No.1 Room, Sky Lantern.
A calm voice, a mere six words, thundered through the noisy herd of sheep, leaving all the auction participants momentarily blank-minded.
Then, all their prior assumptions about Yun Mu were overturned, plunging them into an endless brainstorm.
“Wait, aren’t the people in No.1 Room supposed to be the sellers of this item? Why are they lighting the Sky Lantern to buy it back?”
“Sky Lantern? Both Princesses from Xiyun and Li Xun are here, and someone still dares to light the Sky Lantern? Who on earth is this person?”
“Could it be that the news of the Ancient Nation of Baiyao and the Northern Underworld Royalty not coming is fake?”
“How could it be fake? Before Her Majesty the Empress came, she specifically reminded us… Damn it… despicable humans, actually tricking us for information…”
For a moment, the clamor rose again.
Yun Mu and Tu Shan Huaizhi sat inside the room, listening to these words in confusion, unable to make sense of it all.
“Brother Yun Mu, when did we say we were going to sell anything?”
“I don’t know, either.”
“Brother Yun Mu, does lighting the Sky Lantern depend on someone else’s mood?”
“Well, it’s hard to explain. I’ll tell you when we get back.”
“Brother Yun Mu, it seems someone just revealed their identity—and they’re one of our clan.
“Mm… I heard it…”
Of course, the most shocked among them were Qin Luoyi and Xia Qingyao.
At this very moment, in No.2 Room, Qin Luoyi had already left her seat.
She stood by the window, peering through the gaps in the tassels at the robe and stele on the platform below, her hands gripping the wooden windowsill so tightly that her knuckles whitened, muttering under her breath.
“Sky Lantern… Xiao Yunzi, what are you doing… Didn’t you recognize that it was my voice? Why are you being so disobedient… Aren’t you always the one who listens to me the most?”
The young lady could never have imagined that her greatest rival in seizing the stele would not be Princess Xia Qingyao from Xiyun, with whom she had clashed before.
Nor would it be some other hidden aristocratic family, perhaps long planning to provoke the Qin Clan.
But rather, the very youth she had already internally appointed as the future master of her residence, her one and only “inner one.”
Feeling the shard of the stele resonating and stirring inside her universe pouch, the veins on her slender arms bulged beneath her sleeves from exertion, and a crack sounded—her once-intact wooden window now webbed with fissures.
“Xiao Yunzi… Those wretches from Baiyao must have done something to you, right? I knew they were up to no good… Such a good child… how could you suddenly become so rebellious? No… I have to save you right now…”
As if having lost all reason, the girl pried her hands from the wood, turned, and strode toward the door.
At the side, Qin Wanzhou and Qin Wanyin had already shed their earlier grins, now sensing the dangerous aura radiating from her.
They exchanged a glance instinctively, then stepped back.
“Sis, what do we do? Luoyi’s power—seems off again, maybe we should just run?”
Another step back.
“Run? Isn’t the reason we came to prevent exactly this? Did you forget what Imperial Father told us before he left?”
She grabbed him by the arm.
“‘Make sure to keep an eye on Big Sis’?”
He tried to shake free.
“Yes. If you run now, how will you answer to Imperial Father later?”
Her grip tightened.
“I don’t know, I just know if we don’t run now, we’ll both be done for.”
He struggled harder to get loose.
“No, we have to do this. No running at the last minute.”
“But, sis, aren’t you trembling too?”
“That’s…”
Clang!
Just as the dragon-phoenix twins were hotly debating whether to stop their sister’s rampage, a crisp collision rang out.
They instinctively looked to the door.
The previously silent exclusive maid of No.2 Room, Qing’er, was now blocking Qin Luoyi’s path, holding a writing brush and a booklet, head bowed as she scribbled away.
In front of her, the rampaging Qin Luoyi unexpectedly sat down. Beneath her was a chair—no one knew when it had been brought over—and above her head hovered a faintly glowing, illusory balance.
“What is this… hsss…”
The girl raised her hand to her head, all her power swept away, leaving only the pressure from above.
“Miss Qin, have you come back to your senses?”
“Uh… thanks to you, I feel much better…”
“It isn’t my power. This is a prohibition our Chief Pavilion Master set in every Branch Pavilion. When someone damages Wanbao Pavilion property, it appears to mediate.”
“Mediation?”
Sensing the suppressed power within, the girl chuckled softly.
“A good thing, but it only treats the symptoms, not the root. Otherwise, I’d want to buy it myself.”
After a pause, Qing’er ignored the remark and simply continued:
“Miss Qin, according to Wanbao Pavilion’s penalty process, you have two choices. First, settle the damages you caused to the window and then continue bidding. Second, continue bidding, and pay the fine once everything is over.”
“What’s the difference?”
“Not much. But if you don’t pay, you’ll remain under the effect of the prohibition.”
“Prohibition…”
Listening to the bidding continuing outside, the girl sighed helplessly.
“Fine, let’s settle up now. Since he’s lit the Sky Lantern, I won’t get involved. It doesn’t matter who wins the bid between us.”
“Very well, in that case, based on my calculations, the number of Spirit Stones you owe is…”
Qing’er lifted the booklet and showed it to her, face calm.
“Mm… So paying will remove the prohibition?”
“That’s right.”
“Good. Then, do you accept IOUs?”
“No.”
“Fine, I’ll just pay myself, it’s not much anyway.”
Their exchange was so casual, it was as if they were discussing something trivial.
No confrontation of force, no dramatic dialogue, just an ordinary conversation.
Behind them, Qin Wanyin and Qin Wanzhou stared at the two like they’d seen a ghost, dumbfounded.
“Never mind suppressing Big Sis—it’s Wanbao Pavilion, after all—but how did she bring Big Sis back to her senses?”
“That’s not the point! What does she mean it doesn’t matter who wins the bid… Didn’t Imperial Father say we absolutely have to win that thing?”
“You ask me like I know.”
Clearly, what the siblings didn’t know was that the girl’s own power had already been largely drained by Yun Mu days ago.
The outburst just now, even without Wanbao Pavilion’s prohibition, would have faded a few steps after leaving the room.
As for saying it didn’t matter who won, it wasn’t that she was so lovestruck she’d abandon the clue to saving her mother.
Rather… the moment she regained her senses, she had already come up with an even more perfect plan.