Chapter Ninety-Six: Married?

“What are you joking about?” Dong Jianguo cried, sounding almost incredulous. “You want your son to inherit our Dong family’s martial arts?”

Chen Ding’an shrugged. “What’s so strange about that? He’s my son, after all.”

“That’s simply absurd!” Dong Jianguo snapped in irritation. “You still know he’s your son, do you? Your son bears the surname Chen, while I’m a Dong. Letting an outsider inherit our Dong family’s martial arts—do you take me for a fool?”

Chen Ding’an kept shaking his head. “Tsk, tsk, tsk. Your stubborn old way of thinking really does need changing.”

“Yeah, right.” Dong Jianguo’s expression was full of disdain, as if he were waiting to see what nonsense the other man could come up with.

Chen Ding’an sighed. “Tell me, after you found out the child you had was a daughter, didn’t you ever think about having another one?”

Dong Jianguo thought about it. “I did, actually. But I wasn’t in any rush back then. After Xin’er was born, I was still young. I originally planned to wait a few more years before having a son.”

“Exactly. But then you got injured and could no longer have children,” Chen Ding’an continued. “Once you learned that, didn’t you plan to find a promising disciple and pass the Dong family’s martial arts on to him?”

“That’s right!”

Chen Ding’an smiled. “But that had conditions, didn’t it?”

Dong Jianguo fell silent, so Chen Ding’an answered for him. “The condition was that this disciple had to join your Dong family and become one of your own. Maybe you’d take him as an adopted son, or perhaps you’d bring him in as a live-in son-in-law. Am I wrong?”

Dong Jianguo nodded helplessly. “You really see right through people.”

Chen Ding’an shrugged. “What’s so difficult about that? Anyone could guess what you were thinking. After all, throughout history there have been plenty of martial arts families in your situation. If there’s no son under the heir’s knee, or if the children simply lack the talent for martial arts, then passing the family style to a disciple or taking in a son-in-law is perfectly normal.”

“Still, such methods inevitably leave something to be desired. You can’t be sure whether your disciple or your son-in-law has hidden intentions—whether he’s only come to your door coveting your family’s martial arts,” Dong Jianguo said with a sigh.

“So for all these years, you’ve never been able to decide which method to use to pass on the Dong family’s arts,” Chen Ding’an said. “Of course, one reason may be that you simply haven’t met anyone more gifted than that girl of yours. But deep down, you’re still unwilling to accept it.

“Or rather, you still haven’t given up on yourself. You keep thinking your infertility must have some cure. After all, it isn’t congenital; it was caused by an injury later in life.

“And you’re still not that old, so there’s still hope, isn’t there?”

Dong Jianguo was a little embarrassed by the way Chen Ding’an put it and didn’t know how to answer.

Seeing the look on his face, Chen Ding’an knew he had guessed right. “I knew it. But you should know that your injury has already been seen by many famous doctors, and none of them could do anything about it. Over the years you’ve traveled everywhere, thinking of all sorts of methods, and nothing worked.

“I’ve also helped you think of plenty of ways, and we’ve tried them all. Still no progress. To put it bluntly, with today’s medical technology and methods, your condition probably can’t be cured.”

Chen Ding’an spoke very calmly, as though he were describing something entirely unrelated to himself. Dong Jianguo did not get angry at that. Though it was an embarrassing matter, he also knew that Chen Ding’an had indeed helped him quite a lot.

Every time he went looking for Chen Ding’an, the latter would invite numerous famous physicians to examine him. More than once, he had already wanted to give up, yet Chen Ding’an would still tirelessly drag him off to seek treatment. And every time, they came back disappointed.

Before long, Dong Jianguo truly no longer knew what to do. He had even given up on curing himself.

But the family’s martial arts still had to be passed down. Right now, Dong Jianguo had no idea what to do.

“What exactly are you trying to say?” he asked irritably.

“What I’m saying is this: you can still keep trying to work on your own condition, but don’t place too much hope in it. The greater the hope, the greater the disappointment.

“I think you’d be better off focusing on finding a suitable successor.”

Dong Jianguo clenched his teeth, fighting the urge to hit him. “So this has all gone full circle again, hasn’t it? A suitable successor—you mean your son, right?”

“What’s wrong with that?” Chen Ding’an said, as if he truly couldn’t understand Dong Jianguo’s anger. “We’ve sparred for so many years that we’ve become close martial arts friends. We know each other inside and out. We also share the same hobby—martial arts. As for our parents’ generation, there’s no issue at all.”

Dong Jianguo said nothing. He did not refute it. He had to admit there was some logic in what Chen Ding’an said, but something about it still felt off.

“And then there’s my family’s situation, which you should know very well. I may not be the richest man in the world, but we’re definitely a wealthy, well-off family, with absolutely comfortable living conditions. And I rather like that girl of yours too. If she moved into my home, I’d never treat her badly.

“With the kind of wealth I have, even if Xin’er and Chen Hao did nothing at all for the rest of their lives, they’d never have to worry. They could devote themselves entirely to carrying forward the martial arts of the Dong and Chen families. Maybe, while you’re still alive, you’d even get to see the Dong family’s former glory again.”

“Hold on...” Dong Jianguo finally realized what was wrong. He was just about to speak when Chen Ding’an cut him off.

Chen Ding’an waved a hand. “Don’t interrupt. I’m not finished yet.

“And once they’re in my family, you don’t need to worry about having no one to support you in old age. You could move in with us too. We know each other so well already; if we lived together, we could keep each other company.

“After all, we both only have one child. We’re already part of the one-child generation. I may be a little better off, since I at least have an adopted daughter. But you only have Xin’er. For a single child to look after elderly parents is indeed a heavy burden.

“But if we lived together, we could keep each other company and take care of one another! Though honestly, it would probably be more likely for me, the healthy one, to take care of you, the disabled one. Still, considering how many years we’ve known each other, I won’t quibble over such trivial matters.”

At last Chen Ding’an finished his pitch, then looked at Dong Jianguo expectantly, waiting for an answer.

Dong Jianguo immediately exploded. “I nearly got dragged into your damn generation gap by you, you bastard! Is this you finding a martial arts successor? This is you looking for a daughter-in-law for yourself, isn’t it? You rambled on for all that nonsense, and in the end you were still targeting my daughter. I can see your wolfish ambitions perfectly now.”

“What’s so bad about that?” Chen Ding’an said carelessly. “I’ve already laid out the benefits for you. You should know I’m right. As for me targeting your daughter, so what? Taking in a live-in son-in-law was one of your options to begin with. I’ve just changed the conditions a little.

“If Xin’er and Chen Hao really do marry, then we’ll be family. As family, there’s no need to separate ourselves so carefully. Whoever inherits your Dong family’s martial arts is all the same.

“It’s all going to be passed down to the children our two families have together anyway. If you really have a problem with it, then at worst, when Chen Hao and Xin’er have children in the future, just pick one boy to take the Dong surname. That should solve it, shouldn’t it?

“The country has opened up the two-child policy now anyway. Isn’t it enough to have two boys? I believe they can definitely manage that!”

......

To be honest, Dong Jianguo was starting to be persuaded.

Thinking carefully about what Chen Ding’an had said, it did make sense. His daughter Dong Xin was bound to marry someday. Rather than finding a boy whose background he knew nothing about, it might indeed be better to let her marry Chen Ding’an’s son.

He had just seen Chen Ding’an’s son. Though he did not know why the two of them had looked so disheveled, the boy was handsome and had also greeted him very politely. And since he was Chen Ding’an’s son, he must have been raised well. There was little reason to worry on that front.

But to arrange a marriage so early between two children who had no emotional foundation at all? Wasn’t that a bit too hasty? And would Dong Xin and Chen Hao even agree?

Because of the education he had given her over the years, Dong Xin had always treated Chen Hao as a rival. To make them future husband and wife...

This...

Seeing Dong Jianguo hesitate, Chen Ding’an patted his shoulder. “I’m not saying they have to get engaged right now or anything. What I mean is, if you agree with me, then from now on we can just find more opportunities for those two children to spend time together. Maybe after they’ve been together long enough, they’ll become like us.”

“And once there’s an emotional foundation, wouldn’t everything else naturally fall into place? Have you forgotten? When we were young, we were sworn enemies too, weren’t we? And look at us now—don’t we get along just fine?”

“Ah...” Dong Jianguo considered it, then unceremoniously reached into Chen Ding’an’s pocket and took out another cigarette for himself to light. Only then did he say, “We’ll see. At least let’s wait until after the two of them finish their match and see how they react.”

Although not every word of this exchange was overheard by others, when Dong Xin passed by after coming out of the bath, she did faintly catch the latter half.

Normally, with their level of cultivation, the two men should have been able to notice her approach. But at the time, Dong Jianguo had been so irritated by Chen Ding’an’s words that he paid no attention to her. As for Chen Ding’an, he had noticed her, but said nothing. So the latter half about the two children marrying was more or less heard by Dong Xin.

The little girl quietly slipped away without making a sound, then picked up a broom and walked toward the bathroom...