Douluo II Period
When that gentle, serene figure appeared on the Sky Screen,
a voice filled with unbearable pain and longing trembled uncontrollably from the crowd at Shrek Academy.
"Mom... Mom..."
The voice was quiet, yet like a stone tossed into a still lake, it sent ripples spreading through the crowd.
"What?!"
"He... he called that maid... Mom?"
"Oh my god! Huo Yuhao... he... he's actually the son of Duke White Tiger, Dai Hao?!"
In an instant, everyone's gaze shot toward the trembling boy like a volley of swords!
Wang Dong's face was filled with unprecedented shock and confusion.
She whipped around to look at Huo Yuhao. He was already weeping, his body shaking violently as he stared fixedly at the sky, as though trying to carve that figure into his soul.
Xiao Xiao covered her mouth with her small hands, her eyes filled with shock and heartache.
The maid on the Sky Screen... was Huo Yuhao's mother?
Then... Duke White Tiger, Dai Hao, had to be—
A startling suspicion exploded in everyone's minds!
No wonder!
No wonder Dai Huabin had targeted Huo Yuhao at every turn from the very beginning!
They were half-brothers!
Now that the truth was out, everyone's feelings changed completely as they looked at the Sky Screen again.
The Sky Screen paid no heed to the commotion below. With the coldest of images, it continued telling the tragedy of that gentle woman.
[As Dai Hao's personal maid, Huo Yun'er had harbored a humble love for him since childhood.]
The scene was a study, tastefully furnished.
Huo Yun'er stood on tiptoe, carefully wiping the bookshelves.
Her eyes kept stealing glances at the man sitting behind the desk, reviewing military affairs.
In her gaze were reverence and admiration, along with the unmistakable love of a young woman.
[And Dai Hao, a seasoned hand at romance, easily noticed her innocent feelings.]
Dai Hao put down his brush.
He looked up, his deep eyes seeming to see right through people.
["Yun'er, do you find these chores too tiring?"]
He spoke gently.
["N-no, Your Grace. This servant doesn't find them tiring."]
Huo Yun'er was so nervous she could barely get the words out, her pretty face flushing red.
Dai Hao smiled faintly, his smile full of the charm of a mature man—enough to make any lovestruck young woman fall for him.
In the days that followed, he would show Huo Yun'er kindness now and then.
A word of concern, an accidental touch, a late-night talk by candlelight.
How could innocent Huo Yun'er resist the "gentle" advances of a duke whose military achievements were renowned and whose power reached the highest levels of the court?
She soon fell completely for him, believing she was the happiest woman in the world.
To Dai Hao, it was no more than a little appetizer after a meal, a diversion from the burdens of military affairs.
But Huo Yun'er remained naive, believing that the duke felt something different for her.
On a night beneath a bright moon and scattered stars, she gave everything to the man she loved.
Afterward, Dai Hao casually unfastened a dagger from his waist and tossed it to her.
["Take it. You're mine now."]
It was a finely crafted, sharp dagger engraved with a White Tiger crest.
Huo Yun'er held it as if it were a priceless treasure, hugging it tightly as a happy, bashful blush spread across her face.
[She thought it was a token of their love.]
But the Sky Screen's cold narration ruthlessly shattered that false romance.
[It was merely an object Dai Hao had picked up at random.]
[Afterward, Dai Hao didn't even remember giving the maid anything.]
Those heartless words instantly shattered the hearts of countless lovestruck young women.
Huo Yuhao bit down hard on his lip, the metallic taste of blood spreading through his mouth.
He remembered how his mother had clutched the dagger tightly even as she lay dying, telling him it was the only keepsake his father had left to them.
How ironic! How tragic!
The scene continued.
When the steward cautiously reported to Dai Hao that Huo Yun'er was pregnant,
Dai Hao didn't even look up from the military map he was studying. He merely furrowed his brow, looking somewhat impatient.
Not long afterward, the steward hurried over to report to Dai Hao.
["Your Grace, that maid... she... she's pregnant."]
Dai Hao was polishing his sword. At those words, his movements didn't falter in the slightest.
He didn't even turn around, merely giving a calm order:
["Let her have the child."]
["I'd like to see what kind of Martial Soul comes from the union of a commoner's bloodline and the bloodline of my Dai Family."]
His tone made it sound as though he wasn't talking about his own unborn child, but about some trivial experiment in livestock breeding!
Unable to bear it any longer, Huo Yuhao's legs gave way, and he fell to his knees!
"Ah—!"
He let out a roar, anguish suppressed to its limit, and slammed his fists against the hard ground until they were covered in blood!
So that was it!
From the very beginning, his birth had been nothing but an experiment!
An experiment to satisfy Dai Hao's curiosity!
The scene shifted to the day Huo Yuhao was born.
Ten months of pregnancy, followed by labor.
When the frail baby was brought before Dai Hao, he gave him only a cold glance.
When he saw the baby's unusual eyes, his brows furrowed.
["A mutation?"]
["Hah. As expected of a lowly bloodline. It could only produce this kind of mongrel, neither one thing nor the other."]
["This is an insult to the honor of my Dai Family!"]
["Enough. He's just a useless brat."]
["Let the Duchess deal with him."]
Those icy words sentenced mother and child to death.
From that moment on, they went from maid and young master in Duke White Tiger Mansion to prisoners in a woodshed, treated worse than servants.
The scenes flashed by.
They showed the darkest ten years in Huo Yuhao's memories.
On cold winter nights, his mother's coughing blood stained the frozen ground.
Moldy food, the servants' contemptuous stares, and—the Duchess's undisguised hatred.
Yet his mother, that gentle woman, always held him whenever he was at his most desperate.
Using the spotless White Tiger Dagger, which she had polished so carefully, she peeled wild fruit she had somehow managed to find and told him over and over:
["My child, don't blame your father. He's a great hero of the empire, stationed at the border to protect us."]
["When the war is over, he'll come back to see us..."]
But the scenes on the Sky Screen tore that pitiful fantasy to shreds.
[In truth, Dai Hao returned to Duke White Tiger Mansion several times over those ten years.]
In the scenes, Dai Hao's luxurious carriage passed the dilapidated woodshed several times.
Inside, he drank and laughed with other noblewomen.
Outside, his own son was being beaten bloody by the steward's children over a cold steamed bun.
Just a stone's throw away, yet one was heaven and the other hell.
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