Your Father Was a Beast

The air in the private room had frozen, almost tangible.

"Gold, colored, nightgown?"

Qian Renxue repeated the words one by one, her voice seeming to grind out between clenched teeth.

Her usually refined, easygoing Prince's Face was now flushed with shame and fury. Even her neck had turned pink.

This was her greatest secret!

The one moment, amid countless days and nights of pretending, when she could finally be herself!

How the hell did this bastard know?!

Had he planted a surveillance device in my bedroom? Or was he just an invisible pervert?!

Boom!

The Six-Winged Angel Martial Soul could no longer be suppressed. Its sacred, domineering golden Soul Power erupted, sending every table and chair flying.

Qian Renxue seized Su Yun by the collar and slammed him hard against the wall.

Killing intent boiled in her golden eyes. It was as if she might burn the lecher before her to ashes at any moment.

"Su Yun!"

"Do you really think I wouldn't dare kill you?!"

Faced with divine pressure enough to make an ordinary Soul Master wet himself, Su Yun remained remarkably calm.

He even had time to glance down at the hand gripping his collar.

Her fingers were long, her knuckles distinct. She was using a disguise Soul Tool, but she couldn't hide the softness of a woman's touch.

"Don't get worked up, Your Highness."

Su Yun raised both hands in surrender, but wore that same punchable grin.

"Killing me would be easy."

"But if you kill me, who's going to help you untie the knot that's been troubling you for twenty years?"

Qian Renxue's hand trembled slightly.

A knot?

"What do you mean?"

she asked coldly.

Su Yun sighed and met her eyes. His usual teasing expression gradually faded, replaced by a rare seriousness (that was totally fake).

"Xue'er."

He said "Xue'er" so naturally, as if the two of them had been lovers for years.

Qian Renxue stiffened. She was about to lash out, but Su Yun's next words stopped her cold.

"You've always hated that woman, haven't you?"

"You hate her for giving birth to you and not raising you, for treating you with icy indifference, for killing your father, Qian Xunji."

"You think she's an evil witch, the culprit who destroyed your family."

"So you trained like mad and kept up your disguise, even going undercover for twenty years, all to prove you were stronger than her. You wanted to trample her beneath your feet one day and ask her: Why?"

Every word was like a sharp blade, striking the softest, most painful place in Qian Renxue's heart.

Her eyes reddened.

The hurt and fury of having her innermost feelings exposed made her want to scream.

"Shut up!"

"What do you know! That woman's a lunatic! A cold-blooded animal!"

"Heh."

Su Yun gave a derisive laugh.

"A lunatic?"

"Yeah, she really did lose her mind."

"But do you know why?"

Su Yun suddenly broke free of Qian Renxue's grip and pulled the black Diary from his clothes.

"Because of your father, Qian Xunji."

"Because the father you regarded as a hero, as the Angel God's representative..."

"Was, in fact, a complete and utter beast!"

"Shut up!!"

Qian Renxue completely lost control.

That was her father!

The pride of the Angel Clan!

How could she let an outsider slander him like this?!

The Angel Sacred Sword formed in her hand. Its golden flames even burned through the ceiling.

"Su Yun, you're asking for death!!"

As the Holy Sword descended, Su Yun didn't dodge.

He hastily wrote a line in the Diary, then tore out the page and slapped it against Qian Renxue's face (or sent it straight through the Diary Copy).

"Read it yourself!"

"This is what really happened back then!"

"This is what took place in that so-called 'Secret Chamber'!"

[X year, X month, X day. A little history lesson for the naive.]

[Qian Renxue always thought her dad was the hero and her mom was the villain.]

[Little did she know, the whole story was the other way around.]

[Back then, Bibi Dong and Yu Xiaogang were kind of... ahem. Yu Xiaogang was a useless piece of trash, but Bibi Dong genuinely wanted to leave with him.]

[And then?]

[That old beast, Qian Xunji, wanted to keep the genius with Twin Martial Souls and strengthen the Angel Clan's bloodline. So what did he do?]

[He knocked out his own disciple, Bibi Dong, who respected him like a father, and locked her in the Secret Chamber.]

[Then...]

[He forced himself on her.]

[With the vilest, most shameless means, he took a girl's innocence, destroyed her love, and ruined her whole life.]

[What's even more disgusting is that he used it to threaten Bibi Dong and force her to give birth to a child.]

[That child was you, Qian Renxue.]

[You weren't born of love, but of evil.]

[You were the pillar of shame Qian Xunji left Bibi Dong, the continuation of her nightmare.]

[Every time she sees you, she remembers that desperate night, and the beast of a teacher who indulged his lust on her.]

[That's why she hates you.]

[But she hates the world that turned her into this even more!]

[And how did Qian Xunji die?]

[He got what he deserved! Bibi Dong endured it all and, while he was gravely injured (after Tang Hao had beaten him to a pulp), devoured him.]

[That's what they mean by karma coming full circle. Who can escape the heavens' justice!]

[That's the truth.]

[A cruel, bloody, stomach-turning truth.]

Clang.

The Angel Sacred Sword hit the floor with a clear ring.

Qian Renxue stared at the words floating before her eyes (the Diary Copy), as if her soul had been torn from her body.

Her face faded from red to white, from white to ashen, until it was utterly drained of color.

The Secret Chamber...

Rape...

Threats...

"No... That can't be..."

"You're lying... You made it all up..."

Qian Renxue murmured to herself. Her body trembled uncontrollably as she stumbled backward until she hit the wall, with nowhere left to retreat.

She wanted to refute him, to kill Su Yun and prove him wrong.

But reason told her it was true.

Because it explained Bibi Dong's attitude toward her perfectly.

Why had her mother always looked at her with such a complicated expression, full of disgust?

Why had her grandfather, Qian Daoliu, kept silent about the matter?

Why...

"Ugh—"

Qian Renxue suddenly clutched her chest, a wave of nausea surging through her.

The pain of her faith crumbling was ten thousand times worse than any physical wound.

The father she had worshiped for twenty years was a rapist?

And the mother she had always resented was a victim?

"I'm... the product of a crime?"

Qian Renxue slid to the floor, buried her face in her hands, and let out a desperate sob.

At that moment, the proud Crown Prince, the all-conquering heir to the Angel God, shattered.

Watching her, Su Yun felt awful too.

He'd done it to win her over, and for the greater good, but this medicine had been a little too strong.

"Haah."

Su Yun sighed and walked over, crouching in front of Qian Renxue.

He didn't say anything. He simply held out a handkerchief.

"Go ahead and cry."

"You'll feel better once you let it out."

"This isn't your fault. The grudge belongs to the previous generation."

"But you deserve to know the truth."

Qian Renxue jerked her head up. Her golden eyes were filled with tears and bloodshot streaks.

She stared at Su Yun, her voice hoarse.

"Why..."

"Why tell me all this?"

"Wouldn't it be better if I went on hating her?"

"No."

Su Yun shook his head and reached out, daring to wipe the tears from the corner of her eye.

"Because I don't want you living a lie."

"And more than that..."

Su Yun looked into her eyes, his voice gentler than it had ever been.

"I don't want you to regret it someday."

"Bibi Dong... has actually been protecting you all along."

"If she truly hated you to the bone, do you think you'd still be alive, given her strength?"

"Her coldness toward you is really a way of protecting you. She's afraid she might lose control of the Rakshasa malice inside her and hurt you."

"Xue'er."

Su Yun took her cold hand.

"This family has already fallen apart once."

"I don't want to see it happen again."

"Give me a chance, and give her one too."

"Let's... start over. All right?"

Qian Renxue froze.

She looked at the man before her.

They'd known each other for less than an hour, and he was a little bastard who couldn't go five minutes without spouting nonsense.

But at that moment, in his gaze, she felt something she had never felt before... someone she could lean on.

Like catching hold of the only piece of driftwood in the middle of a raging storm.

"Su Yun..."

Qian Renxue could no longer hold it in.

She threw herself into Su Yun's arms and burst into tears.

She cried like a wronged child.

She cried until her heart tore apart.

Su Yun held her, gently patting her back as her tears soaked through his clothes.

He sighed to himself.

[Done.]

[That was a little cruel, but it worked like a charm.]

[The solid ice between mother and daughter has finally cracked.]

[Now it's my turn.]

[Tang San, oh, Tang San. Your angelic big sister belongs to me now.]

[As for you, go enjoy your Blue Silver Grass!][]