24. Our Folly...1

Hi Dear Read,

The following chapters is about the real Chen Yan's relationship with his parents. It's just about some very important past events and then we will proceed.

In the Chen household in Zhe Village which is two villages away from Wu village, Dada Gu is now feeling the impacts of what he and his family have done.

29 Years Ago...

For almost thirty years now, a monthly stipend with an annual increment of 20% is paid to Dada Chen Gu every month through one of the largest guilds in the country.

This amount of money is quite huge and could comfortably cater for an average of twelve to fifteen people if well managed.

It was three times more than the salaries of most of the high ranking officials in the Royal Court and other governmental positions.

This money is paid to DaDa Gu by the Patriarch of another family that also has the same surname as Chen but he doesn't know that.

All he knows is that the head of his main family is the one that pays this money for him to use for expenses, since it was this said family head that gave him the secret assignment.

An assignment he was not supposed to tell anyone, not even his own shadow let alone his wife.

At first he felt very blessed by the gods for being chosen for the job as he was only a nobody with an addicted gambler for a father.

His mom tried to ran away by herself leaving him with his dad when he was only four,because his father physically abuses both of them when things don't go well for him, but unfortunately she ended up dying not long after that.

The then young Chen Gu had to suffer under his dad as he had no where else to go.

Even though they were nobles, his father's gambling addiction left them penniless and as such he wasn't put to school.

Some of their relatives came for him to live with them but his father refused. When they put him into a school too he would take him out from there, saying that it was a waste of time.

Chen Gu and pure hunger were no strangers as he usually sleeps with an empty stomach.

He started to go to people's home for any type of work in order to get something to eat and once he became a young adult, he went to work on people's farm.

As a young man he knew he would have to settle someday and that meant having to provide for his future family.

With his current status, he will not be able to pay for any may's dowery even if he was given years to get that. His father keeps taking all his earnings and beats him up when he is not able to give him any more money due to the seasons.

As a result, Chen Gu had no choice but to sadly accept that he and the institution of marriage will never cross paths, let alone having and being able to provide for his own family.

Unlike many people, Chen Gu's life changed for the better once his father passed away. The other relatives stepped in and made him go and live with one of his uncles in the Capital who is also their main family head.

He was around 24 years old by then so it was deemed quite late for him to enroll in school. His uncle made him to assist at his shop but since he wasn't that educated, he could only use his physical strength.

Since he was family he was paid very well unlike the others doing the same amount of work.

Chen Gu was very happy and in only three years after moving in with his uncle and his family, he was able to save towards his marriage.

He had already started talking with his uncle about it.

He planned to marry in two years time. By then he was sure he would've saved enough to go back to the village to renovate his father's dilapidated house, and still have enough to marry someone and use the remaining amount to start farming in order to provide for his future family.

Everything was perfect for Chen Gu, almost too perfect until he got injured at work one time when he was trying to carry a huge sack of rice.

He was diagnosed with having an herniated disc and as such he had to stay off physical duties for almost a year.

Even when he got better, his uncle forbade him from carrying heavy stuff and since he had no other skills, he provided him with some money and sent him back to his father's house at the village.

Having to stay in the house without being able to work, Chen Gu had already squandered half of his savings and the remaining was not enough to renovate his father's house anymore.

So he invested the remaining amount plus what his uncle gave him into farming.

His plan now was to save his income towards marriage and then he would renovate the house little by little before he and his future wife will bring forth any baby into this world.

But unfortunately, the normal weather seasons did not go as every farmer knows and that year most of them made huge losses. Chen Gu wasn't spared either, he lost everything.

Left with almost nothing now except for the old weak house, Chen Gu went back to working on people's farm in order to earn something for food.

Due to his previous injury, he had to be cautious now so the workload that he would've completed in less than half a day, he couldn't even finish in a week's time.

This cause many of them to sack him off their farms and hire someone else.

Only a few were kind enough to give him some small parts that they were not in urgent need of to do.

Since he takes a long time to finish a small job, his earnings were too meagre to even feed him until the next job.

So when his uncle whom he stayed with in the capital gave him this secret task with such a high pay, Chen Gu was more than happy to do it.