Inside the Ninth Abyssal Ice Trench of Sector 6, the silence lasted for five full heartbeats—broken only by the gentle sizzle-pop of the copper pot simmering on the porch table in Willow-Breeze Courtyard.
Then, across Empress Luo Qingxue’s pale, frost-sculpted cheeks—cheeks that the wardens of the Heavenly Script Pavilion had called colder than eternal star-iron—two bright. Unmistakable clouds of rosy crimson blush bloomed all the way to the tips of her ears!
“Six... six years?” Luo Qingxue’s voice, which a moment ago had sounded like a tragic valkyrie bidding farewell at the gates of death, suddenly turned into a flustered, soft stammer.
She instinctively reached up a chained hand to smooth down a stray lock of snow-frosted hair before her husband and children.
“Little Nian is already nine? And Gu Changsheng... you didn’t run away—you broke into Rank 4 Mid Qi Gathering with a kitchen spatula, adopted two more children with Innate Poison-Immortal and Sword-Heart constitutions, and moved to the Royal Capital?!”
“What can I say? After you left that note telling me to take care of the home, I figured if I didn’t fatten up our kid and keep the stove warm. You’d lecture me when I came upstairs to pick you up,” Gu Changsheng chuckled softly.
