Chapter 198: No Wonder You Could Never Outmaneuver Her All These Years
“Why did you do this?” Mo Ziyuan had guessed it ever since he learned there was something fishy about the grass in his mother’s courtyard, so his expression and tone were still relatively calm.
“Of course for the position of Dingguo Duke’s Wife! If your mother had always been around, where would there be any business for me?” Under Qi Shi’s terrified gaze, she spoke the truth she had hidden in her heart for many years.
“Whose children are Mo Zichen and Mo Lanzhi?”
“······They are······the······steward······of······Qi······Manor······’s······” No matter how hard Qi Shi tried, she still spoke the truth intermittently. As soon as the last word came out, her face turned deathly pale, and she collapsed limply onto the bed.
Mo Qilan, whom Mo Ziyuan had placed in the shadows, had been in a daze since the first question. As the questions piled up, his heart sank deeper and deeper. He had never known that his gentle and considerate wife was actually a ruthless and vicious person.
The final question became the last straw that broke him. He felt all the blood in his body surge to his throat, and his chest ached as if it were exploding. Even clenching his teeth tightly, a mouthful of sweet, bloody liquid still overflowed from the corner of his lips, soaking the clothes on his chest.
“What did you say? I didn’t hear clearly. Say it again: whose children are Mo Zichen and Mo Lanzhi?” Mo Ziyuan stared fixedly at Qi Shi with a mischievous gaze, his voice low.
“······The steward of Qi Manor’s. Are you satisfied now! They’ve been with you for so many years; even raising a kitten or puppy should create some feelings, right? Can’t you tolerate them? Besides, even if you know, so what? Tomorrow as long as I cry to the master, he still won’t believe you!” Qi Shi started off flustered, but grew more confident as she spoke, eventually becoming smug.
“Haha!” Lin Xin suddenly laughed. “You’re really something. When you’re ruthless, you don’t even spare yourself. You’ve brainwashed yourself so matter-of-factly. How can you be so sure that Mo Ziyuan’s father will believe you and not his own son!”
“Who told him to have such a strong-willed mother!” A strange smile actually appeared on Qi Shi’s face. She looked at Mo Ziyuan with full malice. “Back then, with a little trick from me, I made your foolish father suspect you weren’t his child. And your mother had such a tough personality that she didn’t even explain; she just moved into that courtyard and never came out until her death. Isn’t that ridiculous!”
“Aren’t you afraid that the truth about what you’ve done will come out one day?” Lin Xin asked curiously, as if villains always think they’re masterminding everything, and who knows what reason that is.
“What’s there to fear? Once my son inherits the Dingguo Duke’s Mansion in a few days, do I still need to care about the truth? Then I’ll beat gongs and drums at that bitch’s grave to proclaim it loudly, letting her watch how I not only took the position of Duke’s Wife from her hands but also take the position of heir from her son’s hands, hahaha······”
Mo Ziyuan’s face could no longer be described as merely dark; even Lin Xin felt her hair stand on end a little. She walked over, took his hand, and gently patted the back of it. “Don’t be angry. Her plot won’t succeed.”
“Pfft~” Mo Qilan in the corner finally couldn’t hold back and spat out a mouthful of blood. At this moment, the drug’s effect on Qi Shi had also mostly worn off, and the mouth that had lost brain control finally returned to normal.
When she realized she could control her own speech again, Qi Shi immediately glared hatefully at Mo Ziyuan. “What did you just do to me? Why couldn’t I control myself from speaking?”
“Hey, hey, hey, you’re wrongly accusing Mo Ziyuan. That drug was given to him by me. As for the effect, you’ve already experienced it—it makes people involuntarily tell the truth. Pretty great, right?” Lin Xin saw the disheveled Qi Shi looking at Mo Ziyuan with resentment, so she immediately pulled him behind her and unleashed a tirade at her.
“What truth? I don’t know what you’re talking about. I only know you broke into my bedroom in the middle of the night with ill intentions toward me!” Qi Shi’s shrill voice was extremely grating.
“Ha, I say, this······auntie? You should have some self-awareness,” Lin Xin said, looking around and spotting the bronze mirror on the dressing table. She walked over, tossed it to Qi Shi. “Here, a mirror for you. If you think this one doesn’t show clearly enough, go squat in the latrine and use your urine to see. With your appearance, how desperate would Mo Ziyuan have to be to have ill intentions toward you!”
Lin Xin’s tone was particularly infuriating. Qi Shi’s face turned ashen, and she hated her in her heart, even more than Mo Ziyuan. “You sharp-tongued little whore, you think you’ve won tonight by using such despicable means to make me say those things? I tell you, impossible. The master will never believe you. Just wait and see!”
After Qi Shi spoke, her gaze swept over the many corpses hanging from the beam, and her eyes sharpened again. “You’ve also killed so many people—these are all the master’s confidants cultivated over many years. Just wait for the master’s wrath! Don’t worry, I’ll definitely add fuel to the fire and burn you all thoroughly!”
Mo Ziyuan was too lazy to listen to her nonsense. He simply went around to Mo Qilan, lifted his hand to unblock his acupoints, dragged him in front of Qi Shi. “Fine, then ask him who he believes!”
The moment she saw Mo Qilan appear, Qi Shi’s face instantly turned ghastly pale, her eyes filled with terror—especially when meeting Mo Qilan’s murderous scarlet eyes. She no longer had the attitude of pointing at Mo Ziyuan and scolding; instead, she slumped softly on the bed, her eyes brimming with tears on the verge of falling, and even in her current disheveled state, she still had an especially delicate beauty.
“No wonder you’ve never been able to outfight her all these years. With this seductive appearance, you probably couldn’t manage it even if reborn.” Lin Xin stood beside Mo Ziyuan, sighing at Qi Shi’s change.
Mo Ziyuan pursed his lips and turned his head to give her an expressionless glance, which she surprisingly read: Is it that funny?
“Cough cough,” Lin Xin immediately straightened her face, coughed dryly, stood ramrod straight, and stared unblinkingly at Mo Qilan, wondering if Qi Shi had truly bewitched him.
Seeing Qi Shi like this, Mo Qilan instinctively wanted to go comfort her, but thinking of what she had just said, his feet wouldn’t move. Feeling the two piercing gazes from behind, his heart ached even more.
“Master~” The trick that had never failed before suddenly didn’t work, and Qi Shi panicked inside.
