Chapter 63: The Ways of the World

In Yang Sheng's memory, though his father was a man of few words, he was fiercely proud and determined.

He had fought his way out of the countryside to make a living in the city, only to return to his hometown with his savings to farm the land and build greenhouses. Having signed contracts with numerous fruit and vegetable supermarkets in the city, his family belonged to the highest-income bracket in the village. Otherwise, he never would have been able to support Yang Sheng all the way through university.

Had it not been for the accident five years ago, this should have been a peaceful, pastoral slice-of-life story.

In contrast, Yang Sheng's second uncle was far more ordinary.

He usually made a living by farming, and during the agricultural off-season, he would go to the city to work as a laborer.

Yang Sheng walked up to his second uncle's front door and knocked. A woman in her forties with a rather sharp expression opened the door. Upon seeing Yang Sheng, she froze in shock, momentarily struck speechless.

"Second Aunt," Yang Sheng greeted quietly.

A man approaching fifty with a tanned complexion and a slightly stooped posture walked out, exclaiming with pleasant surprise, "Xiao Sheng, when did you get back? Why didn't you let Second Uncle know ahead of time so I could pick you up?"

Yang Sheng smiled and said, "It was a sudden whim to come back, so I didn't want to trouble you, Second Uncle."

"Come inside quickly. I'll have your Second Aunt whip up something good for dinner tonight."

Yang Sheng's second uncle chimed in from behind, though her expression remained somewhat unnatural.

His second uncle pulled Yang Sheng into the house, where a three-year-old little girl was staring at Yang Sheng with curious eyes.

"Your Second Aunt and I never had children. We consulted quite a few doctors over the years and had long since given up, but I never expected that at our age, we would be blessed with one by surprise. Jiao'er, say hello to your older cousin."

His uncle stroked the little girl's head with doting affection, but the child hid behind her uncle's legs, cautiously sizing up the stranger before her.

"Xiao Sheng, how have you been getting by out there all these years?" his second uncle asked.

Yang Sheng nodded. "Not bad. I've resolved my inner demons, and this time I've come back to burn some incense for my parents and tend to their graves."

With that, a brief silence fell over the room. His uncle wanted to say something, but his second uncle shot him warning glares several times.

Finally, his second uncle hardened his resolve and said, "Xiao Sheng, you must have passed by that house when you came here, right? You hadn't been back for all these years, and we couldn't get in touch with you. Coincidentally, someone wanted to buy the house, so I took it upon myself to sell it to him. Jiao'er was just born around that time, and I really needed the money, which is why I set my sights on that place. The new house is already built now, so the land can't be reclaimed, but as for the fifty thousand yuan from selling the land, I'll go to the credit union and withdraw it for you."

His second uncle glared fiercely at her husband, turned on her heel, and made to leave.

Yang Sheng gently shook his head and said, "Second Uncle, keep the money. And thank you for going to tend to my parents' graves year after year."

With that, Yang Sheng pulled a ten-thousand-yuan stack of cash from his backpack and placed it on the table.

His second uncle was stunned. "What is this for?"

"I wasn't around when Jiao'er was born, and since I came back in a hurry, I didn't bring any gifts. Buy something nice for the child."

Saying this, Yang Sheng stood up and added, "Second Uncle, after I visit my parents' graves, I'll be leaving. Time is short, so I won't stay for dinner."

Seeing that Yang Sheng was about to leave, his second uncle tried to stand up and persuade him to stay, but his second uncle held him down.

When his uncle looked up again, Yang Sheng had already left the courtyard.

Holding the ten-thousand-yuan stack, his second uncle's eyes lit up. "Hey, what do you suppose Yang Sheng has been doing out there all these years? He drops ten thousand yuan just like that. I heard that the wealthy person who hit and killed his parents paid a huge settlement. Did he get a ton of money?"

"Is that even human language?!"

His second uncle abruptly stood up, glaring furiously at his wife, raising his hand to strike, but ultimately letting it fall back down.

Instead of backing down, his second uncle thrust her face forward and screamed aggressively, "Yang Shulin, you ungrateful piece of trash, you want to hit me? All these years I've served you, given birth to your child, and worried myself sick over your Yang family, and now you want to hit me? If you've got the guts, beat me to death!"

"Sigh!"

His second uncle let out a long sigh, buried his face in his hands, and slumped back down, his posture growing even more stooped.

Yang Sheng, who had already walked out the door, could hear every word spoken inside.

Given his current spiritual strength, the scene inside the house was perceived by him without a single detail missing.

For Yang Sheng, who had experienced the crucible of revenge, life and death, and two reincarnation worlds, these trivial domestic squabbles and messy affairs seemed entirely incapable of causing the slightest ripple in his state of mind.

He went to the cemetery outside the village to burn a stick of incense for his parents. The gravesite was remarkably clean, showing clear signs of regular maintenance.

Staying until the incense burned out, Yang Sheng prepared to leave, intending to find a quiet place to rest for two months and prepare for the next reincarnation world.

However, just as he was waiting for a ride at the entrance of the village, a tall young man riding a motorcycle passed by and suddenly slammed on the brakes right in front of Yang Sheng.

"Shengzi? Haven't seen you in years! When did you get back? Come on, let's go get a drink! Coincidentally, Ming泽 is back too. Let's have a proper drinking session together!"

A faint smile touched the corner of Yang Sheng's mouth. "Dagang, how do you still dare to ride a motorcycle? Back when you crashed a bike and broke your two front teeth as a kid, who was it that swore they'd never ride again?"

The man before him was Dagang, Yang Sheng's childhood friend. The two had been close since elementary school, and it was only after Yang Sheng left the village for high school that they began to see less of each other.

Dagang proudly patted the motorcycle's back seat. "My riding skills these days are out of this world. You know about the Second Ring Road's Fifteen-Corner King? One of these days I'll take you out to hit some mountain curves."

Yang Sheng climbed onto the back seat, and Dagang called Mingze, another childhood friend of theirs. The three of them gathered at a small tavern at the village entrance, ordered a few dishes of food, and started chatting idly.

They had heard rumors about what had happened to Yang Sheng, but both of them tacitly avoided mentioning it, choosing instead to talk about their respective plights over the past few years.

After three rounds of drinks, Dagang suddenly slammed his glass hard onto the table, a look of profound grievance crossing his face.

"Damn it! Shengzi, you tell me, who was I ever afraid of back in the day? Which local thugs from neighboring villages dared to mess with me? And look at me now! I'm being pointed at and cursed out by some bastard manager, and I don't even dare to talk back! If I didn't have a wife and kids to feed, I would've split his skull open ages ago!"

Dagang had been physically strong since childhood. He used to fight people in his own village, and later fought thugs from other villages, making quite a name for himself in the township.

Yang Sheng, on the other hand, had been silent and taciturn as a child, knowing only how to bury himself in his studies, which often made him a target for bullies.

It wasn't that he was cowardly; rather, he knew that getting into a fight meant his parents would be called in and forced to pay compensation, plunging an already impoverished family even deeper into hardship.

But one day, after being pushed too far by relentless bullying, Yang Sheng grabbed a pencil and stabbed a hole right through his tormentor's leg. Three or four boys swarmed him, beating him relentlessly, but Yang Sheng kept thrusting the pencil forward until it snapped in half.

It was only after that incident that Dagang decided this quiet, studious little brother from the same village was actually quite interesting, and he helped chase away the bullies who had surrounded him.

That was the first and only time Yang Sheng was ever called to the principal's office with his parents as a child.

Though they had to pay compensation of a few hundred yuan, his father didn't scold him. Instead, he took him out for a meal of grilled meat and imparted a piece of wisdom to him:

"A person fights not for the bread, but for their pride. Taking a step back does not always lead to a wider ocean, and enduring for a moment does not always bring calm waters. No matter what, never lose your backbone. Our family is poor, but our character must never be humble."

From that day on, no one ever bullied Yang Sheng again. Even some troublemakers who wanted to settle scores with Dagang would deliberately wait until Yang Sheng was away.

Yang Sheng remained a top student with exceptional grades, but school bullies—both inside and outside the campus—would give him a wide berth.

Some had heard tales of Yang Sheng's deeds, while others who refused to believe the rumors had suffered dearly, some even carrying psychological scars from the encounter.

Yang Sheng poured Dagang a glass of wine and patted his shoulder.

"When you have responsibilities weighing on your heart, naturally you can't act as recklessly as before."

Before Yang Sheng could finish comforting Dagang, Mingze, sitting nearby, suddenly burst into tears.

"In the company, I'm clearly the one who does the most work, so why is my bonus the smallest and my overtime the longest? Why do they all push me out and bully me? I've never hurt a single person!"

Mingze was a thin, frail young man wearing glasses. Since childhood, his grades had been even better than Yang Sheng's, and he had coasted on scholarships all the way into a prestigious Project 211 key university, eventually landing a job in Shanghai after graduation.

However, Mingze had been soft-spoken and emotionally naive since childhood, traits that carried into adulthood. In the cutthroat corporate world, such a personality inevitably made him a target for bullying and ostracism.

Yet Mingze didn't dare to quit.

In their youth, his parents had worked three jobs simultaneously to put him through school, and now they were both suffering from severe chronic illnesses and had lost their ability to labor. The entire family depended entirely on Mingze's single salary to survive—how could he possibly dare to resign?

Though Dagang used to bully him when they were kids, forcing him to help with homework, whenever outsiders dared to bully Mingze, Dagang was always the first to rush in and fight them off.

But now that they were adults, those people didn't need to physically assault him; their casual words and actions acted like knives, stabbing painfully into his heart and making it hard to breathe.

Yang Sheng poured Mingze another glass of wine, completely at a loss for how to comfort them.

Faced with injustice, Yang Sheng had chosen to pick up a blade, walk a path of no return, and stake his very life just to fight for a sliver of dignity.

Yet he could not urge Dagang and Mingze to do the same.

When you have people you care about, it is simply impossible to cast caution to the winds and risk everything.

Yet, in this damn world, there were always those who insisted on driving people into a dead end, leaving them no room to survive.

Dagang drained his glass in one gulp, let out a frustrated curse, and roared, "This godforsaken world!"

Just then, the door of the tavern was pushed open. Uncle Cai looked around frantically and shouted at the three of them, "Stop drinking! It's bad! Liu Donghong brought a gang of men and beat up your second uncle, Dagang! They're trying to forcefully seize your family's land!"

"Damn it!"

Dagang's eyes instantly turned red. He rushed into the restaurant's kitchen, grabbed a kitchen knife, and charged outside.

Mingze wiped away his tears, snatched a sharp utility knife, tucked it into his pocket, and followed closely behind Dagang.

Yang Sheng suddenly grabbed Dagang's wrist. The sheer force rendered Dagang utterly unable to break free, forcing him to instinctively release the kitchen knife.

"Liu Donghong? Is that the punk who strutted around acting big just because he made a fortune digging sand? Don't be impulsive. You have a wife and kids—let me go check it out first."