Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)

Basically, taking anything Zhengui says as "truth" is problematic because he's basically wrong about everything. He claims, for instance, that LQ is too protective of him - yet prior to the event, the issue was actually Ling Qi leaving him behind to hold places because she trusted that he could manage them on his own. Her issue with actually working well with him in combat is more broadly just a facet of her being generally bad at working with people weaker than her - especially if they're slower than her and she wants to use her mobility. This is something that she's been working on in her training with Wang Chao, and how she's changed up her combat approach (though we could still do with more support and teamwork Arts).

My read is that more broadly, Zhengui never liked mommy leaving him alone - and is too young to really understand it as an expression of trust in his abilities. He was also kinda traumatised by LQ almost getting killed, especially after her sending him off away from here. So he doesn't want that to happen again. Simultaneously, he's getting bigger and wants to prove himself - and his big thing is being tough so him going "let me take the hits (so you don't)" makes sense, as does him lashing out against LQ's dislike of him getting hurt by seeing it as a lack of trust in his abilities.

Overall though, I think history shows that LQ, even though she doesn't want him to get hurt, has a well calibrated sense of what his abilities are and what situations and risks it makes sense to apply him to. She uses him thoughtfully and appropriately, and is fine with him getting hurt when its needed and she thinks he can handle it (e.g. her throwing him at Chu's bear back in the tournament) (as we have noted, ironically, Hanyi is someone we're much more worried about because she's so squishy, and so we have to babysit her).

It should also be noted that none of that really has anything to do with the other concerns we've raised about Zhengui's relation to LQ's cultivation, or for that matter the emotional drama with their relationship. Zhengui relates all of them, but as far as LQ's feelings go (e.g. her hangups around motherhood etc.) they don't really seem related to how she uses Zhengui - except ofc that now she's responding to Zhengui relating them. Zhengui accusing her of not trusting him and being selfish is also kind of throwing her off I think, since she never really thought about it that way? Like, she was absolutely protective of him as a baby - but she also never really shied away from letting him fight once he was bigger. She also never really thought about it in terms of trusting his abilities - she just applied him as appropriate. So she's a bit confused by the whole situation and doesn't really know how to respond since the framing's wrong. And simultaneously she's getting distracted from addressing that by instead bringing up her mother issues. And for all the "selfish" argument isn't necessarily a wrong response to her actions in the nomad attack - it was also only a single incident that doesn't describe the totality of her actions.

anyway tldr; don't just accept Zhengui's (or indeed anyone else's) framing of the situation. They aren't Ling Qi and don't necessarily describe either her feelings or her actions accurately.