Chapter 190 Senior Brother, Should We Try?
Three days later—
Snowflakes fluttered down, blending heaven and earth into one seamless hue.
From beside the lotus pond behind the Yun Manor on Yi Shui Peak, soothing and captivating guqin melodies drifted, harmonizing with the early winter snowscape—pure, ethereal, deep, and profound.
Beneath the bamboo pavilion by the lotus pond, Yun Yiyi knelt before the guqin, playing a tune. She would steal glances at the youth beside her, who was closing his eyes and cultivating.
She appeared serene, exuding an air of cool, gentle beauty. Yet, beneath this immortal facade, she was screaming inwardly:
—How can he be so good-looking?!
—I love this person so much!!
—I’ll damn well have his children in the future!!
However, upon realizing the thoughts erupting from her heart, Yun Yiyi quickly reflected on herself.
She couldn’t become like her two sisters; they were utterly vulgar. Especially Yun Jiujiu, a girl who knew nothing of music, chess, calligraphy, or painting, spending her days drinking and fighting—what sort of person was that?
She needed elegance! She needed an ethereal demeanor!
I am a noble lady; I must be gentle and polite…
As Yun Yiyi played, she suppressed the urge to rush over and pin Ye Anping to the ground for a kiss.
Yun Yiyi was outwardly calm but inwardly frenzied.
Ye Anping was actually quite similar.
He appeared quite at ease on the surface, but inwardly, he was extremely troubled.
He had been staying here for three days already.
For these three days, aside from sleeping at night, he made an effort to stay by Yun Yiyi’s side, sharing tea and books with her, listening to her play the guqin, performing sword dances for her, and helping her with some non-essential matters…
In theory, he should have gained Yun Yiyi’s favorability and trust to a level of seventy or eighty points.
However, because Yun Yiyi never showed her emotions on her face, always sporting a business-like fake smile, he couldn’t gauge the precise numerical value.
If the score was high enough, he wouldn’t have to tread so carefully in his future actions and could be a bit bolder.
He thought that the first plot event shouldn’t be far off. If he couldn’t determine his favorability with Yun Yiyi soon, he would have to proceed with caution as if her favorability was low.
Thinking of this, Ye Anping opened his eyes and looked at Yun Yiyi, who was playing the guqin with her gaze lowered. He decided to test her specific favorability towards him through his actions.
How to test it?
—While expressions can lie, the heartbeat and spiritual energy never do.
Ye Anping tilted his ears to listen to the guqin music, searching for an opportune moment. At this instant, he caught sight of a Sword Sect disciple outside the lotus pond’s courtyard wall, anxiously reporting something to a maidservant.
After a moment of hesitation, he quickly stood up and moved towards Yun Yiyi.
Yun Yiyi noticed him stand and her hands stopped plucking the strings. She asked in a cool voice:
“Young Master Ye, what is it?”
“It’s just…”
Before he could finish, Ye Anping deliberately pretended to trip over his ankle and fell forward, instinctively grabbing Yun Yiyi’s wrist and pulling her down onto the rug below.
Yun Yiyi was startled. By the time she regained her senses and looked at Ye Anping, who was now holding her hands and pinning them to the rug, pressing himself on top of her, her heart nearly leaped out of her chest like a little deer.
However, her outward expression remained as serene as before, with only a hint of surprise in her eyes.
“…”
Ye Anping concentrated, quickly scanning Yun Yiyi’s body with his spiritual sense—the flow of spiritual energy in her meridians had quickened significantly, her heart rate had increased, and she hadn’t shown any instinctive resistance. Instead, she had deliberately relaxed her body…
Although Yun Yiyi’s face revealed nothing, based on these reactions, he could confirm that her favorability towards him should be above “80 points.”
Ye Anping calmly moved off her and stood up, cupping his fist in apology:
“My apologies, I seem to have accidentally tripped over something.”
Yun Yiyi slowly sat up, gently adjusting her dislodged shoulder strap. After a moment of thought, she replied:
“It’s alright. We are engaged anyway, and some intimate actions between fiancés are not entirely unacceptable. If Young Master Ye prefers more intimacy, I wouldn’t refuse. Or perhaps…”
Saying this, Yun Yiyi also stood up, took a step closer to Ye Anping, and tapped the tip of her embroidered shoe against his. Then, she narrowed her eyes slightly, looked up at him, and pointed to her lips:
“Hm?”
“…”
Ye Anping figured someone would interrupt them soon, so he didn’t answer.
Just as he had anticipated, the Sword Sect disciple he had glimpsed earlier rushed frantically to the pavilion, shouting:
“Eldest Miss!! Something big has happened!!”
Hearing this, Yun Yiyi couldn’t help but purse her lips in slight embarrassment. She then stepped back, turned to face the Sword Sect disciple outside the pavilion, and thought inwardly: I hope something truly big has happened, or you’ll be in big trouble.
“What is it?”
“A major homicide case occurred at the Sword Sect marketplace.”
“A homicide case?” Yun Yiyi frowned slightly, pondered for a moment, and asked, “Details, please.”
“Twenty-seven bodies were found in the Sword Pavilion at the marketplace. All disciples of the Sword Sect, with cultivation levels ranging from Early Foundation Establishment to Late Foundation Establishment. And all of them were inner disciples.”
A flicker of astonishment appeared in Yun Yiyi’s eyes, but her tone remained calm as she asked:
“All twenty-seven deceased were inner disciples?”
“Yes, all twenty-seven bodies had golden hair.”
“…”
Twenty-seven inner disciples dead all of a sudden, and the location wasn’t the wilderness, but within the Sword Sect’s marketplace?
How could this be?!
Now, Yun Yiyi could no longer perfectly control her smile. She bit her lip slightly, looking at the disciple who had come to tell her this with a strange expression, even wanting to say: Are you kidding me?
But in the end, she suppressed her emotions with a deep breath and asked:
“When did this happen?”
“It should have been early last night. Other clues are still being investigated.”
Yun Yiyi fell silent for a moment, then turned to look at Ye Anping and asked:
“Young Master Ye, what do you think?”
Ye Anping pretended to frown and thought for a moment, then said softly,
“This matter brings you and your two sisters back to the same starting line. Moreover, Senior Disciple Yun will emerge from seclusion in a few months. Such an incident happening now is likely not a coincidence.”
Upon Ye Anping’s reminder, she immediately realized.
The rankings determining the Sect Master position were already set. After her marriage to Ye Anping, her Yi Shui Peak would ascend to the top of the list. But with this incident, it was no longer certain.
The gap between her Yi Shui Peak, Yun Jiujiu’s Jian Jiu Peak, and Yun Xi’s Xi Ri Peak was still very small. This sudden homicide case was too significant.
In other words, whoever among the three of them solved this case could elevate their mountain peak to the first position on the Central Peak rankings.
Thinking of this, Yun Yiyi quickly ordered the Yi Shui Peak disciple:
“You, take people from Yi Shui Peak to seal off the scene. No one is allowed into that shop until I arrive. Remember, absolutely no one, not even Yun Jiujiu or Yun Xi.”
“Yes!”
…
