Xun'er reminscing about the Past

In Wutan City, within the Xiao Family.

An eye-catching figure stood on the balcony, gazing at the bright moon hanging in the night sky.

She wore a purple dress and possessed a pair of shiny black eyes, a petite and clean nose, and pink, tender, and moist red lips on her immature and pretty face.

The little girl's expression appeared cold and indifferent, and her beauty; like a lotus blooming at the beginning.

Even though she was a child, she had already begun to exhibit a refined temperament.

It was easy to imagine the stir she would cause in the future with such allure.

At night, Xiao Xun'er often found herself on the balcony, looking up at the heavens.

The usual cold, indifferent expression on her face had given way to a hint of melancholy and quiet longing.

"After practicing the technique you gave Xun'er, my cultivation speed has increased significantly. Today, I reached the rank of a 5-Star Dou Disciple, and I haven't felt any pain in my body since then," she murmured softly.

It had been two months since that mysterious person saved her and gifted her that precious cultivation technique.

She hadn't seen him since.

"I'm not from this world," she recalled him telling her that night.

He had mentioned that he wasn't from this world and also warned her not to tell anyone about it.

That was the only reason she hadn't asked Ling Ying to search for him; otherwise, given the extreme longing in her eyes, he would've scoured the entire continent to find the young man who had left her like this.

She also did not inform him about the special cultivation technique, despite his inquiries.

She only mentioned it was an Earth-level technique meant to control a strange fire, and cautioned him not to speak of it—or of the person who gave it to her—to her clan.

Since that night, that figure had left a deep impression on her heart.

Every night at this time, she would come to this place, gazing at the moon in the sky, reflecting on everything that that happened during the day, as if she were speaking to someone who wasn't there.

She never thought that a person she barely knew—a person whose name she didn't even catch—would leave such a deep impression on her that she couldn't stop thinking about him.

Remembering what he had done to Xiao Yan that night, she couldn't help but chuckle softly.

After that incident, Xiao Yan kept insisting that he was innocent and had been framed. However, being tied to a tree completely naked with bold words scrawled across his body suggested otherwise.

Although, because his father, seemingly believing his claims, dismissed it as a prank and vowed to find and punish the culprit, most people accepted the patriarch's explanation and only a few elders of the family doubted it.

But those doubts quickly faded after a few days when news spread of Xiao Yan's cultivation talent.

Even the skeptical elders chose to remain silent, and the matter was gradually suppressed.

After all, in this world, strength is everything and from his cultivation talent, even a slightly brainless person could guess that Xiao Yan had a bright future..

No one wants to offend a person that would surely become a strong person in the future, reaching the heights they could never even think off.

As for his presumptuous thoughts, they didn't care much after all, who doesn't have such thoughts.

As two months passed, most had completely forgotten about it.

Well, not everyone.

Since that day, Xiao Yan had repeatedly insisted that he was only trying to warm her meridians that night and had no other intentions.

Hah!

A person she had met for the first time sneaked into her room at night to "warm her meridians"?

Did he think she was a fool?

Someone like him, who hadn't even reached the level of a one-star Dou Disciple, warming her meridians?

She wasn't buying it for a second.

She also knew her issue was just related to the strange fire, and that her meridians would gradually open on their own over time.

And even if what he said was true that his intentions were truly pure and he somehow had the knowledge to warm her meridians using Dou Qi, didn't he understand that for a woman, allowing someone to touch her body was akin to giving away her purity?

If she had let him touch her body to warm her meridians at that time, wouldn't she have had to

marry him then?

Ridiculous!

Who do you he think you are?

She didn't bother entertaining his excuses, yet he continued pestering her day after day.

At first, she held back, considering her mission in the Xiao family and the fact that he was the son of the patriarch, she didn't take any action and simply rejected him.

But today, she finally couldn't tolerate it any longer.

Not to mention that she was already too disgusted with him...so she slapped him across the face, sternly warning him to stop bothering her, and even threatened his father, the Xiao family patriarch, to discipline his son—or else...

His father was so frightened at that time and nodded hurriedly that he'll tell his son not to pester her again.

Upon hearing that, she coldly nodded, not bothering to stay any longer, and left directly.

She had initially held a good impression of the patriarch of the Xiao family, thinking that he was an upright and kind person, as he had treated her well since she came to this place, thinking that it was a pity that his son didn't inherit a single good trait from him.

But that impression shattered the day she learned from Ling Ying that it was him, the patriarch himself who instructed Xiao Yan to have a close relationship with her.

Not only that, but he had also warned all the young members of the clan that she wasn't something they could talk to, indirectly telling them to keep their distance from her, knowing that despite her maturity, she was still just a child who felt lonely in this unfamiliar place without friends her age that wants to be friends with her or even talk to her,

So he knew that by such isolation, she'll feel even more alone making her long for even the smallest bit of warmth.

When she heard this, rage surged within her, and she had the urge to destroy the entire Xiao family right then and there.

However, remembering her mission, she restrained herself and merely laughed coldly.

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, after all.

If the father was like this, what more could she expect from the son?

Yet what truly weighed on her was the fact that she had to endure living in this place, far away from her father.

She was all alone here, with no one her age willing to talk to her, strictly following the patriarch's orders.

Even though these people here seemed to treat her well, there was a clear difference between polite treatment and genuine closeness.

She could see it in their eyes—the subtle distance, the quiet alienation.

And after what she did today, that distance would only grow.

Deep down in her heart, she knew she didn't belong here.

She couldn't understand why her father had sent her to this place.

Was it because she wasn't well-behaved?

The only good thing that had happened to her since she came to this place was meeting that person, whom she could not forget, but she hadn't seen him since then, and she didn't know if she ever would again.

Feeling frustrated, Xiao Xun'er said,

"Is it because I made my father angry that he doesn't want me?"

Hearing this, a shadow appeared, revealing a person.

Ling Ying thought to himself that even though his young lady had an extraordinary mind, she was still just a four-year-old child.

He quickly stepped forward to comfort her.

"Miss, you're mistaken. It's not that the patriarch doesn't want you. He cares for you more than anything. But there are internal conflicts within the clan, and the patriarch wants to protect you by keeping you away from it.

That's why he sent you here, for your own good."

"Hm," she simply hummed in response and closed her eyes, feeling the gentle breeze on her face.

Seeing his young lady like this, Ling Ying sighed.

Ever since that night when she met the boy who solved the problem even her clan couldn't, she had come to this balcony every evening, muttering quietly to herself with a melancholic expression.

Unable to bear seeing such sadness on his young lady's face, he had once suggested finding that boy, but she unexpectedly refused, telling him not to mention anything about him to anyone else.

He could only follow her orders, but he couldn't help but wonder why it felt like his young lady was trying to hide her love affair from her family.