In the main hall, Ziqing and Jun Beiyue sat in the seats of honor, with only Hongyi and Guxi present below.
Yingzi had gone out to find the young master, while Guxi and Hongyi gave Ziqing and Jun Beiyue a detailed account of everything that had happened over the past ten years.
Over the past decade, there had been no shortage of large and small conflicts across the Xiongnu, Dongqin, and Xichu territories. With the Three Tiger Armies unable to hold against three fronts at once, the young master, at the age of thirteen, had first stabilized Da Zhou’s internal affairs, crushed all rebellious factions, and then personally led the Four Great Poison Beasts north to the frontier, taking command himself.
He had all but swept clean every rebel force among the Xiongnu, planting Da Zhou’s military banner at the northernmost edge of the Longyuan continent, along the shores of the Arctic Ocean.
As for domestic governance, the young master had, out of necessity, adopted a harsh authoritarian rule—the entire court still lived in fear to this day. No matter how powerful their backing, how great their influence, officials dared not act rashly.
Yet toward the common people, the young master had implemented numerous tax reductions, overseeing countless irrigation projects over the past ten years. In the hearts of the common people, the young master had become something of a gentle tyrant—harsh, yet deeply considerate of ordinary folk.
Ziqing and Jun Beiyue listened, utterly absorbed in Guxi’s account, so much so that neither noticed Jun Buli already standing at the doorway—not until Baili Weisheng’s loud cough broke through did the couple finally snap back to their senses.
But the moment they looked up and saw the grown son before them, neither of them could accept it, not for a single moment.
To them, they had only been gone a few months. Before they left, their son had still been so small—still small enough to be cradled asleep in their arms, still small enough to nuzzle against their shoulders for comfort!
Yet now, the child before them had grown tall and imposing, already as tall as his father!
His features had changed so drastically from when he was six years old, all traces of youthful softness gone, replaced by a face of solemn silence. Ziqing felt her heart clench painfully, unable to hold back the ache.
The word “son” simply wouldn’t come out. She could only stare blankly at Jun Buli, her mind a complete blank.
As for Jun Beiyue, his brow remained tightly furrowed, nothing but furrowed. The son before him had truly grown as tall as himself, his features and bearing resembling his mother more. An inexplicable sense of distance settled over him—a distance that left him unsettled.
Like Ziqing, he wanted desperately to call out “son,” yet the word simply wouldn’t come.
The family of three stared at each other in silence, and the entire world seemed to fall quiet along with them.
After a long while, seeing none of the three speak, Hongyi and Guxi kept signaling frantically to Baili Weisheng, but he glared back at them repeatedly, making it clear he had no intention of meddling in family matters!
So he leaned back lazily on the heated couch, arms crossed over his chest. After a while, though, even he couldn’t bear the silence any longer and spoke up first.
“Xiao Qingqing, there’s something I’ve been wanting to tell you since we were in the Lishang Illusion Realm, but I never got the chance!”
Baili Weisheng’s words seemed to have no effect on the three of them at all—they acted as if they hadn’t heard him, no one responding.
Baili Weisheng coughed lightly and continued, “Jun Buli, aren’t you curious why, after ten years, none of us have aged a day?”
At this, Hongyi and Guxi perked up immediately, genuinely curious.
But even this couldn’t stir a ripple across the still, silent lake that was Ziqing, Jun Beiyue, and their son.
Baili Weisheng glanced at Ziqing and Jun Beiyue, coughed lightly, and deliberately slowed his speech, saying word by word, “Xiao Qingqing, I talked with Nangong Jun. We weren’t trapped in the Lishang Illusion Realm for three hundred years—time inside the Lishang Illusion Realm doesn’t match time outside. We were gone a few months, but over a decade has already passed out here!”
Having said this, Baili Weisheng found, helplessly, that Jun Beiyue and Ziqing still showed no reaction. In truth, even without Baili Weisheng saying anything, when they’d questioned Hongyi and Guxi earlier, they’d already guessed the two worlds had different timelines.
It was Jun Buli, instead, whose lowered eyes lifted slightly—clearly, he cared a great deal about this matter.
Watching Ziqing and Jun Beiyue’s continued indifference, Baili Weisheng’s eyes narrowed to slits, and he continued, “Xiao Qingqing, why haven’t you told your son that we stumbled into the Lishang Illusion Realm entirely by accident, that we had no idea we’d be trapped there for so long…”
At this, Jun Buli finally lifted his head completely, his expression one of shock, while Ziqing and Jun Beiyue’s eyes filled with guilt, still at a complete loss for how to explain themselves to their son.
Perhaps, in their hearts, there was no need for explanation at all—the fact remained that they had left him behind alone. Faced with a fact already done, no amount of explanation would help. The family of three exchanged silent looks, their gazes shifting, yet still no one spoke.
Baili Weisheng settled back into his seat, crossing his legs, gesturing elegantly. Hongyi, ever perceptive, immediately and respectfully presented him with a cup of tea!
Hongyi and Guxi were both nearly bursting with anxiety, but Baili Weisheng sipped his tea leisurely, and only after finishing did he speak again. “Xiao Qingqing, your son has resented you both for a full ten years—look at that expression of his, he’s practically wishing you two would just disappear. I say, maybe you two should just go back—”
But before he could finish, he suddenly found a poisonous snake wrapped around his neck out of nowhere, its wicked crimson tongue flicking toward his mouth.
Undoubtedly, Jun Buli had summoned this as a “gift” for him.
“You think I’m afraid of a poisonous snake?” Baili Weisheng asked mockingly, then burst out laughing, continuing to needle Jun Buli. “Xiao Qingqing, ten years apart, and such an unfilial son—might as well not have seen him at all, oh well, oh well!”
But the moment he finished speaking, the snake suddenly bit down directly on Baili Weisheng’s lips.
Though this fellow was immune to poison, having his lips bitten by a snake’s fangs was hardly a pleasant experience. Baili Weisheng grabbed at the snake fiercely, only to find he couldn’t pry it off at all!
Furious, Baili Weisheng shouted, “Jun Buli, you damn brat, this is so ungrateful! After how good I was to you as a child, your father, mother and I leaving was a last resort—we had no idea what would happen! It was that Xiao Lili, that thousand-cuts bastard, who dragged us into the illusion realm, and then dragged us to the solitary island within the illusion realm—we barely managed to get out at all, after so much effort!”
As he spoke, Baili Weisheng kept glancing sideways at Jun Buli—all this fuss was simply because Jun Buli refused to say anything, and he was trying to provoke him into speaking!
Though this child’s temperament had changed somewhat, Baili Weisheng still understood him—if he bottled everything up inside without letting it out, he’d only suffer for it himself!
“Jun Buli, if you dare resent your mother and father, Xiao Lili will crawl out of his grave to settle the score with you, do you understand…”
At this point, even Baili Weisheng himself felt choked up. He glanced at Ziqing, whose eyes had already welled with tears, and steeling his heart, pressed on. “Jun Buli, I’ll tell you this—Xuanyuan Lige traded his own life to bring us back. If you dare resent your mother, if you dare keep misunderstanding this, I’ll make sure you pay for it, on his behalf!”
Finally, at these words, Jun Buli—who had remained eerily calm this whole time—finally exploded, his voice raw. “I didn’t! I never did, never, never!!! I’ve thought about you every single day!”