When the Cannon Fodder Male Supporting Role Picks Up the Script - Chapter 104

Yun Shaowei’s note is vague and unclear, leaving them puzzled and suspecting that he might not have driven Yun Zhuoran away purely for the sake of becoming the Lord of Yun City or because of Shen Lingshu, but rather because someone coerced him.

However, Yun Shaowei himself never says this, and no one knows his true intention.

After leaving the City Lord’s manor, Yun Zhuoran takes the heart demon to the small courtyard in the southern part of the city where they stayed the previous night. Though Yun City is no longer as prosperous as it was over twenty years ago, the two of them are so striking in appearance that countless people watch them as they walk down the street. If anyone from the City Lord’s manor wants to find out where they are, it wouldn’t be difficult.

Yun Zhuoran doesn’t try to hide. If he truly doesn’t want to be found, he has plenty of ways to vanish before anyone’s eyes—he’s doing this deliberately. He also notices that the eyes tailing them when they left the manor stop several hundred feet away once they enter the courtyard, likely out of fear of displeasing him.

Once inside, Yun Zhuoran glances around at the wildly overgrown weeds in the courtyard and, without a word, starts cleaning up himself.

The heart demon immediately realizes that Yun Zhuoran plans to live here. Though he doesn’t know why Yun Zhuoran isn’t using magic, he follows behind and picks up a small, dust-covered wooden stool that had fallen over.

Only then does Yun Zhuoran speak. “How about living here?”

The heart demon replies crisply, “Whatever you say, brother!”

Yun Zhuoran casts a spell to sweep dust from the stool, and his magic also clears the weeds in the yard and the dust and cobwebs inside the house. He tells the heart demon to sit down and rest, then walks into the main room. The heart demon follows, watching Yun Zhuoran personally tidy the tables and chairs with a tangled expression.

“Brother, Yun Shaowei’s note…”

“I’m afraid something’s happened in Yun City.” Yun Zhuoran picks up a two-foot wooden sword from the corner. A familiar feeling surges in his heart. Though the wooden sword is rough, there’s a small character “Yun” carved on the hilt. His tone grows lighter. “This wooden sword looks like the one I used as a child.”

The heart demon curiously takes the wooden sword and flourishes it with a sword flourish.

“It’s so short,” the heart demon sighs and asks again, “Shouldn’t we care?”

“It’s a child’s toy.” Yun Zhuoran finds no memory of playing with this wooden sword, but he’s certain it was his as a child. He walks to the room on the right, gently pushes open the door a crack, and says casually, “Since it’s the City Lord’s Mansion’s business, we outsiders naturally don’t need to care.”

The heart demon says, “But I’m so angry.”

Yun Zhuoran nods. “I know.”

The heart demon frowns—what exactly does he know?

They step into the small room.

Inside is a cramped space with a desk and a small couch. Bookshelves in the corner hold mostly yellowed, tattered volumes. Several rows of small wooden sculptures depict various vivid animals. On the desk sits an unfinished wooden sculpture surrounded by pens, inkstones, and paper.

Yun Zhuoran picks up the half-finished peach wood carving. It’s already taken the shape of a rabbit, with carving tools beside it.

The heart demon comes closer and smiles. “A rabbit?”

Yun Zhuoran asks, “Do you like it?”

The heart demon blinks. “Did you carve this little rabbit when you were a kid?”

“I don’t know.” Yun Zhuoran chuckles. “I don’t remember.”

Seeing how much Weiran likes it, Yun Zhuoran gives him the little rabbit to play with, then pushes aside a paperweight to pick up some old papers neatly stacked underneath. It’s rare for these papers to have been preserved for over twenty years. The words on the yellowed pages are blurred. Yun Zhuoran flips through several pages and confirms there’s little useful information.

They seem to be big characters written by a child practicing calligraphy. They’re neat but lack strength, much like the large characters Weiran usually writes.

Yun Zhuoran puts down the papers and suddenly has an idea. He looks at the small couch under the window.

Cold moonlight filters through the window lattice, adding a hazy glow that makes it hard to tell illusion from reality. For a moment, Yun Peiran’s figure seems to appear by the window.

A tall, thin boy dressed in black sits cross-legged on the small couch, holding the unfinished rabbit carving and a knife. His expression is focused, and the smile in his eyes warm. He seems to notice something and looks toward Yun Zhuoran.

Yun Zhuoran quickly snaps back to reality and glances at the heart demon playing with the rabbit carving. A gentle light appears in his usually sharp black-and-white eyes. Compared to memories, the person in front of him is more important.

They clean the courtyard and search several rooms and the kitchen. Signs of habitation are everywhere, especially in the room, but there are no signs of panic or mess.

After Yun Zhuoran casts a spell to clear the dust, the whole yard looks brand new, as if its owner has only just stepped out. The large characters written the day before, the unfinished wooden rabbit, even the clothes drying in the yard remain untouched.

In Yun Zhuoran’s memory, Yun Peiran isn’t like this. After going to Penglai, he grew increasingly greedy for money. What’s more, as the grandson of the City Lord at the time, it’s strange that he would be squeezed into this small courtyard with his younger brother. That alone suggests their living conditions were poor. Not taking his brother’s toys is one thing—but judging from the courtyard, it seems they took nothing with them. Something is clearly off. It suggests that Yun Peiran was very anxious when he left Yun City, so anxious he didn’t even have time to come home.

Aside from these scattered belongings, Yun Zhuoran finds no useful information here.

After cleaning the yard, Yun Zhuoran wants to explore the old City Lord’s Mansion again, but his heart demon yawns.

Remembering they were just there the night before, he gives up the plan. He lays out new bedding and lets his heart demon sleep while he continues to meditate as usual. Perhaps because returning to his childhood home makes him feel at ease, Yun Zhuoran sets aside many confusions and soon calms, focusing on cultivation. After two large cycles of spiritual power circulation, dawn arrives.

The heart demon wakes early today, and the two of them take advantage of the daylight to enter the old City Lord’s Mansion again.

The old City Lord’s Mansion is still very cold during the day, but the yin energy is much weaker than at night.

After passing through the miasma forest, Yun Zhuoran heads straight to the square opposite the mansion’s gate. In the center of the square stands a high platform, surrounded by eight stone statues arranged according to a certain pattern meant to suppress beasts.

With plenty of daylight, Yun Zhuoran can now clearly see the top of a broken stone pillar at the center of the platform, carved with strange totems—neither beast nor human—radiating a chilling, malevolent aura. Anyone with weak cultivation would easily lose control of their mind just by looking at it. This confirms for Yun Zhuoran that this place is an altar.

The ground of the altar is engraved with an intricate network of channels, intersecting in a deliberate pattern. The shallow grooves are filled with dark red-black blood. Though long since congealed, the stench of blood remains overpowering.

Yun Zhuoran has never seen such a large evil formation before. Not being proficient in formation talismans, he can’t figure out much.

He circles the altar, using his jade talisman to record the remaining traces of the evil formation. He plans to research ancient books or consult his predecessors later.

The longer he looks at the altar, the stronger his intuition grows—the lingering yin energy in the old City Lord’s Mansion and the mysterious fire Tong Ye says nearly destroyed Yun City 28 years ago are related to this evil formation.

Recording the formation’s basic structure takes a great deal of effort. After letting out a quiet breath, Yun Zhuoran prepares to leave with Weiran—but as he turns around, he realizes Weiran is missing.

When recording the formation, Yun Zhuoran had asked the idle heart demon to wait by the side, but now the heart demon is no longer in his original spot.

Yun Zhuoran’s brow furrows, but just as he’s about to expand his spiritual awareness to search, he sees a flash of red across from the gate—Weiran, in his familiar red robes, waves at him excitedly from afar and runs over happily.

“Brother!”

Yun Zhuoran secretly breathes a sigh of relief and quickly walks over. “What are you doing in there?”

Just like the night before last, when they first entered the old City Lord’s residence, Weiran wandered off on his own and happened to find quite a few hidden treasures. Though he didn’t take any, he seemed to enjoy treasure hunting.

Now, seeing that Weiran is carrying something again, Yun Zhuoran guesses he might have gone back to dig up more luminous pearls or search for hidden valuables. He sighs helplessly. “What treasure did you find this time?”

The heart demon chuckles, takes out a thick book from his arms, brushes off the nearly non-existent dust on the cover, and hands it to Yun Zhuoran with both hands. “Brother, look, this is the genealogy of the Yun family.”

Yun Zhuoran pauses. “Genealogy?”

At first, he doesn’t understand the use of this Yun family genealogy. He takes it subconsciously, looks at the heart demon suspiciously, and begins flipping through it.

The genealogy, found by the heart demon in the old City Lord’s Mansion, could only come from the direct line of the Yun family. Because of the special paper, it still looks brand new after more than twenty years.

The heart demon looks at Yun Zhuoran eagerly, as if seeking credit. “I found it behind the statue in the ancestral hall. I don’t know if it’s useful, but since you want to know what happened back then, I brought it back.”

Yun Zhuoran skims the pages quickly and asks in passing, “Did you read it?”

The heart demon’s smile falters. “Brother, I don’t recognize many of the words on it…”

Yun Zhuoran stops flipping and raises his eyes to look at Weiran deeply, a mixture of resignation and seriousness in his gaze. “But when you secretly borrowed storybooks from Song Shao, you could read most of the characters just fine, couldn’t you?”

The heart demon’s face shows obvious panic, and he waves his hands in protest. “He read them to me!”

Yun Zhuoran smiles lightly, not exposing the heart demon’s clumsy lie. He already knows the heart demon always says he can’t or doesn’t want to read books but secretly enjoys reading Song Shao’s storybooks.

Yun Zhuoran shakes his head, suddenly thinks of something, and flips the family tree from the back.

Twenty-eight years ago, everyone in the direct line of the old City Lord’s family perished in the strange fire—except for Yun Peiran and his younger brother. This genealogy hasn’t been updated since then. According to Yun Peiran’s age, if his name is in this family tree, it would have been added more than thirty years ago, with twenty years ago considered a recent date.

Sure enough, after flipping a few pages back, Yun Zhuoran finds Yun Peiran’s name.

Yun City is a large family with all members practicing cultivation, and the genealogy includes the names of the Yun family women as well. Yun Zhuoran finds Yun Peiran’s name in the direct lineage of Yun City. There are two Yun surnames side by side. Tong Ye once told him that his father was the adopted son of Yun City’s city lord, and their mother was the city lord’s daughter. The combination made for a close relationship.

Yun Zhuoran silently recites the two names but remains calm. His fingertips follow Yun Peiran’s name downward. When he clearly sees the names beneath, his heart suddenly stops.

There are two names to the left of Yun Peiran, both under their parents’ names. From right to left, they are Yun Peiran, Yun Duo, and Yun Weiran.

Only Yun Zhuoran’s name is missing.

Yun Zhuoran looks up at the heart demon. Usually calm, now he’s at a loss.

There’s no Yun Zhuoran in the family tree—but the heart demon’s name is there…

Then who is he?

Yun Zhuoran’s eyes grow complicated.

The heart demon asks in confusion, “What’s wrong, brother?” He reaches out to see the genealogy, but just as his fingertips are about to touch the page, Yun Zhuoran suddenly closes it and quickly puts it into his storage ring. His eyes dodge the heart demon’s, carrying a hint of avoidance.

The heart demon reflexively withdraws his hand, then reaches out again and holds Yun Zhuoran’s hand. His dark eyes clearly reflect Yun Zhuoran’s face.

“Did you see something bad? Don’t be afraid, it’s okay. Weiran is here.” The heart demon tilts his head and smiles. “Brother and I are one body.”

Hearing this, Yun Zhuoran’s panic eases, then gradually fades. Looking into the heart demon’s dark eyes with a faint bloody light, he doesn’t know what to say. He almost forgets that they’re one body—that the heart demon originated from him, and he’s the one who gave him the name. But why is the heart demon’s name in this family tree?

He calms himself, gently holds the heart demon’s wrist, and asks, “Is this family tree really from the City Lord’s Mansion?”

The heart demon nods. “Yes.”

Yun Zhuoran falls silent.

Seeing Yun Zhuoran’s troubled mood, the heart demon carefully pulls his little finger and whispers, “Brother, are you done? Are you tired? Should we go back first?”

Yun Zhuoran nods absentmindedly.

The heart demon’s eyes fill with worry as he takes the lead out of the miasma forest.

After returning to the courtyard, Yun Zhuoran slowly regains his usual calm. While the heart demon naps, he quietly slips out and sits on the threshold in front of the main hall door, looking over the family tree again.

No matter how many times he looks, Yun Zhuoran’s name is still not there. The names Yun Peiran and Yun Duo—whom he doesn’t remember—have year suffixes noted, and Yun Weiran’s name also has one. If that’s a birth year, then Yun Weiran and Yun Zhuoran were born in the same year.

Could the Yun Weiran in the family tree actually be him, Yun Zhuoran?

Connecting this to what Tong Ye said, he remembers hearing the name Yun Weiran from a survivor of the old City Lord’s Mansion. At the same time, Yun Peiran had hurriedly taken his brother away from Yun City and claimed not to know who Yun Weiran was… Yun Zhuoran vaguely guesses something.

The mysterious fire in Yun City twenty-eight years ago might be connected to him.

Unconsciously, Yun Zhuoran clenches the family tree in his hand and doesn’t notice the page wrinkling. When he comes to his senses, the page with Yun Peiran’s name is nearly torn. He quickly smooths it out, gently wipes the paper with his fingertips, and his hand pauses on a name—Yun Tianqing.

He’s the current Lord of Yun City.

Yun Tianqing isn’t a direct descendant but comes from the old lord Yun Tianfeng’s uncle’s line. He’s the same generation as Yun Peiran. His sister, Yun Fushuang, is also listed in the genealogy—currently the most beloved Madam Yun of the Lord of the Demon Palace and Ji Ruo’s biological mother.

Yun Zhuoran looks at their names and finds them strangely familiar.

It seems he’s met them before.

Suddenly, footsteps sound behind him. Yun Zhuoran instinctively puts away the family tree. Just as he’s getting up, he sees the heart demon rubbing his eyes as he walks out, still sleepy and softly complaining,

“Brother, why weren’t you in the room?”

Yun Zhuoran is just about to respond when Ji Ruo’s voice comes from outside the yard.

“Yun Zhuoran, so you really are living here.” Ji Ruo and Ji Wuwang walk into the courtyard. The black-clothed boy with red lips and white teeth looks disdainfully at the run-down yard and grits his teeth. “I don’t know what’s wrong with Cousin Yun. He actually believed Shen Lingshu’s nonsense and wanted to drive you out! Shen Lingshu doesn’t even look that good—how can someone like that bring such disaster?”

When the heart demon sees Ji Ruo, he immediately recalls Yun Shaowei’s two disrespectful acts toward Yun Zhuoran. He steps in front of Yun Zhuoran and says unhappily, “What, were you driven out too?”

Ji Ruo’s face darkens, but he doesn’t refute it.

Ji Wuwang simply spreads his hands and says, “Pretty much.”