Chapter 155: The Fourth Master

Chu Xin turned her head, her lips tightly pressed. "I also want to know what happened. Just as I was organizing the information I recently collected, a chicken suddenly flew in through the window and messed up everything I had just sorted and categorized."

After saying this, Chu Xin raised her hand and rubbed her hair. "Ah, it's driving me crazy! I spent three full hours organizing those things."

Tan Qingjiu glanced at Chu Xin's somewhat messy hair and couldn't help letting out a soft laugh.

Chu Xin immediately turned back. "What are you laughing at? Are you laughing at me?"

"No, no, I wouldn't dare." Tan Qingjiu quickly straightened her expression. Her fourth master could practically be called a true omniscient know-it-all. In her hands were countless brothels, pleasure houses, teahouses, wine shops, and beggars. She knew how to utilize these resources to gather intelligence, and whether it concerned the imperial court or the pugilistic world, there was nothing she did not know.

It was just that her personality was extremely hot-tempered, irritable, and lazy.

Back at the miraculous valley, Chu Xin was the only person who could match her in laziness when it came to staying in bed.

"Sixth Master said you were looking for me, Fourth Master, so I came specifically to ask what it was about."

Chu Xin glanced at Tan Qingjiu again and pointed lifelessly at the slips of paper in front of her. "Well, they are all right here. These are the things you asked me to investigate previously, regarding the royal family and the rumors of the Seven Stars Alignment."

"Although it's a bit messy, I'm too lazy to tidy it up again. If you want to blame someone, blame that chicken from just now. Just go fetch that cloth bag over there, stuff all these things inside, and take them back to read."

Having said this, Chu Xin stood up, stretched lazily, walked straight over to the bed, and lay down.

Tan Qingjiu blinked, suddenly harboring doubts about her fourth master's claim that the slips of paper had been scattered by a chicken flying in.

Could it be that this person hadn't organized them at all in the first place, and was simply shifting the blame onto a chicken?

Based on her understanding of her fourth master, Tan Qingjiu felt that was highly likely.

Finding it somewhat amusing inwardly, Tan Qingjiu let out a faint sigh. "But I'm living at Prince Duan's Manor right now, and even coming here was done in secret. If I bring such a huge pile of things back with me, wouldn't I stand out far too much? There are various factions inside Prince Duan's Manor, and someone will definitely become suspicious."

Chu Xin was already lying on the bed with a look of supreme contentment. "What are you afraid of? Didn't you disguise yourself as Qingdai when you went out? Didn't you tell the steward that you were returning to the Tan residence to fetch some belongings left behind there? When the time comes, you can just casually grab a few things, hide all these slips of paper inside them, and bring them in to read at your leisure, can't you?"

Good grief, she had even scouted out the excuse she used to leave the manor beforehand.

This was premeditated.

Left between laughter and tears, Tan Qingjiu simply straightened out the slips of paper a bit so they wouldn't take up too much space.

"You're so lazy, Fourth Master, yet you manage such a massive intelligence network. It certainly isn't easy."

"Isn't that the truth?" Chu Xin let out a yawn. "It's all my master's fault for insisting on handing this mess over to me. How am I supposed to manage it? However..."

Chu Xin's gaze fell upon Tan Qingjiu. "Fortunately, I have a disciple too."

"You're busy with your revenge and Xingqi's affairs right now, so you probably don't have much spare time. As your master, I sympathize with you and will temporarily spare you from extra burdens. Once you've finished handling those matters, you can take over this messy ordeal."

"I'll give you..." Chu Xin tilted her head and thought for a moment. "How about this? I'll give you a year."

Tan Qingjiu was speechless. "Master, you think far too highly of me, don't you?"

"Naturally. You were trained by me, and I know your capabilities. I have to stake my claim on you first, or else what about your other six masters? Anyway, I'm making it clear now: once your side of things is settled, you're inheriting this messy trouble of mine."

With that, Chu Xin yawned once more, raised her hand, and waved it dismissively. "Alright, alright, take them away first. I'm so sleepy."

Tan Qingjiu noticed there were indeed dark circles beneath Chu Xin's eyes.

She felt somewhat helpless. "What did Fourth Master do last night? Stay up late?"

"Yeah." Chu Xin's voice was full of drowsiness. "I never imagined the romance novels in the capital would be so fascinating. The miraculous valley was too far from the capital before, and I was too lazy to have anyone send them over. Now that I'm in the capital, how could I not properly check out what romance novels are available here? And so, once I started reading, I simply couldn't stop."

Tan Qingjiu couldn't help raising a hand to press her temples. "Who would have ever thought that the legendary peerless beauty Chu, known throughout the pugilistic world as the know-it-all, actually spends her days indulging in romance novels, frequently staying up late to read them and neglecting proper business?"

Chu Xin rolled her eyes and waved a hand at Tan Qingjiu. "Scram, scram."

With a soft chuckle, Tan Qingjiu silently finished organizing the slips of paper.

Earlier, because Chu Xin had tossed them around haphazardly, they had looked like a massive, terrifying pile. Now that they were neatly sorted, they actually didn't take up much space at all.

This made Tan Qingjiu even more certain that Chu Xin's claim of having spent three hours organizing them was complete fabrication meant to fool her.

After properly securing the slips of paper, Tan Qingjiu left Mingyu Pavilion.

Reverting to her identity as Qingdai, Tan Qingjiu finally returned to Prince Duan's Manor.

The moment Qingdai saw Tan Qingjiu, she let out a long breath of relief. "Milady, you're finally back. I was nearly scared to death."

Tan Qingjiu chuckled. "What is there to be scared of? It's not like you've never swapped identities with me before."

"How can those previous times compare to this?" Qingdai glanced sideways at Tan Qingjiu. "If you hadn't been able to make it back in time, Milady, I would have had to use your identity to deal with Prince Duan. Just thinking about it gives me goosebumps all over."

"Is Prince Duan that terrifying?"

"How could he not be terrifying? Perhaps you're the only person in the world who doesn't find him terrifying, Milady?"

Tan Qingjiu gave a light laugh, though she understood why Qingdai felt that way. Prince Duan was genuinely ill, and when he killed people, he killed them for real.

"So Prince Duan still hasn't returned?"

"Not yet."

Tan Qingjiu calculated the time and narrowed her eyes slightly. "His trip into the palace this time is taking quite a while."

Just as Tan Qingjiu was speaking, she heard the voices of Xingqi and Xingyou coming from outside.

The two children walked in and, upon seeing Tan Qingjiu, immediately ran over to her. "Mother."

Tan Qingjiu's gaze fell upon Xingyou, and she raised an eyebrow slightly.

"I know everything now." Xingyou said with a cheeky grin. "Big Brother told me that you were only faking unconsciousness."

Tan Qingjiu uttered a soft click of her tongue. Since Xingqi had just blurted it out directly, it robbed her of quite a bit of amusement.

"Where have you two been?"

"We went to see Shen Zijiao."

Tan Qingjiu nodded. "How is Shen Zijiao doing?"

Hearing Tan Qingjiu's question, Xingqi shook his head. "Not too well."