Chapter Forty-Three: The Unlucky Zhuo Yue'an

"Su Jingluo, you’ve destroyed everything. I hate you. I wish you were dead." Xiao Jingxuan gripped Su Jingluo’s chin, each word forced out between clenched teeth in a furious snarl.

"Let go of my mother, or I’ll kill your precious subordinate!" Suddenly, a childish voice rang out from behind them.

Both turned at once. Behind them stood Yunbai, his eyes swollen from crying, and Zhuo Yue’an, covered in large venomous insects. Poisonous bugs and snakes coiled over Zhuo Yue’an, their tongues flicking, poised to strike at a moment’s notice.

Zhuo Yue’an wore an expression of utter resignation. This family always took their frustrations out on him. Day after day, they found new ways to torment him, and he suffered in ever more creative ways.

"Xiao Yunbai, are you just like your mother?" Xiao Jingxuan was consumed with hatred; seeing his own son threaten him left him speechless with grief.

"Let go of my mother." Yunbai had spent the whole day rolling on the floor, howling because he hadn’t seen Su Jingluo, insisting that Zhuo Yue’an and Xiao Jingxuan had hidden her from him. Now, witnessing Xiao Jingxuan about to strike his mother, his small eyes blazed with fury.

"And if I don’t?" Xiao Jingxuan wanted to see just how far this mother and son would go to hurt him.

"Then I’ll kill him, and then I’ll—"

"Yunbai!" Before Yunbai could utter the word "you," Su Jingluo stopped him with a sharp call.

"Let Zhuo Yue’an go; he has nothing to do with this." Seeing Yunbai’s red, swollen eyes, Su Jingluo suddenly regretted her stubbornness that day. Who knew how long the child had been crying?

"Bad father is bullying mother, I—" Yunbai wanted to say he’d taken a hostage too, since he couldn’t do anything else.

"Your father isn’t bullying me. He’s just playing around. He loves you most of all, and because he knows you care for me, he would never hurt me." Su Jingluo pried Xiao Jingxuan’s cold hands from her and walked toward Zhuo Yue’an and Yunbai.

"Hurry and put those poisonous insects away. Uncle Zhuo treats you as his young master, as family. Promise me you’ll never threaten your own family or those who treat you well." Su Jingluo crouched before Yunbai, pulling him into her arms and speaking gently.

Yunbai raised his hand, and all the poisonous creatures swiftly crawled from Zhuo Yue’an’s body back into his pouch. He then turned and buried himself in Su Jingluo’s embrace, his small body trembling with suppressed sobs. He’d almost lost his mother.

Zhuo Yue’an hadn’t expected Su Jingluo to speak of him this way to Yunbai. In that instant, he felt the hardship of his role, but accepted it willingly.

Xiao Jingxuan felt all his strength drain away in the face of mother and child. Su Jingluo wasn’t ungrateful—she simply never acknowledged her own feelings or kindness. Hopes would forever remain hopes; where was the sudden dawn? It was nothing but an illusion conjured by despair in the darkness.

He left in silence. Su Jingluo didn’t know why his retreating figure seemed so lonely and pitiful—it made her heart ache faintly.

"Mother, weren’t you… weren’t you ill?" Once Xiao Jingxuan had gone, Yunbai whispered into Su Jingluo’s ear.

How was she to explain? She couldn’t simply say she was teasing him again.

"I found a divine physician and was cured. But you mustn’t tell anyone," Su Jingluo improvised, guilt welling up as she met Yunbai’s concerned gaze.

"I understand. If the bad people know you’re well, they’ll try to hurt you again." Yunbai clenched his small fists, his face full of righteous indignation. His mind worked quickly; told not to speak of it, he immediately grasped the reason. Was he born a strategist?