C2 His Wife Went Missing

Yu Haoran gazed at the little girl before him, her adorableness tinged with a hint of fear that was evident on her face. He felt utterly helpless and reached out to pick up Tuantuan.

"Wah!"

Suddenly, the little girl burst into tears without warning, burying her head in Ning Yulu's embrace.

"There, there, Tuantuan. Don't cry," Ning Yulu soothed, gently patting Tuantuan's back.

"This child used to look at your photos every day, wondering where her mommy and daddy had gone. Now that she's actually seeing you, why is she so frightened?"

Yu Haoran's heart twisted painfully at her words. When he had left, Tuantuan was just a baby, newly weaned and only capable of babbling, her memories not yet fully formed. He had missed three whole years of her life. How could she easily accept him now?

No matter how much he longed for her during his three hundred years in the Divine World, it couldn't compare to Tuantuan's three years of helplessness and solitude.

Ultimately, Tuantuan couldn't bring herself to call out "Daddy." Ning Yulu had no choice but to take her to the bedroom and lull her to sleep.

Yu Haoran surveyed the house he hadn't seen in "three hundred years." Everything was just as he had left it.

Stepping in front of the bathroom mirror, he was startled by his reflection. No wonder Tuantuan had been frightened into tears; he looked like a beggar who hadn't bathed in weeks.

He opened the wardrobe to find his clothes neatly arranged. After taking a set and bathing, he looked like a new man.

Just as he emerged from the bathroom, the front door clicked open.

"Tuantuan, I'm back..."

A slender woman with a backpack slung over her shoulder entered the house. Despite the weariness on her face, her delicate features and fresh, radiant aura were undeniable.

"Lee Rong?"

Yu Haoran lifted his head, his eyes meeting those of the beautiful woman, and he paused in mild shock.

She wasn't his beloved wife, Lee Wen, whom he had missed so dearly. Though she bore a striking resemblance, the beauty mark between her brows was absent, and she looked so young—barely twenty.

It was his sister-in-law, Lee Rong. Three years ago, she was a naive high school senior, a bit chubby and always clinging to Lee Wen and him.

She was the only one in the Lee family who respected him enough to call him brother-in-law.

He hadn't anticipated such a dramatic change over three years.

"Yu Haoran!" Lee Rong hissed, the name escaping through clenched teeth.

After three hundred years in the Divine World, Yu Haoran had barely aged.

Seeing him, Lee Rong went from shock to rage. "You're actually alive!"

With a thud, she hurled her purse at Yu Haoran.

When he blocked it with his hand, she furiously flung her high heels at him.

"Yu Haoran, you scoundrel! Weren't you supposed to have fallen off a cliff? Why are you still alive?"

"My sister has been missing for two years looking for you."

"Give me back my sister!"

Her high heels missing their mark, Lee Rong lunged at him like a feral cat, her face flushed with a flurry of kicks and punches.

Yu Haoran was taken aback.

He hadn't expected the little girl who used to shadow him to react so violently upon seeing him.

He deftly dodged, narrowly avoiding Lee Rong's punches.

It wasn't the fear of injury that concerned him; his Divine Body was tougher than steel, even with a shattered godhead and no mana.

He was worried Lee Rong might hurt herself.

Ning Yulu, hearing the commotion, hurried out to intervene. "Miss Lee Rong, please stop hitting him..."

"Mommy..." A sweet voice interrupted.

"Can you please not hit daddy?"

"I've missed daddy so much. If you drive him away, I won't get to see him again."

Lee Rong hesitated at the sound, turning to see the disheveled little girl standing in the bedroom doorway, tears glistening in her eyes as she looked on fearfully.

She quickly scooped Tuantuan into her arms. "Mommy won't hit him anymore, Tuantuan. Don't be scared..."

With a final glare at Yu Haoran, she carried Tuantuan back into the bedroom.

Yu Haoran's attention was elsewhere, his thoughts consumed by the sound of Tuantuan's voice.

She finally called him daddy.

And she was even protecting her father, not letting her aunt hit her.

What a good daughter, my precious Tuantuan.

“Sigh…”

Ning Yulu sighed upon seeing Yu Haoran sitting on the sofa, lost in thought. "For the past two years, Tuantuan has looked to Miss Lee Rong as her mother."

“The first words she learned were ‘mommy’.”

“Miss Lee Rong has been attending college, launching her own business, and caring for Tuantuan. She's had a lot to handle.”

Ning Yulu's face reflected her sympathy.

“Where did Lee Wen go?” Yu Haoran finally seized the opportunity to inquire.

“I'm not sure. You should ask Miss Lee Rong later,” Ning Yulu responded with a helpless shake of her head.

Yu Haoran lapsed into silence.

Three years prior, he had tumbled off a cliff and stumbled into a dimensional rift leading to the Radiant Empyrean, and from there, to the Divine World.

How could Lee Wen possibly find him?

Even if she were searching for his body, not finding it in two years should have prompted her return.

Something didn't add up. It looked like he would have to wait for Lee Rong's explanation.

Yu Haoran sat in the living room, waiting with an anxiety he hadn't felt in three hundred years.

Finally, close to midnight, Lee Rong managed to get Tuantuan to sleep and emerged from the bedroom.

“Lee Rong, where exactly did your sister go?” Yu Haoran couldn't wait to ask.

Lee Rong, with a frosty demeanor, paused for a few seconds before saying, “Come to my room.”

She then proceeded to the bedroom next to the master bedroom, with Yu Haoran following closely behind.

Once Lee Rong had shut the door, her eyes blazed with fury, bloodshot and intense. She hissed in a low voice, “Yu Haoran, I truly wish you had died at the bottom of that cliff.”

"Three years ago, you were scorned as an outcast, and my sister defied our family to stay with you."

"But you, you disappeared without a trace."

"My sister has been alone, enduring scorn while raising Tuantuan."

"Two years ago, Wu Shaohua, the Wu family's heir, took an interest in my sister. The families pressured her into marriage using Tuantuan as leverage. If she refused, they threatened to take Tuantuan away, tearing mother and child apart."

"My sister firmly believed you were still alive. She entrusted Tuantuan to my care for her sake."

"She sought out an old nun in the mountains to practice with, keeping her location a secret to protect Tuantuan—even from me."

"Back then, my sister was all alone and vulnerable. And you, her cherished love, the outcast scorned by the Lee family, Yu Haoran, were nowhere to be found!"

Lee Rong's gaze was filled with loathing as she locked eyes with Yu Haoran.

If not for him, how could her sister, once the focus of everyone's admiration, have fallen to such a tragic fate?

A glint of icy coldness flashed in Yu Haoran's eyes upon hearing her words, his expression turning as frosty as arctic ice.

The Lee family and the Wu family dared to use Tuantuan as leverage to coerce his wife into marriage. If he refused, they threatened to separate mother and child forever.

Lee Rong was startled by his chilling look. Since when had her normally compliant and agreeable brother-in-law acquired such a fearsome presence?

"Wu Shaohua?" Yu Haoran closed his eyes, a fierce murderous intent rising within him.