Uncle Fang

It was the following day and two figures were walking along the forest path to Ding Wei's shack, both looking very out of place. They wore expensive silk garments and haughty expressions, looking like a caricature of nobility.

"To make us come out to this disgusting place, I will teach that boy a lesson!"

"Elder Brother, don't forget the reason we're coming out here. That boy beat my children so viciously! I wouldn't even attack a wild animal so roughly, let alone my own relations!" Ding Chang, the youngest of Wei's uncles, was a slim man with long legs and a curly moustache. He shared Fang's features and shifty eyes but didn't carry as sinister an aura.

"He is truly an unfilial child. I am only sad that we didn't kick him out sooner, for too long did he take advantage of our kindness!" Ding Fang was red with exhertion, body dripping with sweat. His breath was laboured and each footstep was a struggle. This was the result of a ten minute walk into the forest where their horses could not follow.

While the short trail from forest to his shack was so short that for Ding Wei it barely needed mentioning, to his uncle who never needed to do anything for himself and ate five meals a day it was a grueling path.

"Uncle Fang, Uncle Chang. To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?" Ding Wei appeared, bowing his shoulders slightly.

His uncles bristled. "Ding Wei! You know precisely why we are here! How could you beat little Yun and Jun so viciously when the three of you are cousins!"

"Uncle Chang, I thought you would be praising me. After all, you have never been able to discipline those unruly twins of yours. I even managed to make them be quiet for once! Surely you're grateful that I performed your duty on your behalf?"

Chang spluttered. "Quiet? Quiet?! You knocked out all of their teeth and beat them so badly my wife was unable to recognize them, her own sons! You still wish to play games with this uncle? Don't blame me if I'm not polite."

"Tsk, tsk. A scholar once said that no good deed goes unpunished, it seems the ancients were indeed wise."

His Uncle Chang looked ready to cough blood. A pat on the back from his older brother helped him calm down.

"Enough with this foolishness! Ding Wei, as your uncles we are here to discipline you. Bend over and pull up your robes."

Ding Wei put on a scandalized look. "Uncle Fang, many people have told me about your likes but I never believed them until this day! I'll have you know that I am not interested in men, especially not overweight pigs like you!"

Now both his uncles looked ready to cough blood.

"I was merely going to cane you! How dare you, Ding Wei, you're going way too far."

Ding Wei's look of false innocence fell away, revealing cold eyes and a terrifying grimace. "... And how exactly are you two old bastards going to do that?"

His Uncle Fang had no cultivation talent at all and his Uncle Chang had never bothered cultivating, not even entering the first stage. Neither of them were any match for him. Even if they'd brought their guards along they wouldn't have faired any better. None of the guards that worked there currently had any cultivation talent. The ones that had existed back in the time his mother was in charge of the Ding Family had been fired by his uncle, who claimed they were too costly too keep. Only the twins and Ding Chen were cultivators amongst them, and with his new strength not even they could easily overpower him.

Not that the twins were in any condition to do anything.

"We are your uncles! You should gladly bend over and accept this punishment like a dutiful nephew!"

"My uncles? I consider the two of you no better than the dirt on my shoe. I renounce you and the rest of the filthy Ding Family!"

Uncle Fang turned even more red, his head resembled a giant berry. "You, you are no better than your wh*re of a mother, who left this place only to return with you and a bag of gold with no husband in sight!"

Ding Wei slapped his uncle, causing a loud thwap to echo. It was such a powerful strike that his uncle, who was very obese and weighed more than twice what Wei did, rolled over several times and swallowed a few teeth.

"You can insult me all you wish, but if you ever dare to mention my mother in such a way infront of me again then it is I who will be disciplining you!"

"What a disrespectful nephew you are!" His Uncle Chang moaned, rushing to the side of his elder brother.

"You want some discipline as well?" Wei asked, holding a palm up in warning. His uncle stumbled back, nearly tripping over his feet in his eagerness.

"Respect? You dare talk to me about respect when the two of you conspired against my mother?"

His uncles froze in place.

"W-we have no idea what you're talking about?"

"Y-yes, what would ever give you such an idea? For my elder sister who I loved dearly, how could I ever dare to conspire against her?"

'The two of you just called her a wh*re and even stole the wealth of her son, but claim to love her? What foolishness!' Ding Wei thought to himself.

"Do you think I'm a fool, uncles?"

They blinked at him, looking fearful. His Uncle Fang clutched a hand to his swollen mouth as blood dribbled down.

"My mother was in the prime of her life, for her illness to have appeared so suddenly was already very strange. Strange, but possible. There are many people who die suddenly of unknown causes, that in itself is not grounds for guilt. But for you to suddenly gain control over all her wealth within hours of her death when she loved me above all else? The chance of that happening is zero!"