Broken Sword's
Ch. 29: Visiting Juan Part 2

Juan's small house became narrower. At dinner, Juan cooks a pot of clam soup collected by his foolish brother. No rice or vegetables, Fang sighed.

Baramun also became unpleasant. Said to be back to pick up the ox cart and return tomorrow morning, leaving Fang, Juan and the dumb brother at the dinner table.

"Have your father eaten?" Fang hesitates to take the spoon, worried that the food served in front of him was the only food in Juan's house.

"My father ate. Eat up"

Fang glanced at the early twenties youth who was drooling at the pot of clear-colored clam soup. Pushing the pot closer for elder brother Juan to pick up, but the foolish elder brother instead looked at him with innocent eyes.

Ouch.

Fang shy.

"Your brother, what's his name?"

Juan gently tapped on his brother's arm. "Grants. This year will be twenty-two years old"

Fang almost choked by his own saliva. "The name is quite interesting."

Juan smiles. "My mom and dad are not educated people. My name was given by my sister who had read in school"

Suddenly the mood changed. Fang's stomach is hungry. Juan took the bowl and poured a lot of shells into Fang's bowl and left five each for her and Grant.

"Enough. This shell your brother took, give him more."

Juan understood and took Fang's three shells into Grant's bowl.

"I've never eaten a meal like this, teach me how to eat it."

Small-sized shells are opened one by one and eaten with clear soup without vegetables. Fang who was bloated by the soup water half-lying on the table, "don't give me any drinking water. I'm not too thirsty."

A coughing sound from inside the room rang out, Grant who was wiping the table threw a washcloth and entered the room. "Your brother is very attentive. He ran when your father coughed."

Juan assented. "Silver's sick but he's protective. If there's a kid in the village who bothers me, he'll hit them all. Afraid of being beaten, I don't have any friends to play with"

"When my father was seriously ill and knew that a wandering doctor was passing by and stayed for a while at the village chief's house last year, my brother carried him and paid the doctor with two big fish"

Classmates lie together in the front room. Juan tilted his body to continue staring at Fang. "It's my first experience when a friend comes and stays."

"You think I don't? This is also the first time I've stayed in a house that's not my own."

Juan's smile grew wider. "Fang, be my friend for the next hundred years huh?"

"You idiot? One hundred years is enough for you and I'm a friend?"

"Are we short? Now that you're eight years old and I'm nine. the next hundred years, it's possible that I or you're dead"

Fang closed his eyes. "I'm sleepy. Good night"

Actually Fang forgot. He forgot that his body and Juan's were different. As long as he awakened the divine root on his body, his lifespan would be over a hundred years. Forgetting that his father and mother would also die, now Fang felt a tightness yet he would do nothing. The age-rejuvenation medicine told by the Exile Elves was impossible to give to Aira, Gana or Juan.

Juan did not see any strangeness and said good night. "Fang's beautiful dream."

***

The ox cart was led by Baramun. Inside the cart, half the place was used for Juan's father to lie down and the other side was used by three seated men.

Justifying the blanket to keep dad from getting cold, Grant kissed his father's old face soft. Baramun who unintentionally saw that felt a sense of complexity. Sincere affection, for the demon race could never have existed. Mutual benefits are a way for them to marry and have children.

The doctor hall is quiet. No need to wait in line, Juan's father immediately checked his pulse. The old doctor counted and shook his head. "Your father may have arrived at his limit. Any medicine taken has no healing effect, go home and wait"

Juan's eyes were reddened. His lips trembled and one by one the tear beads fell. The clueless Grant still persuaded his father to continue lying down. Juan's father looked blankly at his two sons, one was the firstborn who became a fool and the other the youngest who had to suffer and be unhappy because of their poor family.

Fang hugged Juan's shoulder.

When the doctor came home he refused payment. "Free. I did not give you medicine or cure your father's illness. Just buy good food for your family to eat"

***

A month has passed. Juan is back in school but his body is thinner than the last time they met.

"Fang, my father died a week ago."

Juan told me as if it wasn't important news. His face looked strong but Fang was feeling sad.

"Your brother, how is he?"

Juan recounts after his father's funeral was over. Her eloped mother was unable to have children from her husband. The man is barren.

The news of Juan's father's death was heard to the ears of his mother's new husband. Anxious of two children who do not know how to survive, an elderly widower persuades his wife to take custody. They can't have children, just bring two children who have lost their father.

"My stepfather is a kind man. We were both brought to live in the county town. Now my brother and I live here!"

Fang's brows furrowed into one. "Thul? That guy didn't bully you or plan anything bad?"

Juan initially thought so, but in the last few days Grant was brought here and there to find a great doctor. Stupid disease is not congenital, the possibility of recovery is certainly there as long as you find the right doctor.

From there, Juan only knew the reason for his parents' quarrel until they finally separated. Mother originally wanted to utilize the wealth of the old widower to take advantage and treat the eldest son.

I cried when I explained. Juan was depressed. Both father and mother, they both always try to make her brother recover and she can go to school. The money sent by the mother was rejected by the father all this time, it was the self-esteem of the father that made him last until the end.

"Your father was right to part from your mother. Even though it was all done for the sake of her children, your mother was a bit extreme in manipulating your stepfather's kindness."

Juan knows too. "The news of my father's death, it was my mother who told acquaintances in Tui village to pass it on to my stepfather. Do you think I'm as bad as my mother?"

"Your mother is your mother. What he does is none of your business, but it is the path he chooses. You're a minor, when you're an adult, repay your stepfather's kindness with filial piety."

"okay!" Juan returned to his empty desk a month ago. The homeroom teacher greeted Juan, and told him to catch up.