The patriarch, Qin Guilu, was immersed in his concoction room all day, not a trace of him to be seen.

  The stepmadam, Yang Liuxu, hadn’t given birth to the two young masters. Even though she had married into the family five years ago, she was still without child. Instead, she was looking after a niece and nephew from the Yang Family. The people in the estate addressed them as maternal young master and maternal young miss; however, they had not a lick of relationship at all to the two young masters!

  Was there a connection between the Shuntian Prefecture’s Liu Yizhi and the Qin Estate?

  That day, the old sect master had self-detonated while dragging him up into the sky. She perceived that he had survived from the life lantern’s subsequent fragment. However, judging from his state of injury at the time, he absolutely needed to rest for one or two years in order to make a full recovery.

  If the Qin Estate wasn’t related, then why would its iron tablet appear inside the Holy Water Sect’s ancestral temple?

  Qiao Mu sneered as she sped up her search.

  During the day, she couldn’t do anything suspicious at all with Second Qin sitting on the side. Her chance was now……

  “Master, someone is coming!” Qiuqiu’s voice popped into her mind all of a sudden.

  Qiao Mu immediately vaulted out the window and scurried away nimbly and noiselessly, concealing herself inside a low thicket outside.

  The sapling’s leaves and branches emitted a slight green glow as they extended out from her wrists.

  After several seconds, Qiao Mu’s entire figure was suddenly cocooned by the rapidly growing shrubbery, cloaking all hints of her presence.

  “Young Master, did something happen?”


  “I vaguely felt that someone was here just now.” Second Qin lit a candle lamp.

  The candle flame shone upon his slightly knitted brows as he made a sweep of the surroundings, but he didn’t discover anything.

  His personal guard heaved a slight sigh of relief and involuntarily said with a smile, “Who would dare to come make trouble in the Qin Estate? Young Master, you’re overthinking it. You should go back and turn in earlier.”


  Hiding under the window, Qiao Mu relaxed slightly after seeing Second Qin depart.

  Immediately afterwards, she vaulted nimbly into the study again and performed an extremely swift but methodical search of Second Qin’s study. However, she had nothing to show for it and could only depart with knitted brows.

  She didn’t return promptly to her room to rest and rather left Crane Garden stealthily, her figure flashing agilely through the dark night.

  When she happened upon a place called Fugui Garden, her small ears wiggled as she vaguely heard a woman’s suppressed moan coming from the window.

  Our dear Qiao Mu’s eyelids twitched abruptly.

  She wasn’t dumb, and although she hadn’t experienced the facts of life in her previous life, she had still gone through puberty after all. Even if she hadn’t eaten pork before, at least she had unintentionally seen pigs run before.

  She was just about to slink away when she heard a groan in protest. “You devil, why are you being so forceful? Do you want to kill me! If by chance I happen to cry out loud, and the master overhears, I’m going to leave you to your death.”


  A young man replied with a mischievous chuckle. “Then concubine-mother must not cry out loud by all means, or else both me and you won’t be able to escape death.”


  Our dear Qiao Mu felt her scalp tingle from her eavesdropping. She didn’t dare to stay longer and speedily made herself scarce, only feeling that the goosebumps all over her body were shedding and pelting the ground.

  After she came out, her small figure still involuntarily shuddered twice before she quickly slunk into another yard.

  She observed two shadows reflected in the study, so the little fellow wrapped herself in branches and transformed into a little treant as she hid under the window.

  She heard a man’s aged voice saying ambiguously, “The situation has been especially tense lately, that person…… is currently tracking you all down. You should tell your master to lie low for longer.”


  “That madman has been clamping firmly onto us this entire time, unwilling to let us go. We have to deal with this eventually……” The other young voice that sounded vaguely familiar said through gritted teeth, “Sir hopes for you to take care of something for us. After it’s done, we’ll be sure to reward you handsomely.”