Call Me Daddy

The third son of the family, Su Youliang, had a lazy and greedy nature, always finding ways to avoid work. Although Li Shi favored her youngest son, she couldn’t discipline her own biological son, especially since Su Youliang had married a girl from her own maternal family.

Perhaps to avoid any appearance of favoritism in front of the Liu family, in the year after the Liu family married Xiao Liu Shi to the original owner, Li Shi arranged a marriage for her own third son with a girl from the Li family. This girl wasn’t only a daughter-in-law but also Li Shi’s own niece, so Li Shi was reluctant to be too harsh.

This Xiao Li Shi and Su Youliang were indeed a perfect match, both lazy and greedy by nature. Especially after Xiao Li Shi gave birth to her daughter, Su Fubao, Li Shi became even more indifferent and self-righteous.

Because on the night before the birth of Su Fubao, the elderly couple of the Su family both dreamed of a red light entering their own roof, precisely into the room where the third son lived.

The next day, Xiao Li Shi went into labor half a month early and gave birth to a fair and chubby baby girl, unlike any ordinary infant. This convinced the elderly couple that this child was born under auspicious signs.

Thus, this baby girl received a name completely different from her two elder cousins; Fu Bao.

(T/N: Fu Bao = Auspicious Jewel// Precious Luck.)

The elderly couple changed their usual attitude of favoring sons over daughters and almost cherished this baby girl in their palms.

***

Coincidentally, in the month of Su Fubao’s birth, Su Youwen, who was only 14 years old, passed the county-level examination for the first time, becoming the youngest child prodigy in Fengyang County’s history. This further convinced the elderly couple that this granddaughter was blessed with great fortune.

Afterward, good things happened around Fu Bao all the time. When she went fishing with her cousins, she always caught the biggest and fattest fish. When she went to the mountains to gather wild vegetables with her cousins, she always found patches of mushrooms, and once she even found a young ginseng.

However, the discovery of the ginseng was kept secret, known only to the third branch and the old woman. Since the Su family hadn’t yet divided their assets, everything was shared among them. If this were known to the other branches, they might take advantage of Fu Bao.

So while the other family branches were unaware, the third branch had already accumulated substantial wealth because of Fu Bao’s presence.

As for the fish, shrimp, and mushrooms found by Fu Bao, most were sold by Li Shi because her youngest son’s education was a bottomless pit. The remaining portion mostly went into Fu Bao’s family and the mouths of the elderly couple.

The eldest branch could enjoy some benefits thanks to their thick skin, while the second branch had virtually no presence at all.

When Fu Bao turned 3 years old, the third branch couple had another son, Su Laiyun, completing their family with a son and a daughter.

As for the youngest son of the Su family, Su Youwen, the entire family had high hopes for him. They emptied their coffers to support his education because at the age of 14, he had already passed the county-level examination, and everyone firmly believed in the old Taoist’s words that Su Youwen would surely become the top scholar, receive noble titles, and become a high-ranking official.

Unfortunately, in the following years, Su Youwen failed to achieve anything significant in subsequent exams. It wasn’t until 2 years ago when he couldn’t delay any longer due to his age that he married Wen Xiuniang, the daughter of the scholar who had taught him.

To facilitate Su Youwen’s studies, Li Shi spent money to rent a room in the town where Su Youwen and his wife lived year-round. Earlier this year, on Fu Bao’s birthday, good news arrived; Su Youwen finally passed the examination and became a young official scholar at the age of 21.

Amidst the family’s joy, Fu Bao was treated even better. This child truly had good fortune; otherwise, how could two such significant events coincide on her birthday?

Even Su Youwen, the promising young scholar, believed in that point, treating Fu Bao almost like his own daughter. The third branch couple also took advantage of their daughter to indulge in more leisure and indulgence.

**

As for the current illness of the original owner, it was due to heavy rain yesterday.

Some tiles on the roof, long neglected, broke, and rainwater dripped into the room through the cracks. Li Shi ordered the obedient original owner to climb up and fix the roof. Coming down after finishing, his feet slipped, and the whole person fell from the ladder, scraping off skin from the right foot and bruising his knee.

But Li Shi didn’t take these injuries seriously at all; she blamed the original owner for being too careless, bringing bad luck to the house during the month when her son passed the scholar exam.

So the original owner had no choice but to return obediently to his room, dabbing the injured area with a wet cloth and wrapping it up with old clothes.

The current high fever wasn’t just from getting soaked in the rain the day before but also because the injured area hadn’t been properly treated and was now infected.

According to the original course of the story, the original owner continued to have a high fever for many days. It was only after Su Kuishan and Li Shi were begged earnestly by Su Erniang that they finally called a doctor for the original owner.

Of course, it might also have been because they couldn’t bear to lose such a useful old yellow ox; if the fever had continued, the person might really not have made it.

Finally, the doctor came, prescribed some medicine, and said it was too late; do everything possible and leave the rest to fate. In reality, it was mostly the original owner who managed to pull through this ordeal.

The old couple didn’t blame themselves for calling the doctor too late, which worsened their son’s condition almost to the point of death. Instead, they lamented spending 6 taels of silver on the doctor.

In the days that followed, Li Shi would bring up this 6 taels of silver at every opportunity, making the already introverted original owner even more timid and obedient. This substantial sum of money was like a heavy stone weighing him down, completely turning him into the most easily managed old yellow ox of the Su family.

Because he was obedient enough, although Li Shi and her two sons from the second marriage weren’t close to him, they also didn’t treat him poorly. Later, after these two branches prospered, the original owner also benefited.

Su Kuishan and Li Shi followed their two successful sons to the capital.

They left the fields and houses of their hometown under the care of the original owner and even arranged for him to marry again, which made the original owner feel grateful.

Ironically, the eldest son who had once been favored by Su Kuishan ended up doing many foolish things out of jealousy due to constant friction with Li Shi. Eventually, their family was ruined, and they became figures that everyone in the village avoided.

As for the original owner, everyone praised him for being filial and conscientious, so he received blessings. Although he endured some hardships in the first half of his life, in the latter half, he had a loving wife and young son by his side, and he could rely on his half-brother in the capital who had already become a high-ranking official. He never worried about food and drink; it was simply a stroke of luck.

That’s how the original owner saw it himself, holding his newborn son with joy.

His second wife mentioned a prospective match to Su Erniang, a young man of good character. The original owner happily agreed without bothering to investigate personally.

Naturally, he didn’t notice how his eldest daughter, who had once knelt and begged the old couple to call a doctor for him, had become increasingly timid and frail, resembling another version of his former self.

With Su Erniang married off far away, only the original owner remained in the household with his second wife and their young son.

The couple stayed behind in their old house and ancestral graves, owning several dozen acres of land. The three of them worked diligently, waiting for their relatives there to reward them with some benefits.

Those days were truly beautiful!

Especially when compared to the eldest son’s family, who had fallen so low that they occasionally had to come to them to borrow food, the original owner felt even more fortunate.

But when these memories were stuffed into Su Aobai’s mind, he couldn’t comprehend the happiness that the original owner had at the end. He only felt terror, only felt coldness.

In the end, what did this seemingly prosperous original owner really have?

It was just a transformation from an old yellow ox who only needed to work to a caretaker old yellow ox who not only had to work but also had to oversee the house.

Yet he still felt self-satisfied with that, forgetting the pain of the first half of his life and losing the only true relative in this family who truly cared about him.

***

“Er Niang, come here…”

Su Aobai waved again to the little girl in the distance.

It wasn’t until he called for the second time that the thin and small girl slowly moved her toes, pursed her lips, and walked up to him.

This wasn’t the girl he mistakenly thought was only 6 or 7 years old before. The current Su Erniang was already 8 and a half years old, about to celebrate her 9 birthday, which was considered quite grown-up in the countryside. However, due to frequent chores and insufficient food, Su Erniang’s figure was thin, weak, and short, leading people in the village to gossip about her being a jinx and to comment on her being poorly nurtured.

Su Aobai looked at her slender figure, her unusually large eyes, and her yellowed, dry hair, feeling heartbroken.

The original owner endured hardships and suffering, mostly of his own making, but what fault did Su Erniang have?

She was the most vulnerable girl in this feudal society, without a mother and without the protection of a biological father. She didn’t even have the ability to resist.

Su Aobai didn’t believe that the woman the original owner married would arrange a good marriage for Er Niang.

In the original owner’s memories, Er Niang had lost contact after she got married. He often lamented her unfilial behavior, but was quickly comforted by his wife and lively, adorable son. Gradually, he forgot about the existence of this daughter.

Su Aobai couldn’t forget the last look in that girl’s eyes on her wedding day.

Numbness, silence, the loss of all hope and beliefs for the future, carrying a shrunken bundle, still wearing patched old clothes, she climbed onto a stranger’s cart and left.

In that gaze, even hatred had disappeared.

And at this moment, in the eyes of 8-year-old Su Erniang, there was still a little bit of concern.

***

“Er Niang, why are you still sitting inside? You dead girl! Come out quickly and work. Your Fourth Uncle passed the exam and became a scholar, and you should consider yourself the young lady of a scholar’s family? Humph, a jinx, don’t you see what you are!”

Outside the room, Li Shi was throwing a tantrum again. Su Erniang shrank her shoulders and glanced at her father, still with a flushed face on the bed, then quickly ran out.

She had to go work; otherwise, her grandmother would hit her again.

It was time to prepare lunch now. She tried to see if she could save some for her father.

In the Su family, those who didn’t work weren’t entitled to eat, even if they couldn’t work due to illness. Of course, this rule mainly applied to the eldest and second families. However, the eldest family was cunning and knew how to please the head of the household. Even if they didn’t have food, they could secretly manage to fill their stomachs.

Su Aobai didn’t stop his daughter from leaving the room because he couldn’t protect the child yet.

This world was different from his previous two worlds. In this world, Su Aobai felt an extremely faint spiritual aura.

In one of his previous lives, he was the young master of a top sect in the cultivation world. Before the appearance of the Son of Heaven male lead, he was the most talented among the younger generation of cultivators. His parents sought the best auxiliary spiritual tools for him, countless spiritual stones and elixirs for his cultivation, and the family’s inherited techniques were second only to the Son of Heaven.

Of course, the more outstanding he was, the more suitable he was as a stepping stone for the male lead. In the end, his spiritual roots were severed, he fell into an ordinary person’s life, and the sect was destroyed overnight, with all his loved ones dying at the hands of the male lead. He only survived because the male lead wanted him to suffer like an ant, lowly and suffering.

But because the removal of his spiritual root severely harmed his body, Su Aobai didn’t live as long as the male lead had hoped. Before long, he withered and died.

In the previous two lifetimes, unable to sense spiritual energy, Su Aobai never attempted to cultivate. In this lifetime, the spiritual energy was so weak that he might not even be able to break through the first level. However, it was enough to strengthen his body, cleanse it of old ailments, and even just mastering the shallowest layer of the technique would enable him to lift weights that would astound ordinary people, dominating among them.

Speaking of spiritual energy, Su Aobai suddenly thought of the “family treasure” in the third family.

“Tsk… a bit strange…”

He showed an inexplicable expression, then uncovered the leg wrapped only in old clothes under the blanket.

After a night of bandaging, the previous wound was now swollen and festering, oozing greenish-yellow pus, looking extremely horrifying.

He didn’t intend to use spiritual energy to heal this wound temporarily. He had to figure out a way to make Su Kuishan and the Li family take the initiative to split.

Initially, the main reason why Li Shi was willing to spend money to treat the original owner wasn’t because of Er Niang’s pleading, but because they feared that their home would lack such a hardworking laborer as the original owner.

But what if this laborer suddenly became useless?

Playing the role of a useless person was his specialty, and the memories left by the original owner in the previous world were enough for him to play the perfect role.