Chapter 181: Big Brother Mo, You Can’t Let Someone Bully My Sister
“What exactly happened? Tell me clearly!” Mo Qilan was no fool. Mo Ziyuan had suddenly dismissed this servant, which surely wasn’t without reason.
“This little one······” The servant told Mo Qilan everything about Qi Shi’s scheming and what happened after Mo Ziyuan returned, in full detail.
“Sigh! Madam is confused!” After hearing it, Mo Qilan let out a long sigh and looked at the servant. “Alright, from now on, you’ll stay in the front courtyard first. Watch your mouth. If a single word of today’s events leaks out, you won’t need to think about living.”
“Yes, Duke!” The servant’s waist bent almost ninety degrees.
“Get out!”
After shooing the person away, Mo Qilan sat on the chair in a daze for a good while, then swept all the things on the table to the ground.
“Dad, can son come in?” Mo Zichen’s voice sounded outside the door. Mo Qilan looked toward the doorway and only after a moment said, “Come in!”
The room door was pushed open. Mo Zichen, with thick layers of gauze wrapped around his neck, walked in and bowed to Mo Qilan. “Dad!”
“What happened to your neck?” Mo Qilan frowned and asked.
“This······” Mo Zichen hesitated and glanced at him, then said hesitantly, “This······ this was an accidental slash from the young lady who was with big brother.”
“Your big brother? Young lady? What young lady?” Mo Qilan accurately seized the key points.
“Just one young lady. Son and friends went to Ten Fragrance Pavilion for a meal, ran into big brother and exchanged a few words, then that young lady drew her sword and accidentally slashed son.” Mo Zichen rolled his eyes inwardly. He wanted to say it was the young lady? He clearly said it was the young lady with big brother who injured him, so why couldn’t his dad understand?
Did Mo Qilan really not understand what Mo Zichen wanted to say? Of course not. Over these years, he had some understanding that this son harbored resentment toward his older brother. But after what that servant just said, he suddenly felt he couldn’t read Mo Ziyuan anymore, which made him feel offended. And right at this moment, Mo Zichen came to add fuel to the fire against Mo Ziyuan, so he was getting impatient.
However, the news Mo Zichen brought did stir something in his heart. Could Mo Ziyuan’s change be related to this young lady?
So Mo Qilan asked, “What does that young lady look like? From whose family? From what you said, she knows martial arts, right?”
Mo Zichen was practically furious and blurted out without thinking, “She’s very pretty, prettier than all those young ladies in the capital city. Don’t know whose family, son has never seen her before. As for martial arts, of course she knows it, otherwise where did the wound on son’s neck come from?”
“Never seen before…” Mo Qilan pondered for a moment. Then she’s not from the capital city proper. Mo Ziyuan had been away from home for several years, could it be someone he met outside during that time?
Seeing his father’s attention all on the young lady, alarm bells rang in Mo Zichen’s mind. A ridiculous idea suddenly popped into his head and wouldn’t go away. The reason he could lord it over in the Duke’s Mansion and disregard the legitimate heir was all thanks to Dingguo Duke’s favoritism. He absolutely wouldn’t allow anyone to take away that favoritism, not even a hint of it.
Now his father was so concerned about a young lady; who knows what ideas he might have. He had to find a way to make this young lady disappear, the sooner the better!
“Dad, if there’s nothing else, son will head back first.” Mo Zichen said.
“Alright, go back and rest first!” Mo Qilan, eager to figure out if Mo Ziyuan’s change was because of this young lady, didn’t notice Mo Zichen’s abnormality at all. He needed to think carefully, so he let Mo Zichen go without another word. This only made Mo Zichen more convinced that his dad was smitten with that young lady.
The separated father and son had completely divergent thoughts, but they converged on the same goal: Lin Xin.
Lin Xin was still unaware of these things for now. She stood across from Cui Shi with a bewildered expression, looking at the pile of bottles and jars he had pushed in front of her.
“These… are all for me?” Lin Xin looked up in confusion and asked.
“What else?” Cui Shi looked at her with exasperation. “You’re entering the imperial palace tomorrow, and that’s no peaceful place—full of conspiracies and tricks everywhere. I have to prepare some self-defense things for you!”
“Ah? Oh, then… what are all these?” Lin Xin asked weakly.
“Come, I’ll tell you. This is······” Cui Shi introduced every bottle or jar’s contents to Lin Xin one by one like treasures. She was dumbfounded by the end.
There were quite a few antidotes for various poisons, ones to delay medicinal properties from taking effect, some top healing medicine and hemostatic drugs—these were fairly normal. But the ones that made people itch all over, cause snot to flow, grow pus-filled blisters on the face, or give diarrhea left her utterly baffled.
“Aren’t you wanting me to poison people anytime, anywhere?” Lin Xin asked.
“You don’t understand. The imperial palace can be called the filthiest place in the world. You might encounter all kinds of dirty, rotten tactics. You can’t just take beatings without fighting back! You have to let people know you’re not some pushover to be bullied!” Cui Shi said to her earnestly.
Lin Xin looked at his serious old face, then at the pile of bottles and jars, swallowed, and didn’t dare voice her inner doubt: Aren’t you afraid I’ll mix these things up, old man?
“Alright, take all these things with you! The old man knows you have a way to achieve it.” As he left, Cui Shi tossed her a deep-water torpedo with a “not-so-innocent” look.
“I damn······” Lin Xin widened her eyes, then sat in the chair and burst out laughing with a “puchi.” This was pretty good.
Early the next morning, Lin Xin stretched lazily out of her room door and saw Cui Shi and Lin Nan sitting on stone benches in the courtyard, pretending to recite books seriously. It would have looked more genuine if they hadn’t kept glancing her way.
“Alright, stop looking, careful your eyes go crooked and won’t straighten.” Before washing up and heading to the kitchen to make breakfast, Lin Xin wrinkled her nose at them.
“Sis, we’re just worried you’ll be nervous. Master even stayed specially last night, and not only do you not appreciate it, you curse us!” Lin Nan pouted and ran to the kitchen, clinging to the door frame in protest.
“Fine fine fine, I was wrong, I appreciate it. Now get out quick!” Lin Xin didn’t know who he learned nagging from. She was sure if she didn’t admit fault, that little mouth of his could yap until Mo Ziyuan came to pick her up.
“That’s more like it! If you really didn’t appreciate it, Master and I would be so heartbroken!” Lin Nan was satisfied, puffed out his little chest proudly, and returned to Cui Shi. The master and disciple exchanged a glance and both grinned with pursed lips.
Just as breakfast was set on the table, Mo Ziyuan arrived.
“Big Brother Mo, you absolutely can’t let anyone bully my sis today, got it?” Lin Nan climbed onto Mo Ziyuan’s lap, sat down, and whispered in his ear.
“Nan Nan, don’t worry. With Big Brother Mo here, I guarantee no one will bully your sister.” Mo Ziyuan said seriously.
“Mm, Nan Nan believes Big Brother Mo.”
“Time to eat.” Lin Xin, having heard their “whispers” completely, twitched her mouth and brought the last plate of pickled vegetables to the table.
“Good, let’s eat!” Lin Nan obediently let Mo Ziyuan carry him to his seat.
