The two entered the courtyard, stopped to discuss a few words, then Feiyu went forward while Tie Ci turned back and vaulted over the wall.

The main house still had its lights on – Pingzong wasn’t asleep.

Before entering, Feiyu looked at himself and made himself even more disheveled. His face needed no additional touches – when Chi Fengli had pursued them with fire earlier, many of his hairs had been singed off, making him sufficiently wretched-looking.

Then he burst inside.

The two serving girls couldn’t stop him as he rushed toward Pingzong: “Miss, save me!”

Pingzong had just finished washing and was preparing for bed when he suddenly burst in. After her initial fright came delight, and she quickly covered her chest with her hands.

In his haste, Feiyu had already caught a glimpse, but his thoughts drifted away from that honey-colored skin and slight curves, wandering to think – if it were her standing opposite him right now…

Thinking of how she disguised herself as a man so flawlessly in daily life, it must be quite flat as a pancake.

Though his mind wandered, his lines remained perfect: “Miss, your mother wants to kill me, quickly save me!”

Pingzong laughed, leaning down to cup his chin: “What about you? Have you changed your mind?”

Feiyu grabbed her fingers with a swift motion: “Life is more important after all, and you’re a beauty with good breeding – what would I be unwilling about? It’s just that your mother is hateful, insisting I have no background and am unworthy of you, only fit to serve privately where no one can see. This won’t do – the husband leads the wife. Even if I die, I cannot be beneath my wife. If you agree to my terms, I’ll agree to yours.”

Pingzong said joyfully, “When did I ever think of humiliating you? As long as you agree, I’ll naturally regard my husband as heaven.”

Feiyu asked, “What about your mother…”

“My mother can’t control these matters. As long as Aunt Xuan agrees, that’s enough.” Pingzong took Feiyu’s hand. “Come, follow me to see Aunt Xuan. You spoke rudely before – apologize to her. Aunt Xuan is the most gentle and kind person. She’ll surely forgive you. After that, we can ask her to arrange our wedding.”

Born and raised on the sea island like a princess, she spoke with complete candor and confidence about everything. Feiyu smiled too, and the two walked out hand in hand.

Meanwhile, Tie Ci headed toward Xuan Qiong’s residence – Chi Fengli had already pointed her in the right direction.

The three lived in three separate courtyards, all at some distance from each other. Comparatively, Xuan Qiong’s courtyard was somewhat closer to Guihai Sheng’s.

Xuan Qiong had also removed her hairpins and was talking with a servant girl beside her. The servant said, “This servant noticed Madam seemed displeased when she left. Should Miss go check on her?”

Xuan Qiong replied, “Sister is in poor spirits – I shouldn’t disturb her even more. Go tell the kitchen later to prepare calming porridge for Sister. Calculate the timing so it’s ready by dawn, and I’ll personally deliver it.”

The maid said, “If you sleep now and have to deliver porridge at dawn, you won’t sleep well.”

Xuan Qiong said, “Silly child, what does it matter if I don’t sleep well once or twice? As long as Sister is well, that’s what matters.”

The maid was moved: “Miss is truly too kind-hearted. No wonder both Master and Madam are fond of you.”

Tie Ci didn’t dare get too close, only catching a few vague sentences from afar, and was astounded.

This woman even had to deceive her personal serving maid.

Not a single honest word even in private.

Being so cautious made it rather difficult to get her to reveal her true thoughts.

She retreated and said to Chi Fengli waiting outside, “Madam, I have a few questions.”

After asking several questions, she added, “Please help me with something, Madam.”

Shortly after, Chi Fengli slapped her wheelchair, her form leaping up and disappearing into the darkness.

At this moment, Guihai Sheng was in the secret chamber of his bedroom, conducting his routine money-counting exercise upon each return.

He had no other hobbies in life, only loving gold, silver, and jewels. Especially jewels – gorgeous and brilliant, they made him feel good just looking at them.

Among jewels, he loved coral most, collecting various giant coral specimens over the years. Those familiar with him all catered to this preference. His treasure vault contained over ten coral trees of various sizes – opening the door would immediately flood the space with flowing treasure light that dazzled the eyes.

Today he opened the door as usual, closing his eyes before entering as usual – half from fear of being blinded by the treasure light, half for enjoyment.

However, when he closed his eyes today, everything around felt pitch black. He opened them in bewilderment, then let out a great cry.

Those dozen priceless coral trees were all gone! Atop the treasure basins were only coral fragments!

His corals had all been smashed by someone!

Guihai Sheng rushed forward frantically, looking left and right. Not only were the coral trees broken, but many of the jeweled landscapes, jade bottles, and precious vessels on the display shelves were also missing.

He hastily pulled open desk drawers to check – most of the banknotes hidden inside were also gone!

Guihai Sheng roared angrily and rushed out of the secret chamber, shouting, “Where is everyone! Come out, all of you!”

Several servants came running out in panic, but they knew nothing when questioned. These people only did rough work like cleaning – normally Guihai Sheng’s inner chambers were off-limits to everyone. As for guards and such, the entire island belonged to him, and with his supreme martial arts, he never needed such things.

After questioning for a long time with no results, Guihai Sheng felt extremely agitated. Thinking it over, only Xuan Qiong was most familiar with his secret chamber – she managed all his wealth single-handedly, and the chamber was only open to her. He immediately headed toward Xuan Qiong’s place.

Turning past a long corridor, just before reaching Xuan Qiong’s courtyard, two maids walked over from the other end of the gallery, talking as they walked.

From afar, Guihai Sheng caught words like “Madam Xuan” and “money,” so he instinctively stopped and hid behind flowering trees.

“Hong Yu, it’s not even dawn yet – why did I see you hurrying away from Madam Xuan’s courtyard?”

“Don’t you remember I’m on kitchen duty today? I just passed by Madam Xuan’s courtyard and saw busy activity there. I peeked and it looked like they were packing luggage. Madam Xuan’s maid carried out several bundles, and I saw the corner of one bundle – it was studded with gems!”

“Eh? Why pack luggage for no reason?”

“I don’t know. I heard that maid seemed to be congratulating her mistress, saying this matter was settled, and from now on she wouldn’t have to follow that old man without proper status, and could properly be an official’s wife.”

“Is she getting married? But Madam Xuan and Master… isn’t she afraid Master will settle accounts with her later?”

“You know Madam Xuan’s silver tongue – she can talk the dead back to life. Why would she fear not being able to placate Master? Besides, if she’s going to be an official’s wife, won’t she have protection? With her high martial arts skills, what can our Master do to her?”

“How much wealth did you see Madam Xuan taking? Doesn’t she always say she doesn’t love fame or profit, doesn’t like gold and silver, and even keeps her room as plain as a snow cave?”

“What person in this world truly doesn’t love money? It’s all just pretense. The chests and bundles she moved today could fill an entire cart – otherwise why would I be curious enough to sneak a peek?”

“That money wasn’t given to her by Master, was it?”

“Who knows? Anyway, Madam Xuan is formidable – accompanying Master for so many years, gaining his protection and support, earning money together, then finding a suitable person at the right time and marrying with a generous dowry. From now on she’ll have money and power – a perfectly fulfilled life.”

“True. I wondered how Madam Xuan could be willing to follow Master without proper status all this time – turns out this was her plan all along.”

The two maids’ figures disappeared in the distance, and Guihai Sheng emerged from behind the flowering trees.

The wind-like fury that had gathered throughout his body had dissipated, but thick sinister energy arose in his eyes. His hands nervously clenched and released, and with each motion the surrounding air crackled while leaves from the flowering trees scattered down in pieces.

He muttered to himself, “Getting married? No wonder she was so eager to urge me to destroy ocean-going merchant ships – turns out she’s gotten involved with Admiral Xiao? She’s taken my money and plans to become the Admiral’s wife?”

In his rage, his muttering was quite loud. Tie Ci, half-concealed as she passed from the other end of the gallery, had just forced those two servants to recite the story she’d concocted, then knocked them unconscious and hid them away. She was preparing to go to Guihai Sheng’s secret chamber to play more tricks when she faintly heard this sentence and was startled.

The business about Xuan Qiong taking money and getting married was naturally her handiwork. Since Guihai Sheng loved money like life itself and trusted Xuan Qiong completely, to create discord between them, money was the only way. Guihai Sheng’s years of enjoying Xuan Qiong’s love and devotion must have made him quite proud and pleased, but there must also be some underlying unease. Now revealing that Xuan Qiong wanted to marry someone else was like grabbing his proudest point and trampling it underfoot – the feelings of damaged pride and betrayal would surely provoke twelve parts worth of fury.

But Tie Ci hadn’t expected such a coincidence – the two apparently had connections with Yongping Naval Admiral Xiao Bi’an, and there was mention of raiding ocean-going merchant ships…

Yongping Prefecture originally had mediocre naval forces, but with pirates rampant in recent years, they’d been able to continuously expand their strength to today’s scale of thirty thousand naval troops and hundreds of warships. The court had always assumed those pirates were either maritime refugees or people deployed by Liaodong, but now it seemed that wasn’t the case at all.

Could it be that Xiao Bi’an was audacious enough to nurture pirates to expand his military?

Previously, these three from Guihai had controlled this sea area, built Ghost Island, and sucked blood from ordinary merchant ships passing through – part of the silver went to Guihai Sheng, but what about the other part?

To support troops?

Also, from Guihai Sheng’s tone, raiding ocean-going merchant ships was a first-time endeavor. Ocean-going merchant ships were mostly businesses of court bigwigs – even someone as arrogant as the Xiao family wouldn’t easily touch others’ cheese. To break precedent and act this time, what was the reason?

During this period, Tie Ci had been busy fleeing and hiding her identity, falling behind on court intelligence. But regardless, whatever the Xiao family wanted to do, she just needed to sabotage it.

Seeing Guihai Sheng rushing toward Xuan Qiong’s courtyard, she flashed away quickly, leaving the compound. She’d just whistled when Dan Shuang appeared.

Dan Shuang looked anxious: “What happened earlier? I saw quite a commotion in this courtyard, but for some reason I couldn’t get close at all.”

Tie Ci had previously instructed her not to approach this courtyard – after all, matters Tie Ci herself couldn’t handle would be suicide for Dan Shuang to attempt. Better to wait outside where she could at least relay messages.

Without saying much, Tie Ci asked if the islanders showed any unusual activity. Dan Shuang nodded, saying large groups of islanders had quietly assembled and left the island by boat in the middle of the night.

“Go rendezvous with Feiyu’s two guards. The three of you find a boat and follow behind those islanders, but don’t take action. Look for ocean-going merchant ships passing through this sea area. I suspect those islanders intend to attack merchant ships, but their ringleaders haven’t arrived yet, so they’ll wait awhile. Find a way to board the ocean-going merchant ship first, tell them pirates are about to raid, and have them prepare. You should also stay on the ship to help. After they begin attacking, make sure to capture someone alive.”

Dan Shuang nodded. Tie Ci thought further and added, “I’ll find a way to detain the key figure they’re targeting for this robbery. If the islanders can’t take the merchant ship, they should have backup. I want to catch this backup. Have the merchant ship’s guards control the pace – they can’t win too quickly or lose too quickly. Make it appear the islanders can roughly take the ship but are having some difficulty. Under these circumstances, a second wave of reinforcements will appear disguised as pirates. This second group is more important than the first. Remember?”

“Yes, Master can rest assured. Please take care of yourself and don’t be reckless.”

Tie Ci agreed, and seeing Dan Shuang hadn’t walked two steps when a tall figure flashed into view and made a satisfied “hmm.”

This was the proper attitude for pursuing girls.

She flashed back, returning to Guihai Sheng’s secret chamber to make further arrangements.

At this time, Guihai Sheng had reached Xuan Qiong’s courtyard, and Feiyu had also brought Pingzong over, though he didn’t let her enter. The two secretly crouched on the rooftop.

As soon as Guihai Sheng entered, he saw Xuan Qiong sitting properly dressed, lost in thought. Rage immediately rushed to his head and he snorted angrily.

Xuan Qiong had originally gone to bed, but suddenly the window paper made explosive sounds. When she got up to look, she found all the window paper torn to shreds, which greatly surprised her. In this world, there were very few people who could silently destroy window paper while she was in the room – all of them were people extremely familiar to her, and none would be bored enough to do such a thing. What was this about?

She felt somewhat uneasy, but after investigating with no results and unable to sleep peacefully, she dressed and sat under the lamp to apply a face mask.

Her looks were ordinary, so she was extremely attentive to her face, spending thousands on daily maintenance. Though no longer young, her skin remained as tender as a maiden’s, so as time passed and others’ beauty gradually declined, she actually appeared superior.

At this moment, she had applied a layer of pearl powder to her face. Ordinary people’s pearl powder was made from common pearls, but hers was made from flawless South Sea pearls the size of fingertips, mixed with precious fish gelatin that both moisturized and tightened the skin.

Now under the lamplight, as she raised her face, the newly applied fish gelatin and pearl powder made it shimmer brilliantly, her entire face glowing with the radiance of money.

She usually paid great attention to privacy – activities like removing makeup, skincare, and changing clothes were never allowed to be seen by Guihai Sheng. This was also the first time Guihai Sheng had seen her appearance after applying a face mask. The brightness made him squint, then immediately reminded him of his missing pearls and broken coral, instantly igniting his fury.

“Excellent! I wondered how this face could still be more delicate than Fengli’s,” he said. “Turns out she’s been piling my pearls on her face, forcibly grooming an old face into this condition. What, applying it until her face looks like a pearl, ready to marry a good man?!”