Chapter 252 206: Chu Bamboo Wants Hai Mingyue to Be His Dog

At his words, a thousand thoughts flickered through Hai Mingyue's eyes. Then, out of the blue, Chu Bamboo said, "You're actually enjoying this, aren't you?"

"?" Hai Mingyue froze for a moment. She then felt the hand gripping her wrist tighten again. "You…"

Chu Bamboo's expression remained unchanged. Hai Mingyue was a masochist. 'As for how he knew that… well!'

"…" Hai Mingyue's lips quivered. Once she understood the true meaning behind Chu Bamboo's words, her body began to shake. 'How could you… Impossible!'

Finally, she forced herself to ignore the topic, practically gritting her teeth as she said, "Fine! Very well! As long as… as long as you can accomplish that… then whatever you want, I'll give it to you!"

Hai Mingyue's demeanor shifted dramatically. With just a subtle change in her expression, she transformed from a timid rabbit into an alluring seductress. She pursed her thin, pink lips, her jade-like fingertips gently reaching for Chu Bamboo's neck. "Anything… at all!"

"Oh. Then after you become the head of the Hai Family, you'd be willing to use its wealth and resources to help me with something… something that may not be very profitable for the Hai Family, but won't cause it a major loss, either. That shouldn't be a problem, right?" Chu Bamboo cut straight to the point, grabbing her fingertips with his other hand.

Even if she was stronger than him, it didn't mean he was willing to expose a weak point to her. For a Cultivator, the neck was undeniably a fatal spot.

Hai Mingyue: "???"

'What the hell… Is your brain made of rocks?'

'She'd already laid it on this thick…'

Hai Mingyue started to speak several times but stopped herself. She felt that if it were any other young noble from Jinghai in his place, they would have been hooked, line, and sinker. After all, marrying her meant gaining access to the Hai Family's supreme wealth and power.

As a prominent Jiangnan family with a centuries-long legacy, it was impossible to overestimate the Hai Family's influence. Not to mention… as a woman, Hai Mingyue was supremely confident in her own assets.

"So, is that a problem?" Chu Bamboo pressed.

"…" Hai Mingyue thought for a long time before finally gritting her teeth. "Fine! If you can really do it… what's the harm in agreeing? As long as you can make that old bastard… feel a pain that cuts to the bone! In fact, I don't even care if I become the head of the Hai Family."

A glint of hatred surfaced in Hai Mingyue's eyes—

She hated her father… because she was, in fact, his illegitimate daughter.

Thirteen years ago, at only eight years old, she hadn't understood why she'd suddenly gone from being an ordinary beggar wasting away in a shantytown to the noble young lady of the Hai Family overnight.

Just as she didn't understand why her father, a man of such high status, had never cared for her or her mother before that day… which led directly to her mother's death.

And even after becoming the Hai Family's young lady, she never felt a shred of fatherly love.

That man simply treated her as an ornament. A beautiful vase.

Her entire upbringing was focused on one thing: cultivating her feminine charm. All of her training was geared toward maximizing her appeal to men.

If it weren't for that, for that specific line of training… she never would have met that woman in her home, and ended up joining…

"Isn't that simple?" Chu Bamboo said nonchalantly. "Just go and off your old man's three illegitimate sons and two illegitimate daughters. Bring their heads back and throw them on his desk. Don't worry, no matter how furious he gets, he'll have no choice but to name you his heir."

Chu Bamboo stressed, "His *sole* heir."

Hai Mingyue: "???"

'Wait… Hold on! Let me process this.'

"Three… illegitimate sons? Two… illegitimate daughters?!" Hai Mingyue's expression was dazed. 'Isn't something wrong here? I'm his only daughter!'

'If that weren't the case, I never would have made that leap out of the shantytown. After all, it's obvious the old man can't stand me…'

"You're just the decoy he put out in the open," Chu Bamboo said, seeing through her thoughts with a smirk. "Shouldn't you have realized that by now? If he truly saw you as his heir… you never would have received *that* kind of education."

Hai Mingyue clenched her fists, her expression clouding over.

"…I find this a little strange…" Chu Bamboo raised an eyebrow. "You've already joined the Hehuan Sect. Didn't their intelligence network tell you about this? That's impossible… If I recall correctly, the Hehuan Sect's intelligence is top-tier among the various Demon Cult Influences!"

"…Don't think trying to sow discord like this will work," Hai Mingyue said, her voice calm.

"Am I really trying to sow discord?" Chu Bamboo retorted. Hai Mingyue did not reply.

"Just agree. If you agree, I'll tell you," Chu Bamboo whispered, leaning close to Hai Mingyue's ear, his voice carrying an indescribable allure, "where all those illegitimate sons and daughters are hidden."

"…You make a very tempting offer," Hai Mingyue was almost swayed, but in the end, she shook her head with great resolve.

She looked at Chu Bamboo, her voice cold and laced with disappointment. "In the end, you still just see me as a tool…"

Hai Mingyue wasn't lying about one thing: she truly did have strong positive feelings for Chu Bamboo. To be more precise, she saw him through rose-tinted glasses. Their previous meeting hadn't been a complete act; the man before her was genuinely her idol.

This stemmed from her early years as a vagrant in the shantytowns…

Even though she, much like Captain Yang, had never enjoyed the benefits that came after Chu Bamboo's shantytown reforms…

But because of that experience and her past suffering, people like her naturally held Chu Bamboo in high regard from the very start.

Hai Mingyue laughed sardonically. "So all men really are the same. Let's be honest, even if I killed all of them, what good would it do…?"

"Would that cold-blooded man really feel any pain? Couldn't he just… go and have more? And you have the nerve to talk about being the 'undisputed sole heir'…"

"If I really do what you say, I'm afraid my only choice in the end will be to…"

'…defect. I'd have to abandon my public identity and fully join the Hehuan Sect.'

And then…

Hai Mingyue noticed that Chu Bamboo was looking at her with an extremely odd expression—a mixture of pity and amusement.

"What is it?" Hai Mingyue keenly sensed that something was amiss, but no matter how she replayed their conversation, she couldn't pinpoint the problem.

Chu Bamboo said softly, "Did you not know… that your old man can no longer have children?"

Hai Mingyue: "…Huh?"

'Wait a minute…'

"If I remember correctly," Chu Bamboo said, a flicker of memory in his eyes, "it seems that when your old man was young, he slept with a Gu Girl from the Five Poison Sect and then dumped her. You should understand—it was just like what he did with your mother. But a woman from the Five Poison Sect is no ordinary woman…"

'Back when he didn't know about the Extraordinary Realm, Chu Bamboo had heard this story and thought the old master of the Hai Family was seriously ballsy.'

'At the time, he'd only thought that a Poisonous Woman from the Five Poison Sect used a type of Gu Skill similar to Kung Fu. But even if it was just Gu Skill… the old man of the Hai Family really had no fear, messing with any woman he pleased!'

'But now, his respect for the old man had grown even deeper. The guy was truly willing to risk his life for a piece of ass.'

"The end result was… well, he can't have children anymore," Chu Bamboo sighed again. 'It's pretty obvious that Five Poison Woman must have actually had real feelings for him. Otherwise, his ashes would have been buried and sprouted by now! No, he'd probably be a teenager again already!'

Chu Bamboo shot Hai Mingyue a sidelong glance and delivered his conclusion. "Otherwise, for a man as traditional, as chauvinistic, as staunchly feudal as he is, why wouldn't he just have children with his legal wife? Why go to all the trouble of either hastily promoting you illegitimate children or secretly raising you on the outside and giving you a proper education?"

Hai Mingyue: "????"