The Hehuan Sect's True Heiress - Chapter 3

A few days later, Chief Minister Zhu’s eldest son—my biological older brother, Zhu Qingsong—returned home.

He rarely visited. Styling himself a carefree man of letters, he behaved outrageously, wore revealing clothes, and roamed the mountains and rivers with his friends.

People these days adored that free-spirited scholar look. Some even imitated them by taking Five-Stone Powder, indulging in hallucinations they called “communing with the divine.”

I was the last person in the estate to learn he’d come back.

When I entered the room, the four of them had reached the emotional climax of their family reunion.

Zhu Mei was sobbing in Zhu Qingsong’s arms. Beside them, Chief Minister Zhu and his wife exchanged tearful looks and wiped their eyes.

At my arrival, both parents shot me a look of disgust.

That spectacular scandal with Young Masters Niu and Ma had clearly been Zhu Mei’s own scheme backfiring.

Yet these two old fossils still blamed everything on me.

“Mei has always been such a good girl! If you hadn’t bullied her, why would she ever have done such a thing?”

Sure, sure. Absolutely.

Zhu Mei and Zhu Qingsong, clinging tightly together, noticed me too.

As though terrified by my presence, Zhu Mei cried even harder. Before long, she swooned against Zhu Qingsong’s exposed chest.

Her acting wasn’t much, but that hardly mattered when everyone else insisted on being willfully blind.

Zhu Qingsong roared at me with all the ferocity of the toughest mutt in the village.

But the unconscious darling in his arms mattered more, so he bent over her first to check on her.

What touching devotion between a brother and his pretend sister.

I couldn’t help myself. I let out a strange cry.

“Sooo sleazy!”

One cry. Straight to the soul.

Zhu Qingsong choked in alarm and coughed up a thick gob of phlegm, spraying it straight into Zhu Mei’s face.

Her fake faint ended instantly. She shot up, retching.

I nearly laughed myself to death on the sidelines.

Thoroughly enraged, Zhu Qingsong shoved Zhu Mei aside and charged at me.

“You bitch! You dare laugh? If you hadn’t made that horrible noise, how could I have… how could I have accidentally hurt Mei?”

His words found no support from anyone.

Chief Minister Zhu looked puzzled. “Qingsong, what’s wrong?”

Zhu Qingsong stopped. “Why do you ask, Father?”

The chief minister hesitated. “No one in this room laughed or made any strange noise.”

Madam Zhu looked equally concerned. “Indeed. Son, are you hearing things?”

Of course they hadn’t heard anything. I’d used a secret voice-transmission technique on Zhu Qingsong alone.

Every sound I made was audible only to him.

Zhu Qingsong clutched his head in distress.

He took Five-Stone Powder so often that even he began to wonder whether he’d hallucinated it.

Under the circumstances, naturally, I played even harder.

I launched into a full roast.

“Does Zhu Qingsong always leave his chest hanging out? It’s so tanned it looks like he hasn’t bathed in three years.”

“Bet it stinks.”

“Look closely. So much hair around those two little focal points… Everybody’s got body hair!”

“But surely he could find time to pluck some of it. Some distinguished gentleman. Don’t people bully him when they see that?”

“Gag.”

With every comment I transmitted, Zhu Qingsong turned visibly greener.

“Shut up! You bitch, shut your mouth!”

But how could I shut it any further?

As far as everyone else could see, I hadn’t said a single word.

This time, even Zhu Mei thought too much Five-Stone Powder had driven him mad.

The family forgot everything else and hurriedly sent for an elderly imperial physician.

But when the physician came in, he found himself face-to-face with me.

We both stared in shock.

I really wasn’t the only Hehuan Sect member in the capital.

I wasn’t even one of just two.

Because this elderly imperial physician, Ji Lin, was technically my martial nephew.

I’d taught him medicine myself.

My elderly nephew had once been a bewitching beauty who captivated all Three Realms, with misty, melancholy doe eyes.

More than a thousand immortals and demons had fought for him.

Blood stained the immortal mountains. Tears flooded the demonic ravines.

But amid that raging sea of passion, he’d gradually grown numb. In the end, he’d renounced love and attachment and embarked on the Path of Detachment.

He said he’d attained enlightenment.

To preserve heavenly principle, one must extinguish human desire.

From that day on, he’d devoted himself to the ruthless discipline of the Path of Detachment.

What I hadn’t expected was that his chosen method involved joining the Imperial Household Department as the chief surgeon, producing eunuchs in batches.

Later, his outstanding knife skills had earned him a promotion to the Imperial Medical Bureau.

My elderly nephew Ji Lin and I held a hurried conversation through secret voice transmission.

“Junior Sect Leader! So you’re the poor unfortunate real daughter of the chief minister!”

Only someone on the Path of Detachment could say something so utterly heartless.

I didn’t blame him. Instead, I gave him a brief consultation.

“There’s nothing seriously wrong with Zhu Qingsong’s mind. Just a touch of exhibitionism and a tendency to sleep around.”

“I made him crack with voice transmission just now. Nothing too serious overall.”

“But there’s definitely something wrong with his male equipment. I’d focus the examination there.”

My elderly nephew nodded. “Too much Five-Stone Powder will do that. Nothing unusual.”

Shortly after Ji Lin went into the room, a shrill scream exploded through our voice link.

“Aaaaah! Not only can’t this dog get it up, he’s got a filthy disease!”

“Junior Sect Leader, I can’t take it! I have to cut it off. Once and for all!”

I gave him precise instructions. “Disinfecting it with Samadhi True Fire will be enough.”

My elderly, germ-obsessed nephew doubled down.

He burned it twice.

When it was over, Ji Lin emerged looking utterly drained.

Clearly, his mind had suffered a terrible blow. His very cultivation path had almost been extinguished.

But Ji Lin believed in leaving the pain to others. He told Chief Minister Zhu and his wife that Zhu Qingsong would never rise again.

As expected, two more people in the estate passed out.

We members of the Hehuan Sect, meanwhile, gained some happiness.

A win-win.

Meaning we won twice.