A Lifelong Event

Gu Chengyin thought for a moment. It really wasn't easy to explain the specific details to Shangguan Yunying, so he could only say tactfully, "Her Highness played the main role. Your father is a pillar of the state and deeply understands righteousness. Inspired by Her Highness, he naturally knew what choice to make." He spoke in a high-sounding manner, almost like official jargon.

"I don't believe that!"

Shangguan Yunying shook her head vigorously like a rattle-drum, her face full of an expression that said 'who are you trying to fool'.

"It's not like I haven't passed messages or assigned tasks to him for Her Highness before. Every time he promised perfectly well, but the results he handed in were always lacking."

She stared at Gu Chengyin with sharp eyes. "It must be you! You must have used some special method! Tell me!"

Her tone unconsciously carried a hint of coquettishness.

Gu Chengyin avoided answering and just smiled.

"You will know in the future."

Being brushed off, Shangguan Yunying pouted but didn't make a fuss.

Sitting back down on the edge of the bed, she asked with concern, "By the way, Steward Gu, I remember you told Her Highness at the time that you would pick a few chickens with high enough status but relatively unimportant positions to kill as a warning, but you ended up bringing back a Grand Secretary..."

She paused, her delicate eyebrows slightly furrowed. "If Her Highness knows the change is so drastic, and without clear prior authorization... will she blame you?"

Hearing this, Gu Chengyin smiled easily.

He looked at Shangguan Yunying and asked in return, "Master Yunying, do you think... with Her Highness's broad-mindedness and ambition, she would blame me?"

Shangguan Yunying's eyes lit up again. "No! What Her Highness wants has never been minor squabbles, but true thunderous strikes!"

Gu Chengyin spread his hands and smiled. "Isn't that it? Since Her Highness won't blame me and will only be more satisfied, what do I have to worry about?"

He changed the subject, looking at Shangguan Yunying with a teasing smile. "I've told you everything you wanted to know, and it's getting really late."

A rosy blush flew up Shangguan Yunying's face again, only then realizing she had stayed too long.

She hurriedly stood up, feeling a bit reluctant and embarrassed, and said in a low voice, "I, I'll be leaving now. Steward Gu, you... rest well."

She turned and walked to the door, her steps as light as a cat's, afraid of alerting anyone.

When her slender fingers rested on the door latch, ready to pull it open.

However.

"Hmm?"

The expected sliding of the latch did not occur.

What transmitted to her fingers was a dull sensation of being stuck by some external force.

Shangguan Yunying's heart skipped a beat, and she applied a little more force.

It didn't budge.

She furrowed her delicate eyebrows, an ominous feeling rising in her heart.

Although this east wing was a guest room, it was well-maintained daily; the door latch couldn't possibly be rusted shut for no reason.

She concentrated and listened carefully. It was silent outside the door, with no breathing sounds from guards or patrolling servants.

Taking a deep breath, a faint glow of true qi lit up at her fingertips, preparing to force it open with internal energy.

Just then, her gaze swept over the bottom of the door gap.

By the faint moonlight, she saw, at the crevice where the door leaf met the threshold.

A slender metallic shadow lay clearly across it!

Its shape was distinctly an exquisite brass lock!

Shangguan Yunying's breath suddenly caught.

She sharply withdrew her hand and staggered back a small step, her face instantly turning pale in the dim light.

With a last shred of luck, she quickly turned around and rushed back to Gu Chengyin's bed in a few steps.

Gu Chengyin had just lain down. Hearing the footsteps, he propped himself up again in confusion. "What's wrong? Forgot something?"

"The door... the door is locked!" Shangguan Yunying's voice carried panic. She pointed in the direction of the door, her fingertips trembling.

"Locked?"

Gu Chengyin was also taken aback, then laughed, "It's just a wooden door. Even if it were a fine steel lock, with your cultivation, could it stop you?"

"It's not about the lock!"

Shangguan Yunying stomped her foot anxiously and said in frustration, "The point is... who locked it! Steward Gu, think about it. With the cultivation levels of the two of us, if someone really approached the door and locked it, how could we not notice it at all?!"

Hearing this, Gu Chengyin's expression gradually grew solemn.

Indeed, he was at the middle stage of Qi Condensation, and his perception was already sharp.

Shangguan Yunying was even an expert in the Foundation Establishment realm; any rustle of leaves in the wind within dozens of meters couldn't escape her ears.

Unless the newcomer was a peerless expert with a cultivation level far higher than theirs, it was impossible for them not to be discovered.

Shangguan Yunying sat dejectedly on the edge of the bed. She covered her cheeks with both hands, her voice coming out muffled through her fingers, carrying a despair of wanting to die from embarrassment and anger:

"It's over... it's really over this time... It must be my mother! She must have found out I sneaked over to see you!"

"I... I couldn't wash myself clean even if I jumped into the Luo River! Tomorrow... no, maybe later, it will spread throughout the whole manor! Boo hoo..."

At this moment, where was there any demeanor of a Foundation Establishment expert? She was completely a young maiden with nowhere to hide her shame.

Gu Chengyin also rubbed his forehead helplessly, "It shouldn't be that bad, right? Could you have seen it wrong? Madam wouldn't personally come to lock the door, would she? If this gets out, it will damage your reputation and won't be good for the Shangguan family's name either."

Shangguan Yunying put down her hands, revealing a pretty face on the verge of tears. Her eyes were complex, carrying a trace of helplessness that said you don't know my mother:

"Steward Gu, there is something you don't know. My mother... she is not an ordinary official's wife."

She bit her lower lip and said in a low voice, "My maternal grandfather is the Sect Master of the Azure Sword Sect."

"Azure Sword Sect?"

Gu Chengyin raised his eyebrows slightly.

He had some impression of this name; it was one of the immortal cultivation sects famous for sword cultivators within the Great Luo Empire.

"Yes."

Shangguan Yunying nodded and continued, "My mother is my grandfather's only daughter. She practiced the sword since childhood and had extremely high talent."

"She didn't rely on pills and resources to pile it up, but solidly cultivated on her own to... the late stage of the Foundation Establishment realm."

A trace of surprise flashed across Gu Chengyin's eyes.

"All my cultivation and sword techniques were actually learned from my mother."

"So... she is as familiar with my aura as can be. Trying to hide from her... is very difficult."

Gu Chengyin was completely speechless now.

No wonder! No wonder when he first entered the manor and faced that beautiful woman with a warm smile, although he felt she gave people a feeling like a spring breeze.

But deep down, there was faintly an instinctive warning that made him subconsciously maintain more of a polite distance.

So that wasn't an illusion!

It was a late-stage Foundation Establishment sword cultivator who had deliberately restrained her sharp edge but still couldn't completely conceal her aura of the strong!

"In other words..." Gu Chengyin rubbed his temples, feeling the matter becoming increasingly thorny.

"That lock outside... nine times out of ten, was locked by Madam herself?"

"Besides her, who else in this manor could lock the door without us noticing? And who else... would do such a thing!"

Shangguan Yunying covered her face, her voice filled with shame and indignation: "My mother... she is... she is trying to ruin my reputation! What kind of mother sets up her own daughter like this!"

Gu Chengyin was silent for a moment, then suddenly asked, "Madam seems to care a lot about your... marriage prospects?"