Looking at the face of his father who was smiling towards him, he felt the urge to look away since his father had always treated him like a non-existent but he couldn't help but return the smile.
"Why is he smiling at me?" Lu Shang silently said to himself in a low voice as he smiled at his father.
Seeing that Lu Shang returned the smile, not fake but a genuine smile, he nodded his head towards him as the smile made his heart surge with happiness. 'I'm sorry that I still have to pretend that I am cold toward you. There's nothing I can do about it, maybe I will find a solution one day but that will take time to accomplish. I know by now you had bore a certain dislike towards me but am glad that you still recognize me as your father *sighs*.' the clan leader silently said in his heart as he sighs in relief.
Zhang Xiao was looking at her husband with a displeased look on her face, shot *Why are you here?* look at him.
The clan leader smiled at her before turning to face the guards and maids. "Go outside and wait till I give you the permission to return."
The guards and maids obediently walked out of the room with bowed heads without any hesitation or anger on their faces.
"So, why are you here?" Zhang Xiao asked as she placed her hands on her waist as she stared at the clan leader.
The clan leader took a step forward toward the two before stopping a few steps away from them. "Hahahahaha… Can't I come here to see my wife or my child? Or are you denying me of my child?" The clan leader questioned with a funny remark on his face.
As the sound of the clan leader faded, Zhang Xiao and Lu Shang's countenances froze, staring at the clan leader.
"Your child. Oh, you mean the same child that you refuse to take care of from the very moment that the clan discovered that he was a cripple cultivator. Or do you mean the child that had been suffering at the hand of his mates, kicked and driven out numerous times by his peers just because he was cripple? TELL ME WHICH ONE!!" Zhang Xiao yelled out in a painful voice, as she held onto the hand of Lu Shang tightly as if she was never going to let go.
The clan leader remained silent after her statement which irritated her the more she yelled out again. "Do you know the pain your child has passed through, he has been used as a punch bag for others who are his mates and also those who he is senior to," She stopped then wipe off tears from her eyes.
She continued, "Sometimes he comes back to me with bruises over his body. Imagine your own child, the child to the clan leader being bullied by others and nothing, absolutely nothing you did about it even when he was in an unconscious state for a year" She yelled with gritted teeth, visible burning rage could be seen building up inside her eyes.
She was emotional right now as tears welled up in her eyes and slowly flowed down but she didn't wipe it off, allowing it to flow out freely.
A shocked expression appeared on the face of Lu Shang when he heard that he had been conscious for a year. "What? A year of unconscious state, if there were to be another person that said this I will not believe but it happens to be my mom. But I felt that only a few hours had passed by in that place."
Seeing the sad look on her face, a bittered look was revealed in the deepness of the clan leader's eyes. "Zhang Xiao, you have always known me right from our youth, you know the pressure I passed through the hands of my clan just because they found out that I was in a relationship with you back then. I was pressured by my clan to marry a lady that is also from a powerful clan like our clan but I refused to aid to their will" "By the support of my father I was able to get married to you. I have always treated you with love and care. I was happy when you were pregnant and later on gave birth to our lovely child," the clan leader paused and then looked at the eyes of Zhang Xiao and Lu Shang before continuing.
"Do you think that I intentionally stopped caring for Lu Shang the moment the clan discovered that he was a cripple cultivator? I didn't stop caring for him, but instead, I was forced to turn my back on my child. Do you know the pressure I faced because of Lu Shang? Do you know how many times the suggestion of me getting married to another woman who will then bear me another child had been raised by the clan?."
The bittered tone of the clan leader rang in the ear of Zhang Xiao and Lu Shang who listened to every word spoken by him.
With that last statement, the clan leader turned back with a pale face. He made for the door then stopped, he took a last glance at the two before walking out of the room at a slow pace.
His words caused Zhang Xiao and Lu Shang to become speechless.
At this point, Zhang Xiao felt as if she had been drained of all the strength in her body, she weakly fell to the ground as she thought about the words of her husband. 'Was all his words true? Truly back then when we were still young and till we got married he was always caring to me but it all changed when the clan discovered that Lu Shang was a cripple cultivator. So he didn't intentionally turn his back on Lu Shang but instead, he was pressured by the clan and also to get another woman. It is too harsh of me to speak in such manners to him" She thought but didn't regret her actions.
Zhang Xiao was a person who easily gets emotional over little things.
At this moment, a thought involuntarily creeps into Lu Shang's heart. "Had I been getting it all wrong all this while? I thought I got no love from my dad but never I was wrong."
Lost in his thoughts, Lu Shang was staring openly, lost in a state of his world.
Sincerely, he had never thought about the possibility that his dad was under the pressure of the clan but he had already had the thought that his father dispersed him because he can't cultivate like the others.
This caused Lu Shang to feel as though his heart had been stabbed by thousands of swords.
At this moment, his heart was lurching violently as he clenched his hand into a balled fist.
"Hahahahaha. Foolish thoughts"
The voice of his mother drifted over as she laughed over her foolish thoughts, thinking that all this while her husband had never cared about Lu Shang.
Looking at the haggardness of that pale face, as well as the state of his mom, Lu Shang deeply felt that he had been useless and made his parents pass through pain because of him.