"Huff, puff." Leaning against a wall, Yun Lei took deep breaths. He could barely even stand but he let out a smile as he looked at the setting sun.
He had done it. Barely, but he had completed twenty laps before sundown.
The maid silently supported her Young Master with one hand as she wiped away the sweat from his face with another.
"I didn't think you'd actually be able to do it." Cai Huan said with an impressed look on his face. "I informed your maid of your diet. Be here tomorrow before dawn."
Yun Lei, who was too tired to even speak, just nodded. With the help of the maid, he walked towards the carriage that was waiting for him.
Cai Huan watched the young noble leave with a difficult look on his face. He knew that making such a beginner run twenty laps was a bit excessive. He only wanted to see how many laps the young man would run before giving up. The results, he couldn't have even anticipated.
The unmarked carriage slowly escaped his sight as the clip-clop of the horse's hooves faded into the distance.
"I never caught your name." Yun Lei said to the maid as he looked outside the carriage window.
"Reporting to the young master, this servant is called Dong Zhu."
Yun Lei remembered the names of a good chunk of his maids simply because he had heard them conversing with each other. Dong Zhu seemed to be a bit of a loner because he had never seen her talking to anyone besides Situ Yue, not even the other cultivators disguised as his maids.
"I see." Was all he said as he leaned back on the seat and closed his eyes. He just wanted to fall asleep but he still had a dinner to attend to that day.
While he was running, Dong Zhu had informed him that Senior Mo had sent him a message. The Third Young Lady of the Zhang Family has been invited to dinner today.
The first thing Yun Lei did upon reaching Yun Meili's room was take a nice cold bath to help soothe his fatigued muscles. Then he was handed a really bitter drink that supposedly helped with muscle growth and even restored his energy, according to what Dong Zhu had told him.
Of course, he made sure that while he drank the bitter, green looking liquid, not a single muscle on his face twitched. He would have been rather embarrassed if he made a face in front of the maids.
He was then dressed up in some of the fanciest silk robes he had worn in a while. It was a pure white robe with red motifs around the borders that gave him a refined and sophisticated look. A ceremonial sword was attached to one side of his hip and his jade identification plate hung at the other side.
His hair was put up in a beautiful braid and intricately decorated with beautiful white flowers that looked like bright stars in the vast night sky that was his black hair.
Even the maids who had prepared him had to periodically control their breathing so as to not let a blush appear on their face but, despite their best efforts, some things simply could not be stopped.
"How do I look, Ning'er?" He turned towards the woman sitting atop the bed and spoke in a teasing tone.
Su Ning looked away from where she had heard his voice and laid down, burrowing her face in a pillow.
"Young Master always teases me." She cutely grumbled in frustration. Yun Lei's habit of teasing her was nothing new but she had found herself feeling far more bitter than it usually would have made her.
"Ah, my cute Ning'er, forgive your foolish young master. But you are so cute, I simply cannot help myself." Yun Lei said with a small laugh. The laugh was so enchanting that several of the maids found their knees wobbling. "I have to go attend a dinner so we won't be able to eat together today."
"Sister Meili too?"
"Yes, she will be there as well." Yun Lei said, glancing towards the mirror in front of him. He wasn't unaware of his own beauty but he had never thought much of it. However, he was quite amazed at how all of the fatigue on his face seemed to have simply vanished.
"We'll be back soon." He said before turning and leaving the room. Situ Yue and Dong Zhu followed behind him on either side.
Yun Lei had only walked a short distance before he spotted Yun Meili, alongside her personal guards and Senior Mo.
"Ah, Young Master, you're here." Senior Mo was the one to speak. "It seems the Third Young Lady of the Zhang Family is quite eager to meet you."
"Is that so?" was all Yun Lei said in reply.
"Perhaps a bit too eager." Yun Meili said emotionlessly but a dangerous glint flashed in her eyes for just a single moment.
"We have arranged the meeting to be in the main dining hall. Although the governor won't be in attending, the Yun Family has to show proper hospitality to the Third Young Lady of one of the oldest noble families in Ether Cloud." Senior Mo explained as the group waited for the guests to arrive.
Zhang Fenfang arrived at the Yun Estate in a fancy carriage, surrounded by tens of guards. While the Young Lady had the same simple smile on her face as she usually did, her guards looked very tense. It was the place of residence of the ruler of Ether Cloud City, they couldn't afford to offend even the lowest of guards at that Estate. It was natural for them to be tense.
"Third Young Lady of the Zhang Family, other guests from the Zhang family, please follow us."
A few servants trained specifically to handle important guests welcomed the entourage. Zhang Fenfang walked in the middle while surrounded by her five personal guards. Including herself, the party included three Body Tempering Realm Cultivators.
The servants quickly guided the guests to where Yun Lei and the rest were standing.
"Welcome to the Yun Estate, Third Young Lady of the Zhang Family." Senior Mo was the first to step forward and speak.
However, the Third Young Lady's eyes didn't even look towards the old man as they were firmly locked on Yun Lei. She was trying to check if the young man standing before her with a confident gaze was truly a cripple.
She had felt the scary aura that had exploded from Yun Lei's body. How could a cripple release such an aura? She thought but, no matter how hard she looked, she could not sense a single shred of profound energy in his body.
"Welcome, Miss Zhang." Yun Lei said with a smile while politely nodding his head.
"I thank Young Master Yun for the warm welcome." She replied as she carefully compared the stunning young man before her to the shabby looking customer who had left her restaurant without finishing his food.
If in any other circumstance, someone had told her that the two were the same person, she would have simply laughed. How could such a handsome man look so shabby even if he put on some shabby clothes?
But she had no choice but to believe it. Not only did she recognise the old man who had accompanied that customer to be Senior Mo, but she had also even recognised Situ Yue. Most importantly, however, she recognised the look of utter indifference in the young man's eyes.
After her eyes fell upon Yun Meili, who was standing beside the Young Master, she felt that his behaviour wasn't all that strange. The Princess of the Ether Cloud was his wife, of course, he would be indifferent towards her. Status, fame, wealth, beauty, ability, in front of Yun Meili, she was undoubtedly inferior in all of them.
"Please." Senior Mo said as he signalled towards where their meeting was supposed to take place.
The dining hall was beautifully decorated but Yun Lei realised that it hadn't been as lavish as it was while he and his wife had dinner with his father-in-law. Several servants, as well as guards, stood on either side of the entrance with bowed heads.
Only cooks and a few specialised servants were allowed into the dining hall of any noble family. Because of this, the personal guards of both Yun Meili and Zhang Fenfeng remained outside the hall.
However, it wasn't just Yun Lei, Yun Meili, Senior Mo and herself entering the hall as the Third Young Lady expected. The two maids walking behind the Young Master walked in as well, completely unimpeded.
As they were trained to do, the specialised dining hall servants moved forward in order to help the guests get seated. But after seeing his two maids walking behind him, they only gave the Young Master a quick bow before backing off and moving towards the others.
It was an established rule amongst the Yun Estate's servants. As long as the Young Master was with his personal maids, only they were allowed to serve him, no matter what his needs may be.
The Young Master's personal maids wouldn't take kindly to the other servants trying to take the spot that belonged to them and only them. Since they were above the other servants in the food chain, getting on their bad side was not a good idea.
"Please forgive us, due to the lack of time we were not able to prepare a feast that the Third Young Lady of the Zhang Family would be used to." Senior Mo said in an apologetic tone after everyone was seated.
"It is fine, please, you need not worry about it." Zhang Fenfeng replied coolly. As the owner of the Flower Garden Pavilion, she ate all kinds of lavish meals every day. Senior Mo wasn't merely being humble for the sake of it.
"Well then, perhaps we should get on with our business." Yun Lei said as the maids were plating some food for him. He just wanted to eat and go back to his comfy bed and fall asleep with one of his women in each arm. Although he didn't look it, he was still extremely tired and his legs felt like they would fall off at any moment.
Zhang Fenfang pulled out a scroll from one of her sleeves before lifting it up with profound energy and delivering it directly in front of the Young Master.
The scroll contained a small portrait of fifteen staff members of the Flower Garden Pavilion, alongside the report that they had all been executed. Yun Lei didn't recognise any of them except the waiter who had 'served' them that day.
"The Flower Garden Pavillion has always prided itself for being the best restaurant in all of Ether Cloud. However, due to my negligence, a terrible mistake was allowed to happen within the doors of our restaurant. I would like to extend my personal apologies as well as inform Young Master Yun that such a mistake will not be repeated again."
Zhang Fenfeng was carefully watching how the young man would react even as she was speaking.
"What is she talking about?" Yun Meili, who had no idea about the incident asked Senior Mo. She was sitting right beside Yun Lei so it was impossible for her to not see the scroll's content.
Even after reading through the report, Yun Lei still had the same stoic look on his face, much to Zhang Fenfeng's disappointment. He was someone who could drive a knife through a man's skull with his own hands without so much as a frown of disgust. Informing him of the death of fifteen people he did not care about wouldn't do much in terms of making him react.
However, the report did indirectly tell him the reason the Third Young Lady was so eager to meet him. She knew that he had been in her restaurant and had received terrible treatment.
Does she think coming here and telling me that she executed those responsible will do anything to appease me? Yun Lei thought to himself as he chuckled in his head.
Regardless of what she did or said, the Thunder Cloud Company would be opening a restaurant. This had already been decided the moment he said it would.
To him, the meeting was merely a formality.