Mount Sanqing belonged to the Zhengyi School, whose disciples could marry and have children. Even though Pan Yun was a Daoist, Chinese people still loved urging the unmarried to marry and the married to have children.
Though no one dared press Pan Yun openly, they gossiped about her in private, their eyes sweeping over everyone close to her like lasers.
Could the Imperial Preceptor like the Emperor? Would she want to enter the harem?
Seeing Pan Yun treat the Emperor as though she were raising a son, everyone silently swallowed that question.
Could the Imperial Preceptor have taken a fancy to Yu Qian? Though Yu Qian already had a wife and children and was rather old, he was talented, powerful, dignified, and the two could be called kindred spirits.
Intellectual love could transcend age and money.
At least, more than half the old men at court believed that their sixteen-year-old concubines truly loved them and had not bowed before their power and influence.
Until they once heard Pan Yun urging Yu Qian, with a face full of disgust, to mind his hygiene and bathe frequently...
That look of utter revulsion instantly crushed the thought.
After going through everyone around Pan Yun, they discovered that Xue Shao was the one closest to the Imperial Preceptor and most likely to develop feelings for her.
The two were acknowledged as good friends and had worked together as early as the effort to clear Pan Hong and Xue Xuan's names.
They had worked together more than once; even their trip to Japan had borne the traces of both of them.
Xue Shao was around her age, and best of all, he cultivated the Dao and had declared that, for its sake, he would never marry.
So the two truly were an unmarried man and