Chu Daixi had left, and Wangshu was looking at her simulator.
Her mother had set up a swing under a sturdy cherry blossom tree, and Wangshu sat on it, the simulator's stiff, fake-human voice still echoing in her mind.
[Your broad thinking amazed even the simulator! Bold in thought and deed—how is that not a kind of genius?]
[With a small "Mother," you broadened your road to success. You carved out a new path of shameless dependence, and it's perfectly reasonable at that.]
[The Chu Clan Chief's age aligns with yours, a precise match for a mother-daughter relationship. What's more clever is that you two even share two points of resemblance—one in temperament, one in the eyes.]
[You seem to need a qualitative leap, a more convincing reason, to firmly cement the identity of the Clan Chief's daughter.]
These lines had flashed rapidly across the simulator right after she had called out "Mother" that day. She hadn't responded then, not until that person... the Chu Clan Chief, had left.
The Chief had given her a promise: one day, when she awakened her spirit seed, the Chief herself would name her, publicly acknowledge her existence, and record her in the main family lineage.
But the Chief had also subtly avoided addressing Wangshu's form of address.
Wangshu wasn't disappointed.
She believed that a genius sometimes needed to take the initiative, not just passively wait for the crowd to gather around.
So she acted decisively.
She seized that fleeting impulse, that emotional expression, that bid for benefit. Even more, Wangshu dared to admit—she had deliberately shown herself as "special."
But taking initiative carried the risk of failure; perhaps the Chief's avoidance was a sign of her failure.
Wangshu could fully bear that consequence. After all, it was just one call; she hadn't lost anything.
Wangshu quickly changed her address back to "Chief," not pressing the matter further.
But the Chief visited her again the next day, which made the simulator cling stubbornly to the identity of "Clan Chief's daughter." It seemed to feel there was more to come, refreshing those lines over and over, repeatedly urging Wangshu to decide whether she wanted that qualitative leap.
Under the swing, Wangshu gently fluttered her eyelashes and said, "I don't need a qualitative leap for now."
A qualitative leap would make many things easier. It would bring her "specialness."
That was something she needed.
But, the reason for my leap cannot be to become a more valuable daughter.
Wangshu said this in her heart.
Wangshu put the Chu Clan Chief out of her mind and entered a period of steady growth.
She told Chu Yan she wanted to go to school. The Qishan branch nursery had "small classes" for ages one to five, as well as "big classes" where instructors taught literacy. A smart kid like her knowing what school was—that was completely reasonable.
Chu Yan expressed full understanding, planning to enroll her in the main family's nursery.
But Wangshu said no.
Chu Yan would definitely put her in the small class. She didn't want to play pigtail-pulling and mud-slinging games with a bunch of little brats anymore.
"You say you want to go to school, but not at the nursery?" Chu Yan's teeth began to ache.
Wangshu radiated calm and even gave him advice: "You can find someone to give me lessons."
She seriously recommended a candidate: "Call the Qishan nursery manager—my first investor—to teach me. Didn't he follow back to the main family too?"
Here it comes! Chu Yan shouted inwardly. He'd heard that smart kids were first-rate troublemakers, and sure enough, this little ancestor was starting already.
At her age, she was already ordering him around in circles.
Chu Yan, refusing to believe it, asked, "And what if he doesn't want to?"
"Ask him first. If he truly refuses, then I'll go to the nursery." Wangshu lifted her eyelids.
Hey.
Chu Yan clicked his tongue twice inwardly and asked an unrelated question: "You say Chu Xiu is your first investor, then what about me? Do I count as the second?"
"No."
"Why not?!"
What was this—was he inferior to that country boy Chu Xiu?!
Wangshu picked up her spirit milk and rolled her eyes: "Because you go through the family accounts."
...
Chu Yan did bring it up to Chu Xiu, and to his surprise, the old fellow agreed immediately, without a moment's hesitation.
Wait—Chu Yan was baffled: "You went through all the trouble to return to the main family, wasn't it so I could promote you?"
Now you're giving up a promotion opportunity to teach a little kid. That doesn't look like a step up no matter how you see it.
Chu Xiu humbly tucked his hands into his sleeves, having his own view: "I came from the Qishan branch. Even if you promoted me, I'd just be your deputy, grinding away year after year. And what is a nursery for, anyway? Just watching kids. I've seen those kids—eh, might as well go look after our Little Ancestor."
"You're that confident in her?" Chu Yan actually knew in his heart—he was confident too. The Clan Chief, the Fifth Elder, they were all waiting for this child to shine.
What he didn't understand was: why were all of you so dead certain?
Chu Xiu lowered his voice: "A while ago my father wrote to me, saying our family's ancestral grave had smoke rising from it. I did a quick count—it was right around the time the Little Ancestor showed her power and I wrote to you. I feel like my family's fortune is tied to the Little Ancestor."
The "showing her power" he referred to was the time Wangshu flipped over the solid wood table with a single hand.
Chu Yan was genuinely taken aback. He mulled it over, then suddenly realized—wait... hold on. Your ancestral grave smoked, you're surnamed Chu, and I'm surnamed Chu too. Trace back far enough, and we might share an ancestor. How come I didn't know our family's ancestral grave was smoking?
Chu Yan angrily raised his hand in a mock hit, and Chu Xiu, grinning, ducked his head and scurried off. And so, the matter was settled.
Chu Yan thought it over and decided to report the matter to the Fifth Elder. It wasn't that he, a dignified nursery superintendent, couldn't make such a decision on his own—the key point was that Wangshu was special.
The Fifth Elder and the Clan Chief had long instructed him to "keep an eye on that child" and "fulfill her requests as much as possible."
So even if Chu Xiu hadn't wanted to be the tutor, Chu Yan would have found someone even better.
Sure enough, when Chu Mingyan heard of it, she didn't think Wangshu had made an excessive request. Instead, she said, "That's only right."
"Is that Chu Xiu up to the task?"
The Clan Chief had recently left home, entrusting her to look after her "future daughter." Chu Mingyan felt that having a branch nursery manager teach the future Clan Chief's daughter was somewhat beneath her dignity.
Chu Yan said pitifully, "It's what she asked for by name." It's not like I arranged it on purpose.
Well then. As expected of someone favored by the Clan Chief—she had her own ideas even at this age.
"Let it be for now. Once the Chief returns, we'll make further arrangements."
The Chief had received a decree from the palace and gone to the North Sea to maintain the entrance to the spiritual cave heaven. This was a duty incumbent upon the seal-holding families, and this year it was the Chu family's turn. The trip would take roughly half a year, even a full year.
By the time she returned, the matter of that child's identity should be settled.
With official appointment secured and a salary as deputy superintendent of the Chu nursery, Chu Xiu threw himself into his work with full vigor.
Personal tutor to Wangshu!
Chu Xiu was quite satisfied with this job, and Wangshu was fairly satisfied with Chu Xiu as well.
They were from the same place, shared a bit of "investment" history, had a certain rapport, and it was easier to ask him things.
As for his teaching ability, it was good enough—it wasn’t like she needed to pass the college entrance exam. Probably didn’t need to, right?
Wangshu began her literacy lessons and her introduction to cultivation.
The first question Wangshu asked about cultivation was about Spirit Seeds. She had been curious about that for far too long.
“What exactly is a Spirit Seed? Why do you, Chu Yan, and even the Clan Chief all keep saying things like ‘after you awaken your Spirit Seed, this and that’? What if I can’t awaken one?”
Chu Xiu was horrified. “Young Miss, you mustn’t say such unlucky things!” He spat on the ground a few times, as if to ward off the ill fortune of those words.
“Fine, fine. I’m definitely going to awaken one.” Wangshu respected this world’s superstitions.
Chu Xiu let out a relieved breath, then began to explain: “A Spirit Seed, at its core, is a ‘creation’ of Heaven and Earth. In simpler terms, it is a gift bestowed by the Heavenly Dao upon its favored children.”
At this point, Chu Xiu let out a self-deprecating laugh. “Take me, for example—the heavens clearly don’t favor me. I have no Spirit Seed. I’m just an ordinary cultivator, and at thirty years old, I’ve only reached the ninth rank of cultivation.”
The number nine sounded large, but from Chu Xiu’s tone, it seemed to mean a low level of cultivation. Wangshu continued nodding.
“From what you’re saying, Spirit Seeds are extremely rare?”
“Rare doesn’t even begin to cover it!” Chu Xiu’s voice carried obvious longing. “Among ordinary people, one in a thousand can absorb spiritual energy and cultivate. But among cultivators, not even one in ten thousand can awaken a Spirit Seed.”
He had worked at Qishan Nursery since his twenties, becoming a steward at twenty-eight. Every year, the main family sent people to test the children, but in all that time, he had never once encountered someone with an awakened Spirit Seed.
Until he met Wangshu.
“That’s a pretty low probability, then.” Wangshu nodded, then said very naturally, “That means you’re pretty impressive too, you know.”
Chu Xiu was momentarily stunned. Wangshu sat there, calmly listing off examples of his “impressiveness”:
“You can cultivate, which means you’ve already surpassed at least a thousand ordinary people. Your surname is Chu, and our family must be quite powerful. You became a steward, and now you’ve returned to the main family.”
Wangshu counted off points while tapping her little head, not even looking at Chu Xiu. That was because this wasn’t flattery.
Wangshu was simply stating her opinion.
When she finished, she naturally moved on to the next topic: “So, what’s so special about these rare Spirit Seeds? There has to be a reason they’re so uncommon.”
Chu Xiu snapped back to his senses. In his entire life, this was the first time someone had told him he wasn’t an ordinary person. And the person saying it was the genius in his eyes—the one he had placed his bet on, the opportunity that made his ancestors’ graves smoke with good fortune.
Chu Xiu took a deep look at Wangshu before continuing:
“Let’s go through this one by one. Take ordinary people—those who cannot cultivate. They have no awareness of spiritual energy. They cannot sense the mysteries of Heaven and Earth, and even if they vaguely sense something, they have no way to control it. Thus, they can never step through the threshold of cultivation.”
“As for those who can cultivate—to a certain extent, their physical bodies are already somewhat affinitive to spiritual energy. They can use cultivation techniques to roughly and simply harness spiritual energy, using it to strengthen their bodies. However, spiritual energy is formless, and our bodies are like large sieves. We cannot store it, and in the end, we only achieve half the result with twice the effort.”
“As for cultivators with Spirit Seeds...” Chu Xiu paused deliberately here, making sure Wangshu knew he was about to make an important point.
“It’s like having a brain for spiritual energy built into your body. The Spirit Seed can automatically absorb spiritual energy, filter it, refine it into the state best suited for your body, and feed it back to you.”
He gave an example: “Spiritual energy is divided into five elements. If a person has fire and wood attributes but no Spirit Seed, they can only forcefully absorb all leftover spiritual energy, and some attributes will clash with their own. Naturally, their cultivation will suffer. But someone with a Spirit Seed absorbs only the fire-and-wood-attributed energy they need directly.”
Though these words were many, Wangshu found them easy to understand.
So, a Spirit Seed was essentially a smart spiritual energy processor? One that combined collecting, filtering, purifying, and adaptive functions all in one.
Seeing that Wangshu didn’t look confused, Chu Xiu wasn’t surprised either.
One dared to teach, and the other dared to listen.
Chu Xiu continued: “But the most important function of a Spirit Seed isn’t this—it’s what I’m about to say next. Every Spirit Seed, even the lowest grade, carries with it an innate divine ability.”
Chu Xiu’s voice was full of solemnity and envy.
“Between two cultivators of the same rank, if one has an innate divine ability and the other doesn’t, their combat power and future potential are incomparably different.”
“That—that is the true manifestation of Heaven and Earth’s creation!”
-
Chu Xiu’s lessons went on unremarkably for a year. By then, Wangshu had turned three.
Her simulator had triggered a “Special” event—the lessons Chu Xiu gave her alone. As a child brought back to the main family for cultivation through this branch path, her identity hadn’t yet been officially declared, yet she already received a steward-level exclusive tutor, setting her apart from the masses.
This special event had added twenty points to her genius score.
Then came her third birthday. She received small birthday gifts from Chu Xiu, Chu Yan, and the Fifth Elder.
Why she received one from the Fifth Elder, Wangshu found strange. Though the Fifth Elder was called an elder, she looked very young, always wearing black clothes, with few expressions on her face and a cool, aloof demeanor. Every time she came over, she would ask expressionlessly, “Is there anything you lack? Anything you need?”
When Wangshu shook her head, she would then ask, “Has Chu Yan been mistreating you? Is he skimping on your meals?”
Wangshu, flustered by all this concern, honestly answered no—so as not to land Chu Yan with an undeserved blame.
The Fifth Elder’s gift was a set of exquisite grass-and-insect jewelry, all shiny and beautiful. Any child would love it. If she wore her hair in twin buns and pinned these little hairpins in, the insect antennae and wings would tremble slightly.
Wangshu touched them with some curiosity, accompanied by the chirping of cicadas outside.
Suddenly, the cicadas’ chirping stopped for a breath, then started again. Wangshu’s hand paused on a grasshopper hairpin. Sensing something, she turned her head to look at the doorway.
There stood a tall figure in red robes, a golden crown gleaming, eyes dark and smiling, quietly watching her.
The Chu Clan Chief, Chu Daixi.
Wangshu froze for a moment. Chu Daixi had already walked over, naturally crouching in front of her, resting her forearms on her knees for support.
Because Wangshu had grown a little taller and was sitting on a stool, Chu Daixi’s position was even lower.
Seeing that Wangshu wasn’t speaking, Chu Daixi smiled and poked Wangshu’s plump cheek with her fingertip. “What’s this? Don’t you recognize me anymore?”
For some reason, Wangshu turned her head away and let out a soft hmph.
Hearing that hmph, Chu Daixi seemed very satisfied instead. Having an emotional reaction meant she remembered you—not bad, not bad.
“I spent this year away on clan matters. It wasn’t that I deliberately didn’t come to see you.” Chu Daixi explained.
Official business? That meant a business trip. What kind of business trip lasted a whole year? It was probably just a lie to fool a child.
Wangshu said nothing, so Chu Daixi continued on her own:
“This past year, I thought about it carefully, and I feel that we were simply meant to be mother and daughter. Look—you have no mother, and I have no daughter. Isn’t this just perfect?”
"I really do see you as my own daughter, and I think you see me as your mother too—we're a perfect match."
Seeing that Wangshu's turned-away head remained completely still, Chu Daixi gave a soft cough and turned serious.
"I truly want you to be my daughter."
"Really?"
The cicadas outside chirped and hummed.
Wangshu still said nothing, her head hanging low, but her eyelids secretly flicked upward just a bit.
She was about to speak when the simulator, as if impatient with this slow pace, began rapidly typing words in her mind.
[As a beginner-level pseudo-genius in the startup phase, you've managed to achieve astonishing results in certain areas, successfully getting the clan mother to extend a daughter invitation to you.]
[The opportunity is right before you—now, answer her—!]
[Yes! Or no!]
