“Xiaojie¹Young Miss, it’s been a while,” The proprietor greeted her when they both sat down on a room upstairs the Treasure Shop. “I didn’t think you would go here.”

“Boss He, where else would I go?” Feng Yue laughed, although she understood the meaning. The Treasure Shop was one of many businesses across the Empire that was under shifu’s employment and protection. Now that she inherited that, they were under hers. These places formed a web of information that she could use to gain intel or send messages.

“Then, xiaojie has a command?”

Feng Yue waved her hand. “No, I’m just looking around. I was shopping nearby and remember that your shop is here, so I come to visit.”

Boss He put his hands together. “Many thanks for xiaojie’s help. But is it okay for you to seek problem like that?” He asked in concern.

Feng Yue smiled. “It’s fine. Just some bratty noble children.” She stood up and Yuan Yuan took the wrapped box of earring that she just bought, then she stopped as she remembered something. “Right, have you find anything out about the Feng family?”

“Oh right, xiaojie,” Boss He stood as well. “I heard something.”

“You say.”

“Feng Huozhi’s power in the family is unstable,” Boss He said. “I’m sure you already know that. But because of this, his madam is going to hold the ancient tournament.”

Feng Yue was surprised. “Good work, Boss He,” she praised. “Then I’ll be off first.”

“Yes, be careful.”

As she left the premises with Yuan Yuan behind her, she was thinking. The ancient tournament, as the name suggested, was a competition between the younger generation of the Feng family for the seat of the family head. It was an old tradition that had long been abandoned, because the last few generations, the Feng family previous head would choose the next one. With ancient tournament, the children from other branches could also participate.

Feng Huozhi would allow this? She fell in deep thought. She originally thought her slag father would choose Feng Sheng, as he was the oldest son of his, from his precious concubine no less. But now, it seemed like there was something more she didn’t know. Was Feng Huozhi wary of Yao Liumei?

“Where are we going next, xiaojie?” Yuan Yuan asked.

Feng Yue glanced at her maid. “Do you want to go anywhere?”

Yuan Yuan scrunched her nose. “Well, you still haven’t gotten new clothes.”

Feng Yue felt amused anger. “Why do you insist on new clothes so much? You think I’m too ugly with these clothes and can’t compare with my sisters?”

Yuan Yuan thought for a second, then foolishly nodded.

Feng Yue huffed. “If you despise your mistress so much, then don’t follow me in the future!”

Yuan Yuan felt wronged. “Xiaojie, you have to look good so they won’t dare to look down on you anymore!”

Tch. This little girl was sometimes too short-sighted. “Let’s go back to the mansion,” she said, too lazy to argue.

“Xiaojie!”

“Alright, alright, I will buy next time.”

They went past the main gate with ease because of the jade bracelet around her arms, despite the fact that the guards still looked down at her. Feng Yue still didn’t take it to heart, although Yuan Yuan was indignant for her. She just let the little girl stew.

Instead, she was still thinking things over. There were three branches in the Feng family. Feng Huozhi was the oldest son, the first branch, who took over from his father. Below him there were two younger brothers, one legitimate and the other illegitimate. None of them were close to each other. The third branch, who was headed by the legitimate brother, was dissatisfied that the family head position was taken by Feng Huozhi. While the second branch was busy holding their head down to not get involved between the fight.

It also needed to be mentioned that none of the brothers’ offspring were legitimate. To this fact, when she first heard it, she could only sigh and thought that Yao Liumei’s hand stretched far, even to the other branches.

Perhaps Yao Liumei felt that if her children were illegitimate, then none of the other two branches could have legitimate heirs. This made her think, Yao Liumei probably couldn’t stand the fact that Jia Lifang had the seat of the madam. Unfortunately, she didn’t have the ability to deal with Jia Lifang. Beside the fact that there was Jia family behind her, Jia Lifang herself was also not a naïve, sheltered woman.

The sky turned to a hue of orange. Feng Yue was sitting in her courtyard, deep in thought, when a hesitant knock sounded from the door. Feng Yue looked up and found one of the little maids in her courtyard. “What is it?” She asked.

“Da xiao- xiaojie,” the little maid was hesitant, “Laofuren²Old Madam wanted you to go over.”

Feng Huozhi’s old mother, her grandmother, was still alive but she rarely interfered with the affair of the house. Rumors had it that she was a scary person. One time a maid accidentally spill a tea and she was found dead a couple of days later. Another time, a maid took initiative to massage her but she didn’t like it. As a result, a few days later, the maid was also found dead.

This scary person now was summoning her. Feng Yue sighed. Based on the information she read, this laofuren also doted on Feng Ting like crazy. Did Feng Ting found out about the earring she snatched already? That Li gongzi³Young Master Li acted fast.

“I got it,” she said to the little maid, but made no move to go out.

The little maid was confused, but by Yuan Yuan’s cue, she walked out in a daze. Da xiaojie wasn’t going, her courage was quite big!

In contrast, inside, Feng Yue was perfectly calm. Yuan Yuan poured her a cup of tea in a similar calm manner and asked, “are you going, xiaojie?”

“Go, of course go, I have to see the fun.” Feng Yue laughed. “In a moment, I’ll finish this tea first.”

The little maid hissed in fear. Truly a big courage! Don’t know what will happen to her… Shivering, the little maid quickly left.

“Laofuren’s maid didn’t even deigned to appear,” Yuan Yuan was miffed. “Just passing a message along to a little maid in your courtyard, this is not respecting you! Xiaojie, after all you are still the eldest miss. Isn’t this unreasonable?”

“Eldest shu⁴illegitimate miss,” she corrected.

“Whatever. Still the eldest!”

Feng Yue smiled. Before working for her, Yuan Yuan grew up in a small family, so she doesn’t know that big families didn’t really care about the order of birth. As long as they were useful, they were pampered, and if they weren’t, then they were thrown out. It wasn’t a big deal for her. “Okay, okay, you calm down. I will go over now.”

The laofuren’s place was in the furthest corner of the residence, far from everyone else. The old lady, after all, valued peace and quiet very much. Other than Feng Ting, she heard, no one else was allowed to come close. It took her a quarter of an hour to reach it, mostly because she walked as slow as possible to enjoy the scenery.

It was dinner time when she arrived, and Feng Yue stood in front of the old lady’s courtyard. The maid at front saw her and went it to report, but it was clear that the answer was negative.

Feng Yue raised an eyebrow. She wasn’t even allowed to come in? The little maid didn’t even tell her anything and resumed to stand guard as if she didn’t saw her there.

Sighing, she looked around. This got boring real fast. Originally, she wanted to find out what Feng Ting complain about, but it seemed that there was no chance. They were playing this kind of petty game, she wasn’t interested. She turned around and started walking back.

The little maid was stunned. This wasn’t in line with the script! Wasn’t the Eldest Miss supposed to talk to her, ask her to come in? Then she could explain that the masters were eating and no one could disturb until they were done, asked her to wait…

But she turned back right away!

She felt ominous in her heart and directly went back inside to report it again.

Inside, laofuren frowned. “She… just left?”

The little maid nodded fearfully.

“Zumu⁵Paternal Grandmother! Look at that wild girl behavior!” Feng Ting who was sitting in front of her immediately complained. “She doesn’t even have a drop of manner! No wonder she even rudely snatches Li gongzi’s gift for me!” She was teary-eyed. Her fiancee explained that it was a really beautiful earring that would even look more beautiful on her, but who knew Feng Yue dared to snatch it up!

“Such a rogue behavior!” The old lady sneered, and looking at Feng Ting, immediately felt soft-hearted. “Don’t worry, zumu will seek justice for you!” She glanced at the rough momo⁶old servant beside her. “Drag her in!”

The momo bowed and went out to satisfy her request.

Feng Yue walked super slowly, enjoying the scenery of sunset while sighing. Sure enough, Xianshui City was beautiful. Probably the fact that it was on the foot of a mountain helped.

She felt the momo’s breath far before she came close, but she pretended she didn’t know a thing, letting the momo dragged her inside. Well, this was also good. She didn’t need to spend energy to walk back.

The momo dropped her down in front of her grandmother and Feng Ting. She could keep herself from stumbling, but since she wanted to conceal herself, she pretended to fall down.

“Who told you to leave?” The laofuren’s voice sounded.

“Ah?” Feng Yue lifted her head and laughed. “Paying respect to zumu,” she began with the courtesies. “No one told me to leave, but the maid at front come in when she saw me and then came out again, saying nothing. That means I’m not allowed to come in, right? If I can’t come in then I leave. It’s that simple.” The tone of her last sentence was like teaching a child that the sky is blue.

“You dare!” The old lady hit the table; the bowls moved due to her force. “You should have waited!”

Feng Yue tilted her head in confusion. “Why?”

“Because zumu summoned you!” Feng Ting impatiently interrupted.

Feng Yue moved her eyes to her and smiled. “That is to say, I should wait in front of zumu’s courtyard until she called me in? That can’t do. What if people see? They will say zumu is petty and biased, letting her eldest granddaughter wait in front of her courtyard while the second one is eating inside,“ She said in concern. “We can’t have people talking about zumu like that.”

“You… You…” The old lady was angry now, her face fully red. “You ungrateful slut’s spawn!”

Feng Yue gasped, looking around the room. “Zumu! Don’t use such a shrewish language! The maids can hear!”

The old lady stood up, pointing at her. “You…” She shook her head. “You snatched Ting’er’s gift today!”

“Snatch?” Feng Yue frowned in confusion. “Snatching what?”

Angered, Feng Ting jumped up. “Li shaoye’s gift for me! You snatch the earring from him!”

“Oh, that,” Feng Yue nodded, as if realizing something. “Well, I saw that Li gongzi cannot afford it, so I bought it! He even argued with the shopkeeper to lower the price, it’s such a shame.” She shook her head. “If it’s his gift for san mei, then I’ll give it to you. Don’t forget to tell him to pay me full price!”

“Presumptuous!” The old lady almost threw the table. “Are you saying that the Li family can’t afford a little earring, but you can?”

“I didn’t say that?” Feng Yue tilted her head. “Zumu, you cannot twist the truth like that,” she taught her patiently. “Perhaps Li gongzi simply didn’t bring as much money as me. But still, for him to force the shopkeeper to pull the price down…” She shook her head, then leaned forward in gossip voice. “Zumu, could it be that the Li family…”

“You, get out!” The old lady pointed to the door. “Drag her out!”

Feng Yue shrugged. Avoiding the momo’s hand, she bowed down. “Then I’ll be going first, zumu.” She walked out of that courtyard with ease.

Inside the courtyard, everyone was quiet. Feng Ting broke the silence, “Zumu, could it be the Li family really…”

“You don’t listen to that slut’s slandering!” The old lady’s eyes flashed. “We’ll deal with her soon.”

The so-called slut was walking back to her courtyard slowly, not even caring. When she arrived, she found Yuan Yuan panicking like a headless chicken. “Da xiaojie!” She immediately went towards her. “The kitchen refused to give dinner again!”

Feng Yue stared at her. “Such a small matter, what are you panicking for?”

“Well, this is the seventh day the people in our courtyard didn’t have any to eat! The last of them are leaving already.”

Feng Yue waved her hand. “Let them leave,” she said. “It was so troublesome with everyone here anyway. Didn’t we buy a pack of beef jerky earlier? Open it up.”

Yuan Yuan looked at her mistress and sighed. “Yes, xiaojie,” she muttered.

After taking a nap in the evening, Feng Yue went out secretly to the lake by midnight. Using her light footwork, she jumped on the water and stepped on the lotus leaf in the middle of the lake. She practiced some of her usual move before thinking back. Shifu had taught her a bit about Feng family’s moves, but she hadn’t practiced them in a while. Should she practice it for the traditional tournament, then?

Her sword moved faster. Phoenix Carving Move was one of the ultimate sword styles from Feng family, inherited for hundreds of years. Feng Yue herself didn’t know where her shifu could learn the move, but there were many things about her shifu that was mysterious. She herself, the youngest disciple and successor, still didn’t know his true identity.

And never will.

Sighing, Feng Yue stopped her move. And then she felt someone walking closer. No, Yuan Yuan shouldn’t be here to nag her yet… Startled, she used her qigong⁷light footwork and flew up to one of the treetops nearby.

A rustle sounded and a small seven years old child walked out of the bushes. “Huh,” he mumbled, but because of her martial arts, she could still hear him. “But I’m sure someone should be here at this time…” He scratched his head. “Am I wrong? But I saw the signs…”

Feng Chao, her younger brother. How odd. He knew someone was going to be here and investigated? So he came here at night. The kid wasn’t bad. Quite bold, in fact.

The seven years old shook his head and was about to leave, but Feng Yue suddenly speak up. “Who are you looking for?”

Startled, Feng Chao looked up to the source of the sound. He widened his eyes when he saw her on a branch in the tree by the lakeside. “Y-you,” he stuttered.

“Ba di, what are you doing in the middle of the night?” She shook her head, hiding her sword behind her back. “You should go to sleep.”

“Da jie,” he said quietly. “So it’s you? I should’ve known. The signs started when you came back.”

She heard this and became more interested. She was naturally a cautious person and would wiped out anything that could implicate her, but she didn’t really care about the lake because even if anyone found out she was here, she could just say she couldn’t fall asleep and walked around. That being said, her qigong was really good and it stood to reason that no one should ever recognized any sign of her being there. “What signs are you seeing?”

Feng Chao pointed at the ground. “That part, someone was sitting there every night.”

Feng Yue was surprised. Right. Occasionally, when she was too tired to practice, she sat down, her white clothes be damned. But there were barely any signs there. This kid could even discern that?

“Ba di is pretty good,” she sincerely praised him.

Feng Chao pursed his lips. “I just thought it strange that someone is here in the dead of the night.”

Feng Yue laughed. Such a precocious kid. “You are very observant to notice small details like that. What do you usually do?”

Feng Chao glanced at her for a second, and then he turned around. Feng Yue was surprised when he started to stalked off, but she didn’t prevent him from leaving. She wasn’t worried he would report it to anyone, either. One, he rarely talked to people, and two, she already had a ready-made excuse.

She did wonder, though, if she said something wrong. Did she? It seemed to be the case…

Feng Yue shrugged. Oh well. She jumped down from the tree and decided to end her training for tonight. Time to go… to sleep.