At some food stall in the busiest marketplace of Nancheng, a group of men gathered together to gossip. Some curious, some joining in the fun and some just trying to muddle the waters.

“Did you hear about Young Master Song’s rumoured fiancée’s in town?”

“Which Young Master Song?”

“Which do you think? The only Young Master Song the single ladies in the country are clamouring to get married to…”

“He has one?”

“And aren’t you slow on the news? Those ladies are causing so much havoc earlier.”

“Hahaha, they must be devastated. How much fortune does one need to marry into a good family.” 

“So, what did they do?”

“Busy knocking on the side entrance of the Song Residence, shouting to see the fiancée of his.”

“What? Crazy… The Song Family didn’t say anything?”

“They tried but who could win against a group of emotionally high women?”

“...not just women. I heard some scholars joined…”

“What’s even crazier was they almost barged into the palace to ask for the King’s word to dissolve their engagement…”

“Are they not afraid of offending the King…? I don’t understand them.”

“They got their wish and saw the fiancée of Young Master Song, couldn’t be more obedient after that!”

“Hahahaha! Was his fiancée even simple if they managed to get hitched with the Song Family? What a bunch of fools!”

“They did not get frightened by her. They were freaking mesmerized!!!”

“What the hell does that even mean?”

“They changed their mind and wanted to marry the Young Lady instead!!!!”

“What?????!!!”

“Did you get to her? What’s the fuss all about?”

“Not yet, they were green with envy. With both of them.”

“They’re just a small minister family, no need for the racket…”

“Well, Young Master Song is a close friend of the King…”

“What good is that if not having more enemies? You do remember how our King got the throne? Those greedy ministers wouldn’t spare a chance to pull him down alright? Certainly not a good choice of marriage if you ask me. Those other young masters in the Song Family sided with the Princes from the previous reign all right?”

“They must be pissed as hell.”

“But they don’t really care about that. The young master is good looking and rich, that’s all that matters to them.”

“Hey, you can’t be saying these things. What if someone hears you? You want to stay single forever?”

“What can’t I say? Young Master Song is such an upright individual, he must be blind if he chose one of those who only cares about appearances.”

“So, the young lady’s beauty shut them up? I heard something about a beauty appearing at the gates today… If the guards haven’t finished their checking, there might be a crowd there.”

“She’s pretty but I think the beauty people were talking about was her brother…?”

“You saw her?”

“If she’s pretty, why would they want to marry her? And not that brother of hers?”

“Probably because she was from a prominent sect?”

“That and well, that brother of hers… someone said he was surnamed Xi…”

“...”

“...”

“Don’t tell me it’s Lord YongAn’s lover?”

“Lord YongAn’s lover? The one that caused wars to break out just by their appearance?”

“Impossible! Beauty Xi has no siblings!”

“If that’s really him, I want to see him ah~”

“Beauty Xi doesn’t but doesn’t Lord YongAn have?”

“Whether she is from the Xu Family or the Shi Country, it brings great interest to the Song Family doesn’t it? They can finally rise from their tiny minister position…”

“Young Master Song has nothing to lose, eh? Blindly picking up a treasure, heh. How envious.”

“He would be a fool to choose some commoner lady over her then?”

“Young Master Song and the old patriarch aren’t ones to judge people’s backgrounds…”

“Who knows what actually goes through the minds of noblemen. Just because they appear nice, doesn’t mean it’s the same inside. Waters usually run deep in the capital, after all.”

“By the way, this relative of Lord YongAn… what’s her name?”   

“With her background, there’s nowhere she’s just a run of the mill nobody.”

“Right, they called her——”

The sound of the door being knocked at brought Xu Ningyan back to his senses. A servant opened the door from the outside after announcing the visitors’ identities. It was Young Master Song and Madame Song. A woman who bore a striking resemblance to Song Wenyue approached. This must be his mother. She quickly stood up and bowed respectfully at them. 

He returned his greetings and noticed the broken teacup. “You’re hurt.” Madame Song rushed to his side and took his hand, inspecting his injuries. 

“Servants, quickly. Why are our wares easily broken quickly? Quickly call for the doctor and change a new set for the young lady.” 

The servants following them quickly went out to call for the doctor.

“No, it’s my fault for not being careful. I broke the teacup, let me pay for it.” Xu Ningyan squinted at the broken pieces of the teacup. They did not look cheap at all!  

“No, how would you be able to break it if the quality is good? Does it hurt? Poor child, it looks painful. Please bear with it while we wait for the doctor to come.” 

Madame Song’s voice was laced with concern as Xu Ningyan's injured hand was still in her hands.  

“It’s fine, you don’t have to bother, it's just a small wound. It doesn’t hurt at all. I was just a little careless.” He wanted to pull away but it seemed rude to do so so he let it be.  

Song Wenyue watched her expressions carefully. It did seem like he did not even realise that he hurt himself earlier and his expression was really calm and controlled. Rims of his eyes were slightly red. Was he really fine or was he just pretending to be so? Or did something happen? 

It did seem like it was his place to ask so he kept quiet. For starters, he did not want to have anything to do with him. The elders seemed to be intending to tie them together.  

She looked like she had a bright future ahead, why would he tie her down to someone like himself?  

“Mother, she must be tired from her journey here. Let her rest for today, the servants will bring her dinner here.” Considering how his mother was really excited to see Xu Ningyan, and how he had just gotten here, before his mother bombarded him with all sorts of questions and accidentally poked into something private, he quickly spoke up with the very intention to take his mother away.    

The madame’s face flushed as she quickly spoke up, “I must seem too hasty. I’m just a little too excited to meet her. You know your mother always wanted a daughter right? After the doctor has attended to you please rest well. Join me for breakfast tomorrow?” She looked at Xu Ningyan with expectant eyes and seeing how he could not turn her down, he could only agree. 

“Mother…” Song Wenyue could not help but sigh inwardly.

“Thank you, Madam Song. I would love to join you for breakfast tomorrow.” 

“Come on now Mother, you can see her tomorrow.” 

“I know. I’ll see you tomorrow, Yanyan.” Even though she wanted to stay longer, she did not want to come off too strong and scare the girl off. Taking her son’s hand, who seemed a little impatient to get her out of there, she took her leave, looking back at Xu Ningyan every moment she got.  

Perhaps, it was because she reminded her of someone that she took an instant liking to Xu Ningyan. Madame Song, her entire life, had met all sorts of women—the innocent, the scheming, all sorts. The lady her son was infatuated with was nice, humble and down-to-earth and she liked her a lot too. 

But seeing Song Wenyue and Xu Ningyan, she could not help but feel like seeing a familiar scenery. It gave off a natural feeling like they were born to be standing next to each other like this. 

Was this what people called seeing the red string of fate? 

Of course, that was just something she made up.  

It was just that she felt like she would be wronging them if she could not bring them together. 

Looking at their backs, Xu Ningyan could only blink when Song Wenyue turned and threw a small bottle at him. He nodded apologetically at him and left with his mother.  

Yanyan? Was her name not something Yongning?

Xu Ningyan stared at their backs before looking away. He was a little uncomfortable with Madame Song’s friendliness but still he smiled amiably at her. Her concern did not seem like it was made up but perhaps it was exactly so that he was not sure how to act around her.  

She even called him familiarly even though it was their first meeting. There were not many female elders at the Sect and he did not really remember much of his memories of his mother and himself. 

His mother seemed extremely pleased to see him. He sat down once more, lost in a daze as servants cleaned up and changed the wares. He let the doctor inspect his wounds but sent him away and let Shi Huo do the dressings. 

“This is really a small wound. All these gifts...” Xu Ningyan mumbled, staring at the boxes of health products on the table. Madame Song really was too nice, or was she really that desperate to get him to marry Song Wenyue? Then he looked at the bottle in his hands. 

A daughter, heh. More like a wolf in a sheepskin that was not even female.

How laughable. 

Shi Huo and Shi Hua entered after the mother-son pair left. She looked at the cuts on her master’s hand. “Even a small scar will leave a wound and regardless of what we do in actuality, Palace Master is still...” She held her sense of propriety, knowing better than to continue her words. 

“Scar huh...? Here.” Xu Ningyan passed the small bottle to Shi Huo.  

“This is…?”  

“Song Wenyue gave it to me.”  

Shi Huo looked at the small bottle and opened it. It was clear that this was a product that most noblewomen used to prevent scars. It seemed a little bit too wasteful to be used on these sorts of wounds. But if it was wounds on her master’s body then…  

“Have those ladies left?” 

The moment those words left their master’s mouth, a frown unexplainably appeared on Shi Huo’s face. Shi Hua, on the other hand, was tickled by the image of a bunch of ladies in an uproar, asking to meet their master.

First to judge him, second to judge her (again), and then make up a ruckus to send up a petition to the King to dissolve the engagement between their master and Young Master Song.

They have not seen such a fuss for the longest time after what happened with Young Master Xi. 

Of course, their plans were bound to be overthrown as they saw their master. 

Instead of judging him, they asked if he would like to take them as concubines. What even goes on in their minds…

Shi Huo felt a headache coming from just thinking about them. It took them a long while before they could finally disperse the crowd. 

“Hahhahahahha. Palace Master, they're gone now! They were so scary!!!” Shi Hua spoke animatedly as she started removing the makeup on their master’s face. Shi Huo waited on the side till she was done before changing their master out female attire.

“Yes, I don’t think they will be back anytime soon,” Shi Huo replied solemnly. They might be a little busy fighting amongst themselves at the moment.

“Master, you look really nice in female attire,” Shi Hua sighed, watching the pieces of clothing getting removed one by one till what was left was his sleeping robe.

“Shi Hua!” Shi Huo chided.

“What?! I’m just being honest. I know you think so too!” Shi Hua pouted before sticking her tongue at Shi Huo.

“No, I mean… Young Master looks great in anything,” Shi Huo quickly refuted. When she was done, both of them stood aside and argued with each other.

Xu Ningyan had no interest in that so he paid no heed to their bantering. He took a seat on the bed and asked, “Is Shi Yun back?”

Both of them quietened down and looked at one another. 

Shi Huo took the lead and answered, “Not yet, he had informed us that if he had not returned by sunset, there was no need to wait for him.”

Shi Hua chimed in, “Palace Master! Palace Master! I’ll tell you the gossip in town instead!” 

Shi Huo, “Aren’t you talking about those ladies again?”

Shi Hua, “Hahahha! Right by their effect, the entire town cannot shut up about the master's handsomeness, your engagement with Song Wenyue and the petition to revoke the engagement!”

Shi Huo hit her on the head. “Don’t you have anything substantial to report?” 

Shi Hua rubbed her head, “Hey! At least it’s humorous! Shijie, you are too boring! Palace Master appreciates interesting anecdotes alright?!”

That was when she saw how Shi Huo’s face started darkening and she quickly changed her tune. “Anyways, there have been several cases of missing people outside town… and also, foreigners snooping around Poetry Garden… lastly about the loss of contact with Baishan.”

Shi Hua looked at Xu Ningyan and continued, “Since five months ago, people have been coming and people have been going missing especially outside of the capital. It’s usually those that people would not notice the difference about whether they were around or not. When their family finally noticed their disappearance, there was nothing the local garrisons could not.”

Shi Huo, “Not a single clue? So many cases, there are bound to be traces, no?”

Shi Hua, “None. It was like they were spirited away. In any case, nothing people like us cannot do. Though I did ask the Poetry Garden to keep an eye out. One of the informants said that the Tower might know something.”

Xu Ningyan, “Oh? The Tower?”

Shi Hua, “Oh right! From the info from our spies, the Tower has an inn in town. It’s called Si Xiang Inn and it’s not too far from the Imperial Palace. Though, strangely enough they have set up in the quieter parts of town just right outside of the busy marketplace. Shouldn’t inns be located on the busy streets to attract customers?”

Xu Ningyan, “No need to bother with them yet. Continue.” 

Shi Hua wiped away the confusion in her eyes and continued, “Understood. Baishan Sect seemed to have been out of contact since two weeks ago. Coincidentally, it was the start of a bad weather month for the mountainous area of Nancheng so no one really found it to be strange… except for a bunch of young cultivators with a good relationship with Baishan disciples.”

“Right, right! Young Master Song has a good friend from Baishan. His friends and him seemed to be prepping to head up the mountain once the weather cleared up.”

Shi Hua noticed how her master remained expressionless even with the mention of Song Wenyue and wondered if there was really no chance between them.

Xu Ningyan looked out the window. Dark clouds gathered following the coming of night. Without the moon, the world seemed to be plunged into darkness. He snapped his fingers and the candles in the room soon lit up.

“It might be too late for them if we waited for the weather to clear. Do we have anyone up there?”

Shi Hua, “Yes. Now we’re just waiting for Brother Su to return with news.” 

After waiting for a while, there was no response from Xu Ningyan. Shi Huo looked at Xu Ningyan for a bit before patting Shi Hua on the back. “We’ll let the master rest for the night.” 

Shi Hua, “But I’m not done!”

Shi Huo ignored her and pushed her out of the door. Before she closed the door, she called out to Xu Ningyan.

“Young Master…”

“Hmm?”

“That person might be entering Nancheng soon.”

There was no reply.

“Young Master, should this servant…?”

“No need. Go rest.”

“This servant understands.”

Shi Huo closed the door unhappily and left with Shi Hua.