Having cultivated myself into an immortal, all I want to do is raise female disciples.

The courtyard seemed exceptionally spacious, with a low pavilion beside the willow trees and a clear pond next to it. Under the crystal-clear water, red fish with gold markings swam freely.

As if just in case, Ye Yuchan and the other two did not intend to step directly into the courtyard, but instead chose to stand on the wall. Since the courtyard wall seemed to be custom-made, it was wide and imposing, so standing on it did not feel crowded or troublesome.

The three of them dared not speak at this moment, and Zhang Ruoxue even more consciously covered her mouth—this girl was afraid that if she suddenly got excited and made a sound, she would be in big trouble.

Heaven knows how the Duan family will react when they discover someone has been following them here.

—Anyway, it's definitely not going to be a good reaction.

Under the watchful eyes of the three, Duan Yu seemed to sigh in dejection. He took a step forward, his gaze slowly shifting to the beautiful woman in the low pavilion, gently stroking the guqin.

He slowly closed the folding fan and put it into his storage ring. The melodious yet somewhat chilling sound of the zither echoed in his ears, and his expression gradually froze.

"Third Young Master..."

The old man standing next to Duan Yu took a deep breath, his face full of worry, as if he wanted to say something.

But Duan Yu turned around and gave the old man a gentle smile: "I'm fine."

"..."

The old man did not reply, but stood quietly with his hands behind his back, not letting his young master see his clenched palms and bulging veins.

Duan Yu nodded slightly, gesturing to the guards who had accompanied him, and then stepped into the gate alone, heading towards the beautiful woman in the pavilion.

The woman with a slender figure wore light makeup. She seemed to have noticed Duan Yu's arrival, but she did not stop playing the zither immediately. Instead, she closed her eyes slightly and continued to enjoy the beautiful artistic conception in the music.

Duan Yu came to the pavilion, sat down in front of her, and waited quietly for her to finish playing without saying a word.

The woman seemed to know that Duan Yu would choose to wait for her, so she was not impatient and silently played the entire piece.

As the music ended, the beautiful woman slowly opened her eyes, which seemed to be carved from the same eye as Duan Yu's, but these eyes were filled with a chilling coldness that Duan Yu could neither understand nor replicate.

It was a cold wind, as cold as a chilling breeze—but in contrast, Duan Yu's eyes held a scholarly silence.

"You've arrived."

"Your child is here..." Duan Yu took a deep breath. Facing his beloved family again, he did not feel joy like other children. Instead, his face was somewhat pale: "Mother, good evening."

The woman gave a faint "hmm," then seemed to smell the alcohol on Duan Yu. She frowned slightly and asked, "You've been to a restaurant?"

Duan Yu's expression suddenly changed, and he hurriedly explained, "No, it's just that there was a slight problem at the restaurant. A few customers had a conflict, and as the owner of the restaurant, I naturally had to step in to resolve it."

"This kind of thing can be left to the servants." The woman shook her head, her tone icy and devoid of any warmth: "You shouldn't be going to those places anymore."

"..."

Duan Yu suddenly fell silent, and finally just nodded calmly.

The woman looked at Duan Yu, whose head was bowed, and for some reason suddenly let out a cold snort. Then, in a heavy tone, as if issuing a warning—

"In ten days, it will be your wedding day. You don't need to go to these places of pleasure anymore, in order to avoid any complications and unnecessary trouble."

"..."

Duan Yu's face suddenly turned very ugly. He raised his head, seemingly wanting to discuss the matter further with his mother, but when he looked at her solemn and stern face, he suddenly couldn't speak.

Looking at Duan Yu's expression, which seemed to want to speak but dared not, the woman raised her head proudly. Her words did not sound like she was asking her own child, but rather like she was interrogating a criminal: "What's wrong, Yu'er? Have you lost interest in that young lady from the Su family?"

"No……"

Perhaps to avoid revealing his expression, Duan Yu deliberately turned his face slightly to the side.

This was clearly an act of evasion, which made the woman's face even colder, and her eyes filled with dissatisfaction.

"If you have any complaints, you can speak up. Your mother won't make things difficult for you..."

Won't that be difficult...?

Duan Yu could barely suppress the bitter smile, but still answered dejectedly, "I'm just feeling a bit tired lately, and I'm not ready for marriage yet... not mentally..."

"Ah……"

The woman smiled mysteriously, a hint of mockery unconsciously creeping into her tone: "If it were a woman from a brothel, would you be ready then?"

Upon hearing the woman mention the word "brothel," Duan Yu's expression turned even more unpleasant.

He took a deep breath, but couldn't say a word.

Duan Yu remained silent for a long time before slowly managing to utter a sentence—

"I...I just..."

Before he could finish speaking...

But he couldn't continue speaking.

The woman seemed to be getting impatient with Duan Yu, and she slowly shifted her gaze away from him.

"Your mother asked you to come today only to remind you..."

"Since you are a member of the Duan family, you should think carefully about the interests of the Duan family."

"Besides, isn't that young lady from the Su family quite nice?"

Duan Yu lowered his head and replied calmly, "Indeed... Miss Su... is indeed very good."

"That's it."

After the woman finished speaking, she stopped looking at Duan Yu and continued to place her hands on the guqin.

Seeing this, Duan Yu originally intended to say a few more words, but the woman's current behavior clearly indicated that she did not want the conversation to continue.

He slowly stood up, clasped his hands together, and the bitterness on his face grew even more pronounced.

"Your son... will take his leave now."

Seeing that the woman did not respond, Duan Yu took a deep breath, turned around and left the small pavilion.

The melodious sound of a zither slowly drifted out from the pavilion.

16. Found

Some things may not be as people imagine.

—Ye Yuchan deeply understood this point today.

Before coming here, she might have thought that Duan Yu and the Duan family were just like the villains in TV dramas. After all, there are too many cunning people who use the image of a handsome young man to play with girls. So much so that she now finds it hard to accept the image of such dashing young men.

She heard Duan Yu and the woman's conversation clearly, and not only that, Fan Luokui and Zhang Ruoxue also heard it clearly.

They even heard Duan Yu muttering to himself as he turned and left, head down.

"This is all for the family... for the Duan family... for the family... for the Duan family..."

Repeating it over and over, whispering it over and over.

They couldn't see his face, and could only vaguely hear his voice, which sounded like he was hypnotizing someone.

Perhaps he was hypnotizing himself.

Family...?

A subtle gaze suddenly swept over them. Perhaps feeling that it was not a good place to stay, the three of them unanimously chose to leave. Under the cover of the so-called "invisibility cloak," Ye Yuchan and the other two quickly disappeared into the distance.

In the small pavilion of the Duan family, the woman, having finished playing another stirring melody, raised her head, glanced at the high wall surrounding her courtyard, and frowned slightly.

"Is it just an illusion...?"

-

By the time the three returned to the spacious but somewhat dimly lit room in the restaurant, it was already late at night.

The three sat on the soft, comfortable bed, but none of them chose to fall asleep—or rather, the expressions on their faces were somewhat subtle.

Even though Zhang Ruoxue had drunk three large vats of wine, she showed no intention of resting. Instead, she leaned against the wall, looked around, and glanced at the other two.

"So... what do we do now?"

"I don't know." Ye Yuchan answered bluntly, propping herself up on the bed with both hands and looking up at the sky with a sense of annoyance: "Judging from the conversation... that Duan Yu doesn't seem to be very willing to form a marriage alliance with the Su family either."

Fan Luokui nodded gravely: "Indeed, especially when his mother mentioned courtesans, he seemed... very shaken."

"And they even said he should do it for the family..." Ye Yuchan pouted, "Isn't that just like Su Yu from the Su family..."

For a moment, all three fell silent.

If Duan Yu or the Duan family were a rather treacherous and cunning family, and only wanted to step on the Su family to rise to power, Ye Yuchan felt that starting from this point would definitely protect the Su family and Su Yu.

After all, he still had an old rogue lurking around. If the Duan family really wanted to harm the Su family, or if Duan Yu was a complete scumbag, then the old rogue would naturally protect Su Yu and her family, who had a deep relationship with Jiang Shaoguang and could potentially become his disciple's future wife.

But now a problem arises...

The three of them couldn't see Duan Yu as a hypocrite at all, and from that little bit of conversation, they couldn't tell that the Duan family wanted to use the Su family. On the contrary, the one who was originally the most likely scoundrel seemed to have become the victim...

Duan Yu... seems to have been forced into this situation as well?

That would be a huge problem.

"Ugh……"

Zhang Ruoxue sighed deeply, unable to think of any other way to express her helplessness: "So what do we do next? Should we continue investigating that Young Master Duan Yu?"

"Further investigation into him is unlikely to yield any significant results..."

—Fan Luokui, who had considerable experience in investigation, thought for a moment and came to this conclusion.

However, Ye Yuchan thought of other aspects:

"Why don't we just investigate that brothel?"

"Ok?"

This naturally attracted the attention of Fan Luokui and Zhang Ruoxue.

Under their gazes, Ye Yuchan paused, seemingly organizing her thoughts.

"Since further investigation into him hasn't yielded any significant results... let's try a different approach. If we can find out about the incident at the brothel, we should be able to deduce what kind of person this Young Master Duan Yu is, right?"

"And we can also investigate the veracity of this matter."

Fan Luokui strongly agreed with her senior sister Ye's point of view.

Seeing that the two had joined forces, Zhang Ruoxue, who was usually quite clueless and had no opinions of her own, simply shrugged and indicated that she had no objections.

Ye Yuchan chuckled, a hint of anticipation in her eyes: "Maybe that woman in the brothel will be one of Young Master Duan Yu's romantic entanglements~"