Chapter 46: Crippled Their Tool For Committing The Crime
Mo Ziyuan was extremely shocked in his heart. Before Lin Xin stopped him from opening the door, he hadn’t heard any sounds at all. It seemed the shopkeeper’s guess was very likely correct; even General Meng in his prime probably wasn’t her opponent.
But the conversation he heard next made him throw all his previous thoughts out of his mind. He thought to himself, no wonder Lin Xin had wanted to kill someone just now—even he felt his hands itching a bit.
“Shu Ge, are you sure the Lin Family girl really has silver on her?”
“Of course, don’t you think about it—with Lin Xin’s temperament as that stinky girl, if she didn’t have extra money on hand, would she give the Old Lin Family several taels of silver so readily? And let me tell you, don’t tell anyone else.”
“Shu Ge, don’t worry. Don’t you know me? Even if I wanted to tell someone, who’d believe me!”
“That’s true too. Come here, I’ll tell you······”
After a few whispers, the other person’s shocked voice clearly rose a pitch.
“Really? You’re not fooling me?”
“Why would I fool you? There’s money to be made. Alright, enough chit-chat—hurry up and get to serious matters.”
“But Shu Ge, I heard Lin Xin is pretty strong. Do you think just the two of us can beat her? What if she beats us up—what then?”
“Don’t worry about that. I’ve got good stuff here. As long as we use it on her, you might even get a daughter-in-law out of it. Then her silver will all be yours.”
Mo Ziyuan’s expression also darkened. These two were clearly scheming against Lin Xin, and it seemed they had prepared some dirty tricks. He looked over with some worry, only to see Lin Xin with a smile on her lips and icy cold eyes staring in the direction the voices came from.
“Miss Lin, do you want me to······” Before he could say “help you,” Lin Xin had already leaped onto the courtyard wall, her figure vanishing. All that was left in his ears was one sentence: “Help me watch Nan Nan.”
Mo Ziyuan was dumbfounded. Her movements were simply too fast—too fast for him to react at all.
He wanted to chase out and see. After all, those were two grown men—he feared she might suffer a loss. But thinking of the words she left behind, the foot he had just stepped forward stopped again. He just stood in the courtyard watching Lin Nan playing happily with the tiger.
“Brother, where’s my older sister?” Lin Nan happened to look up and discovered his older sister’s figure was no longer in the courtyard. Anxious, he climbed down from the tiger, ran to Mo Ziyuan, and looked up at him eagerly asking.
“Someone just came looking for your older sister. She went out to check and will be back soon. She also told me to stay and watch you!” Mo Ziyuan had almost no experience with such young children, especially since this was Lin Xin’s younger brother, so he spoke very carefully.
“You’re lying. Villagers never come looking for my older sister—they only bully us!” Lin Nan’s eyes reddened, but he stubbornly held back the tears in his eyes, sniffed, and tried his best to suppress his sob as he asked: “Did older sister abandon me and leave on her own?”
The little child looked at him with red eyes. Mo Ziyuan felt a massive headache. He tried squatting down, drawing Lin Nan’s small body into his arms, gently patting his back and comforting him: “How could that be? Doesn’t your older sister love Nan Nan the most? She really went out on some business and will be back soon. If Nan Nan doesn’t believe it, how about we wait here together for older sister?”
Lin Nan wiped away the tears about to fall with the back of his hand, nodded, and his other little hand quietly gripped Mo Ziyuan’s sleeve without pulling away from his embrace.
Big Tiger slowly paced over to Lin Nan’s other side, yawned, and lay down against him.
Mo Ziyuan simply sat down on the ground, holding Lin Nan in his arms. The two people and one tiger all stared uniformly at the courtyard entrance.
Suddenly, Big Tiger abruptly lifted his big head resting on his front paws and looked toward the village.
Mo Ziyuan’s expression shifted. He heard another series of light footsteps coming this way—very light and nimble, probably a girl, but not Lin Xin.
He held Lin Nan and stood up, patted the tiger’s back, led it into the kitchen, closed the door, and peeked outside through the door crack.
Soon, those light footsteps arrived at the courtyard entrance. She paused for a moment, and Mo Ziyuan judged that the visitor was looking around to see if anyone had spotted her coming here.
Lin Xin had planned to send Mo Ziyuan away earlier, so the courtyard gate wasn’t latched. The person outside easily pushed it open.
Under the bright moonlight, a slender woman sneaked in. After entering, she quickly closed the courtyard gate, let out a long breath, and when she turned to look toward Lin Xin siblings’ room, a smug and greedy smile actually appeared on her face—it was Lin Laosan’s eldest daughter Lin Duo!
“Lin Xin ah Lin Xin, do you like tonight’s arrangement? Right now you should be having a good time under Lin Shu and Wang Laizi’s bodies! Who told you to have money but refuse to lend me any no matter what? You must feel real good watching me marry someone like Zheng Tuhu! After tonight, let’s see how you feel good! Do you even have the face to go on living?”
Lin Nan didn’t fully understand Lin Duo’s words, but he keenly sensed her malice. Seeing her actually wanting to enter his and his older sister’s room, he immediately panicked and wanted to run out to stop her, but Mo Ziyuan held him tightly and covered his mouth.
Lin Nan used all his strength but couldn’t struggle free from Mo Ziyuan’s arms. Thinking he was in cahoots with Lin Duo, in his panic he bit down hard on Mo Ziyuan’s hand—his little milk teeth were surprisingly effective, instantly drawing blood.
Mo Ziyuan endured the pain in his hand, looked around, and spotted a piece of firewood burned down to just the end right by his foot. He quietly cracked open the kitchen door and kicked the firewood end out with one foot, hitting Lin Duo squarely in the back of the head. She didn’t even make a sound before passing out.
Only then did Mo Ziyuan release his hand covering Lin Nan’s mouth.
Lin Nan slid down from his arms, hid behind Big Tiger, and refused to let him touch him again. In his heart at that moment, Mo Ziyuan was no longer trustworthy.
Mo Ziyuan looked at the circle of teeth marks on his hand and gave a wry smile, deciding not to go out. He found a stool and plopped down to wait for Lin Xin to return.
As for Lin Duo, he knew his own strength—that blow was enough to keep her unconscious until Lin Xin came back. If she woke up midway, he’d just knock her out again.
Meanwhile, Lin Xin had gone far from the courtyard when she saw Lin Shu and the village rogue Wang Laizi walking side by side toward her home, spouting filthy obscenities the whole way—utterly vile to the ears.
Her eyes flashed coldly. She quietly hid her figure in the shadows, silently approaching the two. When they passed by her, she quickly stood and smashed a fist into each of their backs of the head, knocking them out.
She grabbed their belts, leaped into the back mountain woods, and only set them down at the edge of the deep forest. She used their belts to tie them to a tree, and thinking of what they had said earlier, she searched Lin Shu’s bosom and found several packets of powdered medicine.
She didn’t understand medical skill, so naturally she couldn’t tell what the powders were for, but she was certain they were definitely nothing good. She simply pried open their mouths and fed each half a packet from every one.
Not long after, Lin Shu reacted first—his face flushed bright red, fine sweat beaded on his forehead, and his body began twisting nonstop. Immediately after, Wang Laizi showed the exact same reactions.
Seeing this, how could Lin Xin not understand? These two had actually planned to use such despicable stuff against her—this was absolutely intolerable!
Without thinking, two water blades slashed out, directly crippling their tools of crime.
