SBCEJM -Chapter 241 A Family Should Stay Together Neatly and Completely — Even in the Next Life!

The gossip bomb from today’s court session had an aftershock far too powerful.

Like a jar of strong liquor, it had completely intoxicated the entire court.

Even after the morning assembly ended, half the officials still looked like their souls hadn’t returned to their bodies yet.

Every single one of them walked as if they were floating on clouds.

Instead of taking the carriage from the Northern Suppression Prince’s Manor, Feng Zexuan slipped into her father and brother’s carriage, determined to return to her “old home” for a free meal.

The carriage rumbled along familiar streets.

Feng Zexuan lifted the curtain and looked outside.

“Huh? Why does it feel like our street got narrower?”

The moment she stepped through the front gates, that feeling became even stronger.

“Why does this mansion feel like it shrank too?”

She quickly realized the truth.

It wasn’t that the Censor-in-Chief’s residence had become smaller—it was that the Northern Suppression Prince’s Manor was absurdly huge!

Once you grow accustomed to luxury, returning to simplicity is hard indeed. The ancients truly never lied!

Feng Huaian and Feng Zekai exchanged a glance, both unable to hide their amusement.

Feng Zexuan didn’t care in the slightest.

The moment she got off the carriage, she hooked one arm around each of them like a little bird returning to its nest, chirping nonstop as she rushed toward the back courtyard.

In the courtyard, Li Yunluo reclined lazily upon a bamboo couch beneath the shade of Xiangfei bamboo, half-dozing.

Three maids stood nearby, carefully massaging her shoulders and legs with gentle fingers.

The scene was so peaceful it looked like a painting.

“System, see that?”

“My lazy personality is definitely inherited from my mother!”

“We’re born salted fish!”

Inside the system space, the system rolled its eyes so hard they nearly vanished.

“As if you were hardworking in your previous life.”

“And your mother spent two whole days personally selecting flowers and arranging decorations for your Northern Suppression Prince’s Manor. That’s why she’s tired!”

“Ah! So I misunderstood Mother!”

Feng Zexuan immediately changed her tune.

“My mother is a diligent little bee, and I’m an adorable little freeloader!”

Li Yunluo had been enjoying herself when her daughter’s familiar, playful inner voice suddenly rang in her head.

Her eyes snapped open.

The moment she sat up, she saw the three people she’d been missing standing at the courtyard entrance.

A bright smile immediately spread across her face as she lifted her skirt and hurried over.

“My precious baby is back!”

“Mother!”

Feng Zexuan released her father and brother and shot forward like a cannonball straight into her mother’s arms.

Li Yunluo hugged her daughter tightly and patted her back contentedly.

“Mother missed you to death!”

“I missed you too!”

Feng Zexuan nestled against her mother, affectionately rubbing her cheek against her shoulder.

Her nose filled with the familiar fragrance of her mother.

Back in Tingfeng Courtyard—

Feng Zexuan bathed and changed clothes, slipping into a peach-colored soft silk robe tied loosely with a matching sash.

Her entire person radiated comfort and laziness—the ease of returning home.

The family sat together around the dinner table.

The evening meal had already been prepared, steaming hot and fragrant.

Feng Zexuan sat beside her brother, picked up her chopsticks—

—but her eyes kept darting across her family’s faces.

She lowered her voice mysteriously and spoke as if casually:

“Father, Mother, Brother, I suddenly thought of something interesting.”

“If there were an opportunity for our whole family to stay together forever across lifetimes, but occasionally we’d have to work for other people… would you agree to it?”

The three people who were about to start eating all froze simultaneously.

They looked at her in unison.

“Why even ask? Of course we would!”

Li Yunluo answered first.

Feng Huaian nodded as well.

“If we can remain together with family forever, then naturally I’d be willing.”

Feng Zekai gazed at his sister gently and smiled.

“As long as the family can stay together, anything is worth it.”

“Hahaha, that’s exactly what I think too!”

Feng Zexuan was delighted inside.

“Let’s eat first!”

“Hehehe, if I pulled out four ‘employment contracts’ right now and told them our whole family was chosen by the Main God, that we could become immortal forever and even travel together to other worlds…”

“Would Father get so excited he flips the table on the spot?”

“But for the sake of their hearts, I should probably not tell them yet.”

Feng Huaian’s hand holding the chopsticks suddenly paused.

The braised pork slipped from his chopsticks and plopped back into the bowl.

Immortal forever?

Main God?

Employment contracts?!

His iron heart—hardened through years of surviving court politics—was violently cracked open by those few words.

Li Yunluo gripped her chopsticks tightly.

Her heartbeat pounded like war drums.

What exactly had she just heard?!

Feng Zekai’s eyes widened.

His sister… was planning to lead the whole family into ascension?!

Meanwhile, Feng Zexuan was already fantasizing about the future.

“Oh right, System, can our family apply for ‘team-building activities’ in the future? Like going to the same small world together for missions?”

“Of course!”

The system answered crisply.

“Forget team-building—even if your family of four wanted to package yourselves together as a ‘family-style system bundle’ for the same host, that’s possible too!”

“Holy crap! That kind of benefit exists?!”

“Yep! There was once a system who couldn’t bear to part from family, so they dragged the whole family into the job together. Though cases like that are pretty rare.”

“Why is it so uncommon?”

Feng Zexuan asked curiously.

The system explained:

“Because it’s not cost-effective.”

“For example, if there are four missions and you split up, each member of your family only needs to complete one.”

“But if you do team-building, then the whole family has to participate in all four missions. That quadruples the workload. Exhausting.”

“But it’s fine once in a while!”

Feng Zexuan didn’t care.

“The important thing is staying together!”

“One extra system means one extra brain. Solving problems will be faster too!”

“A family should stay together neatly and completely!”

At the dinner table—

Feng Huaian forcefully suppressed the storm raging inside him.

His mind had already begun rapidly analyzing the risks and feasibility of this “divine job.”

Li Yunluo, meanwhile, had completely gone off-track thanks to her daughter’s imagination.

She pictured a family of four transformed into little clouds of mist, crowding inside someone else’s brain and chattering noisily together.

Her body involuntarily trembled.

Just imagining it felt… overwhelmingly lively.

As for Feng Zekai, his focus was simple—

As long as he could stay together forever with his parents and sister—

What did it matter whether they were humans, ghosts, immortals, or demons?

Feng Huaian quickly regained his usual caution.

Silently, he placed more food into his daughter’s bowl while thinking:

This matter is ultimately too unbelievable. Better not place too much hope in it for now. Cherishing the present is the true path.

“Xuan’er, eat more.”

Li Yunluo snapped back to her senses and lovingly added more food to her daughter’s bowl too.

“Oh right, the rare peonies Mother selected for you have all been delivered to your manor’s flower house.”

“I even sent over the best gardeners. I guarantee you’ll see the most beautiful flowers next spring.”

“Thank you, Mother!”

Feng Zexuan’s eyes curved into happy crescents.

“Love you the most!”

After dinner—

Li Yunluo proudly brought out several new outfits.

“Look, Mother made these new clothes for you.”

“Xuan’er, you’re a prince now. You need more proper outfits.”

Feng Zexuan recalled the mountain of clothes already sitting in the manor…

Forget it. Her mother’s affection mattered most!

“Hehe, I’m so blessed!”

Feng Zexuan and Feng Zekai were both forcibly dragged into trying on clothes by their mother.

Even Feng Huaian failed to escape.

The family wore matching outfits of the same series in different styles, laughing together throughout the room.

After the laughter died down—

Feng Zexuan wandered with her brother to Tingzhu Courtyard.

“Brother, why does the bamboo grove in your courtyard look… balder than before?”

She pointed curiously at the noticeably thinned bamboo grove under the moonlight.

Feng Zekai looked at the empty patch.

A trace of helplessness and regret flashed across his refined face.

“Who else but Father?”

“For some reason lately, he’s become obsessed with bamboo weaving again. He comes here every day chopping bamboo, saying he’s practicing craftsmanship.”

Feng Zexuan blinked.

Just as she was about to tease her father’s old hobby again, the system suddenly spoke in an odd tone.

“Host, your father isn’t practicing.”

“He’s… forget it, I won’t say.”

“Oh ho! There are things even I’m not allowed to know now?”

The system replied:

“Well, you’ll find out in a couple months!”

Feng Zexuan kept pressing for answers, but the system decisively went silent.

She could only give up.

As usual, she followed her brother into the space apartment to play around and harvest crops at the farm before planting new seeds.