Wu Long returned to the inn as a rather strange atmosphere was permeating the space.

He could see that Cao Xiang was distressed and Cao Mei could not be seen in the courtyard with the others, though he could tell she was in her room with his spiritual sense. The others except for Gong Cui had somewhat awkward expressions while Ye Ling wryly smiled at Wu Long.

He smiled as well as he approached the group of beauties.

“How did your meeting with the Empress go?”

Wu Mengqi asked him somewhat anxiously.

“The… the Empress?”

Gong Liwei gasped in a low tone as her little sister’s eyes widened while she held both her hands to her mouth in astonishment.

“Overall it went as expected, the matter with the Wu Family did not even come up and as for this guy…”

Wu Long looked toward Nie Changsheng who was hauled away by Old Yen to the room he was held in the previous night.

“… as you can see he is within my purview now so there are no problems with the Imperial Family in that regard now”

He smiled and Wu Mengqi sighed with relief.

“Hehe, no wonder you said that you were different, you were quite busy while you were away from me”

She then grinned with a mischievous light in her eyes.

“Heh, cannot refute”

He smiled as he understood what she meant by ‘busy’ since she must have heard a few stories from Ye Ling and the others by now.

“Well, to be fair I have been busy last night as well”

He then chuckled as Cao Xiang turned red.

“Hahaha, yeah everyone knows by now”

Wu Mengqi laughed while shaking her head.

“Hm? You were so open about it?”

Wu Long smiled at the ‘Red Pirate Queen’.

“N… no, I…”

She mumbled as her eyes were struggling to find a spot she would be comfortable looking at since there were so many eyes she could not look into around her.

“There was a big fight with that Cao Mei girl and everyone in the inn heard it. She shouted ‘How could you?!’ and other things”

Gong Cui fired off the words as if a dam broke that held in the words that had long since been swirling in her mind.

“Cui’er!”

“What? Sister, he would have known anyway”

“That’s not the problem… ah, whatever”

Gong Liwei facepalmed at her little sister since it was already late and she already said the words while Ye Ling and Wu Mengqi chuckled at the two sisters. Cao Xiang was now staring at the floor, the only place she found a little more comforting but she was still red to her ears.

“I see, is Lan’er looking after her?”

“Yes, Miss Wei Lan spent the whole morning by her door but Mei’er refuses to talk to anyone. I am sorry to bring so much troub-…”

Cao Xiang spoke with a guilty voice but Wu Long put his arm around her waist and pulled her in.

“You don’t have to be sorry and it is not a lot of trouble, just a little squabble”

He chuckled and she meekly nodded still looking down at the floor.

“Hew~ hew~ a man with a big heart”

Wu Mengqi said from the side with a teasing voice while Wu Long chuckled.

“My heart’s not so wide so I’m jelly, y’know?”

“Haha, says the one who’s not fazed even a little by how many women are around me”

“That’s one thing, this is another”

She said while puffing her cheeks and looking away in a sign of protest as she folded her arms in front of her ample chest.

“I told you that you need to get to get used to me as I am now before you can-…”

“Ah! I can’t hear those excuses since I am suddenly assaulted by the ‘I need to get hugged by Wu Long’ disease”

Wu Mengqi plugged her ears and proclaimed as the other beauties started laughing one by one.

Wu Long shook his head with a chuckle and gave her a hug as she snuggled into his embrace with a blissful smile.

“Are you ready to hear out the re-…”

“No, now that I got the cure I need some time to rest and recuperate, bye!”

When she was satisfied with the skinship Wu Long started the talk about her needing time to get to know him again and she quickly retreated into the distance.

“I can still see you”

Wu Long chuckled as she was gesturing to Hua Ziyan and Luo Mingyu to join her behind him as she was peeking out of the corner her figure disappeared to a moment ago. The two she was gesturing to laughed and headed to the corner that once more hid Wu Mengqi from view.

“Min’er, you will not join them?”

“No, I… I wanted to finish talking with Sister Liwei and Cui’er…”

The ‘timid and meek’ Shen Min answered and he nodded with a smile as he went toward Cao Mei’s room accompanied by Cao Xiang and Ye Ling.

As they came toward the door they could see Wei Lan who stood not far from it, waiting for the beauty inside to calm down enough for a talk.

“Wu Long…”

“Thank you, Lan’er”

“I didn’t do much”

Wu Long embraced Wei Lan and she slightly blushed but quickly cleared her throat and looked at him with a serious expression.

“Wu Long, I will…”

“I am going to need you to talk with her after”

He leaned in and whispered to her ear. Her eyes widened and then she nodded with determination in her eyes. He smiled at her and turned to the door.

“Cao Mei”

He simply called in a calm voice and after a moment of silence, the door slowly opened as the short-haired beauty appeared while looking down at the floor.

“I am sorry, I didn’t mean to bring so much trouble to everyone, I was just…”

Her words trailed off as she said these words while Wu Long turned to Ye Ling with a smile.

“You are thinking that I am mean, aren’t you?”

“Hahah, a little bit, but that is just the right amount for this girl”

Ye Ling answered while smiling at him. Cao Xiang widened her eyes slightly as she understood that she was speaking about her daughter.

“You… you knew?”

She then asked while slightly shaken by the revelation that Wu Long knew about the feelings of her daughter. Cao Mei’s eyes widened as she also looked at Wu Long.

Cao Xiang did not see Cao Mei interact with Wu Long since they met because the latter was riddled with guilt and unreconciled about her mother’s actions, thus not appearing around him. So she had no way of knowing about her daughter’s feelings and had only learned about them this morning.

It also made her guilty toward her daughter, as she realized that she was so lost in her own guilt and feeling of failure that she neglected to notice the obvious look in Cao Mei’s eyes.

She could understand why she reacted so strongly since for her daughter the whole situation has been spiraling down since the beginning. She fell for a guy, and then her mother participated in a plot to kill him and his lovers, thus severing her courage to confess her feelings, and while she was trying to come to terms with that the same mother started a relationship with him.

“What exactly do you want to achieve by doing something so cruel?”

Cao Xiang’s demeanor changed from a meek and submissive sheep to a lioness ready to defend her daughter. There was a sharp light in her eyes as she looked at Wu Long. Cao Mei’s eyes widened when she saw that.

“Did you not want to be comforted?”

Wu Long asked with a calm smile, not surprised at the change in the Pirate Queen.

“I did, but that does not mean that I will sacrifice my daughter’s happiness to do so”

Cao Xiang looked at Wu Long with a stern expression on her face while her daughter saw something different in her mother’s eyes as she looked at her properly for the first time since the island. She noticed a feeling of pain in her eyes, and the look of happiness that was in them just this morning went by in her head like a flash of realization.