After Transmigrating As The Second Male Lead In Qn Old-School Angsty Romance - Chapter 12

According to this young servant, the third young master, Sun Ziqian, had already been at Huaqing Temple for more than thirty days. If he truly intended to stay for the full forty-nine days, then it would still be more than ten days before he returned. Sun Zibai expressed admiration for his perseverance, but rejected the servant’s suggestion of going up the mountain to call him back.

“Do not interfere with his sincere devotion.”

Young servant: ?

Sun Ziheng: ?

Sun Zibai then had the three martial arts masters display their skills before the two young masters. The three of them had different martial arts styles, different moves, and different personalities. At first, Sun Zibai had chosen them for himself, but after witnessing the cold-faced uncle and those experts that night, Sun Zibai had a new plan. So he gave all three of them to the three young masters.

The three demonstrated their skills one by one, then later sparred with Commander Hu An. After all, they had been carefully selected. Naturally, their martial arts were not weak. What surprised Sun Zibai was that they could all easily exchange several dozen moves with Commander Hu without falling behind.

“Watch carefully. Each of you pick one you like. From now on, you will come here every day to learn.”

Sun Ziheng’s heart was bleeding. When he imagined how he would not only be unable to go out and play in the future, but would also have to suffer here every day, he immediately became listless. Yet his mouth still had to work hard to pull out a smile.

“Many thanks, Eldest Brother.”

Sun Ziyue was small. Standing beside the tall, slender Sun Zibai, he only barely reached his waist. But his steady temperament was much better than Sun Ziheng’s. From beginning to end, he did not speak. He merely watched quietly. Sun Zibai paid attention without showing it, until he discovered that this child’s calm gaze was keenly following the moves of one of the martial arts masters.

This man was called Lu Ange. He was the youngest among the three, and his appearance was surprisingly handsome. His sword technique flowed as smoothly as moving clouds and running water, carrying ruthlessness within beauty and strength within softness. It happened to suit Little Fourth’s quiet temperament very well.

Sun Zibai’s thoughts stirred slightly. “Little Fourth likes Master Lu?”

A person who had always had almost no presence was suddenly called out. Sun Ziyue was somewhat unused to it and raised his head. The heir was too tall and had the light behind him. Sun Ziyue only felt that his entire body was enveloped in the shadow cast by the heir’s tall figure. This was a shadow he was accustomed to. But at that moment, Sun Zibai suddenly stepped two steps to the side, making it less difficult for Sun Ziyue to look at him, and also just allowing the warm morning sun behind him to shine onto Sun Ziyue.

The sudden warmth made Sun Ziyue instinctively tremble. Afterward, Sun Zibai saw him nod.

“Good.” Sun Zibai lifted his head and smiled. “Then Little Fourth will be entrusted to Master Lu from now on.”

Lu Ange had just walked over. He cupped his fist toward Sun Zibai and smiled. “I will definitely not disappoint the heir. From now on, Lu will properly teach the fourth young master.”

Lu Ange then retreated to Sun Ziyue’s side. His eyes carried a smile as he met Sun Ziyue’s gaze, neither servile nor overbearing.

Sun Zibai was slightly satisfied. After all, during the selection, they had not looked only at martial arts skill. Of course, even if these people had ulterior motives, it did not matter. Hu An was not someone who sat around doing nothing.

Sun Zibai then turned to look at Sun Ziheng. “What about you? Who have you taken a liking to?”

Sun Ziheng weakly asked, “Eldest Brother, if I choose one, then who will the remaining master be for?”

He was panicking. The martial arts masters had been recruited because Eldest Brother wanted to learn. There were only three people before them, and yet he was letting them choose. If Sun Ziheng picked the strong one, would the weakest one be left for Eldest Brother?

How could that be allowed? Eldest Brother would not get angry, right?

Unexpectedly, Sun Zibai said as if it were only natural, “Naturally, for Old Third.”

Sun Ziheng: ?

Eldest Brother, what about learning martial arts?

So the one shouting about wanting to learn martial arts was you, but in the end, the ones who had to recruit martial arts masters and train hard every day were us?

In the end, Sun Zibai disdained the second young master’s hesitation and directly assigned him the most powerful martial artist among the three, Master Lu—Lu Zhao.

This man was fierce and muscular, with a full beard and bright, piercing eyes. Even his voice was rough and loud. At a glance, he was the straightforward and bold type. He was a perfect match for Sun Ziheng, this lazy, soft-skinned young nobleman.

Sun Ziheng: Eldest Brother really does want to fix me.

As for the remaining cold-faced uncle with an icy, emotionless gaze, who knew what he would become like once he met an infatuated fool?

In any case, Sun Zibai was very satisfied with the three martial arts masters selected this time.

“There will be an assessment once a month from now on. I want to know the results of your training.”

Sun Ziheng looked up at the sky in misery. In Sun Ziyue’s calm eyes, however, a strange light burst forth. It was just that no one noticed.

In the original text, Sun Zibai was the first major villain. But after all, the novel mainly focused on the torturous romantic entanglement between the protagonists. Sun Zibai, this major villain, had a lot of scenes in the early stage, but roughly two-thirds into the story, he died. The entire Pingnan Marquis Residence was destroyed, and the four hundred thousand Sun family soldiers fell into Xiao Yiyan’s hands. After that came a throne struggle that was carried out swiftly and almost childishly. Xiao Yiyan emerged victorious, and the battlefield of the protagonists’ angsty romance also shifted from Sucheng to the capital. The later stage mainly told of the new obstacles the two faced after reconciling—such as interlopers like Bai Ziyu constantly appearing—then the two taking turns being jealous, misunderstanding each other, arguing, making up, suffering heartbreak, experiencing unforgettable pain, and so on.

After the Pingnan Marquis Residence was destroyed, Sun Zibai, the great villain, completely exited the stage.

As for Sun Ziheng and his brothers, members of the villain’s household, they did not have many scenes, but each one was more troublesome than the last.

There was no need to mention Sun Ziheng, this brainless one who was used until death. Sun Ziqian’s ending was not much better. In the original text, their deaths seemed inseparable from Sun Zibai, the villain. But what surprised Sun Zibai was that among them, the one with the fewest scenes and the easiest to overlook, Sun Ziyue, was actually somewhat unexpected.

In the plot, Sun Ziyue was thin, small, and gloomy. His eyes did not look like those of a child. When he suddenly appeared from a dark corner, he could even scare the protagonist shou badly. Yet this very child played a key role in the process of the protagonist gong and shou killing Sun Zibai and destroying the Pingnan Marquis Residence.

In the original text, Sun Ziyue appeared three times.

The first time, Qin Mo had been forcibly married into the marquis residence. After experiencing the humiliation of being violated in front of the person he loved, his heart had turned to ashes. If the heir had not used Xiao Yiyan’s life to keep him alive, Qin Mo would have killed himself after being humiliated. In despair and pain, Qin Mo was confined by the heir to the courtyard every day and was not allowed to take even half a step outside. It was at this time that he accidentally encountered Sun Ziyue.

When Qin Mo raised his head, he saw a small figure standing in the shadows of the bamboo forest not far away. The child stood there silently, seemingly holding something in his hand. Qin Mo did not know when he had appeared there. At first, Qin Mo thought it was some wronged ghost child who had died in the marquis residence, and his face turned deathly pale from fright. Only after looking carefully did he realize it was a sallow, thin child. He was actually searching for bamboo shoots in the shadows of the bamboo forest.

The second time Sun Ziyue appeared was already half a year later. Using unfamiliar and somewhat stuttering speech, Sun Ziyue told Qin Mo that Xiao Yiyan was dead, and that he had died on the night Qin Mo married the heir.

And he had only one condition for telling Qin Mo this: he wanted the young servant by Qin Mo’s side to help him dig a pit and bury someone.

That person was his mother. She was dead. But he was too small to dig. Qin Mo was deeply shaken.

At that time, however, he was only consumed by pain and rage. He had been living a wretched existence in the marquis residence precisely because the heir had told him that if he dared seek death, he would kill Xiao Yiyan. Yet this child was telling him that the person he loved had already died that night. So the heir had been deceiving him all along?

Qin Mo was overwhelmed with grief. After secretly investigating, he even personally obtained confirmation from the heir’s own mouth. Qin Mo directly had a huge argument with Sun Zibai, then fell gravely ill and refused food in protest for ten days.

Naturally, the heir flew into a rage. However, from beginning to end, he never knew that the concubine-born younger brother he had almost forgotten was the one who revealed the news to Qin Mo. He only thought a servant in the courtyard had been loose-lipped and leaked it. Because of this, he flew into a great rage and replaced all the servants attending Qin Mo. Quite a few people were even beaten half to death.

It was also after that time that Qin Mo, who had been living through his days in a dazed and miserable state, finally blackened. He began to endure, pretending to accept Sun Zibai while secretly scheming, step by step pushing Sun Zibai into a state of eternal ruin.

And Sun Ziyue’s third appearance was even more impressive.

When the marquis residence was in a state of crisis, Sun Zibai’s various evil deeds had been made public by Xiao Yiyan. More and more people began denouncing the heir and openly opposing the Pingnan Marquis. Sun Zibai was overwhelmed and frantic, and the marquis residence was on the verge of collapse. It was precisely then that Qin Mo once again saw the elusive Sun Ziyue.

He appeared silently, then quietly led Qin Mo to a certain place.

Although Qin Mo was puzzled, he still followed. But when he was led to a place no one would have expected, Qin Mo was shocked to see this silent child touch a certain spot before him, and a secret chamber appeared in front of his eyes.

And it was inside this secret chamber that Qin Mo discovered many letters exchanged between the old marquis, Sun Qishan, and Zhang Tianhong, the leader of the Kuangyi Army, a rebel army from back then.

One had to know that the Kuangyi Army had been the largest and most feared of the rebel armies back then. Their slogan had been to uphold justice, overthrow the corrupt dynasty, let every household have surplus grain, and let every person have meat to eat.

Such a slogan had resounded across the country back then, and almost every commoner had been unable to help wavering. Therefore, the Kuangyi Army had spread throughout the nation at a terrifying speed. Even now, several decades later, the people of the imperial court could not help changing their expressions when they heard the three words “Kuangyi Army.” They were like a blade suspended over the emperor’s head. Back then, they had almost changed the dynasty.

Most crucially, after Sun Qishan submitted to the imperial court back then, it was precisely after destroying the Kuangyi Army that he managed to pacify the entire southwest. Because of this, although Sun Qishan was a regional marquis who protected one side, the common people under heaven still cursed him endlessly. Many wandering heroes of the jianghu also felt disdain toward him.

But who could have imagined that Sun Qishan had actually known Zhang Tianhong back then? Moreover, from the letters they exchanged, it was not difficult to see that their relationship was far from ordinary.

The imperial court hated the Kuangyi Army to the bone. The three words “Kuangyi Army” were equivalent to contempt and provocation toward imperial power. Never mind Sun Qishan, who was already feared by the emperor—even if the person dearest to the emperor were involved with the Kuangyi Army, he would not tolerate it. Thus, those letters practically became ironclad proof of Sun Qishan’s treason.

Without hesitation, Qin Mo handed those things to Xiao Yiyan. And that small figure once again withdrew after accomplishing his task.

Yet the heir still knew nothing about this matter. Until the old marquis died in the army, the marquis residence was destroyed, and Sun Zibai was reduced to wandering the streets, he still did not know how the marquis residence had walked toward destruction. How had the grandfather who had protected Great Yao for decades become a treasonous rebel? If Sun Qishan had not wiped out the Kuangyi Army back then, perhaps the empire’s surname would now be Zhang.

He had never known the existence of those letters the entire time. Even until death, he did not know that such a secret chamber existed in the marquis residence.

He was such a person—so lacking in presence, yet very crucial. Sun Zibai now even suspected that Sun Ziyue had silently and mysteriously left the marquis residence at the very end and had not died in that great fire.

Headache. What a headache.

One was brainless, one was a simp, and one was scheming and decisive at such a young age. This family was so troublesome. Not a single one of them gave him peace of mind.

And there was also that secret chamber, and those fatal letters…

Was the existence of such things truly reasonable? Who would keep deadly evidence so carefully for no reason?

After sorting through his thoughts, Sun Zibai had Sun Hong investigate the fourth young master’s situation over these past few years in thorough detail, while he himself wandered through the residence, especially the old marquis’s bedroom, which had been empty for years, as well as places like the study.

What if he happened to find it?

That secret chamber.