Zhou Fan helped Jiang Qingzhi up while comforting her.
“Linfeng Xiong and I are already close friends, not to mention you are my favorite Disciple.”
“Even if you didn’t ask me, as long as you told me these things, I would naturally go to your place for a visit.”
“Qingzhi, you’ve suffered these past few days, enduring so much pressure as a girl.”
“Teacher~”
Listening to Zhou Fan’s gentle comfort, Jiang Qingzhi felt that the anxious days she had spent recently were all worth it.
After being helped up by Zhou Fan, Jiang Qingzhi consciously sat beside Zhou Fan.
But the space inside the carriage was not large to begin with.
Yaya had been clinging to Zhou Fan, sitting on his left side, and now Jiang Qingzhi squeezed onto his right side.
Feeling the slightly different touches from two directions, Zhou Fan silently suppressed it, not showing any change in expression.
Jiang Qingzhi, as if nothing had happened, continued to express her gratitude: “Teacher, it truly is a blessing from heaven that I met a gentleman like you.”
The gentleman Zhou Fan continued to remain expressionless, and said faintly: “Alright, Qingzhi, tell me what has happened in Kang Wang Residence these past three years since I left.”
“Mm~”
Jiang Qingzhi softly hummed, and her red lips parted slightly as she spoke.
“Since you left, Teacher, the Kang Wang Residence was relatively peaceful for the first two of these three years.”
“My father is advanced in age and is no longer able to frequent places of pleasure to seek out women, but as you know, Teacher, my father has only a few major hobbies in his life.”
“So my father kept some singing girls, dancing girls, and musicians in Kang Wang Residence. When he had nothing to do, he enjoyed tasting tea and listening to music.”
“Compared to my father’s previous behavior, this already counts as enjoying his twilight years, so we, as his children, didn’t have much objection to it.”
“But just a year ago, my father suddenly gathered all of us children and informed us that he was going to marry a singing girl, and he wanted us to attend their wedding three days later.”
“At the time, we all found it utterly absurd. How could a Wang marry a singing girl as his official wife? Even if she were a concubine, concubines of Wangs throughout history have mostly been respectable women from good families.”
“So we immediately expressed strong opposition, but my father remained stubborn.”
“Moreover, my father said that this matter had already been decided, and his purpose in gathering us was merely to inform us.”
“Seeing my father’s resolute attitude, my elder brother, second sister, and I discussed it and decided to meet Father halfway, agreeing to let him take that singing girl as a concubine.”
“We originally thought Father would agree to this, but unexpectedly, he didn’t budge an inch; he insisted on marrying that singing girl and taking her as his wife.”
“After saying all this, Father told us the time and place of his wedding three days later, and then dismissed us.”
“After Father left, we naturally couldn’t sit by and let such an absurd thing happen. My second sister and I planned to go and persuade Father properly after he had calmed down for a day.”
“My elder brother and third brother, on the other hand, planned to directly resolve the root of the problem. They intended to investigate the singing girl’s identity and then take her away or dispose of her directly.”
“As a result, that very night, I learned the news that Father had ordered thirty lashes for both my elder brother and third brother, then banished them from the family, never to step into Kang Wang Residence again.”
“And the next day, my second sister and my persuasion were naturally futile. Two days later, my father actually married that singing girl.”
“Suddenly, rumors spread everywhere. The citizens of the entire city were discussing this matter, saying things about my father like ‘an old tree blooming’ and ‘fellow Dao practitioners’ and so on.”
“I was also extremely puzzled by this matter. After communicating with my elder brother and the others, I learned that the singing girl was actually a new singing girl within our Kang Wang Residence.”
“Fortunately, the singing girls, musicians, and dancing girls in our Kang Wang Residence were all respectable individuals who sold their art, not their bodies. Coupled with the singing girl’s beauty, which could indeed be described as captivating.”
“I gradually accepted this eighteen-year-old ‘stepmother’.”
“But as time went on, I discovered some strange occurrences.”
“For example, one of my maids, Xiaohua, said that when she got up in the middle of the night, she heard some strange and eerie sounds in the residence, which were particularly chilling.”
“Another example is my second sister, who has always been responsible for managing the residence’s accounts, told me that the residence’s luck has been particularly bad recently, with several merchant caravans transporting valuable goods being attacked by bandits.”
“No one in the caravans survived, and the goods were completely plundered.”
“But these trade routes had clearly been cleared before, and there were no new bandit forces near the trade routes.”
“After much deliberation, my second sister could only classify these incidents as attacks by roving bandits.”
“And because of the complete annihilation of these few caravans, our Kang Wang Residence can currently only reduce the number of transport teams and equip each team with more personnel.”
“There were also other strange things, such as several valuable medicinal herbs disappearing from our Kang Wang Residence’s pharmacy, and the inexplicable sudden death of residence guards.”
“Suddenly, there was panic within the residence. My fourth brother even spent a lot of money to invite a Feng Shui Great Master to examine the Feng Shui of our Kang Wang Residence.”
“The Feng Shui Great Master said that the Feng Shui of our Kang Wang Residence had always been very good, and if there were any misfortunes, they would definitely not be natural disasters, but man-made calamities.”
“At that moment, we all became suspicious of that singing girl, after all, ever since my father married her, strange things had been continuously happening within Kang Wang Residence.”
“And before that singing girl married my father, our Kang Wang Residence had always been smooth sailing, so we concluded that the singing girl had a problem.”
“Thus, my fourth brother and fifth brother secretly investigated the singing girl’s identity again.”
“Then that same night, I learned that my fourth brother and fifth brother had been expelled from the residence, receiving the same treatment as my elder brother and third brother.”
“Later, I went to ask my fourth brother and fifth brother for information about that singing girl, but to my surprise, that singing girl actually had a clean background.”
“According to the information investigated by my fourth brother and fifth brother, that singing girl was born in a village and was sold to Baiyu Tower for training at a very young age.”
“It wasn’t until recently that she, relying on her extraordinary beauty and top-notch musical and performing skills, entered Kang Wang Residence to secure a good position, and then was favored by my father.”
“Later, the residence was peaceful for a few months, and I was no longer as suspicious of that singing girl.”
“But good times didn’t last long. Three months ago, while greeting Father, I suddenly noticed that his Qi looked very poor.”