Everyone in the Yi household followed Yi Shangkun in bowing and kneeling, saying, "Greetings, Your Highness Prince Qin, may you live a thousand years!"

However, Xuan Yuanhan was not in a hurry to get everyone up. After a long while, he slowly turned around.

He walked straight to Yi Shangyun's side, extended a large, reassuring hand to help her up, and coldly looked at the crowd, slowly asking, "Just now, who dared to reprimand the people of my residence in front of me?"

With her head bowed and trembling, she knelt in fear, her clothes covered in snow. She must have been terrified.

Yi Shangkun glanced at him and said hurriedly, "Your Highness, it was my daughter who was ignorant of the rules and offended Your Highness. I hope Your Highness will forgive her."

Xuanyuan Han snorted coldly and said, "Hmph... Master Yi has good family upbringing, to have raised such a pair of sharp-tongued, eloquent, bullying, and foul-mouthed children."

Upon hearing this, Yi Shangkun was shocked and broke out in a cold sweat. He hurriedly said, "Your Highness, please forgive me. It's all my fault. I have failed in my duty. I have failed in my duty."

At this moment, Yi Shangyun glanced around, worried that if she continued, it would attract the attention of the neighbors and passersby. So she hurriedly knelt down and reminded them, "Your Highness, please don't forget what you promised Yun'er."

Xuanyuan Han looked at her with a hint of helplessness before finally relenting and saying, "Pharmacist Yi, the people of my manor are never to be disciplined by others. Do you understand?"

Yi Shangkun bowed his head in alarm and said hastily, "Your Majesty, I understand, Your Majesty, I understand."

"Get up, all of you. If you dare to do it again, I will not let you off lightly." Upon hearing this, everyone carefully and slowly got up.

As soon as Yi Shangkun got up, he stepped forward with a smile to greet Xuan Yuanhan, saying, "Your Highness, please come into the mansion and rest for a while."

However, Xuan Yuanhan's eyes remained fixed on Yi Shangyun, never looking away. At this moment, Yi Shangyun got up and was about to go over to help Nian Shi.

Unwittingly, Xuan Yuanhan suddenly noticed Yi Shangjun standing to the side, looking at him with a dazed expression and head held high. He then asked Yi Shangkun, "What kind of business does your young master do now?"

Upon hearing this, Yi Shangkun looked troubled, as if he found it difficult to speak, and said with a helpless expression, "This humble subject has failed in his duty. My son is incompetent and has no proper occupation."

Xuanyuan Han scoffed and snorted coldly, then said leisurely to Cheng Liang beside him, "I just saw him fight so bravely against a woman... Cheng Liang, take him under your command and train him well. As a dignified seven-foot man of my Western Qin Kingdom, how can he live such a ridiculous life?"

Yi Shangkun was shocked upon hearing this, but before he could react, Yi Shangjun rushed over with a look of joy on his face, bowed his head and knelt down, saying, "Thank you, Your Highness Prince Qin. Jun'er will certainly live up to Your Highness's expectations and will follow Your Highness to the death."

He excitedly finished speaking and then kowtowed heavily.

At this moment, with Yi Shangxue's help, Aunt Lan and Yi Shangkun looked at each other urgently, their expressions a mixture of emotions.

Clearly, they were not happy with the arrangement made by Xuanyuan Han, but they dared not speak out against it.

After regaining his senses, Xuan Yuanhan glanced at Yi Shangyun one last time before coldly saying to Yi Shangkun, "No need."

Then, he hurriedly turned around, leaped onto the carriage, immediately turned the carriage around, and drove straight east.

Only Yi Shangkun's entire family remained, all of them stunned by what had just happened.

At the east entrance of Yifu Street, in front of a place called "Zhao's Teahouse".

Mei Zhixuan and his guards, both wearing butterfly-shaped silver masks, watched helplessly as Xuan Yuanhan's carriage passed in front of them.

The two of them had been sitting at the stall in front of the teahouse, watching everything that was happening in front of them from afar.

The teahouse owner looked to be in his forties. He leaned over the counter, secretly observing for a long time, but found the two men to be complete strangers.

Seeing that Mei Zhixuan did not show his true face, but his extraordinary temperament was still evident, he personally came over with a pot of fine tea, wanting to strike up a conversation.

Seeing him approach with a smile, Mei Zhixuan pointed in the direction of the clothing residence and asked, "Excuse me, shopkeeper, what do those people do?"

The shopkeeper's place has a front shop and a back yard layout, and his family has been businessmen living here for three generations.

As he often jokes with others, "When his grandfather was in charge, his family was a cow with a fortune; by his father's generation, half of the family business had been lost, so they became a sheep; and in his generation, when he was young and impetuous, he gambled and smoked all day long, so the family became a chicken, and now they just live a quiet life tending this small shop."

Therefore, he naturally knows this place very well.

Since Mei Zhixuan had spoken first, he sat down next to him without any hesitation and asked with a puzzled look, "Judging from your accent, sir, you don't seem to be from Western Qin, do you?"

Mei Zhixuan sighed and said softly, "Oh, to be honest, we come from Dongning Kingdom and came to Xiqin to find a relative we lost many years ago. But in this vast sea of ​​people, things have changed, and now we don't even know how to find him anymore."

The shopkeeper suddenly realized and said, "I see. These days, the hardest thing is to be homeless and wander from place to place. If you encounter war and chaos, it will be even harder to find someone."

Mei Zhixuan snapped out of his reverie and asked again, "Excuse me, which family..."

The shopkeeper hurriedly replied, "Oh, that's the residence of the Imperial Pharmacy's apothecary."

"So they work in the Western Qin Imperial Palace. Have they lived here for generations?" Mei Zhixuan suddenly realized and asked anxiously.

The shopkeeper hurriedly denied it, saying, "No, no, no, this mansion of the Yi family was built 17 years ago. That year, he was promoted to Grand Pharmacist and bought this house."

Upon hearing this, Mei Zhixuan was overjoyed and excitedly exclaimed, "17 years ago, the shopkeeper can't be mistaken?!"

“Young man, although I, Zhao, am over forty, my eyes, ears, and brain are not old at all. My ancestors have lived here for three generations. There is no one within a hundred miles that I, Zhao, do not know or know.” The shopkeeper pointed to these three places on his body and said confidently.

Mei Zhixuan immediately apologized, "Shopkeeper, please don't misunderstand. We are strangers and don't know these things. Please forgive us. Do you know if there is a 17-year-old girl in this residence?"

At this moment, the shopkeeper seemed to realize something and immediately revealed a sly smile. He pointed at the two men and said, "Oh...you two wouldn't happen to have taken a fancy to two young ladies in that household and come to my little shop to scout them out, would you? Look at you two, two grown men, and it just so happens that there are two unmarried women in that household."

Upon hearing this, Mei Zhixuan and his guard exchanged bewildered glances.

At this moment, the shopkeeper looked around and, seeing that no one else was around, lowered his voice and leaned forward slightly to whisper in their ears, "Let me tell you, this pharmacist does indeed have two daughters. The older one is from his legal wife and is just over 17 years old. The younger one is two years younger and is born out of wedlock. She is unruly, willful, and has a terrible temper."

The two were overjoyed upon hearing this.

However, the shopkeeper seemed to have some doubts and remained silent for a moment. Seeing this, Mei Zhixuan asked in confusion, "Shopkeeper, is there something you're having trouble saying?"

The shopkeeper sighed and continued, "As for that young lady from the Yi family, she was quite a pretty girl, if it weren't for the striking birthmark on her face. More than a year ago, she was in a coma due to illness for almost a year, and because of that, she was jilted by the renowned young master Lu of the Xi Qin Academy. You know, such a fine young lady from a prominent family just ended up like that... sigh."

Before he could finish speaking, the shopkeeper sighed again.

At this point, Mei Zhixuan asked with great curiosity, "What's the story behind that birthmark? How could someone remain unconscious for such a long time? How did they eventually regain consciousness?"

As he spoke, he personally reached out and respectfully poured a cup of hot tea for the shopkeeper.

The innkeeper then recalled the events and said, "This child wasn't born in this mansion, so he arrived here like this. People in the mansion say he was born with it. Although he's their biological child, Master Yi doesn't seem very fond of him. Outsiders think it's because his concubine gave him a son to carry on the family line. As for the coma, they say it's due to illness, but that's probably suspicious. We don't know for sure."

At this point, the shopkeeper picked up his cup, took a leisurely sip of tea, and his expression suddenly became somewhat solemn. He continued, "Just when the child had been in a coma for almost a year with no hope of waking up, Master Yi started arranging a ghost marriage for her. But she was a woman who had been rejected before, so who would want her? He planned to abandon her in the mass graves of Beishan. Strangely enough, that very night, a sudden thunderstorm struck, and a torrential downpour began. Above the pavilion of the eldest daughter of the Yi family… oh, that child, a seven-colored phoenix appeared. The phoenix hovered above the pavilion for a long time, as if searching for something. Suddenly, it swooped down towards the pavilion, the phoenix vanished, the thunder and rain stopped, and the child inexplicably woke up at that moment."

Mei Zhixuan and his guards listened intently, finding it quite unbelievable that such a miraculous thing could exist, like something out of a play. But judging from the innkeeper's detailed account, it certainly didn't seem like something made up out of thin air.

After a moment, Mei Zhixuan suddenly came to his senses and said, "So, this young lady of the Yi family really has a tragic fate."

"Who can argue with that? She should have been a beautiful young woman, but now... sigh." The shopkeeper sighed again.

“West Qin Academy?!” Mei Zhixuan murmured to himself.

After a moment, as if remembering something, he asked, "I heard that this young lady went to the palace? Why is she back?"

The shopkeeper chuckled and said, "Hmph... Once you enter the palace, it's like entering a deep sea; it's not so easy to get out. Back then, Yi Shangkun got into trouble in the palace and was imprisoned by the Dali Temple. It was this young lady who risked her life to find the immortal herb for him, which led to the Emperor's pardon. However, she was implicated and punished by being sent to the palace as the most insignificant servant. Later, she was punished in the palace and made to kneel in the freezing cold for twelve hours, which left her with a serious leg ailment. Presumably, seeing that she didn't have long to live, and fearing that dying in the palace would bring bad luck and sully that magnificent palace, they bestowed her upon the Qin Prince's mansion in the east of the city to be a physician. Now, after the Lantern Festival, she'll be going to work. Anyway, she's destined to serve others wherever she goes for the rest of her life; who knows how long she'll live?"

Upon hearing this, Mei Zhixuan's hands, which had been resting on his knees and hidden under the tea table, clenched tightly in extreme anger...