...
Driven by a desire to watch the excitement and gather intelligence, Xuan Hao did not immediately go inside.
He silently suppressed the fluctuations of his blood and soul power, and like a ghost without a physical form, he nimbly vaulted over the fence and hid behind a thick ginkgo tree, eavesdropping in secret.
Beside the stone table, each of them had a steaming cup of tea in front of them.
"This morning was the highlight for their Royal Fighting Team 2, why didn't you go to the Great Soul Arena to watch the match?"
Liu Erlong picked up his teacup, took a sip, looked at Tang Yuehua across from him, and asked casually.
Tang Yuehua sighed softly, put down the delicate pastry she was holding, and a hint of resentment and disappointment, difficult to conceal, appeared on her beautiful face:
"Go there for what? To watch him show off in the ring?"
"That guy went into seclusion at the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Eye for over a year and we haven't heard from him at all. Now that he's finally come out of seclusion and has been back for so many days, I haven't seen him come to Yuexuan to see me."
Tang Yuehua gently stirred the tea with her slender fingers, her tone tinged with grievance, "On the day of the opening ceremony, I was sitting in the VIP section, so close to him.
Everyone was looking at him, but he didn't even lift his head once, and didn't even glance at me once from beginning to end."
"You mean... did he soak in the spring for too long and ruin his brain, forgetting about us?"
Upon hearing Tang Yuehua's complaint, Liu Erlong gave a strange look and curled his lip.
"Don't even mention it. I was in the stands that day, and he didn't even look at me."
Liu Erlong snorted, but there was a hint of sourness in her tone.
"But then again, he's now a notorious and fearless villain in the mainland, surrounded by a bunch of beautiful young girls.
Why would he even think about old aunties like us?"
"well..."
Tang Yuehua shook her head, comforting herself, "Maybe I'm overthinking it.
He made such a big fuss at the opening ceremony to establish his authority.
He must have been busy with important matters, so it's normal that he didn't pay attention to the VIP seats."
"If you can't even make it to the opening ceremony, what about afterwards?"
Liu Erlong slammed her hand on the table, her temper clearly much more impatient than Tang Yuehua's.
"The qualifiers have been going on for almost seven days!
That kid only showed his face in the first two matches, and for the last few days he's been sitting in the lounge like a king.
He's so idle he could grow mushrooms on the sofa, and I haven't seen him even move an inch to say hello!"
Liu Erlong grew angrier the more she thought about it. She turned to Tang Yuehua and suggested, "You know... since he's not coming to us, why don't we just go find him ourselves?"
"I'm not going!"
Without even thinking, Tang Yuehua shook her head decisively and refused, "If you want to go find her, go find her yourself.
I'm definitely not going."
"Why?" Liu Erlong asked, puzzled.
"Don't you feel embarrassed?"
Tang Yuehua sighed, "You know what kind of situation he's in right now. Ning Fengzhi's daughter, Dugu Bo's granddaughter, and that Na'er who's always clinging to him... those girls, the oldest of them is only twenty!"
"What can we do there? Just stand there staring at each other, like little girls who could be our daughters?"
Tang Yuehua shook her head with a wry smile, "I just can't stand it.
Just thinking about that scene makes me feel uncomfortable."
Upon hearing these words, Liu Erlong deflated like a punctured balloon and leaned back in her chair helplessly.
"That's true, I'm too embarrassed to go."
Liu Erlong scratched his head in frustration, "After all, there's a significant age gap, two whole generations!
We might be willing to swallow our pride and be with him in private, but to actually face all those pretty young girls around him..."
"It's alright to occasionally bump into them or have some contact with them.
But if we were to actually sit at the same table with them, or even live under the same roof, that would be pure torture!"
Liu Erlong curled her lip, recalling Xuan Hao's despicable behavior, and added, "Besides, if that bastard Xuan Hao doesn't behave himself in front of them and deliberately tries to hurt them, he'll be even more ashamed to show his face. I'd rather find a crack in the ground to crawl into!"
In the brief moment when the two were sighing and denouncing Xuan Hao,
Sudden.
"Whoosh—"
A silver head suddenly emerged upside down from the narrow gap between the two people on the stone table!
"Why don't you just send someone a message for me?"
Xuan Hao, hanging upside down from the tree trunk above the stone table, looked at the two stunned people and said matter-of-factly, "If you just say the word, I'll roll over here in no time. Why are you sighing and complaining here?"
"ah--!"
"Holy crap!"
This sudden turn of events startled the two unsuspecting people!
Liu Erlong instinctively threw a punch, but fortunately she reacted quickly and stopped her fist half an inch from the tip of his nose when she saw that it was Xuan Hao's annoying face.
Tang Yuehua was so frightened that her face turned pale. She leaned back abruptly, causing the stone bench beneath her to lose its balance and almost fall backward!
"careful!"
Xuan Hao reacted quickly, his legs suddenly loosened, and he flipped off the tree trunk, landing steadily on the ground.
At the same time, he stretched out his long arm and grabbed Tang Yuehua's slender waist, pulling her back into his embrace.
"Grandma, aren't you a little too timid?"
Xuan Hao hugged Tang Yuehua and couldn't help but tease her.
Tang Yuehua, still shaken, patted his towering chest and glared at him irritably: "Can you stop walking like a ghost, making no sound at all, and then suddenly popping up to scare people?!"
"How can you blame me?"
Xuan Hao innocently protested his innocence, "I climbed over into the yard and listened from behind the tree for ages.
You two were so engrossed in your conversation that you didn't even notice me approaching. Your vigilance is terrible!"
Upon hearing this, Tang Yuehua's expression instantly became somewhat unnatural, and a blush rose to her fair cheeks: "You...you heard everything?"
That bastard overheard all those private conversations they had about the age gap, jealousy, and awkwardness!
"Cough, I heard a little bit."
Xuan Hao awkwardly touched his nose and quickly changed the subject, explaining why he had been out of contact for the past few days:
"I haven't come to see you all these past few days, not because I've forgotten you. It's just that I've been too busy!"
"Think about it, I just came out of seclusion. I have to deal with the opening ceremony of the competition, right?
I have to handle that mess between Tianshui Academy and Chihuo Academy, right?
And there's the mess that my Tiandou Self-Improvement Association has been accumulating for over a year, waiting for me to make a decision."
"And then there's His Highness the Crown Prince, who's been dragging me around these past few days discussing all sorts of shady things. I've really been on my feet non-stop; I just finished up and came straight here to see you all, didn't I?"
"Ha, keep making things up, keep making things up."
Liu Erlong sat beside him, arms crossed, her face full of disdain as she exposed him.
"I think what you're saying is secondary, isn't it? You haven't been back for over a year, I don't know if things have gotten out of hand at home.
But I reckon you'll have to take care of those pretty young girls one by one before you'll have the energy to come here and say a few perfunctory words, right?"
Xuan Hao listened in silence for a while.
"Big sister, they've been the absolute main force in the qualifiers lately, they're fighting in the ring every day!"
"What am I supposed to serve? If I really did what you say, running around in the middle of the night and making them sore and weak, how would they be able to compete the next day?
Wouldn't that be embarrassing them on the stage?"
"During this period, all I could do at night was hold Na'er and sleep peacefully. Forget about practical experience, I didn't even get a penny of profit!"
Read 20+ chapters ahead at Patreon
patreon.com/TaroYamato
Patreon.com/TaroYamato