Chapter 5 Chapter 5 Her life is so far from the Regent…

As soon as these words came out, the man who had asked the question initially looked towards Wanghe Tower with sudden realization, only to see the slender figure of a woman climbing the stairs. “It seems that the Qin family girl is quite low-key.”

Biezhi glanced at the man who had spoken, and after glancing up and down for a moment, he engraved his appearance in his heart.

The man’s words and deeds seemed unpredictable, but after thinking about it, they seemed too strange.

Who in the world doesn’t know that there is only one prince in the Li Dynasty, His Royal Highness Prince Su.

Biezhi heard that when the late emperor was alive, the foreign relatives interfered in politics seriously. After the late emperor passed away, the young emperor was recommended to the throne by the foreign relatives. His Royal Highness Prince Su, who was sent to the border to comfort the soldiers, immediately returned to the capital.

Prince Su acted with swift and decisive action. Within six months, all the disloyal relatives were imprisoned. The prisons wailed, blood stained the stone slabs red, a stain that even water could not wash away. The young empress dowager was in constant fear, and within two weeks, news of his death spread.

With the relatives eliminated, the ministers recommended Prince Su to ascend the throne, but he unexpectedly declined.

The young emperor was only five years old at the time, and the ministers naturally did not expect him to make a decision. Instead, they petitioned Prince Su, using his imperial edict as a signature. Thus, Prince Su became the official regent, a position that has endured for five years.

This intensified public attention on Prince Su, especially his childhood sweetheart, Qin Wan. Rumors circulated that the two were in love and had already secretly engaged, but for unknown reasons, the marriage had yet to take place.

Speculation swirled about their wedding date, and even black market casinos employed dealers to manipulate the situation to attract bets.

The man in front of her actually knew nothing about this.

Even so, Biezhi hadn't thought about what to do. These were not her concerns.

Her life was too far away from Prince Su.

Although they were both in the capital, Biezhi had no contact with such a big shot except for hearing a little about him.

She calmly withdrew her gaze and said, "My senior brother's cooking skills are very good. You are in for a treat."

"Miss, you have been waiting for a long time." The waiter came hurriedly with a kitchen box and handed it to her with a smile.

Before Biezhi could reach out her hand, she saw Ji Ran had already taken the kitchen box from the waiter. She raised her eyelids and glanced at him. Suddenly, she felt much better.

She always kept Wang Chuan's instructions in mind, took Ji Ran's wrist and led him back.

What Biezhi didn't know was that they were about to leave Wanghe Tower a hundred steps away when the man was taken away by the Dali Temple guards who suddenly appeared. The noisy sound of stringed instruments drowned out the exclamations that came one after another.

Yueheyuan lies six long streets away from Wanghe Tower. After winding through a deep bamboo garden, they found themselves at the edge of a row of courtyards, where smoke curled from chimneys. After climbing a hundred steps, they finally reached the courtyard's gate. Even before entering, they could hear the clamor of voices from within.

Biezhi released Jiran's wrist and stepped forward, knocking four times.

Fu Huaiqing lowered his eyes slightly, the burning sensation on his wrist gradually dissipating, returning to normal. His gaze followed her fingertips.

The clamor within quieted for a moment, then returned to normal. A man's crisp, clear voice pierced through the crack in the door: "I told you she couldn't recite it, but she'd be there if she did."

The door was pulled open from the inside.

"Junior sister—" the man paused for a moment, his eyes glancing past her figure to the man behind him. "Is he the deaf person Fu Yi mentioned?"

The Fu Yi the man was referring to was Fang Tingzhi. Fu Yi was her pseudonym, the way most of her fellow disciples addressed her.

"What do you mean deaf? He has his own name." Biezhi slapped away Senior Brother Mingzhe's tentative hand, then naturally took Jiran's hand and introduced him to him, "His name is Jiran."

"Okay, okay, I'm being unreasonable." Mingzhe knew immediately that his junior sister was angry. After coaxing her, he looked up at Jiran and said, "Seeing is believing. He is indeed handsome."

"Of course, I have high standards." Biezhi raised an eyebrow proudly. If she could, she would have taken Jiran everywhere.

A man's looks, a woman's pride.

She glanced inside a few times, puzzled, "Why is Master not here?"

"Master was supposed to come, but was called away by the master at the last minute." Mingzhe made way for Biezhi. "Qingshan came in a hurry, it seems like he has something important to do." Biezhi

pouted and glanced at the man beside her.

Fu Huaiqing, who pretended to be deaf, raised his eyebrows slightly.

"I was thinking of taking you to see the master, to see if he knew any miracle healers who could see you." Bie Zhi sighed. If that were possible, Ji Ran would also be reborn. "Never mind, let's talk about it next time—"

"Junior sister,"

Bie Zhi's words were interrupted by the man's voice.

Fu Huaiqing clearly saw her round, almond-shaped eyes suddenly light up, surprise and endless joy overflowing from the depths of her clear pupils.

She turned her head and looked, then ran to the man behind her without hesitation. "When did Senior Brother come back?"

"Yesterday." The man's smile deepened, and he raised his hand to ruffle her hair affectionately. "He seems to have grown a lot taller than he was six months ago."

"Senior Brother always likes to tease me about my height." Bie Zhi tilted her head to avoid his palm, turned back and waved at Ji Ran. "He's the Ji Ran I mentioned before."

Fu Huaiqing's eyes passed Bie Zhi and fell to the man.

As their eyes met, the man's wariness was palpable. Fu Huaiqing nodded subtly with the tip of her finger, clutching the food box, and calmly walked toward Biezhi, allowing the man to examine her.

Biezhi, unconcerned about whether Jiran could hear or not, addressed him, "My dear senior brother, Jingqing."

Although she was currently affiliated with Qingyin Pavilion and Jingqing with Youxu Pavilion, they had both joined Xianyun Tower on the same day and had been personally trained by Master Lingfeng before their respective affiliations were finalized. Their martial arts were both taught by their master, making Jingqing more of a close senior brother than, say, Senior Brother Mingzhe, also in Qingyin Pavilion.

Jingqing lowered his gaze and extended his hand, "I heard Biezhi mention you earlier."

Fu Huaiqing paused, his gaze fixed on the man's large palm for a moment. He glanced at the woman, whose expression was filled with joy. Under her gaze, he gently extended his hand and touched Jingqing's fist.

The moment their fists touched, Biezhi's eyes curled up slightly.

She took the food box from Jiran's hand and handed it to her senior brother, "We went to Wanghelou to buy the pork elbow specially."

Jingqing's eyebrows twitched at this, and he turned sideways to reveal a table filled with food. In the center of the table, there happened to be a delicious pork elbow. "I guessed you'd like to eat it, so I bought it early."

"That's a coincidence!" Biezhi smiled, her eyes trembling, and she took Jiran's hand. "Come on, I'll take you to taste Senior Brother Mingzhe's cooking."

Seeing this, Jingqing paused slightly, her eyes falling on her junior sister's hand holding the man's. The moment her eyes focused, Jiran's palm gradually closed, and his lightly calloused fingertips slowly rested on the back of the white hand.

He raised his head.

Ji Ran's lips curled slightly with a smile, his eyes quietly following Bie Zhi's figure. The moment the tall figure passed by, his eyes shifted slightly, and the smile in his eyes deepened a little more than before.

Jing Qing frowned slightly when he noticed his gaze.

Bie Zhi led Ji Ran over, greeting each of his senior brothers and sisters one by one, and then found a seat at random.

After sitting down, she looked around but couldn't see Fang Tingzhi.

Mingzhe, who came out with the stir-fried dishes, didn't even ask, saying, "Your brother is in the kitchen and will be here soon."

"Tingzhi hasn't come yet?" Biezhi hadn't planned to look for her brother, but Fang Tingzhi hadn't been seen for a long time.

"He came early," said the sister sitting across from Biezhi. "As soon as he arrived, he went to steal fruit from the house across the street. We couldn't stop him."

"Nonsense! I took our family's things, how can that be considered stealing?" Fang Tingzhi came in carrying a full basket and a bowl of Eight Treasure Soup. "My mother heard about our gathering and asked me to bring it to her."

Everyone stepped forward to take the food from Fang Tingzhi. One of them asked, "Why don't you come over, Master and his wife?"

"They said they don't want to bother us youngsters." Fang Tingzhi shook her sore arm, glanced meaningfully at the man next to Biezhi, and walked over to sit down beside her. "You really brought him here?"

"Why not?" Biezhi wondered.

Fang Tingzhi shook her head, and caught a glimpse of her senior brother coming out of the kitchen, and said, "I only found out that Senior Brother Jingqing is back after I got here. The higher-ups have arranged for him to go out for more than half a year, right?"

Biezhi counted on his fingers and said, "One more day and it will be seven months."

Fang Tingzhi sighed, "This is the first time I've seen someone on a mission for so long. None of my spies have been out for so long." "

Who knows." A cup of tea suddenly appeared in front of Biezhi's eyes. She recognized who it was at a glance when her fingertips landed on the cup. After taking the cup from Jiran, she muttered, "Our King of Hell is sometimes sunny and sometimes cloudy. It's impossible to guess what he's thinking."

"Ah--" Fang Tingzhi sighed and lowered his head, "Who said it wasn't? I haven't received any missions for three months. I've seen my senior brothers and sisters go out one by one, and even my junior brothers and sisters who came to the mountain retreat later than me have received so many missions, but I don't have a single one!" "

It's all pure silver." Biezhi heard her say that and thought of the task of ten thousand taels of silver. He couldn't help but slap the table and whispered, "If he didn't want me to do it, why would he use money to tempt me, evil ghost!"

The ripples on the table caused the tea in the teacup to stir up waves.

Fu Huaiqing picked up the teacup, blew away the tea foam on the top of the tea and took a sip. He listened to them talking calmly, his eyes not changing at all, as if the evil ghost Biezhi mentioned had nothing to do with him.

"Is he testing me?" Fang Tingzhi thought about it and it seemed that he could really explain it. His eyes rolled around, "Doesn't your adopted child expire in four months?"

Biezhi: "..."

Her adopted child was indeed due to expire in four months.

"It's over. I won't be on his death list, will I?" Biezhi was stunned. But this was truly immoral. "I'm a poor soul. He's tempting me with ten thousand taels of silver. How can I resist?"

What poor soul could resist the temptation of ten thousand taels of silver?

She couldn't bear it.

"Don't worry," Fang Tingzhi patted her shoulder, soothing her. "Just sign a five-year contract with him, and the problem will be solved."

"Indeed." Biezhi was young and hadn't yet considered leaving Xianyun Tower for seclusion. "I haven't even saved enough for my retirement yet. I—" "

Knock, knock, knock."

A sudden knock on the door interrupted the conversation.

Three knocks.

It was commonplace, but a taboo within Xianyun Tower.

Biezhi and Fang Tingzhi's expressions froze. Their fingers slowly loosened from their teacups. The palms of the brothers and sisters sitting across from them had already settled on the hilts of their swords.

Soon, a faint sound came from outside the door, followed by the man's indifferent voice.

"Qin Xiao from Dali Temple, I'm here to buy some information."