Chapter 19 - Apologize!
A scowl from Elderly Lady Qiao caused Qiao Zhongbang to immediately grow ashamed and continually apologize. Qiao Mu looked away, a callous smile curling on her lips.
She had already lost all hope in this father of hers, so when she saw his immediately submissive attitude toward his mother, she naturally did not feel any disappointment.
“Qiao Mu,” Elderly Lady Qiao coldly called her name. “While the esteemed guests from the Heavenly Dao Sect are still here, go and apologize to Miss Liu from the Heavenly Dao Sect tomorrow. Even if you have to kowtow nine times for every three steps you take and go through water and tread on fire, you must go do it! No matter what, you must obtain Miss Liu’s forgiveness and mustn’t cause trouble for our Qiao Clan!”
Seeing that the child had her head turned and was looking away from her, remaining unresponsive to her speech, Elderly Lady Qiao could not help but grow enraged. “I’m speaking to you! What is that attitude of yours?”
She had never liked this cowardly child who hid as soon as she saw people—meek and unpresentable. Anger would gush out every time she saw the child’s evasive eyes.
However, the situation today was a bit odd. This child was unlike the past where she would hide behind her mother, Wei Ziqin, as soon as she got scolded and miserably wring her fingers.
Instead, the gaze she sent her every now and then was pitch-black like a pool of stagnant water from an ancient well, and it elicited an extremely uncomfortable feeling in Elderly Lady Qiao.
“Qiaoqiao.” Her father, Qiao Zhongbang, also frowned and turned to glance at Qiao Mu, whose head was lowered. “Grandmother is speaking to you.”
Hearing them, Qiao Mu turned her head, her clear but icy and heavy eyes intently focused on the elderly woman sitting in the chief seat. Elderly Lady Qiao appeared to jolt from the coldness of her bone-chilling gaze and unconsciously pulled back.
“Qiaoqiao was not at fault,” Wei Ziqin hastily rebutted, protective of her daughter. “It was Miss Liu who attacked first. If Qiaoqiao didn’t dodge, she would…”
A trace of fear had originally generated in Elderly Lady Qiao due to the fright from Qiao Mu, but it instantly turned into anger when she saw that her typically obedient eldest daughter-in-law actually dared to refute her. She interrupted Wei Ziqin with an angry shout, “Shut your mouth! Just who is Miss Liu? And who is Qiao Mu? So what if she was hit and scolded by Miss Liu a few times? Is it worth her serious retaliation? Don’t think that just because your child has entered into the ranks of mystic cultivators, she can think she is unbeatable and consider everyone else beneath her. The strength of the Heavenly Dao Sect is laid clearly in the open. Are you trying to break a stone with an egg and dig your own grave?”
“Mother, please calm down.” Qiao Zhongbang hurriedly comforted before turning to send Wei Ziqin a look and telling her to be quiet.
“Figure out this matter on your own!” Elderly Lady Qiao snorted before standing up and saying, “Zhongbang, if you still consider me your mother and are willing to listen to your mother, then you will personally escort your wonderful daughter to the Heavenly Dao Sect’s residence tomorrow and seek Miss Liu out to solemnly apologize to her!”
Qiao Mu’s lips turned up as she stood on the side without saying a word.
This will do too. Then let’s wait until tomorrow and see if her father would actually escort her to the Heavenly Dao Sect to apologize. Let’s see if this man who she calls her father will disappoint her mother and her.
There was a smile in Qiao Mu’s eyes, but the smile was uncanny and somber. A look caused Elderly Lady Qiao to jolt again, and her teeth involuntarily shuddered.
Another glance, and her dead and placid eyes were without a single ripple, any trace of the previous smile gone.
She stood there, and beneath her feet, it was as though there was a black gateway to hell with countless white skeletal hands reaching out, noiselessly shouting.
A rigid sneer turned up on the little girl’s lips, setting off goosebumps in people without reason.