Chapter 651
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 651
Chapter Title: How About Stopping There?
“Father!”
At that moment.
A frantic voice came from outside the office.
It was Yeon Baek-pung’s daughter, Yeon Da-hye.
Yeon Baek-pung immediately frowned.
Even though his daughter had come to see him, his expression was filled with displeasure.
“What’s with all the commotion?”
As Yeon Baek-pung responded, a woman flung the door open and stormed in.
Her eyes brimmed with venom.
“Have you heard the news?”
“What news?”
“Im Ha-min. That wench is back. The nerve of her. Does she even know where she is?!”
It was a shout laced with rage and jealousy.
Even though she had formally received the Yeon surname from the clan, she deliberately used the old surname Im out of sheer contempt for Yeon Ha-min.
However, Yeon Baek-pung merely regarded his daughter’s outburst with cold detachment.
His gaze was as if he were looking at a stranger.
And in a dry, emotionless voice, he said,
“It’s not Im Ha-min. It’s Yeon Ha-min. The clan head has officially recognized her as a Yeon.”
“She doesn’t have a drop of Yeon blood in her...”
She tried to say more, but as Yeon Baek-pung’s eyes grew even colder, Yeon Da-hye flinched and fell silent.
For Yeon Baek-pung, just looking at his daughter’s face stirred up irritation on its own.
Pale and bland.
Her looks could be summed up in those two words.
She was simply ugly.
Extremely ugly.
How ugly? She looked exactly like her mother.
In contrast, Yeon Baek-pung was handsome.
Very handsome.
The martial world acclaimed the most outstanding beauties as the Five Flowers of the Martial World, and if there were a similar ranking for handsome men, Yeon Baek-pung would easily rank among the top five.
Not just among his brothers, but across the entire Yeon Clan, he was the handsomest.
With the mature allure of middle age added on, his appearance captivated anyone who laid eyes on him.
He was a man who could rival legendary beauties like Ban An or Song Ok.
“Father. It’s In-hu.”
Then another voice came from outside—his son, Yeon In-hu.
“Come in.”
It was a completely different tone from how he had addressed his daughter—warm and affectionate.
The man who entered looked just like Yeon Baek-pung.
He had inherited that striking handsomeness in full.
“What’s the matter?”
“Da-hye sent someone saying she needed to see you right away.”
With that, he glanced at his younger sister, who was already there.
“Is it about Ha-min coming back?”
His voice toward his sister was gentle.
Appearances didn’t matter to him.
She was his one and only sister.
His words were thick with familial affection.
“Yeah. How dare that lowborn wench come back to the clan! We should kick her out immediately!”
In truth, Yeon In-hu felt nothing but indifference toward Yeon Ha-min.
The men of the clan seemed bewitched by her beauty, harboring base desires, but he was different.
There was no special reason.
He was handsome.
Whenever he stepped outside the clan, women on the streets threw flirtatious glances his way.
Even in the pleasure quarters, the most beautiful courtesans would come running out barefoot.
He had no particular thoughts or feelings about Yeon Ha-min.
He was confident he could have any of the other Five Flowers if he wanted.
And that confidence came from inheriting his handsome father’s looks.
But his father was different.
How could someone as handsome as himself be so obsessed with one woman?
What had gone wrong, and where?
‘Mother and Father are both pitiful. Concubine Jin Na-yeon is pitiful too. How did things end up like this...’
Yeon In-hu looked at his father and sister with sympathetic eyes.
His father, forced into a political marriage with an undesired plain woman.
His mother, who had desperately wanted to enter the clan through that same marriage, yet never once received her husband’s love after their wedding night.
And even Concubine Jin Na-yeon, reduced to the object of his father’s lust.
What on earth was happening in the Hubei Yeon Clan, the supreme clan of the world?
It had been this way since his uncle’s time.
No matter that she wasn’t blood-related, to lust after one’s niece like that.
‘Is the Yeon Clan’s blood cursed with lust...?’
Suddenly, even that absurd thought crossed his mind.
“Oppa!!”
At that moment, Yeon Da-hye let out a shrill cry.
To snap her brother out of his reverie.
“What do you think, Oppa?!”
Yeon Baek-pung grimaced at his daughter’s rude behavior.
Not only was her face ugly, but her personality was rotten too.
Even though she was his daughter, he couldn’t bring himself to like her.
“What do you mean, what? She came home. Just leave her be. Besides, Concubine Mother is here too.”
“Concubine? Who’s a concubine? Those lowborn wenches...”
Slap!
The moment those words left Yeon Da-hye’s mouth, her eyes flashed as a stinging pain shot through her cheek.
She had collapsed to the floor before she knew it.
She couldn’t comprehend what had just happened.
Yeon Baek-pung, who had struck his daughter’s cheek, looked down at her with icy eyes.
“If you are of the Yeon Clan, mind your words and actions.”
“F-Father...”
Yeon Da-hye couldn’t even speak properly from the shock.
But Yeon Baek-pung turned and left the office without another word.
Only the siblings remained in the young clan head’s empty office.
Yeon In-hu gazed at the doorway with a troubled expression.
Even if it was his father, that had been too harsh.
“Sob, sob, sob sob. O-Oppa... F-Father, Father hit me... just for calling those lowborn wenches what they are...”
Tears streamed down her face in sorrow.
Yeon Da-hye knew.
That her father disliked her.
She hadn’t known as a child.
She had just been a little girl craving her father’s affection.
But he had always kept his distance.
As she grew older, she realized why.
It was because she was ugly.
Because she took after her mother.
So she resented her mother.
Why had Oppa been born so handsome?
Why had she been born looking just like her ugly mother?
And she cursed every pretty girl in the world.
It was only natural that Jin Na-yeon and her daughter Yeon Ha-min were at the top of that list.
She had seen it—the one time her father’s cold, emotionless eyes toward her and her mother had shown feeling.
Jin Na-yeon.
It was when he looked at that lowborn wench.
“Hoo.”
Yeon In-hu let out a deep sigh as he helped his sister to her feet.
He wiped her tears and patted her back.
“O-Oppa... sob sob. Waaah!!!”
Yeon Da-hye threw herself into her brother’s arms and wailed, pouring out all her grievances.
*Concubine (Zhongmu): Wife of the second eldest uncle.
As Yeon Ha-min’s steps quickened.
Jin Na-yeon and Yeon Gong-hu’s steps quickened as well.
And so.
On a path a short distance from Jin Na-yeon’s annex.
The two finally met.
The mother and daughter spotted each other and froze in place.
They simply stared, eyes trembling.
Even standing right in front of each other, it didn’t feel real.
“M-M-Mom...”
A soft whisper escaped Yeon Ha-min’s lips.
It wasn’t the sort of word a noble lady of a prestigious clan would use.
It was more fitting for lowly servant women.
But Yeon Ha-min’s “Mom” was filled with every emotion imaginable.
“M-Mi-mina...”
Jin Na-yeon’s voice trembled too.
The strikingly similar, breathtakingly beautiful mother and daughter gazed at each other, bodies quivering faintly.
Their eyes reddened, brimming with tears.
Watching them, Ha Seol-ran gave Yeon Ha-min’s back the slightest push.
Right now, she looked like she needed just that little nudge.
With Ha Seol-ran’s gentle force, she took one step forward.
Then a second.
And then she ran straight to her mother.
“Mom! Mom! Mom!”
She hugged Jin Na-yeon tightly and burst into tears.
She who had always been so cold in the Dragon Training Pavilion and the Fierce Dragon Corps.
If someone returned to Squad Seven and told them she had sobbed like this, no one would believe it.
Yet Yeon Ha-min wept that bitterly.
Pouring out all the emotions she had bottled up.
“Min-ah, Ha-min-ah. My daughter. You’re safe! You’re okay! Sob sob.”
Jin Na-yeon wept just as much.
She clutched her daughter as if she’d never let go again, tears flowing endlessly.
Ha Seol-ran’s nose tingled at the sight.
‘Would my mom do the same if we met?’
She couldn’t meet her, but the thought crossed her mind.
The mother she had always imagined in her dreams and fantasies was right there.
Gong Hae-bin and Gong Hae-jun’s eyes grew misty too.
Watching the reunion made them think of their parents back in Sangnam.
They were still young children, after all.
Yeon Gong-hu watched his mother and sister’s reunion with a mix of joy and worry.
And understandably so—retainers were starting to peek and pass by here and there.
Ha Mu-baek must have noticed too, as he glanced to the side.
“He’s coming.”
A calm mutter.
No sooner had Ha Mu-baek spoken than the area grew noisy.
“W-We greet the young clan head.”
The “acting” part was omitted.
No one had the guts to say it in Yeon Baek-pung’s presence.
At the retainers’ words, Jin Na-yeon and Yeon Ha-min released their embrace.
They turned toward the source of “young clan head.”
A handsome middle-aged man was approaching.
Even each step exuded elegance.
Only his eyes lacked that refinement.
They held a subtle heat.
Meeting those eyes, Yeon Ha-min flinched at first.
It was the same look the clan members gave her.
But soon, she realized the heat wasn’t directed at her.
Turning her head slightly, there was her mother.
The heat was aimed at her mother, not her.
The moment she realized that, a quiet fury ignited deep in her chest.
This Yeon Clan was truly...
And just like that, she understood why Ha Mu-baek had told her to steel herself.
The corps leader knew.
He had probably stepped away briefly yesterday to assess the clan’s situation.
“When you sneak out of the clan and return, the proper etiquette is to first seek forgiveness from the eldest adult here—me. Yet you go to your mother first. As expected of a lowborn; some things can’t be helped.”
His cold words, thorns utterly unlike his handsome, refined appearance, pierced Yeon Ha-min.
But her face showed no reaction.
She had been through far too much to be hurt by mere words like that.
She had grown strong and resilient now.
The one startled by Yeon Baek-pung’s words was her mother, Jin Na-yeon.
“I was too flustered and made a mistake. Yeon Ha-min of the Yeon Clan has temporarily returned home.”
Yeon Ha-min bowed her head calmly, causing Yeon Baek-pung’s eyebrow to twitch.
“Temporarily returned?”
He seized on her phrasing.
Defying the clan head and young clan head to leave without permission and join the Dragon Training Pavilion was already a grave offense.
And because of her, the clan’s young clan head had met his end.
He didn’t consider what dirty, base, petty desires that young clan head had harbored.
Ignoring the cause, he judged only the result and pinned the blame on Yeon Ha-min.
Even though Yeon Baek-ryang had received his due for betraying human decency.
That was why even Yeon Ja-gyeong hadn’t let it slide.
Yeon Baek-pung, who had become acting young clan head at the time, had let it pass too.
Yeon Ha-min had been in the Dragon Training Pavilion, and it had happened outside the clan in the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest.
But now was different.
This was inside the clan.
Since Yeon Ha-min had returned of her own accord, she had to be punished.
The reason it was a crime now was likely because Yeon Baek-pung harbored the same ignoble, petty lust as his brother.
“I have returned home on temporary leave as a member of the Righteous Heaven Alliance’s Fierce Dragon Corps.”
Yeon Ha-min replied calmly.
She had reason to say so.
Though she had joined the Dragon Training Pavilion without permission, she was now an official warrior of the Righteous Heaven Alliance.
Of course, she still hadn’t had the clan’s approval, so they could make an issue of it.
They could even force her to quit the Fierce Dragon Corps.
But that was only if Yeon Ha-min had no power of her own.
Now, she had grown incredibly strong.
And moreover.
Ha Mu-baek was watching the situation silently.
“Ha? So you’ve become a Righteous Heaven Alliance warrior and think no one’s above you now? Where did you toss your apologies?”
Another verbal jab.
“I’ve done nothing wrong, so I have no apologies to make.”
Yeon Ha-min remained steadfast.
The clan retainers watching were taken aback by her completely changed demeanor.
She wasn’t the Yeon Ha-min they knew.
Yeon Baek-pung felt the same inwardly but didn’t show it.
“You dare...”
His voice seethed with anger.
“How about stopping there? She just reunited with her mother.”
At that moment.
Ha Mu-baek interjected bluntly.