Futile Devices Scans

The instant Xiao Sang and Xiao Zhang woke up, neither of them even saw clearly who was in front of them before immediately tensing, gathering themselves to strike. Fu Xi Yan was worried about Xiao Sang’s injured knee and hurriedly supported him. “Easy. They’re already gone.”

Xiao Sang froze. Seeing no trace of Tong Fang Yu or the others, his face lit up. “Young Master came?”

“Not exactly. It’s a long story.” Fu Xi Yan had already told far too many lies in a single day and desperately wanted to give his brain a rest. Ignoring the curious looks from Xiao Sang and Xiao Zhang, he said, “I’ll explain it slowly once we get back.”

Xiao Sang said, “Once we get back, you should tell Young Master. We’ll just listen from the side.”

Fu Xi Yan: “…”

So after finishing one storytelling session, I have to go back and perform a stand-up routine too? And the audience has already divided themselves into seated and standing tickets?

What kind of sin did I commit to deserve this?

The past half-day had truly been full of twists, turns, and utterly bizarre developments.

Fu Xi Yan escorted the two of them back to the ship but still felt uneasy. After returning to his room and tidying himself up a little, he wanted to go ashore again and check on his father and the others. Xiao Sang and Xiao Zhang naturally insisted on following even if it killed them, but Fu Xi Yan saw that blood was still seeping through the bandage around Xiao Sang’s knee and could hardly bring himself to exploit an injured man. The two sides were still locked in a stalemate when those who had gone ashore began returning one group after another.

Madam Fu’s group came back first. Shopping truly was an excellent way to relieve stress. After a single outing, the gloom and exhaustion that had clung to the women ever since they fled Haojing had visibly disappeared.

The concubines compared one another’s wrists and ears, their faces glowing as they enthusiastically discussed the jewelry they had just bought.

Fu Fu returned just behind them. After listening to half an earful of praise and showing off, he found the whole thing completely pointless. “They’re all silver bracelets. Who’s going to grab your hand and stare at the patterns? What difference does it make whether they’re honeysuckle vines or ruyi designs?”

Madam Fu did not like hearing that at all. “Then from now on, shall I make all Husband’s clothes in the same color and the same style?”

Fu Fu immediately protested. “How is that the same?”

Madam Fu countered, “How is it different? Isn’t the same old man going inside them either way?”

Fu Fu: “…”

Having won a decisive victory, Madam Fu swept back into the cabins with the concubines in high spirits.

Fu Fu was so angry his beard practically bristled. Unable to help himself, he turned to Fu Xi Yan, who had been watching from the side. “Look at them. In the future, you absolutely mustn’t… Forget it. You don’t really have much choice anyway.”

Fu Xi Yan: “…”

Just as he spoke, Fu Xi Yan’s “choice” returned.

Fu Xi Yan instantly sprang back to life. “What’s wrong with my choice? Isn’t he someone who can hold his own in the reception hall and handle the kitchen…”

Fu Fu looked from Pei Yuan Jin to his son, his expression practically asking, Are you serious?

“…by charging through either one as if there isn’t a soul around,” Fu Xi Yan forcibly finished. Fu Fu: “…” That much was true. Judging by the way Pei Yuan Jin had stormed the imperial palace, even if he decided to stroll through the imperial kitchens, there probably was not anyone capable of stopping him.

Pei Yuan Jin looked at him and immediately noticed that Fu Xi Yan’s hair and clothes were not quite the same as when he left that morning. They seemed slightly disheveled. His expression darkened. “What happened?”

Fu Fu’s heart tightened. He glanced guiltily at his son, terrified that Fu Xi Yan might say something like, My dad bullied me. Before Fu Xi Yan, only Fu Li An among the children had married. But father-in-law and daughter-in-law had to observe propriety and avoid suspicion, so they rarely spent time together and naturally never had to worry much about how to get along. Unfortunately, Little Four had brought Pei Yuan Jin home all by himself… and not only was Pei Yuan Jin a man, he was also the Young Master of the Immortal Treasury Palace. Fu Fu genuinely had no idea how he was supposed to treat him.

Fu Xi Yan had no idea his father had somehow wandered into imagining an entire family-ethics drama. He coughed and said to Pei Yuan Jin, “Something did happen.”

Earlier, Fu Xi Yan had been too busy confirming that his family was safe to think carefully about how he was going to survive Young Master Pei’s interrogation.

With Tong Fang Yu, he could naturally spew nonsense without restraint, caring only about escaping the immediate danger and not at all about what happened afterward. But when the person in front of him changed to Pei Yuan Jin, he neither dared nor wanted to use the same method.

Yet he still lacked the courage to admit that he had secretly been studying Puppet Arts. Especially after everything that had happened today, Fu Xi Yan had realized that learning Puppet Arts did not merely mean gaining one more useful skill… it might also give him another way to survive. That made him even less willing to abandon it.

Xiao Sang very helpfully sold him out. “Young Madam said he wanted to wait until you returned so he could tell you everything together.”

Fu Fu listened from the side in complete confusion. “What exactly happened? Why does it require all of you to hear it together?” The ship was so boring. He wanted to listen too.

Fu Xi Yan said, “There doesn’t seem to be much wine left in storage. Dad, Hero Wei went to buy supplies. Do you think he’ll remember to buy wine too? Why don’t you go ask?”

Fu Fu: “…”

Go ask whether he bought wine? That excuse sounded exactly like someone dismissing a servant so they could speak privately.

“Hmph.” Fu Fu stalked away unhappily.

Watching his father’s furious back disappear, Fu Xi Yan steeled himself. “Let’s talk inside.”

He led the way to his room, but just as they reached the door, he suddenly stopped and turned to Xiao Sang and Xiao Zhang. “I’m going to speak to your Young Master alone.” Then, right in front of them, he shut the door on Xiao Sang and Xiao Zhang, whose faces were practically screaming, Why did you cancel the standing tickets?!

Pei Yuan Jin calmly found a comfortable place and sat down.

Fu Xi Yan had no idea where to begin. “Did your visit to the Thunder Division go smoothly today?”

“The chief manager wasn’t missing, so I suppose that counts as smooth.”

“Congratulations, congratulations.”

With the basic opening pleasantries finished, it was time to enter the actual subject.

Seeing Fu Xi Yan hemming and hawing, Pei Yuan Jin seemed to think of something. “You got yourself tangled in a romantic debt?”

Tong Fang Yu could hardly be called a peach blossom.

Fu Xi Yan said, “…More like a man-eating flower that wanted my life.”

Pei Yuan Jin nodded. “So it was a woman.”

Fu Xi Yan hurriedly explained, “It has nothing to do with whether the other person was a man or a woman. The problem is mainly with me.”

Whatever direction Pei Yuan Jin’s thoughts had gone in, his expression gradually turned darker. “Your problem?”

Fu Xi Yan sat opposite him, clasped both hands together, and looked at him with almost religious sincerity. “Can you promise me that no matter what I’ve done, you’ll forgive me… and you won’t stop me from continuing to do it?”

At this point, calling Pei Yuan Jin’s expression ugly would have been an understatement. Thunder and lightning were practically flashing across his face, complete with a full typhoon warning. He shot to his feet. “Xiao Sang! Xiao Zhang!”

Xiao Sang and Xiao Zhang immediately smashed through the door!

Fu Xi Yan instinctively tried to run, only to be nailed in place by a single look from Pei Yuan Jin.

After that sudden, towering burst of fury, Pei Yuan Jin slowly forced himself back under control, two flames still burning deep in his eyes. “Tell me. Who is it?” Who had made this fatty willing to defy him just so he could keep. Doing. It?!

Xiao Sang and Xiao Zhang were completely lost.

Pei Yuan Jin stared at Fu Xi Yan and enunciated each word. “These past few days, you’ve been hiding in your cabin because you’ve been thinking about this, haven’t you?”

At first, Fu Xi Yan had not understood the question “Who is it?” He was still turning it over in his head when Pei Yuan Jin said this. Thinking Pei Yuan Jin had somehow discovered his secret study of Puppet Arts, Fu Xi Yan immediately grew nervous. “Listen to me first.”

Pei Yuan Jin asked, “How long?”

Fu Xi Yan said, “Ever since we got on the ship, I’ve been… Wait, do you actually know what I’ve been working on?” If Pei Yuan Jin had known all along, he could not possibly have remained completely silent. And if he had only just found out now, how had he found out? Fu Xi Yan had not said anything yet.

The more he thought about it, the stranger Pei Yuan Jin’s fury seemed. It had appeared out of nowhere. Something was wrong.

Pei Yuan Jin only heard the keywords he wanted. “You’ve been thinking about it ever since we boarded the ship, and then you met the person as soon as you went ashore?”

Fu Xi Yan said, “Thinking about it? I was thinking about it, yes, but what does that have to do with going ashore?”

“Did you start thinking about it after I told you, ‘I didn’t have a choice, but you do’?”

“Huh?”

“Didn’t you say at the time, ‘Everyone has to take responsibility for what they’ve done’?” Pei Yuan Jin asked. “Do you regret it?”

Fu Xi Yan finally understood where this bizarre fire had come from. His round face instantly flushed bright red as he frantically waved Xiao Sang and Xiao Zhang away. “You two, get out first.”

“Why should they leave?” Pei Yuan Jin gritted his teeth. “They indulged Young Madam in improper conduct. They deserve death ten thousand times over.”

Xiao Sang and Xiao Zhang were bewildered too. Neither understood how they had somehow “indulged Young Madam in improper conduct,” but they immediately dropped to their knees.

Ignoring the way his injured knee split open again and made him grimace in pain, Xiao Sang’s imagination took flight, and he blurted out, “Could Young Madam have escaped by sacrificing his virtue?!”

“Everybody shut up!” Fu Xi Yan could not take it anymore and slapped the table. “The person I met was Tong Fang Yu! Tie Rong Rong’s junior martial sister! Even if my animal instincts went completely out of control, I still wouldn’t be lust-crazed enough to set my sights on the City Lord of the City of Ten Thousand Beasts!”

“So it was Tong Fang Yu.” Pei Yuan Jin sneered coldly. Then he registered exactly who Tong Fang Yu was. Confusion appeared on his face as he stared at Fu Xi Yan. “Tong Fang Yu?”

Fu Xi Yan sat down and poured some water. “Awake now?”

Pei Yuan Jin said nothing.

Seeing this, Xiao Sang and Xiao Zhang tactfully withdrew and pulled the battered door closed behind them.

Fu Xi Yan pushed the cup of water across the table.

After watching Pei Yuan Jin lose his temper so spectacularly, Fu Xi Yan actually felt more secure. The Immortal Treasury Palace stood far too high above ordinary people. In their daily interactions, Fu Xi Yan could never completely rid himself of the faint sense that he was reaching above his station. But Pei Yuan Jin’s misunderstanding today had given him a glimpse of something he had never seen before: in this relationship, perhaps Fu Xi Yan was not the one standing at a disadvantage. On the contrary, the one who was truly anxious about gaining and losing might be someone else entirely.

Pei Yuan Jin rapidly adjusted his emotions and asked calmly, “You encountered Tong Fang Yu. How did you escape?”

Fu Xi Yan had suddenly lost all interest in telling the story. Resting his chin on one hand, he asked, “Were you afraid I’d two-time you?”

“What does ‘two-time’ mean?”

“Afraid I’d cheat on you?”

Seeing the teasing in Fu Xi Yan’s eyes, Pei Yuan Jin finally failed to maintain his composure and turned his head away in embarrassment.

Young Master Pei was usually so tall, cold, and imposing. Seeing this awkwardly adorable side of him made Fu Xi Yan want to laugh. “I’ve been hiding in my cabin for days, secretly working on something. Were you getting anxious? Curious? Wondering if I was plotting something terrible?”

Pei Yuan Jin’s embarrassment came quickly and disappeared just as fast. He calmly reviewed their entire conversation from beginning to end and realized that Fu Xi Yan really had been hiding something these past several days. Turning back, he asked, “Were you?”

Fu Xi Yan awkwardly lowered his two chubby hands. “Rather than plotting something terrible, you could call it striving for self-improvement. Actually, the reason I managed to escape from Tong Fang Yu today has a lot to do with what I’ve been doing in seclusion lately.”

Once they returned to a serious subject, Pei Yuan Jin visibly became more comfortable. He not only refilled his own cup but poured one for Fu Xi Yan too.

Fu Xi Yan moistened his throat, then vividly recounted how he had encountered Tong Fang Yu and how he had fabricated an elaborate story to fool her.

A sharp gleam flashed through Pei Yuan Jin’s eyes. “Tong Fang Yu may be stupid, but she isn’t an idiot. No matter how convincing your story was, there had to be one prerequisite before she would believe that you were genuinely a disciple of the Puppet Path. How did you manage that?”

Fu Xi Yan knew that if he answered truthfully, there would be no hiding the fact that he had been practicing Puppet Arts. He said, “First promise me that no matter what I did, you won’t blame me and you won’t stop me.”

Pei Yuan Jin said with certainty, “You know Puppet Arts.”

Fu Xi Yan’s gaze drifted sideways. “Martial arts themselves aren’t inherently good or bad. They’re just skills. Look, if I hadn’t known… Puppet Arts, then today Xiao Sang, Xiao Zhang, and I could never have escaped completely unharmed from Tong Fang Yu’s claws.”

Pei Yuan Jin immediately saw through him. “You intend to keep learning.”

Fu Xi Yan gave him his most pleasing smile. “There’s clearly still room for improvement.”

Another flame slowly began rising in Pei Yuan Jin’s heart. “Do you know that the human puppets controlled by a Puppet King are made from actual people?”

Fu Xi Yan hurriedly said, “Don’t worry, don’t worry. I only have Introduction to Puppet Arts. It can’t take me all the way to Puppet King.”

“So you really do want to cultivate until you become a Puppet King.”

“Wrongly accused!” Fu Xi Yan protested. “My family is rich. We have so many servants who do whatever we tell them. Isn’t that easier? Why would I go refine human puppets? I only want to be able to turn off the lights without getting out of bed and pick things up without bending down… Believe me. I won’t use people to refine puppets. I have my limits.” Fu Xi Yan put on an expression of absolute sincerity.

Pei Yuan Jin neither agreed nor disagreed. Instead, he asked, “Where did Introduction to Puppet Arts come from?”

“…The white-robed man gave it to me.”

Pei Yuan Jin said coolly, “He killed Tie Rong Rong, possessed Introduction to Puppet Arts, and even mentioning someone like him was enough to make Tong Fang Yu lose control. Are you telling me you still can’t guess who that white-robed man might be?”

Fu Xi Yan held up two fingers with the tiniest gap between them. “I have… a little bit of an idea.”

Pei Yuan Jin said, “Mo Xiao Ran never does anything without a purpose. If he gave you Puppet Arts to practice, it must benefit him somehow.”

Fu Xi Yan said, “People usually pass down techniques because they want their sect’s martial arts to flourish. Maybe he saw that I possess extraordinary talent and am a once-in-a-generation martial arts genius. Seriously, you haven’t met Xuan Ou Zi or Zhang Da Shan properly. What kind of garbage are those two? Of course, Mo Xiao Ran and I are purely using each other. Tie Rong Rong tried to kill me again and again. How could I possibly devote myself to spreading the Puppet Path? I just want to turn Puppet Arts into respectable orthodox martial arts.”

“How can you guarantee he didn’t tamper with the manual?”

Fu Xi Yan froze.

He actually had two things he relied on.

The first was the Complete Book of the Jianghu left behind by his mother, which contained a great deal of systematic theory about Puppet Arts and could serve as a reference. The second was his strange body’s recovery ability. He could afford to experiment.

Unfortunately, both of those involved the possible… but still unconfirmed… identity of his mother. Pei Yuan Jin had already flown into a rage over him secretly practicing Puppet Arts. If Fu Xi Yan told him his suspicions and they turned out to be true, that would be one thing. But if they were wrong, he would only be creating trouble for himself and pouring oil onto the fire for no reason.

So he could only give a dry laugh. “Sometimes you have to take a gamble.”

Pei Yuan Jin stared directly into his eyes and abruptly asked, “Do you know there is a Gu inside your body?”

Fu Xi Yan paused. “Of course I know. Tong Fang Yu forced me to eat one. It’s called the Myriad-Poison Gu, and Xuan Ou Zi is its master. But when I came back, I used the Spirit-Sight Art to look for it and couldn’t find it.” Remembering the sudden surge of true qi at the time, he guessed that his true essence had most likely subdued it.

After learning the Spirit-Sight Art, Fu Xi Yan had also examined his own true essence, but unfortunately, he still could not make out anything useful. Clearly, if he wanted to uncover the secret inside his true essence, an “X-ray” alone was not enough. He needed a full CT scan.

Pei Yuan Jin realized Fu Xi Yan had misunderstood. “I mean the Gu related to your weight.”

Fu Xi Yan was genuinely stunned this time. “There’s a Gu inside me? I didn’t know that. None of the imperial physicians ever said anything.”

Could what’s hidden inside my true essence actually be a Gu even stronger than the Myriad-Poison Gu?

Pei Yuan Jin had long sensed that Fu Xi Yan possessed a few secrets of his own, so he had assumed Fu Xi Yan already knew. Perhaps Fu Xi Yan simply did not want anyone else learning about it because possessing treasure could invite disaster. After all, Jiang Xiu had said the Gu was harmless and might even be beneficial.

But if Fu Xi Yan himself did not know, then the entire matter needed to be reconsidered.

Pei Yuan Jin asked, “Were you fat from childhood?”

Fu Xi Yan did not find the question offensive and answered honestly, “I was already very large when I was born.”

“Then it’s possible you were already infected with the Gu while your mother was pregnant with you.”

The same suspicion immediately arose in Fu Xi Yan’s mind. If his guess was correct and his mother, Bai Ping Zhou, truly was Jin Yuan Xiu, then she must have entered Yongfeng Earl Residence with some hidden purpose.

Perhaps, just as the excuse she had given back then claimed, she had been hiding from danger… only the person she was hiding from had not been some ordinary martial artist.

It might have been Tie Rong Rong, who called everyone a bitch at the drop of a hat. Or it might have been Tong Fang Yu, who had been close to Tie Rong Rong. Unfortunately, his mother’s whereabouts were unknown. Otherwise, all these mysteries could have been resolved immediately.

Fu Xi Yan came back to himself. “So if I remove the Gu, I can lose weight?”

Pei Yuan Jin asked, “Do you know how to remove it?”

Fu Xi Yan thought for a moment. “The Gu might be hiding inside my true essence. If I want to take it out, I’ll have to learn the Spirit-Control Art.” Unfortunately, Introduction to Puppet Arts only mentioned it briefly and did not contain detailed instructions.

Pei Yuan Jin’s expression cooled. “The Spirit-Control Art doesn’t only control Gu. It can control people too.”

And so, after going all the way around in a circle, the conversation returned to where it had begun.

Fu Xi Yan said helplessly, “If someone is truly determined to hurt people, do they really need to learn a special skill first? A kitchen knife, a rope, a quilt… use whatever is convenient! There are plenty of ways to control a person’s mind too. Threaten someone they care about. Hang something they desperately want in front of them like a carrot… None of those things only appeared after the Puppet Path was invented. There’s an old saying: it doesn’t matter whether the cat is black or white… as long as it catches mice, it’s a good cat. Why insist on blaming the skills someone possesses for the mistakes in their thinking? Isn’t it better to fight magic with magic?”

Elio’s Notes: The “black cat, white cat” saying is a pragmatic expression most famously associated with Deng Xiaoping: what matters is whether something works, not what label it carries.

Pei Yuan Jin briefly wanted to ask what “magic” meant, but the atmosphere was clearly not appropriate for that. Instead, he said, “Tie Rong Rong’s Puppet Arts could control a high-ranking court official like Tu Mu. That is far beyond the simple methods you just described. How can you guarantee that you won’t be tempted by that power one day and fall into demonic ways?”

Fu Xi Yan answered seriously, “I can’t.”

When he was a child, he had once thought Balala the Fairies was the greatest thing in the world and the love of his life. Once he grew older, it became such a dark piece of personal history that he refused even to mention it. In his second life, he had originally thought he had been born into such a good family that he would naturally marry some gentle, considerate beauty. And what happened instead? Now he was sitting across from a stone-faced harbinger of doom, discussing whether he might become evil in the future.

Elio’s Notes: Balala the Fairies is a Chinese children’s magical-girl franchise. Fu Xi Yan uses his dramatically changed childhood tastes as proof that no one can perfectly predict what their future self will become.

Clearly, people changed in ways their past or present selves could never anticipate.

But before Pei Yuan Jin could change expression, Fu Xi Yan added, “However, I have the Young Master of the Immortal Treasury Palace… who hates evil as though it were his mortal enemy… watching me. Even if I ever have the idea of going astray, you wouldn’t let me actually do it, would you?”

It was an extremely crafty statement. Fu Xi Yan had essentially shoved responsibility for his own future behavior onto someone else. Unfortunately, Pei Yuan Jin happened to like hearing it. The murderous chill between his brows gradually faded, and at last a little sunlight broke through the storm clouds on his face.

“From now on, whenever you practice Puppet Arts, I must be present.”

Fu Xi Yan could not have asked for anything better. He had not forgotten how he had nearly suffered qi deviation when first learning the Spirit-Sight Art. Come to think of it, once again it had been the Gu inside his true essence that saved his life. Whatever problems it had caused him, it had never failed him at a critical moment. That suggested it probably was not something malicious.

In that case, the likelihood that Tie Rong Rong or Tong Fang Yu had planted it dropped considerably.

Could Mo Xiao Ran have done it? Or perhaps his own mother had placed it in him herself?

Fu Xi Yan frowned. “It’s a pity we don’t know what kind of Gu it is.”

Pei Yuan Jin glanced at him. “Didn’t you say you could drive it out once you learn the Spirit-Control Art?”

Does that mean he’s agreeing to let me keep practicing Puppet Arts?

Fu Xi Yan blinked rapidly, his eyes shining so brightly they were practically dazzling.

Pei Yuan Jin drained his cup in one swallow, stood, and walked toward the door.

Fu Xi Yan eagerly followed behind him and opened the door for him. The entire door panel promptly fell straight over.

“Uh.” Fu Xi Yan stared at the door that had officially separated from the organization.

Pei Yuan Jin said, “I’ll have someone fix it.”

“It’s fine.”

Young Master Pei had already made such an enormous concession. How could Fu Xi Yan quibble over a tiny matter like money? Besides, this was Ghostshadow’s ship. Reporting the repair to Wei Li Ming would take nothing more than a sentence.

Unfortunately, Fu Xi Yan had once again underestimated the Young Master of the Immortal Treasury Palace’s efficiency.

He merely went next door to Fu Chen Xing’s room to borrow a tubful of water for his bath. By the time he returned, the door had already been repaired. Not only had the door been repaired… his bed had been dismantled.

Fu Xi Yan stared in shock. “Did you use my bed to patch the door?”

The carpenter had no idea what was going on and only grinned. “Almost done, almost done.”

…

Fu Xi Yan wanted to see exactly how “done” this was going to become.

He crossed his arms and sat in a chair like an overseer, watching several carpenters perform some mysterious ritual around his bed. After staring for a while, he finally began to understand what they were doing. “Are you widening my bed?”

The dark-skinned carpenter who kept saying “almost done” flashed a row of yellow teeth. “Yes.”

Fu Xi Yan did not even need to ask whose idea this was. For some reason, he felt touched.

The ship was large, but it also contained many cabins. Once the interior had been divided into individual rooms, each room was relatively cramped. Naturally, the only two large beds had been given to Fu Fu and Madam Fu, and Fu Li An and his wife, since both couples slept together. As a result, Fu Xi Yan had been sleeping rather poorly these past few nights. Every time he turned over, he felt as though he might fall out of bed, and he had woken with a start several times in the middle of the night.

He had never imagined Pei Yuan Jin would notice even something this small. How thoughtful.

Fu Xi Yan picked up the tea on the table and was just about to take a sip when the carpenters moved the table away.

“…It doesn’t need to be this big, does it?” Fu Xi Yan stared at the bed boards that seemed to be growing wider by the moment and began doubting reality.

The carpenter said, “It’s fine, it’s fine. We’ll be finished soon.”

Fu Xi Yan sat in his chair and watched until the edge of the bed was practically pressing against his knees. Finally, he asked, “Who came up with these dimensions?”

The carpenter answered as though it were obvious. “The employer.”

Fu Xi Yan: “…” Right. Making it smaller saved money. Making it larger wasted materials. Without explicit instructions from the employer, no carpenter would be stupid enough to donate extra materials out of his own pocket. But what kind of room was more than half bed, without even enough floor left to stand on?

Fu Xi Yan finally got up, intending to find Pei Yuan Jin and discuss the dimensions of his bed properly. One meter was admittedly too narrow, but two meters was absolutely enough. This thing was heading toward three meters. Wasn’t this overcorrecting just a little?

He had barely stood when a loud bang came from behind him. A huge hole appeared in the wall.

Fu Xi Yan cautiously approached, leaned over the hole, and looked through. The table that had just been moved out of his room was already sitting next door. Some craftsman of indeterminate profession stood beside the new hole, hammer raised, preparing to strike it again.

“Wait!”

Fu Xi Yan hurriedly stopped him. “What exactly are you people doing?”

His room had clearly started out fully furnished. Why were they smashing it back into an unfinished shell?

“Combining two rooms into one.” Pei Yuan Jin’s voice came from behind him.

Fu Xi Yan turned and stared at him in confusion. “If the two rooms are becoming one, where am I supposed to sleep?”

Pei Yuan Jin pointed toward the bed.

Fu Xi Yan remembered that Fu Chen Xing had been living next door, so…

“Fifth Brother is moving in with me?”

Pei Yuan Jin said, “He has already moved into my old room.”

A powerful sense of foreboding rose inside Fu Xi Yan. “So the person moving in with me is…”

Pei Yuan Jin answered without the slightest hesitation. “Me.”

Fu Xi Yan stared at him blankly. Outwardly, he looked perfectly calm. Inside, he had already transformed into a screaming chicken… In broad daylight?! What kind of hooliganism are you planning?!

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