Star Luo City, Zhu Family Manor. Whispers from a few servants drifted into Zhu Yun's ears.
"Poor young lady, she's been in that horse stance for almost a whole day, hasn't she?"
"I heard it's because she helped that illegitimate son from the White Tiger family escape? Seriously, the young lady has the worst luck to have a martial soul fusion compatibility with him."
"Exactly! The young lady is clearly so outstanding..."
Large beads of sweat dripped from her forehead. Normally, Zhu Yun would have severely reprimanded these people for gossiping about her future husband, but unfortunately, she truly had no strength left now.
Not long after returning to Star Luo City, her act of helping Huo Yuhao escape was exposed.
The result was naturally punishment and being interrogated about where Huo Yuhao had gone.
Fortunately, thanks to her mother's strong protection, she didn't suffer any real abuse, and the Duke's attitude was that as long as Huo Yuhao was ultimately fine and returned alive, that was enough.
As for the letter Huo Yuhao asked her to give to the Duke's mansion... she had already secretly opened and read it beforehand. As she expected, he wanted to take all the responsibility himself, so she didn't mention it at all.
Since they were husband and wife, they should share the responsibility together. What kind of wife pushes all the responsibility onto her husband?
Listening to the footsteps of the gossiping people gradually fade away, Zhu Yun's gaze deepened.
A bunch of fair-weather friends, they certainly weren't saying this a few years ago.
If she hadn't met Huo Yuhao back then, she might have continued to wallow in self-pity, and if anything unexpected had happened, she might have even died on that rainy day.
After a long sigh in her heart, Zhu Yun fell into a memory.
......
As everyone knows, the reason the Zhu family can maintain its current status is entirely dependent on its fusion compatibility with the White Tiger martial soul.
The Netherworld Spirit Cat martial soul is not considered powerful, but as one of the few families capable of consistently producing martial soul fusion skills, as long as the Dai family doesn't decline, the Zhu family can maintain a considerable status.
However, as a price, this has also created a very distorted way of life for the Zhu family—
Only the fusion compatibility with the Dai family's children is the most important. Among the younger generation, those with martial soul fusion compatibility with the Dai family have absolute priority in inheriting the position of family head.
Zhu Yun's mother became the head of the Zhu family precisely because she could perform a martial soul fusion with Dai Hao's elder brother.
Later, Dai Hao's elder brother lost in the competition due to talent issues, and the position of White Tiger Duke was inherited by Dai Hao. However, Dai Hao did not make things difficult for Zhu Yun's mother because of this, allowing her to remain firmly in the position of Zhu family head.
Unfortunately, since the position of family head was obtained in this way, one must also bear the risks brought by this system.
Six years ago, Zhu Lu, the daughter of someone who was very much at odds with Zhu Yun's mother, awakened her martial soul and was tested to have martial soul fusion compatibility with Dai Huabin, the second young master of the White Tiger family.
This was a major event for the Zhu family at the time, enough to shake the entire family.
Because according to the rules, if things continued this way, the next person to inherit the position of family head would be Zhu Lu, and Zhu Lu would certainly not treat the people who were currently aligned with Zhu Yun's mother well.
This filled them with immense fear.
And so, everyone's attention was focused on Zhu Yun, who was only five years old at the time.
As long as she could also be tested to have fusion compatibility with a young master of the Dai family, there would still be hope.
However, things did not go as planned. The martial soul Zhu Yun awakened was the Shadow Spirit Cat, not the normal Netherworld Spirit Cat.
This was undoubtedly an unacceptable result for many.
Because only the Netherworld Spirit Cat can fuse with the White Tiger martial soul, and there had never been an exception in ten thousand years.
Her awakening of such a mutated martial soul almost certainly determined that she could no longer make a comeback.
Even if she was a very rare case of innate full soul power, it couldn't change this fact. After all, the entire Zhu family relied on the Duke's mansion to survive, and the level of individual talent could not be used as the standard for judging a person's value.
Thus, the Zhu family was completely thrown into chaos that year.
The factions within the entire Zhu family began to be redivided, and the power in Zhu Yun's mother's hands slowly began to shift towards Zhu Lu's mother's hands.
During this period, inevitably, some excessive gossip drifted into Zhu Yun's ears.
"It's all because she's useless! If she had awakened the Netherworld Spirit Cat martial soul normally, we wouldn't be in this situation!"
"Exactly! She's ruined us!"
"What a jinx! If only the head of the family hadn't given birth to a daughter like her!"
"How does she still have the nerve to stay in this house!"
Although looking back now, these words were just the barking of incompetent people. They simply couldn't bear the immense pressure and vented by pushing all the responsibility onto a little girl who couldn't resist. There might even have been Zhu Lu's mother secretly pushing this, deliberately trying to make her despair—but for Zhu Yun, who was young and didn't understand anything at the time, this was nothing short of the end of the world.
Everyone who had treated her gently before completely changed, starting to treat her with cold eyes.
Her mother, who had always smiled, slowly had her face covered with clouds of worry, constantly sighing.
The atmosphere of the entire Zhu family also changed from peaceful to tense and hostile, making her feel like she was sitting on pins and needles.
At the time, she couldn't understand why everything would turn upside down just because she awakened a martial soul.
Even when she asked her mother this question, her mother would only force a smile and tell Zhu Yun that it was all her own fault and had nothing to do with Zhu Yun.
In the end, Zhu Yun could only, as those people said, attribute the responsibility to herself.
And so, gradually, the originally lively and smiling Zhu Yun became cold and introverted, no longer willing to go out and interact with others, only locking herself in her room and staring blankly.
Because if she locked herself in her room, she wouldn't have to face the negative emotions of the people outside, and her numb heart would feel a little better.
During that time, Zhu Yun's mother was busy appeasing her subordinates and couldn't spend much time with her, which directly led to the aggravation of this symptom.
The result was that on a rainy day several months later, Zhu Yun suddenly disappeared from home.
Because Zhu Yun often locked herself in her room all day during that period, it wasn't until the servant went to call her for dinner that everyone discovered this.
Zhu Yun's mother panicked upon hearing the news and quickly mobilized the Zhu family's forces, preparing to search the entire Star Luo City for her daughter.
Unexpectedly, before she could even take real action, Zhu Yun had already been sent back.
The one who sent her back through the heavy rain was a boy only a year older than her, but it was this boy who brought a turning point to Zhu Yun's fate.
His name was Huo Yuhao.
At the same time, he was also the third young master of the White Tiger Duke's family, and one of the individuals with whom Zhu Yun was scheduled to test for martial soul fusion compatibility in a week.