Yue Dongmei was observing Yun Ling for the past few weeks now. She was very meticulous in doing so. She had listed down all the people he had interacted with, the places he had gone to, his friends, his enemies, and of course, the women he had slept with.

Her reason for doing so?

It was a mission given to her by none other than her mistress.

Her task was to observe Yun Ling, and by extension, his clan, to see if they were someone they could trust Zi Xia with. If they turned out to be people not worthy of their trust, then there was no way they would send Zi Xia over to them.

Yue Dongmei originally thought that the job was going to be easy. However, following Yun Ling proved to be quite difficult. She was using items that would conceal any traces of her and items that would also make her harder to notice. Even without those items, very few people would be able to notice her.

Yun Ling was different.

Even with those items, he was still able to notice that someone was following him.

“You’ve been following me for a few weeks, now… I let it slide because you’re quite a beauty but I have to admit it is beginning to creep me out.”

Yue Dongmei heard a voice coming from behind her.

She was just following Yun Ling. Seconds ago, he was still in front of her but when he turned into a corner, he suddenly appeared behind her.

“Who are you? Why are you following me? I don’t think you’re one of those women who are always after me. You feel different,” Yun Ling said coldly.

Yue Dongmei could feel the tip of Yun Ling’s sword poking her at the back. At that moment, she was at Yun Ling’s mercy.

“How did you know I was following you?” Yue Dongmei asked.

Instead of giving Yun Ling an answer, she fired back a question of her own.

Yun Ling smiled at that.

“Now, I’m the one asking questions here. You’re supposed to answer that.”

“What if I don’t?”

Yun Ling narrowed his eyes.

“Well, I guess I’ll just have to… k...ill… you…”

Yun Ling gritted his teeth as he looked at Yue Dongmei. He felt weak all of a sudden. He almost couldn’t feel his limbs as he slowly fell down on the ground.

“W-What did… you… do?”

He didn’t know what the woman before him did but there was no way he was going to let her off with that. He was originally planning to stab her when he noticed that something was off but before he knew it, his arm couldn’t lift his sword anymore.

Yue Dongmei didn’t give him a response. She just looked at Yun Ling until he lost his consciousness on the ground.

“You were careless.”

Yue Dongmei heard a very familiar voice from above her. She looked up and saw her mistress standing on top of a small building.

“Mistress,” she immediately paid her respects to her.

“Your mission is over. I have already read all your reports. The Yun Clan… is a clan that can be trusted to a certain extent. We can leave Zi Xia on their hands in case something happened back in our place,” the woman said, her voice extremely pleasant to the ears.

Yue Dongmei nodded and then saw an opened bottle with exquisite design on the woman’s hand.

“Mistress, you were the one… just now?” she asked. Although she already knew it was the woman responsible for why Yun Ling went unconscious, she unconsciously asked out of surprise.

The woman merely smiled at her.

“It is a special perfume made by our alchemist. It might be a perfume but it doesn’t have any scent so no one will notice it when I’m going to use it. Its purpose is to put the one who inhales its contents to sleep. I ordered our alchemist to make this type of perfume after that incident a few years ago,” the woman explained. When she opened the bottle earlier, she guided the perfume towards Yun Ling only so it wouldn’t affect her, nor Yue Dongmei.

Yue Dongmei sighed upon the woman’s mention of the incident.

“You’ve had it hard, mistress.”

“Not at all. The one who has it hard is my dear Zi Xia…” the woman said softly. “I always wish I was born in a normal family. That way, I will be able to lead and give my daughter a normal life.”

Yue Dongmei understood what the woman was saying. She could sympathize with her.

She then looked at Yun Ling.

“What are we going to do with him now?”

“You don’t have to worry, he wouldn’t remember any of this tomorrow. Anyway, let’s get him inside an inn first. I wouldn’t feel good if we just leave him out here.”

Yue Dongmei nodded.

Well, even if Yun Ling remembered what happened this night, it would’ve been fine since she put on a disguise. Not to mention, she changed her spiritual energy with the help of some treasure. He wouldn’t be able to recognize her even if he still had his memories of this night.

…

A few years later, in the Yun Clan’s Courtyard…

"And who is this?" Yun Ling asked.

"I am Yue Dongmei, Young Miss' caretaker. Nice to meet you, Young Miss' father," the young woman slightly bowed her head as she introduced herself.