Ancestor Yuan

"You wretch, get down on your knees!"

Marquis Anqing pointed at the ancestral tablets of the Gao Family in the middle of the room and thundered.

The elegant young master knelt stiffly on the cushion.

"Do you know your crime?"

"Ancestor Yuan does not."

"You don't? You—you..."

Marquis Anqing choked with rage, snatched up the family rod from before the tablets, and brought it down hard across the young master's back.

The young master didn't make a sound. Marquis Anqing struck him three times before finally stopping. "Speak. Why have you been slacking off? Do you truly think the Gao Family can't do without you?"

"Ancestor Yuan had no such intention. It's just, it's just..."

"It's just what!"

The young master gritted his teeth. "It's just that Ancestor Yuan has heard of the Seven Generations' Plan for far too many years, yet even now, there's no sign of where hope lies. In my heart, I've already given up. Since childhood, Ancestor Yuan has trained bitterly, day and night, for the sake of the Lineage, to preserve hope for the Lineage. But even now, Ancestor Yuan can't see any hope..."

The young master fell silent there, but Marquis Anqing heard the words he had left unsaid. The anger in his heart faded by more than half.

Indeed, for the sake of the so-called Seven Generations' Plan, the Gao Family had paid an unimaginable price. The Gao Family heirs chosen as candidates had suffered just as much.

As the Gao Family's brightest hope, Gao Zuyuan had never known a normal childhood. Marquis Anqing could imagine the torment he had endured through more than twenty years of bitter cultivation.

"Poor child, if there were no hope, would I have brought you to the capital? Never mind. Since you were bound to find out