Ch 208: The Cannon Fodder Won’t Play Along Anymore [QT]

The room suddenly darkened.

This was not Mu Rong’s imagination.

It was morning, the weather was fine, and the window in his study was open.

But the instant that pale-faced man entered, a gust of wind from nowhere slammed the window shut.

The world fell silent at once, even the birds in the garden outside could no longer be heard.

Mu Rong could only hear the sound of his own heartbeat.

Thump, thump, thump.

Mu Xing and Wen Li, who should have been in the study, were gone.

Mu Rong stared in horror at this strange man and instinctively took a step back.

“Wh-who are you? Where are my wife and son?” He couldn’t help glancing behind him.

Ling Nu sized him up, the corners of his lips slowly curling into a smile, dark energy swirling around his body, emerald eyes fixed on Mu Rong.

The moment Mu Rong met those eyes, his expression went blank.

Ling Nu sat on the sofa and asked, “Do you know what your Mu ancestors did?”

Mu Rong blankly asked, “What?”

Ling Nu’s face twisted with anger: “The matter of the cat demon.”

Mu Rong answered, “I know. My father told me years ago.”

In fact, Wen Li and Mu Xing were just standing at the doorway. They watched Mu Rong stand there dazed, as if hypnotized, answering Ling Nu’s questions.

Hearing Mu Rong’s confirmation, Wen Li’s heart sank.

Ling Nu asked urgently, “Where exactly did you suppress the cat demon’s bones on Jiao Ming Mountain? How can the curse be undone?”

Mu Rong hesitated for quite a while before replying, “A book was passed down from our ancestors. It records all of this in detail. My father said, after so many generations, the Mu family long lost the skills of our forebears and never studied it carefully.”

“And that book?” Ling Nu demanded.

Mu Rong told him it was in the safe in the study.

At this point, Ling Nu had already gotten what he wanted.

But he glanced at Mu Xing, remembering the benefit of that bag of dried fish.

So he asked Mu Rong, “You know the Mu family curse—every fifty years one Mu must die at the hands of the cat demon. You gave the black jade qilin to Mu Xing. Did you mean for him to die?”

Wen Li couldn’t help clenching her fists.

Mu Xing had already guessed the answer, so he was very calm.

Mu Rong declared righteously, “Someone has to die. Xingxing has enjoyed our family’s love and indulgence for so many years. It’s time he bore responsibility.”

“Damn you, bastard Mu Rong!” Wen Li couldn’t hold back and cursed aloud.

Her angry shout snapped Mu Rong out of the strange daze.

He blinked back to his senses, not remembering what he had just said. Looking at the pale, eerie young man before him, then at Wen Li and Mu Xing standing to the side, he frowned instinctively. “You…”

Smack!

Ling Nu raised his hand and slapped him.

He hadn’t held back. Mu Rong was knocked out cold.

Wen Li, who had wanted to strike him but was a step too late: “…”

She couldn’t help shouting, “Beautifully done!”

Just having heard Mu Rong personally admit he wanted their son dead, Wen Li was burning with fury.

She wasn’t so afraid of Ling Nu anymore. Instead, she looked at him naturally and asked, “Mr. Ling Nu, may I address you this way? Could you wake him up again like you just did? There are still things I haven’t figured out, and I want to ask him.”

She added, “Of course, I’m sorry to trouble you. You seem to really like dried fish. If you help me with this, I…”

Ling Nu’s eyes flickered almost imperceptibly.

He guessed that this human woman seemed to want to bribe him with dried fish.

But was he such a cat with no principles? Just a bit of dried fish and she thought he’d do as asked?

As he pondered, Wen Li’s next words came out: “I’ll buy a company that produces dried fish, to thank you.”

Ling Nu: !

Wen Li, still embarrassed, said, “I know such worldly things may not matter to you. But as an ordinary person, I can only show gratitude in such a vulgar way.”

Ling Nu’s mind was filled with: A dried fish company!

What was vulgar about that?

He didn’t even bother with pretense. He immediately said, “Deal!”

Mu Xing chuckled softly at the side, but the two clear-headed people present—one thinking only of dried fish, the other about something else—didn’t notice.

Mu Rong groggily woke up.

His face felt sore, but when he touched it, nothing seemed wrong.

He looked around in confusion. It was just his study, and he was sitting in his usual chair where he handled business.

How had he fallen asleep?

He thought about it. He’d come to the study after breakfast. Nothing unusual happened—just reading and thinking about some matters…

Maybe he hadn’t been resting well lately because of the curse, and was just too tired. That must be it, he thought.

“Mu Rong.” A voice sounded by his ear.

He instinctively looked around. “Who?”

A cold hand settled on his shoulder, and his thoughts sank.

Ling Nu tilted his chin toward Wen Li: “You ask him directly.”

For the sake of the dried fish, he was being polite to Wen Li.

And in his heart he thought: It looks like Mu Xing and his mother are good people too, tricked by the Mu family, both quite pitiful.

Since that’s the case, when I take revenge on the Mu family, I’ll spare those two.

Wen Li looked at the husband she had lived with for decades, her heart filled with hatred and disgust.

She asked Mu Rong, “You knew about the Mu family curse long ago, didn’t you? You had already decided to make Xingxing bear it, didn’t you?”

Mu Rong replied, “Someone had to take that responsibility.”

Wen Li shouted angrily, “Then why don’t you go die yourself?”

She asked again, “So all these years, your supposed favoritism toward Xingxing was fake? Just an act for me to see? Why bother with such false displays? Do you think I would mistreat my stepson?”

Suddenly, she thought of something. “Wait! When did you first know about the Mu family curse? When you married me, when you had Xingxing…”

A chill spread down her back.

Mu Rong had already given the answer. “In my heart, my heir was always Mu Qiong. He is my eldest son, the child of me and the woman I love. Unfortunately, one time my father saw you in a shopping mall and insisted I divorce and pursue you.”

Wen Li was stunned. “Why?”

Mu Rong said proudly, “Our Mu ancestors were once famous cultivators. In recent decades, though we no longer have that talent, reading ordinary physiognomy is no problem. My father said you had an extremely rare face of fortune and prosperity for your husband. The luck our family stole from the cat demon has been nearly exhausted over the centuries. If I married you, your prosperous fate could ensure the Mu family flourished for decades more.”

Not only Wen Li, but even Mu Xing had never expected such a hidden secret.

Looking at Mu Rong, Mu Xing only felt waves of disgust in his heart.

How could a family stoop so low?

If even Mu Xing felt that way, how much more Wen Li, who was the one truly wronged?

Yet Mu Rong went on, “I loved Mu Qiong’s mother, but as head of the Mu family, I had to take responsibility for the whole clan. Just at that time I already knew of the curse. I couldn’t bear to lose Mu Qiong. So, marrying Wen Li and having a child with her—he could take the calamity in Mu Qiong’s place.”

Wen Li almost vomited from disgust at this man.

The thought that for so many years she had shared a bed with such a creature made her feel like retching.

Seeing her pale face, Mu Xing worried she might collapse from anger. He quickly came to her side and comforted her. “Don’t get too angry, Mom. Just think of him as a beast. Why lower yourself to reason with a beast?”

Wen Li gripped her son’s hand tightly, as if drawing strength from it.

She nodded. “Yes, such a vile animal isn’t worth my anger. Isn’t it good now? Xingxing is safe, and I know the truth.”

She turned her head, her eyes blazing as she stared at Ling Nu, and asked solemnly, “Mr. Ling Nu, you’ve come for revenge, haven’t you?”

Ling Nu was startled by the light in her gaze, and nodded instinctively.

Wen Li gritted her teeth. “Fine. I’m not particularly skilled, but I do have money. Whatever you want, as long as it can be bought with money, I’m willing to give. I have only one request.”

Ling Nu couldn’t help but say, “Speak.”

Wen Li looked hatefully at Mu Rong, who sat like a wooden doll in the chair, and sneered. “Torture him well. Don’t let him die too quickly.”

After listening to Mu Rong earlier, Ling Nu too felt this Mu clansman was even more vicious than he had imagined.

Thinking that way, Wen Li and her son seemed all the more pitiful.

As fellow victims of the Mu family, and given he already had a good impression of them, Ling Nu felt Wen Li and her son were now on his side.

He nodded. “Of course. Even if you didn’t say it, I would.”

Wen Li thought for a moment and then said, “If you mean to take his life, could you wait a bit?”

Ling Nu: ?

Wen Li said decisively, “Wait until I divorce him and divide the property first. I don’t want any further ties to him. Even if he must die, I want the divorce done before that.”

Ling Nu was stunned. After all, he was a five-hundred-year-old cat spirit, used to seeing weak and gentle women of the inner chambers. He had never seen one this hard, who spoke of divorce without a second thought.

But it was a good thing.

Not only did he agree, he even promised to help with it.

Mu Rong woke groggily once more.

This time, both sides of his face hurt—one from the slap that had knocked him out earlier, the other from Wen Li, who had nearly died of rage and struck him too.

But when he touched his face, there was nothing unusual, because Ling Nu had concealed the marks of injury with an illusion, leaving only the pain.

Mu Rong recalled vaguely: after breakfast he had gone to the study to read, then… maybe he was too tired and had fallen asleep?