Chapter 673: There Is No Medicine for Regret

Even though everyone advised Phoebe Thorne against taking the children, warning her that no man would dare marry a woman with three kids, she had no regrets. She had no intention of remarrying anyway. Her greatest wish now was simply to earn more money and raise her three children to adulthood. Then, her life would be complete.

Brian Chapman finished the stewed stems, drinking even the last drop of broth. A warmth spread through his body, and he felt a bit more energized. But his heart only grew heavier. He knew Phoebe Thorne was never coming back.

"Are you really... unwilling to come back?"

Brian Chapman asked, unwilling to give up.

"I left the Chapman home, and I’ll never go back. Now, go!"

Phoebe Thorne snatched the bowl and chopsticks and walked away without turning back. Amanda Chapman glanced at him before leaving as well, showing no sign of reluctance.

Brian Chapman let out a long, low sigh. He wiped his face, shivering as a jolt of pain shot through him. His body was covered in injuries, but they were just cuts and bruises. Phoebe Thorne and Phoebe Huxley hadn’t gone too hard on him. The physical wounds were bearable; the ache in his heart was far worse. His future was bleak. ’What am I going to do?’

’Am I really going to end up rummaging through garbage?’

Chuckling bitterly at himself, Brian Chapman limped away. He had to hurry back, or else he’d be traveling after dark.

’It’s for the best that my eldest son is staying. That’s one less mouth to feed, which lightens my burden. But how am I going to tell Mom and Dad?’

The more Brian Chapman thought about it, the more miserable he felt. Regret finally washed over him. ’If only I knew then what I know now!’

But alas, there was no cure for regret, and time could not be turned back. What was done was done, and there was no chance for a do-over.

*********

And so, Gentry Chapman stayed. His grandmother, Raina, wasn’t particularly fond of him, much like how she had treated Amanda Chapman when she first arrived. Raina gave him the cold shoulder. It had taken Amanda half a year of proving herself to finally win Raina’s approval. But Gentry wasn’t as sharp as his sister, nor was he much help with chores. To top it all off, he looked just like his father, Brian Chapman. The resemblance irritated Raina, so she naturally never had a kind look for him.

Still, even though Raina disliked him, she wouldn’t go as far as to abuse the boy. The most she did was show favoritism. Gentry was never given any of the good snacks, and she would occasionally scold him. But Raina wouldn’t do anything worse than that. While she wasn’t exactly soft-hearted, she wasn’t vicious either—a world of difference from Old Mrs. Chapman.

Before long, Gentry had been there for nearly half a month. He was starting to come out of his shell. Although his cousin, Jim Thorne, thought he was a bit slow, he still took him along to play. They caught loaches and eels in the mud and went up the mountain to hunt for wild rabbits and field mice—all the things boys loved. Gentry grew much bolder.

Phoenix Golding finally ventured outside, and her appearance stunned the villagers. While she had never been a peerless beauty, she was once considered the village flower. But now, she looked old and gaunt. Her hair was mostly white, her face was covered in wrinkles, and she looked so aged that she could have passed for Linden’s mother’s sister.

The villagers were secretly horrified, and their fear of the ancestral hall deepened. No wonder the elders used to go pale at the mere mention of it. Phoenix Golding had only been locked up for a month, and she already looked like a ghost. If she’d been in there for six months or a year, she probably wouldn’t have made it out alive.

Of course, Phoenix Golding hadn’t come out just for a friendly visit. She had more important matters to attend to. She had used the one hundred yuan from selling her sewing machine to recuperate, and she had finally regained some of her strength. But the toll on her body would take a long time to heal. Her immediate priority was to take care of that little bastard.

"It’s not easy to find a match these days," Linden’s mother said in a hushed voice. "There is one family... but the man’s a fool. He’s in his late twenties. When he’s lucid, he’s just like anyone else, but when he has one of his fits, he’ll even beat his own parents. His family is willing to offer a one-hundred-yuan bride price, and not a cent more."