Mu Yunjin arrived alone at the marketplace. Whether it was due to her preconceived notions from the black market, as she now walked along the ordinary main street, Mu Yunjin felt that the bustling street had a somewhat subdued atmosphere.

Finding a small restaurant, Mu Yunjin sat in a corner, ordered several dishes, and then propped her chin on her hand, watching people come and go on the street.

“Meow~” Just as she sat down, a cat’s cry came from one side.

Mu Yunjin froze, and when she turned her head to look, she saw Qiqi wearing a black robe, with a large brim hiding the cat ears on top of her head.

“Qiqi?” Seeing Qiqi appear here, Mu Yunjin was somewhat surprised.

“Yes, it’s me.” Qiqi sat opposite Mu Yunjin and curled her lips into a smile. “Originally, Qiqi thought there was a problem with the spirit signal in the pavilion, but I didn’t expect it was the master who had come.”

Came?

Mu Yunjin caught the wording in Qiqi’s speech and raised an eyebrow at Qiqi before her. “Fengyu Pavilion is here?”

“Yes, it’s under Yanxi Pool in the suburbs,” Qiqi said.

…

…

Mu Yunjin’s brows furrowed slightly. The suburbs? Yanxi Pool? Wasn’t that where she had just been washing her hands with Chu Li?

“The pavilion is under that stream?” Mu Yunjin sighed inwardly at how incredible it was.

Qiqi nodded, poured a cup of water, took a sip, and nodded again. “Just now, the spirit signal in the pavilion lit up, indicating that the master had appeared in Zhangzhou City. Many subordinates wanted to meet you, the new pavilion master.”

“So, Qiqi came specially to find the master, to ask if the master would be willing to go with Qiqi to the pavilion to meet the other subordinates?”

Mu Yunjin instinctively shook her head in refusal. “No, no, I’m not ready to meet them yet, and I came here today with Chu Li to handle some matters.”

After speaking, Mu Yunjin pursed her lips and silently thought to herself that her current half-baked state was hardly suitable for being the leader of a pavilion. If she disappointed those subordinates who had been eagerly anticipating meeting her, it wouldn’t be good.

“Then I’ll listen to the master for now.” Qiqi smiled. At that moment, the waiter brought several dishes, and Qiqi sniffed her nose before her eyes brightened. “Wow, there’s braised fish!”

“Boss, please add another set of bowls and chopsticks.”

For the time that followed, Mu Yunjin ate her meal, but most of her attention was on Qiqi, who was burying her head in the fish in front of her.

Looking at the stack of small plates on the side, she then heard Qiqi call out, “Boss, please prepare another braised fish, a steamed fish, and a sweet and sour fish for me!”

“Coming right up!”

Mu Yunjin’s lips curved into a smile as she looked at Qiqi’s ears, which were raised high despite being covered by a hat. She teased, “Cats love to eat fish, but don’t they also eat mice? What about you, do you eat mice?”

“Pah!” Qiqi immediately spat out a mouthful of fish meat and looked at Mu Yunjin with a frown. “Master, I am a cat spirit, half-human and half-cat. Mice are not for humans to eat.”

Mu Yunjin covered her mouth and laughed, seeing her bitter face, and joked, “Alright, alright, you continue eating your fish.”

……

“I’m so full.” Half an hour later, Qiqi leaned back in her chair, burped, and gently stroked her belly.

Mu Yunjin’s eyes contained laughter as she glanced at the empty dishes on the table, then suddenly remembered that Chu Li was still in the residence and didn’t know if he had eaten.

After some thought, Mu Yunjin called the waiter again and instructed him to prepare a few more dishes to take away.

Watching this scene, Qiqi shook her head helplessly. “Are all married women like you?”

“Ahem…” Mu Yunjin was choked by a mouthful of tea. When Qiqi mentioned Chu Li, she suddenly remembered something. “Oh right, the Huayue House that I asked you to investigate that day, have you found anything?”

“Of course.” Qiqi raised an eyebrow, took a sip of water, looked around, and leaned closer to Mu Yunjin. “Across the entire Canghua Continent, there’s one place with a Huayue House and one place with a Yuehua House, and both are brothels.”

“Where are they?” Mu Yunjin looked at Qiqi, waiting for what would follow.

Qiqi smiled. “The Huayue House is in Xinyao City in the Western Yuan Kingdom, while the Yuehua House is in the Eastern Lin Kingdom. But whether these two brothels have any connection, I don’t know.”

Xinyao City…

Mu Yunjin frowned slightly. She hadn’t heard of this city before, and also didn’t know if the Huayue House was the one operated by Chu Qingchang in the background.

The Yuehua House in the Eastern Lin Kingdom was probably just a coincidental name similarity.

“How far is Xinyao City from here?” Mu Yunjin looked at Qiqi and asked.

“About two hours or so,” Qiqi answered.

After a pause, Qiqi seemed to think of something and added, “Master, you haven’t heard of Xinyao City? The city lord of Xinyao City, Qu Xinyao, is quite an extraordinary woman.”

“What makes her extraordinary?” Mu Yunjin raised her eyebrows slightly, becoming somewhat curious.

“That Xinyao City was originally called Xinjia City. It was renamed Xinyao City, which is a homophone of Qu Xinyao’s name. Qu Xinyao is twenty-one this year and, like the Qin siblings, is a disciple of the Taoist Qiuye. She is the senior sister of the Qin siblings and has mastered great martial arts.”

“Later, when Qu Xinyao was eighteen, she caught the eye of the current Western Ming Emperor, who was visiting Qiuye Mountain. He wanted her to enter the palace as a consort. Qu Xinyao refused to submit, even at the cost of her life, and fought with the imperial guards that the Western Ming Emperor had brought to Qiuye Mountain. And guess what happened?”

“With her strength alone, she wiped out over five hundred imperial guards, leaving the Western Ming Emperor dumbfounded, not daring to mention taking her as a consort again. But Qu Xinyao’s massacre on Qiuye Mountain disgraced her school, and she was expelled from the sect by Taoist Qiuye on the spot. Later, it was said that the Western Ming Emperor truly admired Qu Xinyao and, seeing her expelled from the sect and pitiful, gave her Xinjia City to be the city lord. Qu Xinyao, being a willful person, renamed Xinjia City to Xinyao City on her first day in office.”

“The Western Ming Emperor saw this and turned a blind eye. Now, among the many cities in the Western Yuan Kingdom, Qu Xinyao’s Xinyao City is the most well-governed and orderly.”

Mu Yunjin listened to Qiqi’s long explanation and nodded understandingly, feeling some admiration for this Qu Xinyao in her heart.

However, hearing that the Qin siblings were mentioned again, Mu Yunjin sighed slightly. “So they were once from the same sect.”

“Yes, but in recent years, Qu Xinyao seems to particularly despise the Qin family. Just recently, the Western Ming Emperor invited Qu Xinyao to attend the Qin family’s celebration banquet, but she refused and added something like…”

Qiqi tilted her head and thought for a moment, stroking her ears. After a while, she finally remembered and exclaimed, “She said, ‘Is a celebration banquet of despicable villains worthy of her attendance?'”

Despicable villains…

Mu Yunjin raised an eyebrow and smiled while pursing her lips. “This Qu Xinyao is interesting.”

“I heard all this from Fish Granny in the pavilion, who knows everything. Fish Granny also said that Qu Xinyao and the newly appointed city lord of Heyue City, Xu Heyu, have an ambiguous relationship!”

……

Time passed unknowingly for more than an hour. Mu Yunjin had chatted leisurely with Qiqi for a long time before stopping their conversation. After settling the bill, they came out of the restaurant.

Mu Yunjin held several hot meals in her hand and looked at Qiqi beside her. “I need to go back now. You should go back early too.”

Qiqi nodded, sniffed the food in Mu Yunjin’s hand, and smiled at Mu Yunjin. “Thank you for the treat today, master.”

Mu Yunjin smiled gently and reached through the hat to stroke Qiqi’s raised cat ears. “So cute.”

“Meow meow meow~” Qiqi called out coyly to Mu Yunjin a few times, then waved goodbye, her figure disappearing into the street.

Mu Yunjin shook her head helplessly, carrying the food and walking back to the residence.

Upon returning to the residence, the main gate was still tightly closed. When Mu Yunjin pushed the door open, she saw Chu Li sitting in the courtyard playing chess with Huang Yan.

Seeing the chess playing scene again, Mu Yunjin took a deep breath, walked over, and placed the food on the table.

“Eat while it’s hot.”

Chu Li glanced at the food Mu Yunjin had brought back, and the hand holding the white chess piece momentarily froze.

Seeing that Chu Li hadn’t moved for a moment, Mu Yunjin slightly raised her eyebrows. “What’s wrong, not to your taste?”

“No.” Chu Li shook his head, picked up the chopsticks, and slowly and methodically took a bite of the food.

Seeing this, Mu Yunjin curved her lips into a smile, sat down in the chair, and looked at the half-played chessboard in front of her. “What’s so good about this chess game? I can see that Huang Yan has never won.”

“Pfft…” Huang Yan spat out a mouthful of rice, wiped his mouth, and said, “Hey, don’t underestimate me. I’m still a master gambler after all.”

“Have you ever won?” Mu Yunjin raised an eyebrow, with a hint of probing in her eyes.

Under Mu Yunjin’s meaningful gaze, Huang Yan felt somewhat guilty, lowered his eyes, and said softly, “No…”

“That’s what I thought.” Mu Yunjin shrugged, poured herself a cup of water. She had been chatting with Qiqi for a long time and was now rather thirsty.

After taking a few sips of water, Mu Yunjin thought of Xinyao City that Qiqi had mentioned earlier and couldn’t help but look at Chu Li. “Do you have any secret business in Xinyao City?”

Chu Li put down his chopsticks and frowned slightly. “Why do you ask?”

“Heyue City and Zhangzhou City aren’t much fun. I want to go to Xinyao City to have a look,” Mu Yunjin said.

Hearing this, Chu Li gave a faint “hmm,” and after a while, the corner of his lips curved into a smile with an unclear meaning. “Xinyao City might be even more boring for you.”

“Why?” Mu Yunjin frowned slightly, seeming not to understand Chu Li’s meaning.

“You’ll know next time,” Chu Li said.

Mu Yunjin understood yet didn’t understand Chu Li’s words, but hearing him say “next time,” she estimated that Chu Li might have some business or secrets in Xinyao City as well, and he might go to Xinyao City at any time.

Thinking of this, Mu Yunjin smiled with joy.

“This is for you.” Noticing the smile on Mu Yunjin’s face, Chu Li pulled out a bank note from his sleeve and handed it to Mu Yunjin.

Mu Yunjin reached out to take the bank note, her smile growing even deeper. She stuffed it into her bosom with satisfaction and looked at Chu Li with admiration. “You work efficiently.”

“Hey, hey, hey, I won the money, I exchanged the bank note. Can’t you show some gratitude to me?” Huang Yan interrupted from the side.

Hearing this, Mu Yunjin raised her eyebrows, pointed to Chu Li beside her, and said, “You call him ‘Young Master,’ I am the Young Master’s wife. It’s your job to handle matters for the Young Master’s wife.”

Huang Yan’s words caught in his throat, choked by Mu Yunjin’s words, and for a moment, he couldn’t think of a rebuttal.

He sent a pleading look towards Chu Li, only to see that Chu Li’s eyes now contained a faint smile, and his gentle gaze passed over Mu Yunjin.

Seeing this, Huang Yan widened his eyes, looking at this scene as if he had seen a ghost. He had known Chu Li for a full five years, and in five years, he had never seen him smile once, always maintaining a clear and cold demeanor.

Today was truly like seeing a ghost, as he was smiling so tenderly at a woman.