Chapter 129: Go Have Your Brother Beat It Back For Me
“Are you sick in the head? What could I possibly be hiding from you?” Mo Qilan glared at Qi Shi angrily and asked.
“You still dare to say there’s nothing? Let me ask you, how did you handle the matter the Former Emperor mentioned on the day he passed away?” Qi Shi didn’t care if he was angry or not. Her son’s future was about to be ruined, so she was angry too!
“What matter on the day the Former Emperor passed away!” As one of the three dukes, Mo Qilan had to keep vigil during the period when the late emperor’s coffin was placed. His constitution was only average to begin with, and these days had worn him out completely. He still hadn’t recovered, and now that he finally could sleep, his madam was relentless. He was very irritated inside and couldn’t recall what she was talking about for the moment.
“The matter of changing to make Zi Chen the heir.” Qi Shi bluntly said it without regard.
“Oh, you mean that matter!” Mo Qilan glanced guiltily at Qi Shi. Seeing her so furious she seemed about to burst into flames, he knew she must have heard something. He simply said to her, “Haven’t you already heard the result? Why ask me?”
Qi Shi’s eyes widened round. Seeing Mo Qilan about to lie back into the bedding, she simply grabbed his arm. “Why can’t I ask you? Have you forgotten how you agreed to me?”
Mo Qilan, who desperately wanted to sleep but was repeatedly stopped, finally got angry too. He flung off Qi Shi’s hand. “I did agree to you, but what’s the use of my agreement? This requires the Emperor’s approval. The Former Emperor warned me in front of Your Majesty. If we insist on changing the heir, then the Mo family’s noble title is gone too. That’s the Emperor—what can I do?”
“What? Impossible! How could the Former Emperor do that? On what grounds?” Qi Shi was stunned at first. Seeing Mo Qilan’s expression, she knew he wasn’t being perfunctory with her. She broke down at once and started crying and shouting loudly.
“You crazy woman, are you trying to get the whole family killed?” Mo Qilan broke out in a cold sweat from fright. He hurriedly covered Qi Shi’s mouth. Seeing her frantic, scattered gaze finally clear up, he let go, got out of bed, ran to the door, opened it, and looked outside for a long time. Only when he saw no one did he relax, walked back to the bedside, and sat down.
“Wah wah wah······” Qi Shi suddenly threw herself onto the bed and cried wah wah. Mo Qilan, who had wanted to reprimand her a couple of times not to speak recklessly, was left speechless.
“Enough. What’s done is done—crying won’t help. From now on, be nicer to Zi Yuan! He’s an honest child and won’t treat you······” Mo Qilan sighed and gently comforted Qi Shi. But before he finished speaking, Qi Shi immediately sat up and started hitting him randomly with her fists.
“On what grounds? On what grounds? Why does this heir’s position have to be his? My son isn’t inferior to him in any way. Just because he’s not born of the principal wife, he doesn’t even get a chance to compete? I’m not convinced. I’m just not convinced. And you—it’s all because you’re useless, leaving my son with nothing······” Qi Shi cried and cursed him while hitting.
“Enough!” Although Mo Qilan wasn’t a military general, his strength was much greater than Qi Shi’s. He quickly subdued her two hands, gripped them, and flung her onto the bed. “Have you gone crazy enough? I’m useless? If I’m so useless, why did you crawl into my bedding back then? And you still have the nerve to mention your son? Don’t you know what your son is like? Can he compare to Zi Yuan?”
“Ah~ Mo Qilan, I’ll fight you to the death!” Her son, whom she had always been proud of, was despised by her husband as inferior to the child of his former wife. The string called reason in Qi Shi’s mind finally snapped. She screamed and hit and scratched at Mo Qilan’s body and face.
“I see you’ve really gone mad!” A sharp stinging pain came to his face. Mo Qilan touched it and found a hand full of blood. He flew into a rage too, stepped forward, and gave Qi Shi two slaps on the face, one from each side. They made stars burst before her eyes, her head buzzing loudly, and for a moment she couldn’t hear anything.
Mo Qilan was so angry he didn’t even look at her. He took an outer robe from the screen, put it on, opened the door, and walked out. He spent the night in the study room.
Early the next morning, Qi Shi’s brother got up and discovered that Mo Qilan was unexpectedly at home and hadn’t gone to the morning court. He couldn’t help but ask curiously, “Brother-in-law, you’re not going to morning court today?”
It was better if he hadn’t mentioned it. Once he did, Mo Qilan felt his face start hurting again. He snorted unhappily and returned to the study room, slamming the door with a “bang.”
Qi Shi’s brother had hit a wall and felt unhappy too. But when he had just faced Mo Qilan, he had clearly seen the bloody scratches on his face. He figured it was probably because he had gotten physical with his own sister last night. His face was bloody, so who knew what state his sister was in!
Thinking of this, Qi Shi’s brother hurriedly ran back to where he lived. He saw his wife sitting at the dressing table applying powder to her face and quickly went over to pull her and run outside.
“Master, what are you doing?” Qi Shi’s sister-in-law was drawing her eyebrows. She had just finished one side and hadn’t done the other when her man dragged her outside. She hurriedly pulled back hard and asked.
“Something happened. Go check on my sister quickly. Last night she probably quarreled with brother-in-law and they even got physical. Go see if she’s alright.” Qi Shi’s brother said urgently.
Her sister-in-law panicked upon hearing this. Their whole family was counting on this sister-in-law married to the Duke to get by. For them to quarrel to the point of a big fight—what could be done!
At once, she didn’t care about makeup anymore and ran with her husband to the back courtyard.
Arriving at his sister-in-law’s room, Qi Shi’s brother couldn’t go in to avoid suspicion, so he could only pace anxiously in the courtyard.
The household servants had received a warning from Qi Shi’s accompanying old wet nurse early in the morning. Not one dared to gossip half a word about last night’s matter and all obediently did their own tasks.
As soon as Qi Shi’s sister-in-law entered the door, she saw Qi Shi leaning against the bedhead with disheveled hair. Both cheeks were red and swollen, with dried tear marks on her face. The accompanying old wet nurse was comforting her beside her, but Qi Shi was as if she hadn’t heard, staring blankly with lifeless eyes, only knowing to shed tears without responding.
“Sister, what’s wrong with you?” Qi Shi’s sister-in-law walked over, tentatively grasped Qi Shi’s hand, and asked softly.
Not sure if it was because she sensed the warmth in her hand, Qi Shi suddenly turned her gaze to her sister-in-law. After looking for a while, without warning, her tears fell in strings like they cost nothing. Choking, she called, “Sister-in-law!” and buried herself in her embrace, sobbing loudly.
The old wet nurse beside them breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing this. She gave Qi Shi’s sister-in-law a hand gesture, indicating to comfort Qi Shi first and talk about the rest after she finished crying.
Qi Shi’s sister-in-law understood, pulled Qi Shi into her arms, wrapped one arm around her shoulders, and gently stroked her back with the other hand.
After a long while, Qi Shi finally cried enough and leaned against her sister-in-law’s embrace, sniffling. Her two eyes were swollen like two peaches.
“Little sister, what happened to you?” Qi Shi’s sister-in-law couldn’t hold back and asked softly.
This question brought up Qi Shi’s sad matter and stirred her anger. Sniffling, she said, “Sister-in-law, Mo Qilan isn’t human. Look what he did to me. Go tell brother to hit him back for me!”
