Chapter One: I Could Never Be a Sweetheart

At four in the morning, the rundown tavern of the Zou family was closing up.

One big and one small figure were carrying buckets of water, tidying the wreckage of the place.

The tavern had just endured a fierce brawl. Drinks and food were strewn across the floor, filthy beyond words.

A secondhand robot hovered in the air, its head lolling to one side. Wires spilled messily from beneath its neck as it kept shouting hoarsely, “Sir, please calm down. Sir, you hit the wrong person, sir...”

Sigh. It was completely out of order.

It had been one of the victims of the incident. The fighters all came away with only minor injuries and were taken off by three Star Police vehicles.

Only this bystander machine had nearly lost its head.

Tomorrow it would have to be sent to a repair shop for some major surgery to patch it back together.

The four-year-old child was using a mop designed especially for dwarven builds; the handle rose only a little above her head, and she dragged it back and forth in half-hearted strokes.

Su Ninglong had been in this world for four years.

Only recently had she finally sorted through the fragments of her memory and remembered that she had once been a mighty ancestor at the Great Ascension stage, a legendary figure who had dominated the world of cultivation.

A grand and formidable patriarch, cast into another realm, yet instead of rising to great heights, she had been mastered by an ordinary mortal woman.

How utterly disgraceful.

Su Ninglong shoved and pulled at the mop with force, nearly swinging it like a staff, splashing a few drops of dirty water onto the table.

Her godmother, Zou Shuyi, put her hands on her hips, fire flashing in her eyes. “Su Ninglong, work properly. Are you asking for a spanking?”

Su Ninglong clutched her bottom, mortified at the very mention. “I’m four years old now. I’m a person with thoughts. You can’t keep spanking me whenever you like.”

Though she objected, she obediently made her movements smaller and cleaned with proper restraint.

Zou Shuyi was her godmother, the one who had painstakingly raised her for four years.

She could not bring herself to defy her too much.

“Not bad. If your backside can decide your thoughts, then it proves my education has been very effective,” Zou Shuyi said with a laugh.

Su Ninglong glared at her. “You’re such a horrible, suppressive parent. Careful—I might enter my rebellious phase early.”

“Darling, if you rebel, that means I’m free. I won’t have to care about you anymore.”

Zou Shuyi leaned against the bar with her alluring figure, flicked a glass onto the rack with one hand, gave the rack a stylish spin, and sent everything sliding neatly into the cabinet.

Su Ninglong was left speechless.

Zou Shuyi’s relationship with her was not even true adoption; it was only a temporary guardianship.

Under interstellar law, a temporary guardian could be changed at any time according to the wishes of the guardian and the child.

So long as it was reviewed and confirmed that there truly was an irreconcilable conflict between the two, and that one side’s body or mind had already been harmed, the relationship could be severed.

If Su Ninglong turned rebellious, Zou Shuyi could report to the police bureau that she was no longer capable of educating her and send her to an orphanage.

But the standard for temporary guardianship had been written with orphanages already full to capacity in mind. If she could not be sent to an orphanage, then she would have to go live with another temporary guardian.

Better to bicker with Zou Shuyi every day.

Zou Shuyi gave her a great deal of freedom.

Staying up until five in the morning without being sent to bed—apart from Zou Shuyi, there probably were not many parents willing to indulge a child like that.

After more than an hour of effort, the cleaning was finally nearing completion.

There were still two hours until the kindergarten placement center opened.

The placement center would assign children to nearby kindergartens according to their various performances and abilities; that was what she had learned from the customers.

Su Ninglong made one last struggle. “Godmother, look, I can help reduce your burden and still greet the customers. It saves trouble, and it saves money...”

The intent of Ancestor Su’s heart was plain for all to see: she did not want to go to kindergarten. A bunch of little brats—who knew how noisy they could be.

Zou Shuyi took a rag to the sink at the bar, turned on the tap, and with one slender hand and tremendous strength, wrung the cloth nearly to pieces.

She cast the ruined rag into the trash with disgust and went to fetch a new one.

“Can saving money make you rich? Thanks to you, if I didn’t have you, I’d already be making it big. I could’ve hooked up with some rich man and not worked myself to death.”

She could not understand it. Before they started school, other children were all rather eager to go. Her own little sprout could read by watching the news and all sorts of videos, yet she was oddly averse to study.

It had to be the atmosphere of the tavern’s influence. Those drunks spent all day bragging and teasing children, leading Su Ninglong astray.

Zou Shuyi blamed everyone without distinction, and every customer in the room took an arrow to the knee.

She muttered inwardly that if opening a bookstore would not leave her drowning in losses, she would have changed business licenses long ago.

Knowing she could not escape the fate of kindergarten, Ancestor Su put on a stern face, lay down on the sofa, and turned on the tavern’s giant television.

Every second felt like a day.

The television was broadcasting the morning news. “Yesterday, at No. 1 on Lyle Street on Twin Star, flames suddenly broke out for no apparent reason. A citizen reported seeing people fighting inside, and said the house had long been haunted by the sound of a child crying. However, after searching the premises, Star Police found no sign of any child activity, nor did they discover any hidden room. The house has now been sealed off, and Star Police will work with specialists to carry out further investigations. Citizens are advised not to approach the area...”

“The next item: the Kebi Star Meteorological Observatory has calculated that this March, Kebi Star will experience a rare tidal event not seen in ten years. The surging waves may exceed fifty meters. Members of the public interested in viewing the tide, or competitors who wish to ride it, may call to register and participate...”

Ancestor Su had a weakness for gossip, and even more enjoyed hearing sordid little love affairs among celebrities or ordinary people.

A single photo, and the rest was all made up. If the fabrication went too far, a lawyer’s letter would follow, one link after another—everyone was in it for the fun.

Today she heard nothing at all, and in low spirits she closed her eyes and rested until it was time to leave.

At seven-thirty in the morning, Zou Shuyi stored the liquor to be sold that night in the ice cellar.

After washing up in the lavatory, she removed her lace apron.

Her left hand held Su Ninglong.

Her right hand carried the robot that had been ringing all night and had finally run out of energy.

First she tossed the robot into the repair shop. Zou Shuyi asked hopefully, “Can it be fixed?”

The owner of the repair shop was a young man who had always had a fondness for Zou Shuyi.

Seeing his goddess hand over a machine that was half dead, the man—who usually boasted without restraint—suddenly became awkward.

After a rough inspection, he stammered, “It, it’s very hard to fix.”

Zou Shuyi looked regretful. “So it really can’t be repaired? Three was the most capable robot I’ve ever used.”

“It’s been beaten so badly the core is shattered. The money to replace the core would be enough to buy another secondhand one.”

The repair shop owner wanted to say that he could accompany her to buy a secondhand robot, offer useful advice, and perhaps even turn it into a romantic outing.

Su Ninglong knew that Zou Shuyi had no intention of starting a first romance with this man.

So she said, “Forget it. You’re reluctant to part with it because it’s durable, not because it has so many functions. You can’t even use half of them anyway.”

Right now, the only robot on the secondhand market with the lowest energy consumption was this model—and it was the most expensive.

“You little mouth, can’t you sprinkle a bit of honey on me and coax me?” Zou Shuyi looked down at the brat barely reaching her thighs. “What good does exposing me do you?”

“But sharp tongues are part of our family tradition. You should trust the results of your own teaching. I could never become a sweet little darling.”

Su Ninglong grinned, revealing a pair of dimples as sweet as honey, like some little fairy stepping out of a place of pure beauty and grace—if only she had not been born with a mouth.