Ye Xiaoxi

“Xiaoxi, are you sure this is really okay?”

Central State, in a remote wilderness.

Deep within a primeval forest a hundred li from the Lancang Desert.

A little girl with a sweet, doll-like face wandered leisurely through the forest. She wore a pink dress and had both hands pillowed behind her head, her chubby cheeks soft and rosy. A blade of foxtail grass dangled from her mouth, and an ancient-looking ring adorned the ring finger of her right hand.

“Relax, relax~”

The little girl pouted and said nonchalantly, “No one knew I was leaving—not even Mother. By the time they realize I’m gone, I’ll already be back!”

“That’s exactly what worries me.”

The ring on her finger glimmered faintly, and a slightly troubled woman’s voice came from within it.

“You’re your mother’s precious darling. If anything happens to you, how are we supposed to answer to your mother? Or your father?”

“Let’s go back quickly, before your mother starts worrying.”

“No, no!”

The little girl shook her head and refused with righteous indignation. “What’s so fun about home? It’s either yellow sand or more yellow sand. And then there’s Mother’s sour face. There’s nothing fun about it at all.”

“It’s much more fun coming out with you, Mother Danxia!”

The little girl puffed out her cheeks and smiled sweetly. “You’re so powerful, Danxia. You definitely won’t let me get hurt, right?”

“You little rascal. You really are just like your damned father.”

Within the ring’s space, Danxia shook her head helplessly.

As she looked at Ye Xiaoxi, who was walking around with a blade of foxtail grass in her mouth, another figure appeared in her mind—a figure dressed in white, his robes fluttering in the wind.

She really was like him.

So very like him.

Even the way she acted spoiled was exactly the same.

“Mother Danxia, what kind of person was Father, anyway?”

At the mention of her father, Ye Xiaoxi blinked her big eyes, which were filled with curiosity.

“Was he like the heroes in those storybooks?”

“Riding a white horse, stepping on flowing clouds, beating up everyone he met, kicking every dog he saw, and making sure no one within a hundred li dared speak too loudly?”

“You want to know about your father?”

Danxia rolled her eyes at her. “Go ask your mother.”

“I am asking my mother,” Ye Xiaoxi replied, her expression completely justified.

“……”

“I meant your other mother.”

“Mother won’t tell me. All she ever says is that I need to cultivate properly, and that Father was a complete idiot who went out showing off, got kicked to death like a stray dog, and died by the roadside with no one to collect his body. She says she was the one who gathered up his remains and dug a hole by the road to bury him. She didn’t even put up a gravestone. She says he died a truly miserable death and tells me not to be like him. I have to be calm and sensible, or else no one will even be around to collect my body when I die.”

“Mother Danxia, was Father really like that?”

At this point, Ye Xiaoxi raised her head in confusion.

“Ever since I was born, Mother hasn’t even let me see a portrait of Father.”

“Does Mother really hate Father that much?”

“……”

Danxia fell silent at the question. For a moment, she didn’t know whether she should answer.

After a while, she finally spoke slowly.

“What do you think, Xiaoxi?”

“What do you think your father was like?”

“What do I think?”

Ye Xiaoxi froze for a moment, then wrinkled her little nose.

“Anyway, he definitely wasn’t the kind of person Mother described—someone ugly beyond belief, stupid and useless, who got kicked to death like a stray dog by the roadside.”

At that, Danxia couldn’t help smiling.

“How do you know?”

“What if your father really was exactly the way your mother described him?”

“Impossible!”

The moment Danxia finished speaking, Ye Xiaoxi waved her hand grandly.

“Absolutely impossible!”

Even Danxia grew curious at the confidence in her voice. Could that man’s genes really be so powerful that his children were born with a naturally high opinion of him?

With a hint of curiosity, she asked, “Oh?”

“How can you be so certain?”

“That’s obvious!”

Ye Xiaoxi lifted her chin and said disdainfully, “Do you really think something that’s obviously fake can fool this genius?”

She strutted over to a nearby lake and bent down to look at her delicate reflection in the water. Pleased, she tugged at her slightly chubby cheeks and said with a smug expression, “Could the man Mother described possibly have a daughter as cute and clever as me—someone everyone adores?”

“Just think about it. It’s obviously impossible!”

Hearing this, Danxia’s lips twitched.

She had thought the girl’s certainty came from some sort of spiritual connection, but apparently, it was just pure narcissism.

Even her shameless confidence had been inherited.

As expected of his daughter.

“Actually……”

After admiring her own peerless beauty, Ye Xiaoxi straightened up and spoke mysteriously.

“I also overheard one of Mother’s little secrets!”

“What secret?”

Seeing her acting so mysterious, Danxia’s curiosity immediately flared up again, and she couldn’t help asking.

“You want to know?”

Ye Xiaoxi deliberately cleared her throat, as if she had suddenly remembered something.

“Ah, but unfortunately, Mother has always taught me that there must be both giving and taking. I can’t just be a doormat.”

Danxia was torn between laughter and exasperation.

“You little rascal. You’ve already learned how to bargain, have you? You just want to hear news about your father, don’t you? Your mother will tell you, but first you have to share your secret.”

“Deal, deal!”

“At last, I’m getting a new story!”

The moment her conveniently acquired mother finally agreed to tell her a story about her father, Ye Xiaoxi burst into laughter. She giggled so happily that she could barely close her mouth.

“You little……”

Watching her dance with excitement, Danxia’s lips twitched.

She had thought the girl missed her biological father terribly, but it turned out she simply wanted to hear a story.

A wayward disciple had produced an unfilial daughter. They really were father and daughter.

“All right, all right. Tell me the secret.”

Danxia coughed lightly, interrupting Ye Xiaoxi’s delight. Only then did the girl come back to her senses. She cleared her throat and lowered her voice.

“About a month ago, I secretly passed by Mother’s room and heard her crying inside. She was crying while cursing someone, saying things like, ‘You big liar!’ She sounded terribly heartbroken. She was nothing like her usual self……”

As Ye Xiaoxi spoke, her eyes held a trace of shock.

Her normally stern, icy mother—cold as a block of stone—had secretly cried alone at night like a little child. The revelation had been an enormous shock to her.

“A month ago?”

Danxia was startled, then realized what that meant.

A month ago…… Wasn’t that when she had sensed that Shu’er was still alive?

“Mother Danxia, what’s wrong? Why aren’t you saying anything?”

Ye Xiaoxi tilted her head and called out in her clear, childish voice.

“N-Nothing.”

Danxia hurriedly replied, “I just didn’t expect your mother to cry by herself in the middle of the night.”

At the same time, she felt a surge of relief.

Fortunately, she was in a spirit-body state. Otherwise, if this little girl found out that she herself had cried for three days and three nights back then, wouldn’t that be even more humiliating?

“Incredible, right? I thought so too.”

Ye Xiaoxi nodded.

“That’s why I’m certain your daddy isn’t the way Mommy says he was. Otherwise, why would Mommy have cried so sadly? She must have been lying to Xiaoxi.”

“Mommy must really, really like Daddy!”

“All right, I’ve finished sharing my secret. Now it’s Mommy’s turn to tell a story!” Ye Xiaoxi clapped her hands and looked at the ring with eager anticipation. “Was Daddy handsome? Was he powerful?”

“Your daddy wasn’t handsome.”

Danxia replied flatly, “But he was indeed very powerful.”

“...........”

“And then?”

When Danxia offered no more for quite some time, Ye Xiaoxi urged her on.

“There is no ‘and then.’” Danxia’s voice came from inside the ring. “That’s all I can tell you.”

Ye Xiaoxi stood frozen, clearly never expecting the long-awaited story to end just like that. She blankly raised her hand and counted off her fingers one by one. “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.”

“Exactly ten words! Ten words!”

She spread both hands, her little face filled with indignation. “Mommy’s cheating! You think ten words are enough to fob Xiaoxi off?”

“I never said how much I’d tell you.”

Danxia spoke in an utterly infuriatingly smug tone. “If anyone’s to blame, it’s you for being too young. The ways of the world are treacherous.”

“You—you—you!”

Ye Xiaoxi trembled with anger, her face flushing red.

“I hate you the most, Mommy Danxia! Mommy Danxia is a big liar! A horrible person! How dare you deceive pure, adorable, and supremely intelligent Xiaoxi!”

“Say whatever you want.”

Danxia sounded completely unbothered. “I’ve already finished talking, anyway.”

“You!”

Ye Xiaoxi gritted her teeth, her large eyes blazing with fury. Yet there was nothing she could do about it—she could not even bite Danxia a couple of times.

Just as the two of them were bickering,

a shadow suddenly fell across Ye Xiaoxi’s face. She looked up and saw a black-robed figure standing before her, his expression icy as he stared down at her.

“Brat, have you seen any members of the Snake-People Tribe around here?”