Chapter Ninety: The Enemy Is Always Growing Stronger

The next morning, Luo Changning was having breakfast in the main hall with Su Meng when Luo Qingshi stormed in like a whirlwind, not even bothering to announce herself.

Without the slightest sense that anything was amiss, Luo Qingshi did not bother greeting Su Meng, her elder, at all. She sat down with the air of a young mistress in the chair beside Luo Changning and blinked at him with deliberate sweetness, looking at him with intense concentration.

Luo Changning quietly shook off the gooseflesh rising over his skin and complained inwardly: Please, my dear cousin, you are really no beauty. Spare me this act!

What nauseating affectation.

And did she honestly think those dead-fish eyes of hers could compare with Sister Xue'e's almond-shaped eyes? She was trying to send him looks, for heaven's sake. He almost retched.

Luo Qingshi had no idea that Luo Changning was inwardly wishing to strangle her, and continued blinking at him with those lifeless eyes all the same.

In truth, it was rather odd. Luo Qingshi was known for loving beauty and wanting to possess everything lovely she saw. Yet when it came to beautiful women and girls, she was somehow cold and hostile, as though she would rather they vanished from the world altogether.

Take Su Meng, for instance. She was unquestionably considered a beauty by all who saw her, and not only that, but a beauty of remarkable gentleness.

Yet in Luo Qingshi's eyes, she might as well have been invisible. She should have addressed her as Aunt by marriage, but she skipped right over it and did not greet her at all.

So it seemed this supposed love of beauty was selective after all.

Toward handsome and attractive boys, she was all smiles and warmth. Toward beautiful women, she was icy.

"I've had enough," Luo Changning said at last, unable to bear the flirtatious fool any longer as he set down his chopsticks with a snap.

After excusing himself to Su Meng, he rose and left the hall. Seeing him stride away, Luo Qingshi hurriedly gathered her skirts and followed.

"Hey, Cousin Luo, slow down a little. Wait for me, Cousin Qingshi!"

Hearing that grating voice recede into the distance, Qing Gu shuddered and said with a look of sympathy, "It truly is hard on Young Master. To have been caught by such an extraordinary pest, and who knows when he will finally shake off Miss Qingshi."

"The only woman who can stand beside Ning'er will certainly not be a lovesick simpleton like her."

Even the ever-gentle Su Meng had spoken with such sharpness, which only showed how little she cared for Luo Qingshi.

Qing Gu covered her mouth and laughed. "Perhaps Young Master is deliberately pretending to be angry so he can lure her away and keep her from upsetting you, miss."

Hmph, what a person. It would be one thing to be a foolish beauty, but to see an elder and still not know enough to offer greeting?

At Qing Gu's words, Su Meng also smiled. "Then it really has been hard on Ning'er."

In truth, she knew very well that returning to Miaonan Circuit meant trouble would inevitably come calling. After all, the accumulated wealth of the Su family line was all sealed within the spatial jade toad.

And since she had not yet been betrothed, while Ning'er was already old enough to be looking at girls and settling upon a marriage contract, it was only natural that some people would begin to entertain other thoughts.

She only did not know whether Luo Qingshi was truly a fool for beauty or merely pretending to be one, and whether her clinging to Ning'er was her own idea or her parents'.

Still, Qing Gu really did deserve credit for serving the Su family through two generations. She could read Luo Changning's thoughts with uncanny accuracy. He truly had driven Luo Qingshi away so she would not keep appearing before Su Meng.

But his anger was not feigned. He was genuinely angry.

He had already been irritated to the point of frustration by Luo Qingshi's incessant pestering, and when he saw that she had no respect whatsoever for Su Meng and had not even deigned to greet her, his disgust for her only deepened.

If he could have his way, he would have had someone throw her out of the Su family estate and erect a sign at the gate reading: Dogs may enter. Luo Qingshi may not.

Moreover, he knew that his aunt had always loved quiet and peace, and would certainly not be pleased to see such a noisy girl. Afraid that the sight of Luo Qingshi would spoil her mood, he left the hall on the pretext of slamming down his chopsticks.

As expected, that shameless, lovestruck Luo Qingshi followed him out.

Luo Changning let out a long sigh. Still, this was better. Better that he suffer than his aunt. If Aunt Su lost her appetite because of that girl, it would be far worse.

In truth, Luo Changning had also felt that ever since Su Meng returned to the Su family estate, she had seemed wrapped in a veil of sorrow. It made him feel as though something stood between him and Su Meng, keeping him from drawing close.

He disliked that feeling very much. There was always a sense that he had been shut out.

Luo Changning knew that Su Meng's sorrow was absolutely not because she had left the Su family courtyard where she had lived for thirteen years, nor because she had left Qingyang County, where Su Qinqin's tombstone stood, and of course not because of Ma Qingyun.

Her sadness came from the Su family estate itself, from the place where she had lived in her youth.

Besides sorrow, Luo Changning could also feel in Su Meng a faint sense of loss, as though something had slipped through her fingers forever. Could it be that something had once happened in the Su family estate that had left Aunt Su unhappy?

No, to be precise, it had probably been both joyful and painful. There was even a trace of longing and remembrance in that sense of loss.

In truth, Luo Changning had known all along. He had known it even while still in swaddling clothes. He had known his aunt's secret.

After all, at that time he was only an infant in the eyes of adults, a milk-scented little thing barely ten days old, not yet a year old, and could not possibly have understood the ways of the world. Yet in truth, the one inhabiting that tiny body was the soul of a sixteen-year-old boy.

Luo Changning still remembered, as clearly as if it were yesterday, the day the news of his father Luo Feng's death arrived. The one who broke down was not only his mother, but also his aunt.

The expressions on their faces were exactly the same then: grief-stricken, despairing, unwilling to believe what they had heard.

It was the expression of someone who had lost the one they loved, not the expression one ought to wear at the death of a brother-in-law.

What he had not expected was that his mother, usually as fierce and blazing as fire, would not withstand the shock and go mad, while his aunt, so gentle as water, proved to be the truly resilient one.

Though she knew the man she loved had died and gone to the grave, she still gritted her teeth and, while caring for her crazed elder sister, also cared for the infant not yet a month old.

It was precisely for that reason that Luo Changning held this aunt, Su Meng, in even greater esteem.

How could he not respect, not love, a woman who could tenderly care for the child born of the man she loved and another woman?

Only, back then his maternal uncle Wen Rugong had merely said, "He is dead," and had not mentioned Luo Feng's name. So Luo Changning had only known that his father, whom he had never even met, had died; he had not even known the cause.

After that, the entire Su household kept silent on the matter and never spoke of it again.

If not for his master telling him the truth two years ago, he would still not know how Luo Feng had died.

And that would have delayed things yet further.

In matters of martial cultivation, one should always start early rather than late. The moment one grew strong, one's enemies never once stopped advancing.