On the way back, Yu Sui heard Han Ziyang ask Gongsun Qi who his mother was.
Gongsun Qi said he didn't know.
Han Ziyang fell silent for a long time.
Learning the truth about his origins from Gongsun Qi tonight had come as a heavy blow to Han Ziyang. When he was young, he'd imagined all sorts of possibilities.
When he heard people call him a wild child and curse him for having no father or mother, Han Ziyang used to imagine that one day his parents would come rushing to the Legalism School Territory with their whole clan in tow to take him home, and give those sharp-tongued people a good slap in the face.
After he entered the world at fourteen to gain experience, Han Ziyang would wonder: Are my parents still looking for me? Do they regret not protecting their child back then? If we meet again someday, they'll be so excited, tears streaming down their faces. His parents didn't have to be powerful or highly cultivated. Even if they were ordinary people, he still wanted to know what they looked like, how they lived, and how they would treat him.
Han Ziyang had imagined countless possibilities, but never that the mighty, towering father of his childhood fantasies would turn out to be a man who did nothing but sleep with women, sire children, and lose himself in drink, food, and lust.
Children? To a man like that, they were no different from a piece of unwanted clothing tossed aside.
His childhood fantasies ended in that moment.
Han Ziyang looked at the girl returning from outside. Thinking of all he'd seen and heard, he somehow found a little comfort in Yu Sui.
*At least I never imagined that parents like Nangong Ming and Su Xing could exist