An Yi loosely closed his right hand, and the power of space suddenly surged.
With a muffled bang, the tea set on the stone table was crushed into powder. He casually scattered it over the grass.
Who knew what else that damned girl might have put in it?
With a flip of his wrist, An Yi took another exquisite tea set from his Storage Soul Tool.
Made of a special green jade, this tea set had a smooth, warm texture and exquisite craftsmanship. The previous set could not compare to it.
Sea Maiden had given it to him when he was still on Sea God Island.
An Yi fetched fresh water. Soul Power surged at his fingertips, and he heated the water before pouring it into the teapot.
"You'd better remember this. If you ever try to pull a dirty trick on me again, I'll show you what it means to lose both sleep and appetite."
A chill ran down Qian Renxue's back, and she shrank her neck. "I was wrong! I really was wrong!"
An Yi glanced at her and dropped the matter. After sitting down, he poured himself another cup of tea.
Only then did Qian Renxue breathe a sigh of relief. She hurriedly hopped down from her chair, took the dinner dishes out of the food box one by one, and arranged them neatly on the table. Only then did she obediently sit down across from An Yi.
An Yi picked up his chopsticks and took a bite.
It tasted all right.
"Eat."
Qian Renxue shook her head. "I've eaten already. I'm not hungry."
An Yi said no more and ate by himself.
After dinner, Qian Renxue deftly put the empty plates back into the food box, then eagerly came over to pour An Yi some tea.
The bright moon hung high in the sky.
In the courtyard, the evening breeze swept over the grass, bringing a touch of chill.
An Yi let out a soft breath. "Don't just stand there. Sit."
Qian Renxue sat down as instructed and looked at him guiltily. "You're not angry anymore?"
An Yi picked up his green jade teacup. "I wouldn't get angry with a little brat."
"I'm not a little brat." Qian Renxue pursed her lips.
An Yi raised an eyebrow. "Whenever something happens, you run to your father or your grandfather. How are you not a little brat?"
Qian Renxue's expression froze, and she stammered, "I-I did not."
"Is that so?" An Yi put down his teacup and made as if to rise.
"Then let's go up the mountain and ask your grandfather right now. We'll see if you went crying to him today."
Qian Renxue's face turned red at once. She lowered her head and couldn't come up with a single word in rebuttal for a long while.
Seeing that she had fallen silent, An Yi couldn't be bothered to tease her further. He turned and walked toward the courtyard gate.
Qian Renxue panicked at once. She hurried after him and grabbed his hand.
"I won't go to him anymore!"
An Yi stopped and turned to look at her.
"I'm going to the Saintess Hall."
Qian Renxue was slightly taken aback and asked instinctively, "Can I come with you?"
An Yi asked in return, "What do you think?"
Qian Renxue lowered her head and let go of his hand, her face full of disappointment.
An Yi found her expression rather funny. He turned and strode forward.
"Come on."
Qian Renxue was briefly stunned. Her eyes lit up, and she trotted after him.
The two left the courtyard and followed the road to the Saintess Hall.
An Yi glanced at Qian Renxue beside him and suddenly spoke. "Tell me, if I didn't take you with me today, would you stop wanting me as your teacher again?"
Qian Renxue's steps immediately faltered. "N-no!"
An Yi chuckled.
"I know."
Qian Renxue had only just breathed a sigh of relief when she heard him continue:
"The reason you came to apologize wasn't because you thought you were wrong, or because you really saw me as your teacher."
Qian Renxue's smile froze on her face.
An Yi kept walking, his tone still calm.
"It was only because I can take you to see your mother. If I really stopped paying attention to you, you wouldn't be able to hug Bibi Dong anymore."
"Tell me, am I right?"
Qian Renxue opened her mouth, wanting to defend herself.
But when she looked up and met An Yi's calm eyes, she swallowed back everything she wanted to say.
An Yi looked away. "I don't care whether you see me as your teacher, but I have to warn you about Bibi Dong."
"Some things can't be forced. You want to see her, but she doesn't want to see you."
Qian Renxue's eyes reddened, and her voice grew tearful. "Why? Why doesn't she want to see me?"
"I'm not the one you should ask." An Yi's tone was calm. "Ask your father and your grandfather. This is your family's business. I'm just an outsider. I won't interfere, and I don't want to."
Qian Renxue bit down hard on her lip. "But neither of them will tell me..."
An Yi said mildly, "Since neither of them will tell you, you should know that this has nothing to do with you. Knowing wouldn't help. You can't change it, and since you can't change it, don't try to force it."
But Qian Renxue stopped in her tracks, biting hard on her lip. "But I want my mother!"
An Yi stopped and turned to ask her, "Just because you want her, you're going to force her to accept you?"
"You only want to satisfy yourself. In truth, you don't care about her at all."
Qian Renxue jerked her head up. "I do!"
"You do?"
An Yi looked at her and asked, "Then tell me, what have you done all these years?"
"You know full well that she doesn't like you, yet you've gone to her again and again. You want her to look at you, to talk to you, to hug you, to love you the way other mothers love their children."
"But have you ever thought about whether she wants to?"
Qian Renxue clenched her fists. "She's my mother!"
"I know. She's your mother." An Yi's voice grew a little deeper.
"But that doesn't give you a reason to force her to accept you."
Qian Renxue's eyes grew redder and redder, but An Yi didn't stop.
"I can tell that you actually harbor a great deal of resentment toward Bibi Dong."
"You resent her for not liking you, for never being willing to hug you since you were little, for always being so cold whenever she sees you."
"Especially when you can't get what you want from her, that resentment grows even stronger."
Qian Renxue froze.
"Your feelings for Bibi Dong have become somewhat twisted."
An Yi looked her straight in the eye. "You don't really care what she wants. You just want to obtain her love. To put it more bluntly, that's possessiveness."
Qian Renxue trembled all over and retorted through gritted teeth, "You're talking nonsense!"
An Yi didn't get angry. He simply looked at her calmly.
"Nonsense?"
"You know full well she doesn't like you, yet you keep testing her again and again. If you really cared about her feelings, you'd keep your distance instead of always thinking about how to get closer to her."
"But you haven't."
"All you've ever cared about is whether you can get what you want."
The tears in Qian Renxue's eyes finally fell.
"But she's my mother..."
She repeated those words, her voice growing quieter and quieter, as though saying them enough times could prove she wasn't wrong.
An Yi looked at her and gently shook his head. "She's your mother, but that doesn't give you a reason to force her to accept you."
"Love begins with respect, and respect begins with restraint."
"Do you have either?"
Qian Renxue gritted her teeth as tears kept rolling down her cheeks.
She wanted to say she did, but when the words reached her lips, she couldn't get them out.
Because she knew full well that every time she approached Bibi Dong, she thought about whether she would get a response, not whether it would make Bibi Dong uncomfortable.
She only wanted her mother, but she had never seriously considered whether her mother wanted her.
An Yi didn't lecture her any further. He simply stood there in silence, watching Qian Renxue cry.
He wouldn't dismiss everything as a trivial matter just because she was young.
Some truths were better understood sooner than regretted only after suffering for not knowing them.