Then he heard his father and mother snap coldly at the same time, "Nonsense!"
"Shut up!"
"Dad!" Zuo Xiaonian said, on the verge of tears.
Zuo Changlu's indifferent expression vanished completely.
He set down his chopsticks, straightened his back, and said solemnly, "You, Zuo Xiaonian, are my daughter. Though you aren't my biological child, your mother and I have raised you since you were in swaddling clothes. There's no difference between you and a biological daughter."
"You are our daughter! Not a child bride we raised for our son!"
"When you were eight or nine, your mother talked nonsense about how wonderful it would be if you married Xiaoduo and our family never had to part... That was just a passing joke of hers. We never imagined you'd remember it all this time."
"But..." Zuo Changlu spoke unhurriedly, yet his tone allowed no argument. "You are not to say anything like that again!"
Chapter 2: No Need to Beat Your Little Brother Early
"But..." Tears filled Zuo Xiaonian's eyes. "I'm really tired. This road is too hard..."
Zuo Changlu looked into her eyes. "Xiao Nian, look me in the eye and tell me. Are you... really tired? Is this road really so hard for you?"
Her eyes red, Zuo Xiaonian turned her head aside and bit her lip. "Why must you drive me away? Wouldn't it be good for our family to stay together forever? I know you can't bear to part with me, but I can't bear to part with you even more."
At last, her tears fell, drop by drop.
Zuo Changlu remained expressionless. "Zuo Xiaonian, you tell me you're tired, that you can't take it. Heh. You're nineteen this year. Your Star Soul awakened at three. At six, you laid your martial Foundation Establishment and became a Martial Disciple that same year. You became a Martial Warrior at seven, a Martial Master at nine, made the Dragon Gate Leap into the Innate realm at eleven, and completed the Thorny Road to enter the Embryonic Breath Realm at thirteen. At sixteen, you crossed the divide between immortal and mortal. Now, at nineteen, you're about to cross the Yin-Yang Path and charge into the Dan Origin Realm! Your aptitude isn't just the best in Phoenix City, it's the best in the entire Central Plains. Even across the whole Yanwu Kingdom, your talent definitely ranks among the top three. If you say you're tired and can't take it, how is anyone else supposed to live?!"
Everything Zuo Changlu said was the absolute truth!
Zuo Xiaonian's aptitude had long since been proven. All her meridians had been open from birth, an aptitude rarely seen anywhere in the world. The title of "Phoenix City's greatest young female genius" had been firmly hers ever since she made the Dragon Gate Leap into the Innate realm at eleven. No one could shake her claim to it.
Zuo Xiaonian was the pride of Phoenix City, where they currently lived, and stood foremost even across the Central Plains. Had this girl not been so attached to home and unwilling to leave, the major sects would probably have taken her away to their secret cultivation grounds long ago.
"You've hardly encountered a single bottleneck along the way, and you tell me you're tired?"
Zuo Changlu snorted and said coldly, "Zuo Xiaonian, put away that ridiculous notion of repaying our kindness. Your mother and I may only be ordinary people whose aptitude isn't particularly lovely, but we would never stoop to using family affection and gratitude to hold a gifted girl here as our daughter-in-law!"
"If you still acknowledge us as your parents, then keep moving forward and carve out a life of your own for us to see! If you don't acknowledge us as your parents, then leave! Your wings have grown strong now. A Core Origin expert, a grandmaster of your generation—the whole world is yours to roam! We'll pretend we never raised you. It's not as if my son can't find a wife. He doesn't need your pity!"
"Waaah..."
Zuo Xiaonian opened her mouth and burst into tears, throwing herself into Wu Yuting's arms, her entire body trembling with sobs. "Mom... Dad scolded me..."
Wu Yuting held her daughter and gave Zuo Changlu a reproachful look. "If you don't agree, then don't agree. Why be so fierce?! Can't you say something reasonable nicely? This is what I can't stand about you. Once you lose your temper, you stop being yourself."
Zuo Changlu snorted, his anger still lingering. "Then you tell me, wasn't this girl asking for a scolding?"
Then he turned to Zuo Xiaoduo. "Did you hear that?"
Zuo Xiaoduo was hunched over, his head lowered as he snickered. Whenever he saw his older sister getting scolded, he couldn't help taking pleasure in her misfortune.
Besides, his father's remark about "our aptitude not being particularly lovely" had struck Zuo Xiaoduo as hilarious. He was still chuckling to himself when the sudden shout made him look up at once. Blinking, he fell silent as a cicada in winter. "Ah."
"Ah, what?! I'm telling you, your sister won't be walking the same road as you in the future. Don't get any ideas!"
Zuo Changlu snorted. "That wouldn't do either of you any good."
Zuo Xiaoduo shivered, drew in his neck, and said cautiously, "How would I dare...?"
He thought, That violent woman only acts gentler around you and outsiders. I've taken beatings from her for over ten years. Haven't I had enough? If she became my wife and I still couldn't beat her in a fight, wouldn't I get beaten for the rest of my life?
I've known about this since I was six, but after she beat me forty or fifty times that year, I refused.
I'm not going to ask for suffering.
Zuo Xiaonian hugged Zuo Changlu's arm and wheedled, "Dad, I was wrong, all right...? But did you have to say all that in front of Puppy...? You'll hurt his feelings." As she spoke, she glanced at Zuo Xiaoduo with tender concern.
Only to see Zuo Xiaoduo glaring furiously as he roared, "Don't call me Puppy!"
Zuo Xiaonian laughed through her tears and made a face at him.
Zuo Changlu sighed. "Xiaoduo's inborn aptitude is ordinary. He has no prospects on the Martial Dao. Inborn aptitude is a reality no one on this entire continent can change. In a world like this, where the strong reign supreme, he's destined not to go far. Better for him to live an ordinary life. Xiao Nian has a great future ahead of her. They're destined to belong to two different worlds... If we don't make things clear now, then no matter which of them starts entertaining other ideas, it will inevitably lead to regret. Who would that benefit?"
"When that time comes... it'll hurt even more."
Zuo Changlu let out a long, lingering sigh, his helplessness plain beyond words.
Wu Yuting also sighed softly. Holding her daughter in her arms, she rocked her gently and said in a tender voice, "Xiao Nian, I understand how you feel... But your father's right. You have to listen to him... You said yourself that your father and I treat you as our own. Could we bear to hold back your future? Besides... you have to understand, with what you've achieved now, if you really stayed... you'd only bring harm to your little brother instead... If you really stayed and married him, I'm only afraid he... wouldn't live more than a few days..."