Are you really trying to cultivate immortality? Something feels off.

"You don't love me, you've never loved me, and neither did Father. At least A-Yun had Father and elders to accompany her as she grew up, but what about me?" A tear suddenly fell from her eye, trembling, yet she refused to back down in the slightest. "Nie Qingyi, I stopped considering you my mother a long time ago, and I stopped considering the Nie family of Nanchuan my home a long time ago. You are not my mother, and you don't deserve to be."

Nie Qingyi gripped the corner of the table tightly, stood up, pointed at her, her fingers trembling. After a long while, she turned her head away and suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood, which ran down the corner of her lips.

"My lady!" Shen Yuan immediately stood up, helped Nie Qingyi up, and without hesitation used his moon-white long sleeve to carefully wipe the blood from the corner of her lips. "What happened?"

Nie Shiyun said in a trembling voice, "Mother..."

Nie Zhao's pupils trembled slightly; he wanted to say something, but ultimately could only remain silent.

Nie Qingyi pushed Shen Yuan away and wiped the blood from the corner of her lips with the back of her fingers: "Get out."

Looking at the mottled bloodstains on his wide sleeves, Shen Yuan felt a surge of anger rising within him. He turned his head sharply to look at Nie Zhao: "If I don't care about you, why should I? Do you really think of me as your father?"

Yu Xintang and Shen Chunri had already run to a corner to squat down and listen to the gossip.

Nie Qingyi suddenly narrowed her eyes.

“Pah!”

Clean and efficient, he was rewarded with a crisp sound.

Shen Yuan staggered and grabbed the table for support. His skin was porcelain white, almost translucent, from long-term medication and lack of sun exposure. Faint bluish veins on the side of his neck were faintly visible under his skin.

"You have no right to speak here," Nie Qingyi said coldly. "Shut up."

Xie Weixing slipped and almost fell on his bottom.

Is this another familiar ethical dilemma?

"What did he just say?" Yu Xintang asked in a low voice. "How can there be such a secret? Will we die quickly if we hear it?"

"I don't know, I don't know," Xie Weixing said.

Tan Suiting lowered his voice: "In Nanchuan, women are more powerful than men, so Aunt Nie probably has more than one husband."

"You two be quiet," Xie Weixing said, leaning against Shen Chunri, hugging his knees and listening intently.

Tan Suiting pursed her lips, silently moved closer, and leaned on his shoulder: "Oh."

Nie Shiyun looked up in shock, as if struck by lightning, and turned to look at Nie Zhao: "Sister?"

Nie Zhao remained calm, coldly looking at Shen Yuan without any change in expression.

A ridiculous thought crossed Nie Shiyun's mind, and she slowly tugged at Nie Zhao's sleeve: "You knew all along that you weren't Father's daughter, didn't you?"

"So what?" Nie Zhao's eyes remained calm and still. "I am my mother's daughter, and that's enough."

Shen Yuan's lips were always pale, only a faint blush, which faded even more as his emotions surged.

He stared intently at Nie Zhao, a smile playing on his lips: "So, I hate you. I hate the Nie family, I hate Nanchuan. I'll only be happy when everyone is dead."

"Why?" Nie Zhao asked coldly, "I haven't offended you."

Shen Yuan straightened up, his chest heaving violently like a malfunctioning bellows: "Back then, A-Yi and I were deeply in love. Even though my family was poor and I was plagued by a cough, she never abandoned me. She defied the elders' objections and welcomed me into the family. If it weren't for giving birth to you, why would she have taken in someone else!"

Hearing this, Xie Weixing gasped softly: "Did you guys understand? I certainly did."

Shen Chunri asked curiously, "Huh?"

"Back then, Aunt Nie deceived the young man's feelings," Xie Weixing licked his lips. "After marrying her, he became unwell and was afraid that the child he gave birth to would be unhealthy, so he took another woman as a concubine and had my senior sister. As a result, this man exploded. He hated my senior sister, hated the Nie family of Nanchuan, and hated the phoenix bloodline of Chidi. The love-struck husband has arrived."

Yu Xintang raised an eyebrow: "I thought he was seizing power because he was bullied by Aunt Nie for years, but it turns out it's to get revenge on Nanchuan and reclaim his wife?"

Shen Chunri clicked his tongue for a while, then nodded: "I can understand him."

"Aunt Nie is wrong too," Tan Suiting frowned slightly, "She married too many men."

The three of them said in unison, "Kids, don't talk."

Tan Suiting: ...

Oh.

Nie Zhao sneered: "So, while Mother was in seclusion, you harmed so many female elders to get revenge for them preventing you from entering the Nie family back then?"

"Of course they deserve to die," Shen Yuan sneered.

Tears streamed down Nie Shiyun's face, her voice hoarse and almost cracking: "Then why didn't you kill me! You hate my sister so much, why are you so good to me, why!"

Shen Yuan reached out and touched her face, his eyes filled with obsession: "Xiao Yun, your father has calculated the dates, and Nie Zhao could never be my child, but you might be."

Nie Shiyun stared at him in shock, her mouth agape, but she didn't know what to say.

For the first time, she felt that the man who had accompanied her through her childhood was so terrifying and horrifying.

Shen Chunri silently gave a thumbs up: "Awesome, indeed. Anyway, only a woman can be sure that the child is hers, there's no doubt about that, I can understand that."

Tan Suiting tilted his head, looking bewildered: "Don't you understand things too well?"

"If it weren't for giving birth to you, to give the Nie family of Nanchuan an explanation, how could Ayi have gotten involved with those shameless men! Do you know what it feels like to watch your beloved lying intimately with another man, and forcing yourself to maintain appearances and tolerate it, just because I am the head of the Nie family?" Shen Yuan's face was strikingly handsome, with sharp features, long, sparse eyebrows, and eyes filled with resentment. "It's all because of you, all because of the need to leave a bloodline for the Nie family of Nanchuan, to give birth to an heir for Chidi, that she got together with another man, that she grew tired of me!"

Nie Zhao looked at him calmly: "You are ungrateful and jealous, and frail and sickly. You are not worthy to be the head of the Nie family. The only mistake your mother made was to be attracted to your appearance and bring you into the family."

Shen Yuan shuddered, his eye sockets slightly sunken, a sign of his long-term frailty: "What do you know? A-Yi truly loves me. She was just angry with me, which is why she left after a big fight and has been in seclusion for so many years. No matter how much I begged, she refused to see me even once..."

Nie Zhao took a half step back, not wanting to be touched by him: "If you really love your mother, how could you join forces with the Blood Moon Hall to force the Nie family to this point? If you really have feelings for her, how could you torture A-Yun like this? You don't understand what love is at all."

"You're talking nonsense!" Shen Yuan pointed fiercely at her, then turned and threw himself into Nie Qingyi's arms, his pale and weak fingers tightly gripping the hem of her clothes.

"I know I was wrong, Ayi. You didn't want to see me, so I had to force you. I didn't want to force you... I don't believe that if Nanchuan Chidi is about to be destroyed by me, and your bloodline is about to be cut off, you would still refuse to see me..."

Xie Weixing's lips twitched, and he muttered under his breath, "Is this a trick even a human could come up with? If you don't like me, I'll kill your whole family and see if you like me then. Brother, are you some kind of ghost or something, trying to boost your sales figures? What are you doing?"