"Master of the Huang Family!!"
The form of address plunged the courtyard into instant silence.
The steward and servants who had followed Huang Xunjiu over blanched. They lowered their heads, not daring to make a sound, afraid he might take his anger out on them.
Huang Xunjiu himself was even angrier, his chest heaving again and again.
"Master of the Huang Family! He actually called me that! What a rebellious son!"
Just a moment ago, he had still thought that as long as they sat down and reminisced, the two of them could slowly reconcile and mend their nearly severed father-son relationship. Yet Huang Tian had addressed him as "Master of the Huang Family," plainly treating himself as an outsider to Huang Manor. It was clear they had grown estranged.
"How did our father-son relationship come to this? Could it be that I really did something wrong before?"
He doubted himself for a fleeting moment, then quickly cast the thought aside.
Wrong?
How could he be wrong?!
He walked over to the stone table with a dark expression and sat on the stone stool opposite Huang Tian. Lifting his chin slightly, he glanced toward Aunt Qin and Heng'er, who were busy gathering their things inside the main room, and asked coolly, "Did you come back just for those two maids?"
"Exactly." Huang Tian smiled faintly. "So I ask that the Master of the Huang Family hand over their contracts of service."
"And if I refuse?"
"Master of the Huang Family, those aren't contracts of indenture. You can't stop me from taking them with me."
Huang Xunjiu's expression turned cold. It wasn't as if he would begrudge two mere maids. He simply didn't want to agree because he had realized that, in Huang Tian's heart, his father seemed to rank below