Si Zhizhuo’s eyes were dazed as she searched through the crowd. Finally, she locked onto a direction. Her small body, like a burst of bubbles, dissipated directly in the center of the square.
This sudden scene drew a wave of exclamations from those nearby. One moment, there was a supernatural wonder; the next, she had abruptly vanished, leaving only a shimmering rain of light. As servants of the Su family, these people weren’t strangers to cultivators, but they had never seen such a young girl capable of using a spatial transfer technique that even adults might not be qualified to use.
Just what kind of breathtaking talent was this?
Peach Heart stood with one hand over her chest, staring blankly at the empty space ahead.
“Mommy.” “Why are you in this place?”
Si Zhizhuo suddenly appeared in front of the palace. She reached out to grab the young woman’s arm, looking up with concern.
I shook my head and didn’t answer. Subconsciously, I looked back; the doors behind me were already tightly closed.
Si Zhizhuo followed my gaze toward the building behind us, the light in her eyes flickering. “Mommy, what are you looking at? Are you looking at the uncle inside? He isn’t Su Liumeng’s father, I remember you told me.”
“You can’t just call him uncle. He is at least of your grandfather’s generation.” My eyelashes trembled slightly, and my voice sounded a bit hollow.
Si Zhizhuo nodded, though she didn’t quite seem to understand. “I can sense it. Mommy’s mood is very, very bad.”
“It’s like…” The little toddler’s front baby teeth had mostly formed, and she was currently biting her lower lip. “It’s like you’re about to cry.”
I was stunned for a second and instinctively wanted to argue. “Am I the kind of person who likes to cry?”
Si Zhizhuo nodded repeatedly, answering quite seriously, “Mommy has always been very emotionally sensitive.”
…
They say children speak the truth, but I didn’t expect a one-year-old baby to see things so clearly. Even though I always emphasized that I was strong, the reality seemed a bit different. I could face countless things with strength, yet I would still secretly shed tears in the dead of night when no one was around.
“Mommy.” “Did Zhizhi say something she shouldn’t have?”
“No.” I walked forward.
Si Zhizhuo worked very hard to keep her grip on my hand. “If Zhizhi didn’t make Mommy angry, why don’t you want to talk to me?”
“It has nothing to do with you. I just don’t really feel like talking.”
Why did I have to speak? Couldn’t I just… be left alone in peace for a while?
Autumn leaves that hadn’t completely fallen danced in the winter wind. The wind was always there. It was everywhere.
I let go of Si Zhizhuo and reached out to catch a withered leaf.
Drip.
A snowflake shattered against my cheek, melting into a cold droplet of water.
“Mommy, it’s snowing.” Si Zhizhuo reached out her small hand to shield her face, trying to keep the falling snow and wind at bay.
The scattered, fluttering snowflakes intensified within just a second or two. I stood motionless in the wind and snow.
Si Zhizhuo pulled on my arm worriedly. “Mommy, your health isn’t good. Let’s go back quickly.”
I didn’t say a word. Si Zhizhuo suddenly focused, finally realizing how abnormal her mother was acting. It was extremely abnormal.
I slowly crouched down beside my daughter, hugging my knees with both arms. Sorrow had completely overwhelmed my emotions. “I don’t want to go home.”
I rarely showed my fragile side in front of my daughter. Perhaps it was the instinct of a mother to be strong; I always thought about standing in front of her to shield her from the wind and rain.
“Why?” Confused, Si Zhizhuo conjured an umbrella, using energy to create a barrier above us.
The chaos of the wind and snow finally lessened a bit. She stared at the fragile figure before her—a figure so fragile it felt like it would break at a single touch. People often subconsciously forgot her age. How many people remembered that she was only nineteen this year?
Si Zhizhuo suddenly had an epiphany. Mommy was also just a young girl. She was at an age where she also needed protection from others.
I looked at the ground in front of me, watching the snowflakes fall with the wind, eventually melting and soaking the blue bricks into a deep, damp color. “Answering would make me think of unhappy things.”
Once the memories of last night resurfaced, they were like bone-eating insects that I could never escape. The shackles of memory were everywhere, like an uncontrollable nightmare, making me constantly recall that dark, sunless attic and that little boy curled up in the corner.
“Will going home make you unhappy too?” Si Zhizhuo’s gaze looked hurt, and her voice grew quieter.
“It’s not that going home with Zhizhi is sad, but those words make me think of unhappy things from the past.” I pulled my daughter over. Only by holding the warm little bundle, hugging her soft body, could the melancholy bitterness in my heart fade slightly.
“If this makes Mommy feel a little better…” Si Zhizhuo reached out her small hand, patting my back as gently as possible. “It doesn’t matter how long it takes.”
But she was truly too small, her arms were tiny, and she couldn’t even properly reach my back. Even so, she was doing everything in her power to comfort me.
Time passed bit by bit.
“Can Mommy tell Zhizhi what exactly is bothering you?”
I let go of my daughter and slowly stood up. I took her left hand and reached for the umbrella in the air, moving forward step by step. Nearby, the wind and snow continued. Pedestrians were in a hurry, and the sky was gradually darkening. Night was about to fall.
Si Zhizhuo walked beside me, her small hand gripping mine tightly. Her palm was already seeping with fine sweat, matching her current nervous state.
“I have always been human.” My footsteps paused for a beat before I continued into the snow. “As a human, it’s impossible to have just popped out of a crack in a rock. So, I must have my own parents. I should have once had a home. Freedom was my obsession in my previous life. Family is my obsession in this life. I cannot understand what kind of person could be heartless enough to lock a one or two-year-old child in a dark attic forever. When I try to make sense of this problem, searching for a reason that would let me let go, my head hurts uncontrollably. Because I can’t find a single reason to forgive.”
Si Zhizhuo’s eyes gradually became dazed. “How can people like that exist?”
“There is no reason to give birth and not raise a child.” Darkness began to gather in the depths of her eyes, and a massive amount of ghostly energy began to leak out uncontrollably again.
That was the source of her resentment as a collective entity of countless abandoned infants. Her emotions were being drawn out, gradually spiraling out of control. She had been abandoned more than once, so she could empathize with this feeling even more.
“These people deserve to die.” “Kill!”
A suppressed and horrifying voice echoed in the corners of the world. It wasn’t until an arm picked her up, circling her small body into a warm embrace, that all the ghostly energy suddenly dissipated.
I looked into the clarity of her eyes. “We’ve always been very similar, haven’t we?”
Si Zhizhuo lowered her head.
“The past is the past. Now, only I am your mother. I won’t abandon you again.”
“Mm.” Si Zhizhuo’s voice emerged from deep in her throat. Her small hands tightly gripped the fabric of my shirt as she pressed her head against me. “It’s only natural to be like Mommy. Zhizhi is Mommy’s biological daughter.”
I gave a light chuckle. “It’s not just that. It’s also our life experiences and other things, like our personalities. Choice is always mutual. While I was redeeming you, I was also being redeemed.”
A destiny that began with a single tear. Highly synchronized life paths. It all seemed like fate.
I slowly leaned my head toward Si Zhizhuo and gently pressed my cheek against hers. “Mommy can’t leave you now either. I can’t lose my own daughter.”
Si Zhizhuo flashed a smile. “Then I’ll be Mommy’s daughter for a lifetime. Whoever bullies Mommy, I’ll bully them back. Then I’ll find Mommy a hundred little fairies, just like an ancient emperor choosing a harem. One for every day, never repeating.”
I went blank for a second. When would she finally forget about that?
Then, I gave a doting smile and didn’t directly refuse again. “We can talk about that when there’s an opportunity.”
“What kind of opportunity?”
“When Su Liumeng suddenly gets a little mistress and chooses to betray my feelings, I’ll take you and run away overnight. Then, finding Mommy a hundred little fairies would be the perfect opportunity. I certainly won’t refuse.”
Never underestimate the shattering of a pure love believer’s faith. Turning into a harem lover is the mildest outcome. Even destroying the world would be considered a weak response.
“I see…” Si Zhizhuo puffed out her cheeks. “How long do we have to wait? When will Su Liumeng finally turn bad?”
It was truly a troubling matter.
At that moment, Su Liumeng suddenly stepped out from a nearby thicket with a dark expression. “How am I already getting divorced?”
Si Zhizhuo’s eyes widened. “Bad woman, eavesdropping! You’re taking advantage of the fact that I didn’t turn on my perception field.”
Su Liumeng: “…”
“I just arrived a second ago and only heard the last sentence. Do you believe me?”
“Hmph, it’s still eavesdropping regardless.” Si Zhizhuo buried her head in my arms. “Mommy, aren’t you going to do something about her?”
“It was just a hypothetical. I believe you aren’t that kind of person, otherwise you would have had a mistress long ago.” I chuckled. Su Liumeng’s shoulders were covered in snow; she looked a bit worn out from travel. “Why did you come here?”
“I saw that neither of you was around, so I thought I’d come out to find you.”
Su Liumeng didn’t tell them that she had heard the rumors in the square. Thinking about Si Zhizhuo’s hurried departure, she worried it might be something serious, so she immediately dropped everything and rushed out to find them.
“I heard you went to see Su Qinghe?” Su Liumeng stared at my expression. “Was it because of something he said that made you unhappy?”
Si Zhizhuo poked her head out and raised her hand to answer first. “It’s not because of the old grandpa. It’s because Mommy was thinking about her home.”
Old grandpa? Su Liumeng was stunned for a second before realizing that this “old grandpa” referred to her father. Su Qinghe was only forty-eight; she hadn’t expected him to already be relegated to the grandfather generation. Thinking about it carefully, it was quite reasonable. After all, Si Xinyan was of the next generation, and Si Zhizhuo was the generation after that. Su Qinghe had indeed been upgraded directly to “old grandpa.”
Su Liumeng took a deep breath and asked cautiously, “Is it the home at the orphanage, or…?”
I rubbed the little bundle’s soft black hair. Since it hadn’t grown very long yet, it was at its most pettable stage. It was no less soft than a newborn kitten—very soft to the touch and not prickly at all.
“No.”
Su Liumeng was too smart. She barely had to think before she understood the subtext. “I think I roughly understand your troubles. Let’s go home first. It’s snowing outside, and it’s cold. I’ll have people investigate the past. We’ll see if we can find your biological parents and find out what happened back then.”
My mood recovered quite a bit. At the very least, I now had something to look forward to. I was no longer so helpless and irritable.
Su Liumeng took a step forward, and an invisible dragon’s roar spread toward the sky. The sudden wind and snow were briefly dispersed. The small path leading home, where the stone slabs had begun to freeze, regained its dryness and traction.
“Be careful.” Su Liumeng supported my arm.
I instinctively tilted my head, looking at the concern in Su Liumeng’s eyes. I followed her gaze toward the white sky where the snow had temporarily cleared. Was she worried I would trip? I had never tripped on flat ground. Even when I was pregnant or during my postpartum recovery, I hadn’t stumbled once.
“Mommy, you should still be careful while walking. After all, things are different now. The depletion of your foundations isn’t so easily replenished. You must drink your herbal medicine once a day.”
Listening to the two voices in my ear, I felt my head start to ache for some reason. When did Zhizhi become so wordy?
“You talk too much, acting like such a little adult.” I tapped Si Zhizhuo’s head, watching her clutch it with an “ow.” “Now you’ve even learned how to nag me.”
“And you!”
Completely different from the gentle way I spoke to my daughter, I glared directly at Su Liumeng, making my aura fully known. “Now even you’re starting to lecture me?”
“Mommy, she’s just worried about you.”
“You’re even on the same side as her now. Si Zhizhuo, whose daughter are you exactly?”
“I’m Mommy’s.” Si Zhizhuo immediately raised her hands, acting completely cowardly. “Zhizhi is just worried about Mommy’s health.”
I ignored both of them. I was already in a bad mood today. I didn’t want to think about anything. It wasn’t that I didn’t know they were worried; I just didn’t have the energy to think about it.
Su Liumeng didn’t try to force the issue further. She knew that she had triggered the rebellious and stubborn streak in Si Xinyan’s bones. Once she calmed down, she wouldn’t need anyone to tell her; she would naturally know what to do. At times like this, saying too much would have the opposite effect. After all, Si Xinyan had always believed she was grown up. If you kept pointing things out, it would trigger a hidden response: “Do you take me for a child?”
But Si Zhizhuo didn’t have those concerns. She was the daughter, after all. She could cling to Si Xinyan and act spoiled or talk about whatever she wanted.
Case in point, Si Zhizhuo hadn’t finished her chatter yet.
Listening to the conversation between the two beside her, the smile in Su Liumeng’s eyes never faded, especially when she saw the helplessness in Xinyan’s eyes and the fleeting look of success in Si Zhizhuo’s bright eyes.
“It’s decided then. Mommy can’t be less sensible than me. Even Zhizhi knows what’s good for the body.”
“Why do you talk so much? You’re making my head buzz. Fine, I’ll agree, okay?”
“You really are my little ancestor.”
The little bundle lay on her mother’s shoulder and secretly made a victory sign. She happened to catch Su Liumeng peeking at her and immediately looked away, giving an almost imperceptible huff.
*What are you looking at me for? What an annoying person.*
*However, since you were on the same side as me this time, I’ll forgive you just this once.*