, gently stroking his hair: "Child, you no longer need to be afraid..."

He was in tears again, his whole body trembling, but not from fear, but from gratitude and peace of mind.

Upon receiving the news, the father quickly came to Shi Xiong's door, demanding his son back.

This was the only time Li Guochang had ever seen his teacher so angry.

"Zhu Xiezhiyi, you heartless bastard!" Shi Xiong roared, unbuttoning his shirt to show his father the dense scars on Li Guochang's arms and back.

The family was granted the surname Li after Li Guochang came of age and rendered meritorious service to the country. At that time, Li Guochang's family also had the compound surname Zhu Xie.

"You people, having children for a moment's desire. You have such good children, yet you don't know how to love them, instead making them suffer pain that children shouldn't have to endure. People like you don't deserve to be fathers!"

Shi Xiong's eyes seemed to burn with flames, and his overwhelming aura made Zhu Xiezhiyi feel unsteady, as if he was about to be swallowed up by this invisible pressure.

Those who know Shi Xiong know that he loves children very much. He and his wife had five children, but all of them died young.

In the end, the father retreated sheepishly.

Years later, the ailing father wrote a letter to Li Guochang, who had already achieved great success, begging his son for forgiveness. He also said that Li's brothers were all good-for-nothings, and if Li wanted to vent his anger, he could kill them all.

The Shatuo Zhuxie clan was a separate branch of the Turkic people, and Zhuxie Zhiyi adhered to the survival rules of the grasslands. Until his death, he did not think there was anything wrong with these rules.

Li Guochang would never allow what he had experienced to happen to his son.

When he first got Ke Yong, Li Guochang loved him to the extreme. He cherished him so much that he was afraid of dropping him or melting him. He only wanted him to have the best things in the world.

After Ke Yong's mother passed away, Li Guochang spoiled him even more, wanting to make up for the lack of maternal love his son had received.

Li Guochang thought, "So what if my son becomes arrogant and domineering in the future? I'd rather he hurt others than let Keyong get hurt."

Unexpectedly, as Li Keyong grew up, he not only looked more and more like his mother, but also became increasingly effeminate and delicate in his behavior. He even liked to wear maid's clothes and apply makeup to his face.

After several unsuccessful attempts to reprimand his son, Li Guochang realized that excessive pampering would only ruin his son.

The mistakes one has made must be made up for.

He used to loathe his father's coldness, but he never imagined that after becoming a father himself, he would have to be a cold father too.

Li Guochang kept more than a dozen concubines as fictitious possessions and adopted a group of younger brothers for Keyong, intending to use them as whetstones for Keyong. In reality, these concubines were all left alone in their rooms, and Li Guochang never touched them.

When Li Guochang hurt his son with words and slapped him with his hands, he felt that the pain in his heart was ten times that of his child.

Hate me, child. But I can't let you be ruined by me.

If one day I die at your hands, and it makes you a truly upright person, I, your father, would do it willingly.

Because I love you more than I love myself.

(End of this chapter)