Did you know we have a ghost in the house?

It wasn't cold in the physical sense, but a chill that pierced the retina, froze thought in an instant, and gripped the heart. Every word was like an ice-coated needle, striking precisely at the weakness he most wanted to hide.

"I see..." "Advanced Nurturing High School..." "Arrived in Japan..."

Yun Lan calmed down and thought it through. How could they possibly know he was studying at Advanced Nurturing High School? The only ones who knew were the Twelve Black Beasts, Uncle Su, and his parents.

"Could there really be a ghost in the house?" His gaze darkened. The Twelve Black Beasts—the Yun Family's most secretive and loyal force of individual protectors—answered directly to the head of the family (and, to some extent, to him as the young master). They had been chosen from mountains of corpses and seas of blood, then trained as dead soldiers through the harshest methods. Each of them was bound to the Yun bloodline by a profound contract. Betrayal? That word had never existed in their vocabulary; it was impossible on a soul-deep level. They were his most reliable sword and shield. There was no way they'd leak anything.

What about Uncle Su? The old butler who had watched him grow up, always smiling as he helped clean up his messes, and who was like a second father to him?

But... selling information to those three girls? Yun Lan could almost picture Uncle Su's wounded yet helplessly amused expression at the accusation. Uncle Su's affection for him was beyond question. He'd never willingly do anything that might endanger Yun Lan's "peaceful life," even if those three girls might count as "one of our own" in his eyes.

When every seemingly reasonable possibility had been ruled out, the remaining answer, no matter how absurd it sounded, was probably the truth.

Yun Lan turned off the faucet. The rush of water stopped abruptly, leaving only the ventilation fan's stubborn hum in the washroom. He looked up at himself in the mirror again. The initial shock and confusion had faded from his eyes, replaced by a near-certain understanding, tinged with deep resignation.

"So... when every answer sounds absurd, but there's only one that can be right..."

He let out a soft breath. His voice echoed quietly through the empty washroom, heavy with resignation.

"Then... Mother must have told the three of them."

The moment the conclusion came to him, a lot of details he'd overlooked suddenly fell into place. His mother had always disapproved of his "leaving without a word" (as she saw it) and of his "indecisiveness" in handling the three girls' feelings (by her standards). She'd refrained from interfering directly only because he was grown up.

But given her seemingly elegant and refined nature—and, well, her exceptional ability to take action and eagerness to "move the plot along"—pulling a stunt like this to "help" was so perfectly in character!

As for why it wasn't his father?

Yun Lan looked at himself in the mirror, nearly rolling his eyes. His expression clearly said, "Do you really have to ask?"

"Come on!" he muttered, as if arguing with himself in the mirror—or with some fool who'd asked a stupid question. "Even if Father really did it—which, of course, he probably wouldn't have the guts to do on his own—do you think he'd have done it without Mother's consent, encouragement, or outright orders?"

A flood of everyday family scenes flashed through his mind: his father, a force to be reckoned with in business and politics, always decisive and used to getting his way; then back home, carefully placating his mother and doing whatever she said... Especially when it came to their son's "love life," one of the "top priorities" in his mother's eyes, his father's opinion could basically be ignored.

"This is advanced-stage henpeckery. There's no cure!" Yun Lan pronounced, his tone firm and final, even tinged with a little sympathy for his father's "spinelessness"—and sorrow for his own predicament.

Case closed. There was no inscrutable enemy, no laughably flawed defense, and no unexpected betrayal. There was only a mother who thought her son's love life was moving too slowly, loved watching the drama unfold, and held absolute authority in the family. She had casually—or deliberately—given the three girls eager to come knocking the location he'd so carefully kept secret as a "surprise gift."

"Sigh, nothing I can do now. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it." Yun Lan sighed and messaged Fufu: "Fufu, sorry for the trouble, but please add the contact information for the Twelve Black Beasts and the Five Fingers organization to this phone."

"Your will is my command, young master." Fufu remotely added the contact information to Yun Lan's phone.

"Those three little ones came all the way to Japan. I wonder if they'll run into any danger. Looks like it's time to issue my first 'order' as young master."

Thinking this, Yun Lan tapped one of the newly added contacts and typed into the chat: "Order: ensure Yi Jiang, Yi Xuan, and Ye Shunguang's safety. Confirm their arrival in Japan and continue protecting them. Also, send three female ascetics to Japan."

After sending the message, Yun Lan turned off his phone screen and walked out of the washroom with his lunchbox.

Meanwhile, at the Yun Family villa, Yun Shen received a notification in his study that his son had issued an order. Looking at his wife, Xia Yue, he said, "You see? Our son still cares about those three. He even mobilized the Index Finger to protect them."

"Hmph, now that's more like it! If you don't give him a push, he'll just turn into a block of wood like you." Xia Yue rolled her eyes at her husband.

"Still, once our son has dealt with these girls, let's keep spreading the word. That princess from the Yi Family both loves and hates our son, after all. He used her as a shield, so he should make it up to her himself. And send over Xiao Yue, the one who loves red bean buns, too."

Yun Shen watched his wife looking like she couldn't wait to see the drama unfold 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 spread across the world and answer to the Yun Family, but the family rarely uses them. Most of the time, it lets the Five Fingers develop freely as gangs.

Of the Five Fingers, the Index Finger is the gang most obedient to the Yun Family's orders. Its members are extremely rational, serving as tools of "orders" with no personal sense of value. Most Index Finger members were adopted from orphanages run by the Yun Family. They had no purpose in life, so the Yun Family had them join the Index Finger to find one.)

When they weren't following an order, most Index Finger members did volunteer or charity work in society. Perhaps, to them, that was another way of carrying out orders.