Scumbag Father's Past

Falling to the ground with his throat slit was Xu Zhong, the second young master of the Xu family.
"Zhong'er!" The first to cry out and fling herself forward was Yan Xiuxiu, the primary wife of Xu Zhenglin. Years ago, when he first came looking for his father only to be knocked to the ground by a slap from Xu Zhenglin, it was this very lady who had personally helped him up. She gave him new clothes, dressed his wounds, and after learning of his situation, did not drive him away; instead, she comforted him and promised that he would surely be acknowledged and returned to his ancestral roots. It was also she who encouraged him to take the imperial examination, hoping that a change in status would make it easier for him to enter the Xu family gates.
"Second Brother! Second Brother..." Crying into a daze were the three young misses of the Xu family, each of whom had once prepared delicious pastries for him. Back when Madam Yan Xiuxiu arranged for him to gather informally with his siblings, these three younger sisters had all softly called him "Elder Brother Jin."
"Second Brother! Eldest Brother, how could you! Ah." Heartbroken for Xu Zhong yet unable to bear blaming him was the eldest young master of the Xu family, Xu Yuan. They had once studied together and taken the imperial examinations together; Xu Yuan had prepared all the writing brushes, ink, inkstones, and paper needed for his examinations, and even when he himself later failed, he felt sincere joy for Xu Zhong, who won the title of top scholar.
Xu Zhenglin—who had abandoned his wife and son and used every petty, villainous trick to climb to the position of Minister of Rites—nevertheless possessed a sensible wife and five upright children.
Guan Yue came up behind Mu Zhijin. "Brother Jin, I'm sorry, I couldn't stop them."
The moment Mu Zhijin entered the door, he had sent Guan Yue to find these five children, precisely to clear them out before the events unfolded. However, those five were not fools. They recognized Guan Yue, and the moment they saw him, they knew something was wrong. On their way rushing to the front hall, Mu Zhijin had explicitly ordered Guan Yue and the others not to use force to harm them, which ultimately resulted in the scene where they rushed into the front hall to intervene.
Mu Zhijin waved a hand. "Forget it, let's not discuss this for now. Quickly find a doctor and see if there's any saving him."
"Spare me your crocodile tears! Mu Zhijin, you drove my son to his death, I'll fight you to the death!" Xu Zhenglin, who had been cowering in a corner, saw that his son was now lying right beside him, blood gushing from his neck with no hope of survival. The grief of losing a son instantly turned his eyes bloodshot. He snatched up a section of the dismantled door frame from the floor and, raising it high with both hands, charged straight at Mu Zhijin.
"Father, why don't you understand!" Xu Yuan turned and grabbed Xu Zhenglin around the waist from behind. "Second Brother clearly chose to die on purpose for your sake; this is not Eldest Brother's fault at all! If anyone is to blame, it must be you who were wrong from the very beginning. Why are you still stubbornly trying to shift the blame onto Eldest Brother?"
Xu Zhenglin stamped his feet. "Yuan'er, let go! You have spent your whole life immersed in poetry and books, what do you know of the treacherous schemes of those lowly commoners? Do you think he will stop just because Zhong'er is dead? You are wrong! What he wants is the life of our entire Xu clan! Let go of me! I am doing this to protect all of you!"
How could Xu Yuan, accustomed to a life of ease, possibly be a match for a crazed Xu Zhenglin? After struggling for a few moments, Xu Zhenglin finally wrenched himself free.
"Mu Zhijin, pay with my son's life!"

Seeing that the raised wooden frame was already right before his eyes, Guan Yue stepped forward to block it, but was stopped by Mu Zhijin. "My own affairs, I will handle myself."
The wooden frame, devoid of any inner energy, held no significance in his eyes. Mu Zhijin tilted his head to dodge, reached out, and precisely clamped his fingers around Xu Zhenglin's throat. He turned, stepped forward, and raised his arm, pinning the choked Xu Zhenglin against a pillar.
Yan Xiuxiu let out a startled cry. "Zhijin! Zhong'er has already, already... I beg you, for the sake of Zhong'er, spare your father's life."
Xu Yuan dropped heavily to his knees. "Eldest Brother! Father is wrong, but he is still the biological father who gave life to you and me. We must not commit the heinous crime of patricide!"
The three young misses of the Xu family immediately knelt down as well. "Elder Brother Jin, please don't kill Father. Elder Brother Jin, I beg you, I beg you..."
Faced with Xu Zhenglin's unmistakable murderous intent, Mu Zhijin had not felt a trace of bitterness, yet hearing the pleas from behind, he could not control the look of anguish that surged into the depths of his eyes. "Xu Zhenglin, you truly have taught a fine group of children."
Xu Zhenglin's feet were already lifted more than a foot off the ground from being choked, and drawing breath had become extremely difficult, yet he still stubbornly fought back with his words. "Definitely... no, including... cough, you!"
"Xu Zhenglin!" Mu Zhijin finally lost control; with a tight squeeze and a fling, he threw Xu Zhenglin back into his original corner.
"Master—" Yan Xiuxiu hurriedly scrambled over to check on him, finding that Xu Zhenglin's neck was merely bruised red and his life was not in danger.
Mu Zhijin walked over with heavy steps. "Xu Zhenglin, how could you ever wrong Mu Tiantian, who wore coarse clothes and plain skirts for you back then? It was she who used all the money from redeeming her freedom to support your studies, wholeheartedly waiting for you to return in glory after placing high in the examinations so you could marry her. And you? Not only did you take the money, leave without a trace, and vanish into thin air, but immediately after placing high in the examinations, you married the daughter of a Minister as your wife! Xu Zhenglin, do you dare claim you would be where you are today without Mu Tiantian?"
Before Xu Zhenglin could speak, Yan Xiuxiu scrambled forward first, clutching at Mu Zhijin's calf. "This matter is not his fault, Zhijin. Listen to Auntie Xiu: back then, it was Auntie Xiu who set her sights on him on the day he paraded through the streets in his official robes, unaware that he already had you and your mother in Pingcheng. That was why I begged my father and insisted on marrying downward! If you feel a grievance for your mother, take it all out on Auntie Xiu! Do you want Auntie Xiu to pay with her life? Fine, Auntie Xiu will right now—"
Mu Zhijin struck out with a finger, pressing a pressure point on the back of Yan Xiuxiu's neck, and she fell backward, losing consciousness.
"My wife!" Xu Zhenglin cried out and threw himself over Yan Xiuxiu. Seeing that she had merely been knocked unconscious, he turned his gaze back to Mu Zhijin, his eyes filled with bitter hatred.

"Wronged Mu Tiantian? What did I ever do to wrong her? Did you think she supported my studies purely for my sake? It was so that she herself could one day rise up and become a high-ranking official's wife! With such filthy money and days that felt like imprisonment, whenever she came to see me, it was either to urge me to study or to indulge in blind fantasies of the glory and prestige after making it big. I once believed in her and was willing to shut myself away in a room to study single-mindedly for her, yet she herself could go out and carry on unbothered, maintaining ambiguous ties with young masters of noble families! A woman like that—I was nothing more than a precious commodity she had hoarded in advance, waiting for the day when the commodity's value would rise so she could plot for greater gains."
Xu Zhenglin's face was covered in decades of accumulated mockery. "Wore coarse clothes and plain skirts for me? You are wrong! Not just me, but even you—you were both merely tools she used to escape her past as a whore and rise in the world! Ha, what? You are my son? Who said so? Her? Do you have any idea how many men she fluttered her skirts for back then? Who knows where some stray seed came from, yet she claims it's mine? Wasn't it just because she saw I won the top scholar position and wanted to shackle me to her? Mu Tiantian, I owe her nothing! I simply refused to be controlled by her as she desired, refusing to become a tool for her rise."
"As for you," Xu Zhenglin wiped the blood from his face, stood up, and walked toward him, "you and I merely served different masters, where winners are kings and losers are bandits. We lost, and that's that; I, Xu Zhenglin, am not someone who cannot afford to lose. Take my life! But my family had nothing to do with any of this—I implore you not to visit disaster upon the innocent!"
Mu Zhijin suddenly laughed. "You certainly didn't talk like that just a moment ago when death was staring you in the face. What was it you said? That if I dared to defy the heavens and commit patricide, I would surely be punished by heaven? You acknowledged yourself as 'Father' then, and now you turn your words around and change your tune?"
"Hmph!" Mu Zhijin let out a cold snort, his hand moving as fast as lightning as his grip closed once again around the throat of Xu Zhenglin, who had walked up close to him. "Do you think saying such things will make me doubt my own parentage? Do you think saying such things will make me sympathize with your plight and let you go? Xu Zhenglin, only today do I understand what Mother meant when she told me to let go of myself! You are truly not worth me wasting another shred of personal emotion on you!"
Pulling his arm back, Mu Zhijin drew Xu Zhenglin closer, preparing to deliver a crushing blow.
Yet before his grip could tighten, a streak of silver light thrust fiercely toward his eyes—