That conversation was indeed one of the priorities the Si clan currently had.

Si Shi Wu had waited in the main living room, immediately getting up to greet his master and Si Yi once they walked in through the door.

Si Jin turned to look at him, clearly wanting to get right to the task he had given him: practicing decorating dishes.

Si Shi Wu was able to guess what his master wanted but he still motioned into the room first. “We need to have a talk.”

Si Yi raised his brows but followed inside, and Si Jin also went to sit down even though he really would’ve liked to get started on making up for his lacking skills immediately. But anyway, if Si Shi Wu behaved like this, there had to be something important up. So he would patiently listen.

Si Shi Er had managed to smuggle his boyfriend into the house under the watchful eyes of his master and Si Yi but he didn’t walk into the room with them. Instead, he took Fu Jia’s hand and pulled him along to his own room.

This was a victory for him that he wouldn’t have thought he’d gain anytime soon. Thus, it was best not to tempt fate and have Si Yi realize that his boyfriend was actually here. At the very least not until Fu Jia hadn’t already seen everything and there wouldn’t be a reason anymore to throw him out.

Yes, he would shamelessly use the opportunity that had presented itself to make sure that his boyfriend would gain a better position among the partners of the ninjas of the clan. He felt that Fu Jia deserved it.

Back in the main room, Si Shi Wu recounted what had happened to his master and Si Yi. “So, to summarize, we need to do something about Si Er. Young master Xiao really isn’t happy. Neither are Qian Huang and Li Shui for that matter. If we don’t do something soon, or something like this happens again, I’m afraid that your chances will drop drastically if they haven’t already.”

Si Yi’s expression was stormy. He had been unhappy when Si Qi went to talk to Xiao Ming without orders and had told him something that had made him cautious regarding their master. But at the very least, Si Qi had managed to tell him something that might have intrigued Xiao Ming. He had also gained some valuable information for them, making sure that they wouldn’t carelessly let Si Shi Wu get too close.

On the other hand, what had Si Er achieved? Clearly, he had done nothing but causing mischief. Now, they were the ones who had to do damage control and it seemed that it would be incredibly difficult.

Si Yi rubbed the bridge of his nose, not sure what to do about this. “Well, we need to have a talk with Si Er as soon as he gets back. Did you see him already?”

Si Shi Wu shook his head. “Not at all. I haven’t heard from him either. I guess he also wouldn’t take this from me.”

Si Yi nodded, not surprised at that. Si Er was ranked high in the Si clan and that was something he prided himself in. He wouldn’t take advice or orders from anyone who was ranked below. So really, only he or his master would be able to do this. And even if it was them, it wasn’t like they didn’t know that Si Er was a sneaky guy who might just ignore whatever they said.

He turned to his master, hoping that he would have some kind of suggestion.

Si Jin thought for a moment and then took out his phone, writing a message before he put it back into his pocket. He didn’t say anything but his blank expression seemed a little forbidding even though there probably wasn’t any difference to how he usually looked.

Si Yi turned back to Si Shi Wu, giving a hum. “We will take care of this as soon as he gets back. As for you, good work. Try to keep communication open with Bright Yellow Water. You aren’t one of the contestants so that won’t be dangerous for them. And it would be good if we had somebody who was able to find out what’s going on that side.”

Si Shi Wu nodded but his brows had furrowed a little. “Well, from what Qian Huang told me that cooking session with young master Xiao and Miss Yu is still on. So I will see them then. After that though, I’m not quite sure if they will want to see me again. I think this matter scared them quite a bit.”

“That is understandable. Just try to reassure them as much as you can that there won’t be any harm to them. This is probably the biggest crisis we’ve had so far. I really can’t believe Si Er did this!” He shook his head but, to be honest, he also wasn’t that surprised. Si Er often did things that he really shouldn’t be doing. So this didn’t come as that much of a surprise. He just wouldn’t have thought that he would go this far.

As for Si Er himself, seeing the message his master sent him, he couldn’t help but be worried. It wasn’t like you could see his mood through his messages seeing as all of them were as short as possible but when the message said ‘home’ after you had done a bunch of things to help him out throughout the day, then that seemed a little ominous.

After all, if his master wanted to know something, he could ask for that information. So why did he need him home? He really didn’t like thinking about that. Unfortunately, this was his master so he couldn’t ignore it either.

He picked up his things while grumbling a little, slung his bag over his shoulder, and then trotted back to the temporary headquarters of the clan.

Since he had only been in a park not too far away, he only needed a few minutes. He had used that time to check just who was at home right now and actually found out that there weren’t that many, and the ones he should be worried about were probably his master, Si Yi, and Si Shi Wu sitting together.

It was also odd that Si Shi Er had one of his assorted people with him in the house but that was something that didn’t worry him. No, instead, that could be used to distract from himself in case there was something bad going on. And he had a feeling that this was the case.

That feeling got even stronger when he walked into the main room and all eyes turned to him, two pairs of them looking vaguely annoyed. Or should he say downright angry?

Si Er gave a faint smile, pretending that everything was alright. “Si Yi, Si Shi Wu, what a surprise! I thought master only wanted to see me.” He walked over and sat down next to Si Shi Wu, feeling that this was the easiest person to deal with in this room. Turning to him, Si Er smiled even more brightly, hoping to earn some goodwill. “How were things for you today? Didn’t you want to go and visit a friend?”

Si Shi Wu stared back, disgusted that Si Er would actually put on this kind of display. Anyway, he should know what he had done wrong, shouldn’t he? “It was very good until I got a phone call from somebody who was complaining about you. Guess who that was?”

Si Er’s gaze darted around. “Si San because he was angry I told you where he was?”

“No, it —”

“Ah, I know!” Si Er hurriedly interrupted him, afraid of what he would say if he let him talk any further. “Then it has to be Si Shi Er. Did you know that he actually brought an affiliated person into our temporary headquarters?” He turned to glance at Si Yi while he said so, hoping that he would be able to distract the three from himself.

Naturally, that didn’t work out. Si Yi might not be happy about Si Shi Er’s boyfriend being in their headquarters — even if it was only the temporary ones — but their master hadn’t said anything about it so he would let that slide. What Si Er had done though … He shouldn’t expect any leniency. “The person that called Si Shi Wu was Qian Huang from Bright Yellow Water. Now, do you need me to tell you what the problem was?”

Si Er froze and then shook his head. “No! I can imagine. Seriously, it’s all because that guy just can’t take a joke.”

Si Shi Wu furrowed his brows. “I believe it’s only a joke if everybody laughs afterward. In this case though, nobody was laughing, and instead, you scared young master Xiao. They ask that you refrain from stalking them in the future.”

Si Er turned to look at him, feeling that Si Shi Wu would be easier to deal with than Si Yi or their master. “How is that stalking? I didn’t do anything!”

“You mean apart from listening in on young master Xiao’s private conversations, sending him videos he didn’t want to have, and giving him a video call that he probably wouldn’t have accepted normally but that he was forced to endure because you circumvented him actually having to accept the call?

“If that isn’t stalking under your definition, then yes, I guess you didn’t. But for any other normal person, they would feel quite uncomfortable with that. In the future, this kind of thing better shouldn’t happen again or we will have a problem.”

Si Er pursed his lips, clearly not wanting to listen to what Si Shi Wu was saying.

Si Yi furrowed his brows, not wanting to deal with his nonsense. He had already been in a bad mood in general and now, this guy was seriously trying to piss him off even more. “You will refrain from doing these things in the future just like Si Shi Wu said. I don’t care what you do in regard to the ninjas of our clan and even their regular partners but you will refrain from bothering young master Xiao and his two friends. Do you understand?”

Si Er was still pursing his lips but he at least gave a faint nod. “Fine. But then don’t complain to me if you don’t know about something that is happening in his life!”

“Don’t worry about that. We will have our own ways of finding out about that.” Anyway, after their master got together with young master Xiao, why would they need to worry? Until then, there was Si Shi Wu who could keep in contact with them and since they would see each other at least once a week in ‘Golden Spoon’, they would have a general idea of what was going on in his life. As for the details, they shouldn’t even bother about that.

Si Yi and Si Shi Wu both believed that things were over with that but at that moment, Si Jin reached out with his palm pointing up.

The other three ninjas turned to look at him, wondering what he was thinking about now.

“Phone.” He stared at Si Er while he said so, clearly waiting for him to react.

Si Er froze, not sure what to do about this. “My phone? But why?”

Si Jin just stretched out his hand further and finally, Si Er gingerly took out his phone and put it on top.

The hand was pulled back and the phone slipped into a pocket that wasn’t Si Er’s. Then, Si Jin extended both hands. “Notebook.”

Si Yi faintly raised his brows and turned to look at Si Er who was looking as if he was going to cry the next moment. Having Si Er part with his technical devices was probably the worst you could do to him. But in this case, his master was clearly angry. So really, Si Er probably shouldn’t believe that he would get this back anytime soon.

Si Er seemed to want to argue but seeing his master’s unforgiving, bland gaze, he finally opened his bag and gave him the notebook as well even though his heart was bleeding while he did so. “When will I get them back?”

“At the end of the show.” Saying so, Si Jin tugged the notebook under his arm, got up, and walked to his own room, going to store the things away. He even did so the old-fashioned way, feeling that if he used anything with a code or any digital parts, Si Er would have them out much sooner than he wanted. With this, there was at least a faint possibility that he wouldn’t be able to get to it too fast.

Although, if he did catch him taking his things back before they were given back, he would make sure that the next punishment would be even harsher. In fact, he already had an idea.