Chapter 525 - 346: Come Back with Me (3)

'I've been having hallucinations lately, but why is it always him? There's… really nothing between us!' Huangpu Yue muttered to herself. But as she moved toward the large bed, her body suddenly froze. She had heard a knock on the door, accompanied by a young man's voice.

"I say, Miss Huangpu, we may not have seen each other for several years, but surely you haven't forgotten me already? Besides, I'm just coming home. Are you really going to give me the cold shoulder?"

The voice held a hint of teasing, causing Huangpu Yue's delicate face to flush beet red in an instant. Her heart began to beat a little faster as well.

'This hallucination is so realistic this time. Heavens, what is wrong with me?' Huangpu Yue pressed her exquisite, jade-like hands to her face, feeling it burn.

Only then did Huangpu Yue's four loyal bodyguards—Ah Da, Ah Er, Ah San, and Ah Si—hear someone in their lady's courtyard. They leaped in from the outside and began to close in on Ling Xiao. But after just two steps, all four of them shuddered in unison. They stared at Ling Xiao in disbelief before performing an act that left him completely exasperated.

The four men bowed to Ling Xiao, then flipped over and vanished into the snow. If not for the footprints left behind, one might have thought they were never there.

'They... really don't see me as an outsider, do they!' Ling Xiao thought with a wry smile. He raised his hand to knock again. He had rushed here without stopping the moment he heard someone was plotting against Huangpu Yue. It had been a few years since they'd last seen each other, and he did miss her. He had very good feelings for her. It wasn't love, but he definitely liked her! To say you didn't like a woman as smart and beautiful as Huangpu Yue would be a bald-faced lie.

Just as Ling Xiao raised his hand, the door swung open again with a WHOOSH. He saw Huangpu Yue's stunning face staring intently at him for a few moments. Then he heard her say, "This is insane. I really don't like you *that* much. Damn it, why do I dream about you every day? It's so realistic... I'm having a nightmare..." As she mumbled, she reached out a delicate hand to touch Ling Xiao's face. She even gave it a pinch and said with a beaming smile, "Wow, so real!"

Ling Xiao looked at Huangpu Yue, at a loss for whether to laugh or cry. He said softly, "It's really me, my lady."

Huangpu Yue suddenly froze. The blush that had just faded crept back onto her lovely face, strand by strand. Her mouth fell open, her throat worked, and just as an earth-shattering scream was about to erupt, Ling Xiao's hand shot out and covered her mouth. He said with a sigh of resignation, "I must say, your way of welcoming me is quite... unique, isn't it?"

...…

Inside the room, the two sat facing each other. Huangpu Yue carefully brewed a cup of tea for Ling Xiao and brought it to him, the blush on her face yet to fade. This ice queen who commanded the world of business was now as shy as a girl-next-door who had done something wrong. She sat with her eyes downcast, too embarrassed to look up at Ling Xiao.

'I really made a huge fool of myself today!' Huangpu Yue lamented internally. 'This sucks. Why didn't it ever occur to me that Ling Xiao would come to visit?' As she thought this, she couldn't help but feel a flicker of annoyance. 'Who visits someone in the middle of the night? People who know us would say we're friends, but those who don't... you sneaking into my chambers at night like this... what's that supposed to mean? After all, I'm still a proper, unmarried maiden of sixteen!'

'Sixteen plus two, to be precise!'

Huangpu Yue added in her mind.

It was no wonder Huangpu Yue hadn't considered the real issue. She had been in the Imperial Capital for three years, and everything had been calm. Cowed by the Ling Family's power, neither the Royal Family nor the Wulan Family dared to cause her trouble. As for the hidden clans and sects, they simply didn't give a person from the Mortal World like her a second thought.

Therefore, Huangpu Yue could never have imagined that someone would actually dare to target her.

So, as she listened to Ling Xiao's explanation, Huangpu Yue's once-shy face turned pale, and a deep anger flared in her eyes. 'To think that someone would actually dare to target me, a weak woman!'

After several years of development, the Ling Family's intelligence department was no longer the weak, practically ornamental organization it once was. With Meng Li absorbed in his cultivation and Li Tianluo burning with a thirst for revenge, Li Tianluo had taken over the department. He cultivated a large group of young confidants and dispatched them across the country. Infiltrating the hidden clans and sects as spies was ultimately too difficult. Besides, most of these clans and sects maintained a closed-off, distrustful attitude toward the Mortal World. Getting in was harder than ascending to heaven.

But the famous and noble families within the Empire were a different matter. After all, they always needed to hire servants!

In three years, Li Tianluo had successfully spread his spies throughout the upper-class circles of the Lanyue Empire! Leveraging his familiarity with the various families, Li Tianluo even devised different methods for each one.

The Wulan Family, an old and established noble house of the Lanyue Empire, had been through its share of scandals. However, no one could deny that the Wulan Family's foundations were still incredibly deep.

Although many things had happened, none of them had been a crippling blow to the Wulan Family; they had merely lost some face.

However, the reason Wulan Xiong hated Ling Xiao to the bone was because of Wulan Tuo. Ling Xiao had beaten him so severely that he'd lost his ability to function as a man! This meant that the Wulan Clan's lineage would end with this generation!