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If the Emperor saw his demeanor and appearance now, he would definitely think there was a different person inside that shell. Cao De, this fellow, could actually be so well-behaved? Ha~

Lih Qingshu’s expression carried a faint hesitation. Although she could handle spicy food, he had injuries on his body, and eating it could easily lead to suppuration of his wounds.

She shook her head gently, "You can’t eat it."

Turning back, she moved the cooked fish to one side and added another handful of firewood to the fire.

Cao De understood why his sister wouldn’t let him eat, but he wanted to, wanted to taste the very first bite of grilled fish she had made. He couldn’t wait any longer.

So with a look of grievance, he coquettishly said, "Sister, I’m hungry. These past few days, I’ve been on the run and been chased for my life, without a single decent meal. Now my stomach is so empty it’s starting to ache."

His lips, pale from excessive blood loss, looked pitiful, presenting a sight of both misery and grievance.

Despite her sister’s cool and clear demeanor, she was soft-hearted and kind.

Sure enough, Lih Qingshu reacted, looking back at him with that expression.

He added more firewood, making his face look even more pitiful as he said, "Sister, I want to eat it now, please give it to me."

"Alright," Lih Qingshu said, agreeing straightforwardly without saying much else.

But before handing the fish to Cao De, she carefully scraped off the chili powder from one side and then gave it to Cao De.

Cao De received it, his face showing a hint of triumph. He knew his sister had a soft heart and couldn’t resist him when he acted like this.

Biting into it with satisfaction, it was the flavor he had been craving, so delicious he almost swallowed his own tongue.

He praised directly, "Crispy on the outside, tender on the inside, just as delicious as always. Sister, if only I could eat your grilled fish every day."

Lih Qingshu watched him eat and slowly started to eat another skewer of grilled fish herself. Hearing him say this, she stopped eating and looked at him seriously, "I’m afraid you can’t."

Cao De’s mood immediately darkened, and a helpless look appeared on his face. His sister was still the same, unwilling to lie to him or cajole him...

In fact, it wasn’t that his sister was unwilling to take him in, but rather, he couldn’t and dared not stay by her side.

If possible, he truly wished to spend his entire life by his sister’s side, going nowhere else.

But he couldn’t. With his crippled body, how could he stay at his sister’s side, and how could he dare to dream of having her?

He was like the muck in a marsh, filthy beyond measure, his hands stained with blood, accustomed to all the facades of human life. How could a person as pure as the breezes and the moon, like his sister, deign to associate with him? He couldn’t bear to tarnish her beauty.

Back when the political situation was unstable, he went down to the south and encountered an ambush. It was his sister who rescued him, caring for him for a while.

That time was the happiest of his life, the happiest since his biological mother’s death, when he once again felt the warmth and beauty of the world—all thanks to his sister.

Yet, those beautiful days were tragically short-lived. He had responsibilities to shoulder and had to leave. Upon his departure, he asked for an embroidered item from her as a keepsake.

Later, after returning to the Capital and helping Yuchi Zhao stabilize the political situation, he took his leave. The first thing he did was to seek revenge on his biological father from the Cao Family and his stepmother.

Would you believe it? He originally thought his mother had died of natural causes, but later discovered that wasn’t the case.

His wicked stepmother, despite being doted on by his father, was still unsatisfied and intent on ascending to a higher position. His mother, occupying the spot his stepmother coveted, became her primary target for elimination.

Eventually, his cruel stepmother succeeded, and his mother passed away, while his father turned out to be complicit.

And he himself didn’t end up well either, being sold into the palace as an orphan, left as a disabled person.

His "good" father, who doted on his concubine and destroyed his wife, truly deserved death a thousand times over.

I remember when he had that entire family caught and kneeling before him, feeling both icy coldness and satisfaction in his heart.

In his heart, he had long regarded his biological father as dead. Those kneeling in front of him were all his enemies.

With arms folded, he watched indifferently as his stepmother begged bitterly, pleading for the innocence of her young child and for the forgiveness of her son.

Tsk, tsk, it’s always when people suffer themselves that they know pain. When they plotted to have him enter the palace for castration and pushed him into the pit of fire, why didn’t she plead for the innocence of the child then?

He intended to make his "good" father and stepmother live a life worse than death; their Achilles’ heel was their only son, the sole heir of the Cao Mansion.

He had people castrate his "younger brother" right before their eyes, and from then on, the Cao Household line came to an end.

He was merely fighting tooth for tooth!

Compared to the pain he had suffered, struggling to survive in Asura Hell, afraid even to sleep deeply, their minor punishment was nothing at all.

Of course, how could he let them off so easily? The taste of pain his mother and he had endured was something these people, too, ought to experience.

With the help of Yuchi Zhao, he casually pinned a charge on this family for colluding with traitorous rebels and erased their entire existence from the Capital. From then on, the Capital had no Cao Household.

To outsiders, it seemed this family had transcended into the afterlife; only he knew he had caught them all to keep them under house arrest.

He wanted them to live well yet constantly live in fear, and to see their castrated son cry and scream day and night.

He even took it upon himself to introduce concubines to his dear father, telling him that with his good health, he could still father more sons—but the destiny of the Cao Family was to be cut off. He would castrate every single one that was born; as many as there were, so many would be castrated.

Enraged, his "good" father cursed him with vicious words day after day. Hahaha, it brought him extreme pleasure.

The saying goes, "Like father, like son." Oh his father, he could only blame his own poor sowing, no one else.

After doing all of this, he moved his mother’s grave from the Cao Family ancestral tomb without rest, setting it up for worship separately. He didn’t want his mother, even in death, to stay among the tainted Cao Family.

That’s the kind of person he was—an animal that did not refrain from eating its own offspring, an offspring that turned around to bite back.

Being so dark, and with such a filthy past, how could he bear to stain his elder sister’s purity?

After Lih Qingshu finished speaking, she concentrated on eating the fish, the temple quiet and still.

After eating for a while, she felt something was off; Xiao De seemed a bit too quiet, so she raised her eyes and looked over to see that Cao De’s mouth was tightly pursed, his complexion not looking good.

She called out somewhat concerned, "Xiao De?"

Cao De snapped back to reality, having been lost in memories, somewhat entranced.

Looking at his elder sister’s expressionless, serene face, he was able to discern a hint of worry within, warmth rising in his heart, as the gloom was dispelled by the person before him.

He smiled at her, "Elder sister, what’s the matter?"

Lih Qingshu stared at him for a while and said succinctly, "Eat the fish."

Xiao De in front of her was normal again, as if her earlier perception was but an illusion.

She knew Xiao De was not a simple person, but each individual has their own past and secrets, and there was nothing to inquire about there.

"Alright, eat the fish," Cao De expanded his smile; his elder sister was just so wonderful, worth protecting with his whole life.