Chapter 117: Kindhearted Mo Zheng
Mo Zheng had just started weaving tales of childhood neighbors gossiping about her father when she noticed Wei Jiao wasn’t listening at all and had fallen asleep again, just like last time.
She stopped speaking and looked at the young man squatting on the eaves, wrapped in a thick cloak with his head resting on his knees, and furrowed her brows.
Wei Jiao almost never refuted her words, but he also fundamentally didn’t believe what she said.
This man was truly a trouble.
Say he cared, yet he neither captured her nor exposed her.
Say he didn’t care, yet he kept staring at her relentlessly, occasionally blurting out something somewhat frightening.
Mo Zheng looked at Wei Jiao curled up before her like a stone beast, smoothed her brows, and her gaze grew heavy.
This Wei Jiao was a trouble…
On the small scale, he always came running over in the middle of the night like this, tossing and turning so she couldn’t sleep well, and she still had to read, study, and take exams.
On the large scale, he was her mortal enemy.
He was investigating Jiang Wangchun for treason, and behind Jiang Wangchun’s treason were the remnants of the previous dynasty prince, which was her.
His relentless stare at “Yang Luo” probably stemmed from an intuition he himself had yet to perceive.
Moreover, Yang Luo’s tale of her future annihilation also involved Wei Jiao’s father Wei Cui; the father’s debt to the son…
Mo Zheng waved it off in her mind; forget that line—father is father, son is son.
She looked at the motionless Wei Jiao.
In any case, it was best to get rid of this person first.
However, he looked asleep, and it wasn’t as if she could just kill him on the spot.
As soon as she revealed killing intent, Wei Jiao would instantly wake up.
Her chances of killing him weren’t great either; there were many embroidered uniform guards outside, and if Wei Jiao really died here, she would have to flee into the mountain forest again, perhaps meeting annihilation even earlier than in her previous life.
Mo Zheng touched her own neck.
Unless absolutely necessary, she really wanted to live.
She looked at Wei Jiao, her eyes narrowing slightly; murder didn’t necessarily require a blade.
Why Wei Jiao came to Duke Ding’an’s Mansion—besides inquiring about her, there was another reason.
She lifted her gaze past Wei Jiao to the entire residence; she had also investigated all the news about Wei Jiao thoroughly.
This Duke Ding’an’s Mansion was originally Zhao Tan’s old residence; back then, when Wei Cui fled, Wei’s wife threw herself at Zhao Tan and lived here with Wei Jiao.
Street informants had also reported that Wei Jiao had gone mad in Qin’an City, wandering outside at night.
The current Wei Jiao looked sober, but he was probably still ill in reality…
Mo Zheng’s gaze fell on Wei Jiao again.
The cause of Wei Jiao’s illness…
“Wei Jiao.” She put away the hidden weapon dagger in her hand, softened her posture, gentled her voice, and said softly from behind, “Your parents abandoned you.”
As her words fell, in the dim gaze, the curled-up stone beast trembled.
Mo Zheng unhesitatingly leaped down from the eaves; the person above did not pursue.
She stood on the ground and looked up, seeing Wei Jiao still squatting on the eaves, but his cloak, wrapped tightly, fell off like shattered stone, revealing thin nightclothes as soft as moonlight.
Wei Jiao’s head, pillowed on his knees, also lifted, seemingly looking at Mo Zheng standing in the night courtyard, seemingly looking past her at others…
“A Jiao!”
A woman entered from the courtyard gate with a smile on her face.
Mother! Wei Jiao extended his hand toward the woman.
His hand was small and delicate, his body chubby; the woman reached out, picked him up, and held him in her arms.
Mother’s embrace was warm and soft.
Wei Jiao breathed a sigh of relief in his heart; he wanted to say that someone just now said his parents had abandoned him, which had really scared him to death.
But when he opened his mouth, he could only wail…
“What is A Jiao saying?” Mother pinched his nose, laughing as she said, “Why is A Jiao so talkative?”
A man’s rich voice came from outside the door: “What happened to A Jiao?”
Wei Jiao looked up and saw an elegant man walk over to stand beside his mother.
“Father!”
Wei Jiao extended his hand toward him.
Father picked him up and tossed him high; he let out giggling laughter, looking down at his mother and father standing side by side with beaming smiles.
“Off we go, taking A Jiao to the capital!” Father said while holding him.
“He’s only a few months old; taking him along might affect you,” Mother said worriedly.
Father held both him and Mother in his arms: “I can’t bear to be apart from you for even a moment.”
Mother leaned against him, giggling together with him.
The next moment, he was suddenly thrust into Mother’s arms…
“Wei Lang!” Mother held him, looking at Father about to walk out the door.
Besides Father, many people stood outside the door, their faces blurred but looking very fierce.
Father turned back and embraced him and Mother: “Don’t worry; I’ll go check on Er Lang and San Lang, and I’ll be back soon.”
Father pinched his cheek.
“Be good at home, A Jiao; Father will bring you treats when he returns!”
He wanted to grab Father’s hand, but Father had already walked away, farther and farther, leaving only Father’s voice speaking to others: “Please take good care of my wife and son.”
As Father disappeared, everything between heaven and earth vanished.
Fortunately, he still had Mother; he clung tightly to her embrace, and Mother held him tightly too, soothing him softly: “A Jiao, don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid.”
But the next moment, he was yanked fiercely from Mother’s arms; he let out a startled cry, Mother let out a startled cry too, and a massive shadow loomed over in his sight.
“He deceived you! He won’t ever come back! He ran away!!”
The person in the shadow roared.
“No, no, Prime Minister, calm your anger; he will come back, he promised our mother and son…” Mother said tearfully to the shadow.
Yes, yes, Father would come back! Father had promised him and would buy him treats!
The person in the shadow burst into mad laughter.
“He deceived you! He planned to run from the start!”
“He used you to deceive me!”
“Not just you! Wei Er and Wei San were also denounced by him for treason!!”
“Everything was for his own escape!”
“He ran!”
“He abandoned his brothers!”
“He abandoned his wife and child!”
“He doesn’t want you anymore!”
He didn’t want them anymore; Wei Jiao stared blankly as his mother knelt and crawled on the ground, wailing in grief.
Fine if he didn’t want them; he still had Mother.
He crawled toward Mother, but Mother crawled toward the shadow ahead.
“Prime Minister, please don’t be angry!” Mother hugged the person in the shadow, lifted her head, and said softly, “This lowly concubine wishes to relieve the Prime Minister’s worries.”
The person in the shadow burst into mad laughter; a pair of hands reached out, and Mother was picked up…
Mother! Wei Jiao crawled desperately toward her, but Mother had already been carried away!
He cried out desperately, but could only make whimpering sounds.
The shadow seemed to hear and stopped: “Hey, that kid is calling you!”
Mother glanced back at him, then withdrew her gaze and hugged the tall shadow even tighter with both hands: “His father doesn’t want him anymore; why should I care about him!”
The shadow burst into mad laughter.
Wei Jiao lay stunned on the ground, watching the shadow carry Mother farther and farther away until he was the only one left between heaven and earth.
He sat dazed, a foul stench in his nostrils.
He looked around; more shadows slowly closed in from all sides, the shadows turning into hunting dogs of all sizes, with blood-red eyes, icy fangs, and high and low whimpers…
Here they came again; fine, let them come.
When they came, he would keep biting them to death!
He crouched low on the ground, whimpered, and pounced on the nearest hunting dog.
……
……
Mo Zheng leaped back onto the eaves and saw Wei Jiao with his head lowered, gnawing at his arm; blood dripped from his arm, staining the soft white nightclothes like blooming flowers.
He seemed to perceive someone approaching and lifted his head to look over.
His eyes were open, but pitch black and chaotic; he bared his teeth at the newcomer, fine white teeth also stained with blood, eerily strange.
But he didn’t pounce; instead, he clamped his bared teeth fiercely onto the back of his own hand and bit down hard, blood seeping from the back of his hand.
Mo Zheng also bared her teeth a little; how miserable.
She saw binding marks on his bloodstained wrist; even so, his arm was still covered in fresh scars.
Madness soaked into the soul—what use were ropes binding the limbs?
Mo Zheng reached out and touched her cheek; she had been a bit too vicious just now.
Sigh, no choice; it wasn’t her fault, it was all Wei Jiao’s doing, disrupting her sleep.
Poor sleep made people irritable and prone to malicious thoughts.
Forget it; surviving wasn’t easy.
If she could live, then live.
Mo Zheng stepped forward and instantly wrapped her arms around Wei Jiao’s shoulders from behind.
Wei Jiao whipped his head back and bit her arm.
This dog thing!
Mo Zheng cursed inwardly, but her arms didn’t loosen; instead, they tightened, and at the same time, she lunged forward and bit fiercely at the back of Wei Jiao’s neck.
The hunting dogs collapsed to the ground.
Wei Jiao knelt and crawled on the ground, looking at the last hunting dog.
This could no longer be called a hunting dog; it was a puppy, but a puppy was still a dog, baring its teeth at him and letting out an immature growl.
Then bite it to death!
Wei Jiao opened his mouth to pounce, but one of the hunting dogs lying on the ground jumped up—not pouncing over, but biting the puppy’s neck and carrying it away, then retreating backward.
Wei Jiao stared blankly at the puppy, which was docilely held by the neck without struggling at all.
Even dogs have mothers.
The mother protected the puppy as they retreated.
The corpses of the hunting dogs lying on the ground began to writhe, standing up once more; shadows closed in on him from all sides again.
Wei Jiao tensed his body, let out a low growl, and prepared to pounce, but the next moment, teeth bit into the back of his neck.
He was instantly lifted into the air, just like that puppy being carried away.
He, he, he also had…
He dangled in the air, rigid, feeling the pain transmitted from the back of his neck.
Whether because he stopped attacking or out of fear of the thing behind him, the hunting dogs that had stood up around him gradually dissipated.
Quiet returned between heaven and earth.
It was over; no need to tear and bite anymore.
He closed his eyes.
