After entering the room, little Siqian sat on the lap of her youthful-looking Grandmother, receiving kisses and hugs, while her Grandfather also smiled and rubbed her head.
Luo Siqian hadn’t expected Grandfather and Grandmother to be so enthusiastic; for a moment, she truly didn’t know how to respond. But being loved by so many people felt really nice.
“Little Siqian, where have you been before? Why are you only coming to see Grandfather and Grandmother now? Such a pity, I really wanted to see you when you were still a baby. Oh, right, who’s your father? Where is he now?” Liu Qingyao said with regret.
She loved children the most, and now her granddaughter was already so big before she came.
Of course, most importantly, she didn’t even know who her son-in-law was!
“Which scoun… Ahem, which outstanding young man was so ‘lucky’ to quietly steal away the daughter I’ve raised all these years?”
Seeing that his granddaughter was still so happy, Su Changfeng suddenly remembered—who was the scoundrel that had quietly taken his daughter away!
Of course, with little Siqian right here, Su Changfeng restrained himself and didn’t curse her “father” in front of his granddaughter.
Facing Grandfather and Grandmother’s questions, little Siqian scratched her head helplessly. “I don’t have a father…”
“No father?! Why? Did he… It’s alright, little Siqian, you still have us, it’s alright, what a poor child…” As she spoke, Liu Qingyao wiped her tears, who knows what she was imagining.
Seeing that Grandfather and Grandmother seemed to have misunderstood, Luo Siqian quickly explained:
“It’s not like that, I don’t have a father, but I have a mother! I always lived in the Imperial Palace with my mother before, and today I finally got to see Mom, Grandfather, and Grandmother, so I’m really happy!”
“Hmm?”
Luo Siqian’s words completely stunned the couple. What did she mean? Why could they understand each sentence, but not when they were put together?
Suddenly, Liu Qingyao noticed something that couldn’t be explained. “Wait, little Siqian, how old are you now?”
“Six years old!”
“This doesn’t make sense. All these years, Qianqian has always been in the Sect. She comes to visit us from time to time, but her belly has always looked normal.”
Liu Qingyao realized the main point and now turned to look at her eldest daughter, who had been sitting upright for a while, her face full of confusion.
Under her gaze, Su Qianqian turned her face away.
“Qianqian, what’s going on? Siqian looks so much like you, but why… are Cultivators really that miraculous? You can’t even tell when they’re pregnant? And why did it take a full six years before you brought little Siqian to us? Even if you wanted to surprise us, this isn’t how it’s done, is it…?”
Liu Qingyao asked quietly.
“Um… Uh…” Su Qianqian had only been thinking about surprising her parents.
After all, she’d always hoped to fulfill their wish of seeing their grandchildren while they were still alive, but she had forgotten to think about how to explain it!
Seeing her mother’s troubled expression, Luo Siqian thought her mother was being scolded by Grandmother because of her and hurriedly helped explain!
“It’s not Mom’s fault. It seems like Mom and Mother had a falling out, and it was Mother who made Mom angry, so they haven’t seen each other all this time.”
“Mom… Mother…” Liu Qingyao was still a bit confused.
For an ordinary person, this was all beyond common sense, and she subconsciously took both ‘Mother’ and ‘Mom’ as Su Qianqian, so she felt dizzy.
But now, she started to understand, “So, the other person is also a woman?”
“Yes…”
“She was the one who was pregnant?”
“Yes…”
“Did something happen…?”
“She… did something I can’t forgive, so I don’t want to see her anymore. As for little Siqian…” Su Qianqian looked at Luo Siqian, who was anxiously trying to help explain, and finally didn’t say much more.
But Liu Qingyao, seeing the situation, was already a mother herself and could roughly guess. It was probably one of those situations… If that was really the case, it wasn’t appropriate to talk about in front of little Siqian.
Liu Qingyao raised her head, her mind in a whirl, and the thought of what her daughter might have experienced made her feel even more downhearted.
Instantly, the room fell silent. Su Qianqian suddenly spoke, “Little Siqian is innocent, so… she’s still my daughter.”
Su Changfeng’s mood also plummeted. He had thought some lucky kid was the father, but it turned out to be a damned scoundrel!
Seeing the atmosphere turn like this, Luo Siqian felt awful inside. She didn’t want it to be like this…
“I’m sorry… I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”
Everyone’s eyes turned to Luo Siqian in Liu Qingyao’s arms. She was crying and apologizing over and over…
She didn’t know what Mother had done, but she felt she should apologize for her, and she didn’t want Aunt, Mom, Grandfather, and Grandmother to hate Mother!
For a moment, everyone was at a loss and rushed to comfort her, when suddenly the door was pushed open with a bang!
“Mom, Dad, I’m back!” Su Nuonuo burst through the door, only to see the scene inside.
“What’s going on here? Eh? Who are you? Mom, did you give me another big sister?!” Su Nuonuo asked in shock. How could there be another person when she’d just gone out for a while?
“No, this is your niece! Hurry and help us comfort your little niece!” Su Lingling hurriedly waved to her little sister to come over.
“Niece…?” Su Nuonuo didn’t quite understand the exact relationship, but it seemed the rank was lower than hers!
“Yay, I’m not the youngest anymore!”
Su Nuonuo shouted and rushed to Luo Siqian’s side. The sudden arrival of this girl confused Siqian, but before she could react, still sniffling, she was pulled up by Su Nuonuo, who was the same height as her!
“Don’t cry. Here, have some of my secret snacks, then come play with me! There’s no one to play with me in the Sect!”
Just like that, in a daze, Luo Siqian was handed a crunchy, delicious snack by Su Nuonuo, and before she could chew a few times, she was dragged out of the room at a run…
“Nuonuo, don’t bully your niece——!”
“Got it——!”
Su Lingling scratched her head helplessly. Her little sister’s personality was even wilder than when she was young.
Afterward, she looked again at her parents and elder sister, the heavy atmosphere still in the air. She sighed, not knowing how to begin.
No one spoke. Slowly, Liu Qingyao walked to Su Qianqian and hugged her tightly:
“If you’ve suffered, you must tell us. Don’t bottle it up. It’s our fault for being useless now; even if you’ve been hurt, there’s nothing we can do…”
Feeling the familiar warmth, Su Qianqian shook her head. “It’s alright, it’s in the past now. I don’t really feel much anymore. Besides, I owed her a lot before, so just treat it as making up for it. Now we’re even, no more connections—that’s for the best…”
“Little Siqian was an accident, but I… don’t dislike her…”
“Wow!” In Su Nuonuo’s “secret base,” Luo Siqian couldn’t help but exclaim.
“Hehe, I found this cave by accident, and there are so many amazing things! Like that pool over there—the water sparkles and tastes really good. And there are a bunch of stone platforms over there, and when you get close, a bunch of phantoms appear. They’re all really enthusiastic and keep fighting to teach me things—but I usually don’t go over. They’re too noisy, and sometimes they even start fighting with each other.”
“Wow! That’s amazing!” Luo Siqian exclaimed again.
“So, Aunt, why did you bring me here?”
“Don’t call me Aunt, it’s weird. Just call me Nuonuo. Come play games with me. No one here ever plays with me!”
With that, Su Nuonuo pulled out a box full of beetles!
“You seem to have reached the Foundation Establishment Stage too. I’ll teach you a spell I made up. You can use it to control these beetles, and then we can have beetle battles!”
This was something she created based on the Bewitchment Technique that Sister Xiaoyou taught her.
It was kind of like the Beast Mastery Method—lots of fun, but it really needed someone to play with.
Luo Siqian’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Eh? That’s a really interesting spell! But I think it could be improved. Using this technique to control one beetle is fine, but it’s easy to get chaotic if you try to control too many. These bugs clearly have different strengths. You could have them form a connected group, then control the strongest one to indirectly command the rest. That should save a lot of effort… ah, that’s just my idea.”
These were improvements she came up with based on things her mother taught her and some techniques.
Just like that, the two children discussed how to make beetle battles more fun, oblivious to the far-off Transmitting Platform, where the spiritual imprints left behind by Sword Sect elders could barely hold it together:
“Where did this little monster come from?! Such amazing talent, is Sword Sect entering its Golden Age again?! Hmm, this child seems to have fate with Heaven’s legacy, so—”
“Get lost, get lost, every genius is your fated one, huh!”
“Not convinced? If not, let’s fight!”
“Come on, who’s afraid of whom?! Last time we didn’t even get to settle it!”
“You guys are so noisy! I didn’t even go over there this time, what are you arguing for!” Su Nuonuo shouted a few times toward that side, and the voices instantly quieted down.
Luo Siqian watched Su Nuonuo waving her fists, and covered her mouth, laughing softly. This Aunt was really interesting.
……