As he spoke, Xu Qi’an lit the candle on the table with a flick of his finger. The warm orange light dispelled the darkness.

The Flower Goddess sat on the edge of the bed, one hand pressing her collar, the other pointing at Xu Qi’an as she scolded: “Pah! You audacious little beast! If you dare touch me, I’ll scream for help and ruin your reputation. Let’s see if your Second Uncle and Aunt don’t beat you to death!”

The woman by the bed had her beautiful hair falling lazily around her shoulders, her features as delicate as a painting. She seemed to have fully embraced her role as an elder, her brows furrowed, perfectly blending “trying hard to maintain stern authority while inwardly timid” with “panic at impending misconduct.”

Her delicate eye bags and watery beautiful eyes created an exquisite look capable of stirring any man’s desires. The way she tightly gripped her collar only emphasized her affected sternness.

Xu Qi’an had thought he was fully accustomed to the Flower Goddess’s charm and wouldn’t be overwhelmed by desire… but he was still too young.

Playing along, he showed a pampered young master’s smile and delivered the classic line: “To die beneath peonies—even as a ghost I’d be romantic. Even if you scream until your throat breaks, no one will come to save you.”

He flicked his finger, and his qi spread like a barrier, covering the roof beams and containing all sound within the room. This wasn’t a formation or spell, but the most basic application of qi control.

Mu Nanzhi retreated in “fear,” shrinking from the bedside to the inner wall. She said tremblingly: “I-I still have a demon race guard.”

As she spoke, she looked toward the fox cub curled up sleeping by the pillow.

A cub as a guard… Xu Qi’an almost couldn’t hold back his laughter. He instantly understood Mu Nanzhi’s meaning and swept his hand toward the bed head, collecting Bai Ji into the Pagoda treasure.

Now there was no one left to disturb them.

[The next several paragraphs have been tastefully condensed to maintain appropriate content while preserving the plot progression]

Sometime later, after they had finished, Xu Qi’an bent down to kiss her snow-white neck.

Mu Nanzhi lay languidly on the round table, murmuring: “I want to cultivate the Dao. I also want to become an Earthly Immortal.”

“I’ve filled you with so much qi—wouldn’t it be a waste to cultivate the Dao? If you practice martial arts, you could reach transcendence in at most two years.”

“I don’t want to. I just want to be an Earthly Immortal.”

Their voices gradually quieted as the bed curtains began swaying again in the wind.

…

The next day.

Auntie rose with dark circles under her eyes, looking exhausted as Green’e helped her dress.

Xu Pingzhi hadn’t slept all night, alternating between tossing and turning in bed and sitting dazed at the table, preventing Auntie from sleeping well as he frequently woke her.

Auntie could understand her husband’s feelings. Xu Pingzhi often spoke of how in his youth, after losing both parents, he and his elder brother had depended on each other to survive.

No matter how deranged Xu Pingfeng became later, Auntie believed the brotherly affection from those years couldn’t have been fake.

But so what? What did that have to do with her? She only knew that Xu Pingfeng was a cold-blooded beast who had tried to kill the child she had raised.

So Auntie hadn’t offered a single word of comfort last night.

She was already virtuous enough not to celebrate Xu Pingfeng getting his just deserts with gongs and drums.

“Still drinking, reeking of alcohol…”

Auntie waved her small hand in disgust and said: “Clear away the empty bottles on the table.”

After instructing Green’e, she walked to the window and opened it. The cool air hit her face, refreshing her spirits.

Suddenly, her gaze focused as she looked across the courtyard and saw her unfortunate nephew walking out of the room diagonally opposite.

“So early in the morning, why is he coming out of Sister’s room…”

Auntie’s heart tightened as she frowned her delicate brows and said sternly: “Green’e, come with me!”

Her skirts flew, and she strode out of the room.

…

Mu Nanzhi lay curled up exhausted on the messy bed, her beautiful hair disheveled. Hearing the door open and close, she muttered: “Little beast…”

Just as she finished muttering, she sensed something and opened her eyes to see the little beast who had tormented her all night emerging from the shadows under the round table.

“Auntie just saw me leaving your room,” Xu Qi’an said, watching Mu Nanzhi’s expression change dramatically as he gloated. “So I plan to come back and announce our true relationship, to stop you from taking advantage of me.”

Let you die of embarrassment too!

Mu Nanzhi jumped up from the bed in panic, one hand clutching the thin quilt to cover her graceful figure while crouching down to gather her scattered underthings from the floor.

Given the chaos in the room, even if Auntie didn’t see a man when she opened the door, she would know that she had been with a man last night.

How could she stay at the Xu Manor with any face left?

If only she had known and openly admitted her relationship with Xu Qi’an from the start, no one could have found fault. But she had to act as sworn sisters with his aunt, and now if word got out, she would be known for seducing her sworn sister’s nephew.

The Flower Goddess cared about face.

At this moment, footsteps approached, reaching the door.

Mu Nanzhi suddenly raised her head to look at the door, appearing about to cry.

Holding back his laughter, Xu Qi’an used his qi to control objects and clean up the messy room. The broken teacups and teapots flew up and disappeared into his chest, entering the Book of Earth fragment.

The undergarments flew up nimbly and hung neatly on the clothes rack.

Water splashed around the bathtub automatically evaporated, and the scattered items on the desk returned to their original positions.

The extinguished sandalwood in the golden beast censer spontaneously relit, its smoke curling upward to disperse any lingering scents.

He had deliberately let Auntie see him to get revenge on the Flower Goddess and make her die of embarrassment—otherwise, how could the timing have been so perfect?

But seeing her panicked, tearful expression, Xu Qi’an’s heart softened.

After all, the Flower Goddess was his wife, different from his fox friends in the Heaven and Earth Society.

Just as he finished restoring everything to its proper place, there was a knock at the outer door and Auntie’s voice: “Sister, are you awake?”

“Y-yes…” Mu Nanzhi looked at Xu Qi’an, her eyes wide as she mouthed urgently: You need to leave quickly.

Xu Qi’an melted into a shadow and vanished from the room.

Mu Nanzhi looked around, saw there were no obvious signs left, quickly climbed into bed and covered herself completely, then replied in a pinched voice: “Come in, the door isn’t locked.”

Indeed the door wasn’t locked, as Xu Qi’an had just left.

Auntie pushed open the door and instinctively scanned the room, looking in turn at the bed with its hanging curtains, the round table, and the bathtub behind the screen.

Finally, her gaze returned to the bed as she walked over with Green’e, saying: “I just saw Big Brother coming out of your room.”

Auntie’s straightforward personality was fully evident.

Mu Nanzhi was embarrassed for a moment, as the words sounded like she was asking: Why would a man be coming out of your room so early in the morning? What did you do last night?!

“Last night I think I caught a chill and couldn’t sleep all night, my head aching terribly,” Mu Nanzhi raised her hand to pinch between her brows, her voice weak: “This morning I had Bai Ji asked Lieutenant Xu to help check on me. Fortunately, it wasn’t serious—Lieutenant Xu just transferred some qi to me and said I should feel better after some rest.”

So that’s what it was… Auntie believed her, examining Mu Nanzhi for a moment and noting that her good sister’s eyes did show unmistakable signs of exhaustion as if she hadn’t slept all night.

“That makes sense. Big Brother is now some kind of First Rank warrior, seemingly very powerful. If you have any troubles or feel unwell, finding him would certainly resolve things.” Auntie felt there was nothing wrong with how she had handled it, and said: “I’ll have Green’e stay and look after you.”

Completely naked under the covers, Mu Nanzhi didn’t dare let anyone stay in the room and quickly shook her head: “Ning Yan said I just need to sleep and I’ll be fine. I think what I need most is quiet.”

Auntie thought about it and found it reasonable, so she said: “Then we won’t disturb you.”

With that, she led Green’e across the threshold and left, closing the door behind them.

Walking along the corridor for a while, Green’e covered her mouth and laughed: “What is Madam thinking? How could Young Master be interested in Aunt Mu?”

Having served by Madam’s side for over ten years, she could see her concerns at a glance.

Auntie nodded: “I also think it’s unlikely, but Lingyue told me that Sister Mu likely has feelings for Big Brother, and then today seeing him come out of her room, I couldn’t help but overthink.

“It’s all that girl Lingyue’s fault, always imagining things and affecting her old mother too.”

As someone with experience, if anything had happened between Big Brother and Sister Mu last night, she would have noticed when she just checked.

…

At the bottom of the Celestial Observatory.

Two white-robed spirit masters walked along the dim corridor and reached a certain door at the end, respectfully saying: “Senior Sister Zhong, Lieutenant Xu asked us to bring two prisoners and invite you to come with us. He wants to bring you back to the manor.”

Zhong Li, who had been sitting cross-legged with head bowed, looked up, her eyes gleaming with excitement through her scattered hair.

The two white-robed spirit masters added: “You should go up by yourself later, don’t walk with us.”

…Zhong Li gave a slightly disappointed “Oh.”

The two white-robed spirit masters immediately turned back, each opening an iron door and saying to the people in the “cells”: “Come out, Lieutenant Xu wants to see you!”

These two facing cells housed Xu Yuanshuang and Xu Yuanhuai respectively.

Hearing that Xu Qi’an wanted to see them, Xu Yuanshuang wondered how he would deal with her and Yuanhuai.

Xu Yuanhuai instinctively believed that the situation between Great Shun and Yun Province must have reached an extremely tense point. By his calculations, the Yun Province army had likely reached the capital by now.

Their blood-related elder brother seeing them at this crucial moment for Great Shun’s survival couldn’t be good news. He would probably use him and his sister as bargaining chips to threaten their father.

The siblings walked out of their cells and met each other’s gaze across the corridor, both seeing anxiety in the other’s eyes.

Given their father’s stone-cold heart and Xu Qi’an’s decisive ruthlessness, their fate wouldn’t be good.

Xu Yuanhuai took a deep breath and asked: “Has the Yun Province army reached the capital?”