"Ahhh!"
After a brief moment of stunned silence, Wan Shuo erupted with an earth-shattering scream.
After all, he was only an eight-year-old child.
His earlier sudden attack on Xiao Asui was simply because he was the bigger kid.
But he never imagined that he would be lifted off the ground by a little girl who was barely half his height!
The weightlessness of his feet leaving the ground, combined with the panic of being hoisted up, made him scream uncontrollably.
A Yao!
This sister was a Yao!
"Ahh! Mom! Mom, save me!"
The boy's voice was shrill, and Xiao Asui found it incredibly noisy.
Carrying him down two flights of stairs, she glanced around and quickly spotted a half-person-tall, wide-mouthed vase nearby.
With a tense little face, Xiao Asui took a few quick steps with her short legs and, still carrying him, stuffed him right into the vase's opening!
Wan Shuo felt the world spin around him, and by the time he realized what was happening, he was folded up and crammed into a large vase.
His bottom was wedged downward, perfectly stuck in the vase's opening.
He screamed again, instinctively trying to pull himself out, only to find half his body trapped in the opening, unable to muster any strength.
Panic and humiliation washed over him, and Wan Shuo could no longer hold back, bursting into tears.
"Mom! Mom, save me!"
Nan Zhizhi finally snapped out of her daze and was about to pull Wan Jiaojiao away from her embrace when a deep, angry voice suddenly rang out from the doorway.
"What is going on here?!"
The newcomer was tall and imposing. Both his age and physiognomy made it clear at a glance that he was A Sui's biological father and the only male head of the household, Wan Yuntao.
Beside him stood a tall, elegantly dressed, and strikingly beautiful woman.
The two had just walked in and were met with this scene, clearly stunned.
After all, under normal circumstances, a little girl barely a meter tall could never lift a boy nearly a head taller than her.
Was this child a monster?
Wan Yuntao thought to himself but still rushed forward with Xiao Wang to rescue Wan Shuo from the vase.
Once he confirmed the child was unharmed, he turned his gaze to the newly returned child, his eyes cold with anger.
"You just got back, and you dare lay a hand on your brother?!"
Xiao Asui met his furious gaze with righteous confidence.
"A Sui was… acting in self-defense!"
Second Master taught her that self-defense didn't count as fighting.
Wan Yuntao looked at the pink, adorable yet stubborn little girl before him. The guilt he had felt over her years away suddenly vanished, replaced by an inexplicable dislike.
"How dare you argue back! At such a young age, you're already so vicious! You have absolutely no…"
But before he could finish, his words were sharply interrupted by Nan Zhizhi.
"Yuntao!!"
Nan Zhizhi couldn't believe her husband would use such words to describe the child they had worked so hard to find and were meeting for the first time today.
That was his own flesh and blood!
Even if Sui Sui had acted too harshly, it was only because Wan Shuo had attacked her first!
Suppressing the pain in her back, she stood up and instinctively pulled Xiao Asui into her arms, covering the little girl's ears with her hands, not wanting her to hear any harsh words from her father.
Once again pulled into a warm embrace, Xiao Asui was visibly stunned.
Feeling Mother’s back trembling slightly from pain, Xiao Asui suddenly reached out, making a gesture to return the hug, but her small hand gently brushed over Mother’s injured back instead.
Her tiny fingers seemed to quickly trace a pattern on it.
No one noticed that, as her fingers moved, faint points of Spiritual Light flowed from her fingertips.
That Spiritual Light seeped into Nan Zhizhi’s back along her fingertips.
Whether it was an illusion or not, Nan Zhizhi only felt a warm current flowing where Sui Sui’s small hand had brushed, and the previously throbbing pain in her back seemed to vanish instantly.
Before she could ponder it further, she saw Wan Jiaojiao, whom she had just pushed away, staggering toward Wan Yuntao and the woman.
“Daddy! Auntie Xuetong, wuwuwu~ Sister is so scary, I don’t want to live with her, wuwuwu…”
The newcomer was none other than Auntie Xuetong, whom Wan Jiaojiao had repeatedly insisted should become her mother.
She was also Wan Yuntao’s longtime confidante and close friend.
Due to her early career in the entertainment industry, the woman had never married and thus appeared very youthful.
She instinctively crouched down and pulled Wan Jiaojiao into her arms, softly comforting her before turning her gaze to Nan Zhizhi.
“Sister Zhizhi, I know you’re overjoyed to have found your biological child, but Jiaojiao is also the child you raised with your own hands. How could you bear to let her suffer such great injustice?”
Her voice was exceptionally gentle, and even her disapproving words carried little blame, yet Nan Zhizhi instinctively furrowed her brows.
Before she could speak, Wan Yuntao beside her spoke in a low, stern tone.
“I’ve said it before—even if she returns, Jiaojiao will still be our child. But now you’re letting her bully Jiaojiao and Wan Shuo. Zhizhi, you’ve truly disappointed me.”
Nan Zhizhi watched as her husband’s words were accompanied by visible dissatisfaction and impatience directed at her, and her heart tightened.
She didn’t know when it had started, but her once-loving husband had grown increasingly impatient with her.
It seemed to have begun when their company started thriving and he began earning more and more money.
He became busier and busier, and on the rare occasions he returned home, he spent most of his time with the children.
Only when he needed her to accompany him to face the media did he display the tenderness and consideration he once had.
Nan Zhizhi didn’t know what had gone wrong.
But she was certain that she wasn’t the one at fault now.
“Why don’t you ask what Jiaojiao and Wan Shuo did?”
Based solely on Jiaojiao’s cries and Lu Xuetong’s insinuating accusations, he chose to believe them without even asking for the reason?
Sui Sui was his biological daughter!
“No matter what they did, it doesn’t justify her laying hands on her older siblings!”
As Wan Yuntao spoke, he glanced at the child Nan Zhizhi was shielding in her arms, his eyes filled with undisguised reproach and dissatisfaction.
Before Nan Zhizhi could retort, he continued.
“I was hesitant before, but now it seems this child truly clashes with Jiaojiao… How about this—let her stay outside for a few days, and we’ll bring her back once Jiaojiao has accepted her…”
Wan Yuntao spoke as if it were the most natural thing in the world, but Nan Zhizhi could hardly believe her ears.
What was he saying?
Let Sui Sui move out temporarily?
Sui Sui was their biological child, yet he now wanted to keep their own daughter from returning home for the sake of Jiaojiao, their adopted daughter?
How could this be?!
"Impossible!"
Nan Zhizhi rarely raised her voice in such a stern refusal. Her usually gentle face now radiated an unyielding firmness and strength.
Not being able to personally bring Sui Sui home was already a debt she owed her child. Nan Zhizhi absolutely would not allow her own daughter to be driven out of her own home for the sake of a Fake Daughter!
Taking a step back, even if Sui Sui and Jiaojiao truly clashed, the one who should leave to avoid conflict could never be her Sui Sui!