Just as she was thinking about all this, a thick vine suddenly rose outside the window, wrapped itself around her waist, and gently carried her down toward the lower floor.
"Cornus, what's wrong?" Chu Lian was not afraid. She knew this was one of the Flower Youkai's vines. Normally, it clung to the wall like ivy, but whenever Cornus wanted to move, it would grow to roughly this size.
This was hardly the first time Cornus had suddenly appeared like this and scared someone. Almost every girl had been startled by her before, and Chu Lian had long since gotten used to it.
Still, Cornus' personality really gave her something to complain about. She was clearly such a gentle, mature woman, so why did she have this awful habit of scaring young girls?
"Nothing. I just missed Master a little." The vine carried her to an enormous flower. Its petals opened, revealing a tall woman in a green robe. Her pink eyes were as gorgeous as flower petals, and a gentle smile adorned her beautiful, mature face. She opened her arms and pulled the girl into her embrace, letting Chu Lian rest against her generous bosom.
"If you missed me, I could've jumped down myself. Doing it this way is pretty scary." Even though Chu Lian knew Cornus would never stop this awful habit no matter how many times she complained, she still could not resist lecturing her.
"Yes, yes. Master is absolutely right. Cornus will definitely behave next time." Unfortunately, the beautiful older woman said the same thing every single time, only to completely forget about it the next time around. Chu Lian could not tell whether Cornus did it deliberately or if frightening people had genuinely become a hobby.
"You..." Shaking her head, Chu Lian stopped dwelling on the subject. She braced both hands against Cornus' slender collarbones and said, "Put me down. I can't talk properly like this." Cornus' breasts were simply too large. Chu Lian was lucky enough just being able to breathe while pressed against them, let alone speak properly.
"All right..." Reluctantly releasing Chu Lian's soft body, Cornus slowly sat down so that their eyes were level.
For a Flower Youkai whose true height was nearly one meter ninety, it would have been difficult to look directly at the one-meter-forty Chu Lian without sitting down.
"Mm, go ahead. What's the matter?" Chu Lian knew that although Cornus occasionally enjoyed scaring people, she took her actual duties very seriously. Since she had specifically pulled Chu Lian down here, she must have discovered something unusual.
"The seeds I buried underground recently sensed a strange place five hundred meters beneath the outskirts of the city. Of course, the strangest part is that people are currently active there. They seem to be building some sort of base. But I couldn't investigate the exact situation because once the seeds moved any closer, I stopped receiving information from them."
Cornus extended one long finger and pointed outside the city as she spoke seriously.
"Outside the city? Then it probably isn't something we need to worry about. I'll tell my deadbeat dad later and let him deal with it himself. There's no need for us to get tangled up with them." Something like this most likely involved some organization or another, and matters of that sort generally were not Chu Lian's concern.
"Deadbeat dad?" The Flower Youkai and the others had not yet appeared the last time Chu Xiao returned. He had not been back recently either, and Chu Lian's family had never brought him up, so Cornus did not really know whom Chu Lian meant.
"Oh, I mean my dad. But he's a heartless bastard who abandoned his wife and daughters, caring only about fame and fortune while neglecting his family. Now our entire house is full of women, and we spend every day being bullied. Don't you think our lives are miserable? So doesn't that make him a deadbeat?"
Chu Lian put her acting skills to full use at that moment. Tears streamed down her face as she transformed into the image of a daughter accusing an irresponsible father of the harm he had caused his family.
Cornus tilted her head and watched Chu Lian's performance, not quite understanding what she was trying to express. She could see that Master was crying, but Master did not seem sad at all. If anything, she seemed rather happy.
Since her sole audience clearly did not understand her performance at all, Chu Lian eventually stopped crying. She wiped away her tears and immediately returned to normal. "Anyway, what I mean is, keep an eye on them and don't let them get close to our house. You don't need to worry about anything else. I'll talk to my deadbeat dad."
"Oh. We don't need to worry about that matter, but there's something else I'm not sure whether you want to deal with." As Cornus spoke, she pointed at the ground. A green magic array appeared, emitting a faint glow.
Soon afterward, a thin vine broke through the soil, and an enormous leaf bloomed from it. Something seemed to be written across its surface.
"This..." Cornus reached out, plucked the leaf, examined it briefly, then handed it to Chu Lian.
"What's this?" The patterns on it were rather complicated, and Chu Lian could not immediately tell what they represented, leaving her somewhat confused.
"It's a diagram of what's beneath our house. Three hundred meters underground, several tunnels are being constructed. It looks like they either want to hollow out the ground beneath our home or build something there. Their objective is unknown." Seeing the confusion on Chu Lian's face, Cornus took the leaf back herself, leaned closer, and explained while pointing at different parts of it.
"The veins in the leaf represent the layout of the underground tunnels?" Chu Lian was no fool. With Cornus explaining it this clearly, she could begin to make sense of the diagram.
Cornus fell silent for a while, apparently thinking over what Chu Lian meant. Only after quite some time did she answer, "These patterns in the leaf veins are what the vines discovered while exploring. Complicated, aren't they?"
Complicated did not even begin to describe it. They were extraordinarily complicated. If Cornus had not shown her this, Chu Lian never would have imagined that the ground beneath her home had already been excavated into something resembling an ant nest. Just thinking about it was terrifying.
"Now this isn't something that only concerns them anymore..." Chu Lian gently shook one finger, her mood turning solemn. The other party definitely had not begun digging only recently. They might have been working on this for a very, very long time, and Chu Lian had only discovered it now.
What about the people at home, then? Mom and Dad, with their strength, should have found it impossible not to notice something like this. So what reason had made them choose not to act?
She would need to ask Li Mingxue and Chu Xiao about all of this. Only they could give her an answer.
Now more than ever, Chu Lian felt that the reason their family home had been built in this particular place definitely went beyond Li Mingxue and the others merely wanting to live incognito. There was quite possibly some secret here that could not be revealed to the world.
"Keep a close watch on them. Once I've recovered and finished dealing with everything else, I'll handle this matter. Since they've been preparing for so long, there's no way they'll suddenly make their move within just a few months. We still have plenty of time..." Chu Lian forced herself to calm down. After thinking for a while, she decided to set the matter aside for now.
She could deal with it when she got the chance, or simply leave it entirely to Li Mingxue and the others. She believed that if her parents had not dealt with it immediately, they must have their own reasons. If she interfered, she might only end up making things worse.
"Mm. There's one last thing. I've noticed that some strange outsiders have recently moved into the empty houses around us. Afterward, I started sensing many probing gazes directed at our home, as though they're searching for something..." Cornus could investigate underground, but naturally, she could monitor the surrounding area as well.
In fact, this was precisely why Chu Lian had summoned Cornus instead of one of the many other Flower Youkai. Cornus' combat strength might be relatively weak, but her reconnaissance abilities were unquestionably among the best of her entire race.
Compared to raw combat power, intelligence was far more important to Chu Lian. She did not want to be ambushed again without realizing anything was wrong.
"We've already noticed that. Until they reveal their objective and take action first, we'll leave them alone for now." These people were probably just pawns placed on the surface to distract attention from the people underground. Investigating them would be pointless because they could be discarded at any moment. It would only waste her effort.
"I see..." Cornus was only responsible for reporting what she discovered. How to handle it was Chu Lian's decision. Since Chu Lian had already said that much, Cornus did not pursue the matter further. Instead, she asked a question that left Chu Lian at a complete loss for words.
"All right, then. I only need to watch what they do... Oh, right. What is it called when naked men lie on top of other men and thrust back and forth? Why do I keep seeing them do that?"
This topic was rather difficult to deal with. Damn it, why did she have to see such filthy scenes? Couldn't those people go die somewhere farther away instead of corrupting one of her people?
But Chu Lian could not simply refuse to answer. After all, this was a Flower Youkai asking her master a question. Answering properly would also help establish her authority as Master... probably?
"Um... well... that..." Chu Lian hesitated for a very long time without managing to explain it. It was simply too... that.
"Master doesn't know either?" Cornus shook her head with slight disappointment. She was actually rather curious about the matter. Those men always looked as though they were enjoying themselves. If she did the same thing with Master, then surely she would feel good too, right?
"Ahem, I do know..." Seeing Cornus react like this, Chu Lian could no longer keep hesitating. Otherwise, her "affection level" might start dropping.
"That's mating. Mm, mating... But mating usually happens between opposite sexes and only rarely between members of the same sex. Those people... um, you can just ignore them. Men with men and all that isn't particularly beautiful... Then there are women with women. That's also called yuri. It's something very beautiful, and it feels good too... Anyway... more or less... that's how it is..."
The more Chu Lian talked, the less she knew what she was even saying. Her face grew redder and redder until her words became almost incoherent, and in the end, she simply muddled her way through the explanation.
Yet despite the way Chu Lian answered, Cornus listened with great interest, occasionally nodding along. "So that's how it works?"
Eventually, she directly asked, "Then are there any requirements for mating?" She was curious, extremely curious, unbelievably curious!
"Only when you really, really like someone and are willing to depend on them for the rest of your life can you mate with them! Once you've mated, that means you can declare that they're the person you love most!" Chu Lian tried her best to make the matter sound as serious as possible. She was protecting Cornus, after all.
"I see..." Cornus touched a finger to her lips, then suddenly blossomed into an extraordinarily gentle smile. "Then Master, let's mate!"