"Are you done?" Looking at the little bastard still squeezing her breasts, Lin Wan let out a cold snort before picking him by the neck.
"Umm...' Yang Ze thought about struggling, but when he remembered her realm, he gave up the idea of fighting back. He just gave out a warm smile.
"Disgusting." Throwing him away like a rug, Lin Wan slowly walked towards him before raising her left foot and placing it in the middle of Yang Ze's legs.
"This is the last time I am gonna go easy on you. Next time, if you try something like this, I will break your legs." She didn't mince the words. Were it any other time, she might have gone easy on him, but with the promise of information about her family's killer, she was in no mood to play along with him.
If not for the fact that she was afraid of him being discovered in the Lin family, she would have just locked him in her room.
"....." Yang Ze just nodded in response. He had a feeling that if he dared to make any snarky remark or twist words, he would get a severe beating.
After the two of them returned to the caravan, Lin Wan arranged a carriage for Yang Ze to travel in. This way, he didn't have to follow the caravan on foot. Although a few eyes were raised upon her decision, no one dared to voice their dissatisfaction.
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While Yang Ze and Lin Wan were spending their uneventful night in the caravan, an entirely different scene was playing out in the Lin family.
In the core area of the Lin family, inside the most luxurious room where the leader of the Lin family resides, Lin Yue was looking at the woman in front of her with a heart full of rage. Since childhood, her mother had kept her aside, never treating her like her daughter. Other than resources and a complete indifference, she never gave her anything.
Initially, Lin Yue wanted to make her mother proud... but over time, these feelings gradually faded when nothing worked. She then tried the rebellion route, causing trouble everywhere, hoping that perhaps this would make her mother pay attention to her. But alas, it didn't work either.
Now, she was just left with hate. She was already at her breaking point when she lost the grand competition and got humiliated in front of the crowd. And now... sending away Lin Wan to such a dangerous mission was the last straw that broke the camel's back. In her mind, her mother did it because of her. Perhaps she wanted to teach her a lesson. Whatever the reason might have been, there was no doubt that she was the one responsible for putting Lin Wan in danger.
"Do you have something to say?" Lin Meilin was still sitting there with her back turned towards Lin Yue. Gently resting against the soft pillow, she was looking at the moon with a cup of wine in her hand.
"...." Lin Yue didn't immediately reply but took a deep breath. She was finally going to have a serious talk with her mother. She wanted to know the reason for her indifference. She wanted to know why she would send Lin Wan away on such a dangerous mission. She wanted to know why she wouldn't pay any attention to her.
With these thoughts in mind, she finally asked the question that she had always wanted to... "What's your problem?"
"Excuse me?" Lin Meilin raised an eyebrow, but didn't turn around. Her eyes were still glued to the moon.
"What's your problem with me?" Lin Yue didn't back down, but asked again. "Since I was a child, you have been treating me like I am some kind of freak. Why?" With a short pause, she continued, "No one treats their children like this. Am I even your daughter?"
"Heh!" Lin Meilin just let out a cold snort. "Have you been reading those trash novels again? Or did you hit your head too hard when you were thrown out of the arena?"
Gulping down the entire cup in a single go, she refilled it before speaking further, "Treating you like how? Since you were a child, you have received the best treatment in the entire Lin family. Every resource was at your disposal. Every pill, every treasure, every demand... whatever you asked for, you were given. What more do you want?"
"That's it?" Lin Yue let out a hollow laugh, "That's your explanation? Resources... pills... That's it?"
"Well, what more do you need?" Taking a sip of her wine, Lin Meilin spoke further. "If you want something else, do tell me. I am listening."
"See... that's the problem." Lin Yue was fuming with anger, "THAT'S EXACTLY THE PROBLEM."
"Do you think resources are all I need? These... these damn pills.. You think I care about them?"
"Stop going around in circles and come to the point. What do you want?" Lin Weilin was getting increasingly annoyed by Lin Yue's constant whining. After such a tiring day, she just wanted to be left alone in peace. But now...
"You tell me." Lin Yue's expression turned cold as she let out a sneer. "What does a two-year-old girl need when she is crying for an entire day?"
"What does a six-year-old girl need when she accidentally hurts herself?"
"What does a fourteen-year-old girl need when she gets bullied by the others?"
By the time she reached the end of her sentence, Lin Yue was shouting at the top of her lungs. She had been keeping it in her chest since childhood and now... Now she finally said it. For a moment, she couldn't help but feel the burden on her chest lighten.
"....."
"....."
"....."
The room plunged into a deathly silence for a long time.
Lin Meilin's hand paused in mid-air before she gulped down the remaining wine and slowly turned around to face her daughter.
Looking at her mother, whose carefree expression was replaced by a stern face, Lin Yue felt a tremor in her heart, but she didn't back down. No matter what, she wasn't going to let her off easily.
Lin Meilin gazed at her daughter from top to bottom and then spoke in a completely different voice from before. If earlier, her tone was carefree, then now, there was no emotion present in it.
"You asked what my problem is, right?"
Without waiting for her to respond, Lin Meilin continued, "My Problem is YOU."
"My problem is YOUR WEAKNESS."
"Instead of power, you cling to affection... You cling to sentiment."
"You might be my blood, but you are nowhere worthy enough to be called my daughter."
With a sneer on her face, Lin Meilin spoke further.
"You were born to serve the Lin family's legacy, not to be coddled like a common child."
"You don't want treasures? You don't want pills? You don't want resources? Then you are even more stupid than I thought. This world doesn't bend to your tears or joy... it bends to strength."
"You want my affection? Earn it with power."
The more Lin Yue listened, the paler her face got. She couldn't believe her own mother would say something like this. For a moment, she even thought she was in a nightmare. And just when she thought it was over, Lin Meilin spoke again.
"A two-year-old who cries learns only weakness. She needs silence and discipline, not coddling."
"A six-year-old who injures herself learns caution. She needs to stand up, bind her own wound and remember the pain."
"A fourteen-year-old who is bullied learns the law of the world. She needs to sharpen her claws, not run to her mother."
"I didn't raise a daughter, I raised an heir."
"But now..." She gave one final look to Lin Yue before shaking her head, "I think I might have made a mistake. You are a disappointment. Nothing more, nothing less."
Every single word she spoke was like a dagger to Lin Yue's heart. She just stood there like a statue, unable to believe what she had just heard. She looked at the woman in front of her, who seemed completely strange. She had always thought of her as her mother, no matter how angry or annoyed she was. But now... It was only now that she understood that the feelings were never mutual.
All that hard work... all that struggle... for what?
"If you are done, you can take your leave." Lin Meilin turned around before pouring herself another glass of wine as she gazed at the moon once again.
"...." Lin Yue didn't speak a word, or perhaps there was just nothing left to speak. She didn't even know when she got back to her room. Her heart seemed to have been shattered into countless pieces. She didn't cry, she didn't make a sound, she just sat here in silence...
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On the other side of Yuyang City, Yang Ze finally understood the true terrors of this world.
Unlike others who were well aware of the dangers of this journey, he was completely in the dark. None of the people travelling together with him spoke to him, and Lin Wan, as usual, didn't consider telling him about it.
"Gulp!" It was only now, after seeing a group of more than thirty women standing there while holding all types of weapons, that he understood the danger he was facing.
"Damn it." His first thought was to turn around and run away as fast as possible. But upon seeing how none of the women blocking their path were in the Pulse Opening realm, his confidence immediately soared.
Just a bunch of body refining scrubs... who is afraid of whom?
And sure enough, he didn't even need to make a move; the guards of the Lin family took charge and, in less than ten minutes, dealt with the bandits blocking their path.
While it was an easy win, Yang Ze almost fainted due to the bloody scene. When had he ever seen corpses strung like that throughout the ground? There were intestines, hearts, and internal organs, as well as pools of blood. For a moment, he was about to throw up.
Controlling the nauseating feeling, he just closed his eyes as the caravan continued its journey, leaving behind the suffocating bloody smell.
Yang Ze didn't know how he spent the rest of the journey. But by the time he came back to his senses, their caravan was already standing in front of their destination...
Feiyang City.