The children noticed Qi Qingyao’s poor mood over the past few days. Finally, Qi Qingyao sat in the study again, resting her cheeks in her hands deep in thought in the early morning of the next day after breakfast.
“Mommy~~” Xiaobao walked over to her and grabbed Qi Qingyao’s arm worriedly. He asked in a childish voice, “Did something happen?”
Dabao and Erniu also came over, looking at Qi Qingyao with worried expressions.
“You guys…”
Qi Qingyao gathered Xiaobao in one swoop and sat him on her leg. She then pulled over Dabao and Erniu. Caressing Dabao’s head, she thought for a bit before saying, “While Mommy wants to say that you’re all still too young, the reality is you’re almost four now. You guys also know about birth and old age, sickness and death, and more so about love and hate and goodbyes, don’t you?”
Dabao heard his mommy’s praises and instantly tilted his head high, saying delightedly, “Of course, we’re four now after all! We’re at the age where we can share Mommy’s worries.”
Erniu and Xiaobao did not say anything but they used their gazes to show that they were all grown up too.
“What good children~” Qi Qingyao pecked the children’s cheeks. “I don’t want to hide too much from you. Since you know that I’ve been really troubled lately, you must have also noticed that there are many more guards around this house.”
The children instantly nodded their heads seriously.
Qi Qingyao then said, “I will tell you where I come from. I also want to tell you kids about our situation—the four of us—at this moment.”
The children opened their eyes wide. They pulled over three futons and sat cross-legged in front of her.
Looking as if they were prepared to listen to her seriously.
Qi Qingyao sorted out her thoughts for a bit, and then slowly began to talk about the recent events, beginning with the State Preceptor’s advent to Qingzhou City, and also Qi Qingzhu’s death…
The children did not know who the State Preceptor was.
Dabao and Erniu did not dare ask.
Xiaobao, on the other hand, was like a little adult. Resting his cheek in one hand seriously, he asked about the State Preceptor’s position, about his power and such.
Qi Qingyao explained it in a few sentences.
Xiaobao nodded, looking as if he understood but not quite.
After all the children’s doubts had been cleared…
Qi Qingyao finally wrapped it up.
“So, that’s our situation now. I have a few ideas in mind to break this deadlock but I don’t know which one to go with.”
The children continued listening to her seriously.
Qi Qingyao said, “Firstly, we can get someone to carve out a tunnel and we’ll sneak away from this house.”
“Secondly, we wait for Si Jin to appear. If he’s a grand master, he’d probably have the power to take us away. But I also think it’s impractical for us to entrust our lives onto someone else.”
“Thirdly, I haven’t thought about it yet.”
…
Saying that, Qi Qingyao was a little embarrassed.
That was because in the face of absolute power, whatever schemes were futile.
So, she was worried!
Dabao and Erniu did not know what to say.
The two looked at Xiaobao unconsciously.
Xiaobao rubbed his fleshy lower jaw for a long time.
Then said,” Mommy should choose the first method.” Then, in a childlike voice he added, “If we want to escape, we only need a tunnel the size of a dog to crawl out since we’re so small. Mommy is also very thin and not chubby, so the tunnel we need doesn’t need to be wide. So if we were to go with the tunnel, we’d only need a few days to be done with the digging.”
Dabao and Erniu instantly felt that Xiaobao was really smart.
He was truly the smartest little brother.
“That makes a lot of sense but there is a problem,” Qi Qingyao pointed out.
“What is it?” Dabao asked.
Qi Qingyao said calmly, “We don’t know what’s the situation outside. Half of the upper circles of Qingzhou City are probably paying attention to our movements. The three of you are triplets. You’ll be too noticeable no matter where we go. In this situation, the State Preceptor surely would have sent people to keep a constant eye on the gate of the city, waiting to locate the grand masters of Eastern Ling and Southern Ming. So the guards must be very strict. Getting out of the city would be harder than ascending up to the sky.
“But if we don’t leave the city, we might be discovered anywhere within the city and it’s hard to say that we could immediately be captured by the powerhouses from the other nations. We would become bait to lure Si Jin out by then. In these circumstances, not leaving the house would be the best option since there’s good protection on the house now.”
Xiaobao smiled and said, “Mommy is really indecisive.”
Qi Qingyao shrugged and said, “There are pros and cons to everything.”
Erniu asked probingly, “What about the second option? We could wait for uncle Si Jin to appear.”
Qi Qingyao thought for a long time and mentioned casually, “Si Jin likely was not heavily injured but that he hadn’t appeared in 10 days. That could only mean two things. First, he is unable to come out, perhaps he had been poisoned? Which leads to more odious outcomes and thus he can’t appear. Second, he doesn’t want to appear after his identity had been revealed.”
After a moment of contemplation, she said, “Regardless of which reason, we cannot just wait idly by now to die.”
Dabao scratched his head. Listening to the back and forth between his Mommy and Xiaobao left him feeling a little confused. He whispered softly, “Were just ordinary people from the village, are our lives that valuable?”
Qi Qingyao patted his head. “Our lives aren’t valuable. It’s Si Jin’s that’s valuable. We’re just pieces on a chessboard, and the very useful kind.”
Chess pieces…
The children did not really know about the meaning behind chess pieces, they only thought about the usual chess pieces when they played.
Dabao rested his cheek in his hand and pursed his lips. He said, “How worrying.”
Erniu scratched her head for a bit and not being able to hold it in anymore, she said, “Doesn’t Mommy know how to make some medicine? Why don’t you poison them?”
Qi Qingyao said, “Lu Yan told me before that the grand masters are invulnerable to poison.” What kind of grand master would they be if they were not?
Dabao was stunned for a long time before he said pitifully, “Then, aren’t we now, like…turtles in a nest?”
Qi Qingyao said, “The idiom is to catch turtles in a jar.” (T/N: Means to be easy prey.)
“Right right, to catch turtles in a jar.” Dabao’s eyes were wide like chicken eggs.
“We’re not turtles! I won’t let you all die either. Everyone better be more alert from today on.” Qi Qingyao laughed at the children, feeling relaxed as she said, “Everything will be alright!”
Xiaobao paused for a moment before asking, “If this was a chessboard, then which pieces can we move? How many pieces do we have?”
Qi Qingyao’s eyebrows raised as she said.
“Using chess pieces to describe this is a bit too scheming. I like to use cards to describe this. If we stretch it, Lu Yan is counted as one point because he still needs me to treat him for the time being, so I’m still considered useful. He will help me during the critical moments. But in the face of the authority of the State Preceptor and the Head Grand Secretariat, not to mention the overall situation, he will choose the overall situation and surrender to the authority. So, this card can only be used for insignificant situations. Our trump card, Si Jin, is not there, so I won’t talk about that. The Head Grand Secretariat is the former Jiang Bai, Jiang Yeqian, and he can barely be considered a card… I think he will help us a little during the critical moments but also only during insignificant situations. We have no cards to use right now.”
Xiaobao, “…”
He had seen the uncles play cards.
If there were no cards in hand that could be played, it meant that one had no solution at the moment.
It was also useless when the cards were small since the trump cards were not there.
“Then, we can only wait,” Xiaobao said.
Qi Qingyao agreed, “Indeed, we can only wait. But whatever I told you guys today, is not because I want you to come up with suggestions. I told you all about this so that you would be able to endure it a little more since things out there don’t look too good and you guys won’t be able to go out and play in the near future. We’ll see how it goes when we’re out of the current danger.”
…
…
Eastern Ling Border.
Yanyue City.
A very luxurious and lavish convoy came to a halt slowly at an inn in Yanyue City to take a rest! After a meal, it moved on.
Tong San looked at the layered mountain range and gradually slowed down the horses. Approaching the carriage, he parted the curtains and whispered.
“Young master, we’re about to cross the border.”
“I know.”
A rather resplendent, husky, and low male voice sounded from inside the carriage. There was also a hint of childlike youthfulness in the voice.
Tong San had never gone out of his country before and asked nervously.
“Are we really going to Northern Liang?”
“We are.”
“But…”
“No buts, get the convoys to move faster!”
The person in the carriage seemed somewhat impatient.
Not daring to question anymore, Tong San could only urge the convoy to move faster.
The young man in the carriage was dressed in dark black robes. He sat cross-legged on a futon with a cold expression.
The young man’s appearances were… If Qi Qingyao was here, she would definitely be shocked.
Eh.
Why did this person look so similar to her?
He was indeed very similar looking.
When Qi Qingyao was not smiling, her gaze would be sharp and ruthless; she would look soft and young when she laughed.
The difference is that, this youth gave off the air of a very elegant, bright and handsome noble young man. His high ponytail was very good looking, His eyebrows were sharp and incredibly bright. He had a kind of unattainable loftiness to him, and an arrogant domineering attitude.
The young man was really beautiful.
His gaze was like a hound’s.
At this moment, his gaze was unsmiling as he stared at the letter in his hand. There were a few sentences written in the letter.
[There is a large commotion in Qingzhou City. A person named Qi Qingyao looks very much like you, even her children look like you! If you are interested, come take a look.]
There was also a painting in the carriage. The painting is of the beauties in the hot spring… a copy of it.
There was even a row of words at the back.
[Qi Qingyao’s masterpiece. I had someone make a copy of it. What do you think? Are you interested now?]
The young man stared at the letter and the painting for a moment without a smile on his face, a chill seemingly seeping out from his being.
He gave off an unapproachable aura.
After he dropped the letter, however, he hummed for a while.
He continued to sit in meditation.
The young man was named Mo Yang.
He was a notorious son of the rich in the capital of Eastern Ling…one of them.
After passing the customs point and entering Northern Liang land…
Mo Yang drew back the carriage curtains and glanced at the sky outside. He called for the convoy to stop for a rest in a small town by the border.
It was Tong San’s first time out of the country. He was nervous, afraid that they might get mugged in Northern Liang, even more afraid that the young master might get into an accident.
He could not sleep well the entire night.
He woke up to check multiple times if Mo Yang was still in the room.
Mo Yang had initially fallen asleep but had been awakened by the fool a few times.
In the end, he was so annoyed that he would rather not sleep.
He sat up and continued meditating, glancing at that…painting a few times.
Tong San was a little scared. In the end, he wondered if he should just sit and sleep in front of his young master. That way he could keep watch over his young master and also protect him!
Waking up early the next morning.
Tong San greeted Mo Yang with two dark eye-circles.
“Good morning, Young Master!~”
“Let’s go.”
Mo Yang did not even look at Tong San’s dark circles.
Tong San yawned pitifully twice and rubbed his eyes. He then hurriedly called for the convoy to depart.
Tong San really did not understand.
Did he not just receive a letter and a painting?
The young master had been in deep thought for half an hour before he asked someone to prepare a carriage. Then, without any rest along the way, he changed horses every time they stopped at a city. They had changed horses multiple times.
The convoy finally crossed the Eastern Ling Border.
What was the young master anxious for?
Could he be wanting to meet someone?
He heard that their destination was Qingzhou City. Could he want to offer some prayers at the koi temple?
Tong San did not know.
Neither did the group of Mo family’s expert guards who had joined this trip, but they did not need to know. The young master gave them their wages every month and even gave their families a few cows and ten mu (T/N: traditional unit of measure for land, one unit equals to a fifteenth of a hectare) of land! He treated them exceptionally well. They only needed to defy all difficulties and dangers and ensure the young master’s safety.
…
…
Qi Qingyao did not leave the house the following days. She had Steward Zhang head out to buy all sorts of weird medicinal herbs, then locked herself in her room and began fiddling with something.
The servants in the courtyard could only smell the strong scent of medicine but they did not know what it was.
Later on, she even asked Steward Zhang to bring a big pot into the room.
Steward Zhang did not dare to ask what for, he just did as told.
In the end, not long after, he realized that it was really dry in the room with smoke and dust everywhere.
Steward Zhang thought to himself, ‘Oh, what is this for? Why does it look like she’s doing alchemy?’
Qi Qingyao opened the window.
The sooty smoke made everyone inside and outside the courtyard think that there was a fire.
Nobody dared to ask.
In his own courtyard, Lu Yan also saw the rising smoke from the side.
He was also shocked.
He personally went to ask what she was up to.
With a cloth covering her face, Qi Qingyao laughed and said, “I was trying to make some smoke bombs.”
“???” What bombs? “I don’t care what bombs you’re making! Don’t fill the entire courtyard with smoke…”
Lu Yan came in, clutching his nose and mouth and coughing. He accidentally knocked down a wooden basin that was on the side table. The wooden basin happened to pour into the pot.
“Eh?” Lu Yan was surprised.
How did he end up upturning a pot of flour?
Qi Qingyao turned her head and saw the scene. She almost fell over on the spot—that was potent knockout medicine. She ran over thinking of saving him but when she got closer, she caught a strange sweet smell in the smoke.
Qi Qingyao’s head tilted to one side and she immediately fell to the ground.
Lu Yan had not even managed to respond.
Before he fell to the ground with a thump…
No one expected that the outcome from mixing this pot of unmade smoke bombs with the pot of extremely potent knockout medicine would be unusually extraordinary.
The smoke drifted outside into the courtyard.
The servants in the outer courtyard also fell to the ground one by one.
Then, the entire Qi Residence…
In just 15 minutes, everyone was knocked out.
Even Dong Jing could not escape.
When he noticed that there was something wrong with the smoke, he wanted to cover his nose and mouth and leave, but it was too late… He just fell to the ground.
Dong Jing had one thought before he lost consciousness.
‘Crap.
‘Which evil-doer did this?
‘Is the entire Qi Residence going to be overthrown?
‘Things are about to go crazy.’
After half of the servants of the Qi Residence were drugged…
