Chapter 15: Mother

A few days after the Mu Rong family tournament, and after the celebratory dinner with my wife, I found myself summoned to a place I never thought I would go to.

To be fair, I was deceived. I was told that a client wanted to provide me details about a new tomb somewhere, and I headed there to receive the information. There wasn't anything to be suspicious about. Most of the time, these anonymous clients would want me to recover specific relics for them, and they were willing to pay a high price for them. But for their own privacy or security, they tended to keep their identities secret.

That wasn't to say I wasn't cautious. I entered the room because I knew there was no trap. Even so, I didn't expect to see my mother waiting for me inside.

Without any hesitation, I turned around sharply and made to exit the room, but she quickly called out to me.

"Wait! At least listen to me for a few minutes. You can make your decision after that."

"Oh, really?" Well, since she was my mom, I decided to give her a chance. I plopped down on the chair opposite me and listened to her first few lines. As expected, she was here for that reason. I couldn't help but scoff. "Who would have imagined that I, the youngest and most neglected son in the Zhao family, would come in useful someday?"

Pushing up my glasses, I curled my lips into a sneer.

"I certainly didn't, and I know you didn't as well…mom."

Mom regarded me for a moment, and forced a smile as she rested her hands in her lap, maintaining that elegant posture as always.

"Huan Shi, I'm truly glad that you came to see me."

"I didn't come to see you. I was under the impression that you were a client requesting for my services to recover a relic from a tomb. In other words, you tricked me into coming here to see you."

"Nonetheless, I am happy that you are willing to listen to me for a while. I apologize for the deception, but it was necessary. Your grandmother said that I must take you back." Mom took a deep breath. "Your father is critically ill and your brother has been crippled. Right now, you are the only one who can take over the Zhao family."

"Hah!" I snorted. "It has been three years. I was wondering why you suddenly wanted me back after kicking me out of the family. How exactly did brother get crippled? Wasn't he the hope of the Zhao family? You all devoted every resource the Zhao family had into making him the ultimate summoner, even taking the divine dragon from me to give to him. He should be peak master at least. What kind of accident did he get into?"

"Your brother…offended someone he couldn't afford to offend. He challenged someone from the imperial family to a duel, tried to hit on the princess…and lost very badly. He overestimated his strength, thinking he could win, but he ended up being crushed. His opponent, the second prince, destroyed his dantian during the match and now…your brother is a cripple, his meridians ruptured. He's no better than dead."

Why wasn't I surprised? I found that I couldn't even bring myself to feel sorry for him. Instead, I felt a sense of vindication. Given my brother's character, I could only say that he deserved it. He always wanted something that wasn't his…and now he had the audacity to pursue a princess. I could imagine what had happened.

He wouldn't take no for an answer and forced himself on her. Her brother found out, challenged him to a duel, and brother recklessly accepted, thinking that he would win easily because he was nurtured to become the ultimate summoner.

Needless to say, he was horribly wrong. He vastly underestimated his opponent's strength and paid for it with his life. And now the Zhao family couldn't do a single thing because the other party was the imperial family. No matter how powerful the Zhao family was, they couldn't touch the imperial family. In fact, it was a testament to their wealth and influence that the imperial family couldn't destroy them either after their heir pulled off such an atrocity.

Heh. The Zhao family was in trouble? They got what they deserved.

Mom looked at me concerned, noticing that I was gloating instead of being concerned. She lowered her head guiltily.

"Huan Shi, I know that what happened to you over the last three years was not fair. However, this was your grandmother's decision. There was nothing I or your father could do about it."

For a moment, I stayed silent. Then I couldn't help myself. I ended up bursting out in laughter while mom watched worriedly.

"Unfair? You call this…unfair?"

I stood up and brushed a hand through my black hair, shaking my head in disbelief.

"This isn't just about grandma, you know? Ever since my childhood, I've been trying my best to earn your approval…to obtain your acknowledgement. But no matter how good my grades were, I still could not please you."

Pushing my glasses up my nose, I glared through my gleaming lenses out at the window, surveying the city below.

"Grandma was worried that I would usurp brother's position as the family heir, so she banished me from the family. And now that he has been crippled, she wants me back? What does she think I am? A tool?"

I turned to glare at mom.

"If brother hadn't been crippled…if he hadn't offended the imperial family, would any of you even remember that I existed?"

Leaning forward in an intimidating manner, I dropped my voice into a hiss.

"She is not worthy of being my grandmother. Just like how you are also not worthy of being my mother."

"No, that's not…" Mom trailed away, looking down in shame. I turned away and headed toward the door. She glanced up in panic, reaching out desperately. "Please! You're the only one…"

"I'm not, actually." I paused at the door and shook my head. "Even if my brother is crippled, there's still plenty of heirs to choose from. Ask one of my cousins. Perhaps Cousin Huan Jia can do it. Or Cousin Huan Zhe. They should have the qualifications to become the ultimate summoner. From what I remember, grandma didn't exile them from the Zhao family."

"No…Huan Jia and Huan Zhe were already unable to inherit the position." Mom kept her head lowered, and I could actually hear the tremor in her voice. "The divine dragon refuses to listen to them. We've tried all sorts of ways to force it to obey your brother, but those methods could only go so far. They no longer work. Not only that, none of them can compare to you as a summoner. You were always the most talented and skilled at summoning."

That was the reason why grandma banished me from the Zhao family in the first place. The more outstanding I was, the greater I was as a threat to my brother's position as heir. The rest weren't exiled precisely because they posed no threat to my brother.

"War is coming," mom said. "In all its horror…and all its glory. You can't escape, Huan Shi. You will be dragged into the war whether you like it or not."

"Perhaps so," I replied. "But I can still choose who I will fight for. And I will not fight for the Zhao family. I would rather be a weapon for the Mu Rong family who picked me up after I was discarded than the Zhao family who abandoned me."

"The imperial family will hunt you!" mom almost shouted. "They don't care whether you're married into the Mu Rong family or not! As long as you have the blood of the Zhao family in your veins, they will go after you too! Your only chance of survival is with rejoining the Zhao family! Taking your place back!"

"There is no place in the Zhao family for me. Never have been. You destroyed that place with your very own hands the moment all of you kicked me out of the family. Perhaps you should have considered that three years ago, but now it's too late. What's done cannot be undone."

I folded my arms and glared at mom defiantly. She swallowed, and then changed her tack.

"Please…you are the only hope for the Zhao family now. Without you, the Zhao family will decline. You're the only summoner the divine dragon would accept."

"Three years ago, you forcibly snatched the divine dragon from me to give him to my brother. You think I'm going to happily take him back now? No. I already have my own summons. I don't need the divine dragon anymore. I've embarked on my route of being a summoner, and I will not take anything from the Zhao family. I do not owe you, and you do not owe me."

I paused and snorted.

"Grandma no doubt thinks I'll be happy to crawl back to the Zhao family because of the divine dragon. She's dead wrong. I have my pride. I'm not a tool to be discarded and picked up at the owner's whims. She can go fuck herself."

"Huan Shi!" Mom exclaimed, horrified. "How can you talk about your grandmother that way? Have more respect for your elders!"

"Respect?" I laughed. "Does she deserve my respect? Respect is earned, not demanded. This is the old bitch who kicked me out of the family for no reason other than because I was a threat to brother's position as heir. You have no idea what kind of suffering I had been through when I was cast out. She wants my respect? She can go fuck herself. Go through the same experiences I have, exile herself from the family and live through poverty, humiliation and assassinations. Then maybe I might respect her a little. Even so, I will never forgive her."

"A…assassinations?" Mom repeated incredulously.

"Ah, perhaps you didn't know that?" I turned around to smirk darkly. "Yes, mom. Grandma hired assassins to kill me. She can't leave loose ends, you know? As long as I'm still alive, I'll always be a threat to brother. So she wanted me dead…to the point where she even hired the renowned assassins of the Mu Rong clan to take my life."

The same assassin who I was now married to. The assassin who gave up the life of killing.

Mom was so horrified that she was speechless.

"So tell me…why the hell does grandma think I'm obligated to come back? She was the one who severed all ties with me in the first place and even tried to kill me." I gripped the doorframe so tightly that I broke the wood. "The Zhao family can decline or get wiped out, for all I care. Ever since I was exiled three years ago, I have nothing to do with the Zhao family. I have no obligation to succeed it or prevent its decline. Grandma brought this upon herself."

Lowering my voice, I issued a final warning.

"Don't contact me again. You should count yourself lucky that I'm not seeking revenge against the family that gave birth to me. But don't push your luck too far…otherwise I'll contribute to the demise of the Zhao family. Perhaps I might sound arrogant for saying this, but you don't want me as your enemy."

I then stalked out of the room, leaving my mother inside, stricken and dumbfounded.