Su Family.
After walking for most of the day, only at dusk did Qian Yue, cradling Su Wan and swaying gently, slowly make her way back to the Su Family estate within the city.
Now the three of them stood outside the side gate.
Qian Yue’s face and brow were covered in a fine sheen of sweat, and she was just now setting Su Wan down and wiping the fragrant perspiration from her forehead.
Su Wan grumbled, “I already said you could put me down. I can walk back on my own.”
Qian Yue, while wiping her sweat, glanced at Su Wan, then turned to look back at Cang Ye behind her, and said with a bewitching smile, “If I don’t carry my little one myself, who else would I leave him to?”
“Let’s go~ Come back to the estate with Mother, otherwise your Xiao Liu sister might get bullied again,” Qian Yue said.
“What?!”
Su Wan’s eyes went wide.
He thought of the status of Nine Quarters, and then he thought of Xiao Liu sister’s position.
Xiao Liu counted as half a bedroom maid for his father, but because she had no title, no one had formally spoken up for her.
If some other man in the household took advantage while he and his mother were away, if they forced themselves on Xiao Liu…
Xiao Liu’s status was very low, and his father didn’t care about her.
She might just happen to be sent out of the estate by the Madam, directly thrown into a brothel to serve customers.
Once she took customers, then it would be even more impossible for her to ever return to the Su Family estate for all eternity.
She would be mocked.
People would laugh that the Su Family couldn’t afford to buy a new thin horse to help the men and women of the household enjoy themselves, and had to go find a defective, second-rate goods.
So Xiao Liu accompanying his mother to be played with by his father was actually a form of protection in disguise.
It also let Su Wan, when he slipped out of the estate to relax, still feel somewhat at ease, not having to worry about Xiao Liu’s situation.
“Xiao Liu sister! I’m back! Where are you?! I’m back!”
Su Wan shouted as he rushed into the room, drawing the gatekeeper’s attention.
“Hey! The Nine Quarters young master is back?” the gatekeeper called.
“And… the Ninth Girl?”
The gatekeeper frowned, with no time to look at Cang Ye following behind, and hurriedly rushed toward the central courtyard of the Su estate.
The Su Family Master had always been coveting the body of the Nine Concubine, and as long as he could be the first to report the good news, he would surely get a large reward.
Su Wan and the servants all rushed deep into the Su estate.
At the Su Family gate, only the two demons Qian Yue and Cang Ye remained.
Qian Yue and Cang Ye exchanged a glance.
Qian Yue turned back toward Cang Ye, swaying gently as she approached and said:
“Master~ This concubine will go back first~ As for my child, I will naturally take good care of him. The demon trouble at the Su estate is also temporarily settled. Why don’t… Master go back first? Find another place to enjoy yourself?”
Qian Yue placed her right hand on Cang Ye’s shoulder, her chest deliberately approaching Cang Ye at zero distance.
Then she lightly rose on her tiptoes, breathing a damp, warm fragrance toward Cang Ye’s lips, still wearing a gentle, bewitching smile.
She even took Cang Ye’s hand, guiding it toward her quickening heartbeat at her chest.
And in Cang Ye’s line of sight, this woman, this fox demon, was almost completely naked.
Her entire body had only a white fake fox fur coat wrapped around her waist, which she had specially draped on herself for her son Su Wan.
To prevent her own son Su Wan from touching her body, causing some young man’s distress and discomfort.
But facing Cang Ye, this prey, this male, Qian Yue had no reservations whatsoever.
Yet at this moment she was only warning and persuading Cang Ye to leave.
As for seduction and temptation?
That was just instinct. That was not her purpose at this moment.
Cang Ye gently pulled his hand free, withdrawing before it touched Qian Yue’s chest.
He then stepped back, putting a distance between their chests that allowed normal breathing.
Cang Ye also patted his own chest and said:
“I hate other females getting close to me, especially seduction like yours. If you weren’t Su Wan’s mother… your pair of…”
Cang Ye glanced at Su Wan’s mother’s chest, then at Su Wan’s mother’s right hand.
Just now Qian Yue had used her right hand to take his hand, trying to make him touch and toy with her own enticingly rising and falling chest.
Cang Ye added as a warning, “Otherwise your claws would be saying goodbye to you.”
Cang Ye turned, walked past Su Wan’s mother, directly not looking at Qian Yue’s half-naked body.
He then also knocked away a piece of fox fur that floated toward him and struck at his head, not indulging in the fox-charm scent on the fur.
He heard a woman’s scolding voice from behind.
‘An unromantic man, hmph!’
Cang Ye ignored Qian Yue’s resentment, directly going to find Qian Yue’s son Su Wan.
Qian Yue stood at the gate fuming for a while, doubting whether her beauty, charm, and baseness had gone out of style.
Her expression changed again, and biting her red lip she said, “Oh no, he’s going to steal my child! I have to stop him!”
As she spoke, Qian Yue let out a bewitching cry, “Ah! My clothes!”
Qian Yue’s face flushed slightly, both hands clutching her body.
It turned out the spell on her body had actually failed.
Fortunately there was no one around, though it left her a little disappointed.
Qian Yue thought of chasing after her son, so she could only crouch down, then gritting her teeth she groped for the fox fur.
She wrapped the fox fur around her waist, like a front-opening style, high-slit short skirt.
Directly striding with her legs, clutching her chest, dodging and hiding, blushing and heart racing, she rushed into the Su estate.
A little further ahead.
Cang Ye walked within the Su estate, chuckling softly, and lightly glanced back, saying:
“Want to steal Wanwan’s affection?
Put your clothes on first.
Without clothes, let’s see how you approach your son.”
“If you use magic to put on clothes, naturally it’s simple. If you don’t use magic to put on clothes… then enjoy it slowly, you flirtatious fox demon.”
Having said the thoughts in his heart, he murmured with a smile and quickly walked to the Nine Quarters courtyard.
Qian Yue was still dawdling behind, still playing the game of daring without letting anyone discover her.
Cang Ye had already seen Su Wan, and saw that Su Wan was chatting with Xiao Liu.
“Oh, this is my… master,” Su Wan saw Cang Ye, then hesitated, and introduced him to Xiao Liu that way.
“Mas… master?”
Xiao Liu wore a white maid servant’s long dress, with a silver hairpin in her hair.
Her face showed some surprise.
That hairpin was one Su Wan had used his own silver money, using broken silver as raw material, to have someone craft.
Xiao Liu was especially fond of it, basically wearing it every day.
When the Master needed her to accompany him in bed, she would carefully put it far away, lest it be soiled by dirty water — the treasure Su Wan had given her.
“Yes, my newly acknowledged master, quite impressive, he can even fly. Maybe that’s all he can do, fly!”
Su Wan playfully explained in a low voice to Xiao Liu, even raising a hand to cover the right side of his mouth.
“Pfft!” Xiao Liu was amused by him and said, “Young Master, you really are amusing.”
After saying that, Xiao Liu also properly bowed to Cang Ye, and meekly said, “Greetings to Great Master Cang, and greetings to the Young Master’s… master. I’ll go pour you some tea.”
“Hey, no need.” Su Wan wanted to call Xiao Liu back, even grabbing Xiao Liu’s hand.
But Xiao Liu’s hands were especially smooth and delicate.
She just lightly pulled free, and quickly walked off with a young girl’s delicate body, going into the room to fetch tea and boil water.
Watching Xiao Liu enter the door, Su Wan frowned, and glared at Cang Ye.
He had been chatting perfectly well with Xiao Liu sister, but the moment this fellow arrived, it instantly turned into the current situation.
“What’s wrong?”
Cang Ye asked, walking into the courtyard and finding a stone table to sit beside, saying, “Did I offend you?”
Su Wan grumbled, and also sat down beside the stone table, saying, “I was chatting perfectly well with sister, but… never mind, where’s my mother?”
Su Wan then asked about his mother, guessing whether his mother had been called away midway by his father for a meeting.
The kind of meeting with one man and several women.
Together studying which concubine’s quarters would get more things distributed afterward, and which would get fewer things, fewer resources.
Cang Ye replied, “She probably has something to do.”
Just as he was speaking, Su Wan’s mother still hadn’t returned.
And Su Wan’s father, the head of this household, first came over with the Madam.
The Su Family Master asked, “Su Jiu, where’s your mother? Not back safely yet? I’ll send someone to fetch her.”
“My mother…” Su Wan hadn’t finished speaking.
The Su Family Madam said, “Wasn’t the Nine Concubine previously taken by the cat demon? Where’s the cat demon? Could it have swapped her out?”
Previously a servant had already reported that the Nine Concubine Qian Yue had returned, so the Su Family Madam directly started slinging mud, only wanting to find a pretext to force Qian Yue out of the Su Family.
Qian Yue was young and favored, and had also borne a 10-year-old son soon to be sensible — truly not a small potential threat.
She had to be on guard.
“Mother is a cat demon?”
Su Wan furrowed his brow, interpreting the Su Family Madam’s meaning on his own.