Why did you provoke me?

Nian Nian quickly sensed the atmosphere in the backyard.

She pulled Jing San aside. "Third Brother, what's going on? Why are you all acting like you're risking your lives? You can't hide anything from me about your plans!"

"Hmm. What's been hidden from you?"

"What's wrong with them?"

Jing San didn't speak, but her body slowly rose up. She took a few more steps in the air.

"Huh? When did you become so good?" Nian Nian put her hands on her hips and looked up at Jing San, who was much taller than her. Then she realized, "They've all been stimulated and are practicing this?"

"Yes, I was the first to master it." Jing San didn't come down, but circled around Nian Nian in the air.

Niannian wrinkled her nose. "I already knew this. I thought there was something else going on!"

Seeing that Nian Nian was about to leave, Jing San hurriedly landed from the air. "Have you mastered that new weapon too?"

Niannian stopped in her tracks. "You know this too?"

Jing San chuckled. "There's nothing about this guild that I don't know."

Nian Nian looked at him with suspicion. "I'm not surprised you know I have a new weapon, but how do you know how to use it?"

He glanced at Jing San, stepped forward, and asked in a low voice, "Does Third Brother also have one?"

Jing San touched her nose. How did she deduce that?

Seeing that Jing San didn't answer, Niannian understood; it was certain that something had happened.

"When did you get pregnant? How do you know about such a confidential matter?"

"This is our home, don't you know that's what we should do?"

That makes so much sense, I can't refute it.

With the matter of the Forest Mark resolved, Yu Meng felt relieved.

That day, she arrived at Nangong Tianshou's office area.

As soon as she entered, she regretted it a little. Even Xiao Hao was sitting at the table writing something. Nangong Tianshou looked up, saw it was her, and hurriedly waved for her to come over.

"You've come at the right time. I have a message here; take a look."

After saying that, he handed a small note to Yu Meng.

"Two vice presidents of the research institute have fallen seriously ill under mysterious circumstances, and it is suspected that they have been poisoned."

Yu Meng looked at the message and asked, "Do you know the name?"

Nangong Tianshou rummaged through the slips of paper on the table, then pulled one out and handed it to her.

"have."

Yu Meng took it: Xiao Hong, Fu Yuanshan.

Yu Meng took the note and found a chair to sit down.

"In just a few days, your intelligence network has already uncovered such secrets."

"These are the people left behind by the Zhou family; I'm just reorganizing them. Besides, I paid for the important information."

"But how did you know this was the message I wanted to know?"

"You and Xiao Hong had dinner together, didn't you? I heard she admired you a lot."

"It's just an elder helping a younger person. I could tell she wasn't in good health when we first met."

"Aren't you going to take a look?"

Yu Meng shook her head. "I'm not a doctor, and she's of a higher rank than me, so the chances of her being poisoned are slim."

"If their level is higher than yours, then they certainly won't get poisoned." I've never heard of a Bone Painter getting poisoned.

Nangong Tianshou pushed the small box in front of him over, "The information is a bit mixed up, see if there's anything useful in it."

Yu Meng smiled and nodded, "You've really seen results in just a few days."

Looking at the note in his hand, the head of the Lu family in Kyoto was heartbroken at the loss of his beloved son.

Yu Meng turned to look at Nangong. "It's all news from the capital."

"Pretty much. Every little thing Kyoto does could potentially cause an earthquake down below."

"The Wang family's twentieth illegitimate son has been recognized and returned to the family." Yu Meng read the words on the note in her hand. "Is this even news?"

"Of course, having an illegitimate child sounds bad, but it also means that the woman was the man's love at the time, and it's also a connection he has."

"Uncle Nangong, your family must place great importance on training bone painters, allowing your daughter to follow a man without any status or identity."

Nangong Tianshou didn't even look up. "You said it yourself, that's a Bone Painter, but how many people can actually become a Bone Painter?"

"Drawing bones is difficult, but creating membranes can make medicine, which shouldn't be too hard, right?"

Nangong Tianshou finally raised his head and looked at Yu Meng. "Do you have some misunderstanding about these things? Isn't it difficult to be a membrane maker? There are thirteen women in three generations of our Zhou family. With the full cooperation of resources, we have only produced three bone painters and four membrane makers."

"So few? Only a 50% chance?" Yu Meng was a little puzzled. Her older sister only had forty-odd lines, but she still became a sculptor.

"Yu Meng, you have a high starting point, and everyone you know is a bone painter. Do you think that bone painters are everywhere?"

"I don't think so." After all, neither her eldest sister nor Xiu-jie were like that. But Yu Meng didn't say the last sentence.

"In large families, if a bone painter has her father and brothers protecting her, she has a voice, but if her lineage is weak, she can only be a tool," Nangong continued. "They don't even have the freedom you have to come here."

"That bad?" Yu Meng asked, puzzled.

Nangong Tianshou laughed. "Let me ask you, if you had a money tree in your house, would you hide it or announce it to the world?"

Yu Meng glanced at him and said, "It depends on the situation; there are advantages to both."

"That's your idea, but most large families will keep it hidden. Making a fortune quietly is the only way to go. But if this family is declining, then they will use this bone painter to exchange for benefits. You can imagine what will happen to the bone painter who is exchanged."

Yu Meng didn't reply; she had experienced these things firsthand. That feeling…

Yu Meng looked at the next note: "Wan Jiazi is going crazy in the street, shouting, 'I want to become an immortal!'"

"An entire commercial street was burgled overnight."

Upon reading this, Yu Meng was surprised again, "How dare this thief be so bold? Is the security in Kyoto really that bad?"

"Nine times out of ten, this kind of news is false; don't take it seriously."

"You buy this kind of information?"

"Buying information is a side thing. When I don't have a specific target, I can only buy information within a certain range. At this point, I have to judge whether the information is true or false on my own."

Yu Meng spent a day here, and the diverse news broadened her horizons. It was as if she had seen a world she had never seen before, a world that was dark, dirty, and also full of sorrow.

Perhaps influenced by those messages, Yu Meng had another dream that night, something she'd never dreamed of before. A blurry shadow was being pressed to the ground, struggling desperately. He wanted to stand up, he wanted to fly, and Yu Meng inexplicably knew what he was thinking. But she just stood there quietly, without moving. Firstly, because Yu Meng couldn't clearly see if the shadow was human; more importantly, although he was struggling desperately, he didn't cry out to Yu Meng for help.

When Yu Meng woke up, it was still dark. Moonlight shone through the curtains, casting a dim glow in the room. She knew she wouldn't be able to sleep.