Chapter 196 - Don’t Cry

Father Lin saw his beloved little son crying , and immediately felt his heart hurt . His eyes reddened , he wished to hug his son and tell him how sorry he was but then he looked down at his rags and his son's clean clothes , he was immediately embarrassed . His clothes were so dirty and smelly , if he  really hugged his two sons then their clean and new clothes will definitely get dirty ! Though Father Lin was really surprised that the stingy madam Zhou was willing to let his sons wear such good clothing , but he didn't inquire about it . 

Father Lin raised his hands awkwardly then brought them back to his sides" Don't , Yuyu , Don't cry - father is sorry , Father wanted to come back before but .. aye " Father Lin sighed heavily as he rubbed his face , he wasn't lying - he really wanted to return as soon as he woke up but those people schemed against him so badly that he couldn't return even when he wanted to ! 

Lin Yan however carefully examined his father . His father and those kids were wearing rags that were barely covering their bodies . Therefore , he more or less understood that wherever his father was his life wasn't good either . Lin Yan frowned and asked " Father , its almost winter , why are you and the kids wearing such clothing aren't you afraid to catch a cold , how come neither you and your benefactor could afford padded jackets ? And why couldn't you return home when you wanted to ? What exactly happened ?"

Father Lin heard his second son 's words and his face stiffened immediately as anger flashed on his face before he sighed " Ay , its a long story "

From Father Lin 's words , Lin Yan and Lin Yu learned that their father turned out a little lucky when he was a swallowed by the sea . Even though the sea was turbulent when their father fell in it , the storm soon passed and the sea turned calm after a few hours - and because their father was an excellent fisherman , he was able to keep his head over the water until the storm passed and was able to get away with his life . But the struggle to keep his head over the water  had drained all his energy therefore after swimming for a while , Father Lin let go of his struggles and became unconscious. 

But because of some crazy luck , Father Lin was able to get away with his life as another fisherman caught him in his fish net and brought him to his boat . That fisherman was Father Lin 's benefactor named Qi Bai , At first when Qi Bai saw Father Lin in his fishing net he was really scared but when he used his finger to test whether father Lin was alive or not , he was able to detect Father Lin 's  faint breath and brought him back . 

Qi Bai who saved Father Lin 's life was a good man , he would never take advantage of someone's else perilous situation . Thus , once Qi Bai brought Father Lin back , he brought a doctor to treat Father Lin , who at that time developed a high fever because of all the time he spent in the sea  . 

But every family had its own drama , just because Qi Bai and his wife were honest people . It doesn't necessarily means that everyone in their family were nice and honest , Qi Bai had a big brother , Qi Zhen who was lazy , unscrupulous and greedy - he didn't work but still thought that whatever Qi Bai earned belonged to him . 

He had long taken Qi Bai 's salary , farm fields as his own . Thus , when Qi Zhen saw that Qi Bai was actually wasting ' his ' money on an unknown stranger , Qi Zhen was infuriated , he immediately brought his parents who were baised towards him and fought with Qi Bai . 

Qi Zhen insisted that Qi Bai was wasting their family's resources while Qi Bai retorted that it was his own money and it doesn't matter how he wanted to spend it . 

Of course , the fight went on and on before Qi Zhen left with his parents . But who would have thought that Qi Zhen didn't give up on the matter , the next day Qi Zhen went to a scholar and had him write a slavery document with the lifetime slavery clause . He wanted to ' earn his money 'back that was spent on Father Lin . 

After Qi Zhen checked that document with many scholars , he returned to their village and made Father Lin 's press his thumb on the slavery document while the latter was unconscious . 

Just like that Father Lin became the slave of the ' Qi ' family . When he woke up , he wanted to return to Dong Tong village but who knew Qi Zhen would bring the document out and threaten Father Lin with the Yamen . Father Lin was a simple fisherman , when has he ever seen a Yamen runner ? 

Though he claimed that he was unconscious , he had no evidence while Qi Zhen had a document with his thumb print . Father Lin at once knew who the town magistrate would believe if the matter escalated . 

In the end Father Lin had to start serving the Qi family even when he didn't want to , Qi Zhen who got a free servant was really happy . He started to act as a real young master and sought many troubles all of them were cleaned by either Father Lin or Qi Bai .

Many times Father Lin wanted to steal the document but the trouble was that Qi Zhen wasn't the only one who had a document , the Village leader had one too . And because Qi Zhen would send Father Lin to work in the Village head 's fields for free , the latter was also reluctant to let go of Father Lin . In the end the two hid the document so tightly , that Father Lin couldn't find it . 

Luckily , after ten years of wonderful harvest , the southeast was troubled with drought . The Qi family had surplus grain all because of Qi Bai 's hard work , if they all lived with frugality they would have survived that calamity but who would have thought that Qi Zhen this stupid bastard would actually find trouble with another villager at this time and offended him - that villager already had enough resentment towards Qi Zhen therefore he told the famine victims about the Qi family's excess grains . The famine victims rushed to their house. They destroyed their belongings, stole their grain and if Father Lin wasn't smart enough to bring Qi Bai 's family into a hiding they would have lost their lives too as Qi Zhen family and parents have already ran away by then . 

Once the famine victims were done plundering their village , Father Lin brought Qi Bai 's family out of hiding - and taking advantage of the abandoned village , he rushed inside Qi Zhen 's house and searched for the document , finally finding it . 

After that he did the same in the village head 's house then burned both documents including the houses of the people who made life difficult for him . Father Lin wasn't a hard hearted person but his sufferings were really great , he the great fisherman and hunter of the Dong Tong village was actually degraded to the point where he had to wash Qi Zhen 's feet ! It would be surprising if he didn't have any resentment in his heart . 

Their food was robbed, and the valuable belongings at home were also taken by those famine victims.. With no other choice, Father Lin had the Qi family  pack their bags, took their children, and finally joined the refugees.