Chapter 56 Father, I Want to Build the Dragon Gate (Seeking Recommendation Votes)
"no!"
Four distinct, yet equally resolute voices rang out simultaneously from the four corners of the room.
The voices came from Mu Fang, who was struck dumb, Chu Chongjin, whose expression changed drastically, Xiao Beichen, who was extremely anxious, and also... Yan Ziche, who always understood her abilities the most.
This time, no one was on her side.
Mu Fang reacted the most violently. He almost roughly snatched his daughter back from Chu Chongjin's arms and hugged her tightly: "Nonsense! Do you know what the south is like right now? It's not the capital, there are no sweet cakes or grand operas there! There are only raging floods that can swallow a city in an instant! After the flood recedes, there will be thousands of corpses and deadly plagues! You are a four-and-a-half-year-old child who is blind and can't even walk steadily. What are you going there for! To deliver snacks to the flood!"
His tiger-like eyes were bloodshot.
"Father disagrees! Even if the Heavenly King himself came, he wouldn't agree!"
"Little Yu'er, listen to me!" Xiao Beichen was also anxious. He knelt on one knee by the bed, his usually sunny and cheerful face full of disapproval.
He tried to persuade his little sister, whom he cherished, in the gentlest and most reasonable way.
"I know you're kind-hearted and can't bear to see others suffer. But disaster relief is the job of the soldiers and officials, a job that a group of grown men have to risk their lives for. You stay obediently in the capital and wait for me. I promise you, when we get to Jiangnan, I'll find and beat up all those bad guys who covered up the disaster, and I'll pull all the disaster victims out of the water and bring them back to you one by one, okay?"
Chu Chongjin's face was so dark it could drip water. He pushed his wheelchair closer, and in his unfathomable eyes was a resolute determination stemming from his past life that no one else could understand.
"Little Yu'er, be good. Jiangnan is now a true den of dragons and tigers."
He said coldly.
"Natural disasters are inevitably followed by man-made ones. Sikong Ming has been operating in Jiangnan for many years, and his cronies are everywhere in the officialdom. This flood is not a disaster for him, but a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. He will take the opportunity to seize the land of the disaster victims, resell the relief grain, and turn the entire Jiangnan into his private money bag. Your going there is no different from a snow-white little rabbit jumping into the mouth of a hungry wolf."
The painful lessons of the great chaos in Jiangnan caused by floods in his previous life, and how Sikong Ming took the opportunity to rise to power and eventually overthrow the imperial authority, made it impossible for him to let Mu Yu take even the slightest risk.
Even Yan Ziche, who was usually the most composed and the most capable of understanding Mu Yu from a metaphysical perspective, sighed deeply and advised, "Princess, we all know you're anxious. But there are many ways to accumulate good fortune, not just going to danger yourself. We can set up soup kitchens in the capital to help the refugees; we can unite with the noble families in the capital to donate money and grain to the disaster area; I can even ask my grandfather to jointly petition the censors in the court to impeach the officials in Jiangnan. These are all ways to save people, all ways to do good deeds, and all ways to accumulate good fortune for you."
"I know."
Amidst a chorus of objections, Mu Yu's little head peeked out from Mu Fang's strong arms. Her face was streaked with tears, her nose was red, and her sweet little voice was full of grievance.
"But that's different."
She tried hard to organize the complex feelings in her mind and make them understand.
“Doing good deeds in the capital is like what Brother Ziche said, it’s like adding water to my pond one ladle at a time, and the water level will slowly rise, I can feel it.”
Her small hands gestured in the air, and her tone suddenly became urgent and painful.
"But the south is different! There's so much, so thick, black fog in the south! It's not polluting my pond from above, it's... it's digging at the bottom of my pond! It's like countless tiny, cold insects are gnawing at the bottom of my pond, trying to make all the water drain away!"
"If I don't plug that huge hole, no matter how much water we add in the capital, it will still leak! It will leak faster than we add water!"
This analogy is simple and blunt.
They understood.
This is not a "bonus point" that can be accumulated gradually.
This is a fundamental battle to protect our good fortune!
However, Mu Fang couldn't understand these profound and mysterious principles.
All he knew was that his soft, cuddly little daughter was going to a hellish place that could cost her her life.
"What do you mean by 'leaky pond'? Father doesn't understand!" The iron-blooded general's stubbornness kicked in. "Tomorrow, Father will have people dig a hundred ponds for you in our Princess's mansion! You can block whichever one you want! You can even use gold to block them! Just don't go to Jiangnan!"
Seeing that reasoning with her wouldn't work, Mu Yu's little mouth twitched, and her big, watery eyes filled with tears again. She was about to unleash her ultimate weapon—a loud wail.
But this time, she sniffed hard, forcefully suppressing the urge to burst forth.
She knew that her father and ninth brother were genuinely worried about her and afraid that something might happen to her.
So she changed her strategy.
She reached out her chubby, milky-scented little hand and gently, tenderly, touched Mu Fang's stubble-covered chin.
"Father, don't you want my eyes to get better?"
He stiffened, all his toughness vanished, and his voice softened: "Silly child, your father has been dreaming about this."
"Then you have to let me go." Mu Yu immediately seized the opportunity, her little face full of a serious "I knew it" expression.
"Prime Minister Turtle said that my koi essence has been damaged and I need a massive amount of blessings to nourish me and slowly recover. This incident in the south is a terrible thing, but if I can help and save many people, that would be a great thing for me!"
She paused, puffed out her small chest, and unleashed her brilliant, newly realized ultimate theory: "Doing such a great deed accumulates so much good fortune! It might even accumulate more than I would from eating a hundred... no, a thousand pieces of sweet cake in the capital!"
"Then, the water level in my lucky pond will suddenly rise high, washing away all the bad things, and my eyes will be healed in a flash! Then I'll be able to see just how prickly Daddy's beard really is!"
This logic... while full of the simple, food-loving qualities, is somehow impeccable.
Mu Fang still hesitated: "But...that's too dangerous..."
"Father!"
Mu Yu suddenly opened her arms and hugged his neck tightly, using a "whispering" mode that only the father and daughter understood, her voice low.
"My Dragon Gate isn't finished yet! Have you forgotten?"
Mu Fang trembled violently.
Longmen.
Yes, his daughter is no ordinary person.
She is the princess of the Koi clan, and her ultimate goal is to leap over the Dragon Gate and transform into a dragon.
That was her destiny, her path, the cultivation she had to complete upon coming into this world.
Leaping over the dragon gate requires a vast amount of good fortune and merit, as well as the flourishing national fortune and dragon energy as its foundation.
Seeing that her father was softening, Mu Yu pressed on, and continued in an extremely serious tone, as if discussing national affairs with a cabinet minister: "Father, you and Ninth Brother are the chief engineers of this 'Leaping Over the Dragon Gate' project."
"I am a materials supplier."
“The most important foundation on the south side is in serious trouble now; the materials are almost all leaking out! As the material supplier, of course I have to go to the site myself to investigate and see how to repair this leak, and while I’m at it… while I’m at it, I can also gather some ‘premium building materials’ on the spot!”
She waved her chubby little fists, her face flushed with excitement, and delivered her final statement with great passion: "We are a team!"
"If I don't accumulate good fortune, when will my Dragon Gate be completed?"
"If I can't build the Dragon Gate properly, how can I be a majestic dragon princess and protect you, Father?!"
The soul-searching questions plunged all the "team members" present into a long silence.
Mu Fang opened his mouth, but found that he couldn't utter a single word in rebuttal.
He had spent his life on the battlefield, witnessing mountains of corpses and seas of blood, and fighting against treacherous officials in the court, yet he was rendered speechless by his four-and-a-half-year-old daughter's unheard-of theory of "building a career."
Yes, he cannot, and should not, treat her merely as an ordinary child who needs to be locked in a greenhouse for protection.
She is the Koi Princess.
She has her responsibilities and mission.
As her father, what he should do is not lock her in a glamorous cage, shielding her from all the storms of life.
What he should do is put on that blood-stained armor again, pick up that spear that breaks through the enemy lines, and fight his way out for her "cause" and her "path"!
After a long while, Mu Fang let out a long breath.
"good."
He uttered only one word, yet it carried immense weight.
"Father will go with you."
He reached out and gently rubbed his daughter's head, the fire in his eyes turning into endless tenderness.
"Our whole family will work together to build a business!"
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