Zu An’s journey to the spacetime fragment and the ancient Celestial Court world hadn't felt long to him, but he'd come back to find that three years had passed in this world. Many things were bound to have changed within three years.
His infant daughter would have already grown up.
He took a deep breath and entered the city gate. He didn’t fly in, as the capital was the stronghold of the human race; it was protected by many formations and experts. He would cause too huge of a commotion by flying in. He wouldn’t be able to quietly do what he wanted once someone recognized him.
But as he passed by the city gates, he couldn’t help but notice that the soldiers’ inspections were much stricter than usual. That brought a frown to his face. Has Linglong not eradicated the monster remnants yet?
However, the capital was as bustling as usual. The populace didn’t seem fazed, so he didn’t think too much about it.
He made his way to the Sang manor. It looked the same as ever. Bi Linglong had intended to bestow Sang Hong with a larger manor, but the latter had rejected it. The Sang clan had few family members, so a larger manor would have only felt cold. It wouldn’t be as warm as their current manor.
Zu An headed straight to the backyard instead of entering via the main entrance—he wanted to give them a surprise. To his surprise, however, there was no one in Zheng Dan and Sang Qien’s rooms.
“Did they go out for a walk?” Zu An was disappointed.
Suddenly, he spotted a fair-skinned girl sitting on the steps, eating something that resembled a black lump. The fragrance of a sweet potato wafted in the air. He walked over and saw the girl wiping her mouth every now and then while munching the sweet potato. This resulted in her chubby cheeks being smeared black like a spotted kitten.
The girl leaped in shock when she realized that someone else was here, and she instinctively hid the sweet potato behind her. But when she saw it was Zu An, she breathed a sigh of relief and said, “I thought it was mother.” She took out the sweet potato and continued munching on it.
“Who’s your mother?” Seeing the girl’s familiar big eyes, Zu An could already fathom a guess about her identity.
“Mother is mother,” the girl mumbled through her full mouth. She thought that this uncle had asked a weird question.
Zu An took a deep breath before sitting down beside her. “Are you Sisi?”
“How do you know?” The girl finally turned away from her sweet potato to look at Zu An, her clear eyes filled with confusion.
Zu An chuckled. “Is the sweet potato delicious?”
“It’s delicious.” The little girl’s eyes lit up as she bragged in glee, “I secretly roasted this in the kitchen. Mother wouldn’t let me roast it.”
“Your mother is just worried that you’ll get hurt.” Zu An leaned closer. “The sweet potato smells good. Can you share some with me?”
The girl warily scooched away. “No way!” No wonder this weird uncle keeps talking to me. He wants my sweet potato!
She quickly stuffed the remaining sweet potato into her mouth, as if frightened that Zu An would steal it from her. It was so scalding that she kept huffing out hot air.
Zu An found this sight funny, yet worrying. He wiped off the black stains from her cheeks as he said, “Eat slower. It’s hot.”
He took out the candied hawthorn he had just bought from the street. “Do you want it? I’ll give it to you.”
When she saw the delectable candied hawthorn, the girl gulped down her saliva. She instinctively reached out to take it, only to retract it right after. “I can’t. My mother said I mustn’t take food from strangers. The stranger could be a human trafficker.”
That made her look at Zu An with even more vigilant eyes. “Who are you? Why have I never seen you before?”
The word ‘stranger’ caused Zu An’s heart to clench up. I’m a bad father. It 's been so many years that my daughter doesn’t recognize me anymore.
“Sisi, I heard you secretly ran off to roast sweet potatoes again?” An angry voice filled the air as a beautiful figure rushed over from afar. But when she saw Zu An, she froze on the spot.
The girl was horrified. She'd been racking her brain for an explanation when she noticed her mother abruptly falling silent.
“Qien’er!” Zu An cried out. It had been several years, but Sang Qien was still as beautiful as ever, although she exuded a much more mature aura now.
“Ah Zu!” Unable to curb her gushing feelings, Sang Qien rushed into Zu An’s embrace with tearful eyes, hugging him tightly as if worried that this was an illusion and he would disappear when she blinked.
Feeling her intense emotions, Zu An also hugged her tightly.
The girl was shocked. A moment later, she became so agitated that she burst into tears. “Mother, why aren’t you hugging Sisi? Sisi won’t secretly eat roasted sweet potatoed anymore. You baddie! Let go of my mother!”
Seeing how her daughter was trying to pull Zu An away, Sang Qien bent down and lifted her up. “Sisi, you often ask me about your father. He ' finally back. Here, call him ‘Father’.”
“You're my father?” The girl shyly looked at Zu An. She couldn’t imagine that the man who'd tried to dupe her out of her sweet potato was the great hero father that her mother told her about.
Unable to hold himself back anymore, Zu An embraced Sisi. The latter felt like a meat dumpling; she was soft and fragrant in his arms. He could feel their shared bloodline.
Sang Qien took out a handkerchief to wipe her daughter’s cheeks. “Look at you. You got so dirty eating a sweet potato again...” She felt a bit frustrated. She hadn’t expected her daughter to look so unkempt during their long-awaited reunion; it made it look as if she hadn’t taken good care of her.
Zu An chuckled. He took the handkerchief from Sang Qien’s hand to help wipe his daughter’s face. “She’s adorable.”
The tenderness in his eyes brought a warm smile to Sang Qien.
The girl suddenly stared intently at Zu An’s candied hawthorn. She licked her lips as she asked, “Mother, I can take food from father, right?”
“Eat, eat, eat! Haven’t I told you to be more demure?” Sang Qien was at a loss for words. Clearly, Sisi had brought her many headaches over the years.
Zu An laughed as he passed the candied hawthorn over. “Of course.”
Seeing that her mother didn’t object to it, the girl’s eyes lit up as she took the candied hawthorn. “Thank you, father!”
Seeing her daughter forgetting about her father once she had food in her hand, Sang Qien looked at Zu An apologetically and said, “Ah Zu, this lass is fond of eating. It may take a while for her to warm up to you.”
Zu An laughed. “I think she’s adorable as she is. Kids are all like that...”
Sang Qien also looked at her daughter with warm eyes. “Indeed. She’s adorable.”
Warmth lingered between them as they chatted about recent affairs. A while later, Zu An asked out of curiosity, “Hm? Why don’t I see Zheng Dan around?”
Sang Qien replied, “Dandan has followed the army to aid the empress in quelling the rebellion.”
“Rebellion?” Zu An was startled.
Sang Qien explained, “The Zhao clan’s kings are dissatisfied that a woman has taken the throne, and it's been years since we last heard from you. So, King Yan and the other kings staged a rebellion in the name of the imperial grandson to force Linglong to abdicate.”