"Alright, I think I understand what happened now," Chen Ai Yun said with a nod.
"We missed the part where she's a maso—ah, no, never mind..."
Jin Shu nearly blurted out that she was a masochist, but thought better of it at the last second.
"She's what?"
"No, nothing."
"Hmm... well, as I was saying, this is clearly a misunderstanding. Liu Hua, co here."
She waved Liu Hua over.
Jin Shu instinctively stepped back, but Chen Ai Yun placed a firm hand on his shoulder, keeping him in place.
Liu Hua stood across from him with an innocent smile, as if she hadn't just been trying to kill him monts ago.
"You will both receive a punishnt—"
"What? But I did nothing wrong!" Jin Shu protested.
"If you talk back again, I will add to your punishnt," Chen Ai Yun warned.
His brow twitched, but he held his tongue.
"For your punishnt," she turned to Liu Hua, "you will return in a few days and help with a task."
Liu Hua tilted her head, considering it.
"Hmm... okay." She nodded.
Jin Shu found that punishnt far too light for nearly killing him, but at least it ant his own—unjust as it was—would also be minor.
"As for you," she continued, facing Jin Shu, "your punishnt will be to explain what sex is to Liu Hua."
He blinked.
"You want to do what now?"
"Explain to her the relations between a man and a woman," she rephrased.
Jin Shu blinked again, hearing her clearly this ti, he was too baffled to respond.
Reluctantly, Jin Shu began to explain.
“Sex… is when a man and a woman rub their bodies together… and if they aren’t careful, a baby could be made,” he said simply, his face flushing.
“Oh! So we did have sex!” Liu Hua declared out of nowhere.
“What?!” He shouted, pure disbelief crashing over him.
He couldn’t fathom how she had reached that conclusion.
Feeling a nacing aura from his side, he turned his head—only to et Aunt Chen’s death glare.
“No! I seriously didn’t!” He waved his hands frantically, trying to clear the misunderstanding.
“But you did,” Liu Hua insisted. “Last night, you turned over and rubbed against .”
“No! Argh!” He grabbed his head in frustration.
Making up his mind, he stepped closer to Liu Hua and whispered sothing into her ear.
When he pulled back, her face turned as red as a ripe tomato.
“Eeeh!? Really?!” she shrieked.
Jin Shu nodded.
Liu Hua pointed a trembling finger at him. “Y-you, you’re not allowed near my sister!”
Then, without another word, she turned and bolted, leaving behind fading purple sparks.
Jin Shu let out a deep sigh. “Huh… I should’ve just done that from the start.”
Aunt Chen crossed her arms. “Why didn’t you accept her proposal?”
“Uh… aside from the fact that she terrifies ?” He sighed again. “I’ve already got my hands full with the other girls trying to marry .”
Aunt Chen raised a brow. “But she would do wonders for your cultivation technique.”
“My what? Cultivation technique? But… I don’t have one…”
“You don’t have to hide it. Your mother told about the technique she gave you.”
“Uhh… about that…” Jin Shu scratched his cheek, looking away. “I kinda threw that away.”
Aunt Chen opened her mouth to respond, but before she could, a sudden flash of red light erupted in front of them.
Jin Shu barely had ti to flinch before his mother’s face appeared inches from his.
“You did what?!” she demanded.
Jin Shu wasn’t sure what his mother was asking, but given what he’d just said, he decided to confirm.
“Mom… did you give a dual cultivation technique for my 14th birthday?”
“Yes.” Sun i’er let out a sigh of relief. “I thought you just said you threw it away. But… you are using it with those girls, right?”
“Um… no. No, I’m not. I really thought it was a prank, so I… threw it away.”
She blinked.
“You what…?”
“I… threw it away.”
“You threw away the technique I gave you? The one I spent twelve years trying to find? The one that can be used forever—even up until, and possibly past, the Immortal Realm? The one that increases both your and your partner’s cultivations, letting you advance together so you never have to worry about leaving your lovers behind? That technique?!”
Jin Shu blinked.
He hadn’t realized the technique he dismissed as a joke was that powerful. Regret settled in.
Though, what he regretted more was the fact that he hadn’t just thrown it away… he had cut out so of the illustrated images for, uh, purposes.
Yeah. He was never telling her that.
“…Yes?” he answered hesitantly.
Sun i’er’s face turned red—Jin Shu assud from anger—as she slowly raised a hand behind herself.
Yeah, definitely anger.
Aunt Chen, moving just as swiftly as before, appeared behind Sun i’er and caught her wrist, much like she had with Liu Hua earlier.
“i’er, calm down. It’s not his fault. You should have explained what you were giving him.”
Sun i’er exhaled through her nose, her breath shaky.
“…Fine.” She rubbed her temple. “Then, what cultivation technique have you been using instead?”
“Well… I wasn’t using one until I got here. And then I… made one.”
“You made one?” Her eyes narrowed. “How does it work?”
Jin Shu explained what he could of the technique Nano had created for him.
Sun i’er listened in silence. Then, after a pause, she asked:
“…Are you stupid?”
“What?” Jin Shu blinked, caught completely off guard.
“I asked, are you stupid?” she repeated, dead serious.
Even Aunt Chen gave him a look that all but scread are you actually this dumb?
“…Is there sothing wrong with it?” Jin Shu asked hesitantly.
“Oh no, nothing at all,” Sun i’er said sarcastically. “Other than it being the dumbest thing I have ever heard in my entire life!”
She pressed a hand to her forehead, letting out a deep sigh.
“Haa… this is my fault… I gave you too much freedom. I thought you should grow up without restrictions. Clearly, I was mistaken.”
“…Well, can’t I just learn a new technique?” Jin Shu asked hopefully.
His mother shook her head.
“No. Not unless you abolish your current cultivation and start over.”
Jin Shu frowned. “That doesn’t sound so bad—”
“You’d have to smash your core,” Aunt Chen interjected. “Which could cripple you. Or worse—kill you.”
Jin Shu flinched.
For him, it would be worse.
If he smashed his core… Nano would die too.
“…Where did you learn this thod, anyway?” his mother asked, her tone cautious.
“Um… well…” He hesitated.
“From where? From whom?” she pressed.
Jin Shu sighed. He couldn’t lie. Not to his mother.
“Uh… so… there’s this little creature living inside . It ca from the sa world as —the other … and, uh, it kinda made the thod on its own?”
Sun i’er and Aunt Chen exchanged looks.
“This little creature,” Aunt Chen said slowly. “It ca from your world? The one without Qi?”
“Yes…? I think?”
“Then how did it learn to use Qi?” she asked.
“Through… my mories.”
As soon as the words left his mouth, Jin Shu realized where this was going.
“So its knowledge only goes as far as your own,” Aunt Chen repeated, rubbing her temple. “And you trusted it to create a working cultivation technique?”
“…Yes.”
Sun i’er held out her hands toward him.
“…I want to strangle you for your stupidity.”
“P-please don’t…?” Jin Shu laughed sheepishly.
Aunt Chen sighed. “Can it refine the thod?”
Nano? Jin Shu asked internally.
“I can.”
“Yes, it can,” He answered aloud.
His mother exhaled. “Then Ai Yun can get you access to the sect’s library. Read through the techniques there. Hopefully, it will help salvage what’s left of your cultivation.”
“How did I give birth to such a stupid son?” Sun i’er lanted before turning to Aunt Chen. “It’s his stupid father’s fault. If we had raised him like you promised, this wouldn’t have happened.”
Jin Shu had a bad feeling. He knew he was going to regret asking, but he had to.
“Um… what do you an? Why would both of you have raised ?”
Sun i’er glanced at Chen Ai Yun. Aunt Chen shook her head, clearly unwilling to say anything.
Sun i’er turned back to Jin Shu.
“She’s as much your mother as I am.”
Jin Shu blinked.
“What?”
“i’er—!” Aunt Chen tried to stop her, but Sun i’er ignored her completely.
“She may not have given birth to you, but that doesn’t change the fact that she is one hundred percent your mother. She is my wife, after all.”
Jin Shu’s mind went completely blank.
“…Huh?”
That was not the answer he had expected.
“But—you’re married to Dad… aren’t you?”
“Hold on, I’ll explain.”
“i’er… please…” Aunt Chen practically begged.
Sun i’er carried on as if she hadn’t heard her.
“Ai Yun and I were lovers,” she said simply. “One day, I told her I regretted not being able to have a child since we’re both won.”
Aunt Chen’s face turned an alarming shade of red. Then, just as suddenly, she turned and made a break for it—only for Sun i’er to grab her arm and hold her in place.
Jin Shu wasn’t sure whether to laugh or be concerned.
“She took it pretty hard,” Sun i’er continued. “I didn’t an to make her feel guilty, but… she did. So, without telling , she agreed to an arranged marriage with your father.”
Jin Shu’s eyes widened.
“…She what?”
“I didn’t know at the ti,” Sun i’er admitted. “The agreent was that if she had a daughter, she could take her back to her sect and raise her. But if she had a son… he would have to stay and be raised as the heir of the Jin family.”
Jin Shu slowly pointed to himself.
“Yes, like you,” she confird. “But she couldn’t go through with it. She ca back devastated. Even had thoughts of…” Her voice dropped slightly. “Ending things. She felt like she’d failed both and, to a lesser extent, your father.”
She let out a small laugh.
“She’s so stubborn that way. Though she calls the stubborn one.”
“Because you are!” Aunt Chen spluttered, her entire face burning.
Sun i’er ignored her. Again.
“So, without her knowing, I took her place and had a child with your father.” She smiled. “You.”
Jin Shu stared.
“…Just like that?”
She nodded. Then hesitated. “Yes and no.”
“I didn’t know the full terms of their arrangent at the ti—just that Ai Yun wanted a child. So, I brought you back here, thinking we’d raise you together.” She grimaced. “But because of sect rules, we couldn’t have males within the sect. And back then, neither of us was Sect Master or Vice Master, so we couldn’t bend the rules.”
“Master found out,” Aunt Chen muttered.
“Yeah.” Sun i’er sighed. “I got kicked out for a while when she did.”
Jin Shu blinked. “Wait, what?”
“Ai Yun cald her down eventually,” Sun i’er said. “I was only allowed back in after I agreed to raise you outside the sect with your father’s family.”
Jin Shu took a mont to process all of this.
…Surprisingly, he took it well.
Honestly, it wasn’t that much weirder than finding out he was the reincarnation of a dragon.
“So, let see if I have this straight,” he said, folding his arms. “Mom wanted a child. Aunt Chen wanted to give her a child but couldn’t go through with it. So then Mom decided to do it herself. But because I was born a male, we couldn’t live together.”
“Right.” Sun i’er nodded.
“…Huh.”
Now that he knew, a lot of things started making sense.
“So… you’re not in love with Dad, then?”
She shook her head without hesitation.
“I’m not. Quite the opposite, actually…”
He nodded slowly. “I see… I think I understand. Or… maybe I don’t. But…” He hesitated, trying to find the right words. “I don’t know. I guess I’m just… glad you didn’t abandon .”
The words felt clumsy even as he said them. Truthfully, he wasn’t sure what he felt. Confused, mostly. Like he should be angry, maybe even hurt. But… what was the point in that?
It was her life. She had the right to live it freely.
He nodded to himself and wiped at his eyes, only now realizing when the tears had started falling.
He looked up at her—his mother, still smiling at him with that soft, unwavering warmth.
“Mom… I love you,” he said quietly. “But… I’m going to need so ti to think about all this.”
Her smile didn’t waver.
“Okay,” she said gently. “We’ll give you so space.”
He stepped past them, limping slightly as he made his way up the mountain path, his mind a storm of thoughts—of his mother, of Chen Ai Yun, of his father.
And of who he was now, in the middle of it all.
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