The Will to Bully

The next day, dawn was just breaking.

Ye Shu was startled the moment he woke up in bed.

Because a pair of eyes, brimming with resentment and grievance, was staring at him quietly—like a bitter, forsaken wife who might slip arsenic into his porridge at any moment.

“You... what’s wrong with you?”

Ye Shu instinctively shrank back.

“I want to sleep on the bed...” Jiang Xin stood beside the bed, pouting, staring at him with pitiful, pleading eyes, her voice full of sorrow.

Heaven have mercy.

She was the dignified Nine Nether Empress, who had never lifted a finger for anything since childhood. Even after her reincarnation into the Jiang family, she had always been served hand and foot. Had she ever slept on the floor before?

The hard ground had made her whole body ache.

She had tossed and turned all night, unable to sleep, and only managed to get through the night by thinking of a hundred ways to torment this bastard.

It felt like a year had passed in a single day.

“...”

Ye Shu wanted to refuse, but seeing how pitiful this silly girl looked, and worried that others outside might suspect something, he could only sigh, lift the blanket, and tentatively said, “How about... we share?”

Jiang Xin hesitated for a moment and glanced at the bed.

Seeing that it was indeed big enough for two, she bit her lip lightly and nodded.

Fine, fine. It was just sharing a bed. They were already married, had already done the deed after the drug was administered, and had done everything. What use was being fussy now? It only made her own body suffer. She might as well pretend the person lying beside her was a stray dog from now on.

After convincing herself inwardly, Jiang Xin immediately moved her little hands, trying to burrow into the blankets, but Ye Shu pressed her down.

“Bro, do you even see what time it is?”

Ye Shu pointed helplessly at the sky outside the window, indicating that it was already time to get up.

He couldn’t shake the feeling that this girl was a bit simple-minded.

Probably hit in the head by the baby during childbirth, causing some congenital intellectual defect.

“Huh?”

Jiang Xin only then noticed that it was already light out.

Ye Shu leisurely sat up, dressed himself, then stood up and said, “I’ve never seen a mother like you. Instead of checking on your child first thing in the morning, you’re thinking about sleeping in.”

Only then did Jiang Xin remember she had a daughter.

She quickly got up and followed Ye Shu out of the room.

They found the little girl in the side room, locked inside a wardrobe.

She was about three or four years old, clutching a cloth doll, sitting quietly in the dim wardrobe without crying or fussing. When she heard the wardrobe door open, she curiously looked up at the two people at the entrance, her watery eyes devoid of any fear.

“Mommy!”

Seeing Jiang Xin, the little girl immediately broke into a happy smile and reached out her two small hands toward her.

“Mommy, hug!”

“She’s your daughter?” Ye Shu looked at the little girl, who did share some resemblance with Jiang Xin. “What’s her name?”

“Jiang Mingyue.”

Jiang Xin replied casually. When she saw Ye Shu reaching out to pick up the little girl, she quickly scooped Jiang Mingyue into her arms first, staring at Ye Shu warily.

“What are you trying to do?”

This was no ordinary child.

It was her Nascent Soul!

This was the subtlety of the Nine Nether Profound Abyss Art she cultivated. When she reached the Nascent Soul stage, the golden core transformed into an infant, breaking out of her dantian and taking the form of a baby. This infant was both her Nascent Soul and a clone of herself—capable of cultivating independently and even growing on her own.

However, this Nascent Soul was too fragile in its early stages, requiring careful protection. So, she had claimed it was her daughter to throw others off the scent.

“Daddy!”

Jiang Ming Yue, held in Jiang Xin’s arms, bit her finger and suddenly called out to Ye Shu.

Ye Shu was taken aback, and Jiang Xin’s whole body stiffened.

“You idiot, what are you doing?”

“You’re my Nascent Soul! How can you just call anyone ‘Daddy’?!” Jiang Xin screamed inwardly, but dared not show it on her face. She forced a stiff smile.

“The child’s probably a bit confused from being cooped up. Don’t mind her.”

Ye Shu didn’t bother to argue.

A foolish child begetting a foolish mother—it was only natural.

After confirming that Jiang Mingyue seemed like an ordinary child, Ye Shu didn’t think much of it. He simply told them not to wander off and headed for the door.

As a member of the Soul Lock Hall, he always had to report for duty.

Now that he had a wife and child, he had to work diligently every day just to survive in this bloodthirsty Mo family.

“Thirteenth Brother, how have you been lately?”

“Thirteenth Brother, I saw that new little wife of yours—she’s really pretty. You’re a lucky man!”

Along the way, many people greeted him.

Ye Shu brushed them all off and went to the Soul Lock Hall branch in his side lineage to check for any news about the Azure Sect disciples.

But after looking around, there was nothing important.

Just as Ye Shu was feeling disappointed and heading home, he suddenly noticed a group of children gathered around a little girl in front of his house. They were tugging her hair, pushing her, or trying to snatch her cloth doll.

The little girl stood in the middle, head lowered, holding her doll, silent.

Wow, that’s something.

Barely arrived, and there’s already kids bullying others for me to watch.

Ye Shu, ever justice-loving, immediately chose to... ignore it and strode right into the yard as if he had seen nothing.

Right now, he was “Mo Shisan.”

A man who forced a woman into marriage—why would he offend the other clan members just to protect a “bastard child”?

That would be completely out of character.

Inside the yard, Jiang Xin watched this and sneered to herself. Sure enough, this ancient monster had no heart. The stories in those romance novels, like The Nine Heaven Goddess Married the Wrong Man, where an unexpected marriage leads to discovering the husband is actually a cold-on-the-outside, warm-on-the-inside good guy who fiercely protects his wife and child—they were all lies.

Reality was often cruel.

When the children saw that Ye Shu didn’t intervene, they became even bolder.

In the end, it was Jiang Xin herself who stepped in to stop them.

That night.

The three of them sat at the table eating. Jiang Mingyue held her bowl, completely unaffected by the bullying, swinging her little legs and occasionally picking food for Ye Shu, smiling at him happily.

Jiang Xin watched this with a bitter taste in her heart.

She cursed the child under her breath for having no pride.

“You’re my Nascent Soul! I saved you, so why are you picking food for this ancient monster?!”

Jiang Xin spent the whole meal fuming silently.

When the meal was over.

Ye Shu put down his chopsticks, glanced at the pitch-black night outside the window, and then stood up, heading for the door.

“I’m going out.”

“What for?”

“To kill someone.”