Before dawn broke, the wind and snow had temporarily ceased, yet the bone-piercing cold was even worse than last night's storm, seeping through every crack in the most dilapidated houses of the Western District.
At that moment, three uninvited guests stood before the Yue Family's crumbling house.
A gaunt old man dressed in a respectable silk-lined jacket, with a goatee and his hands behind his back, stood there. He was Steward Liu, one of the academy's supervisors.
Beside him stood two powerfully built middle-aged men. One had a scar across his face, while the other had triangular eyes. They impatiently stamped their feet, the white vapor from their mouths instantly scattered by the wind.
"Old Man Yue, are you dead yet? If not, get the hell out here!" The triangular-eyed man had little patience. He raised his foot and kicked the tottering door panel, sending it crashing down with a bang as it slanted into the house.
The gust kicked up by the fallen door sent Yue Songlin stumbling back two steps. Yue Lingxi cried out and hurriedly supported her grandfather from behind.
Once the old man steadied himself, he instinctively shielded his granddaughter more tightly behind him, though such protection was painfully feeble.
"Steward... Steward Liu?" Yue Songlin bowed, his hoarse voice ragged with gasps. "You... have come personally to my humble home. Could it be... that the academy has some matter?"
Steward Liu's small eyes did not immediately settle on Yue Songlin. The instant the door opened, they swept sharply as needles over Yue Lingxi inside, and then... Yue Songlin himself.
His brow furrowed almost imperceptibly, and a trace of confusion flashed through his eyes.
This Yue grandfather and granddaughter should have been living the most miserable lives, barely clinging to life.
Yet now, although Old Man Yue