At the Shrek Academy entrance, a string of Xiaowu's delicate cries filled the open space.
Luo Yu and the others witnessed a domestic violence scene with their own eyes.
"Mom, stop hitting me!"
"It hurts, it hurts!!"
Xiaowu continuously begged for mercy, her pretty eyes already veiled with a layer of mist.
"You still know what pain is?"
The beautiful woman glared, her chest heaving with rapid breaths.
"How did I instruct you when you left the house?"
In a rush to explain, Xiaowu said, "You told me not to get too close to men, not to be alone with them, and I did all of that!!"
The beautiful woman harrumphed, pinched Xiaowu's ear, and with a strong tug, lifted it upwards.
"Do you think your mother has gotten old, that her eyes have gone blurry, and she didn't see what you were doing just now?"
"No way, how could you get old? You're still young and beautiful. When we go out, everyone thinks we're sisters."
"I am not in the mood for your nonsense right now." The beautiful woman twisted her finger, turning Xiaowu's ear red, "Tell me, what exactly is your relationship with that idiot."
With her mouth puckered and looking wronged, Xiaowu pleaded, "Listen to me, I just became good friends with Brother Tang San outside, we just call each other siblings, there's really nothing special between us."
The beautiful woman's eyebrows rose sharply, her phoenix eyes narrowing.
"No relationship, what do you mean no relationship?"
"Just now that boy cursed at me, and his father even raised his hand to me, and you, his daughter, had no reaction?"
"Well, it's because you appeared so suddenly and scared them, they didn't react in time," Xiaowu muttered quietly, "and besides, you weren't bullied at all, it was clearly you chasing after them to hit them."
"Rebellious girl!"
"Still talking back, I think today is the day to clean house."
The woman in royal attire knitted her brows tightly, raising her hand as if to strike, while Xiaowu shrank her slender neck, like a frightened deer.
In the midst of her anger, a large hand from behind grabbed her wrist.
Luo Yu shook his head, trying to mediate, "Enough, I can vouch that Xiaowu really has nothing going on with that guy, we even ran into them at the hotel before, and they slept in separate rooms."
Seeing someone step in to interrupt, Xiaowu immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
But after Luo Yu finished speaking, her heart leaped into her throat, her nose turned sour, and she nearly cried out involuntarily.
Her heart sobbed, her beautiful eyes filled with a deep sense of grievance.
Buddy!
Are you helping me, or are you trying to get my mom to kill me?
What you said is all true, but my mom might misunderstand and let her imagination run wild!!
As expected, the woman in royal attire grew even angrier, her clear voice suddenly rising in pitch.
"What, you even went to a hotel with that guy?"
By now, Xiaowu was ready to take a beating. She knew her mother all too well; when furious, she wouldn't listen to explanations.
Luo Yu tapped the beautiful woman's shoulder, and said:
"Come on, it's not often you and your daughter reunite. Arguing and quarreling here is just making a spectacle for others to laugh at. Didn't you tell me before that you missed your daughter? Why so severe now?"
"Actually, Xiaowu talked to me about you at the hotel before, and I can see that she really listens to you. She and that Tang San really have nothing to do with each other."
With Luo Yu's intervention, the beautiful woman's anger began to subside.
Pointing her jade finger at Xiaowu, she said, "Didn't this girl try to hit you earlier?"
With a gentle smile, Luo Yu replied, "It's nothing serious, she didn't hurt me, and besides, I was disguised, so she didn't know who I was."
The beautiful woman snorted lightly, "Lucky she didn't hurt you, otherwise I wouldn't want this daughter of mine, taking the side of a stranger against you."
Luo Yu couldn't help but give a wry smile, "I'm not her man, either."
The beautiful matron's captivating eyes shimmered with determination, "Who says you're not? From the day you saved us, mother and daughter, we've belonged to you, and no one can take that away."
Luo Yu was initially startled and touched his nose.
He cautiously stole a glance toward Zhu Zhuqing and the girls waiting at the village entrance in the distance.
They didn't hear that, did they?
The regally dressed matron chuckled, "Rest assured, benefactor. A Wu has already erected a Spiritual Barrier. They can't hear our conversation here."
Luo Yu gave her an approving look, "You do think of everything."
A Wu had actually put up the barrier partly to protect Luo Yu's privacy and partly because she didn't want others to overhear her lecturing her daughter. After all, family shame should never be spread abroad.
She was only strict in words; in fact, she doted on Xiaowu in her heart.
The matron turned her head, "Xiaowu, aren't you going to thank your savior? Since he has pleaded on your behalf, let's put this matter to rest."
Xiaowu had been stunned since earlier and replied blankly, "Mom, is he really our savior?"
"The one who saved us all those years ago?"
Xiaowu's eyes were tightly fixed on Luo Yu, her voice beginning to tremble as if trying to suppress some emotion.
The matron rolled her eyes, tapped Xiaowu's forehead with her finger, and scolded with a laugh, "You, having been in the human world for so long, have you turned silly? Only now you realize it?"
"Who else, apart from our savior, would I treat with such an attitude?"
Xiaowu paid no mind to her mother's teasing; the reflective glint in her shining eyes only mirrored Luo Yu.
She quickly stepped forward, pressing her pretty face close to him, their faces merely inches apart.
Eye to eye, they could even feel each other's breath.
Luo Yu unconsciously retreated half a step, as Xiaowu seemed a bit too enthusiastic.
"You, you're really our savior?" Xiaowu gulped, her eyes reddening.
"Supposed to be, probably, more or less..."
"Yes!"
Finally, sighted with Xiaowu's eyes yearning for an answer, Luo Yu nodded affirmatively.
"Long time no see."
Recalling the familiarity he had felt inside the hotel, now confirmed along with the corroboration from her mother,
Xiaowu's shoulders quivered as tears rolled down her cheeks, and she strode forward, throwing herself into Luo Yu's embrace.
She clung onto his waist tightly, her face buried in his chest.
"It's been so many years."
"Xiaowu has missed you so much."
"Finally... I've got the chance to see you again!"
"This..." Not only was Luo Yu stunned at this moment.
The Zhu Zhuqing sisters and Ning Rongrong outside the barrier, clueless about the truth, widened their eyes in shock.
What's going on?
How did the man manage to turn the enemy girl and capture her so quickly?
Watching Xiaowu with tears streaming down her face, clinging to Luo Yu with a look of longing,
Zhu Zhuqing and Zhu Zhuyun immediately pursed their lips, as if they could hang two vinegar bottles on them, feeling a strong sense of crisis at the same time.
Because Xiaowu's beauty was in no way inferior to theirs.
Most of all, those amazingly slender legs, perfect to the extreme, when wrapped in tight stockings, they accentuated flawlessness, filled with the allure of youth...