Ye Lanshan noticed Ye Luotian's hesitant expression and asked, "Grandfather, is there something you're hiding from me?"
"Patriarch, there's a child outside looking for you." A respectful voice interrupted Ye Luotian's thoughts.
"Can't you see I'm discussing important matters with the Patriarch? Take him to the main hall first and tell him the Patriarch is busy, so he'll have to wait." Ye Luotian held back his temper, resisting the urge to throw the person out.
"Did you say a child is looking for me?" The guard heard this just as he was about to go back and report.
"Yes, Patriarch," the guard replied.
"Take me to see him." Ye Lanshan figured it must be Fufeng, though she hadn't expected him to show up so soon. She thought that old man would drag things out a bit longer.
"Sigh..." Ye Luotian had no choice but to follow Ye Lanshan and the others to the entrance.
"Please, save my grandfather." Fufeng cried as he clung to Ye Lanshan's leg.
No matter how composed Fufeng was, he was still just a child. After his only relative collapsed, he became like any ordinary kid, not knowing what to do.
"Don't panic. Tell me slowly, what happened to your grandfather?" Seeing Fufeng like this, Ye Lanshan realized his grandfather's condition must be dire.
"He... he's dying. If you can cure him, I'll be your subordinate for life." Fufeng wiped his tears, regaining a bit of composure.
Ye Lanshan thought it over briefly and decided this deal was quite a steal, so she had Fufeng lead the way.
This place feels so familiar. The more Ye Lanshan walked, the more she felt she'd been here before, like she'd visited.
It wasn't until a dilapidated temple appeared ahead that she suddenly remembered—this was where Luo Rui had brought her that day.
Last time she came here to save someone, and now she was here again for the same reason. Fate really was strange.
Ye Lanshan felt like she was grasping at something, but it flashed through her mind and vanished, impossible to catch no matter how hard she tried.
That thing was called enlightenment. If she had succeeded in achieving it, she could have advanced to the Golden Core stage. But it passed too quickly, so she missed it.
"Grandfather, Grandfather, hang in there. Someone's come to save you, someone's here to save us. We'll be safe soon." Fufeng rushed to his grandfather's side, calling out to him repeatedly.
Since Ye Lanshan wasn't a native alchemist from this world, she used methods from Chinese traditional medicine.
She checked the old man's eyelids, opened his mouth to look, and then began taking his pulse.
"All five internal organs are shattered, and the mystic energy is flowing backward. Tsk, this is tough." Ye Lanshan furrowed her brow, wearing a grave expression as if the old man was beyond saving.
She gave him some water from the spiritual spring in her space and fed him a pill.
The water from the spiritual spring turned into spiritual energy, nourishing his nearly shattered meridians, while the pure medicinal power of the pill protected his broken organs.
"How is he? Can my grandfather be saved?" Fufeng lowered his head slightly, wiping the spiritual water that trickled from his grandfather's mouth.
"He won't die for now. This place is too dangerous. Let's move him somewhere safe." Ye Lanshan looked around; everything that had happened here was still vivid in her memory.
To heal Ye Yu's meridians, she had to grow stronger. Otherwise, even the herbs she worked so hard to obtain would be taken by others.
"But aside from here, where else can we go?" Fufeng felt lost. The days of being hunted had left him exhausted.
"Of course, to my turf." Ye Lanshan stood up, clapped her hands, and said to Fufeng, "Wait for me a moment."
...
"Alright, let's go." After disguising herself as Shan Luo, Ye Lanshan returned and was about to hoist the old man onto her back, but Fufeng stopped her.
"Who are you? What do you want?" Fufeng pushed Ye Lanshan away with all his might.
"Don't tell me you don't recognize me just because I changed my look." Ye Lanshan felt like rolling her eyes.
Hearing her voice, Fufeng asked cautiously, "You... you're the sister from before?"
"Who else would I be?" Ye Lanshan sighed inwardly. Even this was hard to recognize. Sigh, she wondered if she could train him to be her right-hand man.
"S-sorry, I was too anxious just now, so I didn't recognize you." Fufeng didn't know what else to say.
Ye Lanshan didn't want to waste time bickering with him. She grabbed the old man off the ground and put him on her back.
"Let's go." Watching his grandfather on Ye Lanshan's back, Fufeng's nose stung, and tears fell with a plop.
"Hurry up and follow." Ye Lanshan didn't look back, but since she didn't hear footsteps, she reminded him.
Fufeng quickly wiped his tears and replied, "Oh, okay."
...
"This is your turf?" Fufeng stared at the brothel before him, utterly bewildered.
Young as he was, he still knew what kind of place this was.
But Ye Lanshan didn't see anything wrong with it. She said matter-of-factly, "That's right, it's here."
She pushed open the brothel's door and walked in slowly.
Fufeng followed her inside.
The atmosphere inside was surprisingly tasteful.
Unlike other brothels that were flashy and decadent, this one was extremely elegant. The vast hall held only a few rows of tables and chairs, each table adorned with a vase of flowers and a book placed beneath it.
In front of the tables was a stage, but it was different from the usual ones. This stage was wooden, covered with a carpet, and surrounded by light blue curtains.
"What are you spacing out for?" After Ye Lanshan laid the old man on a bed in a room, she realized Fufeng hadn't followed. Sensing something off, she went downstairs to check.
To her surprise, Fufeng was just standing there in a daze. Ye Lanshan couldn't understand how he could zone out when his grandfather was so badly injured.
"Is this really a brothel?" In Fufeng's mind, brothels were places of debauchery. He couldn't believe such a refined place could be one.
"What else would it be if not a brothel?" Ye Lanshan was completely speechless.
"Is your grandfather there?" Seeing Fufeng snap out of it, Ye Lanshan pointed him in the right direction.
"Boss, are they also people we need to watch?" Qing Dai saw Ye Lanshan bringing in two more people and assumed they were the potential spies she'd mentioned earlier.
"No, that's not your concern. And you must keep this matter confidential." Ye Lanshan thought of the wounds on the old man and realized their enemies must be a terrifying force.