The Letter

Back in the sect base. I just had a fine bath and was about to review my training, when someone knocked on the door of my room.

"Who's it?" I asked, without opening the door.

I was simply too lazy to open the door. I mean, I'm totally fine with practising some cultivation arts for ten hours straight, but still felt hesitant to open a damn door. I guess it's a matter of interest rather than effort, because if it was about the effort, opening the door was way too easy.

"It's your mom, Hua. Open the door." The voice on the other side spoke.

Look, I'm not paranoid or anything. But for all that matters, it could be an assassin aiming for my throat using my mom's voice. Yea, that's the reason for my hesitance—it's totally not because I'm lazy!

[... I'm simply astonished by the amount of reasoning you create to support your laziness—hell with all that effort put in on that, I don't think I can classify it as being lazy!]

{What can I do? I just don't feel like doing it.}

[Do you want me to do it then?]

{Nah, if it's actually mom, she'd become surprised if the door opened automatically.}

[If? You do know that it's your mom, right? I mean, you sense mana for a living these days.]

{... I do.}

[Ha… I just can't.]

Hearing Goldy's nagging voice, I had no choice but to open the damn door. Once I did, mom lunged at me and placed me in a bear lock. The clench was so tight that I found it difficult to break free from it.

[In simpler terms, your mom hugged you and you find it morally difficult to just break open the hold she has on you.]

{Well, you could say it that way as well.}

I felt it pretty soon enough. If I didn't ask her to stop hugging me, she'll continue hugging me. Not that I hate it or anything. It can be a bit awkward sometimes.

[Ha, you're a little tsundere as well, aren't you?]

I could hear Goldy chuckling after saying that, but I decided not to listen to his bull crap. Hence, I focused on the person before me.

"Mom, can you please stop hugging me? I'm kinda suffocating." I cried.

I wasn't actually suffocating, but my very real tears made her release the hold on me.

"I'm sorry, Hua. It's just that… Mom missed you so much!" She cried.

"Mom, calm down! It was just a few days. It's not a big de-" I was about to say that it wasn't a big deal, but the big round tears kept on flowing from my mom's face.

I guess one thing I shouldn't forget is that I'm still a child with a weak constitution in their eyes. So, it literally took nerves of steel for them to actually send a weak child as myself away for a week. I should be more appreciative about stuff like this, so that I won't make my mom sad anymore.

"I missed you as well, mom." I gave out the best smile that I could.

The tears stopped rolling from my mom's eyes as she saw my smile. Instead, she was laughing like crazy. "Hua, you still don't know how to smile properly, don't you? I appreciate your sentiments, but anyone can say how hard you're trying to keep that smile. You can stop now." She said as she stroked my hair gently.

I mean, it's not my fault for being an awkward smiling person. I mean, in the previous life as well, I was an extremely photo-phobic person, so there's nothing I can do about it. By the way, this feeling of being loved—it isn't half bad.

"Ah, why are you here, mom?" I asked, after about five minutes of her stroking my hair.

"Why? I can't see my daughter when I feel like it?" She asked.

"I didn't mean it like that-" I was pretty sure that I just ruined the mood with my question—or so I thought, before I saw her giggling. If she finds it funny, then great!

"I was kidding. I'm not here just to meet you. I'm here to deliver a letter as well." She spoke.

"A letter? From whom?" I asked.

I didn't have many contacts in this world, so the author of the letter was a mystery to me.

"It's from that Taiyi sect kid. I believe her name is Qiu Si?" Mom checked the letter to confirm the name again.

I simply didn't expect this to happen. I mean, sure, I used her name as a means to go to Noncho village, but did she know about that or something? Or is it just a casual letter? With this in mind, I opened the letter.

(We need to have a talk.

There are a lot of things you need to answer.

With love,

Qiu Si)

Yup. She knew. I don't know how, but she knew that I used her name. The letter was brief, but it sent a simple message. She seemed angry for some reason.

Anyway, how did she even know about this? There's no chance for that to happen, unless…

"Mom, did you send any letter to the Taiyi sect when I was there?" I asked.

"Oh, you happen to learn about that, huh? Well, I wanted to know if you safely reached the place or not, so I sent a letter to the sect head." She dropped the bomb as if it was nothing.

"... Then, what did he say?" I asked.

"What else? He said that you safely reached the sect and was having a really fun time with your friend." Mom replied with a bright smile of her own, which looked totally authentic, unlike my fake smile.

"He really said that?" I asked, just to confirm it yet again.

"Yup." She nodded her head.

If that's the case, then that means the sect head of the Taiyi sect blatantly lied to my family. Why? Is it because of Qiu Si or is there some other reason? I guess I'll only know about that once I meet up with Qiu Si.

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