Chapter 382

Chapter 382: Is He Lying

Young Manor Lord Ji gave a wry smile: “There’s no need to guard against me like this. If I had bad intentions, I would never reveal my identity. I’m speaking openly because I have nothing to hide.”

That did sound somewhat reasonable.

Jiang Yu Chuan answered, noncommittal: “Then why have you come?”

Young Manor Lord Ji said: “I came to tell Official Yu a few things.”

It sounded like he was about to share a secret.

Jiang Yu Chuan’s expression turned odd. It wasn’t that he was judging a gentleman with a petty heart; it was just that, in Juxian Manor, this Ji clan brat seemed to have no real standing. What secrets could someone like that possibly know? Ji Guang Dai adored Chen Ruo Lan to death, yet Chen Ruo Lan herself hadn’t known many things, had she?

This wasn’t only Jiang Yu Chuan’s doubt; Jiang Liu Yi was thinking the same.

Seeing their mistrust, Young Manor Lord Ji said: “I know what you’re wondering. Honestly, once I truly figured out my own position, I was puzzled too-why did he tell me these things?”

“For example, about Official Yu’s identity-that was something he bragged to me about.”

All these years, Young Manor Lord Ji had been raised inside Juxian Manor and rarely dealt with outsiders. The only person whose status matched and who would talk to him was Ji Guang Dai. Since he wasn’t allowed to leave, Ji Guang Dai wasn’t afraid of leaks and treated him like a bin for secret confessions.

“He said that back then he handed Yu Zhi Yi over to Vice Minister Yu and his wife because their character was bad. He figured that once they took her away, her days would be miserable. Otherwise, with how shameless he is, how would he give Yu Zhi Yi to an official’s household?”

“He also said he liked Chen Ruo Lan-liked her very, very much. So he ordered me to treat Chen Ruo Lan as my own mother and to respect and love her. He also told me I must protect Chen Xin Yue, that younger sister.”

“Ji Guang Dai said, because Chen Xin Yue needed someone to protect her, he found a woman to bear a son, and that son should guard the ‘child of his and Chen Ruo Lan’s love.’”

The thirteen-year-old spoke of all this in a flat voice, as if the ‘main character’ in the story wasn’t him at all.

He lifted his eyes and looked straight into Yu Zhi Yi’s: “Official Yu, I’m not saying this to seek pity. I’m saying it to prove my words can be trusted.”

Yu Zhi Yi nodded: “Mm, I believe you.”

Light flashed in the boy’s eyes. In his short thirteen years, he had never felt the warmth of family or the trust that passes between people. He never imagined the first person to trust him without reserve would be someone his nominal father had once harmed.

The feeling was very strange. The gloom on the boy seemed to fade, and the uneasy knot that had followed him into the room finally loosened.

He took a deep breath; his face turned solemn: “Official Yu, what I’m about to say, I need you to believe.”

“Ji Guang Dai didn’t only have Chen Ruo Lan and my mother. There was another woman.”

Yu Zhi Yi blinked. She actually knew that much. But as a father, to let his son know such messy things-was that really okay? Chen Ruo Lan was one thing, since she was his white moonlight and the person he wanted Young Manor Lord Ji to protect. But the other woman…

“Official Yu likely already knows he had a strange encounter years ago and opened the door to the mystic arts,” the boy said. “The one who led him in was that woman.”

Yu Zhi Yi sat up straighter. The boy, though young and weak in body, was clear-headed. She was sure he hadn’t come to her just to dish out gossip. Yet she hadn’t seen this entanglement at all in Ji Guang Dai’s face and fate lines!

Sure enough, Young Manor Lord Ji went on: “Back then he was seized by a female demonic cultivator who specializes in a technique that drains men to nourish herself. She treated him as a cultivation vessel. I’ve heard that most people used as vessels are drained to death; even the few who survive end up very weak-some even grow old overnight.”

“Ji Guang Dai saw how tragic the other vessels were and didn’t want to end up the same, so he tried every possible way to please the female demonic cultivator.”

“If he sets his mind to coax a woman, he has plenty of tricks. She really was charmed by him. She decided not to treat him like a common vessel, but to take him along for cultivation.”

“I’ve heard there’s a dual cultivation method among mystic arts practitioners. Its effect is similar to the draining technique, but it doesn’t kill the partner. Instead, both sides benefit.”

Yu Zhi Yi: “…”

Tsk. [Just what trash did Ji Guang Dai feed a child’s ears with?]

Jiang Yu Chuan felt like he was sitting on pins and needles, unable to sit still. He wanted to cut the boy off, but when he met his daughter’s calm gaze, he wondered if maybe it was his own mind that was too dirty.

He wasn’t the only prickly one. Xiao Qing Xuan opened her mouth more than once, but seeing her daughter’s steady expression, she swallowed her words. Jiang Liu Yi wasn’t as restless as his parents, yet his brows were knit tight. Only Jiang Liu Yun looked pure as ever: “Is dual cultivation a kind of technique? Is it powerful?”

Everyone in the room: “…”

Yu Zhi Yi gave a small cough, ignored her brother’s question, and said evenly: “And then?”

Though unusually mature, he was still just a boy. Looking at Jiang Liu Yun’s simple face, he suddenly realized: not all fathers are like Ji Guang Dai. Some parents are born to protect their children, shielding their bodies from harm and their hearts from unclean things.

He felt a touch of envy-but not jealousy. He took Yu Zhi Yi’s cue and moved on.

“Later, Ji Guang Dai coaxed many good things out of that female cultivator. Most importantly, he really gained some skill in cultivation.”

“She saw he had talent and took even more interest in him.”

“But she didn’t meet him often. She usually came only about ten days each year.”

“For those ten-odd days, Ji Guang Dai would push away everything else and leave the manor with her, going to secret places to cultivate.”

“This year, she left on the eighteenth day of the tenth month in the lunar calendar.”

“At the latest, she will return for Ji Guang Dai by next year’s lunar October.”

Everyone caught his meaning. Yu Zhi Yi had first thought the hidden danger came only from the Hidden Realm’s Gao clan. She hadn’t expected there would be a female demonic cultivator as well. Compared to the Gao clan, that side was even more likely to blow up soon. Unless the woman stayed in seclusion until next October and took some roundabout route from the deep mountains, she might learn of Ji Guang Dai’s death on her way back to find him.

What Yu Zhi Yi cared about, however, was something else. She hadn’t seen any sign of this woman’s tie to Ji Guang Dai in his face and fate. In theory, their bond should have ended once Chen Ruo Lan appeared. So was her calculation wrong, or was the boy lying?