“Wen Renwu!” He had just returned home with little Yan Hanjiang when he heard a loud shout: “Are you the thug who secretly wrecked Wang Hu’s wine shop the day before yesterday?”

A sturdy man with broad shoulders and narrow waist who was even taller than the young Wen Renhe reached out to flick Wen Renhe on the forehead, saying angrily: “We border town troops are here to protect the people, how can you disrupt them instead?”

Wen Renhe was in a daze before remembering that this man was his elder brother Wen Rentai.

The memory was from too long ago so Wen Renhe had to think about it for some time before finally remembering that it was indeed him who smashed it. Wang Hu was a drunken bastard who was afraid of the outside world, staying in the city wall all day long and saying that the border town would not be able to defend itself sooner or later. He said that sooner or later, the Wen family would have to leave, and would be replaced by some drunken officials who would leave the people behind and escape before the city was invaded.

Wen Renhe was also in the wine shop a few days ago, the teenage feelings were simple and strong so disgust was disgust and like was like. He respected his father and brother and thought that as long as there was a Wen family in the border town, it would be absolutely fine. Hearing Wang Hu’s words, he was so angry that in the middle of night, he masked himself and spilled Wang Hu’s wine, roughly shaving off his full beard making Wang Hu chin full of shaving scratches.

He thought he was being secretive at that time, but did not expect that a young man of 14 or 15 years old in the border town with good material art skill in the whole border town was probably only Wen Renhe. His pair of bright and irritated eyes were different from other people in the town so he was easy to recognize at a glance.

The young man’s forehead was completely red while little Yin Hanjiang was so angry that he opened his mouth to bite Wen Rentai’s arm.

Wen Rentai immediately panicked: “Kid, let go! My arms are too hard! If you bite too hard, you might break your teeth!”

Little Yin Hanjiang: “……”

The big man was at a loss in front of little Yin Hanjiang, fearing that he might hurt him, he finally had to take it out on his younger brother: “Wen Renwu, are you using this child as a shield because you did something wrong?”

“Little Hanjiang, let go.” Wen Renwu gently pinched Yin Hanjiang face and said gently: “Your face has just been bandaged, don’t tear the wounds.”

Little Yin Hanjiang slowly let go and Wehn Renhe hugged Yin Hanjiang with one hand while hooking his brother’s shoulder with another. Pressing his forehead on Wen Rentai’s broad arm he whispered: “Big brother, it’s great to see you again.”

Even if it was only a memory from his soul’s sea.

Wen Rentai has been stationed at the border for many years so his skin was not very good, tanned and a little rough. His tanned face blushed as he lifted his hand full of scars and touched Wen Renhe head saying as he shook his head: “Don’t give me this crap, you won’t be able to avoid the beating today!”

That day, Wen Renhe was beaten while his father was in military camp and his older brother was guarding the rear. Wen Rentai pressured him to apologize to Wang Hu and pay for damages in front of people of the border town, he inflicted military justice on Wen Renhe in the wine shop, giving him fifty military sticks on his back, splitting his back open.

Little Yin Hanjiang, held by Wen Renhe’s mother, was so angry that he wailed and screamed, trying to break free from those not-so-soft hands and lunged to protect his venerable’s back.

“Don’t move!” The woman who looked very gentle but actually had a strong backbone, said: “Watch well, no matter what the reason, as a border army, if you do things that hurt ordinary people you will be dealt with according to military law. It’s only because he is still young that he is receiving less punishment, otherwise it would not be finished until the stick was broken!”

“Distressed…” Little Yin Hanjiang touched his heart and said.

“Of course it hurts, it’s also hurts this mother’s heart to watch her son being hit.” A line of tears slid down from Wen Renwu’s mother face, but just she raised her hand to wipe it off as she continued: “But I can’t just discard it, the people’s livelihood is not a trivial matter!”

A tear that was not wiped away fell on Yin Hanjiang’s small hand, he licked it and it tasted salty.

After being beaten, Doctor Li treated Wen Renhe – with great force.

After being bandaged, he had to kneel in Martyr temple for the whole day and night.

Little Yin Hanjiang wanted to stay by Wen Renhe’s side, so the Wen family servant prepared a cushion for him. He just had his legs cut and couldn’t kneel down so he could only sit on the cushion and say angrily: “Venerable was right.”

“No, I was wrong.” Wen Renhe explained gently.

“How could Venerable be wrong?” Little Yin Hanjiang tilted his head, his eyes full of admiration.

“Is that how you’ve always seen me?” Wen Renhe smiled and scratched his nose: “No wonder in your eyes, I was the one who looked the least like ‘me’ between those illusions”

Mentioning the heart demon’s illusion and the inability to recognize him, little Yin Hanjiang face wrinkled again, looking very annoyed.

Fortunately, this was Wen Renhe’s soul Sea, Yin Hanjiang was also just a soul body so he wouldn’t be affected by heart demons. There was only one young Wen Renwu in his eyes and there was no extra ‘venerable’. However, …… there was a mother and older brother who looked very much like his lord. They hurt the vulnerable but because they looked too much alike, little Yin Hanjiang could not bear to teach them a lesson.

Wen Renhe touched little Yin Hanjiang’s little head and said seriously: “Yin Hanjiang I was not born strong nor was I wise since childhood. When I was a teenager, I thought my parents and brother were the gods that could stop all the disasters in the world and the border town could always remain quiet but it was a big mistake.”

How can there be an all-powerful people? It was just to show backbone, even if their spine was broken, they wouldn’t show any weakness.

Wen Renhe told little Yin Hanjiang what would happen after the beating. A month after being punished, his father, Marshal Wen would return to the border town on his rotation leave. When he heard about this matter, he beat young Renwu again and only after this beating would he change from a strict father to a loving father and tell him about Wang Hu’s past.

That old man Wang was fifty years old this year. Forty years ago when Marshall Wen was also still just a child, a border town was in an emergency but local troops fled. The outsiders invaded and then ten-year-old Wang Hu was hidden in the wine cellar by his mother, the young child who should still have childish and innocent eyes, witnessed countless evil deeds.

Hearing this, Yin Hanjiang also remembered his own past, his heart ached so much that his breathing became difficult.

Wen Renhe, who held him in his arms, continued: “But he survived and lasted until my grandfather was ordered to take the army to reclaim the border town. He was a war orphan that could go with the army to the nearby government offices, where there were good places that took in these children. But he did not leave the border town and stayed to become a soldier. Before I was born more than ten years ago, he also threw the stones down the city walls with my mother to keep out the invaders.”

“Then why did he say that?” Yin Hanjiang asked.

“Because what he said is all true. The Wen family clan could not defend this border town forever.” Wen Renhe’s voice was full of pain.

That was the past that even he never dared to recall. This was a vivid life, there was good and evil, there were cunning, treacherous and profiteering people, each of them was not just black or white. Drawing a border town picture full of vitality.

Eventually, the whole Wen family was killed. The imperial court ceded the nine border states to invaders and on the first day after the ceding, the invaders slaughtered the whole border town, men, women and children. Without sparring anyone.

“Don’t you look at my face.” Wen Renhe held the tiny Yin Hanjiang in his arms, keeping his head buried tightly on his chest. Yin Hanjiang tried to raise his head several times, but was pressed back by the teenage Wen Renwu. At this moment he was still a teenager so he could show weakness.

A drop of cold water fell on Yin Hanjiang’s hair. Yin Hanjiang thought that these drops should also be salty.

“Venerable….” Yin Hanjiang made a muffled sound in front of the teenager’s fresh, sunny-smelling chest.

“Call me Renwu here.” Wen Renhe said.

“Ah, Renwu…” Little Yin Hanjiang blushed and wondered why his chest felt so heavy.

Wen Renwu’s body was good, after a few days of being punished, he already bounded back, continuing the battle of wits with his man. He also stole wedding wine from his ten-years-old sister and sat on the roof of the house to drink while also feeding some of it to Yin Hanjiang. After being discovered by his mother, he was pulled by his ear to be spanked, little Yin Hanjiang sat on a side chair covering his eyes with both hands to watch his brother Renwu being spanked, his fingers spread wide apart, between his middle finger and ring finger, revealing a pair of big, lively eyes.

“Mother, don’t let him watch me get spanked.” Teenager Renwu said gloomily.

“You still know shame!” As he spoke, the mother smacked him again: “Knowing it, you still stole the wine from your sister. You really pissed me off!”

After being beaten, he was punished with writing apology letters. The teenage Wen Renwu was unable to sit still, his buttocks still hurting so he had to lie down on his bed to write. Little Yin Hanjiang was looking at his crooked words, feeling that the writing of his lord was always very good looking.

“My writing only became good when I grew up. In those years, I only wanted to practice material arts and didn’t like these things. Every day I wanted to cut off my teacher’s beard and make a brush from it.” Wen Renhe laughed and said: “Only later did I realize how useful these things are, material arts could protect the country but literature can transform the world.”

“So that’s why you looked at Zhong Liqian differently?” Little Yin Hanjiang asked, holding his chin. His body has been mostly healed but since it was so full of scars it made him look a bit scary.

“The world of chaos needs the Wen family but the prosperous world needs people like Zhong Liqian. Without us, the chaotic world will never turn into a prosperous world but without people like him the prosperous world will soon turn again into a chaotic world.” Wen Renhe said.

A month later, Marshal Wen Ren returned, and as Wen Renhe said before, he was beaten again. This time little Yin Hanjiang was no longer angry, he found that here, anyone could beat his brother Renwu easily. He had a small beating every three days and a big one every five. Even his ten-year-old sister, Wen Renyuan was able to scratch his brother’s hand after her wedding wine was stolen.

Little Yin Hanjiang’s face was full of scars so he wanted to wear a mask but soon found that many people in the border town had scars on their faces, some of them also had broken legs and arms, but no one looked at them differently.

Brother Renwu told him that these were wounded soldiers and people who had been injured by mistake. Everyone here was smiling at life with their scars, because once you think about it, you really become pitiful.

In this way, Yin Hanjiang also learned to not wear a mask in front of people. There were no people around who looked at him in a different way and even ten years old Wen Renyan liked her little brother very much and often gave him vegetables she didn’t like to eat.

Yin Hanjiang knew that these people were just the memories of his lord, but these deep-hidden memories of his venerable were so gentle.

They lived happily for more than a year but what should come always comes. What had happened could not be changed and Wen Renhe memories faithfully presented that scene.

After withdrawing the border army, Wen Renwu ran back to the capital after recovering from his injuries and saw countless heads hanging on the city head.

He rummaged through the piles of corpses and let out a loud cry at the mass grave as little Yin Hanjiang watched this scene in silence.

Every one of them looked very much like his lord or not like his lord at all. Just like this people were gone, how easy life could end.

At this moment there were two lonely people leaning against each other as they started the fire. Those who died by beheading did not deserve to be buried in the tomb so young Wen Renwu was not able to buy coffins for his clan, and he himself was still a wanted criminal.

He arranged the countless headless corpses in a row and lit them one by one with fire. Little Yin Hanjiang did not help as he just looked at him.

“As I recall, you seem to love lighting fires.” Wen Renhe lit the last small body he suspected to be Wen Renyan and turned around to ask Yin Hanjiang.

Yin Hanjiang fell silent, shook his head, and said in a hoarse voice: “I burned the guilty people, hoping that their bodies that once did so much evil to light up the night sky. I thought it was their only use, but it’s not the same now.”

The people of the Wen family were not evil and they would be better off alive.

“I don’t like them being burned ……” Little Yin Hanjiang covered his mouth to swallow a choked sob.

Wen Renhe wiped away his silent tears and whispered: “I don’t like it either.”

Yin Hanjiang still remembered that when he first took over the Xuanyuan sect, Wen Renhe ordered his subordinates not to harm ordinary people, and those who disobeyed would be killed by Wen Renhe with extreme cruelty.

He suggested indifferently then: “Venerable, Xuanyuan is a demonic sect if it’s too suppressed, it may rebound.”

“If they dare to rebel, they will all die.” Wen Renhe said coldly: “They will deserve it.”

At that time, Yin Hanjiang was ignorant and only knew how to follow orders. But at this moment he understood why Wen Renhe was willing to fall into the path of slaughter, in the midst of blood and death, were things he wanted to protect. Behind Wen Renhe, what is the thing that supports his endless battle intent?

The common people that Wen Renhe guarded turned into his never-ending battle intent, while the things he guarded were also guarding him.

 

The author has something to say:

Little Yin Hanjiang’s career in the Marshal’s Mansion –

Little Yin Hanjiang, quietly watching and observing what his lord was like before. Secretly learning the traditional carving art of the Wen clan as he carved many copies of the venerable and his family and then hiding them under the blanket, feeling that he had the world to himself.

Wen Renwu: “Why is the bed so cramped?

 

Edited by: Ninja

Proofread by: Nio

 

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