Chapter 31
Chapter 31: The Second House’s Three Young Ladies Form an Observation Team
Xiao Man carried the bowl of pitch-black bruise-clearing decoction as if it were a bomb that might explode if she breathed too hard.
The sharp medicinal stench went straight to her skull, making her dizzy.
She slipped into the meditation room like a thief, steps light as a cat’s.
Without daring to glance sideways, she set the bowl in the farthest corner of Lin Qing Xuan’s desk and immediately turned to leave.
One clean motion. No hesitation. Not even a stolen look toward the space behind the desk.
One extra second and she was sure the “devil qi” clinging to that Buddhist Scion would scorch her alive.
Truthfully, serving Lin Qing Xuan at the Auspicious Cloud Residence was easy on the body.
No courtyard sweeping. No furniture scrubbing. No endless jars and bottles to wash.
But the torment in her head…
It was worse than grinding through back-to-back PPT all-nighters in her last life.
Every moment she had to guard against mind-reading arts, shared-dream arts, and those impossible-to-defend ambushes—shutting doors, closing windows, sending towels, wiping backs… This wasn’t serving someone.
This was a spiritual endurance test.
She fled back to her “chastity fortress,” and the first thing she did was solemnly take up the poster that read, in huge letters, “Chastity Defense War Countdown.”
With her charcoal pencil, she viciously crossed out “209” and wrote a fresh, bright “208” beside it.
Hope. Renewal. One more day survived.
Still… the moment she thought of sleep, fear crawled up her spine.
What if he launched another midnight shared-dream ambush?
Xiao Man’s eyes snapped to her flimsy door, suspicious as a cornered animal. A dangerous idea rose—and then died.
In her mind she was already staging a ridiculous scene of Lin Qing Xuan walking straight into a trap, and a vindicated smile tugged at her mouth.
Then the smile froze.
She slapped her forehead, annoyed with herself.
A trap in front of him would be a live performance.
Useless.
Worse—if anything, the one who would suffer would be her, half-asleep and stumbling out to the latrine.
Defeated, she fell back on the bed and stared at the canopy.
She forced her mind empty. No schemes. No spiraling.
Maybe it was exhaustion after days of high tension; maybe it was a brief, reluctant surrender. Either way, she slept surprisingly soundly for two nights.
On the third day, she woke to bright sunlight pouring in through the window.
She sat up groggily and found the courtyard quiet.
When she pushed the window open, it confirmed it: Lin Qing Xuan and Stone were already gone.
Another “Buddhist Scion preaching day,” it seemed—her day off successfully renewed.
In high spirits, Xiao Man washed and tidied at a leisurely pace.
She had just finished combing her hair when a clear voice came from the courtyard gate, crisp and deliberately affected.
“Is Cousin here? I’m Yu Ning. I’ve come to borrow a few sutra scrolls from Cousin to study.”
Xiao Man hurried out.
At the gate stood the third miss she’d seen yesterday—Lin Yu Ning in goose-yellow, hands tucked behind her back like a tiny dignitary.
Her bright eyes swept the courtyard with purpose. The sutras were not the real target.
“Third Miss, greetings.” Xiao Man dipped into a curtsey. “The Eldest Grandson Young Master went early to Fa Hua Temple to preach. He isn’t here at the moment. If Third Miss knows the titles, this servant can help search for them.”
Lin Yu Ning’s gaze snapped onto Xiao Man like a lantern turned full-bright, scanning her from head to toe—once, twice, and then again, as if she were appraising a new purchase.
“Oh. He’s not here…”
The disappointment dragged long, but it lasted only a heartbeat.
“No matter, no matter! Next time I see Cousin, I’ll ask.”
She waved a hand, then tilted her chin and asked suddenly, eyes fixed on Xiao Man.
“What’s your name?”
“This servant is Yao Xiao Man.”
“Yao… Xiao… Man…” Lin Yu Ning repeated it syllable by syllable, brows pinching as if tasting the “quality.” Then she judged without mercy. “Mm. Pretty tacky.”
She looked Xiao Man up and down again and added, as if granting reluctant approval, “But you seem easy to get along with. And you’re… passable to look at.”
Xiao Man offered the only smile available to a servant faced with nonsense: polite, stiff, and quietly suffering.
This Third Miss was blunt enough to be adorable—or blunt enough to deserve a swat.
Having completed today’s “inspection,” Lin Yu Ning nodded in satisfaction and skipped away.
Only a few steps beyond the gate, she spun back and shouted, “Hey, Xiao Man! Next time I’ll come play with you!”
She didn’t wait for an answer. Like a happy little bird, she vanished.
Xiao Man watched her go and let out a helpless laugh.
That little ancestor really did have endless energy.
General’s Residence — Back Garden
Lin Yu Ning burst into the pavilion like a small storm, snatched the teacup in front of her eldest sister, and gulped down a mouthful.
“Cousin isn’t there! That maid is Yao Xiao Man! Her name is tacky! She seems fine—pretty honest. Her looks are… so-so. Ordinary. Barely passable!”
Smack. Smack.
Lin Yu Wan and Lin Yu Jiao lifted their hands in perfect unison and each knocked their little sister on the forehead.
“I told you to observe, not to critique her name and face,” Lin Yu Wan said, equal parts helpless and tired.
“Exactly! You don’t look like a proper young lady at all,” Lin Yu Jiao echoed, stern as if she had any right.
Lin Yu Ning clutched her head, eyes wide and wounded.
“But I told the truth!”
“And what you said yesterday at Mother’s didn’t match what I saw!” Lin Yu Jiao pressed. “You said she might have something ‘special,’ but she looked completely ordinary to me!”
Lin Yu Wan went briefly speechless. Even her own guess from yesterday wavered.
Lin Yu Jiao’s eyes flicked, calculating, and she slapped down a decision.
“Little sister is right. Hearing is empty—seeing is believing. To be safe, and for fairness…”
She rose, solemn as if taking command of a monastery.
“The three of us will go. We’ll see for ourselves this Yao Xiao Man—this ‘miss’ who supposedly ‘opened up’ our Buddhist Scion cousin.”
Lin Yu Wan wanted to object, but her second sister was eager, her youngest sister was bouncing, and Mother had explicitly told them to watch the chaos with both eyes open.
She could only sigh. “Fine. But behave. Don’t lose your decorum.”
And so, while Xiao Man remained blissfully unaware, an “observation team” formed by the second house’s three young ladies prepared to march grandly to the Auspicious Cloud Residence and subject her to a full, merciless “three-hall interrogation.”
Meanwhile, Lin Qing Xuan—who should have been at Fa Hua Temple—finished preaching early and quietly set out on his return.
Behind the Auspicious Cloud Residence’s slightly flimsy door, the gears of fate began to mesh.