Chapter 2537 — Yu Ning's Suitor
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
"This..." Zhao Qibing's expression froze for a moment. It was true—he had seen it in a TV drama, quite an old one called *The Heroine Battles the Heavens*, which contained exactly that line about being top-tier and invincible in the universe. He had assumed no one else had seen it and meant to pass it off as his own to win a smile from the beauty—who would have thought Yu Ning had seen the show?
"Let's eat, haha." Yu Ning did not want to embarrass Zhao Qibing too badly; she only wanted to put an end to his urge to keep showing off.
"Oh..." Zhao Qibing gave an awkward laugh and picked up his chopsticks.
Yu Shan watched all of this coldly. He said nothing, but his eyes were filled with unwillingness and fury. On what grounds? Even if his father was not the family head, that did not change the fact that he was a direct descendant of the Yu family. On what grounds should the family head's son receive preferential treatment while he, the son of a non-head, could not?
They were both Grandfather's grandsons—why? Why? He was not reconciled to it, and especially after being injured and reduced to a cripple, Yu Shan's mind had grown infinitely distorted. He hated Yu Bing, he hated Yu Xiaochen, and he had even come to hate Yu Ning!
Seeing the hatred in his son's eyes, Yu Xiaozhong, Yu Xiaochen's second brother, heaved a deep sigh, furious at his own failure to make something of himself. Had he been more forceful, more formidable, would his son have come to such a pass? Yet neither father nor son cared to think it through: if Yu Shan had not parted ways with Yu Bing the moment he entered the Ice Palace trial and set himself against Wei Zhao, would he have met such an end?
True, in the trial there was no lack of test-takers bullied by Zhang Naipao and Feng Nitian; but if one did not resist, one could still keep one's head down and protect oneself. Why, then, was it Yu Shan in particular who was crippled?
But angry men seldom consider such things. The petty and the unprincipled always shift the blame onto others—such is the way of the world.
Zhao Qibing seems to have taken a liking to Yu Ning, Yu Shan thought, quietly turning it over in his mind. Could this be a condition he might put to use? If he played it right, he could stir up real hatred between Zhao Qibing and the Hidden Yu family. It would do Yu Shan no good, but a crippled Yu Shan had long since given up hope of becoming the young family head—it was impossible for him now—so all he wanted was revenge, to make Yu Xiaochen's life miserable.
Because of Yu Ning's coldness, Zhao Qibing said nothing else out of place. After all, he had come to ask for martial techniques; if he truly made Yu Xiaochen dislike him, the loss would outweigh the gain. So Zhao Qibing decided to bide his time and, once he got back, have his grandfather's side come up with a plan.
After dinner, Yu Xiaochen called Zhao Qibing into a private room and gave him two martial-arts manuals. "I searched high and low," he said, "and these two metal-attribute techniques are all the Hidden Yu family has. They are yours."
"Ah? Only two..." Zhao Qibing was instantly somewhat disappointed. He had assumed there would be a whole pile of techniques for him to pick from at will!
"You know as well as I do that our Hidden Yu family are all water- and fire-attribute cultivators, and we have very few metal-attribute techniques. My father and my grandfather did once discover an ancient ruin in their youth, but even that ruin did not hold much in the way of stock," Yu Xiaochen said.