Qi Zhiheng said, "I sensed something was wrong, so I came back to check. Do you have a grudge against that person?"
Ye Hanyuan did not hide this fact: "I killed his brother, does that count as having a grudge?"
Qi Zhiheng was somewhat speechless: "This... should be let go, but it still depends on their relationship. Even brothers can turn against each other."
Ye Hanyuan felt it was best not to continue this topic, so he changed the subject: "Master, didn't you have something to do? Aren't you going back now?"
"Right!" Qi Zhiheng then remembered that he had something to do at home: "I have to go. Remember to tell Tang Min." After saying that, he seemed to remember something and casually handed him a defensive jade talisman.
Ye Hanyuan was somewhat surprised: "Master, this..."
Qi Zhiheng didn't seem to care much and said, "Take it and use it. I don't think you're very safe lately." After all, he was his disciple, and Qi Zhiheng had to protect him.
"Thank you, Master." Ye Hanyuan didn't stand on ceremony; he really needed the defensive jade talisman.
Qi Zhiheng didn't linger and hurriedly returned to Panyun Peak.
"Zhiheng? Why are you back so early today?" Ye Xin was picking vegetables in the yard when she saw Qi Zhiheng and greeted him.
Qi Zhiheng replied, "Yi Tian said something came up and asked me to come back first. I thought something had happened at home. Is everything alright?"
"Nothing major seems to have happened at home. Maybe Yi Tian needs to talk to you about something." Ye Xin thought back for a moment and realized that she hadn't heard anything about anything happening at home.
Qi Zhiheng felt he should go and see for himself.
When we arrived at their small courtyard, we saw Yang Yitian and several children.
Yang Yitian lay on a soft couch, reading a book. On the table beside him were several stacks of snacks and pastries, and a pot of tea was brewing. Da Bao and San Bao sat next to him, playing with building blocks.
Yang Yitian picked up a cup of tea, took a sip, and comfortably squinted his eyes, looking quite relaxed.
On the other side, however, was a completely different scene.
Erbao stood on a wooden stake with three books on his head and a small bucket in each hand. When the wind blew, he swayed from side to side.
Erbao frowned, but still tried his best to stand steadily despite the wobbling. Below him were sharp wooden splinters; if he fell, he would probably get a big hole in his body.
Qi Zhiheng wasn't worried about his son falling down. He realized that the wooden spikes below were just an illusion, and even if Erbao really fell down, he wouldn't actually get a few holes in his body.
It was in this atmosphere that Qi Zhiheng stepped into the courtyard.
Upon seeing Qi Zhiheng return, Erbao, who was standing on the wooden stake, couldn't hold back and burst into tears, crying pitifully, "Father~ you're back! Save me! I'm going to be murdered by your wife!"
Qi Zhiheng couldn't help but laugh when he saw Erbao standing on the wooden stake: "Oh, are you disciplining your son? Didn't you say you wouldn't... commit domestic violence? What's going on here?"
Yang Yitian, who was on the soft couch, raised his head and looked at Qi Zhiheng, who had returned. He then sneered at Erbao, who was standing on the wooden stake, "Stop howling. Even if your father came, he couldn't save you!"
Erbao howled even louder, leaving Qi Zhiheng completely bewildered.
Yang Yitian tossed a book to Qi Zhiheng and said, "Mr. Luo told me today that your son got into a fight with someone over a book and beat the other person black and blue. This is the book."
Erbao stopped wailing and interjected, "Daxiong stole my book! He deserved to be beaten."
"Isn't this a textbook for learning to read? What's the big deal? Isn't it a book for learning to read, a book that everyone should have?" Qi Zhiheng looked at the book cover and title, and really didn't understand.
Yang Yitian angrily threw another book at him: "What's the use of looking at the cover? You have to open it up and look inside. The cover is fake."
Qi Zhiheng obediently opened the book in his hand, only to find that the contents were not a book for learning to read, but a storybook with illustrations. He had to admit that whoever came up with this idea was truly a genius.
Erbao argued, "I'm learning to read by reading storybooks. I know more characters than others now." He wasn't wrong. There were many characters in the storybooks that he didn't recognize, but he could still understand the content by guessing and making sense. Over time, he learned to read more characters.
Qi Zhiheng glanced at Erbao and asked, "How long are you going to stand there, Erbao?"
Yang Yitian popped a peanut into his mouth and replied, "Three hours."
"So long? Isn't that a bit much?" Qi Zhiheng felt that such a small matter didn't warrant such a long punishment.
Erbao nodded vigorously: "Yes! I don't want to stand for so long."
Yang Yitian snorted again: "Did I make you stand as punishment because you were fighting while reading?"
Qi Zhiheng asked, puzzled, "Is there something else?"
Yang Yitian suddenly sat up from the soft couch: "You stupid son! You actually said I was hindering his career advancement and that you should hurry up and find a stepmother!"
Qi Zhiheng was completely dumbfounded: ? ? ?
“All great heroes started with a wicked stepmother and brothers and sisters who bullied them! Father, please find me a stepmother too, so I can cultivate into a god in the future.” Erbao then remembered his “important business.”
"What is all this nonsense?" Qi Zhiheng really didn't understand what "a wicked stepmother has to do with whether you can become a god" had to do with it.
Erbao said, "Long Chongtian, Long Xiaotian, and Ye Zhizun all had a vicious stepmother and half-siblings who bullied them, but they all became gods later. In order to become a god, I also want a stepmother."
"Who are Long Chongtian, Long Xiaotian, and Ye Zhizun?" Qi Zhiheng felt that he was probably too old and could not understand his son's thought process at all.
Yang Yitian stood up, took out a stack of books, and said, "They're all here. Your son's obsessed with reading storybooks!"
Qi Zhiheng flipped through the book Yang Yitian had brought. The protagonists in these books always had a bumpy road to success. They started out with a terrible family, either being an orphan, having a stepmother or stepfather, or having their mother rise from concubine to wife. After a miserable childhood, the protagonist would either be looked down upon by his fiancée or have the woman he loved forced into marriage. The protagonist would then rise up to slap her in the face or steal her bride...
Qi Zhiheng actually kept watching, and before he knew it, quite a while had passed.
When Erbao saw that his father had stopped reading and was not moving, he quickly reminded him, "Father, stop reading, let me down first!"
Qi Zhiheng finally came to his senses and laughed, "I'm not watching anymore."
"Then put me down!" Erbao's arms were sore and weak, and sweat was already beading on his forehead.
Qi Zhiheng shrugged: "There's nothing I can do about that. You've offended your father, so you'll have to appease him first."
Erbao looked at Yang Yitian with a pitiful look in his eyes: "Daddy..."
Yang Yitian remained unmoved and leisurely began to eat his pastries.
Erbao pouted and said, "Father, I was wrong. I will never let Father marry a stepmother again. Please forgive me this time."
Yang Yitian sneered, "Didn't I block your path to godhood? Why are you abandoning your stepmother now?"
Erbao thought for a moment, then said with a serious expression, "I've figured it out. Even without a stepmother, it's okay. I don't think a stepmother would punish me by making me carry buckets of water and stand on wooden stakes. With you, I can get through this period of torment with a stepmother. The first step on the path to godhood is already secured. So Father doesn't need to marry a stepmother."
Qi Zhiheng had just taken a sip of tea when he heard this and spat it out with a "pfft." He couldn't save this child.
Yang Yitian was so angry that his face turned red: "You little brat! How dare you say that you are treated worse than a stepmother here!" His anger had reached its peak, and he finally understood the meaning of "it would have been better to give birth to a piece of barbecued pork than to give birth to you".
"Daddy, your face is so red." Sanbao reached out her little hand to touch Yang Yitian's face.
Yang Yitian patted Sanbao's head: "Sanbao is more obedient and lovable." Unlike Erbao, who is definitely not his biological son.
"Daddy, what's wrong?" Erbao asked, looking puzzled.
"You're asking me what's wrong?" Yang Yi laughed angrily, then said fiercely, "You're just going to stand there! Don't come down for at least three days!"
Erbao was truly heartbroken when he heard that he was standing for even longer than before, and his cries clearly conveyed his owner's sorrow and grief.
Qi Zhiheng couldn't bear to watch any longer and said to Yang Yitian, "Don't be angry. He's just a child who doesn't think before he speaks."
“That’s his honest opinion!” Yang Yitian exclaimed.
Qi Zhiheng said, "Children need to be taught. How can they understand if you don't teach them?"
"You make it sound so easy, go and teach them." Yang Yitian's anger came and went quickly.
Qi Zhiheng approached Erbao and said, "Erbao, the plots in these stories are all fake. To become a god, you don't necessarily have to suffer setbacks. In fact, aptitude, resources, comprehension, and opportunity are the most important. A stepmother and hardship are not important. Look at your father, am I powerful? Your father doesn't have a stepmother, does he?"
“But Father, you didn’t become a god,” Erbao stammered.
Qi Zhiheng scoffed, unconvinced, "I'm still young, aren't I? Which of the protagonists in your book became a Golden Core cultivator at the age of twenty-one?"
Erbao thought for a moment and said, "It seems not. A person can reach the Golden Core stage at the age of twenty-one. Even in storybooks, they wouldn't dare to write that."
“That’s right, so you shouldn’t believe these stories anymore. A lot of them are fake. Your father definitely became a god before Long Chongtian.” Qi Zhiheng walked over, took the two buckets from Erbao’s hands, threw them on the ground, and then picked Erbao up from the wooden stake.
Yang Yitian saw Qi Zhiheng's behavior but turned a blind eye to it.
"Don't say such nonsense to upset your father anymore. What about stepmother? If your father marries a stepmother, what will your father do?" Qi Zhiheng put the man on the soft couch where Yang Yitian was sitting and lectured his son, "Quickly apologize to your father. You've hurt his feelings, understand?"
Qi Zhiheng gave Erbao a long lecture, then tugged at Yang Yitian's sleeve to calm him down.
Erbao threw herself into Yang Yitian's arms and said, "Father, I was wrong. I shouldn't have called her a stepmother."
Qi Zhiheng tried to lighten the mood by saying, "Yes, you're supposed to be filial to your father from now on, so you can't say things like that."
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