The heavy snowstorm dissipated, and the two little girls looked at Xue An with fear.

Xue An squatted down and said with a smile, "The two of you… what are your names?"

The two little girls looked at each other, and one of them said timidly, "I'm the older sister, Xue Xiang."

"I'm the younger one, Xue Nian."

Xue Xiang and Xue Nian!

Xue An felt an aching pang in his heart as he could imagine how much An Yan had pined for him.

"Uncle, where is the fat auntie?" Xue Xiang asked.

"Fat auntie… they had something going on, so they had to leave."

"So then, uncle, who are you?" Xue Nian asked.

"Right! Who am I?" Xue An was at quite a loss as he muttered to himself.

He was once a down-and-out youth, but he was also once a supreme immortal lord. Who was he going to be now?

After a moment, a big smile appeared on Xue An's face as he said, "I'm… your dad!"

"You're lying!" Xue Xiang said.

"Yes, you're lying. Actually, Papa passed away!" Xue Xiang echoed.

Xue An looked at his twin daughters and felt an immense tenderness welling up in his heart all of a sudden.

"Papa isn't dead. Earlier on, Papa left for a faraway place. Now, Papa has come back!"

"Really?" Xue Xiang looked at Xue An with some hesitation.

Xue An had a sudden idea and took out a ring.

This was the couple ring that he had bought years before. Both he and An Yan had one!

"Xiangxiang, Niannian, look at this ring! On this ring, you can see Papa and Mama's names!"

Xue Xiang and Xue Nian obviously didn't know how to read, but Auntie Xuan'er had once told them that when Mama left, she had left them her ring.

Xue Xiang always carried the ring with her wherever she went, so she took it out and compared the two. Sure enough, they made a pair!

"Papa, it's really you, right?!" Xue Xiang and Xue Nian said in unison.

Xue An laughed and nodded, then stretched and opened his arms to them.

Xue Xiang and Xue Nian looked at each other. With tears rolling down their faces, they cried and rushed into Xue An's embrace.

"Papa, we missed you so much!"

"Papa, we thought you and Mama would never come back again. We thought that neither of you wanted us anymore!"

Their tears wet Xue An's chest and also brought tears into his eyes.

For three thousand years, the immortal lord, who had never shed a single tear no matter how bitter and difficult times were, had tears all over his face at that moment.

"Alright, alright. No more crying, no more crying! Papa is back. Papa is never going to leave you two again!"

"Yes, yes!" The two sisters both snuggled their little heads into Xue An's arms and simply refused to get up.

That was it!

Over the past few years, this pair of twin sisters had tasted all the suffering in the world. After great difficulty, they had finally found a warm embrace. Naturally, they were unwilling to leave.

Xue An gently stroked their hair and said tenderly, "How come you girls were out selling flowers?"

Xue Xiang looked up and said, "Because we should be going to kindergarten soon! But school fees are a big problem, so I came out on the streets with Niannian to sell flowers so that we could earn our school fees!"

Xue An almost cried again when he heard what Xue Xiang said.

She was just a four-year-old child, and yet so early in her life, she had to bear the burden of living and be so sensitive and precocious. Hearing this was simply heart wrenching.

Xue An stroked Xue Xiang's little head. With a smile, he said softly, "From now on, you have Papa. You don't need to concern yourself with anything else. I'll make you girls the happiest princesses in the whole wide world—no, in the whole universe!"

At the gates of a remote and dilapidated district in Beijiang, Xue Xiang and Xue Nian each held one of Xue An's hands as they walked inside excitedly.

Xue An looked at the familiar scene of his surroundings with mixed emotions in his heart.

This was the place where he and An Yan had lived together for two years.

When he arrived before the door that he had once been so familiar with, it opened even before he could knock.

A pretty and lively figure standing in front of the door with a smile on her face was saying, "Xiangxiang, Niannian, take a look at what Auntie Xuan'er brought you!"

The moment she saw Xue An, she froze in shock.

"Xue… Xue An?"

Xue An looked at this familiar face and thought for a moment before realization suddenly dawned on him.

"Tang Xuan'er?"

At this point in time, Xue Xiang and Xuan Nian were swinging Xue An's hands in high spirits as they said, "Auntie Xuan'er, Papa is back!"

Tang Xuan'er went a little pale in the face. Then almost immediately, a hint of anger surfaced.

"Xue An, where have you been the last four years?"

Xue An flashed a bitter smile, then asked, "Let me come in first, will you?"

"Auntie Xuan'er, don't blame Papa. Papa went to a faraway place. He even said that he would never, ever leave us again!" Xue Xiang said.

When Tang Xuan'er and Xue An had settled down on the sofa in the living room, Xue An briefly learned about what had happened over the past four years.

Back when he had just disappeared, due to a mixture of shock and anger, An Yan delivered her babies prematurely by about half a month. As a result, after giving birth, she lost a lot of blood and nearly died on the operating table.

As An Yan and Xue An's classmate and friend, Tang Xuan'er painstakingly took care of An Yan.

But on the very day that An Yan named her two children, a throng of intruders charged their way into the hospital and took An Yan away by force.

It was only later on that Tang Xuan'er learned that those people had been sent by the An family of the Middle Capital. There had been no news whatsoever about An Yan ever since then.

Xiangxiang and Niannian, who were left behind, practically became true orphans.

Originally, Tang Xuan'er could have chosen to send them to a welfare center, but Tang Xuan'er didn't do so. Instead, she assumed the responsibility of raising two children with the status of an unmarried lady.

After Xue An heard about everything, he looked at Tang Xuan'er's face, which was thin due to tiredness, and an immense sense of guilt surged up his heart.

"Xuan'er… it's been hard for you!"

Tang Xuan'er looked at the pair of sisters, who were watching television in the living room, and said softly, "Actually… I quite adore those two children!"

"Tell me, where have you been these four years?"

Xue An sighed and said, "There are so many things to say, but there's no way I can say much. However, I can tell you this. Now, I'm back and never going to leave again!"

Tang Xuan'er looked at Xue An. After a while, she nodded and said, "I hope what you've just said is really true!"

"Have you eaten?" Tang Xang'er asked.

"Not yet! Why don't we go out to eat?!" Xue An said.

"You're now the father of two children. Save money when you can! I'll go and cook dinner!" Tang Xuan'er stood up and went to the kitchen.

Soon, the fragrance of food was spreading around the house.

Xue Xiang and Xue Nian were like two greedy little kittens, coming out at the smell of the food.

"It's egg fried rice!"

"No, it's tomato fried rice!"

The two girls were arguing, but they were already on the verge of salivating.

Xue An looked at the scene before him and felt a long-lost warmth welling up in his heart.

"Papa, Auntie Xuan'er's fried rice is very, very delicious!" Xue Xiang said.

"Is it? Then besides fried rice, what else do you two little greedy kittens like?"

"We like hamburgers, and we like ice cream!" The two little girls shouted out different things at the same time.

"Very well. Tomorrow, Papa shall take you out to eat!"

"Really?"

"Of course. First, we'll go to eat hamburgers, then we'll have ice cream! Then, we'll go to the amusement park!"

"Long live Papa!" The two little girls cheered in high spirits.

When the food was laid out on the dinner table, Xue An took a bite. It had been so long since he tasted something like this. Xue An, who had grown so used to eating rare delicacies like dragon's liver and the essence of a phoenix, suddenly realized what the taste of home was like.

After they had eaten and drank their fill, Tang Xuan'er cleared the table and dishes and stood up to leave.

Xue An went downstairs with her to send her off. Then suddenly, he said, "Thank you!"

In the dark, Tang Xuan'er felt a tremble through her entire being. Then softly, she replied, "What's there to thank me for?! When do you intend to go find An Yan and bring her back?"

Xue An raised his head to look up at the sky, then said quite apathetically, "There's no rush for now. I'm not ready yet. Sooner or later, the day will come when I make the An family crawl and grovel on the ground at my feet, begging me for forgiveness. Then I will bring An Yan back."

Tang Xuan'er looked at Xue An's face from the side with mixed feelings in her heart.

Through these four years, his once apprehensive and tender youth had undergone a transformation. He had become an imposing figure with a composed demeanor.

Tang Xuan'er had seen an extremely small number of people with the kind of aura that he exuded, and those people were all the cream of the crop, the elites of the elites.

Over these four years… what exactly had he been through?!

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