After Long-Yin-Fei ran away from the house, Zheng-Fu closed the door before letting out a light smile…

"So, that's what it's all about. A haunted house? It's actually a house that was built over an old spell pattern. That's all."

When he finished the sentence, he surveyed the area around the house just to see what the house looked like on the outside. He also waited for the helper to bring him the things he needed for the night. Zheng-Fu then aimed to check out the bathroom. And that was because he wanted to take a bath so badly…

"Whoa! That bathroom is not bad at all," Zheng-Fu said with a smile when he saw a nice bath area. He thought that it was a great thing that a trading clan could do. Even though there were not a lot of people coming to stay at these guesthouses, they had been taken good care of all along…

The night passed by very quickly. The sun started to rise from the horizon slowly. Not far away from Zheng-Fu 's guesthouse, two people, who sat with their backs against one another, started to yawn as the sun appeared. The two were sent by Long-Yin-Fei to see if anything went wrong with Zheng-Fu at the haunted guesthouse. It turned out that nothing happened…

The two servants stayed up all night but fell asleep a little bit before the morning came. As the two were in deep short sleep, a person appeared in front of them without them realizing it…

"Sigh! Poor guys! It's too bad they were sent to do something silly." The person who appeared in front of them was Zheng-Fu. He sensed their existence since they camped out on him last night, but he did not pay attention to them. He knew that they were not a threat…

In Long-Yin-Fei's room…

"How come those two haven't come to give me the report yet?" Long-Yin-Fei developed anxiety when she did not sleep the whole night. She had been waiting to hear good news from her servants but had not heard from them yet…

Knock! Knock! Knock!

"Are you awake, Fei-Er?"

All of a sudden, someone knocked on her door. It was the pretty voice of a woman…

"Y-Yeah! I'm coming!" Long-Yin-Fei went to open the door for De-Na-Lan right away…

"…!?"

When De-Na-Lan saw her friend's condition, she looked at her from head to toe. Then she looked up at her face and asked…

"Why do you look so horrible, like you didn't get any sleep?"

When Long-Yin-Fei heard that, she started to check herself. Then she realized that her hair looked messy. The complexion on her face was bad. Then she smiled and said, "I didn't get a good sleep last night, so I look like this. If you don't mind, let me refresh myself, and I'll be with you." As Long-Yin-Fei finished the sentence, she ran off to the bathroom instantly…

After Long-Yin-Fei got dressed, she left her room with De-Na-Lan and went to the dining hall. They went there because Long-Chun-Da wanted to sit at breakfast with Zheng-Fu again before he left. So, Long-Yin-Fei, De-Tong, and De-Na-Lan had to be there too...

Everyone arrived at the dining hall, even Long-Gu-Bei. He had to come to thank Zheng-Fu for telling him the missing ingredients for his 'Heaven' pill. Normally, the family would know that it was not easy to get Long-Gu-Bei to take part in this kind of activity with the family. The two young women were the last ones to get there…

"Alright! Since everyone is here, let the feast begin!"

Clap! Clap!

Rustle!

Long-Chun-Da clapped his hands twice when he finished the sentence. Then a group of young female dancers came out and started to perform. These dancers were about seventeen to eighteen years old. Each of them was so fresh and blooming. Women aged seventeen to twenty-five years old were at the prime of their lives.…

"The dance of the Long clan has always been mesmerizing!" De-Tong, who was watching the performance with joy, said with a dreamy facial expression…

"Hahaha! It's not that great, really. Compared to the Mei-Flower Tower's show, this show is deemed to be something for kids," Long-Chun-Da said with a smile while thinking admiringly of the dances at the Mei-Flower Tower…

"The Mei-Flower Tower!?"

Everyone at the table was startled when they heard about the Mei-Flower Tower. Zheng-Fu was the only one who did not have any reaction to the place because he did not know what the place was. De-Tong and Gu-Bei, on the other hand, seemed to be in love with the place…

However, Long-Yin-Fei and De-Na-Lan were the only two who disapproved of the behaviors of the three men at the table when they heard about the Mei-Flower Tower. But when the two saw Zheng-Fu, by the corners of their eyes, they were surprised that he did not have the same kind of reaction to the place. They could not possibly know whether he was smiling or not under that straw hat…

"Tsk! I guess all men are the same!" Yin-Fei looked at the men at the table for a while and let out an air of discontent. Then she mumbled so quietly that no one heard what she said but Zheng-Fu. He heard her clearly…

*It looks like she really hates men. There must be something that makes her despise men this much. She only approves of her father and brother.* Zheng-Fu thought when he saw Long-Yin-Fei's disgust towards the idea of men…

Clap! Clap! Clap!

The dance finally ended. The feast continued further and finished after two shichens. Everyone in the dining hall got out of there and saw Zheng-Fu off to his destination. When everyone reached the gate, Zheng-Fu stopped and cupped his fists in politeness and said…

"I would like to pay gratitude to Master Long-Chun-Da for giving me such a wonderful feast today. I'm only a wandering martial artist, but so lucky to receive this tremendous honor from you…"

"Not at all. And don't be too humble. Whenever you come back to this town, please come visit us. We always welcome you, Master," Long-Chun-Da cupped his fists while saying to Zheng-Fu politely. Then he took out a tag and gave it to him. He then said, "That's our clan's special tag for our special guest." He said and smiled at Zheng-Fu …

The minute Long-Yin-Fei saw that tag, she felt uneasy. She knew that the tag let anyone who held it enter the clan anytime they wanted. The people who had it included the leader of the clan, the five Elders of the clan, herself, and her brother. The tag that Long-Chun-Da gave Zheng-Fu used to belong to her mother…

"You can't give that to him, father! It was mother's tag. Why did you give it to other people!?" Long-Yin-Fei shouted at her father with dissatisfaction immediately…

Long-Yin-Fei's action startled everyone, especially Long-Chun-Da, who started to suffer from the sweat on his forehead. He turned to his daughter, who was extremely upset, and said…

"It's no use holding on to it…"

"Are you saying that mother's tag is not important to you, father!? Don't you think of her? How come you did this to her? And that man is not someone from our clan, but you… Sob! Sob!" Long-Yin-Fei could not finish the sentence when she cried her eyes out. She looked at Zheng-Fu and then at her father with sorrow…

"Um… If the tag is very important to her, then please take it back, Master Long-Chun-Da. I can't have it. And it's like what she said: I'm only an outsider, and it's not my place to have such a precious tag of your clan. I promise that I'll visit you the next time I come to the city. And I want you to have this." Zheng-Fu took out a stone the size of a fist. It had some letters carved on it.

Then he handed it to Long-Chun-Da…

"This is..!?"

Long-Chun-Da's facial expression changed the minute he had the stone in his hand. His eyes were completely widened because what he was holding was a Spirit of Fire stone. And the carved letters on it said 'Fu-Zheng'…

It was, of course, Zheng-Fu 's disguising name. There were also some other tiny letters around the carving. Those letters were the spell that Zheng-Fu put on the stone…

"Consider the stone to be a symbol of me. And the stone will glow if I am two hundred lis away from your clan," Zheng-Fu explained how the stone worked to Long-Chun-Da. He did not know that Long-Chun-Da's mind was already somewhere else when he realized what he had in his hand…

The rest of the group did not know how special the stone was because the spell prevented them from knowing about it. Only the one who touched it would know how special it was. Then Zheng-Fu turned to De-Tong and handed him the same kind of stone. However, this one was yellowish-brown. When Long-Chun-Da saw the stone, his mind slipped away further…

"What!?"

De-Tong had the same expression when he held the stone. He could not even say anything, but it looked like his mind was slipping away. De-Na-Lan and Long-Yin-Fei, who were wiping their tears away, noticed the strange behavior of their fathers. So did Long-Gu-Bei…

"Father!"

Long-Chun-Da and De-Tong were startled by the calls from their children. When they got back to themselves, they looked at the stones in their hands. Then they looked at each other and at Zheng-Fu. They wanted to say something but decided not to…

"It's time for me to go. It's getting late now. Well, see you again next time, pretty Na-Lan and pretty Yin-Fei!" Zheng-Fu bid farewell to all the guys and teased the two girls…

"You!"

De-Na-Lan got all shy because of Zheng-Fu 's words. However, Long-Yin-Fei stomped her feet with anger towards Zheng-Fu 's gestures and words, but she could not do anything about it because her father was looking at her. Then he turned to Long-Gu-Bei, who seemed to want to ask him something, so he said…

"Please don't ask me anything, Master Gu-Bei. I'm just a wandering martial artist, not an alchemist or an expert in anything. So, I can't answer your questions." Zheng-Fu rushed to stop Long-Gu-Bei when he saw that the young man was prepared to ask him questions…

Long-Gu-Bei had to crinkle his eyebrows instantly because Zheng-Fu stopped him before he even tried to ask the questions. He had a lot of things to ask Zheng-Fu, but he felt like Zheng-Fu would say this to him. So, he decided to smile at Zheng-Fu and said…

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