Su Jiu suddenly gave a soft chuckle as she watched the couple still airing their grievances to the crowd. It was not loud, but many of those watching her stopped their discussions.
"You claim Ming Yun is your daughter, and that I'm the daughter your previous household head threw away?" Su Jiu's voice was mild, yet carried an unmistakable chill that seemed to lower the surrounding temperature by two degrees.
The woman hastily nodded. "You look exactly like Ming Yun. Clearly, you're the daughter of ours who was abandoned."
The corners of Su Jiu's lips curled slightly. "Don't you test bloodlines before claiming someone as family?"
Both husband and wife wore greed plainly on their faces. Judging by their features alone, Su Jiu would never have considered them her parents.
Fortunately, she had already made preparations of her own.
"How can you speak like that, child? We're your parents. Would we really deceive an orphan girl like you?"
Just as the woman was about to grab Su Jiu's hand, Feng Qi stepped forward with a warm smile, shielding Su Jiu behind him. "Our Azure Tide Sect's Su Jiu is no orphan girl. She has both a family and a sect.
"Her family is the Su Family, one of Peace City's Four Great Aristocratic Clans, and her sect is the Azure Tide Sect, one of the Azure Mist Continent's Eight Great Sects.
"So please don't slap the label of orphan girl on our Su Jiu."
The couple froze, clearly not expecting someone from the Azure Tide Sect to step forward and protect Su Jiu personally.
The man looked displeased, but remembering that the person before him was not someone he could afford to offend, he kept his tone as gentle as possible. "Fellow Daoist, I presume you're Ming Xi's Senior Brother.