The Beloved Baby Deer of the Hwangryong Family - Chapter 120
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Our Seo-yu called me Mother!
Bi-yeon covered her mouth with her hand, overwhelmed with emotion.
‘I thought it would take much longer…’
It would be a lie to say she hadn’t been eager for it. Now that they had become proper parent and child, Bi-yeon had also wanted to be called Mother by Seo-yu.
However, Bi-yeon had never once rushed Seo-yu or asked why she didn’t call her Mother.
Because.
‘Madam, do you know something?’
‘Hm? What is it, Ga-ram?’
‘Miss Seo-yu practices calling you both Mother and Father when she’s alone.’
‘Oh my, really? What should I do, I’m so happy.’
She already knew how much effort Seo-yu was putting in by herself.
Bi-yeon found such a Seo-yu both admirable and touching.
It meant that the titles others naturally learned while being born and growing up were words so difficult for Seo-yu that she had to practice them separately.
“Thank you…”
Seo-yu said, burying her face deep into Bi-yeon’s arm under the blanket.
Bi-yeon quickly lowered the hand covering her mouth, worried Seo-yu might feel uncomfortable, and comfortably provided her arm as a pillow again.
“It’s only natural for Mother and Father to come pick up their daughter.”
But Seo-yu shook her head from side to side. As if that wasn’t what she meant.
Then she murmured in a very small voice.
“I wasn’t born from you, Bi-yeon… but you still let me call you Mother.”
“…”
Bi-yeon hesitated.
The cautiousness and relief that emanated from those completely unexpected words made Bi-yeon’s heart ache.
‘They called that child Young Miss.’
When first registering Seo-yu in the Golden Dragon Family’s family register, what surprised them most was the fact that the child’s name wasn’t recorded anywhere.
With the family head being Sa-ryeong-ryeong now, the Great Antlered Deer Family was one of the most famous families in Jusang Kingdom.
Yet Seo-yu, who had been the youngest of that household, was a child without even a proper name!
That alone was enough to imagine what kind of treatment Seo-yu had received while growing up, which made her feel truly upset.
When she saw Su-jeong, that household’s daughter, at the Medical Academy, she felt angry as if she was seeing it with her own eyes.
If Li-han and Seo-yu hadn’t been there, Bi-yeon couldn’t even imagine how much anger she would have displayed.
Bi-yeon pulled Seo-yu even deeper into her embrace.
“You know, Seo-yu. Mother told you, right? Hwang Hyeon-rang talked about Seo-yu so much inside the Crystal Water Chamber.”
Nod nod.
Seo-yu slowly nodded her head.
‘She said Father’s voice could mysteriously be heard from inside the Crystal Water Chamber.’
She had said before that Bi-yeon remembered everything Seo-yu had said in secret.
As she recalled her memories from the Dragon Palace, she felt somehow embarrassed and was fidgeting with her fingers.
“What kind of child Seo-yu is, what she likes and what she’s good at, how she gets along with Yi-ryeong and Li-gon, and what happened with Li-han… Even though Mother couldn’t see it directly, I listened carefully to everything.”
Touch.
A gentle kiss touched her forehead. Seo-yu slowly raised her head and met Bi-yeon’s eyes.
Just that alone made Seo-yu’s nose tingle, and she bit her lips tightly.
“From that moment on, Seo-yu became Mother’s baby.”
“….”
“Even though Mother couldn’t give birth to Seo-yu, I’ve been holding you dearly in my heart. Wouldn’t that be enough?”
At those words, the tears she had been desperately holding back began to fall drop by drop down her cheeks.
“It is, enough.”
Seo-yu, who had been trying so hard to be a mature daughter, finally burst into tears.
“*sob*, It is, of course, *sniff*….”
“Yes, our daughter. Our beautiful Seo-yu.”
“*sob*, Mother, Mother….”
Speaking freely the word she once thought she would never call again, the word she thought she had no right to say.
Seo-yu cried her heart out in her mother’s arms for a long while.
After crying to her heart’s content with hiccups and sobs.
“But Seo-yu, did you also call Hwang Hyeon-rang ‘Dad’?”
“Well… I haven’t been able to say ‘Dad’ yet.”
“Really? Actually, all the children learned to say ‘Dad’ first. Our Seo-yu called ‘Mother’ first. I’m the happiest mother in the world right now.”
That night, Seo-yu became the happiest daughter in the world.
* * *
Gi Tae-ha looked down at the two people prostrated flat on the floor.
“Family Head, we have truly committed a mortal sin!”
Nok Sa-pyeong was begging for forgiveness. Beside him, Nok Su-gyu, the eldest son of the Great Antlered Deer Family, was also bowing his head.
‘…Do you think such a thing is possible?’
‘Whatever the Family Head may think, I’m the one who wants to believe it’s a lie.’
Suddenly, the conversation he had with Hwang Hyeon-ya came to mind.
It wasn’t just this moment alone. Even though several days had passed, he couldn’t forget the story he heard that day.
Gi Tae-ha’s gaze turned coldly distant.
If those words were really true.
“We’re not trying to deny our wrongdoing. However, there seems to be a misunderstanding on your part, Family Head, so we’ve taken the liberty of coming to tell you the truth.”
The person before his eyes right now might be the enemy who had stolen his child.
When that cold gaze turned toward him, Nok Sa-pyeong flinched in surprise and hurriedly began to speak.
“Su-jeong….”
Nok Sa-pyeong, who had briefly mentioned his daughter’s name, grimaced deeply and quickly corrected himself.
“No, that child has particularly disliked Seo-yu since she was young.”
His voice was clearly tinged with excuses.
“Since Seo-yu was so diligent and earnest in everything, I think she felt compared to her. It’s all my oversight for not raising the children properly.”
“Father is not at fault!”
Then Nok Su-gyu bowed his head even deeper and shouted.
“I was the one who asked Seo-yu to find the Snow Scale Flower. Even so, I never thought Su-jeong would treat my younger sister so cruelly…”
“Younger sister?”
Gi Tae-ha, who had remained silent throughout, spoke for the first time.
“Yes. My younger sister Seo-yu.”
Thinking that he had gained his attention, Nok Su-gyu’s voice grew stronger.
“I was actually very worried after Seo-yu disappeared. But to think it was all Su-jeong’s doing… I can’t tell you how shocked I was.”
He lifted his head to gauge Gi Tae-ha’s reaction and carefully added.
“As her elder brother, I bear great responsibility for failing to look after her.”
“No, Su-gyu.”
Nok Sa-pyeong quickly interrupted his son’s words.
“How could that be your fault? It’s all because this father lacks virtue.”
“No, Father! Please don’t say such things!”
Nok Su-gyu raised his voice as if it were absurd.
“This is all my responsibility!”
“Son, what are you saying!”
The father and son chattering among themselves resembled each other so much that their blood relation was undeniable.
Especially their eyes that reddened as if about to burst into tears yet not a single tear formed, and their shameless attitude that showed not the slightest hint of guilt.
Looking back, the daughter of the Great Antlered Deer Family who had lied with such a nonchalant face had the exact same expression.
Suddenly, Gi Tae-ha thought.
‘Does that child Seo-yu resemble me like that too?’
If they resembled each other so much because they were blood relatives, then he and Seo-yu should have resembled each other too.
But somehow, he didn’t think so.
That frail, small child’s eyes had sparkled with an unfamiliar vitality.
The child’s expression when she was with the Golden Dragon Family members was so varied. There were no such children in the Qilin Family.
And what about her face when she offered the Snow Scale Flower?
The emotions contained in that clear face were extremely rich. Pure, clear, and truthful.
Could such a child really be his blood?
Could she really be that child he lost ten years ago, the one his wife never even got to name?
Gi Tae-ha actually couldn’t feel it was real. He simply couldn’t believe it.
He couldn’t even understand how such a thing had happened in his family, or who had done such a thing.
‘You don’t have to believe my words. Anyway, my disciple is a child of our Golden Dragon Family, and will continue to be so.’
‘…’
‘Even so, the reason I’m telling you this is because I want to let you know someday that Seo-yu has no connection whatsoever to that kind of family.’
But why did every single word that Hwang Hyeon-ya had said refuse to be forgotten and keep circling in his mind?
“I will consider the marriage proposal with the Young Family Head as if it never happened.”
Nok Sa-pyeong said while bowing his head obsequiously.
“I will also gladly offer the Snow Scale Flower that child Seo-yu brought. Please withdraw your anger, Family Head.”
“Master of the Gentle Western Region, please show us mercy!”
Nok Su-gyu also bowed his head following his father.
Gi Tae-ha felt the urge to immediately cut off the throats of those who shamelessly spoke carelessly of the Snow Scale Flower that Seo-yu had protected.
This was the first time he had felt such primal anger.
Such emotions had been distant from Gi Tae-ha to begin with. It was the first time since seeing the baby’s first clothes his wife couldn’t complete.
“Hwang… Seo-yu.”
Gi Tae-ha calmed his boiling heart and barely parted his lips that somehow wouldn’t open easily to speak the name.
“I heard that child isn’t your biological daughter, so is that why you hated her so much?”
“Ah, yes yes.”
Nok Sa-pyeong quickly answered.
“Seo-yu is my younger brother’s daughter. She looks so exactly like my brother… Perhaps because she looked different from herself, my daughter hated Seo-yu more in her young heart.”
Nok Sa-pyeong rambled on with stories no one had asked for. It seemed he knew there were no similarities between them and Seo-yu.
Of course there couldn’t be any resemblance.
That child Seo-yu’s pure eyes hadn’t been tainted in the slightest by the dirty greed of these people here.
‘Just in case, don’t tell Seo-yu about this. If Seo-yu really is your bloodline, then someone deliberately took her away, so if that fact becomes known, we can’t guarantee her safety.’
Gi Tae-ha agreed with those words too.
But that didn’t mean he would cover up and overlook what happened ten years ago.
If that child Hwang Seo-yu really was his daughter.
“You said you’d take responsibility?”
Gi Tae-ha’s voice sank as cold as ice.
“Yes, yes! Of course. We’ll follow whatever you say, just tell us.”
Everyone involved would bear appropriate responsibility.
He would make sure of it, even if he had to stake everything he had built over all the time he had lived as a Qilin.
* * *
Seo-yu was waiting for someone at the main gate with an anxious face.
It was already the third day since vacation had started.
Today was the day Hwang Hyeon-ya and Li-han were returning from the Medical Academy.
Seo-yu, who had been waiting anxiously for those who wouldn’t return, had finally come out to greet them.
Then, from far away, the Golden Dragon came flying with golden wings flapping.
‘Young Master Li-han!’
Seo-yu’s face brightened as she quickly ran out beyond the main gate. Hwang Hyeon-ya got off first from Li-han’s back as he landed lightly on the ground.
“Master, you’ve arrived?”
“Yes, I’m back.”
Soon Li-han also released his Beast Transformation and returned to human form. Seo-yu ran over in one breath to greet the two.
“Young Master Li-han, you’ve worked hard too!”
“Hard work? Was there any trouble?”
Li-han asked while stroking Seo-yu’s head. Seo-yu smiled and nodded.
The three of them entered the household together. Li-han first went to greet Hwang Hyeon-rang and Bi-yeon, while Seo-yu headed to the medical room with Hwang Hyeon-ya.
The first person to speak was Hwang Hyeon-ya.
“By the way, Seo-yu, there’s a place we need to visit during the break.”
“Where, Master?”
Seo-yu asked, tilting her head. Hwang Hyeon-ya glanced down at Seo-yu, then turned his gaze forward and spoke as if letting the words slip out.
“Heavenly Medicine Forest.”
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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