Chapter 105 - 107: Digging Coal

Every time Tang Zhinian saw the little dark-skinned girl before him, he couldn’t help but weep, tears streaming down his face as if rivers of noodles.

This was not his soft and delicate daughter, but some coal miner from who knows where.

“Why the hell are you crying?” Chen Zhong had had enough of Tang Zhinian’s foolish demeanor, he was weepy and sorrowful every day as if he had stolen his money.

“Uncle Zhong, can you stop my daughter from going to the mountain?”

For so many pitiful years, he had painstakingly raised his daughter, fearing her skin would darken. It was only now he realized how sensitive Little Yuxin was to sunlight. One day in the sun and she looked like a coal miner.

Before, she was like a white steamed bun, but now she had become a darkened bun.

“What would she do if she doesn’t go to the mountain?” Chen Zhong really wanted to slap Tang Zhinian. “Can you, a grown man, not be so damn pathetic?”

“But she’s really dark…” Tang Zhinian was on the verge of tears yet again.

” Who will want her if she’s so dark in the future?”

“Is that your worry?” Chen Zhong restrained his impulse to kick him out, “What’s wrong with being dark-skinned? Your daughter looks just like you! If anyone is to blame, it’s you for being dark, not me.”

Those words hit Tang Zhinian where it hurt. He felt useless, for not having given his daughter a fair complexion, condemning her to tan so easily. What would she do in the future? She might really have to settle for being someone’s bride-to-be.

Tang Yuxin put down a basket filled with herbal plants, bark, and roots she had gathered.

Thanks to her efforts over the past two years, there were significantly more medicinal herbs in Chen Zhong’s care, many of which she had dug out from the mountain. Chen Zhong appreciated his apprentice more and more, thus he pushed her harder. Luckily, ‘little sprout’ Tang Yuxin was a resilient one, she didn’t falter along the way.

She was precocious from a young age, smart, and had great potential to become a doctor. But the most important thing was, she had a very steady temperament, her unaffected demeanor seemed quite mature for her age.

Tang Zhinian blamed himself for his daughter’s somber temperament.

It was all his fault.

Why did he think about leaving his daughter with Chen Zhong in the past? After spending so much time with that old scholar, it had shaped his daughter into someone who didn’t act her age.

“Your dad’s here again.”

Chen Zhong wasn’t thrilled every time he saw Tang Yuxin’s little dark face.

“Oh…” Tang Yuxin put her herbs in the bamboo basket, planning to take them out and dry them later.

He blames me for having you collect medicine and darkening your skin, but you’ve always been dark. How can this be my fault? What, are you never going to be in the sun this life?

“Oh…” Tang Yuxin’s reply was as simple as before. She had been dark last life, she was used to it, why should she feel anything different about it?

“Yuxin, come here.”

Chen Zhong extended his hand towards Tang Yu.

“Okay,” Tang Yuxin walked over, standing in front of Chen Zhong. At seven years old, she hadn’t grown much. Her eyes remained like a clear, cool spring. At times innocent and na?ve, at times deep and unreadable, reflecting the trials of countless times she’d weathered. The young her remained calm and still as a pond, barely any ripples of emotion showing.

Chen Zhong ruffled Tang Yuxin’s hair, “Sigh, you’ve gotten ugly.”

Tang Yuxin

“No problem, you’ll grow out of it.”

Chen Zhong chuckled. It was no wonder Tang Zhinian felt like crying. His originally beautiful daughter had become a coal miner. It was something no one would want.