***
(Ye Chen POV)
"Ugh!"
As soon as I regained my senses I took notice of my surroundings. My body was lying over a couple metal racks. The dresses which once hung on them were under me and some partly over me.
Suddenly I started feeling pain in my face, more specifically my nose and left cheek. Grimacing from the pain I reached up to it which only stung, but then I noticed a cruel fact. My nose was crooked and bent towards my right cheek.
Horrified by the discovery I thought back to what could have possibly caused this.
'I was in the middle of talking about saving those two girls when suddenly I'm here now. It should have been that handsome bastard. Of course it was him! Who else could it have been? Sister Xue or that Big Sister? No, they wouldn't, after all I was just about to free them.
At least now I know approximately how high his cultivation is. He should still be in the Body Tempering Realm, same as me, and probably the same stage too. He might even be a 9th layer Body Tempering cultivator, but that's still something I can surpass. From the fact that I couldn't even see his attack it should be that he focuses on speed above all.
If I ever see that man again I'll have to be prepared for him.'
While in my own thoughts I was suddenly interrupted.
"Ah! Brother Chen, you're awake!"
When I looked up Hao Lin was standing next to a man who looked like they would work here. She pointed at me before coming over by my side. She held out her hand and pulled me up to my feet.
"Are you okay? What happened? I was just speaking to that person over there who claims they are the manager, but he only told me that he came after the commotion ended."
I looked at her concerned face by my side before remembering that she came from the biggest family in the city. I could have her help me track them down.
"Lin, it was that man from before! He attacked me from out of nowhere after I realized his secret!"
"What?! He was the one who attacked you?! How could that be? What was that secret that could cause him to attack you like that?"
"He, he actually kidnapped those two women by his side! I only realized it after I thought one of them looked familiar to me. In fact I think he's forcing them to become his wives."
"W-what?! H-how is that possible?! How come they didn't mention it when I was around?!"
"T-they were, it's just that you didn't notice any of their signs like I did. They were trying to be extremely discreet after all. If that man had managed to find out about them trying to escape, who knows what he would do to them?"
"R-really?! *Sigh*"
Hearing the news her head drooped as she looked to the ground in gloom.
"Are you okay Lin? What happened?"
"It's, it's just that I didn't expect such a man to do those sorts of things."
I immediately thought back to his looks and anger boiled within me.
'How can she feel like that?! She only met him for a few moments! It's his looks isn't it?!'
"Lin, listen to me. Not every handsome man is a good person and not all ugly men are necessarily bad. Some people hide who they really are so you can't trust someone just at first glance."
"Yeah, you're right…"
"Of course, now let-"
"After all you're standing right in front of me now! Appearance really isn't everything!"
"..."
'Is she calling me ugly? What do you mean I'm ugly! I look good don't I? I'm a good looking man!'
"Huh? Brother Chen, are you okay?"
Although I was still stewing over the fact that she advertently or inadvertently called me ugly, I was brought back by her calls.
"It's… nothing. Now I'm going to need your help Lin. Do you think you can lend a hand to me?"
"Of course Brother Chen! Anything you need, I'll help out."
"That's good. I think I'll need you to spread out wanted posters and information about them. He shouldn't be too high in cultivation, probably around the 8th or 9th layer of Body Tempering. You should also be able to hire some people to search for them, right? Maybe you could even get some of your family's guards to help out in the search.
I've heard about your family's martial prowess. Even the guards are at least in the 3rd realm of cultivation. The experts of your family are in the 4th realm and your father would be at the peak of the 5th stage, on the verge of breaking through!"
"Brother Chen, you know so much about my family?"
"Of course, you're the biggest family in the city… and of course I was thinking about you."
Actually, I was just trying to find out more about Hao Fang, but came across this information along the way.
"B-brother Chen?! I-I see. Well I'll do my best to ask around, but I don't think many of the guards will follow my orders. I'll have to ask my older brothers or sisters for their help, maybe even father."
"Alright, well I'll be helping you too. As the youngest sister you should be able to get your brothers to help you out, meanwhile you should just leave your Big Sisters for me to deal with. I'll make sure to handle them properly. You just have to tell me where they are and allow me to go visit them. If all else fails we can ask a few of the guards or just hire some mercenaries."
"Okay! I'll make sure to tell the guards who you are."
'Good, good. It seems soon I should be able to move around their mansion a little more freely. I wonder how those Big Sisters of hers look. I heard that Lord Hao had a few wives so they might not be too similar to Hao Lin, I'm excited.'
When we were about to leave I saw the manager still standing around. Thinking that I might be able to gain a gleam of information about that man from before I walked up to ask.
"Hello."
"Ah! Hello sir, are you alright?"
"Yes, I'm fine, but I'd like to ask a few questions."
"Ah? W-what might that be?"
"I'd like to know if you could provide me any information about the people who attacked me."
"Information about those who attacked you? Hmm I don't know much about that. When I came over I only saw that you were in that pile of clothing. No one was around then suddenly that girl came out of the dressing room and we spoke for a few moments."
"Hmm, well thank you anyways. Oh, do we need to pay for damages?"
"No that's alright, it seems like it should just be a simple fix so you two shouldn't worry about it!"
"Ah? Well thank you! We'll be going now."
'That was a little odd, perhaps that man was just really generous. When I got up I saw that a few of the dresses were torn and the racks were definitely bent. Well I don't have to pay, so it's fine in the end.'
***
(Xue Jinzi POV)
After organizing a closet I had, I turned around to leave the room they had given me to find Jing Xiuying leaning in the doorway.
"Ah, Sister Xiuying, what are you doing here?"
"I was wondering, what made you punch that man like you did? You even put so much force into that hit."
"Well he was starting to speak bad about Big Brother! I couldn't just let him do that could I?"
I lifted up the hand I smashed into that man and inspected it. In fact I had never used so much strength at once before.
"That's a good answer."
It seems as if she came only to ask that one question, as soon as she received my answer she turned as if to leave. Before she left I thought of a question I wanted to ask her.
"Ah! Um, Sister Xiuying, could I ask you a question?"
She stopped before she left my vision and turned her head towards me.
"Yes? What is it?"
Taking that as a yes I went on.
"Who are you?"
"..."
A silence which seemed to freeze the air appeared. I stared into those Cerulean eyes of hers and at that moment I felt like I was back to when she first interrogated me. But that was all in my head as in reality she hadn't done anything yet, simply keeping silent.
Feeling that I had to say something to break the atmosphere I spoke, perhaps she misunderstood me.
"I just want to know your origins. You already know mine, but as sisters I know nothing about you. C-could you tell me a few things about yourself?"
At this point her silence was scaring me and a drop of sweat was dripping down my body.
"... alright, I suppose I could tell you a bit about myself."
She walked into my room and sat on a nearby chair before motioning for me to do the same opposite her. I did as she gestured and sat down, after all I was quite curious.
"Um, How did you meet Big Brother?"
"I met him 10 years ago as I was blindly traveling the world. I didn't have much of a purpose at the time except for perhaps finding a place to call home. I happened to stumble upon this city and while wandering the streets I caught a few glimpses of him, though he didn't know as I wore a cloak.
When I traveled the world my looks were quite problematic, though I was still proud of them. They often caused trouble simply by being revealed.
At the time I wasn't in love with him, but simply thought of him as a handsome man, though I had to admit was the best I'd ever seen. As I had nothing to do I decided that I might as well test him. I followed him around for a while to figure out what he would do at least when he was in the city. He didn't do anything too exciting, but even mundane tasks looked incredible when he did it.
When he wasn't around I felt so bored as I wouldn't have anywhere to hide if I were to follow him back, so he became the highlight of my day. I knew that this behavior wasn't right so eventually I deliberately let him find me. When he finally looked at me I felt like my heart had been pinned down by his gaze. It was odd, the feeling between that and stalking him was on a whole other level when the look was mutual.
Since then I had approached him more and more over time. He had other women pursuing him at the time, but it was my love, my true love, so I had to deal with them. Love transcends all right? I couldn't let that opportunity slip from me."
"A-ah. I see. What did you do before all your wandering?"
"Before that?... I won't tell you. You shouldn't know such things. It doesn't matter anymore anyway, after all now I'm the wife of my Darling Husband. Anything before that doesn't need to be told. There's nothing you can find even if you tried."
'If it doesn't matter then why not tell me? It shouldn't be too difficult right? Was her past traumatizing and that's why she doesn't want to talk about it? Whatever it is it should be a core part of her and her current personality. What could've caused such an extreme personality?
Also what does she mean there's no trace? How is it possible for someone to completely erase her past? Does she want it to be hidden that much? She's only made me even more curious!'