The world is broken, the cubs mend it

The shower room was filled with white mist. Pei Zhiyan scrubbed his body vigorously, but he still felt that there was still a trace of blood.

He didn't want his children to smell it.

Ever since the child witnessed such a tragic scene that day, she has not slept well for several nights. She was scared.

Yuanyuan sat cross-legged on the bed, wrapped in a quilt that also covered her little head, leaving only a pair of big round eyes exposed.

The wooden door was pushed open from the outside, and Pei Zhiyan came in wearing a thin nightgown and a cloak tied around his body.

"Daddy, come and take your medicine."

When Caizhi heard that Xiao Fuzi had been caught in the rain, she was worried that she would catch a cold, so she asked Xiao Fuzi to make some medicine to drive away the cold. She also specially left a bowl for her father.

Pei Zhiyan picked up the steaming medicine on the table, blew on it, and drank it slowly.

The little guy next to him stared at his face for a moment, and suddenly said, "Daddy, you went to kill someone again tonight, didn't you?"

Pei Zhiyan felt inexplicably nervous when he heard this. The hand holding the medicine trembled and he almost spilled it. He raised his hand, clenched his fist, put it to his lips and cleared his throat.

"Uh... no..."

He was not the kind of person who would be caught lying, but at this moment he felt so guilty that he did not dare to look the child in the eye.

"You lied to me. I know everything. I heard people say it. They are all scolding you."

Yuanyuan's eyes suddenly became sharp, and she immediately exposed the old man's lie. She pouted and was a little dissatisfied with the old man's lie.

"What are you scolding?"

Pei Zhiyan held the bowl and drank medicine. The bowl covered half of his face and concealed the obscurity in his eyes.

"I don't want to say it, I don't like to hear it, Daddy, if you don't kill anyone, will they stop scolding you?"

Yuanyuan loosened her hands and let the quilt wrapped around her head slide down. She pressed her little hands on his legs and climbed into his arms, sitting up and staring into his eyes.

"Dad, please don't kill anyone, okay?"

She asked again, killing was too dangerous and too scary, she didn't want her father to die and she didn't want to see anyone else die.

Pei Zhiyan's eyes paused for a moment, and he put down the bowl of medicine in his hand after a moment of silence.

"Yuanyuan, I can't agree to your request. There are people I must kill. If I don't avenge my parents and relatives, I would be unworthy of being a son."

He never makes empty promises. His hands are stained with blood along the way, and it can never be washed clean.

"Were the people Daddy killed the same people who killed your relatives?"

"Yes…"

"Dad, do you really need revenge?"

Yuanyuan doesn’t understand how heavy hatred is. It is difficult to understand other people’s pain without experiencing it personally.

"If someone killed me, would you hate him?"

Pei Zhiyan asked with some expectation in his eyes. He hoped that the child would care about him.

But Yuanyuan pouted and cried after hearing this. She didn't dare to think about what she would do if her old father died.

The reason we don't let him kill is because we're afraid that he'll die a miserable death like her one day.

"Why are you crying? This is just a hypothesis, not true."

Pei Zhiyan's heart was moved. He felt sorry for the child crying, but he couldn't help but feel happy because he felt the child cared about him.

"I don't want you to die. If you die, I will no longer have a father. What if you meet someone more powerful and you can't beat him..."

Yuanyuan sobbed with red eyes, her mouth almost bent into an arch. She hated her old father asking such questions.

"..."

Pei Zhiyan carefully wiped the child's tears, sighed deeply, and spoke after careful consideration.

"I promise you that I won't die easily. Don't cry anymore. Be careful. Don't ruin your eyes at such a young age."

Looking at the chubby child, he suddenly wanted to know what she would look like when she grew up, and whether she would still be as crybaby as she is now.

"Then you must not die..."

Yuanyuan sniffed and spoke in a muffled voice.

"..."

Pei Zhiyan did not respond. Even if he did not commit suicide, there would come a day when he would not be able to wield the sword anymore, and his end would not be good.

All the things that needed to be done in Lizhou were completed, and the army had already escorted the rebels back to the capital.

Pei Zhiyan took the children by water. Along the way, Yuanyuan tasted a lot of river food. Everyone got off the boat at the Chuanlong County Ferry.

The people here make a living mostly by hunting and fishing, and they are very good at cooking wild game from the mountains.

After Yuanyuan checked into the inn, she tasted the local specialties such as wild pheasant, wild rabbit, wild deer, etc. Looking at the table full of delicacies, she didn't know which one to take first.

Pei Zhiyan has been taking the child around these days and has collected a lot of delicious and fun things for her.

"Dad, I won't buy it anymore. I can't play anymore."

Yuanyuan was holding a peach wood sword in her arms. Among so many toys, she liked the sword carved by her father the most.

"Then I won't buy it..."

Pei Zhiyan also felt that this was enough and would be enough for her to play with for a long time.

On his last day in Chuanlong County, he went to the post station to get his horse and took his child into Huxiao Mountain.

The horse was tied to a jujube tree at the foot of the mountain. Pei Zhiyan carried the child into the mountain. Although the mountain road was steep, he walked steadily.

He has walked this road up the mountain countless times.

"Dad, what are we doing in the mountains?"

Yuanyuan looked up. The mountain was so high that she couldn't even see where the top was.

"I'll take you to meet my relatives."

"Daddy's relatives? Does Daddy have other relatives?"

"You'll know when you get there."

Pei Zhiyan curled his lips towards her. He had already determined that she was a member of the Pei family. He took her to meet her mother and uncle to let them know that the Pei family had a successor.

"it is good!"

Yuanyuan nodded, a little curious about what kind of person would live in such a deep mountain.

Could he be some powerful hero? In the martial arts stories my dad told me, the hermits always lived in places like this where no one else could find them.

Huxiao Mountain is famous for its tigers. Ordinary people dare not easily approach the depths of the forest because bursts of tiger roars can be heard from the mountain.

Yuanyuan was so scared that she grabbed her father's clothes tightly. Pei Zhiyan patted her back gently: "Don't be afraid, they can't hurt you."

"Are the tigers quarreling?"

There were roaring sounds in the mountains, and it felt like there was more than one tiger.

"perhaps…"

The deeper you go into the mountains, the more deafening the tigers' roars become. Perhaps the tigers are fighting for territory and mates, and from the sounds they seem to be fighting ferociously.

Pei Zhiyan took the child around and successfully arrived at the remote cemetery. There were three graves, two large and one small, standing there desertedly.

"This grave is for your great uncle, this one is for your grandmother, and the smallest one is for your aunt."

He knelt in front of the grave and introduced them to her one by one in order.

"Are they gone already?"

When Yuanyuan saw the old man kneeling down, she also knelt down beside him, with deep sadness in her tone.

All of Daddy's relatives have turned into little lumps of dirt.

"Yes..." Pei Zhiyan was slightly surprised when he saw her kneeling down: "Don't you say you won't kneel down to others?"

"But in the filial piety stories Daddy told us, don't we have to kowtow and kneel when worshipping our deceased relatives?"

Yuanyuan tilted her head and looked at him. She would not kneel down to someone for no reason, and she would not kneel down to her old father either.