"What are you thinking about?"

Two maids were serving dishes, and the little girl sitting to Fan Xian's right pouted as she asked. The little girl had dark skin and was rather thin, so sitting next to the pretty, almost girl-like Fan Xian, she looked particularly pitiful.

Fan Xian reached out and ruffled the little girl's yellowish hair, giggling, "I was wondering what you usually eat in Kyoto."

This little girl, even younger than Fan Xian, was the Sī Nán Earl's biological daughter, his half-sister, named Ruo Ruo.

Because she had been frail and sickly since childhood, and the old madam doted on this granddaughter, she was brought to Danzhou to recuperate a year ago. However, after nearly a year of recuperation, there was no improvement. Her hair was still sparse. Being from an official family, she naturally wouldn't be lacking in food, so it couldn't be malnutrition. It was probably congenital weakness.

Fan Xian got along very well with this little girl. Although he treated her with the mentality of an older uncle, he felt sorry for her, so he often took her to play and told her stories. In the eyes of others, however, this became evidence of their deep sibling affection.

However, Fan Xian's identity was somewhat awkward. An illegitimate child couldn't compare to a legitimate young lady, so the maids deliberately avoided mentioning matters of the Earl's residence in Kyoto.

Hearing her brother's question, the little girl began to count on her fingers seriously, trying to remember what they usually ate in Kyoto, but after counting for a while, the three-year-old girl couldn't remember much, and kept repeating "sugar-coated haws" and "dough figurines."

After dinner, it was already quite late. Half of the sun had sunk beyond the horizon, and thick twilight enveloped the entire courtyard.

"Ruo Ruo, you really are a weakling (弱弱 - a play on her name)."

"Brother teasing me."

"Alright, what do you want to hear today?"

"Snow White."

Fan Xian suddenly laughed. Fortunately, there was no one else nearby, or they would have been frightened to see such an odd, adult-like smile on the face of a four-year-old boy.

"How about brother tells you a ghost story?"

"No!" Fan Ruo Ruo was startled and shook her head desperately. Two lines of clear tears immediately streamed down her dark little face. Clearly, she had suffered quite a bit from ghost stories in the past year.

……

……

Teasing the little girl was just one of Fan Xian's amusements. He was most skilled at teasing the maids, often telling them ghost stories, which would scare the lively young girls into screaming and huddling together on the bed.

Although Fan Xian, in order to disguise himself, couldn't flirt with them verbally, he could always enjoy the fragrant and soft embraces at such times.

He consoled himself that he was still a child and still at the stage where he needed physical contact. These weren't shameless acts, but just normal needs.

And whenever the maids were curious about how the young master could know so many scary stories at such a young age, Fan Xian would shift the blame to the tutor.

So the maids now looked at the tutor with some displeasure, thinking that the Earl had spent a lot of money to hire him to teach the young master, but he was actually telling him ghost stories, scaring not only the child but also them, the innocent young ladies. He was simply committing a great sin!

Following the usual routine of ghost story night, the two maids, looking both frightened and somewhat satisfied, helped the little fellow wash up and then closed the door to let him sleep.

It seemed like another ordinary night.

Fan Xian pushed the hard porcelain pillow from under his head to the side, then took out a winter robe from the wardrobe, folded it neatly into a square, and used it as a pillow.

He leaned on the pillow, his eyes wide open, shining in the darkness, unable to fall asleep for a long time.

Although he had accepted the fact that he had been reincarnated into this world, he couldn't necessarily get used to it. It was only a little after nine o'clock, and he was supposed to be asleep. It was really uncomfortable.

Moreover, he had already slept long enough in his previous life in the hospital bed.

He touched the surface of the bed and felt relieved that the secret compartment he had made shouldn't be noticed. Naturally, the true energy within his body began to flow slowly, and he was likely to enter a meditative state at any moment.

In the instant before drifting into a state of emptiness, Fan Xian wondered, how should he live in this world? How should he spend the next few decades?

Before he could enter a vegetative state and fantasize about having three wives and four concubines in the future, he was rudely awakened by an uninvited guest.

……

……

"Are you Fan Xian?"

Suddenly, a person appeared in front of his bed, their eyes filled with coldness, their pupils tinged with an unusual shade of brown, clearly someone who didn't cherish life.

A very polite question, but if it came from someone who had sneaked into your bedroom in the middle of the night, wearing a mask, holding a knife, and carrying a few small bags at their waist, it would undoubtedly be very frightening.

Fortunately, Fan Xian wasn't a real four-year-old boy, or he would have screamed at the sight of this strange uncle.

Anyone could guess that a night prowler who could quietly enter the Earl's residence must be a highly skilled and ruthless individual. If he screamed, the other party would definitely kill him.

Thinking of this, Fan Xian couldn't help but feel proud of his ability to remain calm in the face of danger. He coughed twice, suppressed the immense tension in his heart, and put on his most adorable, well-behaved image before pouncing forward!

……

……

"Daddy, you're finally back!"

A four-year-old boy, with tears in his eyes, lunged into the arms of the assassin, tightly hugging his waist. However, the child's arms were too short, so he couldn't wrap them around, and he had to grab the other person's clothes tightly, as if afraid the other person would run away.

Perhaps he grabbed too hard, because with a ripping sound, the boy tore off a piece of fabric from the other person's clothing.

The night prowler frowned. Without any visible movement, he disentangled himself from Fan Xian's embrace and stood there dumbfounded, as if wondering why this illegitimate son of the Sī Nán Earl was calling him "Daddy."

At the same time, he was also puzzled. His clothes were a special grade of product from the courtyard. Even a knife wouldn't easily tear them, so how could this child tear them with his hands?

He was puzzled, and Fan Xian was even more dumbfounded to the point of vomiting blood internally – when no one was around, Fan Xian often used the rocks on the artificial hill to test the power of the nameless true energy within his body. When he discovered that his tender, thin fingers could barely crush the not-very-hard pine stones, he had gained some confidence in his ability to defend himself.

Fan Xian had painstakingly used the "crying four-year-old boy" trick to lower the other party's guard, and then channeled all the true energy in his body into his fingers, fully expecting to subdue the other party. Who knew he would only tear off a few scraps of fabric?

It seemed that something was about to happen.