Do You Know You're Keeping a Ghost at Home

It was not a chill in the physical sense, but a coldness that pierced the retina, froze the mind, and gripped the heart. Every word was like an ice-tempered needle, precisely pricking the soft underbelly he most wanted to hide.

"Found out..." "Advanced Nurturing High School..." "Arrived in Japan..."

Yun Lan calmed down to think. How could they possibly know he was attending Advanced Nurturing High School? The only people who knew he attended Advanced Nurturing High School were the Twelve Black Beasts, Uncle Su, and his parents.

Could there be a ghost in the house? His gaze darkened. The Twelve Black Beasts—the most secretive and loyal individual guardian force of the Yun Family—reported directly to the head of the family (and to some extent, to him, the young master). They were death squads selected from mountains of corpses and seas of blood, trained in the most brutal ways, each bound to the Yun Family bloodline by a deep, soul-level contract. Betrayal? That word had never appeared in their dictionary; it was impossible at the level of the soul. They were his most reliable blades and shields; there was no possibility of a leak.

What about Uncle Su? That old butler who had watched him grow up, always smiling as he helped clean up his messes, a man who felt like a second father to him.

But... selling information to those three girls? Yun Lan could almost imagine the hurt and wry expression on Uncle Su's face if he heard this suspicion. Uncle Su's care for him was beyond doubt; he would never proactively do anything that might endanger his "peaceful life," even if those three girls might be considered "one of our own" in Uncle Su's eyes.

When all seemingly logical paths were blocked, the remaining answer, no matter how absurd it sounded, was highly likely to be the truth.

Yun Lan turned off the faucet. The rushing sound of water came to an abrupt halt, leaving only the stubborn, low hum of the exhaust fan in the restroom. He lifted his head and looked at himself in the mirror again. The initial shock and confusion in his eyes had faded, replaced by a near-certain, deeply helpless realization.

"So... when the answer is absurd, but it's the only correct one left..."

He exhaled softly, his voice echoing low in the empty restroom with a tone of resignation:

"That means... Mother told the three of them."

The moment this conclusion surfaced, many previously overlooked details suddenly clicked into place. His mother had always been critical of his "leaving without saying goodbye" (from her perspective) and his "indecisiveness" in handling the girls' feelings (by her standards), though she hadn't interfered directly, out of respect for him being grown up.

But given his mother's seemingly elegant and noble, yet actually... well, highly proactive and "plot-pushing" personality, doing something like this "unhelpful favor" was simply too consistent with her style!

As for why it wasn't his father?

Yun Lan looked at the mirror and almost rolled his eyes, his face showing a subtle expression that said, "Do I even need to ask?"

"Give me a break!" he muttered to himself, as if debating with his reflection or some guy asking a stupid question, "Even if Father actually did this—though he likely wouldn't have the guts to get involved on his own—do you think he would do it without Mother's tacit approval, instigation, or a direct order?"

Countless scenes of family life flashed through his mind: his father, a titan in the business and political worlds who commanded absolute authority, would return home and become cautious and obedient in front of his mother... especially when it involved his son's "love life," which his mother considered a "priority matter." His father's opinion was basically negligible.

"This is late-stage henpecked syndrome, the kind that can't be cured!" Yun Lan reached his final verdict, his tone firm and decisive, even tinged with sympathy for his father's "spinelessness" (and sorrow for his own situation).

Case closed. There were no profound enemies, no leaky defenses, and no unexpected betrayals. There was only a mother who felt her son's love life was too sluggish, loved watching the drama unfold, and held absolute authority in the household, who had conveniently (or intentionally) gifted his carefully hidden coordinates to the three girls who were eager to find him.

"Sigh, nothing I can do. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it." Yun Lan sighed and sent a message to Fufu: "Fufu, please add the contact information for the Twelve Black Beasts and the Five Fingers organization to this phone for me."

"As you wish, Young Master." Fufu remotely added the contact information to Yun Lan's phone.

"Those three girls just ran off to Japan like that; I wonder if they'll run into any danger. Looks like I have to issue my first 'directive' as the young master."

Thinking this, Yun Lan tapped on one of the newly added contacts and typed into the dialogue box: Directive: Protect the safety of Yi Jiang, Yi Xuan, and Ye Shunguang. Confirm their arrival in Japan and provide continuous protection. Additionally, dispatch three female Ascetics to Japan.

After sending the message, Yun Lan turned off his phone screen and walked out of the restroom with his lunch box.

Meanwhile, at the Yun Family villa, Yun Shen received the directive issued by his son in his study. He looked at his wife, Xia Yue, and said, "Now you see? Our son still has feelings for the three of them. He even mobilized the Index Finger to protect their safety."

"Heh, now that's more like it! If I didn't give him a push, he'd be just like you, a block of wood." Xia Yue rolled her eyes at her husband.

"But once our son handles these few, keep leaking information. That princess of the Yi Family loves and hates our son at the same time. After all, she was used as a human shield by our son; he has to make it up to her himself. And throw in that Xiao Yue who loves red bean buns, too."

Yun Shen looked at his wife's "love of drama" and silently mourned for his son.

(The Five Fingers are the Index Finger, Middle Finger, Thumb, Little Finger, and Ring Finger.

The Five Fingers are distributed all over the world. They answer to the Yun Family, but in reality, the Yun Family rarely utilizes them, often letting the Five Fingers develop freely as gangs.

As for the Index Finger, they are the gang that obeys the Yun Family's orders most strictly among the Five Fingers. Their members are extremely rational, acting as tools for "directives" without personal value judgments. Fundamentally, most Index Finger members are children adopted from orphanages under the Yun Family's name. They have no meaning for survival, so the Yun Family lets them join the Index Finger to find that meaning.)

When the Index Finger has not received any directives, most members work as volunteers or in charity, which perhaps is a way for them to practice their directives.