Legend

"Pfft... What?! Your son had been in a brothel for the past three days? Hey, hey, he's only five! Isn't he developing a little too fast?" These words came from the ruler of a nation himself. When the Emperor learned of this, even he could not help spraying out his meal.

If even the ruler of a nation reacted like this, let alone everyone else. The entire Imperial City now knew of Thirteenth Young Master's glorious achievement—visiting a brothel at the age of five. This was truly unprecedented, with none before him and none to come after.

Now, throughout the Imperial City and even the entire empire, people talked after meals and over tea about how Thirteenth Young Master had gone to Wind Flower Snow Moon Tower to drink flower wine, and how he had driven up the price against someone to buy a little slave girl.

After this incident, a little girl appeared beside Thirteenth Young Master—the little Tiger Girl he had bought. Long Anqi had originally wanted to find a maid around Thirteenth Young Master's age, one who could care for him while also playing with him.

This little Tiger Girl also seemed to understand what was right. She knew that she had escaped humiliation only because of this somewhat foolish Thirteenth Young Master. Though she knew he had not sincerely intended to help her, the fact remained that he had helped her, pulling her out of the sea of fire.

And among the Tiger Clan, repaying kindness was tradition. Even for the slightest favor, they would repay it with a gushing spring. Of course, if someone offended them, they would surely repay every grievance down to the smallest crack in the eye.

Thus, though the little Tiger Girl would later love caring for Thirteenth Young Master, she held absolutely no goodwill toward certain other humans. After all, humans had been the ones to capture her.

From then on, the Ye Residence had one more little Tiger Girl maid, and Thirteenth Young Master had a servant girl and playmate who would grow up with him as childhood sweethearts.

Many years later, Long Anqi would boast of just how wise this decision of hers had been.

However, Thirteenth Young Master had disagreed at the time. He said they should send the little Tiger Girl home—that would count as thoroughly squandering the money. Long Anqi, meanwhile, snapped her fingers at him in irritation.

It was not that Long Anqi begrudged the fifty thousand gold coins. That amount was nothing to her, and besides, it had originally been Thirteenth Young Master's pocket money. She simply felt that this little Tiger Girl might have been arranged by fate, sent here to accompany her son.

And Thirteenth Young Master had nothing to say about this. He had never had opinions about anything to begin with and understood nothing; besides, with another playmate around, he was quite happy.

Oh, I forgot to introduce the little Tiger Girl's name. She was called Taiya. As for which branch of the Lineage she belonged to, she did not say, and no one pursued the matter.

In truth, even if she had told him her name, it would have made no difference to Thirteenth Young Master, because he had only one way of addressing Taiya—Tiger Girl.

There was one more thing: Tiger Girl was about a year older than Thirteenth Young Master. Her build was somewhat petite, however, so she looked about the same age as him. Once they grew up, she would probably seem much younger than Thirteenth Young Master instead.

Do not assume that everyone in the Tiger Clan was broad-backed and burly. Some Tiger Clan women were also very petite, though they were exceedingly rare. Tiger Girl happened to be one of them.

"Little brother, was Wind Flower Snow Moon Tower really that fun? Let's go together someday," little Lan Yu said excitedly, whispering to Thirteenth Young Master.

"Mm, fun. Can't go. Mama said no." Thirteenth Young Master nodded, then shook his head again.

"We can go secretly. As long as Mama doesn't find out, it'll be fine," little Lan Yu said softly.

"?? Is that okay? I'll go ask Mama." Thirteenth Young Master ran off to ask Long Anqi in confusion. Seeing this, little Lan Yu was unable to stop him and immediately decided to run away.

"Ye Lanyu! Stop right there!!" Long Anqi's roar rang through heaven and earth.

"Mom, I was joking. Ye Lang, you little bastard—I'm not playing with you next time."

Over the following months, Thirteenth Young Master still went out to squander money every few days. Naturally, he first asked Long Anqi for some pocket money. Every time, Long Anqi said there would be no next time, yet every time, she gave him some pocket money anyway.

Thirteenth Young Master had originally been forbidden from leaving the house, but later Long Anqi decided to let him go out and stopped forbidding him. The reason was not that she had suddenly seen the light; she simply had no other choice.

After his first disappearance, Thirteenth Young Master had been expressly forbidden from going out, and the entire Ye Residence had remained on guard against it happening again. Logically speaking, Thirteenth Young Master should have been unable to leave again.

Yet the strange part was that Thirteenth Young Master still played his sudden-disappearance game. Even when everyone knew he was about to vanish, he used some very interesting methods to get out.

These methods were all things normal people would overlook. Perhaps only from his perspective could one think of them. After he explained them to Long Anqi, all she could do was gape in utter astonishment.

Later, Long Anqi stopped being surprised. She was only puzzled—how could he have so many methods? Even someone with peerless wisdom would find it difficult to devise so many schemes. How could a child with an intellectual defect possibly have so many ways?

It was not only Long Anqi who found this strange; everyone in the Ye family did. They even suspected that this Thirteenth Young Master was playing the fool, but in truth, that was impossible.

He had been like this since childhood. If he was pretending, then he had started pretending from childhood. Was that possible? Was there any need for it?

Besides, some things simply could not be faked. One could manage for a while, but even with peerless acting skills, even with unfathomable depths, it was impossible to leave no flaws at all—not even enough for one's parents to notice.

The only explanation was that Thirteenth Young Master's intellect was deficient only in certain areas, while in others he surpassed ordinary people. If he could grow up like a normal person, then as the old legends had said, he would become a true Son of God, a legend.

This matter caused the Ye Residence guards endless misery. They even began to resent Thirteenth Young Master a little, because he had them scolded every few days.

Yet this also made them experts among experts, raising their vigilance to unprecedented heights. Later, the Ye Residence's defenses surpassed everyone's imagination; even the Imperial Palace would have to concede defeat.

There had once been a spy, a truly legendary spy, one who moved freely between nations. No one had ever discovered his tracks. Even entering the Imperial Palaces of the Three Great Empires was as easy for him as returning home. He could be called a myth among spies.

Yet in the end, he fell into the Ye family's hands. While carrying out espionage at the Ye Residence, he was caught by a guard. At the time, he believed this guard had to be an elite among elites—otherwise, how could he have caught him? The result, however, left him deeply depressed: this guard was merely an ordinary Ye Residence guard.

What depressed him even more was that when he asked the guard how he had discovered him, the guard replied, "Thirteenth Young Master used this trick when he was a child. You're still too green."