“Thank you.” Xie Yutang murmured somewhat awkwardly in a low voice and dashed to his mother’s side.

Feng Jiu smiled and looked down at the bandaged wound.

“Burn our people’s corpses and return their ashes to their families.” The old man ordered the dark guards and sighed as he looked at the dead bodies.

Fire rose in the night sky, illuminating half of the sky. A gust of wind blew and there was a foul odour in the air…

The guards carried out his orders and burned the corpses, collecting the ashes and storing them in the jars taken from their cosmos sacks.

She could tell they were skilled and well-prepared. This was obviously not the first time they had done something similar. When several of their dark guards were killed previously, it appeared that this was how they dealt with the corpses.

Indeed, burning the bodies appeared to be a better way to avoid future problems than burying them. After all, no one would know if any beast would dig up and gnaw on the buried bodies. The bodies were burned and the ashes were returned to their loved ones so that they could be enshrined after death.

“Let’s go! Leave first and we’ll talk again later.” The elderly man said, signalling that they should all board the carriage. The dark guards who had been hiding in the dark appeared beside the carriage, and the party continued on the journey.

As the sky cleared and the carriage approached the next town, the elderly man looked at Feng Jiu and asked with a slight frown. “Little Jiu, what are you going to do next? Do you have any relatives in town?”

Feng Jiu shook her head.

When the elderly man saw this, he mused, his gaze fell on her injured arm. After some thoughts, he said, “We’re returning to the ancestral house and we will settle down where Patriarch Xie resides. If one more person, you, is added, I’m afraid….”

Xie Yutang looked at Feng Jiu, who sat with her head bent, and remarked, “Grandfather, why don’t you just let him put on the dark guard uniform and pretend to be our manor’s dark guard? Otherwise, let him serve as my personal attendant.”

Feng Jiu raised her head and looked at him with surprise.

“What are you looking at? I just don’t want to owe you a favour. You have nowhere to go, don’t you? In that case, you can serve as my close attendant. I cannot guarantee anything else, but I am certain there will be three meals.”

The elderly man thought for a moment before looking at Feng Jiu. “If you really have nowhere to go, then follow Yutang! The young man appeared more composed than Yutang and his nature as seen seemed to be innocent and simple. Judging from his ability in reading people, the young man was not a person with an evil heart.

Feng Jiu smiled, nodded, and scribbled the word “thank you” with water on the table upon hearing the old man’s statement.

“Great! You can play with me later on.” Xie Shisi expressed her joy.

“Let me tell you a little bit about our Xie family. You will stay with Yutang after arriving at the Xie family. Don’t act rashly when dealing with people. After all, we are not from the family’s direct descendants, so it is difficult to get our words heard.”

Feng Jiu nodded and listened to the old man explain to the three of them what they should look out for once they arrived at the Xie family.

After hearing those words and so many rules, Xie Yutang expressed his displeasure. “Grandfather, why do we have to live in the ancestral home? We were fine in our own home.”