Volume One: First Signs of Brilliance Chapter Thirty-Two: The Reason

With Wang Jue’s current strength, dealing with a few petty thugs who weren’t even martial artists was no challenge at all. He nodded and said, “I did go, but they chased me away. What are you planning to do now? Pay them off? Or something else?”

As he spoke, Wang Jue reached into both pockets and pulled out five or six bundles of cash, handing them to Wang Jianbin.

It went without saying—this was the martial artist stipend Wang Jue had received from school.

“Wait—son, where did you get so much money? You didn’t go borrowing from loan sharks like your cousin, did you?” Wang Jianbin grew anxious. He’d been racking his brains about how to bring up the topic with his son, but before he could say a word, Wang Jue suddenly produced a pile of cash—enough to make him fear his son had gone down a reckless path as well.

Wang Jue was speechless. “Dad, you’re overthinking it. Don’t worry, this money couldn't be more legitimate.”

“Legitimate? Don’t try to fool me. How could a student get this much cash? Be honest—where did it come from?” Wang Jianbin’s expression was stern.

From his perspective, their noodle shop barely made twenty thousand a year after expenses, yet his son had just handed over enough for three years of business. While a few tens of thousands would help with their current problem, he couldn’t accept the money without knowing its source.

“Dad, can’t you trust your own son a little?” Wang Jue could see from his father’s face that he was angry, so to avoid a scolding, he confessed, “The Safe Zone just introduced a new policy—any student who’s a martial artist gets a stipend.”

“Don’t try to trick me. Why would the Safe Zone hand out stipends for no reason?” Wang Jianbin was unconvinced.

Wang Jue sighed and explained, “I’m really not lying. Every martial artist in the third year at my school gets it. First-level martial artists get ten thousand, second-level get twenty thousand, and each rank higher means another ten thousand. The stipends accumulate. I’m a third-level Body Tempering martial artist, so I got sixty thousand.”

“As for why the Safe Zone is giving out stipends, you’d have to ask the bigwigs in charge—they’re the only ones who know.” Wang Jue knew that if he didn’t explain this clearly, his father would never accept the money.

“Is there really such a good thing?” Wang Jianbin was stunned; he never dreamed the Safe Zone would subsidize martial artists.

Wang Jue nodded, exasperated. “Of course it’s true. If I wanted to lie, why would I make up something so easy to check? If you don’t believe me, just ask some of our regular customers at the noodle shop—surely some of their kids are martial artists too.”

At that moment, Wang Jue felt rather aggrieved. Graduation was around the corner, yet to his parents, he was still just a child. He had offered his own money to help, only to be suspected of wrongdoing—forcing him to explain everything.

What truly frustrated him was that his parents, being ordinary people, knew little of the martial world.

“Uh… what you’re saying makes sense.” Thinking of his son’s honest character—never known to lie—Wang Jianbin realized there was no way he would invent a story so easily verified. Only then did he relax, breaking into a proud grin. “Hahaha, truly the pride of the Wang family! Not even out of school, and already making so much money!”

Wang Jianbin didn’t know if their ancestors had ever produced someone significant, but as far back as he could remember, his own father had been an ordinary man, and he himself had been found to be ordinary during the tests. Who would have thought his son would be found to have even the most basic talent for cultivation? Some was better than none.

At first, Wang Jianbin had hoped their family would finally see a martial artist, but after his son’s test, Wang Jue had trained with tireless diligence for more than nine years without breaking through. At that time, Wang Jianbin couldn’t help but feel disappointed, accepting that perhaps his son was never destined to become a martial artist.

Well, if not a martial artist, then an ordinary person like himself—someone who could take over the noodle shop one day.

Just as he’d given up hope, his son suddenly announced his breakthrough.

That moment brought Wang Jianbin an excitement and joy he had never known—he would never have dreamed the surprise would come so suddenly.

But when he later heard how much martial arts techniques and skills cost, Wang Jianbin fell silent. For the first time, he realized how powerless he was as a father—unable to afford even the basic resources for his son’s training. The torment of that knowledge was his alone to bear.

If his son couldn’t become a martial artist, then so be it. But now that he was, Wang Jianbin would do whatever it took—even selling everything—so his son could have what he needed.

He had even considered selling the noodle shop to buy Wang Jue a training manual, but before he could act, trouble struck his sister-in-law’s family, disrupting his plans.

For the moment, he couldn’t decide whether to use the proceeds to help his wife’s sister or to buy his son the resources he needed.

He hadn’t expected Wang Jue to produce sixty thousand yuan. With that, plus their families’ savings, they could pay off the loan sharks—though he couldn’t help but feel he was letting his son down.

Hearing his father’s words, Wang Jue was at a loss. His father’s mind jumped all over—one moment grilling him about the money, the next moment beaming with joy as soon as he learned it was legitimate, as if forgetting the previous worry entirely. Wang Jue didn’t know if his father was pretending or just genuinely scatterbrained—they were simply not on the same wavelength.

“Dad, enough already. Let’s get back to business. We need a decision on this—don’t you think it’s time you told me what you’re planning?” Wang Jue wasn’t sure if his father was dodging the subject on purpose or just got distracted by happiness, but since he wouldn’t speak up, Wang Jue laid it out plainly. “Look, I know I’m young and maybe it’s not my place, but if I hadn’t come to ask, I’d never know. Now it’s just us—tell me honestly, what’s the situation with Aunt’s family?”

“Sigh, all right.” Wang Jianbin gazed at his son for a long moment, realizing how much he’d grown. “No point hiding it anymore. Your aunt’s family really does want to solve this, but all their savings have been drained by Hao. I suggested selling the noodle shop to pay off the debt, but they refused—they’re afraid we’ll get dragged down too.”

With his father’s explanation, Wang Jue finally understood—their aunt’s family’s savings had basically been wiped out.

He remembered overhearing his parents say that this wasn’t his cousin’s first time borrowing money. Each time, his aunt would quietly pay off the debts from their savings, but Yang Hao never listened—if anything, he only grew worse.

In the end, it had come to this, and now they truly had nothing left.

Wang Jue found himself at a loss for words. Aside from himself, both families were just ordinary people.

Whether in his own family or among relatives, if there was someone like Yang Hao, it was truly hard to find a solution. The problem wasn’t the scale of the trouble, but that he kept repeating his mistakes, never learning or changing his ways.

Wang Jue had no doubt that if Yang Hao weren’t his aunt’s son, someone would have wanted to kill him by now. Look at what he’d done to his own family.

“Son, I know you want to help, but this really isn’t something you can handle. Just focus on your studies and aim for a good high school. The most important thing now is to work on Hao’s attitude. Leave the other matters to us adults.” Having told his son everything, Wang Jianbin felt a weight lift from his shoulders.

He was especially gratified that his son hadn’t objected to helping his aunt’s family, and had even offered money himself.

Actually, Wang Jianbin had hesitated to tell Wang Jue about this because he was afraid his son might not accept his money being used to save his aunt’s family. If that happened, things would be truly awkward.

“Whew…”

Wang Jue thought for a long time, turning over his options, but found no solution. He realized everything hinged on Yang Hao in the end. “All right, I’ll leave the money with you. If anything serious happens, promise you’ll tell me immediately.”

In the end, Wang Jue chose to let it go, and set himself two small goals.

One was to train hard and improve his strength as quickly as possible—ideally breaking through to another level or two before graduation to earn the fifteen-thousand stipend for reaching Body Tempering level three.

The other was to figure out what the diamond-shaped gems really were, and how to obtain them, since they were the only source of star energy he had found so far.

Only by gathering enough of these gems and raising his talent level could he be confident of reaching Body Tempering level six—or even seven—within a month.

Afterward, Wang Jue and his father returned to the hospital room. When faced with a barrage of questions from his mother and aunt, both Wang Jue and Wang Jianbin smoothly fabricated different excuses.

Liu Wenting was easy to placate, but his mother, Liu Wenjing, was a different story.

Liu Wenjing sensed that father and son were hiding something, but with her sister’s family present, she didn’t press further, giving her husband and son face in front of others.

Knowing how relentless his mother could be, and realizing there was little he could do at the hospital, Wang Jue told his parents he was heading home and asked if they wanted to join him.

Unexpectedly, his parents refused. Once he learned they’d decided to stay, Wang Jue had no choice but to leave the hospital alone, heading off to pick up Xiaoyu and take her home...