Chapter 570

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Chapter 570: The Bai Family

It was mentioned hundreds of chapters ago.

The Bai family is also considered a martial arts family. Two out of the three old men have passed away, and two families have fewer descendants.

Big Grandfather is Bai Wei’s own grandfather. Third Grandfather is the father of Bai Wei’s uncle. Uncle and aunt are distant relatives of Yagyū Simozi and are also her legal guardians.

Second Grandfather is the oldest in the family. To ensure the family continues, he had six children – four boys and two girls, spreading their family line.

When everyone from the previous generation got married and had children, the old folks naturally started urging their grandchildren to get married early. As for granddaughters, they were not as enthusiastic.

The Ming Country is not a modern society like ours. Even though it’s similar, it’s different. They value family and traditions, but gender inequality is not as severe. However, when it comes to continuing the family line, boys are still preferred. In the Ming Country, the current ratio of boys to girls is three to seven, due to the influence of quantum physics. In Second Grandfather’s family, there are six children – nine in total – and seven of them are girls, with only two boys.

Bai Wei has five female cousins, two female cousins from his maternal side, and two male cousins – one in junior high school and the other in elementary school.

So, the pressure fell on Bai Wei. Second Grandfather believes that Bai Wei’s family is the direct lineage. When the three brothers went off to serve in the military, Grandfather secretly took Second Grandfather’s place and voluntarily went to the most dangerous front line after reporting it to his superiors. Unfortunately, he never returned. He sacrificed his life at a young age, less than thirty, leaving behind his widowed wife and orphaned child. Despite that, Grandma was a strong-willed person and raised her son on her own. Shortly after her son got married, she passed away due to an accident. Bai Wei wasn’t even born at that time.

He didn’t really care about all these family matters from the bottom of his heart.

Bai Wei’s life had two distinct phases. He was still himself, but the version of himself after waking up was visibly different from his past.

It’s like a pot of water merging into a river. It can no longer maintain its original color, but it’s still water, and the river is still a river. It seems like it has changed, yet it hasn’t.

But now he still has to go back and argue with the old man. After all, in a hundred lifetimes, the most fundamental rule he set for himself is… If he decides to live well, he must live seriously. He shouldn’t treat it as a game, nor should he think about being careless. This kind of attitude is not good. Once he becomes a carefree person, it will be easy for him to become careless and lose his humanity.

He is very clear that this is not a game, but a lifetime. Since it’s a lifetime, he can’t escape the constraints of his identity. Identity is multifaceted, with social and family aspects. Relationships are both burdens and bridges connecting him and this world.

You can dislike it, you can’t care, but don’t try to sever it. It’s more harmful than helpful.

The ancestral home of the Bai family is in Jinling City. The Bai family has lived in Jinling City for generations. It is said that they fought alongside Emperor Chengzu during the Ming Dynasty, and then retired to their hometown. Ancestors have also produced generals, but later gave up military power with a toast. In short, their ancestors lived a wealthy life, but now they only have some ordinary family properties left, and the most valuable is the ancestral hall that has been repaired for many generations.

Bai Wei found it refreshing because he had never seen many ancestral halls in the Jiangnan area. There might be some in the countryside, but they are rare in the city. The place with rich modern clan culture is in Guangdong.

There are not many people living in the Bai family’s ancestral home, only the elderly and a few children, temporarily taken care of by their grandparents. Many people in the previous generation went out to work or do business and couldn’t stay still.

Bai Chang stopped his motorcycle and took off his helmet. "We’re here."

Bai Wei removed his helmet. "Aren’t you going in?"

"You go in first," Bai Chang patted his nephew’s shoulder. "Help me with some firepower."

Bai Wei sighed and said, "A chicken that refuses to lay eggs is no longer valuable except for being boiled into soup."

Both the uncle and nephew didn’t want to be the first to face the old man’s scolding. At that moment, two boys, one big and one small, ran through the front hall. Clearly, they had heard the voices. Both boys were in middle school and primary school, one named Bai Hao and the other named Bai Min. A girl with her hair tied in a ponytail chased after them, grabbing the ears of the two mischievous boys and scolding them, not allowing them to run around. This girl was one of Bai Wei’s two female cousins, named Bai Panqiu.

The White family has good genes, each one of them being handsome or beautiful. Bai Wei remembered his five female cousins, four of whom were already married. One of them was an independent woman who owned her own company and was too busy to find a partner. The other two were still in high school and university. Since childhood, they had received many love letters, some of which were persistent. Bai Wei had helped them reject those suitors a few times.

Bai Wei had never looked for these memories before, but as soon as he saw the people, it immediately triggered a reflex to remember.

Bai Panqiu had initially assumed the role of an older sister and scolded the two mischievous boys. But after seeing Bai Wei, her demeanor softened and she let go of their hands.

"Brother… you’re here?"

"Long time no see." Bai Wei greeted naturally.

There were five older female cousins and two younger female cousins and two younger male cousins in the White family.

In the White family, Bai Wei was the eldest son. The family tradition always placed importance on the eldest son’s status. Besides, he used to be a genius, which made the White family proud. Among the younger generation, Bai Wei’s words carried weight and his younger siblings could always rely on him.

Bai Wei walked into the old White family mansion with Bai Panqiu, and couldn’t help but feel a sigh of the difficult days he had in the past. On one hand, his parents were not around to take care of him, and on the other hand, he had to take care of Yagyū Simozi. He also had to be concerned about the reputation of the White family and show up from time to time… In reality, Yagyū Simozi didn’t want to have any contact with the White family. Although she was adopted by her uncle and aunt, she didn’t change her last name, so she couldn’t be part of the White family tree.

Yagyū Simozi is still the daughter of the Yagyū family, and after all these years, she hasn’t changed her mind. She rarely shows up here, not even during the Chinese New Year. Naturally, Old Mr. White doesn’t like her anymore and no longer treats her as a daughter-in-law. Whatever the attitude of the old man is, it reflects the attitude of the family. The current generation, including Bai Panqiu, has almost no contact with Yagyū Simozi. They think that the Yingzhou girl seduced their eldest son and must be giving a bad impression.

When she saw Bai Wei, although her mood was good, she couldn’t help but complain a few words.

"You suddenly went to Yingzhou without discussing it with your family."

"Grandfather heard the news and smashed his favorite purple clay teapot that same day."

"I heard it’s quite chaotic over there. Brother, did you get hurt? Did anything happen to you?"

Her worries were indeed justified, as Bai Wei narrowly escaped being killed by the Yagyū family’s enemies in Yingzhou.

Compared to the old hometown in the Ming Country where they lived for more than ten years, Yingzhou is definitely not safe for ordinary people.

Even now, followers of the evil god and numerous underworld demons are still lurking there.

After thinking carefully, they realized that they had been reckless and almost drowned.

Bai Wei gently touched Bai Panqiu’s head and said, "I’ve come back safely, haven’t I?"

Bai Panqiu blushed and felt that her brother was somehow different, but she couldn’t explain it. She didn’t resist, but she wasn’t used to it either.

Seventh Uncle scoffed, "You can touch her later, but go meet the master first." Bai Panqiu blushed even more after hearing this and took the two mischievous children to hide in the backyard.

Bai Wei glanced at Seventh Uncle, who was hiding behind and urging them on, and gave him a disdainful look. He walked past the Feng Shui wall with determination and entered the courtyard. Under the old banyan tree, the spirited master was playing chess with a woman in a white dress.

The woman in the white dress was Bai Wei’s cousin, who was the same age as him and only half a month younger.

Bai Xinghui.

According to "Li Ji – Month Ordinance", "Xinghui is in charge of the heavens, counting how many days have passed, and the year is about to change."

Xinghui refers to the twelfth month of the lunar calendar. She was born in the twelfth month, but "White Twelfth Month" doesn’t sound nice, so it was changed to Xinghui.

She is Bai Wei’s cousin, and also the only talented girl in the old white family, better than Bai Wei, but not in martial arts.

The Great Ming Academy Palace has special admissions without exams, this year is the third year.

The Great Ming Academy Palace is one of the top two schools in Ming Dynasty. It admits five hundred students each year, equivalent to the Haoyue Academy of the Alliance country, far superior to Yingzhou Far East University.

At least in terms of education, she is the first person in the old white family in the past five hundred years. After all, in a family of warriors, it is rare to have such a talented person. Bai Wei’s performance is amazing, and she is the genius of the old white family.

Second Grandfather used to boast about having both literary and martial talents in the family. However, after Bai Wei’s spiritual vein was interrupted by Yun Chuyou in the Kirin race, he never said that again. Instead, he wholeheartedly started to train Bai Xinghui, and no longer asked anything of Bai Wei. He only hoped that he could have a peaceful and stable life, fearing that something would happen to him.

A big family always has its difficulties. Although the tide of the times comes slowly, the clan will not disintegrate. However, in this era, family names and clans are not that important anymore. It’s just blood relationship that brings people together.

Bai Wei approached and looked at the chess game. He didn’t understand Go, but he knew that it required a lot of calculations. Computers are far superior to human brains, and a strong spiritual power means a great memory. Even if he just followed a game record or deduced the moves, he could easily reach the level of a national Go player by seeking help at the last minute. Holding this mysterious cheat-like ability is unreasonable. Otherwise, Bai Wei couldn’t reproduce various famous songs just by memory. He doesn’t even study music, so how could he know the sheet music? His brain has become a storage device with partitions and search engines. It can even loop various images and sound effects in his mind without needing a music player.

But sometimes there are bugs. Although he remembers everything, it doesn’t mean he can recall it.

Until Bai Wei returned to the ancestral home of the old white family, he had never remembered the names of his cousins or how they used to get along. It was only after seeing them that he remembered.

It’s like you have a search engine, but you can’t remember what to search for. You have the whole library built-in, but you forget which book you wanted to look up.

Memory is very good, but occasionally it fails.

Although Bai Wei didn’t understand Go, he saw the expression on the old man’s face and noticed that his slow movements had reached a dead-end.

Having read "Emotional Intelligence" thoroughly, Bai Wei interrupted this completely unfair competition and said, "Second Grandfather, I’m back."

Only then did the old man take his gaze away from the chessboard, with a look of relief in his eyes… As expected, he was a stubborn old man who cared about his reputation.

The old man looked Bai Wei up and down and said, "Finally came back, didn’t lose any arms or legs, not bad. Have a seat."

Bai Wei didn’t rush to sit down, continuing to ask, "I was planning to tidy up the house and bring my sisters to visit tomorrow. Why is Second Grandfather so eager to see me?"

Instead of answering, Second Grandfather Bai Zhao looked at Bai Xinghui and said, "I’m afraid this game of chess won’t be finished."

Bai Xinghui looked away from the chessboard, her hands hidden in her long sleeves, raised to her shoulders, and slightly bowed, saying, "Xinghui knows."

She left her seat and turned to Bai Wei, saying, "Big brother, please follow me."

Bai Wei looked puzzled as he followed Bai Xinghui out of the courtyard. He asked, "What’s going on?"

Bai Xinghui pushed open a door and said calmly, "It’s time for you to get married, my brother. Please change your clothes. It’s time for a blind date."