Master Head of the Dragon Soul novel Chapter 7

Still dragging Chu Feng with overwhelming joy, Liu Minglan hollered to the wine-guzzling Zhou Lie inside the house, “Come out and see who came back!”

Chu Feng touched his nose; after ten years, his adoptive mother was still so fierce.

“Damn woman, are you done? You never let me drink on a normal day, and you get all up in my business even on the day our daughter’s getting engaged?” A man’s rough voice bellowed from inside the house. “I’m drinking today even if God himself descends from the heavens…” Then, a lean but muscular and dark-skinned man walked out, grumbling furiously with a pipe in his hand. His tigerlike eyes were blown wide open, clearly expressing his indignance.

“Dad.” Chu Feng called out. When Zhou Lie looked up and saw Chu Feng’s face, his body seemed to jolt suddenly and with a smack, his pipe fell to the ground.

As if in disbelief, Zhou Lie pinched his thigh once, then strode to Chu Feng. He seemed like he had a thousand words to say, but in the end all he said was, “You’re back?” Even then, his voice wavered.

“I’m back.” Chu Feng replied.

Zhou’s hands balled into fists and he lightly punched Chu Feng’s chest, his tiger eyes tearing up. “You’re stronger. Taller too. Your military years were well-spent.”

Liu Minglan protested, “Nonsense, Feng has gotten so thin. Look, our boy must have gone through so much.”

Zhou Lie merely laughed and instinctively put his muscular arms around Chu Feng’s shoulders, only to realise that the twerp he’d raised was now a full head taller than he was—he was a man now! “Come, have a few drinks with your old man.”

“Sure.” Chu Feng walked inside with Zhou Lie. Fatherly love was like a mountain, strong but silent; no words were needed to express it, because a single act, a single bowl of strong wine, was enough.

With Chu Feng’s arrival, the guests who’d originally been talking among themselves instantly grouped together, gossiping about him one by one.

“That’s Zhou’s adopted son, right? Didn’t he leave to join the army ten years ago? Why’s he back now?”

“Why else? He must have been kicked from his squad. Look at the poor clothes he’s wearing. Useless man.”

“Your childhood defines who you become, after all. I told you that boy would never amount to much. I heard he and Ying Ying were childhood friends, and that Zhou had previously tried to get them together. Thank goodness Ying Ying didn’t marry him. Otherwise, he’d just be ruining her future.”

“Oh ho, Ying Ying’s fiance is the heir of a big family, and a young and handsome man to boot. Look at this penniless boy, he’s not even fit to carry their shoes.”

“Exactly. Only the Zhou couple treats him like the apple of their eyes but otherwise, who cares about him?”

Everyone was gossiping away, turning the once-lively and joyous atmosphere of the engagement banquet into something strange and uncanny.

After having risked his life on the field for years, Chu Feng had seen enough of humanity to not care for such slander. The hot-tempered and straightforward Liu Minglan, however, immediately called out the bad-mouthing gossipers and declared that if she heard any tongues wagging again, she’d drench them all in the water she used to clean her feet!