Broken Silver Thread

When she arrived at the Outer Court, she ran into Steward Qin.

Steward Qin greeted her with a cheerful smile, "Miss Grace, you just got here—why are you leaving already?"

"Steward Qin, the person in Evan Xiao's room—who is that?"

"Uh..." Steward Qin's eyes darted nervously. "It's... a relative of the General."

"What kind of relative?"

"Well... I think it's a cousin. I've never seen her before, though. Honestly, I don't really know!" Steward Qin replied.

Grace paused for a moment, then asked, "Where's Louis Lin? Why haven't I seen him around?"

"Louis Lin isn't here," Steward Qin said. "He left yesterday and hasn't come back since. No idea where he ran off to—didn't say a word..."

Grace's eyes flickered, but she said nothing and walked out.

When she returned to Loyalty Manor, she saw Samuel Summers.

Ever since Minister Zhuo recovered, Samuel Summers had been coming to the manor every day.

When Grace got back, he was trailing after Maya Summers, saying, "Since I arrived in Yan City, I haven't gone out at all. I want to travel a bit—how about we go together?"

"Where would we go?"

"Just out and about!" Samuel said. "Let's check out the beautiful scenery of the Vermilion Kingdom and broaden our horizons."

"Not going," Maya Summers replied.

"Why not?"

"My big brother is hurt," Maya said. "I need to stay home and take care of him."

"I just went to see Uncle, and he said Grace's spirit medicine worked wonders—he's fine now."

"I'm not going, period!" Maya insisted.

Samuel's expression dimmed.

"Auntie, Samuel," Grace called out as she walked over.

"Grace!" Maya Summers asked her with concern, "What on earth happened?"

Grace shook her head and simply said, "I want to travel too! How about the three of us go together?"

Samuel's eyes lit up instantly. "You want to travel too?"

"Yep," Grace nodded.

"Then let's all go together!" Samuel looked at Maya Summers hopefully.

But Maya pulled Grace aside and whispered, "What's going on with General Evan Xiao? Did he really hurt Dad? Is he truly married now?"

"Auntie, come travel with me!" Grace turned and hugged her, sounding very sad.

But she shot Samuel a look.

Samuel grinned widely.

"Alright, alright!" Maya Summers patted her on the back. "I'll go travel with you!"

"Samuel should come too. Having a guy along will save us a lot of trouble."

"Sure, whatever you want!" Maya agreed to everything, worried Grace might do something rash.

So Grace let go of her and said to them, "Tomorrow morning I'll go to the Spirit Alliance to make arrangements, and then I'll call up three flying beasts from the Falcon Squad. We'll fly wherever we want—how's that sound?"

"Awesome! That's perfect!" Samuel grinned at Maya. "Maya, what do you think?"

Maya glanced at Samuel and nodded.

Samuel broke into a happy grin.

Grace went to see Minister Zhuo and spoke with him for a while.

Then she returned to Serenity Pavilion and pulled Ray out from her Sanctum.

"Ray," Grace called, "your teeth are just as sharp as Cutie Pie's. Want to try biting through this?"

She loosened her collar, revealing the silver thread holding her Dragon Scale.

Ray took a look, hopped onto her shoulder, and bit down with his teeth.

The silver thread Grace had worn around her neck for two years snapped in an instant.

Grace took off the Dragon Scale and put it into an envelope.

Then she wrote a letter, put it in the envelope with the pendant, sealed it, and went to find Rina Chu.

She handed the letter to Rina, asking her to deliver it to Evan Xiao.