129: gap

Su Yuetang walked out from the parting crowd with a cold expression, her gaze sharp as a knife, piercing straight at Bai Kong.

"Mother... I... I was just..." Facing his mother's icy gaze, Bai Kong's Aura instantly diminished by half. He wanted to explain, but didn't know where to start.

"Hmph!" Su Yuetang snorted coldly, interrupting him. Her voice wasn't loud, but it carried an unquestionable authority. "Both of them, Qin Feng and Xiao Chun, are important people of my Hundred Flowers Pavilion. They are my subordinates and my friends. If you dare to pester or trouble them even slightly again, do not set foot in West Lake City ever again, and there is no need to come see me!"

Bai Kong's face turned blue then white. Under Su Yuetang's long-standing authority, he ultimately didn't dare to talk back. He could only lower his head, grit his teeth, and squeeze a single word from his throat: "...Yes."

But the look he gave Qin Feng was filled with undisguised malice and jealousy.

Su Yuetang ignored him and turned to Xiao Chun, her expression softening considerably with a hint of apology: "Xiao Chun, are you alright? I'm sorry if he scared you."

Xiao Chun quickly waved her hands, looking at Bai Kong and then Su Yuetang curiously: "I'm fine, I'm fine. Sister Su, is he... is he really your son?"

"Yes." Su Yuetang sighed softly, a complex and unreadable emotion flashing in her eyes. "It's just that he grew up in the Imperial Capital and we haven't spent much time together. It's been years... I didn't expect that upon coming here this time, his temperament would become even more like his father's—arrogant and overbearing."

Her tone carried a deep sense of helplessness and a hint of detachment... Back at the Hundred Flowers Pavilion branch, inside Su Yuetang's study.

Having dismissed the attendants, only the mother and son remained. The atmosphere felt somewhat stagnant.

Su Yuetang looked at the son before her, who had already grown up yet felt so like a stranger. She spoke slowly, breaking the silence: "Kong'er, besides visiting your mother, do you... have another purpose for coming to West Lake City this time?"

Bai Kong looked up, the slight pretense of respect on his face fading a bit. He looked directly at Su Yuetang, his tone probing: "Mother... do you want to return to the Bai family?"

Su Yuetang's pupils contracted imperceptibly, but her face remained calm: "Why do you ask this all of a sudden?"

"Father..." Bai Kong weighed his words carefully. "Father... he seems to have missed you lately. He asked me... to see how you are doing, and while I'm at it... to ask what you think."

Hearing this, a faint, mocking curve appeared at the corner of Su Yuetang's mouth. She turned around and looked out the window, her voice ethereal yet firm: "I don't. West Lake City is fine, and the Hundred Flowers Pavilion is fine. What happened in the past is in the past."

Bai Kong frowned, clearly dissatisfied with this answer. However, he didn't continue to dwell on the topic, instead changing the subject: "Mother, the 'water repelling pearl' you took with you when you left back then... you should still have it, right? After all, that was Father's..."

"Lost it." Su Yuetang interrupted him, her tone flat, revealing no emotion. "After so many years of wandering, such external possessions are gone when they are gone."

"What?! Lost it?!" Bai Kong suddenly stood up, his face filled with disbelief and a trace of subtle anxiety. "That was an exotic treasure close to the Earth Rank! Father..."

"Even if it were a Heaven Rank treasure, so what?" Su Yuetang turned around and looked at him calmly, her gaze seemingly able to see through his inner thoughts. "I said, things of the past no longer concern me. Be it treasures or people, it's all the same."

Bai Kong was left speechless by his mother's stubborn attitude. Looking at Su Yuetang's resolute and distant back, he knew that asking further would yield no results. He could only sit back down dejectedly and mutter: "Yes... I spoke out of turn."

...The next day, Bai Kong took Uncle Fu and left West Lake City in a luxurious carriage, returning to the Imperial Capital.

Inside the spacious and comfortable carriage, Bai Kong's face was gloomy, with no trace of his previous arrogance. His mind constantly replayed the events of the past few days—Qin Feng's humiliating sword strike, Xiao Chun's pure and spirited figure that made his heart itch, and his mother's cold, almost indifferent attitude.

"Qin Feng... Xiao Chun..." he muttered to himself, his fingers slowly tightening until his knuckles turned white from the force. "And Mother... she actually protected that outsider so much that she wouldn't even reveal the whereabouts of the water repelling pearl..."

The more he thought about it, the angrier he became, a wicked fire burning in his chest.

"I must tell Father about this!" A look of ruthlessness flashed in his eyes. "Mother's attitude, the existence of that Qin Feng, and... that girl named Xiao Chun! Father will definitely not sit idly by! When the time comes... hmph, Qin Feng, let's see how arrogant you can be then! I'll make sure you suffer the consequences!"

The carriage rolled over the official road, kicking up dust as it carried a heart full of malice and calculation toward the Imperial Capital, the city that symbolized power and the Peak. The brief disturbance in West Lake City seemed to have subsided, but the news brought back to the Imperial Capital by this eldest legitimate son of the Bai family was like a stone thrown into a quiet lake, destined to stir up even greater waves.