Translator: Noodletown Translated Editor: Noodletown Translated
Click click click… When Hao Ren was talking to Zhao Hongyu, a clicking noise appeared as if someone was turning the door handle.
“Zi and her Third Uncle are back. Why don’t you go talk to them and I will handle this myself?” Zhao Hongyu smiled gently and said softly to Hao Ren.
Hao Ren replied with a gentle smile, “Sure.”
He walked out the kitchen and saw Zi who was wearing the same light-blue school uniform come in with a man with bushy eyebrows and big eyes.
“Hi, uncle,” Hao Ren hesitated for a moment and said to the man.
“Huh!” the man not only did not reply to Hao Ren but his face was also filled with disdain.
Zhao Yanzi didn’t try to smooth things out either. She threw her backpack onto the sofa, ran to the kitchen, and started talking to her mom.
Hao Ren was a little bummed out after he hit a snag. However, this man was older than him and was the uncle of Zhao Yanzi. Therefore, Hao Ren held back his anger and sat on the sofa as he started going over the stuff he was going to teach Zhao Yanzi.
“You are Hao Ren?” after he saw Hao Ren minding his own business and ignored him, the man with bushy eyebrows and big eyes finally asked.
Hao Ren wanted to ignore him at first. However, Hao Ren thought maybe this man didn’t hear his greeting in the first place.
He simply replied, “Yes.”
This Third Uncle didn’t say anything further and started to observe Hao Ren up and down with his eyes.
Hao Ren didn’t think much at first. However, he then realized that this Third Uncle was observing his cultivation progress; that gave him chills down his back.
“Useless. Swallowed Zi’s Internal Core and had this much time to cultivate, yet no changes to the body,” the man said after a few seconds of observation.
His words were harsh. Even though Hao Ren had a soft personality, he couldn’t hold back his anger.
While Hao Ren and the man were staring at each other aggressively, Zhao Yanzi came out of the kitchen and said, “Uncle, just ignore him. Mom asked me to ask you, what do you want for dinner?”
“Haha, anything will be fine. I am not picky,” the man with bushy eyebrows and big eyes suddenly turned soft like a little sheep as he heard Zhao Yanzi’s question.
“Okay…” Zhao Yanzi said as she turned back to the kitchen, “Mom! Uncle said anything will be fine, cook whatever you want!”
This Third Uncle’s eyes were filled with joy as he looked at Zhao Yanzi. It was obvious that he loved his niece very much.
Zhao Yanzi then ran happily to her Third Uncle and said, “Uncle, remember what you promised me in the car?”
“Alright, alright. How could uncle forget?” The man took out a wallet from his pocket and handed ten one-hundred-dollar bills to Zhao Yanzi’s. “Don’t let your father know about this!”
Zhao Yanzi was beaming with joy as she stuck out her tongue and put the money in her little pink wallet. She then hugged her uncle around his neck and said, “Third Uncle is the best!”
“You crazy little girl!” Her uncle rubbed her head with joy, and his face was filled with love.
Both the adult and the little girl ignored Hao Ren who was sitting on the couch as if he was transparent.
Hao Ren knew that he rubbed this Third Uncle the wrong way and Zhao Yanzi was obviously treating him coldly intentionally to irritate him.
Hao Ren knew that she was narrow-minded. Since the Third Uncle of hers loved Zhao Yanzi so much, he wasn’t going to give Hao Ren a good time when Zi disliked Hao Ren so much.
Hao Ren continued to look down at the study materials and ignore the two of them.
The awkwardness was finally broken when Zhao Hongyu came out of the kitchen with freshly cooked food.
“Zi! You bothering your uncle again?” Zhao Hongyu said reproachfully to Zhao Yanzi.
Zhao Yanzi was giggling and finally stopped playing the childish rock-paper-scissors with her Third Uncle.
“Come have dinner with us,” Zhao Hongyu said politely to Hao Ren.
Because of the attitudes of Zhao Yanzi and her uncle, Hao Ren didn’t really want to have dinner with them. However, Zhao Hongyu treated him well and he didn’t want to let her down. Thus, he walked to the table with a straight face.
The four of them got into their seats in order. Zhao Yanzi sat across from Hao Ren, her Third Uncle and Zhao Hongyu sat beside Hao Ren.
“This is Zi’s uncle, Zhao Kuo. You can call him Third Uncle just like Zi does. Like Elder Lu, he is one of the Elders of East Ocean. Zi can explain the details to you later on,” Zhao Hongyu introduced the man to Hao Ren after she sat down.
“Third Uncle,” considering Zhao Hongyu, Hao Ren greeted Zhao Kuo reluctantly.
“Hm,” Zhao Kuo replied in neither a hostile nor friendly way.
Zhao Hongyu noticed that the vibe wasn’t quite harmonious, so she said with a gentle smile, “Alright, let’s eat.” She handed Hao Ren a pair of chopsticks as she talked; she looked seemingly attentive to Hao Ren.
Zhao Hongyu was as gentle as water, while Zhao Kuo was unable to calm himself. “Sister-in-law, what are you guys thinking? How could an ordinary guy be worthy of a nice girl like Zi?”
“Hao Ren is a really good kid. I like him. Are you satisfied with this reason?” Zhao Hongyu looked at him and said gently.
“This…” Zhao Kuo was speechless as if an egg was stuck down his throat.
It was at this moment Hao Ren realized that Zhao Hongyu wasn’t as soft as she seemed. She had this persona where she never repeated herself. She looked like she was even more impressive than Zhao Guang.
“Others might not know, but I do. If he returns the Internal Core to Zi, Zi will not suffer any harm,” after a few seconds, Zhao Kuo finally said.
“But Hao Ren will suffer great harm,” Zhao Hongyu replied.
“He is just an ordinary human. Why should we care…”
“Enough!” Zhao Hongyu suddenly toughened up, “Your brother isn’t here, and now you dare to argue with me? This decision was agreed upon by the Elders Council. Say no more!”
The fight over Hao Ren had put him in an awkward situation. However, he could feel that Zhao Hongyu was defending him.
“But…” Zhao Kuo was not convinced, he wanted to keep on arguing.
“About Zi’s problem… we have our own judgments. She has to be responsible for what she did. I know you love Zi, but don’t spoil her! You have to stop cleaning up after her every time she causes trouble!”
Zhao Hongyu words had become more firm, and Zhao Kuo finally stopped speaking. However, his face was still filled with disdain. Zhao Yanzi’s face kept turning red and pale back and forth, yet she remained silent as she wouldn’t dare to speak up.
“It’s time for you to change your easily irritated temper. So violent. I would like to see how you are going to get through this year’s Tribulation,” Zhao Hongyu’s lowered her tone and said.
“Anyways, I still disagree with the decision of Zi marrying a guy like this,” Zhao Kuo mumbled quietly.
After a long sigh, Zhao Hongyu didn’t want to argue further. She looked at Hao Ren and said nicely, “Alright, let’s eat.”