Chương 3: Indecision

"Uncle Niu, I heard that you can leave the town as you wish and adventure in the wilderness, you also can enter the big Peng city"

Cui Ling's eyes sparkled as he looked at Hao Niu with admiration written all over his face.

Deng Wuyan's expression fell slightly. looking at his son who was about to jump up excitedly, he felt his eyes playing tricks on him. To him, Cui Ling was a calm kid, although he was slightly playful at times and liked to go and watch the guard's training by himself, he never caused trouble or asked for anything like other kids. this caused him to randomly buy something as gifts so he could get the feeling of a father spending money to pamper his son.

Although there were times when he revealed such emotions, they weren't as obvious as now. not to mention it was more than a year since the last time he saw his kid isn't living up to his name.

Hao Niu caressed his beard as his eyes revealed pride "ha-ha, little An, venturing outside isn't as scary as people tell you. you only need to know the right people and methods to travel in the wilderness"

He then looked at Deng Wuyan " your son seems interested to take a look at the outside of this small town. how about it? Do you want to consider my offer and accompany me?"

Cui Ling's eyes gave a hopeful light as he waited for the father's response.

Deng Wuyan was a bit conflicted but he eventually sighed "I have to slowly think through it, something like this can't be casually decided on "

Hao Niu shook his head slightly, he knew the answer would be like this. Although he said that traveling in the wilderness isn't scary, that was only dependent on the person's ability and the preparation involved, even with that, there is always the chance of dying. He knows this far too well, after all, he saw how easily things could go south…many times.

Cui Ling's gaze dimmed as disappointment flashed across his big eyes. he didn't complain or throw tantrums, he put on a cheerful face as if nothing had happened and said "father, I'll be going to watch over Xue'er, mother is busy entertaining guests and can't completely focus on her "

Hao Niu patted his head "go then "

Deng Wuyan watched as Cui Ling left with a complicated expression. it would have been better if he saw him complain or do what usually children do to get what they wanted but seeing such mature behavior made him feel uncomfortable.

"This little child of yours is quite interesting, trying to put a cheerful face to comfort you. tsk tsk"

"No need for mockery. Sigh, since a year ago An'er became interested in learning about what is happening outside, apparently, some guard told him some things that piqued his interest"

Hao Niu was silent for a bit "I know that you are reluctant to venture outside because of the accident that caused your injury, but traveling became much safer compared to then"

Noticing that Deng Wuyan wasn't responding, he shook his head "just think about it. This is a rare chance to fulfill your wife's wish. Now, stop looking like you have stomach problems. this is your son's birthday after all "

Deng Wuyan raised his head and swiped the backyard with his eyes. the scene of Cui Ling carefully watching over Xue'er came into his view, but he could tell that something was distracting him. he then looked at his wife who was happily chatting and thought about the offer that Hao Niu gave him, wondering if it is worth it.

Meanwhile, Cui Ling, who was ' seriously ' being a good big brother.

"Apparently, this Hao Niu and my old man already discussed going to Peng city. well, this will make things easier for me"

About a year ago, he found the information about this friend of Deng Wuyan from the guards and made the best plans he could think of considering his situation.

There's not much he could do with this body of his, so the best course of action he came up with is to leverage his identity, A 6-year-old son.

Throughout the whole year he used natural psychological suggestions to install two thoughts in Deng Wuyan's mind, ' my son also wants to go ' and ' the trip is beneficial to my family '.

With the use of facial expressions, hints, and actions to stimulate and manipulate the emotions linked with the act of leaving, he could increase the chances of making him actually do it.

In normal cases, this wouldn't be enough to force a grown man to risk his family's life, but.. what if his wife not just wanted to go but longed for the opportunity? Coupled with his son also desiring to take a look, at the potential financial benefits he may get and the right circumstances that were presented by Hao Niu….if he still refused under all of these elements, then Cui Ling can only use the second plan which wasn't as reliable.

The acting he just did was the finishing touches to trigger the pride and ego that any man can display with the right incentive.

But he knew very well that the chances of success are less than half. This is thanks to something that can overshadow reason and bravery… A trauma.

This could be traced back to when Deng Wuyan was on a patrol outside the town's borders, he didn't know what exactly happened but that event left him wanting to never leave again. According to the stories he heard, those later years of his father's career as a vice-captain were dark times for everyone, especially those who left the protection of shielding charms.

The shielding charms were ordinary and small plaques of woods that were put in the surroundings of towns. It was unknown who put them there but it was said they existed ever since the founding of this hamlet.

They magically made spirit beasts stay away and prevented the demonic spirits from freely rampaging, but even then, these two threats still managed from time to time to sneak in and cause deaths, making the town's population stable, but thankfully at least there are no human threats around this area.

His train of thought was interrupted by the sound of a melodious bell.

"Everyone! It is time to break the candy ball. An'er, come forward and claim what you deserve"

Cui Ling nodded, he was familiar with this tradition as he saw it happen in other birthday celebrations. Basically, the relevant party is supposed to break through the layers of the ball using his or her bare hands in a certain amount of time, if they fail in doing so, all that is inside the ball will be given to other kids.

He gave his father a serious look as though he was saying ' don't worry, I won't disappoint you '

This event may look childish but the people here put quite the importance on the innate ability displayed by children, so they created these challenges to test and also to teach the young ones the meaning of losing and other values.

Cui Ling waited for the timer to start, but secretly he rubbed his hands with brown powder under the long sleeves.

Unlike other innocent kids, he knew that the first time a child went through the 'breaking the ball' tradition wasn't meant to be a success. the ball was deliberately made to be 'unbreakable' for the challenger.

Only after the second or third time will they allow them to succeed.

The brown powder is commonly used by martial artists when training their hands, it temporarily makes the skin harder and rougher, but mainly it reduces skin pain. This alone wasn't enough to guarantee him tearing the elastic fabric and smashing the ball apart.

After sneakily studying the structure of this object that is twice his size using a design plan he stole from the store that makes these things, he secretly tempered with the one used on his birthday. He created some weak spots that can help him win this challenge.

Deng Wuyan took a sand watch and said as he flipped it " Start! "

Cui Ling directly jumped at the ball and started to 'randomly' punch and grab it, his face soon becoming red.

"Your son seems to take this very seriously" Hao Niu teased

"So what? A child needs to learn failure early on to keep up with the cruel world"

"Isn't it the parent's job to ensure that their children see the world as rainbows and butterflies?" Hao Niu knows that Deng Wuyan only acts tough on the surface, he could tell with a glance that he is uncomfortable with An'er putting so much effort only to get the predetermined ending of failure.

"Some things are better learned young….." before finishing what he's about to say he heard the sound of tearing reached his ears