As they got closer to the village, they ran into more and more acquaintances. Chad was already getting impatient with all the explaining, and since Ethan Foster was his best friend, Chad didn’t want to see the villagers looking at Ethan Foster with those curious eyes.

“Dad, I’m back…” Chad’s house was right at the entrance of the village. After entering the yard surrounded by a fence, Chad kicked the barking mutt and immediately saw his father, John Walker, coming out of the house. He couldn’t help but shrink his neck.

“Where have you been messing around this time?” Before Chad’s father finished speaking, his eyes landed on Ethan Foster. He paused, hesitated, and said, “Chris, this… this is little Ethan Foster from the mountain, right?”

“Uncle Walker, it’s me…” Ethan Foster stepped forward, took off his basket, and said, “Uncle Walker, I just came down from the mountain. I didn’t bring much, but I picked some mushrooms for you—they’re all fresh…”

Although he grew up in the mountains, Ethan Foster understood the importance of courtesy. He had originally picked the mushrooms for Jack, but since he came to Chad’s house first, he naturally gave them as a gift.

“You kid, you didn’t have to bring anything just for a visit.”

John Walker walked up to Ethan Foster, looked him up and down, nodded, and said, “Hmm, you’ve grown up better than Chris, and you’re polite too. It’s a pity your master held you back…”

Actually, Ethan Foster had quite a connection with the Walker family. Because he was malnourished as a baby, he was nursed by Chad’s mother, so he’d been close with John Walker’s family since childhood. When Ethan Foster was six or seven, John Walker even went up the mountain to find the old Taoist, hoping to send Ethan Foster to school.

But the old Taoist didn’t let Ethan Foster leave the mountain. Instead, he gave a ridiculous reason that made John Walker furious, saying that if Ethan Foster left the mountain, he’d face disaster. John Walker was so angry he almost called people to tear down the old Taoist’s temple.

Chapter 7 Brothers (Part 1)

“Hehe, Uncle Walker, following my master was pretty good too…”

Hearing John Walker’s words, Ethan Foster scratched his head. He knew why Uncle Walker had argued with his master back then—it was all to get him off the mountain and into school, to receive a modern education. After all, the most popular saying back then was, “If you’re good at math, physics, and chemistry, you can go anywhere.”

But Ethan Foster was raised by his master. Without him, Ethan Foster would probably have been eaten by wild animals in the mountains long ago. So even though he sometimes called the old Taoist names when his master was alive, he would never say a bad word about him in front of others.

“Good, my ass! If Chris hadn’t brought you those textbooks, you probably wouldn’t even recognize simplified characters!”

John Walker curled his lip at this. He’d watched Ethan Foster grow up and knew he was smart. If he’d gone to school, he’d at least be a top university student by now. But following that unscrupulous old Taoist had ruined his future.

“Hehe, you’re right, Uncle Walker…” Ethan Foster just chuckled and didn’t respond, or else John Walker would start bringing up old grievances from over a decade ago.

“Dad, why are you nagging about this again?” Seeing his dad about to start rehashing the past, Chad quickly said, “Dad, we already made plans with Jack to have dinner at his place tonight. Don’t wait up for us—we might even stay over there…”

Kids everywhere are pretty much the same. When they’re little, they want to be tied to their parents with a string, but when they grow up, few want to listen to their parents nag. Chad was a typical example.

“You little brat, don’t run off! Next week you’re going to the city to work with your Second Uncle…”

Seeing his son dragging Ethan Foster out of the house, John Walker chased after them, shouting, “And little Ethan, you should go with Chris too. There’s no future in being a Taoist now. Go to the city with Chris and find a job…”

“Dad, stop worrying so much. We already talked it over…” Chad shouted back without turning his head, pulling Ethan Foster along even faster.

“Hey, Chad, what did we talk over?” Once they were outside, Ethan Foster grabbed Chad and said, “Actually, going to the city with your Second Uncle to work isn’t a bad idea. At least you’d have someone you know looking out for you…”

The Second Uncle John Walker mentioned was named David Walker, a capable man in the village. He’d started working odd jobs in the city back in the 1980s, and after more than a decade, he’d built up a construction crew. It wasn’t huge, but he could get some jobs in the city and was the richest man in the village.

Actually, Second Uncle David Walker wasn’t really related to Chad’s family. It’s just that most people in the village had the surname Walker, and whenever someone went to the city to work, the first person they’d look for was usually David Walker. When Chad was just discharged from the army, he’d worked with him for a while too.

“No way, working on a construction site? I’d rather be a security guard…”

Hearing Ethan Foster’s words, Chad said irritably, “People may look down on security guards, but at least you don’t have to do hard labor. On a construction site, not only do you have to work hard, but people look down on you even more. Mr. Chad can’t stand that kind of humiliation…”