Chapter 109

Chapter 109

After bringing County Deputy Magistrate Ma’s son and Widow Liu back, Jiang Yunsui watched for a while as they threatened County Deputy Magistrate Ma. Then, deciding there wasn’t much worth seeing, she called out a quick goodbye and ran off.

Time to see what other tasty things on the street she hadn’t tried yet.

Oh, candied hawthorn skewers. Buy a few. Lamb flatbread. Buy one…

She ate as she wandered, and somehow ended up at Li Mansion.

Heh. She still wanted to go in and see if there was any gossip to snack on.

“Fifth Young Master, you’re back.”

Jiang Yunsui glanced at that Fifth Young Master. Wasn’t he the one who had galloped his horse through the street earlier and nearly hit someone?

“Where’s my father?”

The Fifth Young Master tossed the horsewhip in his hand to a servant and swaggered inside.

Jiang Yunsui followed him in too.

“Ah!!!”

Not long after entering Li Mansion, a shriek suddenly rang out.

Jiang Yunsui’s feet immediately veered in that direction. She was curious. She wanted to look.

As luck would have it, the Fifth Young Master seemed curious too, and strode that way.

Jiang Yunsui, who didn’t know her way around Li Mansion, naturally followed him.

When they reached a certain courtyard, Jiang Yunsui clearly saw the Fifth Young Master’s expression change. He quickened his pace.

Jiang Yunsui had to trot to keep up.

Once they entered the courtyard, they arrived just in time to see Master Li slap the woman kneeling on the ground, then kick the man kneeling beside her.

“Father, what is-”

The moment the Fifth Young Master spoke, Master Li turned on him with bloodshot eyes.

He pointed at the Fifth Young Master and demanded of the people kneeling on the ground, “You slut, explain this to me clearly. Whose son is the fifth boy, really?”

The Fifth Young Master froze as if struck by lightning.

Jiang Yunsui: Oh-ho. So the affair between the steward’s son and the concubine had been exposed?

So that arrogant, domineering fellow was Master Li’s most beloved son.

Had karma arrived this quickly?

The more Master Li looked, the more he felt that his youngest son’s features resembled the steward’s son.

In his fury, he wished he could kill the adulterous pair, along with this son he had raised for someone else for over ten years.

After that, the courtyard descended into utter chaos. Screams, sobs, pleas for mercy, and frantic explanations all tangled together.

Jiang Yunsui was standing so close she was afraid she might get caught in the crossfire, so she ran a little farther away and simply climbed up a tree.

She wasn’t the Little Mushroom who couldn’t climb a single tree anymore.

Once she was up in the tree, Jiang Yunsui found herself staring wide-eyed at Song Jin, who had been hiding there all along.

“Well, well. The little one finally managed to climb up. If you took any longer, I was about to give you a hand.”

Jiang Yunsui said, “And you just watched?!”

Song Jin pinched her little cheek.

“Don’t talk. If you’re too loud, we’ll be discovered. We’re sneaking around here; making too much of a scene doesn’t suit us.”

Jiang Yunsui gave him a huge eye roll, then continued watching the commotion below.

“How did Master Li find out?”

Song Jin folded his arms and leaned against the tree trunk. “Those two thought Fatty Li had left, so they had a private meeting in the room. I lured Fatty Li back and brought him straight over here. Naturally, he caught on to something fishy.”

Song Jin was also the sort who loved watching drama unfold. Seeing Fatty Li so furious his face was congested with blood was actually pretty entertaining.

“Say, if he knew he’d been poisoned, and that the boy-and-girl twins weren’t his but his younger brother’s, do you think he’d die of rage on the spot?”

Jiang Yunsui rubbed her little chin. “We could try it.”

Song Jin opened the little embroidered pouch tied at her waist for snacks, fished out some melon seeds and peanuts, and started eating.

“Try what? Children shouldn’t look or listen to things they shouldn’t. If you see something improper, you might end up with a sty.”

Jiang Yunsui’s little face was full of unconvinced defiance.
“I’m not little!”

Hmph. She was older than Song Jin, all right?

Of course, in her last life, she had basically grown up in the mountains, a silly Little Mushroom whose understanding of the human world came entirely from stories told by a few transformed companions.

Down below, the farce ended fairly quickly under Master Li’s swift and decisive handling.

He warned the servants not to breathe a word of it, then locked all three of them up.

From the looks of it, he planned to let them “die of illness.”

But how could Song Jin possibly let him have his way?

So that afternoon, just as Master Li finished dealing with the household affairs and was about to rest, a young servant came running in.

“Master, this is bad! The people outside somehow found out about what happened this morning. It’s already spreading everywhere!”

“W-what did you say?!”

Master Li was a man who cared deeply about face. The news struck him so hard that he immediately spat out a mouthful of blood.

“Master! Master!”

At the county office, Jiang Yunsui followed Song Jin back home, only to find that Shen Qingzhu, whom she had not seen in many days, had also arrived.

She also met Nanshu’s extremely aggrieved gaze.

Song Jin spread his hands. “You can’t blame me for this. Who told you not to learn qinggong?”

Shen Qingzhu handed a bottle of medicine to Ji Yan’an.

“These are pills I made by decocting the medicine. They’ll be much more convenient from now on. Take one pill three times a day, morning, noon, and night.”

Ji Yan’an nodded. “Thank you.”

“County Deputy Magistrate Ma has also relented. He has the roster of the people the Li Family seized and sent to the quarry, as well as evidence that they profited from the ore and smuggled salt and iron.”

“Who would’ve thought County Deputy Magistrate Ma had hidden himself so well?”

In any case, with these things in hand, it would be much easier for Fan He to deal with the Li Family.

Master Li must have gotten wind of it. After waking from his faint, he immediately began making arrangements to contact the Prefect of Qiusha.

But before support from the Prefect could arrive, he received terrible news instead.

Roughly eighty thousand Barbarians had attacked Qiusha.

Prefect Ouyang Can had been so frightened that he abandoned the city and fled.

This time, Master Li truly could not hold on. He collapsed.

At the same time, Ji Yan’an also received the news.

He slammed his palm down on the table. “Fan He, I’ll leave a few people here with you. Handle the Li Family’s affairs properly. Everyone else, come with me. We’re leaving for Qiusha!”

Jiang Yunsui hurriedly hugged her little bundle.

“Jiang Yunsui, you’re staying here too.”

Jiang Yunsui looked up at him pitifully. “Why?”

Ji Yan’an said, “Qiusha is dangerous right now.”

Then he turned to Song Jin and Shen Qingzhu.

“Only by being thrown into a desperate situation can we fight our way to survival. If we get through this crisis in Qiusha, our strength will definitely grow. But if we don’t…”

He did not finish, but everyone understood.

If they did not get through it, they would die.

Song Jin smiled. “I don’t think this rotten Great Liang can hold on much longer. Even without us, there won’t be any shortage of people who want to rebel.”

It was only a matter of time.

The only regret would be not being able to take revenge personally.

So: “Let’s do our best to survive.”

Jiang Yunsui said, “I…”

Ji Yan’an crouched halfway down in front of her. “Jiang Yunsui, settle down here with Fan He for now. Later, I’ll have someone arrange a place for you to stay.”

Jiang Yunsui watched Ji Yan’an and the others leave with reddened eyes.

But she wanted to go with them too.

“Do they think I’ll hold them back?”

Fan He patted her head.

“You’re not holding anyone back. In fact, many times, our plans only went more smoothly because of you.”

“It’s just that everyone worries about you. More than anything, we want you to grow up safely.”