“Is this traditional medicine?”
I pinched my nose, staring at the thing Su Liumeng brought over.
A small porcelain bowl was filled with dark, murky liquid.
Just standing next to it and smelling the scent, I had the urge to bolt and run.
“You can’t run away anymore. There are still other medicines you haven’t taken. Like your uterine cold—there’s still no improvement, and you can’t drag it on. Your menstrual cycles are already a mess.”
I reached out a fair, tender finger and pointed at the medicine in the bowl. “Alright, I don’t want to hear you talk about these things. I just want to know… is this really traditional medicine?”
Si Zhiruo smiled from the side, her eyes curved into crescents.
Mom’s reluctance to drink medicine is so amusing.
She couldn’t help but urge me, shaking Si Xinyan’s arm, “Come on, Mom! Hurry and drink it. Zhi Zhi already checked—these are all nourishing spirit herbs, perfect for replenishing after your body’s been overdrawn.”
Si Zhiruo spoke seriously, word for word.
Such an adorable little face, yet she used a childish voice to earnestly lecture adults on all sorts of big principles.
What a gap moe.
Su Liumeng averted her gaze and responded with a smile, “It’s a traditional medicine formula, but instead of ordinary herbs, I used spirit herbs that have already disappeared from the wilderness of the cultivation world.”
Everything is used up in one generation, and the next has nothing left.
Spirit herbs are the same.
Now, unless a major sect or great clan grows a little themselves, you can’t find a single aged spirit herb in the wild.
“Fine, I’ll drink it!” I tipped my head back abruptly, swallowing the bowl of pitch-black, chunky medicine. The bitterness instantly killed my appetite. My stomach was still flat, but I had no desire to eat at all.
“I made millet porridge for you. Want to eat a bit now?”
I knew I had to eat something, so I forced myself to eat about half, then started shooing everyone away, saying I needed a nap and that no one could talk to me.
In the living room.
The time for settling accounts had come.
Su Liumeng knew this was a step she couldn’t avoid.
Si Zhiruo looked at Su Liumeng, her big eyes completely emotionless. Realizing that looking up at adults had no presence at all, she floated in the air to match Su Liumeng’s height, confronting her with a blank face.
“Little Miss.” Chunqiao happened to pass by, saw the scene, and asked with concern.
Si Zhiruo didn’t turn her head, just issued an order, “This has nothing to do with you. Go play elsewhere.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Chunqiao ducked her head and left, arms and legs moving together.
Heavens.
Little Miss’s fierce look is cute too.
As a personal maid, one must accept all unreasonable things.
If Miss says nothing’s wrong, then nothing’s wrong.
Able to float in the air after just a few months, and boss around the maids fiercely—problem? No problem!
Facing Zhi Zhi’s death stare, Su Liumeng, even though she’d done nothing wrong, felt a little guilty.
Nothing to be done.
If Xiao Yan is hurt, whether or not it’s her fault, she can’t escape some responsibility for not taking better care.
After all, she is the fated Dao companion, signed and sealed by Heaven and Earth.
“I’m guilty.” Su Liumeng was seriously reflecting on herself.
Si Zhiruo snorted coldly, “I just took a short nap for a few months, and you almost squeezed my mom dry. Su, you bad woman, are you a succubus reborn or what?”
“I really don’t know how to describe this.”
“Dual cultivation, furnace, I only saw those things in yuri novels! Who knew it could really happen? And my mom is—she’s…” The more Si Zhiruo spoke, the angrier and more aggrieved she became. “If I hadn’t known ahead of time that this was my mom’s own decision and had nothing to do with anyone else, I’d want to skin you alive, pull out your tendons, grind your bones to dust and scatter them to the wind.”
As Si Xinyan’s daughter, she could vaguely sense what her mother was worried about, and understood that the only person her mother truly couldn’t let go of was her.
Because of this, she felt all the more heartache.
Mom.
Why are you so silly now?
Even if your daughter is alone, she can take care of herself.
Unbidden memories brought tears to her eyes. The little dumpling wiped her eyes, “What are you looking at? Don’t look!”
She glared fiercely at Su Liumeng, turning awkwardly to hide her tears from the others.
What a joke.
She’s the Ghost King who roams the world, the very source of all evil, whose name alone makes the world tremble.
How could she cry all day like a child?
Si Zhiruo finally got her emotions under control.
Come to think of it.
Is she a bit chuunibyou?
When a child is angry, what’s the best thing to do? Don’t answer back.
Su Liumeng was doing just that.
A moment later, the little dumpling finished wiping her tears, turned to glare at Su Liumeng, and still spoke fiercely, “Don’t think apologizing means you’re forgiven… No matter what, I still hate you.”
“If it weren’t for you, Mom wouldn’t have gotten hurt.”
Su Liumeng looked at Zhi Zhi floating in midair, her mind drifting, suddenly picturing a pair of pure white angel wings on the girl’s back—wouldn’t she be even cuter?
“Hm?”
Si Zhiruo’s voice grew sharper. “I’m talking to you, and you dare daydream?”
She suddenly dropped to the ground.
With her bare, fair little foot, she stomped down hard on Su Liumeng’s foot.
Hiss—
That actually hurt.
The angelic filter shattered with a crash.
No matter how cute she looked, it didn’t change the fact she was a little devil.
Su Liumeng forced herself not to hop on one foot. “What else can I do… You hate me so much, there’s nothing I can do. Or, what do you want me to say, or what future plans do you want me to express?”
“Let me think.” Si Zhiruo puffed up her cheeks, thinking hard. “Having you and Mom divorce is definitely out of the question, she’d be heartbroken.”
“But, having you treat her even better—I just can’t feel good about that, either.”
These two sentences made Su Liumeng see her in a new light.
An angelically adorable face, the temperament of a little devil, but at her core, not truly bad.
From another angle, it was thanks to Si Xinyan’s teaching—she’d kept that innate kindness alive all along.
Si Zhiruo stared seriously at Su Liumeng, sometimes putting her hands on her waist, sometimes circling her, “I just realized—you’re so troublesome.”
This was the first time she’d encountered such a tricky situation.
Normally, if you hate someone, you just drive them out or kill them.
But with Su Liumeng, these straightforward solutions were like a computer bug: under the premise of considering Si Xinyan’s feelings, she simply couldn’t use them.
In the end, everything Su Liumeng had done—how she treated Si Xinyan, how she cherished her like a jewel in her palm—even if Si Zhiruo pretended not to care, it left indelible traces in her young heart.
“So annoying!” Seeing Su Liumeng lower her head in an apologetic posture, Si Zhiruo felt a ball of fire inside that she couldn’t vent, “You didn’t do anything wrong, so why are you acting sorry!!!”
Si Zhiruo wasn’t someone unreasonable.
She always knew Su Liumeng hadn’t done anything wrong.
But, with Mom like this, she felt wronged. So when facing Su Liumeng—the one involved, and who seemed to benefit—she couldn’t be that polite.
No matter how strong she was, she’d only been in human society for a year. Her mind was still no different from a child’s.
Si Zhiruo circled once, unable to find the right word for her feelings. In the end, she could only choke out, “Anyway, I just hate you.”
Then, with her just-grown baby teeth, she bit her lower lip and muttered, “I’ll definitely make Mom drive you away.”
Su Liumeng watched Si Zhiruo’s back as she ran into her room, letting out a deep sigh from the depths of her throat.
She could see how much Si Zhiruo was struggling inside.
On one hand, her birth mother was hurt.
On the other, her mother’s long-standing teachings told her she shouldn’t treat others this way, but she still felt wronged.
Su Liumeng slowly walked over and sat on the sofa.
Let her hate.
She ought to hate her.
No one wants their mother’s love split by a sudden stranger.
The path to being truly accepted as one of their own was still long for Su Liumeng.
The day she was no longer hated for no reason, no longer rejected by Si Zhiruo, that would be the day she was truly accepted.
Su Liumeng stared at her own palm, then slowly lowered her gaze.
She wasn’t someone without feelings.
It was just that, toward Si Xinyan and her daughter, she had extra patience and tenderness.
Whether criticized or pushed away.
Su Liumeng actually understood.
If being able to scold her, this person she hated, made Zhi Zhi feel a little better, Su Liumeng thought she could accept it completely.
At least, she’d done something.
Bedroom.
Si Zhiruo leaned against her mother. They were very close. After a period of inner struggle, she finally reached out and gently held her mother’s hand.
She curled her tiny hand into a ball and slowly tucked it into her mother’s broad palm.
It seemed only by doing this could she feel safe.
She huddled her small body under the covers, just like she used to do in her sea of consciousness.
Her eyes weren’t fully closed, and her long lashes trembled ceaselessly.
Just like the storm raging in her heart.
Mom, you’ve told me so many times to have the right principles and bottom line.
Zhi Zhi only hates one person.
What did she do wrong?