Even if Thirteenth Young Master's outing had been nothing more than a string of coincidences, this incident still sent a chill down the Ye family's backs. It showed that there were gaps in their defenses.
Because of this, after the incident, the Ye family began reorganizing the security measures at the Ye Residence. And what happened afterward made the matter rather interesting.
Yet that was not the most fascinating part of the incident. The more interesting question was where Thirteenth Young Master had gone after leaving home, and where he had spent those three days.
After Thirteenth Young Master left home, he looked at the fresh sights on both sides of the street and, for a time, forgot what he had come out to do. He simply wandered aimlessly through the city.
This was his first time leaving home, and everything felt so new.
Fortunately, this was the Imperial City, and the district of the powerful and wealthy at that. Security nearby was excellent, so even though the richly dressed Thirteenth Young Master wandered the streets alone, no one harbored improper intentions toward him.
Perhaps there were simply too many little noble young masters and young ladies like him in the area, scattered all over the streets. Though they all had attendants with them, perhaps people assumed Thirteenth Young Master did too, mistaking someone else's attendants for his.
Later, Thirteenth Young Master suddenly remembered his purpose and began asking around. What purpose? Did you not know? He had come out to squander money and play the Prodigal Son.
Thirteenth Young Master casually asked someone and received an answer: if he wanted to squander money, there was an excellent gold-devouring den in the city, where many wastrel young masters went to throw their money away.
He no longer remembered who that person was. If he did, that person would certainly have suffered miserably, because everyone present now had the urge to slap that person to death.
Why did they feel such an urge? If you knew what kind of place it was, you would understand. Perhaps you would feel the same urge as well.
"Wind Flower Snow Moon Tower!" Thirteenth Young Master slowly said the name of the place.
"Pfft..." Ye Yi and Ye Chengtian immediately sprayed out the tea they had just swallowed.
"What?! What did you say? Wind Flower Snow Moon Tower?" Ye Yi and Ye Chengtian cried out, their mouths still filled with bits of tea leaves.
"Mm!" Thirteenth Young Master nodded.
"Chengtian, what kind of place is Wind Flower Snow Moon Tower?" Long Anqi asked in confusion. From the looks of it, she did not know the place, though she could tell that both her husband and father-in-law did.
"Well... it is the Imperial City's most high-class... brothel..." Ye Chengtian answered rather awkwardly.
"Oh, so it is a brothel. No wonder you were embarrassed to say it. You men... What?! A brothel?" Long Anqi did not react at first, only suddenly coming to her senses afterward.
Brothel was merely the elegant term for it. Put more plainly, it was a whorehouse. A five-year-old child going to such a place was simply unacceptable no matter how one looked at it.
No wonder they had been unable to find him for three days. He had actually been in a place like that. Who could have thought of it? Who would go to such a place looking for a five-year-old child?
"Son, tell Mother what the person who told you about that place looked like. I'm going to kill him!!" A bluish hue spread across Long Anqi's face, and her murderous appearance left no one doubting her words.
It was no wonder she reacted this way. No matter what, how could someone introduce a child to that kind of place to squander money?
"He had two eyes and a nose..." Thirteenth Young Master recalled bit by bit, but the traits he described proved nothing except that the person was human.
"..."
"Forget it. It is good enough that he came back. He only spent some money, and in any case, he cannot want that sort of thing yet." Ye Chengtian said, his expression extremely strange.
"Hmph, he had better not have done anything strange. Otherwise, I'll tear down that Wind Flower Snow Moon Tower." Long Anqi said through gritted teeth. "Little darling, tell Mother exactly what you did there."
"They had delicious food, good drinks, and lots of big sisters to play games with me. I want to go play there again next time," Thirteenth Young Master said.
Long Anqi's pretty face darkened as she softly snapped, "You are not allowed to go! You may squander money or throw it away however you like, but you cannot go to a place like that."
"Why? It was really fun. Much more fun than here." Thirteenth Young Master asked in confusion. The two certain people present likely agreed with that statement as well; that place truly was much more entertaining than home.
Ahem, of course, that had only been what they thought when they were young.
"There is no why. This is Mother's order, and you must listen." Long Anqi truly had no way to explain such things, so she could only issue a compulsory command.
"Oh, then I won't go. Next time, I'll go somewhere else to squander money." Thirteenth Young Master said, tilting his head.
Next time? We will never give you a next time. We absolutely will not let you go out alone again.
Next, everyone had another question: what was the deal with this little Tiger Clan girl? As for why Wind Flower Snow Moon Tower had entertained Thirteenth Young Master for three days without asking questions, they all understood that perfectly well.
To Wind Flower Snow Moon Tower, as long as a man had money, whether he was old or young, the Empire's emperor or a slave, he would be treated like a lord and served just the same.
As Thirteenth Young Master had said, this little Tiger Clan girl was a female slave he had bought.
At the time, Wind Flower Snow Moon Tower happened to be holding a female slave Auction House, and this little girl was one of the slaves. Naturally, that was meant for certain people with special tastes. As for what those special tastes were, there was no need to say more.
In the end, Thirteenth Young Master bought this little Tiger Clan girl solely to spend his money and play the Prodigal Son for a while. It was pure extravagance, not some overflowing compassion or charitable sympathy.
And among so many female slaves, he had chosen this little Tiger Clan girl simply because they were close in age. A child would naturally choose another child.
One last thing should be mentioned: Thirteenth Young Master's spending at Wind Flower Snow Moon Tower, together with the purchase of this little Tiger Clan girl, had neatly used up nearly all his allowance—sixty-eight thousand one hundred gold coins in total.
That amount of pocket money was more than many people could earn in an entire lifetime, yet he had spent it all in three days. He truly had the makings of a Prodigal Son.
That was also why Wind Flower Snow Moon Tower had not sent out any news and had allowed Thirteenth Young Master to squander freely inside. Such a major customer was a rare sight even for them.
Of that sum, fifty thousand gold coins had been spent on buying the little Tiger Clan girl, accounting for the vast majority. It was said—only said—that a powerful figure with special tastes had been bidding against Thirteenth Young Master at the time, which was why the price had soared to fifty thousand gold coins. It was the highest-priced sale of the auction, while second place had only fetched twenty thousand gold coins for an exceptionally beautiful Half-Elf.
It was said—still only said—that the powerful figure had been furious and wanted to see who was opposing him. Then he was struck dumb. Anyone would have worn the same expression, because it was too unexpected.
This was not buying a female companion at all. It was buying a playmate.
Forget it, he would not compete with a child. It would not sound good if word got out, the powerful figure consoled himself. Truthfully, if he had continued bidding, people would surely have spread the story everywhere, and his reputation would have been utterly ruined.
However, he did not know that Thirteenth Young Master's identity was special, and his disappearance over the past few days had stirred the entire city into an uproar. Thus, in the end, everyone came to know about this matter anyway.
Many people told him, "Who would have thought you were that kind of person..."
There was one more thing: even if that powerful figure had raised the price again, Thirteenth Young Master would have continued bidding. His purpose had been to play the Prodigal Son, and he would not care whether he had brought enough money with him. Besides, he had no idea how much money he had on him in the first place.
At this point, the disappearance incident was declared over, leaving behind only a few aftershocks.
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