Chapter 206
Chapter 206
We had just finished tidying up when Liu Junyan returned.
Li Qingying instinctively glanced behind him and asked in confusion, “Seventh Master, didn’t Old Fifth Hui come back with you?”
“Moqiong?” Liu Junyan said. “I had some personal business to take care of today, so he didn’t come with me.”
Li Qingying muttered, “He wasn’t out on a mission, so why hasn’t he come home all day? He’s still injured. What if something happened to him?”
It was true. Hui Moqiong wasn’t the type to wander around outside for no reason.
Unless he had something to do, he generally preferred staying in the Pawnshop.
Just as we were talking, shrill screams and wails suddenly came from the direction of the West Street Entrance.
In the stillness of the night, the cries were loud enough to carry across nearly half of Wufu Town.
The three of us immediately headed outside. The moment we stepped out of the Pawnshop and looked toward the West Street Entrance, we saw Hui Moqiong dragging a man toward the Pawnshop by his right leg, hauling him along upside down.
The man wailed at the top of his lungs, both hands clawing desperately at the corner of a wall and refusing to let go.
As he struggled, he shouted, “Fifth Master, please let me go! I’m just an errand runner! I don’t know anything! If you want someone to vent your anger on, go find Shuchen! This has nothing to do with me…”
Hui Moqiong was seething. He kicked the man in the rear again and again, each blow viciously hard.
The man howled and sobbed with every kick. Eventually, he could no longer hold on and abruptly reverted to his true form — a massive Flower Mouse.
Hui Moqiong picked up the Flower Mouse, which was as large as a house cat, and strode toward the Pawnshop.
The moment he stepped through the Pawnshop’s front door, he pinned the Flower Mouse to the coffee table and barked, “Qingying, lock the door!”
Li Qingying hurriedly barred the Pawnshop’s front door.
Surrounded by all four of us, the Flower Mouse huddled beside one of the coffee table’s legs and looked utterly pitiful.
Hui Moqiong dropped onto the sofa, picked up the water on the coffee table, and gulped down several mouthfuls.
From the looks of it, he had spent the entire day outside tracking down one of Hui Shuchen’s subordinates, eventually catching this Flower Mouse.
No wonder he was exhausted.
Once he finished drinking, he hurled the cup straight at the floor. It shattered beside the Flower Mouse’s feet, and shards of porcelain bounced up and struck him.
Hui Moqiong snarled, “Talk. What was Hui Shuchen trying to do when he broke into the Pawnshop that night? If you don’t give me a full accounting today, I’ll leave you in the Pawnshop as food for the evil ghosts.”
The Flower Mouse trembled like a leaf.
I suddenly remembered that Hui Shuchen’s faction had originally been left behind by Hui Moqiong.
Hui Moqiong would never have dragged back some random person for questioning.
This Flower Mouse had to have served at Hui Shuchen’s side for a long time. He might even be one of Hui Shuchen’s trusted confidants.
Taking the guess one step further, he might once have followed Hui Moqiong and lived here in the Wufu Town Pawnshop.
That was why Hui Moqiong was so furious.
I glanced at Liu Junyan just as he lowered his gaze to me. He tipped his chin toward the chairs beside us, evidently intending to stay out of this and let Hui Moqiong handle it himself.
Liu Junyan and I sat off to one side.
Under Hui Moqiong’s relentless psychological pressure, the Flower Mouse’s defenses finally crumbled. He suddenly turned around, wrapped his plump front paws around Hui Moqiong’s thigh, and whimpered through his tears, “Fifth Master, you have no idea what kind of lives we led while you were gone all those years!
“After you were imprisoned under the Seal, Shuchen seized absolute control and started issuing reckless orders. It wasn’t long before he got many of our brothers killed. When the Chief Guardian argued with him, he sent his men to besiege the Chief Guardian. He also killed several senior members who refused to submit to him.
“We… We followed him down the wrong path, and now… now there’s no turning back…”
His words sounded sincere, and they struck Hui Moqiong exactly where it hurt most.
Hui Moqiong’s lips twitched. Only after calming himself did he say, “Sooner or later, I’ll make Shuchen answer for the sins he’s committed. I brought you here to ask you one thing. Just answer me truthfully.”
Flower Mouse wiped away his tears, then glanced back respectfully at Liu Junyan before saying, “With something happening to the Tang Family in Huicheng, there was no way the Pawnshop could stay out of it. Shuchen counted the days and figured all of you would head to Huicheng that day. He planned to seize the opportunity to sneak into the Pawnshop and steal the Buddha Eyes.”
His answer caught all of us off guard.
Hui Moqiong frowned. “The Pawnshop isn’t somewhere just anyone can enter. Shuchen knows the rules.”
“Fifth Master, the Pawnshop’s rear courtyard has fallen into disrepair, and there’s a gap in the Seal,” Flower Mouse said. “After the Seal was placed on you back then, Shuchen dug a mouse tunnel beneath the rear courtyard wall…”
That revelation shocked everyone present.
There was a breach in the Pawnshop’s Seal? And a mouse tunnel had been dug through it?
A vulnerability that serious was a catastrophe waiting to happen if they failed to discover it in time!
Hui Moqiong grabbed Flower Mouse by the throat. A fine layer of fur sprouted across his face in his fury, only to vanish in the next instant. “Explain yourself!”
Flower Mouse answered in a trembling voice, “Shuchen thought all of you would be at the Tang Family in Huicheng and wouldn’t be back anytime soon. At most, you’d leave that Little Madam Li behind to guard the place, and he didn’t consider her a threat. If he could enter the Pawnshop through the mouse tunnel and successfully obtain the Buddha Eyes, he’d earn great merit and secure a brilliant future for himself.”
“Earn merit?” Hui Moqiong asked. “Who is he so eager to please?”
Flower Mouse shook his head again. “All I know is that he’s thrown his lot in with some powerful figure in Huicheng. No one knows exactly who it is. That person seems to have wanted the Buddha Eyes for a long time.”
Hui Moqiong released Flower Mouse and sat there in a daze.
Hui Shuchen had gone over to someone in Huicheng. Could it be Hundun?
If so, he had truly cast his lot in with our enemies.
At that moment, Hui Moqiong was utterly disappointed in his thirteenth brother.
The next time the brothers met, either one would kill the other.
That was the last outcome Hui Moqiong had ever wanted.
He had endured far too many partings and deaths in the Qinling Mountains. Even now, his youngest sister was still missing, her fate unknown. Hui Shuchen had been the only family left at his side, and the two had depended on each other to survive.
Unless things reached the point of no return, he would never have given up on Hui Shuchen so easily.
Unfortunately…
Hui Moqiong kicked Flower Mouse again, then raised a hand and rubbed hard between his brows, as if all the strength had been drained from him in an instant. “Get lost. Go back and tell him not to even think about making another move against the Pawnshop. Otherwise, I’ll deal with him personally and clean house!”
Flower Mouse hurriedly kowtowed to Hui Moqiong, then turned and kowtowed to Liu Junyan as well.
Afterward, he scrambled to his feet and stumbled away.
No one stopped him. Hui Moqiong needed him to deliver the warning.
Li Qingying reached out and patted Hui Moqiong on the shoulder. She had just opened her mouth to offer a few words of comfort when Hui Moqiong suddenly twisted sideways, stretched out his long arm, and wrapped it around her waist.
Li Qingying jumped in fright. She instinctively looked toward the two of us, her cheeks flushing scarlet as she shoved at him, trying to wrench him off.
But Hui Moqiong clung tightly to her waist, burying his entire head against her lower abdomen. His voice choked with sobs as he wailed, “Yingyingzi, my life is so hard! Why do I have it so hard?”
“My parents are dead. Twelve of my own brothers are dead. My little sister is missing, and I don’t even know if she’s alive. I cleaned up that brat’s piss and shit and raised him with my own two hands. How did he turn into a White-eyed Wolf?”
“Am I really that much of a failure?”
“My only family left has become my enemy too. Yingyingzi, no one loves me anymore. No one wants me. Waaah…”