InvincibleConnoisseur

Chapter 74 What A Brute

I must find somewhere to have a rest and recover myself!

With such an idea just coming across his mind, Wang Ke kept his eyes on a big tree not far away. Then he straightly strode toward it with undoubted steps.

With a cool breeze gently blowing, he sat down against the adumbral willow tree, slowly closing his eyes. Without thinking anything, he just felt free to gradually recover himself while enjoying the feeling of coolness and comfort.

How time flied! In the blink of an eye, half an hour had passed.

After replenishing the vigor, Wang Ke slowly opened his eyes and scanned the surroundings. Suddenly, he saw that not far from him, under another big willow tree, an old man was spreading out goods for sale. With a grey short gown, dirty black pants, and a worn-out and yellowed white towel on his shoulder, the man was looking at passers-by with a long face. It was evident that it was the first time for him to do business in the antique trading market. On the red cloth placed in front of him, there were several daily articles of ordinary ancient families. Although judged from the appearance, they were something similar to antiques, few people would have interest and therefore give more attention to them as there were so many articles that were similar to antiques in this market.

Wang Ke didn't believe that the middle-aged man, who was like an old peasant, was exactly what he looked like. Having been in the market for quite a long time and therefore dealt with different kinds of people, Wang Ke was familiar with the man as such. He even found that such a man would always tend to pretend a poor guy to win other people's sympathy and then place several articles to draw their attention. He even knew that many people have conspired with those men to cheat others.

After hesitating for a while, Wang Ke decided to walk over and have a look.

With a few strides, he came in front of the old man sitting under the willow tree not far away. After watching the articles on the red cloth placed before the man, suddenly he slightly frowned his eyebrows, finding that things were not that simple as he thought that those articles before his eyes all seemed like antiques.

Slowly raising his head, Wang Ke looked at the man.

The man was rather excited at the time.

As he has been selling those articles for almost the whole day, only two men walked over and had a look without even asking for prices and then shaking their heads to leave. However, everything got different at this time. The arrival of Wang Ke brought him a slim of hope. With eagerness in his eyes, the man tightly stared at Wang Ke, hoping that the young man could feel satisfied with the articles placed on the red cloth.

Wang Ke was abruptly shaken by the eagerness of the man because he could perceive the sincerity from his eyes. The pureness in his eyes was by no means fake. Besides, the impression of the man upon others was nothing but sincerity, a feeling of seriously living his own life. It seemed that he has been oppressed by life to hardly breathe. One even couldn't feel any trace of bad faith from him.

Maybe, he was indeed an ordinary old peasant.

Wang Ke tended to believe him in the heart.

"Young man! I won't cheat you. Even I don't know whether these articles are antiques or not. All in all, they have been stored in my house for many years. I heard that many people in big cities liked to collect such ancient items, so I sold them in this place tens of miles away from my village. It has taken me a whole day to arrive here. If you want it, I could sell it to you at a relatively low price."

With his trembling hands, the old man slowly took out a smoky bar, and then a brocade pouch knitted with black cloth. Later, he carefully fetched a little tobacco, put it onto the bar, and set fire to it. Finally, he leisurely smoked.

Looking through wisps of smoke curling in the air, Wang Ke saw the wrinkles covering the whole face of the old man. Seeing these traces left by the time, he couldn't help letting out a deep sigh.

"You have spent even a whole day getting here?!"

Shocked by what he had just heard, with a clink of unbelievable light appearing in his eyes, Wang Ke couldn't believe the old man. Then he kept his eyes on the worn-out cloth shoes on the feet of the old man, finding that there was a small split caused by the broken sewing thread in the inner side of one shoe.

That made him remind of his father who would rather spend a whole night walking from the city to home than take a two-yuan bus to save money for him. At the thought of this, his eyes were watered.

To save two yuan for his son, the father had walked all night!

The love of a father was as great as a mountain!

If his mother hadn't told him, he would have been kept ignorant.

After knowing the fact, he locked himself into his house, kneeling on the ground and swearing that he would let his parents live a better life no matter how much hardship he might endure.

He knew that if the old man hadn't lived so poor a life, he wouldn't sell those articles here. Seeing the man before him, Wang Ke wrung his heartstrings.

"Yes!"

The man nodded, saying, "I hadn't thought that it could be so far from here. A man named Erzhuzi had told me that I would soon arrive here if I took a bus. But how can I take a bus? If I had done so, how much would have been spent. In addition, I even can't estimate how much I could get for these articles. Therefore, I would rather walk here."

As the man said with great bitterness and helplessness, Wang Ke squatted before him, feeling that life was not easy to live.

"What if these articles wouldn't be worth much money? You would be likely to waste time." Wang Ke asked.

The old man said with a bitter smile, "I don't care that my time will be wasted as I'm just a peasant. Furthermore, I don't need to be busy taking care of my land. It will be still in time if I work on the farm after I come back home! Young man, you have a look at my articles. Do you think that they are valuable?"

Wang Ke then rapidly felt the magnetic field around those articles through energy-observing, finding that there existed no spiritual energy waves, which proved that no enchanted vessels were among them.

Looking at the old man who looked forward to an answer, Wang Ke didn't want to hurt his heart and therefore remarked on this:

"It's difficult to conclude. Those articles were by no means worth much money. But if there existed several antiques, you might earn some money."

With the lips slightly trembling, the man bowed his head, murmuring, "if I couldn't sell them out, how would I raise my wife?"

He said with some tears spilling out of his eyes when the hand holding the bar was trembling.

Wang Ke looked at the man with a little pity. Regardless of the dirty ground, he hunkered down and then said, "can you give me more information about your family? What has happened to your wife?"

The old man raised his head and then wiped tears from the corner of his eyes, saying, "you don't know the situation of my family. As my wife has been knocked down, she had her spine broken and therefore lost the ability to take care of herself. As a result, she had no choice but to lie on the bed and I had to buy some traditional Chinese medicine to cure her. However, now, I can't even afford such an expense. Besides, it's not the time for harvest, thus, I can't get any income at all. Furthermore, I have a son. In his childhood, he was rather smart and sensible with the grade always being the best of his class. Every year, he could win the merit student certificate."

Talking about his son with pride and a little arrogance, the old man seemed to have lost in his memory. It seemed that his son was what he was most proud of in his life as every time he talked about his son there would be a glow spreading across his face.

However, as time went by, the pride on his face disappeared. He gradually felt helpless, angry, and desolate.

"Although I lived a poor life at that time, I felt happy. Who knows how things will go?"

Talking about this, the old man took a sharp drag on his smoky bar with pains left on his face.

"When my son was in high school, he seemed to have become another person. At that time..."

While listening to the words of the old man, Wang Ke began to feel angry, extremely angry.

Having only this son who was tractable with excellent grades when he was a boy, the old man and his wife were proud of him. Nevertheless, since the son went outside to be in high school, he has always skipped classes and fought with others. Then he was expelled from the school. Finally, he dropped school altogether and muddled along with a bunch of hooligans. All-day long, he would smoke, drink and fight with others. Even after coming back home, he would give his parents bashes and kicks if they preached at him. Even worse, several times, both of them were put in the hospital because of that.

Even to that extent, their son wouldn't stop kicking up a row to claim living expenses.

Did he behave as a son? He was indeed a brute!

Wang Ke couldn't imagine how much pains they had suffered despite the old man touched on the matter lightly.

Although the man was only forty-six years old this year, he looked like an old man who was seventy years old. All of that was the masterpiece of his son.

To save his wife, the man had walked all day long to the antique trading market without being even willing to have a hot meal on the road and taking a bus. What he had were some cool steamed bread and pickles.

"I don't know what I have done in my previous life. Why has my son been turned into such a rude person? If he could give up evil and turn to good, I would be even ready to make eight kowtows to the right north." the old man said with tears flowing out once again. On his aged face, sadness and bitterness have already occupied their positions.

Brute!

What a brute!!!

Tightly clenching his fists, Wang Ke felt extremely angry.

Was giving parents bashes and kicks a thing that might be done by a man?

Parents have put up with all kinds of hardships to bring up their children, containing them in the mouth for fear of melting and holding them in the hand for fear of falling. Was this the way that children repaid their parents when they grew up?

He was indeed a brute!

"You'd better think in another way. If your son still won't repent of what he has done, you and your wife can just pretend that he has already been dead."

Looking at the painful man right before, Wang Ke comforted him like this.

Wiping out the tears on the face, the old man said with great bitterness and helplessness, "I have once thought this. But after all, he is my son. Besides, as he has grown up, I have no choice but to admit that he is my son. If he didn't have money, he would ask for it from me and my wife. Therefore, all our savings have been wasted by him. When we really can't give extra money to him, he will give us bashes and kicks. What on earth I have done in my previous life!"

Wang Ke took a deep breath, trying to suppress his anger.

Although it was true that there were different kinds of birds in the woods, it was still hard to imagine that there indeed existed such a scumbag.

Why is the god not willing to sympathize with the old man and therefore curse his son to hell?

Silently lowering his head, as a gesture of goodwill, Wang Ke was ready to buy those articles. Since the old man was not easy to make a living, he wouldn't be a witness to the man's final desperation.