After Transmigrating As The Second Male Lead In Qn Old-School Angsty Romance - Chapter 11

“Tsk. What rotten luck to be saddled with this chore. Eat it or don’t, who are you trying to scare…”

Outside the room, the young servant’s grumbling voice gradually faded into the distance. Inside the room, a woman coughed violently, her thin cheeks flushed red from the force of it. Beside her sat an equally thin young boy.

The boy wore plain clothes that could even be called shabby. His face was clearly still young and childish, yet at this moment, there was a calmness far beyond his age. He looked at the woman coughing so hard she could barely breathe with a calm, indifferent expression. He did not step forward to help. He merely watched coldly and quietly.

Only after the woman finally eased did he hand her a bowl of clear water.

After drinking the water, the woman gradually recovered. Only then did she look at the boy beside her with a face full of self-blame, and then began the same old nagging she had repeated for years.

“It’s all Mother’s fault. I was useless and couldn’t protect you.”

The boy was very calm, as if numb. He did not answer.

The woman then began worrying again.

“I don’t know what the heir means by suddenly making you go learn martial arts. Does he want to amuse himself with you? But he has never paid attention to you before. Could some villain have said something to him?” The more the woman spoke, the more worried she became, and her eyes reddened again. “Yue’er, Mother is useless. I made you suffer before you were even born. Mother thought we could hide like this for a lifetime. It would be fine if they never remembered you for the rest of their lives. At least that way, you could grow up safely. But who knows why the heir suddenly remembered you?”

“What should we do? What should we do…”

The boy looked at the woman, who had completely lost her bearings, and a trace of mockery flashed through his eyes.

Look at this dilapidated courtyard, these shabby clothes, the cold food that still gave off a sour smell, his skin-and-bones body, and the bruises hidden beneath his clothes. Mother called this “growing up safely”?

“Yue’er.” The woman suddenly grabbed the boy’s hand again. “No matter what the heir wants to do, you just endure it. Do whatever he tells you to do. You must not talk back to the heir, and don’t casually open your mouth either. Do you understand?”

There was still no expression on the boy’s childish face. Only a hint of disdain unsuited to his age flashed through his eyes. From beginning to end, he did not respond to the woman with a single word. He remained silent like that until the woman finished muttering to herself and began a new round of coughing. Even then, he never opened his mouth.

On the other side, after several days of selection, more than ten martial arts masters were chosen from those who had signed up. Finally, after Hu An’s last round of screening, three people with the best martial arts remained.

According to Hu An, these three could be considered third-rate experts in the jianghu. However, given Sun Zibai’s foul reputation, as well as the Pingnan Marquis Residence’s very poor reputation in the jianghu, being able to find martial arts masters of this level was already considered not bad. Sun Zibai was fairly satisfied as well.

Early in the morning, Sun Zibai had people summon the three young masters of the residence to the marquis residence’s training ground. This place had originally been used for martial training, but usually, it was the guards of the marquis residence who trained here. Even if the young masters came here before, it had only been to play. Of course, under normal circumstances, they would not come here at all.

Sun Ziheng thought he was the first to arrive. Ever since he had been grabbed by the back of his collar that day and given this task by Sun Zibai, he had not slept well for the past few days. He did not dare go out wandering anymore either, behaving properly out of fear that Sun Zibai would appear before him again and give him a beating. But only after he arrived did he discover that ten-year-old Sun Ziyue was already standing silently in the corner.

He had no presence at all. If not for the fact that his small, thin figure looked out of place among the others, Sun Ziheng would not have noticed him at all.

On ordinary days, the relationship between the brothers was not good. Or rather, it could be said that they were very distant.

Their eldest brother had a noble status and a strange, unruly temper. He liked bullying people, so they were all afraid of him. The third son, Sun Ziqian, did not get along with him at all either. As for this younger brother, Sun Ziyue, who was much younger than them, he was even less connected to him. If not for the occasional meal together during festivals, they might not see each other once all year.

Sun Ziheng was talkative. Outside the marquis residence, he relied entirely on that mouth of his. At this moment, he wanted to ease the deathly awkwardness between brothers, but seeing the obvious distance around Little Fourth, he ultimately failed to open his mouth. Just then, Sun Zibai arrived with the three martial arts masters.

From far away, Sun Zibai saw the two younger brothers. Sun Ziheng stood lazily with no proper posture. After seeing Sun Zibai, he quickly restrained himself and no longer dared to let his eyes wander. One glance was enough to tell that he feared this eldest brother, the heir, from the bottom of his heart.

The other one, however, made Sun Zibai frown slightly in surprise.

According to the plot, this one should currently be ten years old. But the boy before him looked far too short, and very thin. The clothes he wore were worlds apart from Sun Ziheng’s. Not only were they so shabby they could not compare even to the servants beside him, they also did not fit, looking somewhat too large. This made his already thin body appear even more frail.

How could this be considered a young man? He was clearly just a child.

Seeing Sun Zibai, Sun Ziheng immediately came over obsequiously and called him Eldest Brother. Sun Ziyue, however, merely glanced faintly at Sun Zibai and showed no intention of opening his mouth.

Sun Ziheng carefully pushed him and wiggled his brows, signaling for him to greet him. Unexpectedly, with just a light push, Sun Ziyue nearly stumbled.

Sun Zibai frowned and reached out to lift up the child who had fallen toward him. The boy never opened his mouth. Even when he had nearly been pushed over just now, there had been no expression on his face. He was neither panicked nor afraid, like a mute without expression.

At this moment, a young servant rushed over in a fawning and panicked manner, kneeling before Sun Zibai.

“Heir, please calm your anger. The fourth young master is ignorant and offended the heir. Please don’t be angry. This servant will have the fourth young master apologize to you at once.”

As the young servant spoke obsequiously, one hand even reached out to pull Sun Ziyue beside him, forcefully trying to make him kneel.

Sun Ziyue looked like a child of only seven or eight. His body was already thin and frail, so how could he withstand the servant pulling him like that?

Sun Zibai saw it clearly. This young servant did not hold back at all when pulling him. It could even be said that he used great force. Yet he was merely a servant, while the person he was pulling was the master he served.

Sun Zibai’s expression darkened. Before Sun Ziyue could kneel, Sun Zibai pulled him up, then kicked the young servant in the chest.

“Ah…”

The young servant had not expected the heir to suddenly kick him. With a miserable cry, he was kicked so hard he rolled across the ground. The fawning expression on his face instantly turned panicked. He did not even care about the dull pain in his chest, scrambling and crawling to Sun Zibai’s feet before kowtowing repeatedly.

“Heir, please calm your anger! Heir, please calm your anger!”

“What kind of dog thing are you, daring to speak for your master? Whether the fourth young master is ignorant or not, is it your place to say? You even dare make your master apologize? Who gave you the courage?”

As the heir, and with his own gloomy villainous aura, Sun Zibai’s series of cold rebukes not only frightened the young servant on the ground out of his wits, but even Sun Ziheng beside him began trembling with fear. Only Sun Ziyue remained very calm, as if what had just happened had nothing to do with him.

“Heir, this servant… this servant…”

The young servant’s face turned deathly pale, but before he could finish speaking, Sun Hong dragged him away. What a bold dog thing, daring to make the heir unhappy so early in the morning.

The martial arts masters watched this scene with some unease in their hearts. They had long heard of the Pingnan Marquis heir’s reputation outside. It was indeed an evil reputation, but there were pros and cons. The status of the marquis residence was admirable, and the payment was truly generous, so there had still been quite a few people fighting to come. At this moment, they could not help wondering: if this heir suddenly kicked them in the chest, would they be able to throw away their backbone and dignity and not resist?

Sun Zibai, however, swept his gaze around and frowned again.

“Where is Old Third?” His sharp gaze shot toward Sun Ziheng. “You didn’t notify him?”

“No, no, no.” Sun Ziheng hurriedly denied it. “I did notify him. That day, as soon as Eldest Brother told me, I immediately went to inform him. But he wasn’t there at the time, so I told the young servant in his courtyard.”

Originally, this was something that could have been done by sending his own servant. But because it was something Sun Zibai had assigned, Sun Ziheng had personally made a trip to Old Third’s courtyard, afraid he would fail to handle it well and anger his eldest brother.

Sun Zibai frowned. At this moment, sharp-eyed Sun Hong noticed a young servant trembling among the crowd. His expression was panicked as he looked around inside, as if there were some urgent matter but he did not dare step forward. Sun Hong simply dragged the person before Sun Zibai.

“Master, this person was sneaking around.”

The young servant had already been panicking, and now his face turned as white as paper. Seeing him trembling like a sieve, Sun Zibai felt rather speechless. So in these people’s eyes, he, this heir, was a living King of Hell.

“What is going on? Speak properly.”

Only then did the young servant hurriedly explain. It turned out that he served in Sun Ziqian’s courtyard. A few days ago, he had been the one to receive the second young master’s notice. But at that time, their young master had not been there. He had originally thought that after a few days, their young master might return. He had never expected the heir to act so swiftly this time and recruit martial arts masters so quickly. But their young master still had not returned.

The young servant had hurried to the training ground, originally intending to find Sun Hong and explain. Unexpectedly, the scene just now of Sun Zibai kicking the young servant had frightened him. Thus, he trembled in the crowd and did not dare step forward.

As for where the third young master had gone, the young servant braced himself and said, “The third young master said he was going to Mount Huaqing to fast and worship Buddha for forty-nine days, in order to obtain a peace talisman personally drawn by the enlightened monk of Huaqing Temple.”

Sun Zibai’s brow twitched.

A peace talisman required forty-nine days of fasting and Buddhist worship? What kind of divine talisman was this? Could it bring the dead back to life?

The original text’s description of the third young master of the marquis residence suddenly surfaced in his mind: an infatuated fool. In Qin Mo’s words, he was a pitiful infatuated fool.

It was said that the third young master, Sun Ziqian, was hopelessly in love with a man. The man’s beauty could overturn cities, and he was elegant and otherworldly, a stunning beauty pursued by many rich and noble young masters. The third young master’s devotion was said to be admirable. In order to win a smile from the beauty, he could disregard life, death, and exhaustion to climb Mount Fengxi late at night and personally pick a secluded orchid the beauty liked. He could also stand guard in the wind and snow for an entire night in the depths of winter, just to catch a cute snow rabbit the beauty liked. He could personally go into the water to pick lotus seed pods, spending several days selecting the biggest and most even lotus seeds to present before the beauty. He could also spend every early morning of an entire summer collecting the freshest dew from lotus leaves to brew tea for the beauty…

Ah, this…

And Qin Mo believed he was a pitiful infatuated fool because later, in order to celebrate the beauty’s birthday, the third young master stole a precious potted red rose that the heir liked. It had originally been bought by the heir from a foreign merchant to give to Qin Mo. As a result, the heir flew into a rage. Because of this, the third young master was ordered by Sun Zibai to have his hand broken, and he was also grounded for a month.

The tragedy was that by the time his grounding was lifted and he endured his hand injury to go find the beauty he had been longing for, that person actually thought he had changed his heart and had married someone else.

The third young master was heartbroken. After returning to the marquis residence, he refused food and drink, and in the end, he actually died just like that.

Sun Zibai fell into a long silence. He did not see any devotion. Instead, he saw two bright words: simp.

At this moment, seeing Sun Zibai’s speechless expression and silence, Sun Ziheng suddenly weakly leaned closer and looked at the third young master’s servant.

“The enlightened monk your young master mentioned… It wouldn’t happen to be Master Kongxiang, would it?”

The young servant’s eyes lit up. “Second Young Master, you know about him too?”

Sun Zibai also looked at him. Sun Ziheng also felt speechless.

“Master Kongxiang’s peace talismans are sold at Wenxiang Pavilion. Two hundred wen per talisman.”

Two hundred wen…

The young servant went blank.

The corner of Sun Zibai’s mouth twitched.

“Your family’s third young master is truly… truly interesting.”