The little disturbance at the banquet had rattled quite a few people in the Sheng family, but it hadn’t affected Ziqing and her group at all.

Everyone continued drinking and enjoying themselves, and it wasn’t until the old master had drunk himself into a stupor and been carried off by his maidservants that the banquet finally broke up.

“Xiaosheng, why don’t you come to my room tonight? Mother has something to tell you,” Madam Sheng said gently. Even though in her heart she longed for Baili Xiaosheng to spend the night with her, her tone remained one of gentle suggestion rather than demand.

Baili Xiaosheng hesitated. She knew that Auntie Qing and the others were eager to hear the sheng and xiao play together, eager to find that last missing note!

But before Baili Xiaosheng could make up her mind, Ziqing smiled and patted her on the shoulder. “Go on, girl. I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”

Warmth spread through Baili Xiaosheng’s heart, and she nodded firmly. “Mm, I’ll come find you all tomorrow morning!”

That was really them setting a time to meet, though of course Madam Sheng didn’t catch the hidden meaning.

With that, everyone went their separate ways. Baili Xiaosheng personally supported her mother back to her room, while Jun Beiyue and the others followed the steward toward the guest quarters.

Xiong Xiaobao generally didn’t like playing third wheel, and usually slept curled up against Jue Mingzi. Tonight, though, he strangely stayed in Ziqing’s room, showing no sign of leaving.

Ziqing finished making up the bed and turned to find Jun Beiyue and Xiong Xiaobao standing by the window, one on each side, both lost in thought.

The two of them, one tall and one small, framed against the night scene, made quite the picture.

Looking at Jun Beiyue’s expression, anyone who didn’t know better might have thought he was pining for some woman. And looking at Xiong Xiaobao propping his chin up with both hands, one might just as easily have thought the same of him.

Ziqing smiled to herself and was about to ask what was on their minds, but she held back, settling herself comfortably at the head of the bed and quietly watching the backs of her husband and son.

She’d been so busy, running around constantly, that she hadn’t even had time to sit and really look at her husband and son.

She suddenly realized how much Xiong Xiaobao had grown taller—from the side, both his features and his expression increasingly resembled Jun Beiyue’s.

It was only in noticing how much the child had grown that she suddenly noticed how much time had passed.

Suddenly, Xiong Xiaobao let out a sigh.

That caught Ziqing off guard, and Jun Beiyue turned to look at him suspiciously as well—since when had this little brat learned to sigh?

“What’s wrong?” Jun Beiyue asked.

“Bored,” Xiong Xiaobao answered.

“Go to sleep if you’re bored,” Jun Beiyue said.

“Unfortunately, I can’t sleep,” Xiong Xiaobao replied.

“Go outside, then, if you can’t sleep,” Jun Beiyue said.

“Aren’t you going to ask me why I can’t sleep?” Xiong Xiaobao asked very earnestly.

“Do I need to know?” Jun Beiyue shot back.

“But I want to tell you,” Xiong Xiaobao insisted, still perfectly serious.

“Go ahead, then,” Jun Beiyue said, patience intact.

Ziqing was long used to this father-son back-and-forth. She thought to herself that only Xiong Xiaobao could get Jun Beiyue to patiently indulge such a pointless conversation.

“Father, dearest, you know how ever since I met Baili Xiaosheng, I’ve been putting my hands all over her, and I’ve even slept under the same roof, in the same bed as her—shouldn’t I take responsibility for her?”

The moment those words left his mouth, Ziqing spat out the mouthful of tea she’d been holding, nearly choking on it.

Jun Beiyue’s mouth twitched. For the first time in his life, he felt utterly defeated.

He remembered that at Xiong Xiaobao’s age, he himself hadn’t cared for women at all—no, to be precise, he hadn’t cared for any woman until he met the boy’s mother.

This little brat, how could he already be like this at such a young age…

Wait, no. Jun Beiyue suddenly turned serious. “What do you mean, ‘hands all over her’?”

“I mean I put my arm around her shoulders every day, and I often… often hold her hand,” Xiong Xiaobao confessed honestly.

“So?” Jun Beiyue asked.

“So I’ve been struggling with it—she’s a girl after all, shouldn’t I take responsibility for her?” Xiong Xiaobao said it with utmost seriousness, as though this were a grave question of life itself.

“Does your mother know you’re this precocious?” Jun Beiyue asked, frowning.

“I don’t know anything about this!” Ziqing immediately denied.

Ziqing knew her son was mentally precocious, even more clever than plenty of adults, but when it came to romantic matters between men and women, he shouldn’t know anything about that!

Could it be from spending so much time with that wretched old scholar, picking up bad habits?

Xiong Xiaobao glanced at his very startled father and mother, shrugged helplessly, then acted as though nothing at all had happened. He lay down on the bed, rolled over, and within moments had fallen asleep.

Well, it seemed that once he’d gotten what was on his mind off his chest, he really could sleep soundly.

Ziqing and Jun Beiyue sat at the edge of the bed, exchanging glances. After a long while, Jun Beiyue finally spoke, quite seriously. “That girl is a bit older than him, but…”

Ziqing cut him off immediately. “I really can’t see that girl having any feelings for our son!”

“He’s still young,” Jun Beiyue said with a laugh.

“You know he’s still young too,” Ziqing shot him a sideways glance, then turned to look at her peacefully sleeping son, a faint unease stirring in her heart.

If she wasn’t mistaken, Baili Xiaosheng had a complex about her teacher!

Trouble. This was genuinely troublesome.

She could only hope this was just innocent, thoughtless child’s talk, said in jest.

Seeing Ziqing take it so seriously, Jun Beiyue laughed instead. “Are you actually taking this to heart? The boy isn’t even ten yet. Wait until he’s grown, and if you bring up what he said today, he’ll deny it for sure!”

Whether Jun Beiyue’s words would prove right or wrong, only the years to come would tell.

Ziqing shrugged, not dwelling on the matter any further, and asked instead, “What were you just thinking about?”

“Wondering if there should be news of Baili Weisheng by now,” Jun Beiyue said, turning serious at last.

Given Meng Wanyue’s temperament, it wasn’t like her to take Xuanyuan Lige away and remain silent for this long—she surely had some purpose in mind.

Even though it concerned his own mother, Jun Beiyue didn’t hold back from discussing it.

It had been so long now, and not only was there no news of Baili Weisheng, there was no news of the Dream Clan either!

Baili Weisheng had also been the one tracking the Dream Clan’s whereabouts, and within Nanzhao’s borders, his network of influence was far greater than Jun Beiyue’s own.

The Jade Water Nectar Gathering had already concluded, and there was still no word at all—how could that not be worrying?

Ziqing had also been considering this problem, a complicated look flashing through her eyes. She knew that if something had happened to Baili Weisheng, Meng Wanyue would surely be tied up in it somehow.

“Let’s set out for Da Zhou tomorrow,” Ziqing said seriously. Only once they reached Da Zhou would they be able to move freely and search for people properly—here, their hands were tied in every way, all manner of things inconvenient.

That night, Xiong Xiaobao, who claimed he couldn’t sleep, slept like a log, while Ziqing and Jun Beiyue both lay awake the whole night through.

Ziqing waited, and before the sky had even fully brightened, Baili Xiaosheng came slipping through the darkness to find her.

“Auntie Qing, there’s a cave in the mountains behind the estate. Let’s go there,” Baili Xiaosheng said in a low voice.

Even though she could say with near-total confidence that they’d find that last missing note, Ziqing still felt a flutter of nerves.

She hauled Xiong Xiaobao up by force and immediately followed Baili Xiaosheng out.

Baili Xiaosheng had been born with a natural gift for playing the sheng. As for Xiong Xiaobao, whether it was some affinity with the white jade xiao or whether he’d inherited Ziqing’s gift for music, his mastery over the instrument had already been made clear by the incident where he’d summoned the sea serpent.

Carried on Jun Beiyue’s shoulders, Xiong Xiaobao hung upside-down, watching Baili Xiaosheng and wondering what she’d look like if she were dressed as a girl.