5

The thunderbolts kept striking for a duration of 30 minutes until Lara's eyes couldn't take it anymore.

She rose up from the dirty ground and patted the dirt off her clothes.

"Fine, I will prove to you that I am special" she muttered under her breath before calming herself down.

Now that she had little energy left, she needed a place to sleep and food to eat. She couldn't get these two things by staying in this wretched alley. So she slowly began to walk out of the dark alley and on getting out she saw a busy street teeming with people of all kinds and statuses. The rich either rode carriages or were dressed expensively to the core. Peasant vendors and merchants were calling out to passersby to buy their wares.

"Stinky tofu! Stinky tofu! Don't look at its face, it's creamy and tasty inside. Stinky tofu"

"Sugarcoated haws!"

"Come buy bracelets for your wife and lover"

"Hey pretty miss, check out these pills,they'll help you recover from injury at 30 percent fast rate. Don't miss out on his"

"Don't believe him. His are second-hand pills and fake. Buy mine instead. They'll help you recover with a 40 percent healing rate guarantee"

Each one was trying to outdo the other in their business. As Lara looked around while walking, she noticed a lot of stores sold pills for cultivation uses like pills for healing external and internal injuries, removing years-long scars on the body, beauty enhancers, strength replenishing, and speed increasers. Some others advertised poisons and poison antidotes.

Lara was currently only interested in food but she had no money. She's currently thinking of what to do to fill her stomach quickly.

As she walked by, she noticed a store that sold cultivation manuals of the lowest grade and walked towards it.

Upon entering, she saw that there were some customers checking around for the books they liked to buy. She saw the owner sitting on a chair behind the counter.

She walked to him with a forced smile.

"Little one, what can I do for you?" the man kindly asked as he drank his tea in an elegant manner.

"Daddy, I finally found you"Lara exclaimed excitedly.

Puchi!

The man sprayed out the tea in his mouth in shock. His eyes widened and he clutched his chest.

"You, what are you saying? How can I be your dad when I am still a...forget it. I am not your dad. Go look for him elsewhere" said the man angrily.

"Papa, how can you deny me like this. I won't leave until you accept me" Lara said in a sulky manner.

What the heck! I was just sitting and enjoying my peaceful life, what's with this kid. In what way do I look like her father. And heavens know I am still a virgin through and through. I have to get rid of this kid or she'll ruin my reputation." thought the man.

Lara sat on the ground and began to cry loudly making the man wish to strangle her to death.

Customers in the store were attracted and came to see her.

"Little one, what's wrong? Are you lost?" asked one of the female customers.

"I'm not lost."Lara pointed at the man who had left the counter.

"He's my father. But he won't accept me. Tell me where is the justice? A father who rejects his only child just because she isn't pretty. Father abandoned me and my mother in the village and did not come back for us ever since. She died leaving me alone. My relatives kicked me out saying I was bad luck. Now I finally came here and found father but he won't accept me" Lara said and continued crying as loudly and hard as she could.

Many eyes were on the bewildered man.

"I'm not her father.I've not even married or touched a woman's hand in my entire life. How could I be her father? Kid, you must be mistaken, pls leave" said the exasperated man.

"I won't leave until you accept me as your child first," Lara said tearfully.

"Come on! what are you waiting for? How can you see a crying child and do nothing to pacify her?" one of the customers rebuked the owner.

"I'm very hungry father, pls give me some food. Even if you don't want me at least feed me."Lara said while sniffing.

"Poor kid! Lost her mother and her father is rejecting her"

"I didn't know owner Bu could be so heartless"

"Yeah, I'm not coming to this store again'

"Who knows how heartless he can be"

"You're not a man if you don't own up to your mistakes"

"Feed her owner, Bu"

"Argh!"Owner Bu then fainted out of anger causing a big commotion in the store. Meanwhile, Lara smiled as she sped into the man's hidden room where she found a cooler containing food. As quickly as she could, she wolfed down the food.

"Gosh! Acting pitiful is really bad. Owner Bu, I'm sorry for what I did today. I'll repay you sometime in the future. For now, I need to fill my stomach. Consider this as my wages for acting." she thought while wolfing down the food and water. Satisfied she patted her slightly bulging belly as she rested her slim body on a chair.

"What the..." she was alarmed as she detected there were sedatives inside the food.

The nice universe, why is everything bad for her? All she wanted was to eat food and escape but...now she'll be paraded as a thief soon for eating food. No...she has to escape from here as fast as she can. But how to raise her body up. She couldn't even move her body and her eyelids felt heavy. In the end, despite her unwillingness, she gave in to sleep.