My Mother Has a System but Won't Use It

Inside the tree that had been made into a dressing room, it was dark, but faint red candles hung beside a mirror set to the side, briefly illuminating Liyue's face as a woman stood behind her, gently combing her hair and making it with a golden ornament.

"To think Aunt Li Yao would walk again, it is news delightful on its own that I had yet to congratulate you. And to think the next time I end up seeing you, I would be marrying off is rather curious, too," the woman said with a smile, eliciting a nod from the seated bride.

"So, Liyue, who are you getting married to? Your cheap father didn't put you up with some miscreant, did he?"

Liyue was silent for a while before she nodded. "He did put me up with a miscreant."

Surprised, the woman gasped.

Liyue giggled.

"But the good sort of miscreant."

The woman was curious now. She brought her face in front of Liyue, filled with questions.

"Is he handsome?"

Liyue blushed.

"Very."

"You struck gold then, little girl, good for you." The woman sighed. "Of all the people I have cared for in recent marriages, you are the most fortunate for the past decade. Honestly, I half-expected another woman crying to me, saying she has no meaning in life."

Liyue was startled. "There are many like that?"

"Of course there are," she said, looking at her own reflection in the mirror. "In your Starlight Zone alone, I know many who had been married forcefully. Of course, not all of them were against it."

Liyue grew thoughtful and then nodded. "Indeed, I am lucky, but do you know what?"

The sapphire eyes of the woman shimmered. "What? Boasts about your love story now?"

"Yes," Liyue put on her lipstick, made from pomegranate, roses, and sappanwood. These were ground into powder and mixed with oil to put a blush on her lips. "Big Brother Han chose me from the start; my father didn't go to him, but he came to us saying he wanted me," Her voice was rather eloquent and proud, making Hua Feilan wonder behind her.

"You really like this man. Now I am quite curious."

Liyue looked in the mirror.

"I wonder what he will think of my clothes."

"You look splendid, to be honest. Even your mother will have to stand a step behind you in terms of appearances today. No jokes!"

Liyue looked at the woman with bright eyes. "Really?"

"Really."

They then once again began to prepare her for the show.

…

Han Li met the guests one by one like the humble village boy he was. He showed respect to the elders old of age while also keeping a small eye on the Evolved at all times.

Yue Li walked behind him with quick steps like a tail before she had to go away at a call in the back of the clearing—there was smoke rising from there alongside a nice fragrance.

"Hey, Han Li!" someone patted him on the shoulder after a while.

He looked calmly at the person. "Thank you for coming to the wedding. I appreciate it," he said.

"You don't seem like you appreciate it," Li Ming coughed awkwardly. "Well, she was someone I couldn't make happy, so I hope you don't let her down."

Han Li looked around at the forested area that seemed so calm and auspicious with a smile.

"But man, you should have conducted the ceremony in the clan area. It just doesn't feel like a wedding without red lanterns flying in the air and some beauties dancing. I could've given you money if you didn't have it, you know, we're buddies and all at heart after all."

Han Li threw him a sideglance.

The man blushed and coughed. "No need to look at me as if I am some mud on the ground. Friends, nothing more than that. I am an elite of the clan, you know?"

Han Li patted him on his shoulder. "Yes, we will be friends now. Protecting each other's interests even at the cost of death."

Li Ming felt as if his heart skipped a beat, and before he knew it, Han Li was gone and talking to another person in the distance with a humble smile; it was the old man from the library who handed out Magical Resources.

"Was that a joke…?" Full of confusion, Li Ming walked towards Han Li in a daze. "Eh… Han Li, you are cruel," He said to the accuser with a sigh. "But you are way more popular in the clan than I thought you were, even having Evolved come to your wedding. You really are amazing."

Han Li smirked. "Of course, they'd come. In fact, I am curious why the Clan Head himself didn't come."

"Oh?" Filled with curiosity, Li Ming asked, "So, are the rumors true? That you have a great backing behind you who is in hiding as of now and that you are respected secretly like a secret master of sorts and are just hiding your powers in the confusing mask of being a Spark-less?"

"You overestimate me," Han Li coolly replied. "It is just that the higher-ups want to know how my mother-in-law is walking and even cooking in the back while she was not supposed to."

He coldly smirked inside.

In fact, he had been anticipating the day for months now.

He had brought Li Yao outside on some occasions, especially the Awakening Ceremony before the last one. But other than basic rumors, nothing had happened until now.

But he knew it and was prepared. Honestly, he had expected Li Xingguang, the Head of the Starlights, to come here himself to interrogate him on 'friendly' terms, and he had cooked up an explanation, too.

With his Heart Qi, he didn't have to worry whether the Power Born would sense his hidden cultivation after all—as long as he didn't check him in-depth.

But it seems not to have picked the exalted Power Born's interest.

"So, Han Li," Li Ming pushed back his sleek black hair and said with pride, "No matter what, I see you as a friend, and a friend in need is a friend indeed. I booked some people to set up the hanging lights and such for the night. It will all be on me."

Han Li nodded. "It is about time," he muttered.

"For what?"

"Of course, for my beautiful bride to come out looking like a goddess descended to the mortal world. And you brat, go sit somewhere else, don't ruin my image. People will talk."

Li Ming was horrified and looked at Han Li with a pale face. "Han Li!"

Han Li's eyes twitched.

But suddenly, his gaze shifted towards the bridal room.

Red qipao adorned her curvy and goddess-like physique with net-like coverings on her hands, and her hair was tied with a golden ornament while her eyes were those like the night sky itself; with graze, she walked towards him, and he walked towards her.

Most of the venue was immediately dazed on the spot.

"Shan Liyue was… this beautiful?" Li Ming blurted out in a dumbfounded expression.

The graceful woman wore a veil but somehow, she seemed divine.

Yue Li and Li Yao walked back from the cooking area while speaking about something important as Han Li and Liyue stood face-to-face. Finally.

'I am not nervous, I am not nervous, this is not scary, not scary," she murmured quietly while trembling slightly, and Han Li heard it and smiled.

In the bottom of his heart, a fire blazed—

She looked up at him with round, somewhat teary eyes filled with nervousness as she moved with a fearful pace towards him.

—a fire of protectiveness.

This was his woman, Liyue. Rather headstrong, somewhat of an airhead who thinks all the time, a hard worker, a rather fearful girl.

He gently held her hand, and time seemed to have stopped there.

It was like a curtain of silence hung in the air.

"Junior, you dare!" an old man screamed with a face full of venom.

Han Li was stunned and looked behind him to see the old man from the library look towards the sky with a face that was drained of the old calmness he had seen so many times.

Taking the cane into the air, the old man vanished only to appear in the air above the forest.

Coldly, he gazed towards the city, and the people below in the forest looked at him in awe and disbelief. Even Han Li was looking at everything with a nervous frown.

The old man coldly snorted, and his appearance slowly shifted.

From the old and haggard nature of his body, he turned into a cold-looking young man in white clothes; his face radiated the energy of youth, and his long black hair flew in the wind.

At the same time, Han Li looked around him.

"It is the Clan Head," he muttered to his bride and, taking Liyue's hand, shouted coldly to the people around him, "Do not worry and forget what you just saw. It is the Clan Head who just had some emergency. The event continues!"

Han Li's gaze, full of hidden coldness, moved straight towards the Evolved, who all looked up at the sky and, one by one, transformed into starlight and then vanished.

The iron-masked woman said before vanishing, "Do not worry, we will take care no trouble reaches here whatever the issue was."

And after mumbling something—

Low-Level Magic Power: Movement of Starlight.

—She also vanished with a yellowish-white light in her wake.

Han Li's gaze shifted around for a bit before it came back to rest on Liyue. "Don't worry."

His worried glance then focused on Li Yao and Yue Li, who were staring around in nervousness.

"Everybody calm down!" Li Ming yelled from around them and said with a laugh, "As long as the Clan Head is here, what have we got to worry about!"

Han Li nodded, but deep down, he had a bad feeling.

This was not in the script.

Something had changed.

Again.

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