Before he was thirteen, no one thought he would live to eighteen, but now he was twenty-one. After thirteen, everyone around him thought it was only a matter of time before he developed Spiritual Power, but he never did.
His life had been surrounded by false prophecies.
This time, he wanted to choose for himself.
Just like she had severed the Zerg's body.
Silence filled the car for a moment.
Chang Han sighed. Sometimes a son being too much like his father wasn't a good thing.
"I respect your choice, but I hope you remember that I'm waiting for you to come back."
Over here, heartwarming; over there, swords and shadows.
Chu Ran quietly turned on the recording, looking at the handsome but displeased man before her, raising an eyebrow. "You say you're my father? Then I say I'm your great-grandmother."
"Chu Ran," Chu Heng frowned, his tone harsh. "I know you resent me, but running into the Zerg was your fault!"
A person with only E-rank Spiritual Power would never be valued anywhere.
"If you had any self-awareness, instead of running away from home over every little thing and going to a place like the Garbage Dump, how could you have encountered such danger!"
"Let me interrupt," Chu Ran raised her hand. "You have a goldfish memory, but I don't. My newly grown brain works perfectly, and I can't stand gaslighting."
"You don't actually think the Chu Family is a safe place after I was poisoned, do you?" Chu Ran looked incredulous. "I remember you were kicked in the stomach, not the head. What, that officer's kick was so hard it affected your whole body and damaged your brain?"
"Well, too bad. The Chu Family doesn't have any Divine Fruit." Chu Ran spread her hands.
"Chu Ran!"
Chu Heng's face darkened like ink.
The military representative's kick hadn't held back, and since Chu Heng worked in an office all year, he had spent a full month and a half in bed afterward.
Remembering the purpose of his visit, Chu Heng forcefully suppressed his anger and gritted his teeth. "Your grandfather said that if you're willing, he can get you into the Third Training Institute and give you some compensation, but you need to explain things to the military."
Although the military had suppressed these matters for the sake of public opinion, they still held a grudge against the Chu Family. He Yi had been with the military in her lifetime and was posthumously rated a second-class martyr.
How the Chu Family treated Chu Ran indicated they had issues with the military.
And Chu Heng, as her biological father, had been under pressure from all sides recently.
"Explain what?" Chu Ran raised an eyebrow. "Explain that the Chu Family treated me well, and getting poisoned was just bad luck with a madman?"
"Do the military people have an IQ of 25?"
Chu Heng's face darkened, and he took a deep breath. "Regardless, the Chu Family, including Shenyin, has no reason to hurt you."
"Your Spiritual Power was only E-rank when tested at age three, so the poisoning must have happened before then. At that time, your mother and I had a good relationship, and I didn't know Shenyin."
"Ah, no," Chu Ran said in surprise. "My mother hadn't been dead six months before you got together with Lin Shenyin. And you dare say you two had a good relationship?"
"If I wanted to be conspiratorial, I'd think you married my mother with ulterior motives."
Hearing this, Chu Heng barely controlled his expression. His face darkened, and he stared at Chu Ran as if she were an enemy.
"Here's the thing: I suggest you reflect on yourself," Chu Ran said with utmost calm, her eyes sincere. "Is it possible that other Chu Family members, seeing that a person with no Spiritual Power like you could marry a genius like my mother, became jealous and feared that the child would inherit her talent, so they destroyed my Spiritual Power?"
These words were like a nuclear bomb.
Having no Spiritual Power was Chu Heng's greatest shame. His eldest brother, Chu Yuan, was currently the Deputy Commander of the Sixth Sub-Star Corps, and his younger brother, Chu Zhi, was the Deputy Minister of Resources on the Seventh Sub-Star.
Although he managed the Chu Family's companies, his father could take it all away at any time.
He had already lost three companies.
Chu Heng's gaze was icy, looking at Chu Ran as if she were a dead person. He laughed in extreme anger. "Fine."
He gave Chu Ran a deep look and slammed the door as he left.
Watching him go, Chu Ran rubbed her chin. Tsk, this scumbag father's embarrassment-turned-anger was way too fast, much thinner-skinned than her foster parents from her past life.
Back then, she was sarcastic enough that even people around them couldn't stand it, but they would still sit on the ground, shamelessly throwing tantrums.
Could there really be a hidden story behind the original owner's death...
Pity she had no memories of the original owner, so she couldn't tell what Chu Heng was hiding.
Wait!
Chu Ran suddenly remembered something.
That bastard Chu Heng left too fast—she hadn't even discussed compensation yet!
When Dr. Sun learned of Chu Ran's thoughts, he hesitated. "Well, Old Master Chu showed the military the money he's spent on you over the years. Compared to your sister, it's not much less. So if you plan to sever ties with the Chu Family, they probably won't give you money."
Old Master Chu's frequent visits to the military lately hadn't been in vain.
The military seemed to agree not to blow this up.
"If you're short on money," Dr. Sun said, after a moment of hesitation, "how about trying to make Basic Creations?"