She probably always thought that between “protecting her” and “liking her” there was still a high wall that needed to be crossed.
But she didn’t know that in other people’s eyes, in her father’s eyes, in the retainers’ eyes… her gaze had already overflowed like water, impossible to hide no matter how hard she tried.
“Father, you… you knew all along?”
“Mm.”
Hei Luan Yu Si answered the question with just one word. He looked at his daughter’s reddened eyes and wanted to say many things…
‘You and your mother were exactly the same when she was young, always gazing at someone with such deep affection.’
‘Every time you feed her, you never put the fish from your own chopsticks into your bowl. Did you think the Underboss and I couldn’t see?’
But he swallowed all these words back into his chest, using a short light cough to press all those moist, unaccustomed emotions back down his throat. Then he spoke.
“I won’t stop you. That was the promise I made to You Zi.”
He brought up Hisaki’s mother because that was the deepest bond between him and his children.
He had once held her hand when You Zi was on her deathbed and promised her—no matter what, let the children choose the people they truly like, not controlled by the family, not coerced by power, not used as pawns in political marriages.
When You Zi said those words from her sickbed, her palm had little strength left. And he spent more than ten years fulfilling that promise bit by bit.
At that time, Hisaki and Sumire were still too young, and what he promised, he would continue in the future.
The tears that had been circling Hisaki’s eyes finally trembled and fell along her cheekbones. She didn’t wipe them, just blinked hard, trying to force the remaining moisture back.
Her voice choked, but she said those words.
“Mother she…”
She didn’t finish. Nor did she need to.
Hei Luan Yu Si had already reached out, gently rubbing his thumb above her nose. Hisaki quickly wiped the corner of her eye with the back of her hand and prepared to turn and leave.
She wanted to go see Rinna now. She also just wanted to hurry back, temporarily store the shock from her father’s words in her chest, and continue being the reliable, stable person she always was in front of Rinna.
But Hei Luan Yu Si spoke again. And this time, his voice switched back to true Family Head mode.
“Baichuan Ai Li, do you remember? The Baichuan family’s daughter.”
Hisaki’s footsteps nailed to the ground. She turned her head, her side face to her father, her right eye slightly squinting in the sunlight from the bungalow at the end of the corridor. Her tears had already been wiped clean in the instant of turning.
He paused, giving his daughter time to process the information, then continued.
“She’s transferring to your school.”
He paused again.
“You don’t need me to spell out the intention, you should know yourself.”
Hisaki was silent for a few seconds. The brows that had softened slightly from her mother’s last words now became sharp and calm again. As soon as the surname Baichuan appeared, it awakened her vigilant memory.
She knew the weight of the Baichuan family. The surname Baichuan, standing alongside Black Rapids (Kurose) in this city… The pressure once exerted on the Kurose clan, and the hostility that had yet to dissolve…
And Baichuan aili… that young lady who had seemed friendly to everyone since childhood, but whose eyes always carried a sticky feeling that made one unable to rest easy.
Especially now, when Rinna had just been targeted by that underground organization and news was fermenting in online groups, this transfer timeline was too precise to be a random arrangement. Suddenly transferring to her and Rinna’s school was definitely not a coincidence.
“Mm.”
Hisaki sniffled, placed her left hand in front of her, moved her right leg back half a step, bent her knees slightly, and gave her father a slight bow.
“I understand. Thank you, Father.”
After saying that, she straightened up and turned. The sound of footsteps quickly faded away.
Hisaki left at a run. Passing through the half-open sliding door of the Main Reception Hall, passing through the Courtyard Corridor, her steps paused here.
She stopped beside a stone lantern that hadn’t been lit yet, and vigorously wiped away the last traces of wetness on her face with the back of her hand. In total, only about a second or two… Then she continued running forward.
Meanwhile, in the room she had temporarily left behind, Hei Luan Yu Si turned back to face the Buddhist altar.
His gaze fell on the photograph he had looked at for most of his life. He reached out and gently flicked the edge of the photo frame.
“The children have grown up healthy and well, You Zi.”
Then he withdrew his hand, clasped his hands behind his back, and turned to walk toward the door.
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