Yunyang looked at Pei Wenye curiously.
She was a D-rank esper now, after all, and her abilities in every area had improved considerably compared with before.
On the way back, Qin Mo had deliberately put some distance between himself and the other rivals, but Yunyang had still heard Pei Wenye’s few remarks clearly.
Thinking back to the female beastkin who had brushed past her just moments ago, Yunyang was certain that Pei Wenye knew one of that female’s husbands.
Even from the brief glimpse she had caught, she could tell that one of the males looked remarkably similar to her own husband. They resembled each other so closely that Yunyang would never believe they weren’t related by blood.
The other five husbands competed to help Yunyang sit down, then all turned their eyes toward Pei Wenye.
Pei Wenye lowered his head.
“One of that female’s husbands is my full brother, Pei Qingyang.”
“You two don’t get along?”
When Pei Wenye nodded, Yunyang instantly began imagining all sorts of melodramatic scenarios.
Two brothers fighting over the same woman.
Siblings turning against each other because their elders favored one over the other.
And so on…
In short, all the plots she had encountered in novels and videos in either her past or present life.
Yunyang’s interest was piqued. “Why? Does his wife like you?”
Pei Wenye jerked his head up and immediately denied it. “No!”
He absolutely had to clear up any statement that might cause his wife to misunderstand.
“Then why?” Yunyang grew even more curious. “I remember you saying that something happened, which was why you couldn’t prepare a dowry. Can you tell me about it now?”
Pei Wenye had mentioned this when he first moved into the villa.
At the time, Yunyang had wanted to find out what had happened, so she had made an exception and let Pei Wenye rest with her shortly after his arrival.
But after that, she had taken a bath and tried out that thing with their spiritual bodies with Pei Wenye, and the matter had completely slipped her mind.
If she hadn’t run into Pei Qingyang today, she probably wouldn’t have remembered it at all.
Men really were distracting. Far too distracting.
She was determined to find out the reason today!
Pei Wenye glanced at the five rivals beside Yunyang and asked ingratiatingly, “Wife, can I tell you alone?”
He really didn’t want to share his unpleasant past with his rivals.
“Granted.” Yunyang waved her hand grandly. “You five go upstairs and choose your rooms first.”
When they had arrived at their new residence at noon, Fuyuan and Rong Jin had prepared lunch while the other four husbands helped her tidy up her room. None of them had chosen their own rooms yet.
The other husbands naturally weren’t worried that Pei Wenye would take the opportunity to seduce Yunyang, so they went upstairs to pick their rooms without a second thought.
Pei Wenye finally found an opportunity to sit beside Yunyang.
He first poured her a cup of warm water, then slowly began to recount what had happened.
Pei Wenye and Pei Qingyang’s mother was Pei Fangying.
Pei Fangying came from the aristocratic Pei family of S28. She was the former family head’s only daughter and the current head of the Pei family.
Unfortunately, Pei Fangying had been rather unlucky and had never produced a daughter.
Without a daughter, once Pei Fangying stepped down as family head, the Pei family fortune could only be passed on to one of her sons.
Among them, Pei Wenye and Pei Qingyang had been born to Pei Fangying and her most beloved husband, so they naturally had the greatest chance of inheriting the family estate.
Both brothers had inherited their mother’s looks and their father’s talent. They were exceptionally handsome, and both had awakened S-rank abilities upon reaching adulthood.
Pei Qingyang was ten years older than Pei Wenye and had already been matched with a wife long ago. At first, Pei Fangying had favored him more. However, she had believed herself young enough that there was no need to name an heir so soon.
She hadn’t expected her younger son to surpass Pei Qingyang. Along with awakening his ability, Pei Wenye had completed a partial dragon transformation and risen from an S-rank esper to an SS-rank esper in a matter of months.
A genius like that appeared only once in several centuries among the jiao.
The balance in Pei Fangying’s heart began to tip toward her younger son.
Pei Qingyang noticed.
Having always regarded himself as the heir, Pei Qingyang couldn’t accept it.
First, he schemed to have Pei Wenye expelled from the Interstellar Male Academy before he had even turned nineteen. Then, once Pei Wenye returned home, he put obstacles in his way at every turn.
Those years had been extremely difficult for Pei Wenye.
“So… he sent you drifting to a desolate planet just to fight you for the family fortune?”
Yunyang felt she had already guessed what came next.
Pei Wenye nodded again.
As an SS-rank esper, Pei Wenye had been impossible for Pei Qingyang to truly injure, no matter how many underhanded tricks he used in secret.
But whenever Pei Wenye tried to retaliate directly, Pei Qingyang would always make the first accusation and complain to their mother.
In the eyes of outsiders, Pei Qingyang had always pretended to be an “extremely dutiful” older brother. No one in the family believed that he would harm his own younger brother, and their mother didn’t believe it either.
After it happened so many times, their mother’s patience with Pei Wenye was gradually worn away, and she began to ignore him completely.
Once Pei Wenye had been pushed aside, he posed little threat to Pei Qingyang, so he was finally able to enjoy a rare period of peace.
The turning point came a few months ago—
He and Yunyang were matched.
At the time, Pei Wenye had been overjoyed. He excitedly shared the good news with his mother and father.
Who could have guessed that his father was terrible at keeping secrets? Pei Qingyang learned about it.
With an S-rank lady as his wife, Pei Wenye’s position in the family would undergo a complete transformation, no matter what he had done in the past.
So, before Pei Fangying could announce Pei Wenye as her heir, Pei Qingyang made another move against him.
The reason the Pei family had become an aristocratic family on S28 was because they controlled a vast undersea mineral vein.
Pei Qingyang falsified the transaction records, making Pei Fangying believe that Pei Wenye had brought outsiders to steal from the mineral vein.
That crossed Pei Fangying’s bottom line. She expelled Pei Wenye from the family on the spot.
Pei Wenye had no way to defend himself. He wanted to investigate the truth, but Pei Qingyang had tampered with his spacecraft. It malfunctioned during the jump, which was why Pei Wenye had crashed onto the desolate planet.
At the time, his contamination level had already been extremely high. Then he encountered the insectoids. Although he managed to wipe them out with his ability, his contamination level exceeded ninety, causing him to lose control and transform into a beast.
If he hadn’t encountered the federal troops rescuing Lord Yulu…
Remembering all this made Pei Wenye furious, but after being expelled from the family, he had no way to continue investigating the truth.
“Poor A-Ye.” Yunyang reached out and rubbed Pei Wenye’s head, her face full of sympathy.
To have a biological brother with maxed-out palace-intrigue skills… Pei Wenye really was unlucky.
Talking about the past had indeed left Pei Wenye in a bad mood.
But when he heard what Yunyang had called him, his eyes lit up. Every unpleasant thought was instantly thrown to the back of his mind.
“Wife, what did you just call me?”
Yunyang blinked. “You don’t like that name?”
A-Ye did sound a little like the name of a pet…
“I like it!”
This was the first time his wife had called him something other than his full name.
How could he not like it?
He loved it!
Pei Wenye nodded vigorously. Then, suddenly, he reached out and wrapped his arms around Yunyang’s waist, pleading in a low voice, “Wife, will you call me that again?”
“Call you what?”
Before Yunyang could agree, the five husbands who had chosen their rooms were already standing at the foot of the stairs, staring fixedly at Pei Wenye.
