After passing through the Su palace’s main courtyard, they headed towards a small pavilion in the lake
Su Chen stood behindbehind Su Changche. He lowered his head and said, “Patriarch.”
“What? You aren’t even willing to call me grandfather?” Su Changche said, not bothering to look back.
Su Chen was silent.
Su Changche turned around to watch Su Chen, then sighed and said, “In the end, I underestimated you, and so did the Su Clan…… Who could have expected that your eyes actually had already recovered.”
Su Chen was still silent.
He could tell from Su Changche’s attitude that Su Changche had definitely seen through his act.
In reality, no matter how hard Su Chen tried to pretend, there were still differences between blind people and people with sight. That was especially true in matters of the focus of their vision, as slight differences would exist between objects that they could see and could not see.
Though it may have been hard to tell in a short period of time, as time passed by, attentive people would always discover that there was something off.
Su Changche was someone with a wealth of experience.
As an old man who had single-handedly established the Su Clan, he was much stronger than anyone else in terms of both vision and experience.
It was not surprising in the least that he was the first one to discover.
In fact, long before this moment, he had already begun to have his suspicions about Su Chen.
However, because this matter was too uncommon, Su Changche could only be suspicious, yet had no way of verifying it.
Until today!
The stare he gave Su Cheng’an, as well as his precise blocking of Su Cheng’an’s attack – while others might think that it was only a coincidence, Su Changche knew that wasn’t the truth!
Su Chen’s eyes had recovered.
“Can you tell me when it happened?” Su Changche said gently.
“Not long ago,” Su Chen faintly replied.
“Why were you unwilling to tell us?”
Su Chen thought for a moment, then replied, “The first day that I could see again, I ran into a number of unfortunate situations. One of my brothers placed iron needles in my carriage; a pair of liars conspired to steal money from the True Jade Pavilion that I managed. A servant wanted to benefit from selling out his master…… That old beggar was right. When I was again able to see the world, I discovered many things that people with sight could not see. Everyone believed that I was blind, so they unrestrainedly displayed their evilness in front of me. Although this made me feel disgusted, it gave me a simple method to see through a person’s heart.”
Su Changche nodded his head. “So that’s why you were unwilling to vocalize it. You discovered that acting in such a manner would benefit you more? But did you ever think that everything proceeded to this point only because you didn’t say anything?”
“You are talking about the unfortunate encounters in the Su Clan?” Su Chen coldly laughed, “I expected those from the very beginning.”
“What did you say?” Su Changche was speechless.
Su Chen slowly raised his hand.
An air tentacle appeared formed following this gesture of his.
His hand gestures changed once again, and a Meg’s Guardian barrier appeared on his body.
Next, his hand slashed out through the air, and thunder rumbled.
“Origin Skills……” Su Changche’s expression tightened.
He didn’t understand why Su Chen would suddenly display Origin Skills in front of him.
Su Chen spoke. “Many people were curious as to why I did not ask the Su Clan for Origin Skills. This is the answer…… I already have Origin Skills, and I do not need the Su Clan!”
I do not need the Su Clan!
Su Changche finally understood.
“You didn’t say anything because you no longer needed the Su Clan?”
Su Chen gently laughed. “Many people feel that being born into a great earthly clan is an extremely good thing, because they obtained many generous benefits and rewards ever since they were young. But it is clear to me that there are no free gifts in this world. If you receive, you similarly must pay! Why did Su Cheng’an give up on me? It was because I was blind, and I could not give the Su Clan any kind of bright future. Thus, his reason for raising a son was not because he loved the son, but rather because he wanted to receive a reward. Aren’t you the same?”
Su Changche was dazed. He was unable to speak for quite some time.
Su Chen was absolutely correct. Su Cheng’an had treated raising his son as an investment, and wasn’t he doing the same?
Su Chen continued, “In your eyes, I was only a blind person who was not worth raising. Since you used usefulness to determine the importance of familial ties, I could only use the same methods in return. However, you all underestimated my future, while I never looked down on my own value. Especially once I regained my sight…… Since the me who was blind could survive without you and not owe you anything, then what reason would I have to rely on you once I regained my sight? Just so that I can receive your appreciation and care? No, I’d be better off not having that kind of appreciation and care.”
This sentence echoed like thunder in Su Changche’s brain, leaving him dumbfounded.
That was right. This was the reason why Su Chen had been unwilling to unveil his true situation.
He no longer treasured this kind of conditional appreciation and care.
What point was there if Su Chen had to prove that he wasn’t blind in order to receive love and care?
That wasn’t love!
That was just an exchange!
Since it was an exchange, why wouldn’t he make the accounts simple to keep?
Since the Su Clan viewed raising its sons and daughters as an investment, then Su Chen viewed the issue as an investment problem.
Su Chen realized that he had not planned on giving the Su Clan any great rewards in the future when he became stronger, so he wanted to square away any debts that he owed the Su Clan now.
So why would he need to continue receiving the Su Clan’s “investment”?
Thus, ever since his eyes had recovered, and since the Su Clan had disappointed him time after time, he had begun to slowly distance himself from his need for the Su Clan.
He had recovered his mother’s businesses, he had worked hard to earn his own money, he didn’t need the Su Clan’s Origin Skills, and he had even given the reward for the end-of-year competition to Iron Cliff. If it weren’t for the fact that he didn’t want to openly tear apart their relationship for fear of making things too ugly, he would have tossed all those things aside a long time ago.
Su Chen hadn’t considered himself a member of the Su Clan for quite some time now.
“So that was the case……” Su Changche began to bitterly laugh. “In the end, I still underestimated you. But did you ever consider that even if you didn’t receive the Su Clan’s support, in these past few years you had still grown up under the shelter of the Su Clan?”
“Five thousand, seven hundred sixty low-grade Origin Stones,” Su Chen suddenly said.
“What?” Su Changche didn’t understand for a moment.
Su Chen replied, “I grew up in the Su Clan for sixteen years. Clothing and food must have cost at most ten taels of pure gold every month, which comes to a thousand nine hundred and twenty taels for sixteen years. That is also to say that the amount of money that the Su Clan spent on me definitely did not exceed that number. Of course, interest must also be calculated, so I tripled the value to be five thousand, seven hundred sixty low-grade Origin Stones. There is also cultivation resources that need to be considered. I used five Verdant Wood Essences over these years; since each vial is roughly around a thousand two hundred Origin Stones, I set the price as two thousand, so the total is ten thousand. Any other cultivation resources I used can also be considered as totalling ten thousand. All together, this is about twenty five thousand, seven hundred sixty low-grade Origin Stones, which can basically take care of any debt that I still have towards the Su Clan.”
As Su Chen spoke, he pulled out three hundred medium-grade Origin Stones and threw them on the stone table in the pavilion.
“Keep the change.”
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