Villains Act Shamelessly: The Heiress was the Great National Master!

Chapter 364: The Reason for Unwillingness to Return 1

"I’d like to buy a pancake."

An aged and gentle voice, tinged with an indefinable stiffness.

But it was in Chinese.

Merva raised her head, momentarily stunned upon seeing the old man.

Then, she smiled, deftly beginning to prepare the pancake for the old man, her voice gentle as she spoke in English, "Do you have any dietary restrictions?"

Old Master Rhodes, having spent his entire life in the military, had neither learned nor wanted to learn English.

Yvette Rhodes was just about to translate for her grandfather when Old Master Rhodes had already glared at Merva, "You’re a foreigner now, can’t you speak Chinese anymore?"

The remark carried his usual sternness.

Yvette carefully glanced at her grandfather, then looked towards her aunt.

Merva paused, and after a long moment, she smiled, seemingly a bit helpless, and spoke in Chinese, "It’s been so many years, and you’re still unwilling to change your temper?"

Yvette said, "Grandpa is just like that..."

No sooner had she spoken, she and Franklin were simultaneously stunned.

For they saw that General Rhodes, who was always so stern and stoic, now had tears welling up in his eyes.

The old man, as if having gone through a long period of contemplation, finally found his voice again and said, "Why didn’t you return all these years? Your mother was thinking of you until her dying day, and you were so heartless not to even see her one last time!"

Merva finally stopped the movement of making pancakes.

After what seemed an indescribable amount of time, Merva thought her life would just go on like this, with no one ever finding her.

She never expected that her father would still find her.

Her past indignation and grievances had been worn away by the river of time, yet in this moment, she still calmly uttered the reason she had agonized over for decades: "Because I hated you all."

Old Master Rhodes widened his eyes and gaped, as if he hadn’t expected to eventually hear this reason.

In an instant, he lost all his strength, falling backward under the shocked gaze of Franklin and Yvette.

-

Luna Rhodes grew up in a military family.

But in that era of turmoil, being in a military family meant bearing more responsibilities.

Back then, her family was still very poor.

All Luna remembered was that her father was the strictest in the compound.

She had two brothers, whom her father wanted to enlist in the army, but they didn’t want to.

Old Master Rhodes then placed his hopes on his youngest daughter.

In truth, Luna didn’t like it either.

Perhaps, she didn’t have any grand ambitions; all she longed for in life was a warm and peaceful existence.

What she wished for most was for her mother to hold her in her arms and soothe her gently, just like she did with her brothers.

But she couldn’t get that.

Her father never held her, and her mother rarely did; even when she did, it was always accompanied by, "You need to understand your father."

She underwent the strictest education and the strictest corporal punishment.

From a few years old, she would be punished to stand for extra hours under the scorching sun just for not standing in soldier pose correctly.

Meanwhile, her brothers only had to stand obediently, eating ice cream she never got to taste, watching her with eyes full of schadenfreude.

Even when she was nearly fainting.

Other uncles and aunts in the compound would scold her father, calling him too harsh, and he would always say, "That’s how soldiers turn out."

An uncle scolded him, "But we’re all adults here, she’s just a child, Old Man Rhodes, have you gone mad?"

She thought it didn’t matter if her father was mad, as long as she could get her parents’ approval.