Chapter 24: Back to the Present

After leaving the place where my mother had chosen to ambush me (sort of), I returned home. I couldn't help but be in a bad mood. I had thought I found a new job, a new tomb to explore, but the family that disowned me…and even tried to kill me had requested that I return to them.

Well, they could go fuck themselves. I am Han San Qian…ahem, I mean I am Zhao Huan Shi. I wasn't some simp letting everyone walk all over me for no reason other than because I was the protagonist. Actually, I honestly didn't understand why people called me trash. Apparently because I lost my divine dragon three years ago?

To be fair, a summoner who lost his summoned spirit would be counted as crippled. Fortunately, I had managed to acquire a new one – my current war spirit. Not only that, I also obtained the little hellhound that I found at the tomb I explored with Mu Rong Shu.

Just because I didn't show off my new spirits or beat people up whenever they insulted me didn't mean I was weak, spineless or trash. I wasn't a violent person. I was a civilized person. Only idiots were quick to resort to fists over the smallest slights. I would rather prove my strength and abilities with actions than get into meaningless squabbles with people who simply weren't worth my time.

That was probably why Mu Rong Lao trusted me so much and gave me the best jobs.

"Granddad?" I blinked when I saw that he called me. Swiping the screen, I had answered his call, only to hear his familiar voice from the other end. "What's up?"

"I've got a new tomb for you to explore," he told me excitedly. "And I think…this time you'll benefit a lot from it."

"Oh, really?" I smiled to myself. See what I mean? The only people whose opinions mattered to me were my wife and grandfather-in-law. Instead of wasting my time beating people up for verbally insulting me, I would rather gain the trust of the most powerful person, who would in turn entrust me with lucrative jobs. "Give me the details and I'll go over immediately!"

It didn't take me more than an hour to hurry home, and just as I expected, Mu Rong Lao was waiting for me. My wife had already served him tea and was chatting with him, seated in the couch opposite his comfortable chair.

"You're finally home, dear."

"Yeah, sorry. I ran into someone unexpected when I went out."

"Did you get the job?"

"No." I shook my head. "I was tricked. My mother showed up instead."

"Oh." Mu Rong Shu knew better than to ask me about my family. She was aware of the tensions between us. Both she and Mu Rong Lao were the only ones who knew my actual relationship with the Zhao family. They were aware that I used to be from there before they disowned me. Mu Rong Lao knew because my grandmother had personally hired him to kill me, whereas I told Mu Rong Shu everything shortly after I got married.

Wait, what? Why would I keep my past and real family background a secret? Oh, because every protagonist in every son-in-law story ever did it? Do you really think I was that stupid? Why the fuck would I hide such important information from my wife? Honestly, I never understood the reasons why sons-in-law in those stories did it. It seemed like every stupid problem in those stories could have been solved if they revealed their true identity.

But no, they had to play the "pig eat the tiger" nonsense, hiding their real identities from their wives for no reason other than to create drama so that everyone could be shocked and awed when they did the big reveal later. Look, I understood if they didn't want people to know if they were secret underground kings or overlords of triads or ex-assassins, and it made sense not to tell the in-laws about that. But why hide it from their wives and keep up the illusion that they were useless? I mean, it was one thing to conceal your identity as "Hades" or "Underground King" or even as a cultivator, but why let your wife and her parents walk over you like…I dunno, a slave, forcing you to do housework, etc.? Because supposedly your love for a wife who apparently looks down on you and refuses to let you touch her (I don't even understand why they consent to marrying the "useless" protagonists in the first place) is more important than your pride? While I admire those who place love over pride, the admiration is misplaced here because this isn't even love. Love had to be mutual, respect had to be mutual, both parties had to learn to trust and rely on each other, otherwise this wasn't a proper marriage or relationship. This was just a one-sided nonsensical affair where the protagonist – despite supposedly being some scary overlord in the underworld – decided to be a doormat and let his in-laws abuse him for no bloody reason other than because he supposedly loved his wife, who clearly didn't deserve his love. It just made no bloody fucking sense. The characters are inconsistent. One moment they were sucking up to their wives, acting as a servant and doing housework, dropping everything to come running when their wives call them while doing nothing when their in-laws abuse and insult them, the next, they were ruthless overlords who kill people who offended them without blinking an eye.

Like, come on…I know this is fiction, but at least be consistent?

So I avoided that problem by telling Mu Rong Shu the truth from the start, avoiding all those stupid, pointless drama where I was trying to hide my identity from her. I don't know, did these authors think it was "cool" for the protagonist to stupidly conceal his identity and do things in the shadows without their wives knowing? "Oh, look at how awesome I am, helping my wife without her knowing about it at all. My love is unconditional and I'm willing to sacrifice everything for her! I'm an ultra-chad!" No, you're just a fucking simp. Besides, the wife learns all about it at the end of the story anyway, which rendered all that drama and so-called self-sacrifice cheap and ultimately pointless.

Sometimes it felt like virgins with no real experience with relationships wrote these dumb stories. Proper relationships relied on building trust and rapport with each other. I wasn't saying that you couldn't keep secrets from your wives, but hiding something as important as your past or your family or links with the underworld (or whatever) was just destructive. Relationships must be established upon mutual trust and respect, not one-sided affairs where one party looked down on the other, and the guy pretty much simped for her. That just screamed desperate.

I wasn't saying you shouldn't help your wife – you most certainly should. But you shouldn't let her walk all over you and treat you like a slave either. There was a clear difference between being someone who is helpful and reliable, and someone who allowed himself to be bullied into slaving away for his wife. Not that it mattered, because by the end of the story, the protagonist always revealed what an ultra-chad he was by having affairs with multiple women (so much for being faithful and "loving" his wife – talking about being inconsistent), and now his wife becomes the desperate one, thinking about how she doesn't deserve this "alpha male" as her husband, and feeling guilty. Why? Because it felt good and vindictive? Oh, boohoo, she looked down on you in the past, but now you are so awesome that after mistreating you, now she is forced to share you with other women who all recognized what an alpha ultra-chad you are?

Stupid, if you asked me. Sorry for ranting. I mean, the reason for my existence was solely because I was sick of reading such son-in-law stories over and over again. Honestly, they were just copies of each other. Sometimes I felt as if my life was following the exact same trajectory…so I probably was in no position to complain about them. But it was precisely because my life was so similar that several readers were demanding to know why I didn't keep my identity a secret from my wife and calling me shitty. Wait, what, I was shitty just because I told my wife the truth about myself? How did they even come to that conclusion?

"Yeah, just ignore those readers demanding to know why you're not the typical son-in-law," Mu Rong Shu said, rolling her eyes. "I appreciate you telling me the truth about yourself from the get go. Too bad my cousins and relatives didn't believe you, though."

"People only believe what they want to believe. Besides, I was disowned by the Zhao family, who probably erased all records of me being related to them. So your relatives wouldn't have known, and they will find evidence to the contrary if they did a little investigation. Furthermore, my grandmother was the one who ordered the hit, and they probably assumed there's no way an old lady would want to kill her own grandson."

"You'd be surprised," Mu Rong Lao said. "Over the years, I've received quite a few requests from people wanting to kill their relatives. Matters of succession, inheritance and even marriage. Greed can really blind people to their blood relations."

"I'm not surprised, but somehow that didn't occur to your other children and grandchildren."

"What can I say, it's forced plot and contrived occurrences so that everyone can treat you as 'trash' at the beginning of the story, which will allow you to slap their faces later. Anyway, that's not important. I'm here to give you a job."

He pushed a document toward me. I picked it up and quickly scanned through it. My eyes widened when I saw what was in it.

"A tomb originating from the time of the Three Kingdoms?"

"That's right. It's known as the War God's Tomb." Mu Rong Lao's smile widened, and the wily old man nodded, his long mustache drooping. "I believe it will be very helpful for you. Or to be more precise, your war spirit."

"Yeah, it will be. Thank you, granddad!" I pushed my glasses up and considered for a few seconds. "I'm assuming we'll split it the usual way? Shu and I will take two to four treasures that will be useful for us, and give you the rest?"

"Ah, no need for that this time." Mu Rong Lao raised a hand, smiling genially. "This time, you get to keep most of what you find for yourself. If there are things you wish to sell off, you can pass them to me and share the profits, but you can keep everything you want."

"Really?" Both Mu Rong Shu and I was surprised. My wife, in particular, was used to giving her grandfather the lion's share of what we recovered. "Is that really okay, grandfather?"

"Certainly." Mu Rong Lao favored her with a smile, and then turned back to me. "This being the War God's Tomb, I believe most of the treasures there will benefit you greatly."

At that moment, I realized that Mu Rong Lao knew the true nature of my war spirit.

"Take care of yourself, though. This being the War God's Tomb, I believe it will be a lot more difficult than the other tombs you have explored so far."

"Understood." I glanced at Mu Rong Shu, who nodded. "We'll be careful."

"Excellent. I look forward to when you return." Mu Rong Lao grinned at me, in particular. "I'm confident that you'll finally be able to achieve the full form of your war spirit once you've consolidated your gains from the War God's Tomb."

I nodded and gulped, lowering my head humbly.

"I hope so too, but…first we'll have to actually survive and succeed in exploring the tomb."