"He was also Shuanghua's..." Yun Tianluo paused here, tapping the ribs of his folding fan twice without immediately continuing. He raised his eyes toward Yun Qing, who sat upright.
Yun Qing had been holding his teacup. At those words, he slowly set the porcelain cup on the wooden table, its faint clink rippling through the hall.
His double pupils focused slightly. "Shuanghua's father?"
"Yes." Yun Tianluo nodded.
The hall fell silent. Yun Qing leaned back against his chair, lightly tapping the tabletop with his fingertips.
The Second Elder... his little brother, those old events... he never mentioned them together...
He suddenly recalled a memorial tablet deep within the Yun Clan's Ancestral Shrine. Its incense offerings had never ceased, yet he rarely heard anyone mention it. He had happened to see it once on his first visit to the Ancestral Shrine and had even asked the Second Elder about it. The Second Elder had merely said, "An old friend," then turned and left without another word.
Thinking back now, the Second Elder's hand inside his sleeve had been clenching slightly as he turned away that day.
That tablet stood beside the ancestral tablets of the Second Elder Yun Yuan's branch.
Yun Tianluo held his closed folding fan, his voice low and measured.
"Later, during the battle against the demonic tide at the Northern Border, the Second Elder's youngest brother, Yun Hong, and his wife, Senior Minghui, both perished. They only had time to hastily seal away their infant son. The seal eventually eroded with the passing years, and the infant ended up wandering the wilderness. Only after many hardships and ordeals did the Second Elder find him and bring him back to raise."
Sitting across from him, Yun Guihe's lips trembled uncontrollably. He wanted to ask more, but found that his