Who Got Cuckolded?

Did Ergou's dad get cuckolded? Or was it Ergou's mom? Staring at the name on the bamboo slip, Chu Qiguang's mind raced with a myriad of thoughts. Countless possibilities swarmed into his head, only to be dismissed one after another. He took a deep breath, looked at his mother, and asked, "Am I not your biological son?" His mother spat in reproach. "What nonsense are you babbling!" He asked, "Isn't our family... supposed to be surnamed Zhou?" Ergou's mother replied, "I'm not too clear on the details either. I only ever heard your father say that the Zhou family originally should have had the surname Chu." Chu Qiguang asked, "Father wants me to change my name? But on the yamen's household registers, my name is still Zhou Ergou, isn't it? Would I have to make a trip to the yamen to have it changed?" What he was thinking was that taking the martial examinations or becoming an official in the future would require household registration verification. If it was just changing his name to Chu Qiguang verbally, what would be the point? It would only create more trouble. Ergou's mother, however, said, "Your father mentioned that years ago, he bribed a clerk at the yamen to fabricate a phantom household registration for you in Wang Family Village. That household consists solely of a Chu Qiguang of the same age as you. You can just use that name from now on." Hearing this, Chu Qiguang was even more astonished. He knew that under the household registration system of the Great Han Dynasty, four types of households were exempt from taxes and corvée labor: the widowed, the orphaned, and the solitary. Specifically: elderly men without wives, elderly women without husbands, young children without parents, and the elderly without children. And the phantom household of Chu Qiguang created by Ergou's father clearly fell under the category of a parentless young child—exempt from taxes and exempt from corvée. For over a decade, this nonexistent person, Chu Qiguang, had lived on paper in the registers. And this was an arrangement Ergou's father had made more than ten years ago. An eerie feeling welled up within Chu Qiguang. Chu Qiguang nodded and asked a few more questions, but he could sense that Ergou's mother genuinely knew nothing more of the inner details. The deeper secrets were likely known only to Ergou's father—yet both Ergou's father and elder brother had vanished long ago while gathering firewood in the mountains. Thus, Chu Qiguang maintained a calm exterior, merely offering a few words of caution to Ergou's mother, though his mind was rife with doubts. Stepping out of the house, he happened to see Qiao Zhi secretly giving instructions to Jinxiu. He asked, "Master Qiao, about this Chu Qiguang..." Before Chu Qiguang could finish, Qiao Zhi cut in, "You want to change your name? Go ahead, go ahead. The name Chu Qiguang is better than Ergou anyway, and changing your name will also provide cover for your mother and sister so people won't seek vengeance against them in the future." Chu Qiguang gave Qiao Zhi a strange look and handed the bamboo slip from the wooden box directly to the cat. "It's not that I want to change it. It was my father..." As Qiao Zhi listened to the matter of the phantom Chu Qiguang household, its eyes grew wider and wider. Pacing back and forth in utter disbelief, the cat thought in shock, *That's impossible.* *It clearly wasn't supposed to be like this. Chu Qiguang was supposed to change his own name and switch his household registration himself.* *How did it become his father who did it for him? What on earth is going on?* Watching Qiao Zhi's panicked expression and considering what the cat had just said, Chu Qiguang had an idea of what was happening. He asked directly, "Is this different from what you know?" "Uh..." Qiao Zhi pondered for a moment, then shook its head firmly. "Your father should never have known the name Chu Qiguang." The more it thought about it, the more flustered it became. Qiao Zhi hastily licked its calming fur to regain its composure. Meanwhile, Chu Qiguang intended to look into the disappearance of Ergou's father and elder brother. Hearing his plan, Qiao Zhi sighed. "I didn't tell you before because I was afraid it would affect your cultivation of Daoist arts. But now it seems I have to." "Your clan... was originally sent by Jingang Temple in history to guard a sacred scripture, and was originally surnamed Chu." "Only, fifty years ago, the imperial court moved to 'suppress Buddhism,' crushing the three major traditions: Maha Buddhism, Fanjing Sect, and Jingang Temple. From that point on, Buddhism across the world fractured and fell apart. To conceal your origins, your family changed your surname. However, each successive head of the household passed down the duty from generation to generation, continuing to guard that scripture from Jingang Temple." "Unfortunately, when your father and elder brother went into the mountains to check on the condition of the scripture, they ran into villains. Not only were they murdered, but the scripture was stolen." "I had already buried them both. Fearing that knowing of the blood feud over your father's murder would disrupt your cultivation, I planned to keep it from you for the time being." Listening to Qiao Zhi's explanation, a tangled knot of thoughts welled up in Chu Qiguang's mind. By all reasoning, he considered himself Chu Qiguang from Earth, so he should have had no feelings for Ergou's family in this world. Yet Ergou's memories—etched deeply into his mind, immensely solid and profound—subconsciously influenced him, making him feel a faint twinge of grief and anger. *Hoo—* Chu Qiguang exhaled a long breath. "Then who killed them?" "You want revenge?" Qiao Zhi sighed. "The reason I didn't want to tell you so early was precisely because I was worried it would disrupt your state of mind and hinder the efficacy of your martial arts and Daoist practice. Martial arts requires subduing qi and blood, while Daoist practice requires grasping the primordial spirit; both place supreme importance on one's temperament. Even the slightest disharmony will become an obstacle." At these words, Chu Qiguang closed his eyes. When he opened them again, all troubles and stray thoughts seemed to have been forcefully suppressed. "Then let me quiet my mind for the night. Tell me tomorrow." That night, Chu Qiguang tried his best to remain calm during meditation. He wanted to shut out the interference from Ergou's memories so that the deaths of Ergou's father and elder brother would not impede his cultivation progress. Yet no matter how he focused his mind, he continually felt an uncomfortable dissonance unlike anything he had felt before. Zhou Ergou's memories kept surfacing in his mind. Reason told him that these two people had nothing to do with him and not to dwell on it, yet those deep memories constantly stirred up all manner of emotions in his heart. This state of harboring memories that did not belong to him, yet deeply dictated his emotions, felt as though two people were fighting inside his head. It made Chu Qiguang grow increasingly restless. Finally, he opened his eyes, ceased meditating, and began practicing martial arts instead, executing a set of the Heavenly Spirit Body Tempering Fist. Even as he performed the fist technique, memories continued to well up unbidden, dragging down the efficiency of his practice. "It affects the efficiency of both martial arts and Daoist practice. More importantly, lower meditation efficiency means I have to spend more time resting each day, which cuts into my training time." Chu Qiguang shook his head helplessly, thinking, *Memories are a vital component of personality; they exert a massive influence over a person's emotions, values, and thoughts. Unless I can completely purge Ergou's memories, it's impossible not to be affected.* *Since I can't escape it, my only choice is to resolve it once and for all.* Chu Qiguang picked up Qiao Zhi from beside him and began petting it. Only when he felt his emotions settle slightly did he ask, "Will my state of mind return to peace only if I take revenge?" Qiao Zhi replied, "Either you take revenge to comfort the spirits of your father and elder brother in heaven, or you keep meditating, slowly grinding it down over time until you can ignore the influence." Qiao Zhi sighed wistfully. "As the saying goes, in life, eight or nine things out of ten do not go as one wishes. Along the way, who wouldn't have a few thorns stuck in their heart? Most people can only continue cultivating with those thorns lodged within them. That's why the longer one rolls around in the mortal dust, the more thorns they accumulate, and the slower their cultivation efficiency becomes. That is why some people flee into deep mountains and ancient forests to cultivate in seclusion from the world." Chu Qiguang nodded. But evasion and forbearance were not his style. He asked straightforwardly, "Who do I need to take revenge on?"