Many changes happened during puberty. The sole constant seemed to be the father’s doting on his daughter.
Year after year, he held increasingly luxurious birthday banquets for his daughter.
For her eleventh birthday, her father spent a huge sum for a banquet that included the entirety of Garden City.
“Stop here.” Her father removed his hands from Zi Di’s eyes, “Dong dong dong!”
Zi Di’s eyes suddenly shined, her small mouth dropped, and her face showed her pleasant surprise.
Before her there was a three meter object with 11 layers. It glittered brilliantly and each layer had its own hue, including blood orange, yellow, green, blue, purple……it looked like an enchanting rainbow.
Zi Di cried out in surprise: “Rainbow cake!”
This classic desert was renowned throughout the empire. Only ten people in the world could make it. Because it used many rare magical materials. Every rainbow cake was the sweetest thing people ever tasted in the world, and it produced relaxing, joyful, and wondrous sensations.
This special cake also boosted and amplified the growth rate of cultivators.
“Weren’t you curious about what a rainbow cake tasted like? The father smiled, “Therefore I invited a famous pastry master to make this for your birthday!”
“Father, this is……wonderful!” Zi Di babbled excitedly, she held her father’s arm, rested her head on her shoulders, and looked at him with glowing eyes, “I know you love me the most father.”
“Of course, you are my princess.” The father laughed, but soon showed his hesitation, “Oh daughter, besides this birthday cake your father has arranged an appointment for you.”
“An appointment?” Zi Di immediately released his arm, took a step back, and looked at her father with creased brows.
The father forced a smile: “Child you’ve grown up already, you should accept these things. I know you’ve always disliked these things, but……”
“Fine, fine. For the sake of the rainbow cake, I will go. But don’t hope I will lower my standards……which clan is he from?”
The father blinked a few times, he prepared for this for a long time, however when the time came, he discovered it was hard to disclose his difficult situation!
“He is a noble and certainly a knight, he……” The father’s voice was muffled.
“Ok I got it. You don’t want to say!” Without waiting for her father to finish, the young Zi Di interrupted him. Then she began to circle around the rainbow cake and clicked her tongue in admiration.
Seeing his daughter’s happy expression, the father was in a complex mood.
He wanted to speak more of what was going on.
Zi Di occasionally raised her head, glimpsed at her frozen father, and waved her hand: “Father, are you still over there? Hurry over. Be at ease, I will deal with it, even if he isn’t an eyecatcher I won’t offend them!”
“Then I will go.” The father sighed and reluctantly left.
Influential officials mingled in the banquet.
Zi Di fully deserved the leading role and accepted presents until her hands went limp from exhaustion.
In the middle of the feast, Zi Di went to the second floor.
Today she was dressed in splendid clothes, a pink princess skirt with silk flowers around it. Her feet wore white pearl heels, and her arms were covered with long pink silk gloves. Her hair looked like rolling waves and thick eyelashes hid her amethyst eyes, making her look adorable, noble, and charming.
Compared to earlier, she now had a bright diamond necklace, a gilded white jade bracelet around her wrist, and a small, exquisite crown on her head. These were all gifts from officials at the banquet. When she received them, she opened them in their presence, happily wore them, and made each guest pleased.
A dance was happening downstairs, and the rainbow cake was still creating a sensation.
“This has been my grandest birthday banquet.” With a joyful mood, Zi Di tapped on a door.
“Come in.” A voice in the room transmitted.
Zi Di entered the room and saw a dumpy middle aged man sitting next to the window. His hand held a cup filled with grape wine as he overlooked the night garden. The moonlight illuminated his face and gave him a glossy appearance.
“City Lord.” Zi Di was slightly astonished, she didn’t expect to see the Garden City Lord at her appointment.
“I think I might have gone to the wrong room.” Zi Di asked to leave.
“You haven’t taken a wrong turn, my beautiful child. The Garden City Lord turned around, smiled, and sized up Zi Di, “Your appointment was with me.”
“What?!” Zi Di opened wide, and she looked at the man that was older than her father with shock.
“That’s impossible!” Zi Di shook her head with a white face as she constantly walked backwards, “This joke isn’t funny.”
The Garden City Lord gazed at her with interest: “Of course this isn’t a joke, if you don’t believe me you can look at the room’s number again.”
Zi Di moved to the door and looked at the number, her franticness and fear made her tender body tremble.
“No, no, this can’t be real……” Zi Di muttered, she couldn’t believe the facts before her.
“Didn’t your father tell you?” The Garden City Lord was baffled.
Zi Di’s body quaked, at that moment she completely realized why her father had such a complex expression during their discussion.
The girl’s thoughts were in a whirl.
“Oh……my pitiful small child.” The Garden City Lord slowly walked towards Zi Di, “Look at your current appearance, you resemble a fragile flower teetering in the elements. Be at ease, I am a charitable person, I will cherish you well.”
“No, no!” Zi Di was abruptly roused, she continued to withdraw into the hallway and constantly shook her head, “It shouldn’t be like this, it shouldn’t be like this……”
The Garden City Lord walked to the doorway, he compassionately teased, coldly ridiculed, and looked down on Zi Di: “As a matter of fact, it must be like this.”
“Do you know how the Wisteria Merchant Alliance got so big? Do you know how many influential officials permeate it?”
“Did you know your father no longer controls the Wisteria Merchant Alliance?”
“Your father and you shouldn’t be on the table with your lower bloodline and statuses. In his entire life both of you will only reach the iron level, yet you two control massive riches. The Wisteria Merchant Alliance……second only to the six great merchant alliances……a colossus……”
“I admit it.” The Garden City Lord shrugged his shoulders, “Your father has an exquisite business sense. This is his fortune and perhaps his misfortune. He doesn’t have the qualifications or the strength to control such a massive merchant alliance.”
“He has also realized this, therefore he suffered untold hardships to open relationships and finally found me.”
“At first I refused.”
“But later, your father’s bargaining chip still moved me.”
“You also know my older brother is the Great Duke Mai Xiang. Rely on me, and you can rely on a living god for help. Only through this can your father save the gains of his undertaking and both of your lives.”
“I will marry you and I will be your husband.”
“So, come here.”
The Garden City Lord waved to Zi Di: “Obediently approach me and enter this room. After locking the door, throw yourself into my chest.”
“I dislike taking the initiative.”
“No, no……” Zi Di persistently shook her head, the cruel reality attacked her mind and made it difficult for her to ponder.
“I won’t leave this doorway.” The Garden City Lord arrogantly said, “Because of my status, I won’t woo you. Young and naive Miss Zi Di, this is only a business transaction, I ask you to understand that.”
“Of course, you are also crucial. If we aren’t married, other imperial powers won’t give you up. This is known as ‘politics’, one of the rules of the game.”
“I can’t marry you Garden City Lord, I don’t want to!” Zi Di’s tears flowed down as she wept.
The Garden City Lord pursed his brows and was displeased: “Naturally you can refuse me. In fact, I also don’t want this transaction, nor do I want to sacrifice the valuable position that is my wife. By making you my wife, I am wasting important political capital!”
“I am indifferent about this.”
“If you can’t decide now, I can give you time to consider it.”
“You can go downstairs now. I believe your father is already waiting for you on the stairs.”
“You will have a good conversation between father and daughter.”
Zi Di’s complexion was deathly pale, she forgot to bow to the Garden City Lord before stumbling downstairs.
As expected, her father was waiting on the stairs.
“Zi Di.” Her father had a complex expression.
“You deceived me!” Filled with tears, Zi Di indignantly howled at her father.
“I didn’t deceive you; I would never deceive you! My daughter.” Her father defended himself at once.
“You decided to sacrifice my life for the merchant alliance!?” Zi Di questioned, “Which is more important, the merchant alliance or me?”
“Of course, it is you, you are my only relative, you are my darling daughter!” The father blurted, then he covered his face and whimpered, “But I can’t do anything, I really can’t do anything.”
“I really want to abandon the merchant alliance; I swear to you that this isn’t the first time I wanted to abandon it!”
“But I can’t.”
“It is impossible for me to stop halfway, the merchant alliance has too many officials in it and I can’t control it. As the founder, I can’t resign to a lower position. They won’t let an influential person like me off. If I don’t pick a power and a team to rely on, I will be eaten by sharks! When that moment comes, we will die!”
Zi Di was dumbfounded, as if she fell into an icy cave.
A good while later, she opened her mouth: “Then why didn’t you tell me?”
“What use is there in telling you the truth? What’s the point?!” Her father was emotional, “We are merely lower class people, we only have a lowly merchant bloodline, even if we had the resources, we can only reach the iron level.”
“Let’s say I hired a strong practitioner to protect us, even if they are at the legend level, the imperial powers will respond to it.”
“The Wisteria Merchant Alliance……haha, although wisteria vines meander and grow lushly, even though they cover a vast area, without a tree’s support they can only lie on the ground and be trampled by others!”
“We must rely on a clan, do you understand my daughter?”
Zi Di’s brows pursed, and her heart contained infinite sorrow: “So, you must sacrifice me? You’re marrying me off to an older man?”
“Sorry, sorry, sorry……” Her father wanted to walk to her and hug Zi Di.
But Zi Di quickly recoiled and resolutely yelled at her father: “The man upstairs is not my knight! This can’t be my future.”
Saying this, she turned away sobbing.
“Zi Di, my daughter……” Her father lovingly called out.
But at that moment, the Garden City Lord upstairs urged: “President Wisteria, you’d best hurry up for my patience is finite.”
The father’s complexion changed, as a dark cloud covered him, he anxiously shouted to Zi Di: “Zi Di, don’t create a disturbance. Do you know how much I paid for this business transaction?”
“You understand that for the Wisteria Merchant Alliance, your father paid so much and braved many risks. You know how difficult it was for me!”
“I can’t look helplessly as others snatch it away from me!”
“Help your father, ah, you should return my nurturing kindness. Over the last few years, your high tuition fees were all paid by your father. No matter how much it costs, your father will do his best to satisfy you. Like the rainbow cake, don’t you like it?”
Seeing her father like this, Zi Di only felt her bones chill.
“No, I don’t like that rainbow cake! Looking at it now, it is simply a means to your plans!”
“From now on, I won’t take a coin from you. All that you have invested into me, I will return to you!”
Seeing Zi Di’s determination, her father grew angrier: “Enough of your nonsense, without me you couldn’t even survive for a day! By simply relying on yourself, how could you live like an affluent woman? Listen to your father, marry the Garden City Lord and you won’t need to worry for a lifetime!!”
“No, never!!” Zi Di roared, then she raised her skirt and ran away.
Her father’s call from behind her didn’t make her stop, rather it caused Zi Di to accelerate.
She dashed through the building’s doorway and nearly sprained her ankle. During this, Zi Di lost one of the pearl high heels and tossed the other one off.
She entered the garden, recklessly scraped her princess skirt in the undergrowth, cut herself, and became extremely dilapidated.
She wept as tears fell throughout the journey.
Her ears still echoed with her father’s words——without me you couldn’t even survive for a day! By simply relying on yourself, how could you live like an affluent woman?
The more injuries Zi Di got, the more annoyed and grieved she became. Her diamond necklace was pulled off and the fine bracelet was taken off and thrown to the wayside.
She finally ran to the manor entrance; the guards were surprised to see today’s leading role here.
The former princess and president’s beloved daughter now wore torn clothing, gasped for breath, had tear stains across her face, and was battered and exhausted.
“Miss Zi Di, do you need help?”
“Open the gate for me!”
“Out of the question, president’s orders.” The guards shook their heads with a firm attitude.
“Zi Di.” A familiar voice said behind her.
Zi Di turned around and saw Fei She, her body trembled and cried: “Did you also come to persuade me Uncle Fei She?
Fei She slowly shook his head: “I didn’t agree with your father’s decision, come, sit in my carriage. I will persuade your father.”
Saying this, he ordered the guards: “Now, open the gate.”
“But……”
“I will explain this to the president, these bad emotions and responsibilities won’t implicate you.” Fei She had a determined approach.
The guards were obliged to comply.
Fei She escorted Zi Di to his carriage.
“Thank you Uncle Fei She!” Zi Di was incomparably thankful as she stepped into the carriage.
Fei She forced a smile: “I watched you grow up child. Don’t blame your father, his secret troubles forced him to do this.”
“No, I won’t forgive him!” Zi Di bit her teeth.
She deeply gazed at the manor; it had been her home for many years.
Then she got into the carriage.
In a moment of carelessness, the crystal crown on her head hit the carriage door and fell to the ground.
Zi Di glanced at the crown, then she turned back and shut the carriage door.
“Set off! Return to the Academy of Magic.” At the next moment, her determined voice came from the carriage.
Notes
Looks like Zi Di gets her lack of communication skills from her father. This proves that the only father-child relationship in IB so far that doesn’t end up with hate is the giant and the boat craftsman. Also there are so many single fathers in this book. Zhen Jin’s mother probably got killed by that assasin, Zi Di’s mother died from sickness, the giant was an orphan, and Zong Ge was a bastard son from an unknown beastman female. I feel like the author is trying to tell us something.