Call Me Daddy

As soon as they helped her up, the puddle of water that Li Shi had previously tried to hide was fully revealed.

“Haha, she really did wet herself from fear!”

“Serves her right! Haha, after all these years of Li Shi holding her head high because her son became a scholar, at her age, to wet herself in front of so many people. How shameless!”

“My 4-year-old doesn’t wet the bed anymore. And Li Shi, at her age, still wet herself!”

Laughter erupted around her. Li Shi kept her eyes tightly shut, but the mocking voices continued to pierce her ears.

The humiliation of the day would likely stay with her for the rest of her life.

Su Kuishan and Su Youliang also heard the comments from the crowd. The father and son looked at the muddy spot where Li Shi had been sitting, and noticed that one area was noticeably darker. The fabric of Li Shi’s rear was also visibly damp.

Their faces alternated between pale and flushed. Because of their connection to Li Shi, her disgrace was also a reflection on them.

“Old Second, what’s going on here! Your mother went to the trouble of finding you a new wife, and instead of being grateful, you’ve frightened her like this? Your mother was right. Your past behavior of being honest and filial was all pretense.”

Su Kuishan was furious. As a man who cared deeply about face, Li Shi’s disgrace was tantamount to his own.

“Shh—”

A few hisses came from the crowd.

Indeed, Li Shi, the stepmother, was always speaking ill of the two sons born to the first wife behind their backs. Su Kuishan was also soft-hearted and easily swayed by women’s words, clearly a pushover.

Seeing the scornful expressions around him, Su Kuishan felt both shame and anger, and his rage grew even stronger.

“Old Second, don’t you hurry up and kowtow to your mother to apologize!”

Like Li Shi before him, Su Kuishan clearly hadn’t understood his current position in his son’s eyes. He was still issuing orders as if his son were the obedient child of the past.

“Su Kuishan, you must be out of your mind. Finding such a woman as a new wife for your son is like making sure his head is even more green!”

(T/N: green on head (hat/hair/field and so on) = beating cuckolded.)

“Exactly. With so many gentle, considerate, and virtuous women available, you picked a wanton one. If I hadn’t seen your first wife Liu Shi give birth to Old Second, I’d almost believe this child was adopted.”

Su Kuishan’s scolding incited public outrage. The young widow Li Shi had chosen was already notorious. Especially among those who had relatives in the widow’s village, many had heard various scandalous stories about her.

The widow’s husband had been frail, and the young wife was greedy and restless by nature. She had four sons, and aside from the eldest, who resembled the husband a bit, the other three looked more like a few idle troublemakers in the village.

The village had long known the open secret about the widow having multiple partners. Her husband, being a weakling, couldn’t do much. As a result, the widow often got good things from other men. Eventually, her husband’s health deteriorated to the point where he could barely leave the bed. The old woman who took care of him could no longer work, so they rented out their few acres of land to barely get by. Despite the widow’s flirtatious behavior, she still took care of her own children, using the things she got from other men to support them.

The mother and son thought that, since at least one of the four children was biological, and the others carried their family name, they might as well muddle through life.

Since the husband did not pursue the matter, others found it even more difficult to do anything about the young wife.

Later, her husband could no longer endure and died, and the mother-in-law followed shortly after. Without these two to restrain her, the widow became increasingly unruly in the village.

A woman with such a notorious reputation, known even in neighboring villages, was precisely the type Li Shi was willing to accept as a new wife for her stepson.

“That young wife was actually such a person?”

“Old Su and Li Shi’s intentions are truly malicious.”

Some people, unaware of the details, gasped at these revelations and looked at Su Kuishan with suspicion. Was there really a man who willingly put a green hat on his own son?

Choosing a daughter-in-law with such a loose moral character, was Old Su trying to degrade his own family?

Su Youliang genuinely didn’t know that his mother had selected such a woman for his second brother. He was cursing Li Shi for being so foolish internally. Even if she didn’t like the stepson and didn’t want him to have a happy life, she shouldn’t have used such crude methods.

If he were in his mother’s place, even if he had to find such a woman, he wouldn’t choose from nearby villages. He would go to a more distant and obscure village, so that the woman’s true nature wouldn’t be exposed immediately upon meeting.

Of course, this was based on the assumption that Li Shi’s approach was aimed at harming his second brother. In Su Youliang’s view, there was no need for his mother to target his second brother at all.

They had already divided the family. Whether the second brother lived well or poorly had no bearing on them. To add such trouble just to add a hated relative was purely absurd. Su Youliang couldn’t understand his mother’s logic at all.

This confusion was partly due to how obedient the original owner had been.

Li Shi hadn’t gone madly targeting the eldest family with whom she had conflicts before the division. Her hatred for the second brother seemed more about resenting anyone who escaped her control.

Su Kuishan’s lips trembled, and he was speechless.

Just moments ago, he had been reprimanding the second son for his ingratitude. Now, it felt as if he had been slapped several times.

***

“My lords, the people you’re looking for are right here!”

Before one crisis had settled, another arose. A group of officials in silver-white armor, looking particularly formidable, appeared outside the courtyard.

The villagers didn’t understand the attire, but felt these officials seemed much more impressive than the gatekeepers in the county town.

“Benefactor!”

The imposing officials, upon seeing Su Aobai, all bowed and addressed him as “Benefactor.”

“Our Young Master is the Heir of the Shouan Marquisate. Recently, while traveling in Fengyang County, he encountered mountain bandits. Fortunately, he was rescued by the benefactor.”

The visitor briefly introduced his master’s identity, but the identity of the prince was to be kept concealed for now. Tang Shengzong, who eventually became the Emperor, undoubtedly had extraordinary means. Over the past few days, he had captured all the assassins involved in the attack and had also identified the internal accomplices. Therefore, the mastermind behind the attack only knew that it had failed, but was unaware of Su Aobai’s role in it.

Before Su Aobai achieved certain accomplishments, he didn’t want his brothers to connect him with the incident, so he had chosen to use the title of the Marquis’ Heir he had secretly allied with.

The Shouan Marquisate had long fallen into decline, with only a titular rank remaining. No one was paying attention to its movements.

To the unsophisticated villagers, a marquis was an extremely high-ranking official, greater than a County Magistrate or a Prefect. It was considered that only the Emperor or the princes could surpass a Marquis.

The thought that such a high-ranking noble was connected to Su Aobai, especially in the form of a life-saving grace, led everyone to one conclusion; Su Aobai was about to rise to great heights.

As expected, the visitor continued.

“Benefactor, with your extraordinary skills, my Master the Heir values talent and is willing to write a letter to the Commander of Lin’an, recommending you for the position of a hundred-men Officer.”

Lin’an was thousands of miles away from Feng County, close to the southern border, and had been unstable in recent years. While being a soldier wasn’t a desirable job, the position of hundred-men Officer was different. Although not a high rank, it was a proper official position within the army and a small leader with subordinates.

There was an old saying, ‘Better to be the commander of a hundred men than an idle scholar.’

With the old Emperor becoming increasingly senile and the current unstable situation, being a soldier was indeed preferable to studying.

People recalled the old prophecy that had once been mentioned at the Su family’s doorstep; the Su family would have a noble offspring who would eventually be granted a Marquis title and be appointed as a Minister.

Su Aobai stood there, his robust frame deep in thought, with a serious expression that matched the imposing presence of the officials.

It seemed clear that the prophecy from years ago was about to be fulfilled in Su Aobai’s case.

With his natural strength, once he joined the army, he would thrive. Starting as a hundred-men Officer and with the support of the Marquisate, advancing to a thousand-men commander, or even a General, was certainly within reach.

Compared to Su Youwen, who had no support and was uncertain about becoming an official scholar, it was evident that Su Aobai’s future was much brighter.

Even Village Chief Wang was excited. He had shown great foresight in recognizing the true noble among Second Su and Fourth Su. Seeing that Su Aobai remained silent, Village Chief Wang almost wanted to agree on his behalf.

***

Su Aobai remained silent for a moment, then looked at his daughter, who had tears in her eyes.

“Originally, saving someone was a matter of course, and I wasn’t expecting any reward. But now, my situation… well, this gentleman… I’m not sure how to address you all, so let me just call you brothers for now. Please convey my gratitude to the Heir for his great favor. I’m willing to take the position of an Officer in Lin’an, but I have a small request; that my daughter be allowed to accompany me.”

Everything was going according to plan, though Su Aobai hadn’t anticipated the visitors arriving so fortuitously. Li Shi was probably both angry and anxious at this moment.

“Brother Su, don’t worry. Before departing, the Heir specifically instructed that family members could accompany you. Arrangements will be made upon arrival in Lin’an.”

Tang Shengzong, being meticulous and considerate, had anticipated that if Su Aobai was willing to accept the position, he would certainly need to bring his only daughter along. In Lin’an, a small residence and a maid had already been prepared. During Su Aobai’s time in the military camp, the maid would take care of the child.

The men knew that the person before them was someone their master urgently wanted to cultivate and recruit. They had noted the scenes they witnessed upon their arrival and remembered the helplessness and frustration in Su Aobai’s words.

It seemed that Su Aobai’s relationship with his parents was even worse than they had investigated.

The men pondered that a stable background was essential for someone working for their master. It appeared that Su Aobai’s stepmother had given him a scholarly younger brother, who wasn’t on good terms with him.

Being merely a scholar, if Su Aobai needed to use him, this younger brother’s future would be limited to that of a scholar. A higher position might foster undesirable thoughts, potentially causing Su Aobai to be distracted from serving their master properly, which would be problematic.

In the original story, Tang Shengzong had been pursued by assassins and fled to the back mountains of Shili Village. He was wounded and all his guards were killed protecting him. It was Fu Bao who discovered him in the mountains and kindly used her own medicinal herbs to save his life, even preparing some food for him to survive until another group of his men arrived.

Because of that favor, Tang Shengzong had helped Fu Bao’s uncle multiple times behind the scenes. Later, after Tang Shengzong ascended to the throne, Su Youwen naturally became one of his trusted aides and was promoted accordingly.

But in this lifetime, due to Su Aobai’s interference, the once-prominent supporter had developed the idea of suppressing Su Youwen.

Feelings of guilt were out of the question.

Su Aobai thought that many of the opportunities that once favored Fu Bao’s close uncle had instead helped him save a sum of money. Fu Bao should have been grateful to him in return.

As long as he maintained a thick skin, he would never be at fault, and he wouldn’t admit to any mistakes even if there were.

Then, he could openly leave this place with his daughter, not being driven away in disgrace. When he returned next time, he would surely stand at a higher position. He wondered what the people in the old family would be like then.