Chapter 120 The Changes at the Jiujiaoshan Gang
Xuanfeng gently carried Su Yuyao to the bed, gently stroking her red little nose, and asked affectionately, "Little girl, why couldn't you resist running back?"
Su Yuyao pouted and said angrily, "What do you mean 'can't hold back'?! I... have something to ask you! I didn't expect... you'd bring such a whole roomful of people! It's so embarrassing!"
"Oh...something's up?" Xuanfeng, seeing through his intentions but not revealing them, asked curiously, "What is it?"
"You... don't like me because I'm a restless sleeper?"
"ah?!"
"Are you disgusted by my snoring?!"
"What?!" Xuanfeng was both amused and exasperated by Su Yuyao's question.
He smiled and took Su Yuyao's small hand in his, kissing it gently as he said, "Little girl, I love sleeping with you in my arms! I love listening to your little snores! But tonight... I'm afraid not... I thought you wouldn't come back, so I invited a few adults over to discuss the tombstone..."
"How do you know I won't come back?!" Su Yuyao kicked Xuanfeng with her foot. "You don't miss me at all! That's why you don't want me to come back!"
Xuanfeng pinched Su Yuyao's cheek and pretended to be angry, saying, "You know perfectly well that I miss you very much, yet you still say that on purpose?! If you keep acting so unreasonably, I'll beat you up!"
Su Yuyao pouted and said, "I know... So what are you planning to do about the memorial tablet?"
"You don't need to worry about these things. Go to sleep early, I'll be back as soon as possible." Xuanfeng tucked Su Yuyao in and gently kissed her forehead. "Wait for me obediently!"
Su Yuyao smiled and said, "Then come back quickly!"
Xuanfeng reassured Su Yuyao before walking out of the room while fastening his belt.
"My lord?" White Ears asked in surprise, sitting at the doorway. "Why so fast today?"
Xuanfeng rolled his eyes speechlessly, "The girl's asleep, you better take good care of her!"
"Oh...yes! Please rest assured, sir! This servant will take good care of Miss!" Bai Er stood up and curtsied in response.
Although Xuanfeng wasn't by her side, Su Yuyao didn't toss and turn in bed like she did in Qingyue's room; instead, she slept soundly.
"Miss...Miss..." Bai Er called softly to Su Yuyao, "Get up, it's almost time for breakfast!"
Su Yuyao rolled over, pulled the blanket over her head, and whimpered, "I want to sleep a little longer..."
"Miss... Lord Xuanfeng will be back soon, aren't you going to go out and wait for him?" Bai Er asked softly again.
"Huh?" Upon hearing Xuan Feng's name, Su Yuyao sat up abruptly, her eyes half-open, and asked, "He hasn't come back yet?!"
Bai Er covered her mouth and chuckled, "Miss, Lord Xuanfeng is very busy with official duties, please be understanding!"
"Ah... I understand!" Su Yuyao reluctantly got up and let Bai Er help her wash and dress.
Xuanfeng and Langzhi still hadn't returned by the time they finished breakfast.
Su Yuyao, bored, kept Fei Hua and Wang Tian'er company. Was the matter of the tombstone really that difficult? Did it require so many people to stay up all night?
"Feihua, do you want to go out and play?"
"I do," Fei Hua replied woodenly.
“Then…” Su Yuyao turned to look at Qingyue’s room, “Feihua, go and tell the Empress that you want to go out and play, and ask me to go with you!”
"Hmm... okay!" Fei Hua agreed readily to everyone's request and got up to walk towards Qing Yue's room.
She stood at Qingyue's door and called out, "Your Highness! Yao'er is going out to play again! She'll cause a big disaster!"
"Yao'er?! How dare you?!" Qingyue rushed out of the house with her eyebrows raised.
Su Yuyao quickly stood up, waving her hands and saying, "I didn't! I didn't! Feihua is talking nonsense!"
Seeing that Su Yuyao was staying obediently in the courtyard, Qingyue suppressed her temper.
She patted her shoulder, and a wisp of golden dust rose up. A glass-colored butterfly slowly unfolded its wings, fluttered up, and landed on Su Yuyao's head.
"What...is this?" Su Yuyao didn't dare to move, afraid of startling the butterfly above her head.
Qingyue walked up to Su Yuyao with a smile, stroked Su Yuyao's face and said, "News from the wolf clan has arrived. Madam Sa has given birth, and both mother and child are safe!"
"Mother and son..." Su Yuyao's eyes suddenly brightened. "It's a younger brother! I have a younger brother! Feihua! My mother really gave birth to a younger brother for me!"
Looking at Su Yuyao's smiling face, Qingyue suddenly felt a pang of sadness. "She's clearly my child, yet she keeps calling someone else 'Mother'..."
"Yao'er!" Qingyue reached out and took off the glass butterfly, handing it to Su Yuyao. "This is a reply to Chief Sa. What would you like to say?"
"A reply?!" Su Yuyao pursed her lips and thought for a moment, then said excitedly, "I miss my parents! I also want to see my younger brother! I want to see them as soon as possible!"
As if understanding Su Yuyao's words, the glass butterfly flapped its wings and fluttered into the sky.
Su Yuyao watched the butterfly gradually disappear into the air, "Your Majesty! Can my parents really hear my message?"
Qingyue stroked Su Yuyao's head with a pained expression and nodded.
"Then... my mother and father, and Green Ivy... can they hear my letter?" Su Yuyao asked cautiously yet hopefully.
"Yao'er..." Qingyue's heart ached terribly. "Why don't you take Feihua out to play for a while?"
"Huh?" Su Yuyao was stunned for a moment, then understood what Qingyue meant. Mother, Father, Green Ivy, I really will never see you again...
Su Yuyao smiled bitterly, lowered her head, swallowed the bitterness in her heart, then raised her bright face and said happily, "Then I'll take Feihua out to play for a little while and come back!"
Qingyue nodded. "Be careful, don't cause trouble!"
"Okay!" Su Yuyao grabbed Feihua's hand. "Come on! Feihua! Let's go out and play!"
Aunts and grandmas have gathered again under the century-old tree to gossip, indicating that the aftermath of the flood has been largely dealt with.
Su Yuyao originally planned to go to the school to play, but she was afraid that Feihua wouldn't be able to play with the children, so she simply pulled Feihua along to the tree to listen to the aunties and grandmas gossiping.
"Have you heard?" an auntie said excitedly, "Last night, Lord Xuanfeng led his men and arrested a lot of people!"
Why?
"I don't know why! But my wife told me that after more than a dozen of the memorial tablets were erected, they never took on any duties! They never shared any cultivation points in the shrine, and they didn't even ask for incense offerings! Could it be that Lord Xuanfeng... arrested them because of this?"
"That's true!" another older woman said. "Back when I was a deliveryman, I actually met someone named... Luo Fengyue! He was withdrawn and had a bad temper! I asked him to help out at the temple, but he just wouldn't go! I even tried to persuade him that if he didn't do his errands, he wouldn't get any cultivation points or incense offerings! He actually said he didn't care!"
"Luo Fengyue?! I heard he was the first one arrested last night!"
"Because of the plank road?!"
"That's definitely one of the reasons! Yesterday, Lord Xuanfeng personally went to talk to him, but he completely ignored him! Tell me! Of all people to mess with, why did Luo Fengyue have to provoke Lord Xuanfeng! Don't be fooled by Lord Xuanfeng's gentle and refined appearance; he's actually ruthless..."
"Ahem... Oh! Miss Yao'er!" Several sharp-eyed people spotted Su Yuyao and said awkwardly, "Are you here... to patrol the mountain?"
Su Yuyao smiled and shook her head. "I'm not patrolling the mountain. I'm just out having fun! You guys continue!"
"oh……"
The aunties and older women looked at each other, becoming reserved and afraid to speak.
"That Luo Fengyue is truly despicable! He deserved to be caught!" Su Yuyao pulled Feihua to sit in the middle of the crowd and said, "I was originally going to catch him too! But Xuanfeng wouldn't let me! He has a terrible temper, and I dared not disobey him!"
"You're lucky you didn't go!" an older woman couldn't help but say. "I heard there was some resistance last night!"
"They still dare to fight back?!" Su Yuyao asked in surprise.
"Who can argue with that!"
“However, I can understand!” Su Yuyao said, crossing her legs and pretending to be serious. “They’ve been informants for so many years, who knows how much information they’ve leaked!”
"What?! An informant?!" The aunties and grandmas were in an uproar. "That's a spy!"
"I never would have guessed! They were actually spies!"
"That's right! But... you said the Mi Gu couple are such approachable people, how could they be spies?"
"Uncle Mi and Aunt Mi?" Su Yuyao was somewhat surprised. "They were arrested too?!"
"They've been arrested! I heard it's because their family also had a tombstone, but it was abandoned! They've uncovered all of that this time!"
“Oh…” Su Yuyao thought for a moment, then said slowly, “No wonder…”
"What's so strange?" an old woman who loved to hear things asked tentatively.
Su Yuyao smiled and said, "It's nothing, it's just that Uncle Mi always seems to dislike me. I didn't know why at first, but now I do..."
"Oh! Really?!" The old woman winked at everyone, grabbed a handful of sunflower seeds, and stuffed them into Su Yuyao's hand. "Miss Yao'er, try some! These are my family's freshly roasted sunflower seeds!"
Su Yuyao happily accepted the sunflower seeds, "Thank you, Auntie! Feihua! Eat!"
Su Yuyao handed the melon seeds to Feihua, who stared blankly at the seeds in her hand. "Yao'er, you'll get scolded!"
"Silly Feihua! These are sunflower seeds that the aunties gave us because they like us! How could we be scolded?!" Su Yuyao said while cracking the seeds. "We also had roasted sweet potatoes last time! They were so delicious!"
"Oh!" an auntie exclaimed, "Those are mine! But we don't have any now. I'll bring them to you as soon as we have some!"
"Great! Your sweet potatoes are delicious!" Su Yuyao said with a grin. "The aunties are the best! Last time I went to Uncle Mi's place and ate a few bites of fried tofu, he was really unhappy! He even talked bad about me in school! I got scolded because of it!"
"Really! I didn't expect Migu to be so stingy!"
"However, speaking of the school, that Yu Qing..."
Everyone glanced at Su Yuyao's expression and dared not say anything more.
"Yu Qing? Was Yu Qing arrested too?" Su Yuyao asked directly.
"She! She was arrested too!" the old woman exclaimed dramatically. "I heard it was... Lord Langzhi who personally went to arrest her!"
Grandpa Langzhi?! Su Yuyao was puzzled. Why was Yuqing taken away? I had already destroyed her memorial tablet, and the reason for erecting it was very clear. Why did they arrest her?
"I heard... some people from the brothel were also taken away! It's just that there wasn't a big fuss about it."
"Inside the hall?" Su Yuyao joined in, asking curiously, "Who's there?"
"Well... I can't say for sure... but I've heard that quite a few people were taken away!"
"Then... what jobs did the people who were taken away from the hall do?" Su Yuyao asked.
"It doesn't seem to be an important job, just running errands! Usually, they're the ones in charge of communicating with the shamanic disciples in the temple!"
"Communicate with the shamanic disciple?" Su Yuyao didn't quite understand.
"It's just about helping to pass on messages or find someone. Usually, the errand runners stay by the disciples' side. They handle small matters directly if they can, and only come back to find other people or the Stele King if they can't handle something or if it's a big matter."
Su Yuyao's expression remained unchanged, but she already understood. So, errand runners weren't often on the Immortal Mountain. No wonder...
Su Yuyao cracked sunflower seeds and listened to the stories her aunts had told her when they were young. The scenes they described were similar to what Su Yuyao had seen in the hall before. She didn't feel much longing or novelty; instead, she found it rather boring.
"Feihua! Let's go! Let's go play somewhere else!" Su Yuyao finished eating the melon seeds in her hand, said goodbye to the group of aunties and grandmas, and pulled Feihua away from the century-old tree.
"Feihua, shall we go watch them repair the plank road?"
"No, I'll get scolded."
"Then... let's go see Bai Mi Gao! Uncle Mi and Aunt Mi were arrested, I wonder how Bai Mi Gao is doing..."
"No, we don't have dried tofu."
Su Yuyao sighed helplessly as she looked at Fei Hua. This Fei Hua, why does she only care about eating?!
A warm, humid smell filled the air. She looked up and exclaimed excitedly, "Feihua! There's a hot spring up ahead! Let's go play in the hot spring!"
"No." Fei Hua blushed.
"Why don't you want it again?!" Su Yuyao said as she pulled Feihua along, "If I get scolded, it's me who gets scolded!"
“I’m not going…” Fei Hua’s face turned even redder.
"Let's go!" Su Yuyao pulled Feihua towards the hot spring...
A thin mist hung in the air, and the steam from the hot spring moistened the surrounding trees. The faint fragrance of damp earth made Su Yuyao feel refreshed.
"It smells so good!" Su Yuyao said softly, taking Fei Hua's arm. "Let's go take a bath in the hot spring!"
"No!" Fei Hua turned to leave.
"Hey! Don't go! What are you afraid of?!" Su Yuyao grabbed Feihua and said, "The children are all in class right now! Xuanfeng and the others are all busy, and everyone here has gone to work by the lake and the river. There's definitely no one here at the hot spring!"
"No!" Fei Hua shook her head vigorously.
Seeing Fei Hua's panicked expression, Su Yuyao laughed and said, "Then we won't take a bath, but we can at least soak our feet!"
Feihua gradually quieted down and softly responded, "Mmm."
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