The atmosphere in the reception hall grew somewhat tense. Feng Lao’s expression darkened—he probably hadn’t expected my attitude to be so hostile.
At the very least, I had to give Liu Xuanyi some face.
But to my surprise, Liu Xuanyi took my hand and said affectionately, “Alright, if you say we won’t help, then we won’t. Chang Di, see our guest out.”
Chang Di said, “Feng Lao, please.”
Feng Lao didn’t move, restraining himself as he said, “Fifth Master Chang, the Yin Escort Bureau bears the Liu surname, not the Huai surname. Whether to help or not shouldn’t be decided by an outsider.”
Liu Xuanyi raised my hand wearing the snake ring and shrugged. “My apologies, Feng Lao, but the Yin Escort Bureau now bears the Huai surname, not the Liu surname. Huai Yan has never been an outsider.”
My heart trembled. Feng Lao’s eyes flickered, his face filled with disbelief.
I steadied myself and declared firmly, “The Feng family broke the agreement first, severing the ties between our two families with their own hands. So today, whether I, Huai Yan, help the Feng family is a matter of goodwill, but not helping is my duty.”
With that, I turned to leave.
Feng Lao abruptly stood up, urgently saying, “Huai Yan, don’t you want to know who took your grandmother’s body?”
I snorted coldly and didn’t stop walking.
Of course, I wanted to know who had taken my grandmother’s body. I had even pleaded with the Feng family before, but now, it was unnecessary.
Compared to Feng Lao, I trusted Liu Xuanyi more.
“Huai Yan, my grandson has been in a deep slumber for ten years, all because of you. Back then, your grandmother and I had an agreement: if the curse on you awakened, the engagement would be terminated immediately to avoid backlash…”
Before he could finish, I retorted, “Feng Lao, didn’t I take the initiative to break off the engagement?”
Feng Lao was immediately silenced.
I had gone to break off the engagement, but he had hypocritically refused.
Now he still had the audacity to shift the blame onto me. Was I, Huai Yan, made of clay, just standing here to be trampled on?
Feng Lao’s face fell. He glanced at Liu Xuanyi several times, hoping he would step in to defuse the situation.
Liu Xuanyi sat there with his head lowered, sipping cold tea from his cup as if this matter had nothing to do with him.
Feng Lao, who had never been treated like this before, flicked his sleeve and stormed out of the courtyard.
Once I had completely calmed down, I suddenly felt uneasy.
Although Liu Xuanyi had given me the snake ring, the true master of the Yin Escort Bureau was him.
He had just returned, and his vitality hadn’t fully recovered. It was inappropriate for me to cause trouble for him.
Thinking this, I said guiltily, “I… I shouldn’t have been so aggressive, should I?”
“Why shouldn’t you?”
Liu Xuanyi set down his teacup and leaned lazily into the armchair. “The Yin Escort Bureau operates as a business, not a charity. The Feng family is asking for a favor—shouldn’t they show the utmost sincerity?”
Chang Di, who had been standing to the side, finally couldn’t hold back and grumbled, “Fifth Brother, you’re just spoiling her. The Chang and Feng families have been friends for generations—what good does it do to offend him?”
Liu Xuanyi sneered, “Am I afraid of him?”
His attitude left Chang Di fuming but unable to speak up. Covering his backside, he stomped out angrily.
Liu Xuanyi beckoned me over. I walked to him, and he wrapped his long arm around my waist, pulling me onto his lap.
I shifted uncomfortably, and he pinched my waist. “You’re all skin and bones. I’ll have Shen Li prepare something nutritious for you later.”
I grabbed his wandering hand, my face flushed as I changed the subject. “What happened to Feng Lao’s grandson?”
Liu Xuanyi then spoke seriously: “His name is Feng Yuejiu, born on the same day as you, at exactly one o’clock in the afternoon on the second day of the second lunar month.”
“Pure Yang fate?”
I was particularly sensitive to this date because I was born at one o’clock in the morning on the second day of the second lunar month.
Grandmother once said that if I were a boy, born at noon on that day, I would have a Pure Yang fate, and the curse of Dragon-Locking Village would not have fallen upon me.
But I happened to be a girl, born at one in the morning, with a fate that was precisely the opposite.
“Feng Yuejiu’s Pure Yang fate is even more intense than most. He was born with crimson eyes, his heart fire like magma, burning his skin until it cracked and split. The Feng family kept him in a cold spring pool for twelve years to preserve his life, until your grandmother sought them out.”
“The Feng family agreed to arrange a marriage contract with Grandmother to balance our fates?”
“That was originally a win-win solution, but no one expected that on the day the marriage contract was signed, Feng Yuejiu fell into a coma and slept for ten years. Although his vital signs remained stable, how could the Feng family’s sole heir remain asleep forever?”
The information was overwhelming, and my mind raced to analyze it: “So Feng Yuejiu fell into a coma because of my counteraction. Feng Lao wants to kill me, burn the marriage contract, and dissolve the engagement to save his grandson.”
Liu Xuanyi nodded.
“Wait, that doesn’t make sense. If Feng Lao is taking such a desperate gamble, why wait ten years?”
Liu Xuanyi smiled with satisfaction. “So someone must have told him there was another way to save Feng Yuejiu.”
I suddenly understood. “That person is the one who took my grandmother’s body and set up this scheme!”
“An ancient turtle once lived beneath the Eastern Yi Salt Sea, shedding its shell once every ten thousand years. It is said that its shell is extremely cold, and if crushed and used as a catalyst, Feng Yuejiu might have a chance at survival.”
I abruptly pulled away from Liu Xuanyi, looking at him warily.
He laughed heartily. “Look how scared you are. Do you think I’m the one behind the scheme? Huai Yan, don’t forget, I also have a marriage contract with you.”
My palms were drenched in sweat, my heart pounding like thunder, unable to calm down for a long time.
The four marriage contracts bound me and their four families into a shared destiny—tugging one thread would affect the whole. Liu Xuanyi could not possibly be the one breaking the contract.
So who was the mastermind behind it all?
“Feng Lao sought out the Yin Escort Bureau because the Eastern Yi Salt Sea is an extremely Yin place. In this world, the only one who could help him retrieve the turtle shell from there is my Yin Escort Bureau, led by Fifth Master Chang of Cangshan.”
“Is this the real reason you want me to reopen the Yin Escort Bureau?”
This move of luring the enemy into a trap was truly brilliant.
The mastermind behind it all used the news of the ancient turtle in the Eastern Yi Salt Sea to provoke Feng Lao. Feng Lao, to save his grandson, set a scheme to harm me and break off the engagement. But he likely only realized afterward that the turtle’s shell would not be easy to obtain.
At that very moment, the Yin Escort Bureau happened to reopen for business, and he rushed to seek help, never expecting that Liu Xuanyi would give me the snake ring.
“Wait, something still doesn’t add up. If Feng Lao knows the Yin Escort Bureau is run by you, Fifth Master Chang, why would he give me a paper talisman to harm you? That means the thing Feng Lao truly wanted to seal wasn’t you, and the thing suppressed in Dragon Locking Valley all along wasn’t you either!”
This explained why the Chang family was included in the four marriage contracts back then.
The other three families broke off their engagements, leaving only the Chang family. Liu Xuanyi kept me by his side, determined to protect me to the end.
This was his declaration to everyone that he, Liu Xuanyi, was confronting the true entity suppressed in Dragon Locking Valley.
If that was the case, why wouldn’t Liu Xuanyi help the Feng family?
He allowed me to disregard Feng Lao’s face and put on a full show, surely because he had a request.
I met Liu Xuanyi’s gaze again and asked in a low voice, “What exactly is the condition for helping the Feng family?”