The moment that I asked that question, all three of them looked at me with an expression of shock and a slight hint of fear.
The Sect Master then pleaded with me, "Don't ever tell your mother that one of us said that."
This allowed me to somewhat understand what it was, but I still wanted to know how it related to me, so I asked, "Why did you think I was from there when you first saw me then? I should be the only one here besides Mom that has a set of fox ears and tail."
After I said that, all of them started looking at each other with very interesting expressions. Eventually, it was Mrs. Xia who spoke up and said, "Well, the young masters of certain families that were not brought up well might have done some things with some slaves of certain institutions, which resulted in such thoughts from me and my husband."
I felt like I needed to do something about a few individuals in the town—only after I found them, of course.
The Sect Master then spoke up and said, "Don't worry about that. I have already given them a warning, and they should not be doing things like that again."
Kaya then followed up and said with a somewhat scary look on her face, "Red Lotus won't be doing things like that again. Ever."
I was slightly assuaged by that and calmed down a little as I felt my tail slowly stop lashing about, which was something that I did not even know was happening.
It was then that Mrs. Xia asked me, "Now that this is all dealt with, would you like to come over for dinner? I am sure that the chefs would not mind having another mouth to feed."
Hearing that, I could not help but remember the last few dishes that the chefs of the Xia family made before we left and wanted more. I then remembered what Mo Xia tried to do to me when we first met and asked, "Is Mo also going to be joining us?"
Mrs. Xia looked confused at my words for a second before what seemed like a lightbulb went off, and she then said, "No, he won't be joining us as he is currently practicing with his master for the outer sect competition."
I was happy that he would not be joining us today, but when I indirectly heard that he was going to be participating in the outer sect competition, I could not stop myself from thinking of doing a few things.
Mrs. Xia also seemed to catch on to what I was thinking and asked, "Could you please not beat him up too badly? I get that he deserves it, and I would honestly do it myself if I knew it would work, but as his mother, I still don't want to see him getting beaten up that bad."
I somewhat understood what she was talking about, so I nodded my head and said, "I will try."
Mrs. Xia only sighed at that before asking with a slightly strained smile, "Now, about joining us for dinner?"
Hearing that and realizing that I had not answered her original question, I began to rapidly nod my head while saying, "I would love to! If you would not mind, of course."
She only responded with a slight laugh before she motioned towards my bike and said, "Then you might want to put that away before we leave."
When she said that, I quickly moved over to my bike to put it away, as I heard the Sect Master and Aunty Kaya ask Mrs. Xia something. However, I was not paying attention to that and put both my bike and helmet into my inventory.
I also happened to notice at this point that my bike seemed slightly smaller than what I planned for it to be. It did not matter that much to me at the moment, so I ignored it and ran back to Mrs. Xia.
She just finished saying something quickly when I got back to her and then looked at me, or more like looking at my tail that was wagging around at a mile a minute.
She then grabbed my hand and said that dinner was almost ready and it was time for us to leave. I did not care as much about that, but I still said goodbye to both the Sect Master and Aunty Kaya before being dragged off towards a familiar carriage that was just arriving.
The maid sitting in the driver's seat quickly got down upon seeing us and opened the carriage door so that we could get in.
Once inside, both Mrs. Xia and I sat down on either side of the carriage as it quickly started to move back toward the Xia mansion.
During the ride, I was not really able to look around at the buildings or the people surrounding us as we moved past as Mrs. Xia started asking about everything I had been doing since I left the mansion.
I only told her a few of the things that I did as I did not want to share everything, meaning I only vaguely talked about what was happening with Yuki and what happened after I discovered Mom's curse that she placed on me.
However, I did notice that when I mentioned the curse as the reason behind why I was younger now, there was a small glint that passed through her eyes.
I took note to file that one away and potentially warn Lou Xia about it.
Soon, our conversation came to an end as the carriage came to a stop in front of the mansion. The same maid who was driving us then opened the door and let us get out.
Stepping down from the carriage, I found myself in front of the mansion once more and noticed that nothing had changed about it.
The maid then opened the front door of the mansion before stepping off to the side and waiting for us to walk through.
I was not really used to this as Yuki was normally too busy to wait on me or Raina and was always cleaning or prepping in the house. This was, of course, discounting the few times that she stood to the side as I was crafting something or when I was giving her some biology lessons.
This train of thought then led to me thinking that I might need more maids before deciding to put that thought to the back of my mind for the moment.
Coming back to reality, I realized I had subconsciously followed Mrs. Xia into the house, where she stopped and waited for me to do something.
It took longer than I would have liked to admit before I realized that it was because I needed to take my shoes off, as I never did that around the house unless I was going to bed. I should probably take my shoes off at home to reduce the burden on Yuki.
I then set that thought aside as well while taking off my boots and putting on a pair of slippers that were by the door.
Once I had done that, we were then led to the back of the house and into the dining room where Mr. Xia was sitting.
I was then led to one of the chairs next to Mr. Xia and sat down while Mrs. Xia sat across from me. The chefs then came over and placed the food down in front of us as I noticed something wrong.
Voicing my thoughts, I asked, "Don't we have to wait for Lou Xia?"
After my voice rang out into the room, I noticed a slight reaction from the maids and chefs around us, but other than that, I did not see anything else. Both of her parents, on the other hand, showed a look of sadness as Mrs. Xia said, "She left to go live in her cave on the inner disciple peaks once you were no longer staying in the mansion, so she won't be able to join us for dinner."
For some reason, I felt somewhat sad about that and could feel my tail slow down its speed and lower itself slightly.
That did not last, though, as the chef then chose to remove the lid over the food at this moment, revealing an amazing-looking and smelling dish.
I wanted to dig into it immediately, but I needed to calm myself down and eat it slowly, after Mr. Xia had the first bite of food after all.