Chapter 19

“The dishes here in Mother’s courtyard really are better than the ones at my place.”

Sun Zibai praised while putting food into his mouth, completely disregarding any rule about not speaking while eating. Wen Wan’er, who sat beside him, seemed to have gradually grown used to this “regular guest” after this period of familiarity. She, who had always been sparing with words, would even occasionally respond to him with a sentence or two.

“This was made by Ah Li.”

Sun Zibai immediately gave Auntie Li a thumbs-up. “Auntie Li has excellent cooking skills.”

“You flatter me, heir. If you like the dishes this servant makes, then come often. Madam’s courtyard can be a little livelier too.”

Auntie Li smiled warmly. Her happiness came from the heart.

“Then Mother mustn’t find me too noisy.”

Auntie Li smiled somewhat indulgently. Even Wen Wan’er, who was quietly eating, helplessly curved the corners of her lips.

“If you know you are noisy, then why not close your mouth?”

Sun Zibai said, “Mother does not like talking to me, so naturally, I have to talk more.”

Unexpectedly, Wen Wan’er suddenly froze and looked at Sun Zibai in a rare loss of composure.

Those words—long ago, she had also said them to someone. But it had been too long, so long that the person’s appearance had already become blurred.

“Mother?”

Wen Wan’er returned to herself. “Yes. I do not like talking. But I was not born disliking speech.”

Sun Zibai paused slightly, then hurriedly leaned over and asked curiously, “Then why did Mother stop liking to talk? What was Mother like when you were little?”

Wen Wan’er pressed her lips together and did not say more. Auntie Li at the side quickly picked up a dish Sun Zibai liked and brought it before him.

“Heir, do you not like this sweet-and-sour pork? Hurry and eat more while it is hot.”

Sun Zibai, however, seemed not to understand that Auntie Li was changing the subject. Like a curious baby, he con​read the original at bailiantales.com​tinued staring at Wen Wan’er.

“Mother seems never to have told me about when you were young. And the capital too. Mother grew up in the capital, so you must be very familiar with it, right? Can you tell me about it? I have never been to the capital before.”

Wen Wan’er looked at the light flashing in the eyes of this son she did not know well, and once again froze.

Only after a long while did she say faintly, “I am a woman. How could I have had the chance to see what the capital was like? Just after I turned fifteen, the emperor bestowed a marriage between me and your father. From then on, I never returned to the capital again.”

Wen Wan’er’s tone was calm. There was no resentment or hatred, but Sun Zibai instinctively felt there was a story. Whether in the original novel or now, the Wen Wan’er sitting before him was very mysterious. She seemed very detached, making one feel that her final choice to place righteousness above family was reasonable. Sun Zibai simply could not understand it. Should a calm, otherworldly woman not remain detached from worldly affairs and ignore everything? After all, she had always been this way. Then why did she finally step forward to place righteousness above family?

However, comparing the plot with his impression of this woman during this period, Sun Zibai could be certain of one thing: she truly had not had the slightest feeling for the original owner’s father.

But there were far too many women in ancient times who married men they did not like. Yet for one to ignore even the son she personally gave birth to for many years was still rare.

“Mother must miss home very much,” Sun Zibai said with distress. “You must miss Grandmother, Grandfather, and your brothers and sisters.”

“Home?” Wen Wan’er suddenly revealed a mocking smile, gone in an instant. “How can a married woman still have a home?”

Sun Zibai’s heart paused slightly. This truly was an unchanging problem from ancient times to the ​Read on BaiLianTales​present. He could only say dryly, “How can you not? This Pingnan Marquis Residence is your home. Mother still has me.”

Wen Wan’er no longer spoke.

In the original novel, his maternal grandfather had been a prime minister. Even the four great families with deep foundations had to fear him somewhat. But Prime Minister Wen and the old marquis, Sun Qishan, were famously at odds. In his mouth, Sun Qishan was an old boor who forgot righteousness at the sight of profit, a reckless brute with limbs but no brains, a mediocre man who could not enter his eyes at all. So, in all likelihood, Wen Wan’er had been forced to marry the original owner’s father back then.

If, back then, Prime Minister Wen had not yet reached his current high position and therefore failed to stop his daughter from marrying far away, then over all these years, as he grew more and more powerful, he had still never contacted Wen Wan’er. It was as if this daughter simply did not exist. That was rather hard to justify no matter how one looked at it.

And if one said it was because he transferred his anger toward the old marquis onto her, causing Prime Minister Wen to even abandon his own daughter, then in the original novel, after Sun Qishan was discovered to have allegedly intended to rebel, it was Prime Minister Wen who first stepped forward to question it. It was also he who insisted on investigating the truth.

Because of this, Prime Minister Wen offended Xiao Yiyan. One had to know that in the original novel, Xiao Yiyan and Sun Zibai were mortal enemies who would not rest until one of them died. Therefore, he could not tolerate anyone connected to Sun Zibai, much less Prime Minister Wen, who was Sun Zibai’s own maternal grandfather. Thus, in the end, after Xiao Yiyan ascended the throne, Prime Minister Wen was forcibly made to retire and return home on the grounds of old age to enjoy his remaining years. In a way, he too had been implicated by the Pingnan Marquis’s family.

Sun Zibai only felt that there were many mysteries. Mysteries everywhere. The two protagonists of the original novel had only cared about falling in love, leaving important matters unclear enough to give people headaches.

After leaving Wen Wan’er’s place, Sun Zibai thought the whole way. Halfway along, he ran into a steward who seemed to have something to report. But when Sun Zibai raised a brow and looked at him, the man’s face was full of survival instinct. He had probably been frightened by the fourth young master’s matter. Now, all the servants in the marquis residence feared Sun Zibai quite a bit.

After asking, Sun Zibai learned that this was the steward responsible for dismissing the young masters in the rear courtyard.

The original owner loved beauties. Once he took a fancy to someone, he did not care about their origin or status. Usually, he would think of ways to bring them into the residence. Thus, many had been forced. Because of the status of the Pingnan Marquis’s heir, they had no choice but to bow their heads. Now that Sun Zibai had suddenly become willing stolen contentto let them leave, and had even given them quite a bit of compensation, they were naturally overjoyed and could not wait to leave the marquis residence.

But there were also a few who had originally come for the sake of clinging to power and nobility. Not only was the heir extraordinarily handsome, his status was also incomparably noble, and he was young. There was no second person like him in all of Sucheng. Naturally, they were unwilling to leave.

However, the heir’s attitude was firm. The steward in charge of this matter used both soft and hard methods, and in the end, dragged and forced people out one by one. Only one person remained. The steward had spent several full days, saying every good and bad thing he could, using both gentle and forceful methods, but none of it had worked.

This person accepted neither soft nor hard tactics, refused to listen to reason, and simply would not leave.

Sun Zibai immediately became interested. “Even the guards could not drag him away?”

The guards of the marquis residence were not vegetarians.

Unexpectedly, the steward looked as if he had eaten bitter melon. “Young Master Leng… has excellent qinggong.”

“Young Master Leng?”

Sun Zibai’s eyes lit up even more, while the steward felt somewhat embarrassed. Looking at the heir’s expression, it was obvious he had completely forgotten the person.

At this moment, Sun Hong suddenly slapped his thigh. “Aiya, I remember! It’s that cold beauty we picked up by the roadside. He was mute. Heir, have you forgotten?”

Sun Zibai looked utterly blank. Clearly, there was no such person in the plot, and in the original owner’s memories, there seemed to be only Qin Mo. As for other beauties, they were all summarized by the author in a single stroke and were not important. Phrases like “the heir had a rear courtyard full of beautiful men” were just like “the heir was a tyrant”—merely labels the author had pasted onto the original owner.

“Come, come, come. Tell this lord in detail.”

With such an impressive person left in the rear courtyard, what had the original owner been thinking? Qinggong! That was qinggong!

In truth, the story was very simple. Once, when the original owner returned late from playing outside, he picked up a filthy beauty by the roadside. Although the person had been dirty at the time, one could still see through that grimy face that he was a great beauty. Especially those eyes, cold as ice and particularly striking. The original owner, that lecher, took a fancy to him at first glance, so he had Sun Hong bring the person back and clean him up.

After washing him clean, they discovered that this beauty was truly beautiful. Whether in figure or appearance, he was top-notch. But there was one problem: this person seemed to have suffered some kind of shock. Not only could he not speak, he was also somewhat foolish.

No matter what others did to him, he had no reaction. No matter what others said to him, he did not answer. The only thing he was relatively enthusiastic about was eating. No matter what food was delivered to him, he would eat it clean at the fastest speed.

The original owner was very picky about beauties. This one was indeed beautiful, but he was a fool. Moreover, he was foolish, dazed, and mute. The original owner immediately lost interest in him. But he also felt that the man was truly too good-looking, and that throwing him out would be a pity. So he threw him into the rear courtyard and kept him there.

Because he could not speak and was foolish, the original owner had always called him Cold Beauty. That was why the steward called him Young Master Leng.

After hearing the story, Sun Zibai became even more interested. His intuition told him this was also a brother [read the original at bailiantales.com]with a story. Most importantly, he knew qinggong.

Sun Zibai simply followed the steward personally to take a look at what kind of cold beauty this was.

The moment he saw Cold Beauty, Sun Zibai admitted that the original owner, that lecher, did indeed have some taste when choosing people. The person before him was not much inferior to a noble young master like Bai Ziyu. His features were cool and clean, especially his eyes. They clearly carried a cold, sharp light, yet they were also as pure as those of a newborn infant. Even with that dazed, foolish manner, he was enough to make people turn their heads.

Seeing so many people suddenly arrive, he seemed somewhat wary. When Sun Zibai walked toward him, Cold Beauty simply shot up with a whoosh and flew directly to a large tree in the courtyard.

This move directly excited Sun Zibai, and his eyes grew frighteningly bright.

“What amazing qinggong!”

“Come down. I will not drive you away.” Sun Zibai was like a human trafficker abducting children. He kindly went over beneath the tree, softened his voice, and beckoned to the wary Cold Beauty above. “Beauty, come down obediently. I will have people make delicious food for you. Lots and lots of delicious food.”

Cold Beauty’s eyes brightened. The hand gripping the tree trunk also moved. Sun Zibai pressed on with greater effort.

“Be good. I am a good person.”

Beside him, Sun Hong and the steward turned their heads away at the same time.

They could not bear to look. What good person looked like this?

Sun Zibai kicked Sun Hong’s backside. “Why haven’t you quickly gone to bring delicious food for the beauty?”

Sun Hong: …

Perhaps Cold Beauty truly could not distinguish between good and bad people. Under Sun Zibai’s continuous coaxing, Cold Beauty eventually flew down. It was just that his eyes remained warily fixed on the steward beside Sun Zibai.

Sun Zibai simply had the steward leave as well, lest he frighten the beauty.

Only when Sun Hong hurried over with freshly made sauce-braised pork knuckle, red-braised pork, and other delicious foods did Cold Beauty’s nose finally twitch. He pounced toward him. Then master and servant stared dumbfounded as a great beauty began wolfing down food.

One had to say, watching him eat ravenously with sauce all over his mouth truly damaged the beauty somewhat. But that was not important. What mattered was that this was a talented person who knew qinggong.

Sun Zibai wracked his brain, thinking about how he could make use of this talent. But at that moment, Cold Beauty, who had been burying his head in the food, suddenly raised his head and stared straight at Sun Zibai before saying one halting sentence.

“You… have been poisoned. You do not know?”

“What did you say!”

Sun Zibai practically sat up in shock like a dying man. He felt as if he had been soaking in a hot spring only to suddenly have a basin of icy water poured over him.

The water was bone-chillingly cold. In an instant, the chill sank into his bones, making Sun Zibai’s body and nerves tighten to the extreme.

Poison? What poison? When had it been administered?

Had he been poisoned after transmigrating here, or had the original owner already been poisoned?