5: Chapter 5 Widow Liu, A Broken String Reunited
"Continue simulation."
He whispered.
[Simulation continues, time accelerating...]
[Three years pass, Chu Wang is three years old.]
[Chu Wang is indeed sturdier than other children; he runs around like a little calf.]
["Chu Wang, I'll find a teacher to take a look at you."]
[The old steward sighs: "Chu Sheng, people like us mud-legged peasants, even if the smoke rises from our ancestral graves, it's hard to produce a cultivator."]
[Chu Wang has a low-grade miscellaneous spirit root; it's only right that the old man can't see it.]
[He just wants to confirm whether his son has a good physical foundation.]
["Daddy, what is immortal cultivation?" Chu Wang asks, looking up.]
["Immortal cultivation... it means being able to fly, burrow into the earth, and live for a very, very long time."]
["Then can Daddy cultivate immortality?"]
[Chu Sheng's hand pauses: "Daddy cannot in this lifetime. But Chu Wang... perhaps you can."]
[Chu Wang is six years old.]
[There is no school in the village, so Chu Sheng teaches him himself.]
[Pointing at the distorted figures in the Turtle Breathing Technique, "Look, Chu Wang, doesn't this look like a toad?"]
["It does!" Chu Wang replies crisply.]
["What about this one?"]
["It looks like a bird! A big bird!"]
[Chu Sheng's cultivation is also slowly increasing; he is now firmly at the sixth rank of martial artists, the late stage of Qi Refining, and dares to tangle with a wild boar as tall as a person.]
[He carries a wild boar back, shirtless.]
[The women in the village stare with wide eyes.]
["Hoo-hoo-hoo, with a physique like Chu Sheng's, it's a pity his wife died..."]
["I heard he can take down a wild boar all by himself!"]
["With that strength, he must be quite vigorous at night, right?"]
[Chu Sheng hears it but pretends not to.]
[The little guy eats with grease all over his mouth: "Daddy, you're amazing!"]
["Eat more."]
[Four years pass in a flash.]
[Life is arduous, but seeing Chu Wang in his teens, Chu Sheng feels all the exhaustion is worth it.]
[But anxiety is like weeds, always sprouting up when least expected.]
["Daddy, we are just farm folk."]
[Chu Wang wipes off sweat after practicing fist techniques.]
["Instructor Wang said that with my build, if I go to the escort agency to find a job, I can earn ten taels of silver a year!"]
[Chu Sheng shakes his head: "What is ten taels of silver? A cultivator is..."]
["Cultivator, cultivator!"]
[Chu Wang suddenly becomes irritable.]
["Daddy, have you ever seen a cultivator? The immortal master hired by Master Li in town requires an offering of five hundred taels a year! Do we have that?"]
[Chu Sheng is choked for words.]
[The Lin family has real cultivators, but as a servant, he doesn't have the qualifications to meet them.]
[This year, a new tenant farmer moves into the village, surnamed Liu, in her early thirties.]
[Her appearance is a bit rough, but it looks like she was a beauty in the past.]
[The bachelors in the village stare with wide eyes.]
["With that figure, how exciting must it be to hold her at night?"]
["I only heard her say her man went into the mountains and never came back. How did he die? Who knows..."]
[Widow Liu has a seven or eight-year-old daughter, and life is difficult.]
[As a village servant, Chu Sheng sometimes helps out.]
[The two get to know each other over time.]
[He is focused entirely on Chu Wang, until this rainy night.]
["Knock, knock, knock."]
[Chu Sheng opens the door; Widow Liu stands outside, covered in scars.]
[Her thin summer clothes are soaked by the rain, clinging to her body, revealing her curves.]
[Lady Liu is shivering, not knowing if it's from cold or fear.]
["Big Brother Chu..."]
[Her voice trembles, "I just went up the mountain to pick herbs to supplement our living, but I accidentally fell into a trap set by a hunter..."]
[The oil lamp is dim, reflecting her wet face.]
[Chu Sheng looks away and hands her a piece of gauze.]
[Widow Liu doesn't take the cloth, but instead grabs his hand.]
["It's too hard for me to... raise my child alone."]
[Her tears fall, "You are a good person, steady and hardworking, and your body is strong..."]
[Key decision point appears.]
[1. Explicitly refuse.]
[2. Keep a distance.]
[3. Go with the flow.]
Chu Sheng looks at the scene in the simulation, and his mind suddenly becomes clear.
Chu Wang's spirit root aptitude is too low; there is little Chu Wang for Qi Induction.
What if there was another child?
What if... the aptitude is better?
Widow Liu's body looks like one that can bear children.
Chu Sheng is silent for a long time.
"Let's choose 3..."
["Okay."]
[He finally speaks, "Let's live together. I will support you and your daughter, and you will manage the household and take care of Chu Wang."]
[He pauses and adds: "And have another child."]
[Lady Liu is stunned, then nods heavily, tears welling up again.]
[The wedding is simple, inviting the villagers for a meal.]
[Chu Wang has a dark face the whole time.]
"What's the problem?"
Chu Sheng looks at his eldest son with a bad premonition.
[On the wedding night, Chu Sheng is a bit clumsy—he hasn't touched a woman in over a decade.]
[Lady Liu is generous and guides him.]
[Several young people eavesdropping on the wall can't help but blush.]
["Uncle Chu's stamina... tsk tsk."]
["Nonsense, he's a sixth-rank martial artist!"]
[Lady Liu is indeed capable; she keeps the house tidy and is uninhibited in bed.]
[It's not love, but a sense of solid possession.]
[A year later, Lady Liu gives birth.]
[It's a boy, and the birth is smooth.]
[Chu Sheng names his second son Chu He.]
[He Chu Wangs he will be like a river, with more possibilities.]
[Chu Wang is very cold towards this half-brother.]
The feedback from "Many Children, Many Blessings" arrives.
Chu He's aptitude is slightly better than Chu Wang's; he still has a low-grade miscellaneous spirit root, but the probability of Qi Induction has slightly increased.
The bottleneck of the simulated self has also loosened, with Chu Wangs of breaking through to the seventh rank of martial artists.
"Looks pretty good."
Chu Sheng muses, "Perhaps I can consider developing Chu He."
[Two more years pass, and Chu Wang is eighteen.]
[He returns on his birthday, now a tall and sturdy young man.]
[The childishness is gone, replaced by a kind of gloom.]
[The atmosphere at the dining table is icy.]
[Lady Liu holds the babbling Chu He, being very cautious.]
[Chu Sheng tries to ease the tension, picking up a piece of meat for Chu Wang.]
[Chu Wang puts down his bowl and chopsticks.]
["Daddy, Head Escort Liu in town is hiring me as an escort guard to run the southern trade route."]
["I accepted, and I'm leaving tomorrow."]
[Chu Sheng is stunned: "Leaving? Escort work is so dangerous! Why not stay in..."]
["Stay where?"]
[Chu Wang interrupts him, glancing at Lady Liu and Chu He, "This home? I can't stay here anymore, Daddy."]
[He stands up and walks to the door.]
["You have a new home, a new Chu Wang."]
["What am I here? An eyesore?"]
["But Chu Wang, Daddy did it all for..."]
["For my own good?" Chu Wang turns abruptly, his eyes red.]
["Is it for my own good that when the grass on my mother's grave was already high, you were in such a hurry to marry a new wife? Is it for my own good that you only have eyes for this more promising younger brother?"]
[Chu Wang takes a deep breath and kowtows three times.]
["Daddy, take care. When I make something of myself... I'll come back to see you."]
[He pauses: "And please go visit my mother for me."]
[After speaking, he strides into the twilight without looking back.]
[Lady Liu holds the child and weeps silently in the room.]
[That night, Chu Sheng sits until dawn in front of Xiao Huan's overgrown grave.]
[He is thirty-eight years old.]
[He suddenly remembers the young servant chopping wood in the woodshed many years ago.]
[The path seems to have gone astray.]
[Can he still turn back?]
"What... what kind of development is this?! Chu Wang just left like that? I... how did I in the simulation end up like this?"
A strong sense of alienation and absurdity washes over him.
"Is this really me? How could my choices lead to this result?"
Chu Sheng looks at this scene, his heart filled with mixed emotions.
"Is this the price?"
He murmurs.
"For 'Many Children, Many Blessings', for that ethereal, illusory Immortal Fate, I forced my eldest son away. Is it worth it?"
He stares intently at the simulation interface and lets out a long sigh.
"Next simulation, I need to change my approach."
He thinks to himself.
"Either focus on raising one, or... really have more, using quantity to stack quality?"
But looking at Chu Wang's resolute back in the simulation, a certain place in his heart aches faintly.
This is not just a game after all.
The consequences brought by those choices, the lives that were changed, are all real.
At least in the world of the simulation.