Transmigration; Married to My Ex-Fiancé's Uncle-Chapter 305; Celestial Family

She was someone who could stare down the Sea King himself without flinching.

Someone who could make even her own father hesitate at the threshold of her domain.

The sitting room had become a frozen tableau of tension, father and daughter locked in a silent standoff, one desperate to reconnect, the other absolutely determined to keep every wall firmly in place.

And caught in the middle was Lu Yuze, the mortal husband who somehow held the only thread of control over a celestial princess that even her own family couldn’t grasp.

Long Tian’s hand, which had been rising to reach toward his daughter, slowly lowered back to his side.

The joy that had lit his face moments ago was rapidly being replaced by confusion, hurt, and dawning devastation.

"Daughter," he said quietly, his voice carrying none of its earlier authority, just the raw pain of a father facing rejection he didn’t understand.

"I’ve been searching for you for five years."

"Every single day."

"When your mother disappeared yesterday, I knew, I knew she’d gone to find you."

"I had to come."

"I had to see for myself that you were safe."

"Well, as you can see, I’m perfectly safe."

Shuyin’s voice was flat, emotionless, devoid of anything resembling warmth.

"Now you can leave."

The dismissal was brutal in its simplicity.

Long Tian flinched as if she’d struck him physically.

Behind him, the four brothers exchanged uncomfortable glances, clearly uncertain how to navigate this hostile reunion.

"Kailani, please...." the youngest brother started, his voice tentative and hopeful.

"Don’t call me that," Shuyin interrupted without even looking at him.

Her eyes remained fixed on her father, cold and unyielding as winter ice.

"That’s not my name anymore."

"Then what should we call you?" Long Tian asked, desperation beginning to crack through his carefully maintained composure.

"What name does my daughter go by now, since she’s apparently decided to erase her entire identity?"

"Lin Shuyin," she said flatly.

"That’s the name on my marriage certificate."

"That’s the name my children use."

"That’s who I am now."

"You can’t just...." Long Tian’s voice rose slightly before he caught himself, forcing it back down with visible effort.

"You can’t just erase centuries of your life."

"Erase your family, your heritage, everything you are."

"Watch me," Shuyin said coldly.

Long Mingyue had remained sitting throughout this exchange, one hand pressed to her chest as if physically holding her broken heart together.

"Kailani/Shuyin, inplease, your father has done nothing but worry about you."

"We all have."

"Can’t you at least tell us why you left?"

"Why did you disappear without a word?"

"Because I wanted to," Shuyin said simply.

"That should be reason enough."

"It’s not!"

Long Tian’s control finally fractured, emotion flooding his voice like a dam breaking.

"You’re my daughter!"

"You don’t just vanish for five years without explanation!"

"You don’t cut off all contact, refuse to respond to any attempts to reach you, make your entire family believe you might be dead or captured or suffering somewhere we couldn’t reach!"

He stopped abruptly, his hands clenching into fists at his sides as he fought for composure, his knuckles going white with the force of it.

"Do you have any idea what it’s been like?" he asked, his voice dropping to something raw and broken, stripped of all pretense.

"Not knowing if you were alive?"

"Not knowing if you needed help?"

"Your mother has been slowly dying, yes, dying, from grief and worry over you."

"And you sit there acting as if we’re the enemy for daring to care?"

"Mother was dying because someone poisoned her," Shuyin said coolly, refusing to accept any guilt.

"Not because of grief."

"The poison made it worse, but the grief started it!"

Long Tian shot back, his voice rising again.

"She’s been fading for five years, Kailani."

"Five years of believing her daughter might never come home."

"Five years of slowly giving up hope, of watching the light die in her eyes day by day."

"And yes, someone took advantage of that weakness to poison her, which is another reason I need you to come home where we can protect you!"

"Where we can keep you safe!"

"I don’t need your protection," Shuyin said, her voice like ice cracking under pressure. "If you can’t protect the woman you claim to love, how can you protect me..."

"I’ve been perfectly fine on my own."

"Have you?"

Long Tian’s eyes swept over her, taking in everything, the defensive posture, the barely contained rage simmering beneath her controlled surface, the walls built so high and thick that even her own family couldn’t scale them.

"You look fine physically, I’ll grant you that."

"But this?"

He gestured at her, at the frozen room around them, at the hostility radiating from her like cold fire.

"This isn’t fine."

"This isn’t healthy."

"This is someone who’s been hurt so badly they can’t even let their own family close anymore."

Something flickered across Shuyin’s face, too quick to read clearly, but unmistakably painful.

A crack in the armor, quickly sealed.

"You don’t know anything about me," she said quietly, and somehow that quiet tone was more dangerous than any shout.

"Then tell me!"

Long Tian’s voice cracked with raw desperation.

"Tell me what happened!"

"Tell me what I did to lose you!"

"Because I’ve searched my memory, searched my conscience, trying to understand when I became your enemy."

"Was it the incident when you were six?"

"The setup with that court woman?"

He took a step forward, despite Long Chen’s restraining hand on his arm.

"But that was proven to be a scheme!"

"The conspirators confessed before their executions."

"Your mother investigated personally and found all the evidence."

"I was drugged, manipulated by my enemies."

"I never betrayed your mother, not willingly, not ever!"

"I don’t want to talk about that," Shuyin said flatly, her hand inching closer to the coffee cup.

"Then what do you want to talk about?" Long Tian demanded, frustration and pain warring in his voice.