I Just Wanted To Live but I Somehow Became Better Than the Protagonist

24 Mother and Daughter

After Ye Yong gathered the younger generation for a meal and taught them about the ways of the world, the news naturally reached the ears of the Ye family elders in no time. Some of them even sent their divine sense over to listen in on the scene, feeling fully immersed.

The Ye family elders, who already had a high opinion of Ye Yong, were truly speechless, feeling that Ye Yong was flawless.

If there was a system to measure the degree of favoritism, Ye Yong would have probably accumulated hundreds of millions of points by now, unfortunately, there wasn’t.

Ye Yong didn’t care much about how the elders viewed this matter, as he was the most favored one in the Ye family. Not to mention that he only let Ye Mao and the others be humble on the outside, to showcase the magnanimity of the Ye family, which was a good thing. With the setting of a brainless villain family, even if Ye Yong said he wanted to join the demonic sect, the elders would probably still try to persuade him, not to prevent him from being tainted by the demonic way, but to hope that he would join a top-notch demonic sect, at least, to maintain his status.

This was the Ye family, with an extreme degree of doting on their younger generation.

——Qin Family;

Qin Shi Meng was eating in her mother’s, Bu Yue’s, room, which was the first time she had seen her mother since returning to the Qin family yesterday.

The reason was that Bu Yue had rarely closed herself off for cultivation, and if Qin Shi Meng hadn’t come to find her, she might still be in seclusion.

Since Qin Shi Meng was old enough to understand, every time she came to find Bu Yue, she could see her whenever she wanted, and there was no memory of Bu Yue being in seclusion. Now that she had joined the sect and gone out, Bu Yue was in seclusion instead, which made Qin Shi Meng feel a bit curious.

Could it be that when she was at home, her mother was intentionally not in seclusion, and only started after she left?

Qin Shi Meng had always had many questions about her mother, such as why she never went out, and her relationship with her father was not good, and even when her father mentioned her, he would always have a fearful expression, with a hint of evasiveness in his eyes, which was not the relationship and state that a couple should have?

“What, do you have something to say?” Bu Yue’s appearance was quite similar to Qin Shi Meng’s, with every move exuding an otherworldly aura. She didn’t even lift an eyelid, slowly picking up a piece of spirit vegetable with her chopsticks, looking extremely cold and distant, yet giving people a sense of being unreachable.

“Am I disturbing your cultivation, Mother?” Qin Shi Meng asked.

Yesterday, after returning home, she wanted to find Bu Yue and have a New Year’s Eve dinner with her, and then visit the Ye family today, because she really didn’t have any sense of belonging to the Qin family. However, after learning from the maid that her mother was in seclusion, she was stunned for a long time, until this morning, when Bu Yue sent a maid to notify Qin Shi Meng that she had come out of seclusion, and Qin Shi Meng came over.

“No.” Bu Yue replied lazily, seemingly uninterested in this kind of question.

Qin Shi Meng was silent for a moment: “After eating with Mother, I’ll go to the Ye family.”

Upon hearing this, Bu Yue showed a flicker of reaction; she lifted her gaze and glanced at Qin Shi Meng. “I’ve heard you’ve been getting close to that boy from the Ye family lately?”

“Mm…” Qin Shi Meng did not deny it.

Bu Yue narrowed her eyes. “Do you like him?”

“Yes.” Still unyielding, Qin Shi Meng nodded earnestly. To love and to hate, she would not deliberately deny her true feelings—just like the Qin Empress in Ye Yong’s memories.

Bu Yue set down her chopsticks, and the two locked eyes for a moment. She let out a light laugh, seemingly dismissive, dripping with sarcasm. “Does that yellow-haired girl really understand emotions? Don’t get too deep; you never know what the one you like might do to you.”

“What do you mean, Mother?”

Bu Yue did not answer.

So, Qin Shi Meng continued, “He saved my life; no matter what he does to me, it’s all in repayment of his kindness.”

“What if he sees you as a furnace?”

A furnace refers to one that absorbs the essence of one party to strengthen another. The one who becomes the furnace often suffers a severe decline in their own cultivation; no matter how hard they try, they end up sewing garments for others.

Ye Yong treated Qin Shi Meng so well, providing her with techniques and resources. If Bu Yue had said this in the past, Qin Shi Meng would have surely doubted him, even thinking Ye Yong had such ulterior motives. But now, having gone through so much together, she trusted him wholeheartedly.

“If that’s truly the case, I have nothing to say. As I mentioned, it’s merely a repayment of kindness.”

Bu Yue looked at Qin Shi Meng, as if lost in memories, her gaze drifting far away. “You’re just as hopeless as she was.”

“Who is she?”

“A foolish woman who clung to her infatuation, betrayed by a heartless man, believing until the end in the foolishness of that heartless man. Best not to speak of her.” Bu Yue withdrew her gaze. “I don’t know what you’ve experienced with him, but I want to tell you: don’t trust men, and it’s best if you don’t cross any boundaries with him. Otherwise, I will surely kill him.”

Her tone was flat, yet laced with an infinite killing intent; just listening made Qin Shi Meng feel as if she were plunging into an icy abyss.

“Extend your hand.” Bu Yue suddenly spoke.

“Why?” Qin Shi Meng was reluctant. She was now at the fourth layer of crystallization; just months ago, she had only reached the fifth layer of foundation. The change in her cultivation was astonishingly rapid. With the help of the miraculous stones Ye Yong had given her, she had now crystallized thirteen spirit crystals, six more than the average cultivator at her stage.

“Why so many questions? Just extend your hand when I tell you to.” Bu Yue’s voice was low and commanding.

“It’s impossible for you not to tell me the reason.”

25 Bu Yue

As Qin Shi Meng made her way back to her dwelling, her mind was consumed by the words Bu Yue had spoken.

At that moment, Bu Yue’s expression had been tinged with a sorrowful reminiscence, hinting at a past laden with shadows. There had to be something that had transpired long ago. As for whether Bu Yue had personally experienced betrayal, Qin Shi Meng found it hard to believe. If it were true, then the phrase “in the end, believing in the heartbroken fool” would lose its meaning. “In the end” likely referred to a time when the other party was no longer among the living.

“Could it be that the ‘foolish woman’ is my true mother?” Qin Shi Meng was no naive child; she pieced together the fragments of Bu Yue’s unintentional revelations, the sorrow that clung to her words, and her own experiences with the Qin family. It was all too easy to draw certain conclusions.

“If the truth is as such, Bu Yue, what are you to me?” In terms of appearance, they were not identical, but there was at least a seven-part resemblance. To claim there was no blood relation would be met with disbelief. Even Qin Shi Meng herself felt an unspoken, intangible bond of blood between her and Bu Yue.

Otherwise, why would she feel so detached from the entire Qin family, with only Bu Yue stirring any sense of connection within her?