NOVEL NEXT Chapter 4 – First Encounter
After talking to his father and grandfather, or more like, listening to them nag, Yun Ling headed towards the courtyard with complex emotions. When he learned that the matter about his daughter was real, he was shocked, scared, panicked, and overwhelmed. Everything just came out of the blue.
He had only been away from the capital for four months to complete the mission his father assigned to him, which was to chase after the Core Formation Slayer. When he returned, he learned that he actually had a daughter.
Yun Ling didn't know what to feel about this daughter of his. Should he be happy about her existence or sad? Should he be angry? He had no idea. This was the first time he had been in a situation like this and he had not the slightest clue on what to do. He wasn't ready to be a father yet be it physically, mentally, or emotionally.
Sighing, he shook all those unnecessary thoughts away from his mind as he was about to arrive in the courtyard.
"Do you know what kind of lesser beast is this?"
"Hmm, this one's a bit hard. It's quite an uncommon lesser beast."
Yun Ling heard a woman speak with a doting tone coming from the courtyard followed by another mature woman's voice. He was very familiar with these two voices. The one who spoke first was his mother and the next one was his grandmother.
Instead of going straight to them, he stayed at a distance and leaned against the wall as he looked towards the courtyard, observing in silence. There, he saw three women surrounding a little girl as well as several servants standing on the side faithfully.
"I do, it's a Crimson Ember Butterfly," the little girl answered bashfully.
Yun Ling had a complicated expression on his face when he saw her. This little girl should be his daughter.
"Very good. Then the next one is this, do you know what lesser beast is this?" Yun Ling saw his mother draw a picture of a mighty lion on a yellow piece of paper, making him and his grandmother frown. This lion was a rarely seen beast in the World of Terra. In the last 100 years, there were only three accounts of people who had seen it.
"I know this one! It's a Six-Winged Lion King!" the little girl answered a little too enthusiastically.
Yun Ling's mother and grandmother were amazed at the little girl's knowledge. The questions they asked were something that many adults won't be able to answer. Even he was surprised that she recognized what a Six-Winged Lion King looked like.
"Amazing. I thought that my question was too hard but you were able to answer it. As expected of my granddaughter!" Yun Ling's mother exclaimed as she gazed at the little girl adoringly much to the latter's embarrassment.
"What a cute child. You're much cuter than your father was back then. That grandson of mine, I used to dress him up as a girl because he looks too much like one but this time, I finally have a real great-granddaughter and not just a fake one that only looks like a girl!" his right eyebrow twitched when he heard his grandmother speak. As expected of his grandfather's wife. They were a match made in heaven.
Yun Ling finally decided to show himself. He took a deep breath and mentally prepared himself as he slowly walked in their direction.
It was his mother who noticed him first.
"Ling, you're back! How are you? Are you okay? You're not hurt anywhere right?" Li Jing immediately asked her son, worry evident in her voice.
Yun Ling only smiled, "I'm fine mother, the last mission unexpectedly took me a while but everything went well."
"That's good then," Li Jing sighed in relief, then she stomped her foot in anger. "That father of yours! He always kept sending you on dangerous missions! I've always scolded him for that but he didn't seem to learn his lesson!"
"Mother, please don't be angry. Father knows what he's doing, he only has my best interest in mind," Yun Ling consoled her but she wasn't listening.
"Ling'er, I'm so glad you're back! Grandma misses you very much," Ye Lin said as she embraced her grandson in a tight hug.
Yun Ling rolled his eyes at her but returned the hug nonetheless, "Grandma, I heard what you said."
"Heard what?" Ye Lin pretended to be clueless.
"Nothing," Yun Ling sighed in exasperation. Truly a match made in heaven. Only this kind of shameless woman could control that crazy grandfather of his.
Yun Ling's mother, Li Jing, was a beautiful woman who looked like she was just in her early twenties, a young woman with a mature disposition. His grandmother Ye Lin on the other hand also seemed young, she's like a woman who had just reached thirty despite her real age nearing 100.
The reason why his father and grandfather looked young despite their age was because of their high cultivation realm. Although his mother and grandmother had a lower cultivation realm than them, the reason they looked incredibly young was because of the various pills they've taken.
Women cared greatly about their looks, beautiful women cared about them even more. Both his mother and grandmother have hired alchemists to concoct beauty pills, slow aging pills, age-reversing pills, as long as they were pills that could enhance their beauty, they'd take it and wouldn't hesitate to pay a high price for it if necessary.
Unsurprisingly, his father and grandfather were fine with it even though it was really expensive. Those two scoundrels were the happiest about it, much happier than his mother and grandmother.
Shaking these distracting thoughts out of his mind, Yun Ling turned towards the young woman who had remained silent the entire time. She was the only unfamiliar face in the vicinity aside from the little girl who was his daughter.
"And who is this?" Yun Ling asked.
"Ah, this is..." Li Jing was about to introduce her when the young woman beat her to it.
"I am Yue Dongmei, Young Miss' caretaker. Nice to meet you, Young Miss' father," the young woman slightly bowed her head as she introduced herself.
"Caretaker?" Yun Ling was surprised. He thought that the mother of his daughter was one of the prostitutes he had slept with in the past, how could they afford to hire a caretaker like her for his daughter?
Yun Ling narrowed his eyes, this woman wasn't simple. The way she carried herself and the way she spoke wasn't a caretaker that even a highly paid prostitute could afford to hire. He was about to inquire more when a cute little voice interrupted his thoughts.
"Are you... are you my papa?" the little girl shyly asked as she hid behind her caretaker's legs.
