Pei Yuan Jin rested both hands on the table, his expression as calm as ever. “So what do you intend to do?”
Fu Xi Yan had expected the revelation to land like a giant boulder thrown into a lake. Instead, it sank straight to the bottom without even producing a splash. All the speeches he had prepared became useless. After a stunned moment, he said, “Strike first!”
Pei Yuan Jin looked puzzled.
Fu Xi Yan reorganized his thoughts and continued. “Mo Xiao Ran has many ‘clothes.’ I’m the one he wove with his own hands.” “When my mother was pregnant with me, he implanted the Taotie Gu. The Taotie Gu devours true qi and souls…” “What true qi could an unborn baby possibly have?” “So naturally, the only thing the Taotie Gu could consume was the soul.” “Haven’t I told you before that I wasn’t sure whether I was really myself or some wandering ghost living inside this body?”
Considering he had just announced that Mo Xiao Ran is my biological father, Fu Xi Yan’s tone was astonishingly calm.
But perhaps he could not help being calm. Anyone who spent half a year turning the same matter over and over in his head would eventually lose the first rush of anger and emotion and begin considering it rationally.
Pei Yuan Jin said objectively, “If you were a wandering ghost, you should have memories of a previous life.”
“I do.”
All this time, Fu Xi Yan had kept certain things from Pei Yuan Jin. His secret practice of Puppet Arts. The truth of his birth. The Earth Mirror inside his body. Pei Yuan Jin might have noticed that Fu Xi Yan was hiding things, but he had never questioned him. He had simply continued protecting him as before. Leaving aside romantic devotion, that trust alone was enough to make Fu Xi Yan feel ashamed.
Some secrets could be carried calmly into the grave. But if they could not, then perhaps they should be shared with someone trustworthy before they festered inside a person and suffocated him. So today, Fu Xi Yan decided to hold a grand autumn clearance sale of secrets.
“I was a perfectly ordinary science-track student in my previous life. Science meant math, chemistry, physics, biology… Well, we also studied Chinese and English. Biology was my worst subject. Chinese was second worst.” Fu Xi Yan rambled on. He had prepared himself beforehand, but only to a limited extent. To Pei Yuan Jin, who knew absolutely nothing about the previous world, the entire explanation probably sounded chaotic.
Yet Pei Yuan Jin never interrupted. Whenever Fu Xi Yan paused, Pei Yuan Jin would ask an appropriate question to help him continue. Only when Fu Xi Yan reached the part where he drowned while saving someone did Pei Yuan Jin’s expression become strange. He did not say a single word. But every question was written plainly in his eyes.
Fu Xi Yan paused, then stubbornly defended himself. “I wasn’t stupid. I knew how to swim. I could swim perfectly well.” “I didn’t make it back to shore because I ran out of strength.” “And… I wasn’t fat back then!”
Pei Yuan Jin nodded to show he understood.
Fu Xi Yan studied his expression carefully. Only after confirming that Pei Yuan Jin genuinely believed he had once been thin did he continue.
He did not bother explaining airplanes or cannons. Those things had been fairly distant from an ordinary student’s daily life anyway. Instead, he talked about all the little pieces of his former life. The childish innocence of his classmates. The strictness of his teachers. The misery of examinations.
“Do you know what word problems were?” “Person A and Person B could never just walk like normal human beings. One always had to leave earlier, the other later. One was fast, the other slow. Then you had to calculate whether they would meet.” “Or there’d be a swimming pool where water was being drained out at the same time more water was being pumped in.” “I used to want to go to the question writer’s house and put up a sign saying, ‘Conserve water. Everyone is responsible!’”
Once he started, the topic became impossible to stop. When Fu Xi Yan finally came back to himself, it was already past midnight.
He took another sip of the now-cold soy-vinegar soup, still reluctant to end the conversation. “Do you believe me?”
Pei Yuan Jin nodded. “I believe you.”
It was not an empty reassurance. Through Fu Xi Yan’s descriptions, Pei Yuan Jin had genuinely glimpsed another world. A peaceful, safe world where ordinary people lived stable lives.
Fu Xi Yan met Pei Yuan Jin’s deep, steady gaze and suddenly became a little embarrassed. He scratched his cheek. What kind of ridiculous luck did I have? Out of all the countless people in the world, somehow he had successfully crossed into another world. And then he had met this ridiculously handsome man.
Perhaps Mo Xiao Ran was simply the evil dragon that the hero had to slay before marrying the princess.
After telling his story, Fu Xi Yan finally separated Mo Xiao Ran completely from himself. The problem before him was no longer some ethical dilemma between father and son. It was a life-or-death struggle.
“My mother wrote in her letter that she suspected something had gone wrong with Mo Xiao Ran’s original body.” “That was why he became so desperate to find, or even create, new bodies.” “I suspect his soul isn’t compatible with just any body.” “Otherwise, with Mo Xiao Ran’s personality, there’s no way he would tolerate staying inside an ordinary-looking body for this long.”
The moment Fu Xi Yan had removed that golden mask, he had practically needed to redefine the phrase most beautiful man beneath Heaven.
“So he definitely won’t let me go.”
It was not Fu Xi Yan being narcissistic. Mo Xiao Ran had approached him repeatedly, saved him again and again, and invested a tremendous amount of effort. Fu Xi Yan had already said it himself. The greater the investment, the harder it became to give something up.
Pei Yuan Jin said, “After this battle, Mo Xiao Ran’s soul was severely injured. He should not be able to cause trouble again for some time.”
Fu Xi Yan asked, “A physical injury can be healed. How do you repair damage to the soul?”
Pei Yuan Jin frowned.
The Immortal Treasury Palace had studied the soul too, but only in relation to martial cultivation. They had never considered how to repair one.
Fu Xi Yan continued, “I was thinking. Mo Xiao Ran can send his soul out of his body and borrow corpses to return to life. His understanding of souls must be completely different from ordinary people.” “After the Taotie Gu devours true qi, it can release a portion of that true qi again.” “So what happens when it devours a soul?” “Could it release that too?” “And if it can, could that be used to repair a damaged soul?”
With every sentence, Pei Yuan Jin’s expression grew darker.
Not because Fu Xi Yan was wrong. Because he was far too plausible. Mo Xiao Ran had spent all these years quietly living within the Heaven-and-Earth Mirror. There was no chance he had suddenly repented and become a good man. So what exactly had he been doing during all that time?
Pei Yuan Jin suddenly looked at Fu Xi Yan. Fu Xi Yan happened to look back. Neither said anything. Yet both immediately understood the same thought in the other’s eyes. A person left traces wherever he went. Mo Xiao Ran had lived beside Tianchi for so many years. There was no possible way he had left behind absolutely nothing.
They were staying in the small wooden cottage Shi Luo Ying had once used. Mo Xiao Ran’s estate stood right next door.
Fu Xi Yan walked out of the cottage. Only a few steps brought them to the estate gates. He knocked.
No one answered.
That was expected. The estate had supposedly been constructed as a marital residence, but Mo Xiao Ran spent most of the year traveling and rarely stayed there. Shi Luo Ying, meanwhile, had insisted on remaining in her little wooden cottage. So the estate was usually empty.
Fu Xi Yan placed a hand against the gate and used his object-control technique to shift the bar from inside. The instant he did… A rapid sequence of explosions erupted from deep within the estate.
Fu Xi Yan hurriedly shoved open the gate. Smoke was already billowing above the compound. The explosions were coming from inside.
Pei Yuan Jin immediately pulled Fu Xi Yan behind him and charged in first.
The front hall remained mostly intact. But a two-story wooden building farther inside had already collapsed completely. Flames still burned among the ruins. Pei Yuan Jin used true qi to smother the fire. But the entire building had already burned away. Almost nothing remained.
Fu Xi Yan was so angry that ripples practically shook across his chubby face. “If I’d known, I would’ve climbed over the wall!”
Pei Yuan Jin said, “It would have been the same. If he did not want anyone to see what was inside, he would have prepared for every possibility.”
Fu Xi Yan said miserably, “What secret could have been hidden in that building?” The thought that an enormous Mo-Xiao-Ran-sized secret had once been right in front of him, only to disappear before he could discover it, made his heart ache.
Pei Yuan Jin said, “Perhaps there was nothing inside.”
“Huh?”
“Perhaps he did it simply to make us miserable.”
Fu Xi Yan, who had already begun rummaging through the wreckage because he was miserable: “…”
Retainers of the Heaven-and-Earth Mirror nearby soon rushed over after hearing the commotion. When they learned that Mo Xiao Ran had planted a large number of Thunderclap Bombs around the estate, everyone broke into a cold sweat. It was not that nobody present had ever entertained crooked thoughts about entering the estate. They simply had not dared act while the new Mirror Master was still on the mountain. Unexpectedly, that hesitation had saved their lives.
Fu Xi Yan dismissed everyone. Then he and Pei Yuan Jin walked hand in hand back to the little wooden cottage.
“Someone deliberately tried to make us unhappy. So let’s talk about something happy instead.”
Fu Xi Yan said, “There’s a Taotie Gu inside my true essence.” “And inside the Taotie Gu, there’s a streak of the Earth Mirror.” He had no idea what measure word should properly be used for something like the Earth Mirror. But the Heaven Mirror had looked like a streak of light, so he decided a streak was good enough.
Pei Yuan Jin raised his brows slightly. He looked surprised. Then pleased. “You obtained the complete Heaven-and-Earth Mirror?”
Shi Yi Ming might have been the Master of the Heaven-and-Earth Mirror, but he himself had possessed only the Heaven Mirror. The Earth Mirror had been left to his daughter. Even then, she had merely kept it as an object and had never truly subdued it. Whenever Shi Yi Ming and Pei Xiong Ji compared and verified their martial arts, Shi Yi Ming had expressed regret more than once. He had studied the Heaven Mirror’s cultivation methods for decades yet had never fully understood them. Perhaps the missing information had always been contained inside the Earth Mirror.
The origin of the Heaven-and-Earth Mirror was itself a mystery. Shi Yi Ming and Pei Xiong Ji had both suspected it might have some connection to immortals who ascended in ancient times. What it contained might even be the true secret of Ascension.
If Fu Xi Yan could reunite both halves… Perhaps he could finally solve that mystery.
Fu Xi Yan was delighted too.
Over the past two days, he had examined the Heaven Mirror inside his mind. He recognized every single written character in its cultivation methods! The problem was that when those characters were combined, some passages became terribly obscure. Worse, the first time he read something and the second time he read it, the meaning seemed to change. He had not yet understood the pattern and naturally did not dare cultivate recklessly. But he could at least write down what he saw and study it together with Pei Yuan Jin.
Pei Yuan Jin was more than willing.
There was already precedent for the Heaven-and-Earth Mirror and Immortal Treasury Palace jointly researching martial arts. The Sacred Flame Art Pei Yuan Jin practiced was Pei Xiong Ji’s improved version, and many of its ideas had been inspired by the Heaven Mirror’s cultivation methods.
Now that they had the Heaven Mirror… The Earth Mirror naturally needed to follow.
Fu Xi Yan brought up the cesarean operation Shi Yi Ming had once proposed. The Taotie Gu was something Mo Xiao Ran had left inside his body. Naturally, Fu Xi Yan wanted it removed as soon as possible. But…
“I want to go to Jiangcheng.”
There were two reasons. First, Song Qi Yun had gone to Jiangcheng shortly before his death. Fu Xi Yan still did not know what Song Qi Yun had done there, and that uncertainty continued bothering him. Second, since reading the letter his mother left behind, he had never had the chance to speak with Fu Fu directly. Whether Fu Fu already knew the truth about his birth or not, the man had raised him all these years. Fu Xi Yan owed him the truth.
Pei Yuan Jin understood what he was thinking. He pulled Fu Xi Yan into his arms. “All right.” “My aunt is already in Jiangcheng arranging the marriage proposal. If everything goes smoothly, by the time we leave, you will officially be the Young Madam of the Immortal Treasury Palace.”
Fu Xi Yan raised his head and clicked his tongue. “What a bargain you’re getting.”
Pei Yuan Jin: “…”
Fu Xi Yan added, “And I want to have the operation in Jiangcheng.”
“Why?”
As far as Pei Yuan Jin was concerned, something as dangerous as the Taotie Gu should naturally be killed sooner rather than later.
Fu Xi Yan wrapped his arms around him and began speaking complete nonsense. “Based on my experience from my previous life, when someone enters the delivery room, it’s best to have members of their own family nearby.” “Otherwise, when the question becomes whether to save the mother or the baby, disagreements can easily happen.”
Pei Yuan Jin asked, “Save the mother or the baby?”
“If only one can survive, would you save me or save the child?” Fu Xi Yan made it that far before he broke first and began laughing.
Pei Yuan Jin, however, asked with complete seriousness: “We aren’t married yet. Whose child is it?”
“…”
Fu Xi Yan pondered. “Miraculous conception?”
“…”
The power of miraculous conception was apparently boundless. It inspired Pei Yuan Jin in return. Fu Xi Yan was thoroughly made to experience a preview of the wedding night, all the way until the candles meant for dinner finally burned out.
Traveling to Jiangcheng by water was safer. Unfortunately, Fu Xi Yan had encountered far too many accidents aboard ships while in Southern Yu. He had already developed something close to a psychological shadow regarding boat travel. Originally, he resisted. Pei Yuan Jin insisted. So the two said goodbye to the retainers of the Heaven-and-Earth Mirror and boarded a passenger vessel at the Yangtze River crossing nearest Huaying Mountain. Once again, they became ordinary travelers.
Xiao Zhang and the others divided into two groups. One remained with Jing Luo in Laitan Town, helping Chao Yun clean up the remnants of Ghostshadow. The other accompanied Fu Xi Yan and Pei Yuan Jin to Jiangcheng.
From the instant he boarded the ship, Fu Xi Yan mentally prepared himself for disaster. Yet never, ever had he expected… The disaster would come from inside the household.
Fu Xi Yan’s head broke through the water. He stared helplessly as the passenger vessel continued sailing away. At the stern, Pei Yuan Jin stood waving at him.
A heartless husband had abandoned his wife and sailed away alone. What a miserable, inhuman, utterly tragic scene!
Fu Xi Yan paddled furiously with both arms. He kicked hard with his legs and shot himself several zhang through the water until he caught up with the stern.
Pei Yuan Jin nodded in satisfaction. “Keep going.”
Fu Xi Yan had to keep kicking simply to avoid falling behind. “Can I ask why?”
“You said you drowned in your previous life.”
Fu Xi Yan stared at him in disbelief. “You want me to repeat the experience?”
Pei Yuan Jin looked at him. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say he rolled his eyes. Either way, he clearly was not pleased. “To prevent you from repeating it.”
Fu Xi Yan was speechless. “I’m already at the Dao-Entry Stage. Even if I sink, I probably can’t drown anymore.” Then, decisively, he stopped struggling altogether. His entire body sank beneath the surface.
Pei Yuan Jin knew Fu Xi Yan was right. But whenever he remembered that Fu Xi Yan had already died once, an inexplicable fear rose inside him. He wanted to make up for something. Looking back, even he knew the impulse was somewhat ridiculous.
No matter how much he did now, he could not save the person from Fu Xi Yan’s previous life.
And if he had saved that person… Then he would never have met the Fu Xi Yan standing before him now.
The two possibilities contradicted one another by their very nature.
Pei Yuan Jin jumped into the river. He pulled Fu Xi Yan back above the surface.
Fu Xi Yan immediately went completely limp in protest. His torso, arms, and legs stiffened and refused to move. Only the soles of his feet made tiny, almost invisible paddling motions beneath the water.
Pei Yuan Jin carried him back onto the boat. Their commotion had already attracted the attention of other passengers. Pei Yuan Jin could only hurriedly take him back to the cabin to change clothes.
After Fu Xi Yan bathed and drank ginger tea, he kicked both feet up comfortably. “Do you know what you did wrong?”
Pei Yuan Jin actually nodded.
Fu Xi Yan immediately became interested. “What did you do wrong?”
Pei Yuan Jin summarized his mistake. “Training only your swimming is insufficient.”
“Huh?”
Fu Xi Yan soon learned what he meant. Apparently, something even more terrifying than his boyfriend turning into a swimming instructor existed. His boyfriend becoming an instructor in every subject. A perfectly ordinary journey home somehow transformed into an educational field trip. Fu Xi Yan suspected even the captain did not know the ship possessed this function.
Fu Xi Yan: “…”
Maybe he should have stayed in the river.
News did not have legs. Yet somehow it always ran faster than people.
While Fu Xi Yan was still conscientiously serving as Student Fu under Teacher Pei aboard the Yangtze River, news of the battle at Luoshi had already ridden the wind across the world.
By the time it reached Jiangcheng, the entire city was still immersed in shock over the Immortal Treasury Palace sending people to formally propose marriage to the fourth young master of the Hubei Governor.
A top jianghu power like the Immortal Treasury Palace attracted attention with every move. Its Young Master needed no explanation. From birth, Pei Yuan Jin had lived with something close to celebrity status. He drew no less attention than the princes of Southern Yu or Northern Zhou. Because of his exceptional martial arts, people actually found him more fascinating than princes who had yet to accomplish anything.
After achieving the glorious feat of breaking into both the Northern Zhou and Southern Yu imperial palaces within a single year, public fascination with him had reached its peak. By the standards Fu Xi Yan remembered from his previous life, Pei Yuan Jin’s popularity far exceeded that of the Third Prince of Northern Zhou or the young emperor of Southern Yu. His popularity among unmarried girls was especially impressive.
Naturally… The man Pei Yuan Jin intended to marry immediately became their greatest romantic enemy.
The girls could not understand it at all. How could some ordinary fat man occupy the precious position of Young Madam of the Immortal Treasury Palace? They knew perfectly well that even if Pei Yuan Jin did not marry Fu Xi Yan, he still would not marry them. That knowledge did absolutely nothing to prevent envy, jealousy, and resentment.
Only after Fu Xi Yan inherited the Heaven-and-Earth Mirror and became its new Mirror Master did claims that the two were mismatched gradually disappear. Naturally, Governor Fu had secretly arranged for people to guide public opinion somewhat. But fundamentally, it was Fu Xi Yan’s new identity that silenced the discordant voices.
Although the Heaven-and-Earth Mirror had effectively fallen into Mo Xiao Ran’s hands in recent years, in the minds of the public, as long as its Mirror Master remained, the organization was still one of the righteous path’s twin leaders alongside the Immortal Treasury Palace.
Now Mo Xiao Ran had been driven away. The Heaven-and-Earth Mirror had passed to Fu Xi Yan. Naturally, Fu Xi Yan had inherited its position as a leader of the righteous path as well.
And Pei Yuan Jin was the heir to the Immortal Treasury Palace.
Could there possibly be a more perfectly matched pair?
Even a marriage between the Third Prince of Northern Zhou and the young emperor of Southern Yu would not create this kind of effect.
So when Fu Xi Yan and Pei Yuan Jin finally reached Jiangcheng, most discussions they overheard about the marriage were approving. People thought it wonderfully prestigious that the new Mirror Master was actually the son of their own provincial governor. If only the Immortal Treasury Palace had brought a dowry rather than betrothal gifts… That would have been even better.
Aunt Qin had already said that the marriage ceremony was mostly a formality and they did not need to obsess over who was “marrying” whom. But according to ordinary marriage customs, gifts delivered at this stage could only be called betrothal gifts. The dowry was what left with the newlywed on the wedding day. So as far as Jiangcheng’s citizens were concerned, the balance of this particular marriage was obvious.
After disembarking, Fu Xi Yan originally waited in a teahouse while Xiao Zhang and the others went to hire carriages. But the longer he listened… The farther the conversation drifted. Soon the people around him were already worrying about the question of future heirs for the Heaven-and-Earth Mirror and Immortal Treasury Palace. Fu Xi Yan began finding it difficult to remain seated.
Pei Yuan Jin was the Pei family’s only son. Pei Xiong Ji had no brothers or sisters. If they ever needed to adopt a child into the Pei line, they could only choose someone from the Fu family. The Fu family’s eldest son was already married. The second daughter was preparing for her marriage with the Liu family. The third son was studying away from home, but families wanting to arrange a match with him could supposedly form a line all the way to Luoyang. As for the youngest, the fifth son… He really was still too young. Not useful yet.
In conclusion, once the Pei and Fu families joined through marriage, the Fu family’s future would be dazzling.
And Jiangcheng itself, naturally, could bask in that reflected glory. Bask in it thoroughly.
Fu Xi Yan secretly glared at the short-robed man enthusiastically delivering this analysis. You’re basking in glory. I’m curling my toes through the floor from embarrassment.
Pei Yuan Jin suddenly chuckled. When Fu Xi Yan looked over, he said: “If such a day really comes, it would indeed be one possible solution.”
Fu Xi Yan fell silent for a moment. “Then… maybe we should wait for Fifth Brother.”
Fu Li An and Fu Dong Wen were both foxes. If Fu Xi Yan dared covet one of their children, those two were absolutely capable of ruining his reputation in retaliation. Fifth Brother was better. Fifth Brother was easier to fool.
At that very moment, Fu Chen Xing was diligently doing his homework at the Fu residence in Jiangcheng. Suddenly, he sneezed violently. The almost-completed sheet of calligraphy before him was ruined. He rubbed his nose and looked out the window.
He wondered when Fourth Brother would finally return. More importantly… When would his beloved balance between work and leisure return?
As though some mysterious connection had allowed him to hear his adorable Fifth Brother’s summons, Fu Xi Yan arrived at the Fu residence by carriage before sunset. After Fu Fu had taken office in Jiangcheng, Madam Fu had purchased this new house. Its outer wall stretched along nearly half the street. It was extremely imposing.
Across the road stood the residence where Aunt Qin and Aunt Hong were temporarily staying. They had already delivered the betrothal gifts and were preparing to handle both the setting of the wedding date and the welcoming ceremony. Had Fu Xi Yan not intended to return to Jiangcheng, he probably would already have received letters urging him to hurry back.
Fu Xi Yan and Pei Yuan Jin parted at the entrances to their respective residences.
For one thing, Aunt Qin and Aunt Hong were Pei Yuan Jin’s family. After returning from such a long journey, he naturally ought to visit his elders first. For another… Fu Xi Yan wanted to speak with Fu Fu alone. If the result went badly… Then naturally there would be no reason for Pei Yuan Jin to come over afterward.
Before entering, Fu Xi Yan took a deep breath. He calmed his nerves. Then, with footsteps that appeared steady but felt impossibly heavy, he walked into the Fu residence one step at a time.
Fu Fu had already returned from his office and had been preparing for dinner. The instant he heard Fu Xi Yan was back, he ordered the steward to add more dishes. Then Fu Fu seated himself ceremoniously in the reception hall. Practically with his tail raised, he waited for the newly appointed Mirror Master to come pay respects.
No matter what achievements his son obtained outside… Fu Fu was still his father.
Madam Fu watched his smug appearance and could not resist smacking him once.
Fu Fu’s excellent mood was interrupted. He looked displeased. “What?”
Madam Fu said, “Show some restraint. There is a difference between a father taking pride in his son and a petty man intoxicated by sudden success.”
Fu Fu: “…”
After Madam Fu’s correction, the father Fu Xi Yan finally encountered was once again a normal father.
More than half a year had passed. Nobody in the Fu family seemed particularly different. There was naturally plenty of fussing over whether he had eaten well, slept well, stayed warm, and suffered any hardships. But everyone treated him so familiarly that it almost felt as though Fu Xi Yan had merely stepped outside to buy soy sauce and come straight back.
Only during dinner, when several of Fu Fu’s concubines curiously asked about the Southern Yu imperial palace and the Heaven-and-Earth Mirror, did Fu Xi Yan begin recounting events one after another. Only then did he suddenly realize… He really had been away from home for a very long time.
After dinner, Madam Fu stood and led the others away. Fu Xi Yan watched the room gradually empty. His heart suddenly began pounding. It felt almost exactly like failing an exam and then needing a parent’s signature on the paper.
Fu Li An seemed to notice his unease. As he left, he patted Fu Xi Yan on the shoulder.
… Yep. Definitely my biological eldest brother. Never short on comfort and encouragement. Never available when I need someone to take the blame.
Fu Xi Yan served himself another bowl of soup.
Fu Fu frowned. “The soup is already cold. If you want more, have the kitchen heat it.” Then he looked at him. “Speak. What happened?”
Fu Xi Yan awkwardly lowered the bowl. He could not begin with something too serious. He needed to approach it gradually. Let Fu Fu accept things little by little. When Fu Xi Yan himself had first read his mother’s letter, even describing the sensation as heaven collapsing and earth splitting had felt inadequate. Fortunately, he was young. His heart and blood pressure were both healthy enough to survive the impact. Fu Fu, however, was not young anymore. He could not be subjected to too much shock.
Fu Xi Yan thought carefully. Then cautiously said: “There’s been a problem in the inner courtyard.”
Fu Fu was horrified. “Your inner courtyard has a problem?!” Fu Xi Yan’s “inner courtyard” was Pei Yuan Jin, wasn’t it? Could there be another person? And regardless of who that second person might be, the mere fact that one existed meant there was definitely a problem!
It was only early autumn, yet cold sweat immediately appeared across Fu Fu’s forehead.
Fu Xi Yan saw that he had frightened him half to death and hurriedly denied it. “No, no!” “I mean there’s been a problem in your inner courtyard.”
Fu Fu relaxed and sat back down. “That’s all right, then.” Then he paused. “Wait.” “What happened in my inner courtyard?”
Elio’s Notes: 后院, literally “back courtyard,” can refer to the women and domestic relationships of a traditional household, especially wives and concubines. Fu Xi Yan is trying to gently approach the subject of his mother and parentage. Fu Fu immediately assumes his son has somehow acquired romantic drama involving Pei Yuan Jin, which is why he nearly breaks into a cold sweat.