A year and a few months had passed since Yue Dongmei became the aide of Yun Xia's mother, she found out a lot of things about her mistress.

For one, the reason why her mistress was usually out of the sect almost all the time was that her father, the sect master, was giving her missions after missions, barely leaving her any time for herself.

After finishing a mission, her mistress would return to the sect, only to be given yet another mission by the sect master once again. In light of that, she discovered another thing concerning her mistress and also the sect master— the sect master and her mistress didn't act like father and daughter at all.

From what she had observed regarding the two, they didn't seem like father and daughter but an employer and its employee. Their relationship was like pure business. There was no love between them which was quite sad in Yue Dongmei's opinion.

Another thing Yue Dongmei noticed was that even though her mistress appeared cold and emotionless all the time, she was a very emotional person. She only had that emotionless expression on her face when she was in the sect master's presence. If she was in the presence of the people she trusted though, her mistress would wear her emotions on her sleeve.

Sadly, the only person she trusted was just her, her aide. Moreover, gaining her mistress' trust wasn't easy as it took her several months before she could even start trusting her.

Aside from those things, she also learned why the mistress took her specifically as her aide.

It would seem that her mistress had been looking for an aide for several months already thanks to her father's orders. There were many capable people that her father had actually recommended to her but she didn't choose any of them. Instead, she chose to look for potential candidates in the outer court disciples' ranks since they were not yet involved too much in the politics in the sect.

As for the inner court disciples and core disciples? Most of them were already involved in some of the many factions in the sect who were eyeing the position of the sect master, and to a certain extent, her mistress herself due to her beauty and her status as the sect master's daughter.

That was the reason why her mistress refused to choose among them. As for her father's men, she didn't want them to become her aide even more since those people would surely report every action of hers to her father. She would have no freedom then and she wouldn't be able to stay still, knowing that her aide was essentially spying on her.

As for Yue Dongmei, since she was an outer court disciple then, she wasn't involved with any factions of the sect yet. Aside from that, she was one of the most talented disciples in the sect's outer court as well that was why her mistress chose her since even though her young miss chose an outer court disciple, she didn't want anyone too weak to become her aide because instead of being able to assist her, they might become a burden instead.

Yue Dongmei was the one that perfectly suited all criteria she had for her would-be aide.

Months after that, her mistress had been keeping an eye on her and waited until she became an inner court disciple before deciding to take her as an aide since her mistress' father would surely disagree with having her as an aide if she was merely an outer court disciple.

When she became an inner court disciple, her mistress had some people look at her closely in case she joined another faction. If she did, then her mistress would have started looking for another person as her aide.

The reason Yue Dongmei also accepted becoming her aide was that she thought there were a lot of benefits in serving the sect master's daughter, and in fact, there were indeed a lot of benefits.

The cultivation resources she received every month were five times that of an inner court disciple, moreover, she had an allowance that was equal to the amount that the core disciples received monthly. She could also access their sect's library that was normally off-limits to inner court disciples.

At first, she served her mistress because of those benefits but after spending months of her life with her, Yue Dongmei started caring for her mistress genuinely especially after she found out how wonderful her mistress was as a person. Just thinking of how a wonderful person like her had a shitty father like the sect master, Yue Dongmei was filled with rage. However, there was nothing she could do but watch in silence as she tried enduring her fury every time she saw how the sect master coldly treated her mistress.

"Dongmei," her mistress called out, breaking her out of her thoughts.

"Yes, Mistress?"

Yue Dongmei could see the hesitation on her mistress' face as she stayed silent for a few seconds. Eventually, her mistress said, "I'm pregnant."

...

Yue Dongmei slowly opened her eyes.

At first, her vision was blurry but after a few seconds, her vision slowly went to normal. She felt incredibly weak all over her body and even just opening her eyes was making her extremely tired.

The last thing she remembered was being confronted by Yun Ling about Yun Xia's mother together with his newly-arrived younger brother before everything went black for her.

"You're finally awake."

She heard a familiar voice from her side.

Yue Dongmei shifted her gaze towards the source of the voice and saw Yun Ling, looking at her with a bitter smile on his face.

"It's nice to have you back."