Like Cheng Xin, Cheng Chaochuan was a little surprised to see him.

“What are you all doing here?!” He asked dangerously.

“We—we were just....bored—we came here to talk and were just going home....” Cheng Xin didn’t dare look his grandfather straight in the eye as he stammered.

Cheng Chaochuan sent a chilling glare at the five men in front of him, “Pah! You’d best be on your best behavior. If anything else happens, I’ll break your legs to go with your arms!”

“Ye—yes.....your grandson will listen obediently...”

Cheng Xin bowed his head repeatedly before he led the other four away from the place.

Cheng Chaochuan had wanted to say a few things more to them, but since the person he was accompanying didn’t seem patient at all, he ignored the matter with Cheng Xin to gesture towards the villa behind, “This is one of the properties we the Cheng own. In ordinary times, there’ll be a few youngsters coming and going, but if sire needs a place to stay, there will definitely be no one to bother you here.”

By his side was an elderly man in gray robes. He had a dull expression on his face, but his eyes were chillingly dark enough to have even a mid-stage Soul King like Cheng Chaochuan give him the polite treatment. In other words, this man was by no means weak.

The elder nodded his head, “I won’t be here in the Capital for long. As soon as I finish that, I’ll leave. During that time, I’ll do all that I can to help you, I hope you won’t fail to disappoint me either....”

Cheng Chaochuan arched an eyebrow, a hint of displeasure showing in his eyes for just a moment.

“Worry not, sire. We are only just waiting for the best possible moment to ensure nothing goes wrong. Due to the importance of this matter and the fate of our entire Cheng, we must do all that we can to be careful. And so, let us please confer over a few crucial details....

“But this isn’t the place for that. Please sire, follow me into this room.”

......

From far away, Cheng Xin and his band of five were far away enough from the villa to look back at it.

“That...scared me,” Li Chen patted his chest, “no wonder he’s a Soul King if he can scare us out of our minds with just a few words. Lord Cheng, what is your grandfather doing here?”

Cheng Xin shrugged his shoulders, “How should I know? It’s a good thing we finished as soon as we did, otherwise my grandfather would’ve heard what we were talking about. Let’s go home, we can’t let anyone find out about this. We meet again in two days!”

“Are...are we still going to go through with this plan?” Zhu Yizhi asked timidly, “Your grandfather said to behave ourselves. What if he already knows about our plans? If we go through with this, what if....”

“Hmph! Watch what you’re saying!” Cheng Xin glared at him, “Don’t make me look down on you, little Zhi. Are you afraid? I’ve heard my grandfather say those words so many times already, and even if I did get into trouble after that, he only scolds me at most. I’m not afraid, are you?!”

“N—no! I’ll do as you say, lord Xin!”

Continuing to walk into the Capital, Li Chen suddenly spoke up, “Lord Xin, I heard that....Xu Sihan has had some trouble with Bai Yunfei before. Do you think we should rope him in? If by chance we get caught, we’d have one more person to help us. And if anything....we could use him as our scapegoat.”

Zeng Fei and Zhu Yizhi both lit up at that suggestion, “That’s a good idea! That Xu Sihan is a pretty stupid one. If we say just a few words to him, we can probably use him to our advantage!”

But Cheng Xin quirked his lips, “Did it really take you all this long to think about that? I asked Xu Sihan to come earlier today, but he wimped out saying he didn’t want to anger Bai Yunfei any more.”

“Ah? You already went looking for him, lord Xin?” Li Chen spoke, crestfallen. “Is that Xu Sihan that cowardly, what a loser! He might be the son of a minister like lord Xin, but his actions and personality aren’t even a tenth of what lord Xin is!”

“The Xu have always been a cowardly house. They can’t beat my family, so they choose to retreat inwardly. Sooner or later, there’ll only be one senior minister in the entire empire, the Cheng!”

............

Bai Yunfei took Tang Xinyun and the others back to his residence. Having the servants draw up a room for the three travel-weary females, Bai Yunfei was ready to let them retire early for the night.

He didn’t even speak more than a few words with Tang Xinyun, and the thick-faced Zheng Kai didn’t have the chance to speak with Kou Tingting either. Rather than giving up, he rounded on Bai Yunfei to ask him a few questions about her. Bai Yunfei was willing to answer only a few questions before he got tired of it all and slammed the door shut on Zheng Kai’s face, much to the cursing of his friend.

Bai Yunfei shook his head as he listened Zheng Kai order one of the servants to draw up a room for him. As good as a friend Bai Yunfei felt Zheng Kai was, he still couldn’t shake off the negative ‘reputation’ he had. Even worse, with how recent his latest escapades with several women were, Bai Yunfei wasn’t feeling confident in helping Zheng Kai pursue Kou Tingting.

The emotions of Zheng Kai today was a rare one, admittedly. Bai Yunfei didn’t even know if he should treat Zheng Kai seriously or not.

Either way, Bai Yunfei couldn’t exactly forbid Zheng Kai from pursuing Tingting, even if the two were a well match for one another. It was Zheng Kai’s personal choice, and Bai Yunfei didn’t care much as long as he wasn’t being used as an ‘accomplice’.

The days following that night were considerably far better than usual in Bai Yunfei’s opinion. With Tang Xinyun here, it was like the world had gotten a lot brighter than before with the rekindled flames of emotion from not seeing Tang Xinyun in a long time fueling that light. Just being able to wake up in the morning and feeling the aura of her being close by filled Bai Yunfei with a great deal of happiness from morning to evening.

Being new to the Capital, Tang Xinyun was extremely curious on how the city was. Together with Bai Yunfei, the two of them roamed around the Capital from one place to the next. One day, they’d explore the academy, another day, the northern parts of the Capital, and then the day after, the eastern parts....

In the course of these days, there was an uninvited ‘host’ who seemed to take it upon himself to lead the ‘tour’ around the Capital. Taking them from west to east and south to north, this person was so excited to lead them that it felt like he was taking some drugs to keep up his energy.

That person was Zheng Kai.

Most of his time was spent paying extra attention to Kou Tingting almost. Unfortunately for him, Kou Tingting felt neither grateful nor wanted his attention and hardly gave him the opportunity to be alone with her to say a word or two. If not for Zheng Kai knowing when to back off when he did, Kou Tingting would’ve most likely had an even worse opinion of him.

Stuck in his own enjoyment with Tang Xinyun, Bai Yunfei had hardly cared for Zheng Kai’s predicament, causing Zheng Kai to mutter under his breath that Bai Yunfei was someone that chose a lover over a friend.

It might’ve been his imagination, but Bai Yunfei felt as if the wounds on his body and soul were healing even faster than before now that Tang Xinyun was here. Perhaps it was because of his good mood, but his body felt better than usual for the next few days. The feeling of weakness was gone for the most part. In fact, Bai Yunfei felt like he was back to the levels of strength before his match with Cheng Yao. There also didn’t seem to be a chance of him losing control of his emotions again as badly as just a few days ago.

If things kept on like this, it wouldn’t be long before he’d regain enough strength to be back at his optimal level of power.

............

Several days later on the sixth day of the week.

It was night time, and Huangfu Rui was feeling a little tired with how much time she spent playing today. With Tang Xinyun and Kou Tingting deciding to take the younger one back to Bai Yunfei’s place, Bai Yunfei decided to go to the Soothing Heart himself to have a pot of Soul Consolidating Tea.

As soon as he entered the teahouse, someone already seated from within called out to him.

It was one of the other instructors from the academy, Xiao Nan.

Bai Yunfei took a seat in front of him, “Big brother Xiao, what a coincidence. I don’t normally see you here drinking tea.”

Xiao Nan smiled back, “This is by no means a coincidence, Yunfei. I was actually waiting for you.”

“Waiting for me?” Bai Yunfei repeated, “Is something the matter, big brother Xiao?”