Bian Chunchou froze. "You hate them that much?"
"Of course. I should have returned to the sect ages ago, but this happened at just the wrong time. I had no choice but to stay with my Lineage and work like an ox or a horse. Sigh." When Shi Yijian spoke of his Lineage, he was plainly full of grievances. Perhaps seeing a junior brother he was close to had brought his urge to confide to a peak. "To tell you the truth, my origins aren't exactly respectable."
Bian Chunchou: ...Is this really the time for this?
Shi Yijian went on regardless. "The Shi Household is the finest hunting dog under the City Lord's Office. Put plainly, we're its most useful Lineage of slaves. They say our ancestor was once a sword attendant raised up by a city lord. Of course, we've changed our face since then. To outsiders, we're a renowned Aristocratic Clan of alchemists."
Uh, straight to airing the family's dirty laundry? Is that a good idea? Bian Chunchou silently pricked up his ears.
"My mother was the daughter of a mortal woman the previous head of the Shi Household took a fancy to on a whim. She had some talent, so they brought her into the Household and gave her the Shi surname. But her life was hardly good. She had me before she married, then refused to become a concubine to a young master of the City Lord's Office as the Lineage demanded. She died outside." Shi Yijian did not say whether she had truly died or only supposedly died, but the flatness of his voice made one thing clear: his affection for the Lineage stood at zero.
"As for me, I wasn't originally a Shi either. But I had a strong body, so I was chosen