Clan Rise: Starting as a Grandfather Chapter 1 - 1 1 Children and Grandchildren Filling the Hall
Yang Zhenshan experienced an incredibly lengthy dream, in which he envisioned himself living in ancient times.
In his youth, he trained in martial arts under his father's guidance; his father remained extremely strict, frequently striking him with a thin wooden rod.
During his teenage years, his father ventured into the mountains for a hunt and suffered a deadly injury from a savage beast, leading to the villagers bringing his blood-soaked body back down, where he collapsed onto his father and sobbed without restraint.
Next, the dream showed him enlisting in the military, and after just one year, he sustained severe injuries during a fierce clash and returned to his village upon discharge.
He wed a beautiful woman with sparkling eyes and pearly teeth.
One year into the marriage, his wife bore him a son, filling him with apparent joy.
The word 'apparent' fits because the dream felt like observing a film rather than living it personally.
Scattered scenes from the dream continued to unfold, and in an instant, two decades slipped by; the family grew larger and more bustling with life.
However, one unexpected day, his wife contracted a serious illness from which she never recovered, and as he watched her weakening day by day, a profound sense of helplessness and fear overwhelmed him.
His wife eventually passed on, casting the dream into a somber shadow.
The once-present warmth vanished forever, giving way to a void filled with uncertainty.
The visions grew increasingly scattered and indistinct, and right when Yang Zhenshan believed the dream neared its close, a pristine pool materialized in front of him.
This stone basin sat sunken into the earth, encircled by boundless obscurity, with the pool's water alone casting a soft luminescence.
All at once, Yang Zhenshan's eyes snapped open, his gaze fixed emptily on the ceiling rafters overhead.
He recognized those rafters intimately, having encountered them repeatedly in his dreams and even hauling them from the hillside himself to install them in the home.
“This isn’t a dream!”
Yang Zhenshan blinked, a sudden constriction gripping his chest.
He then bolted upright, the heavy quilt sliding away, revealing the room's contents in full.
The earthen heated bed, the dark timber chest at its end, a pair of somewhat frayed quilts stacked atop the chest, the timber frame window covered in paper allowing faint daylight to filter in, and beyond the window, the clucking of chickens as someone tended to them.
Yang Zhenshan shook his head forcefully, then delivered a sharp slap to his own face.
“That hurts!”
It truly was no dream!
Yang Zhenshan stood frozen in shock.
How could a healthy young fellow from the modern world transform into a bereaved elderly villager?
Indeed, a widower.
His spouse had departed; that defined a widower, didn't it?
Beyond that, it appeared he possessed sons, daughters, grandsons, and granddaughters as well.
Yang Zhenshan awkwardly climbed down from the heated bed, peering through the door's gap to spot a lady in a simple homespun dress scattering feed for the chickens in the yard.
Daughter-in-law!
Yang Zhenshan's lips quivered uncontrollably, as if thunderstruck.
Damn, what on earth is happening!
He'd crossed through time, straight into the body of an aged man surrounded by a bustling clan!
A bustling clan!
A bustling clan!
Yang Zhenshan's frustration exploded like a erupting mountain.
He hadn't even tied the knot yet; how did this horde of kin appear from nowhere?
Woo woo woo~~
I feel like bursting into tears.
No, no, I refuse to be some decrepit fossil!
I'm merely thirty-eight!
Merely advanced by ten years.
Yang Zhenshan slumped back onto the heated bed and sank into contemplation.
In that era of rigid traditions, unions happened young.
From the dream, he had enlisted at fifteen, come home injured at sixteen, wed at seventeen; so now, at thirty-eight.
By today's standards, thirty-eight hardly qualified as aged.
Still, having unexpectedly aged a decade left Yang Zhenshan deeply unsettled.
A vigorous twenty-eight-year-old suddenly thrust into the role of a thirty-eight-year-old patriarch, Yang Zhenshan sensed his spirit shattering.
“Has Dad risen yet? Breakfast is ready!”
A call echoed from beyond the door, belonging to his firstborn son.
Woo woo, firstborn son!
A twenty-year-old firstborn!
How did I end up with such a mature heir!
Yang Zhenshan's urge to weep intensified.
“Dad, Dad~~”
With no reply forthcoming, the eldest son pushed the door open and stepped inside.
“Dad, is something amiss? Are you reminiscing about Mom once more?”
The eldest son, Yang Mingcheng, possessed a sturdy build and, though just twenty, already parented two young ones.
Reminiscing about Mom?
Yang Zhenshan buried his face in the ragged quilt.
Among a mature man's greatest delights: rising in rank, amassing wealth, and outliving one's spouse!
With the original wife gone, did this count as a blessing?
“No, you all eat first!”
Yang Zhenshan had no desire to venture out, unprepared to confront his teeming household.
Yet, as the words escaped, his belly let out a loud rumble.
Yang Mingcheng caught the sound, “Dad, hunger's striking you.”
Yang Zhenshan felt a wave of gloom; he truly lacked readiness for the swarm of kin, harboring strong reluctance.
He hadn't wed anyone himself!
But here he was, already a grandfather!
Now the urge to swear swelled within him; he desperately wanted to vent.
Others who time-traveled might start as infants or at least in the sons' era, so why him, landing as the grandsire?
He'd prefer being anyone's grandson over this patriarchal burden!
Woo woo, so famished!
To hell with venting; skipping sustenance would leave him starving.
“Head out ahead of me; I'll join soon!” Yang Zhenshan muttered, eyes downcast.
“Okay, Dad, make it quick!”
Upon hearing he'd partake in the meal, his eldest son Yang Mingcheng responded with eager approval.
As soon as he departed, Yang Zhenshan lifted his head from the quilt.
No dodging it!
Confronting the teeming household loomed inevitable.
Yang Zhenshan released a heavy breath.
He was no longer solitary; with three sons, two daughters, two daughters-in-law, two grandsons, and one granddaughter, woo woo, what an expansive brood!