The Rootless People

With a thud, he dropped straight to his knees.

"Father, Mother, I came too late."

Xiong Lie's mother lifted her head and looked at him.

Her lips trembled. "Lie'er, you're back... you're finally back?"

Xiong Lie clasped his mother's cold hand and nodded hard.

"It's good that you're back. It's good that you're back."

She murmured the words.

Then she lowered her head again, gazing at the corpse in her arms, which was growing colder by the moment. Tears slid down her cheeks and fell onto Xiong Li's father's body.

She pressed both hands against his wide-open eyes and gently closed them.

"Mother..." Xiong Lie watched her, wanting to speak but holding back.

Xiong Li's mother was eerily calm.

"If there's something you want to ask, just ask."

But Xiong Lie hesitated, his eyes torn with uncertainty.

At last, he couldn't hold back any longer. "Mother, Father is dead, and everyone in Xiong Family Village with Xiong Family blood has died. The clan elder said the Li Family used a curse targeting our bloodline, but... but I wasn't affected at all..."

He glanced over again.

At his son, standing blankly not far away.

"Song'er... is fine too."

Having said that, he lowered his head.

He didn't dare look at his mother.

At his words, Xiong Lie's mother went pale.

She fell silent for a long time.

So long that Xiong Lie thought she would never answer.

Then, suddenly, she spoke.

Her voice was hoarse. "Because you aren't your father's biological son."

Though he had already suspected as much,

he still trembled from head to toe when he heard his mother say it.

"Mother, why?"

His mother gave a tragic smile.

It was full of sorrow and an indescribable sense of release.

"Why..."

She tilted her head back.

Her eyes seemed