Chapter 8 Fight Out

The teacup in General Xie's hand smashed against the blue bricks, shattering into pieces. The splattering tea soaked the hem of Aunt Zhang's skirt. "Asshole! Luo Dinglian just made the first contribution to suppressing the rebellion, and you dare to curse his entire family!"

"Father, do you know that the East Suburbs Camp..."

"Shut up!" Mrs. Xie rushed over and grabbed her son's sleeve, "Are you crazy? How dare you say such heartbreaking words!" She dug her nails deep into Xie Wuqi's forearm, but saw that he stared at his father motionlessly.

Aunt Zhang suddenly cried out, "Is the eldest young master suffering from hysteria? Should we ask the imperial physician to come and see him?"

"Shut up!" General Xie's forehead veins throbbed. "Go to the Luo Mansion and apologize now! Send this troublemaker—" He pointed his spear at Liu Yueli, "back to me in the same condition!"

Liu Yueli's eyelashes trembled.

Xie Wuqi noticed it immediately and tightened his arms around her: "Father, if you don't believe me, come with me to the study to see the evidence."

These words made General Xie's pupils shrink suddenly.

"You..." Mrs. Xie suddenly covered her mouth. She clearly remembered that the wound should have scabbed over and fallen off long ago.

Liu Yueli quietly tugged at Xie Wuqi's belt in a blind spot. This action was like sparks flying into a frying pan, and Xie Wuqi suddenly rushed out of the hall with the person in his arms.

"Stop him!" General Xie's roar shook the beams of the house.

As the four guards rushed to the corridor, Xie Wuqi kicked two of them down with a series of kicks. The remaining two looked at the eldest son's bloodshot eyes and trembled and took a half step back - this was clearly the look of someone who had killed someone on the battlefield.

"Wuqi!" Madam Xie chased to the moon-shaped gate with her skirt lifted up, "Are you going to piss me off to death?" The kingfisher-inlaid phoenix hairpin in her hair was hooked off by a branch, and the broken jade splashed on the cobblestone path.

Xie Wuqi paused. The person in his arms suddenly let out a weak moan.

"Take care, mother. I just want to prove that I am not an ordinary person!" He said this in a hoarse voice, the soles of his boots crushing the jade chips on the ground.

Liu Yueli in his arms trembled at the right moment and buried her face in his blood-stained clothes.

Aunt Zhang held onto the porch pillar and watched the entire process, her red nails scratching two white marks on the vermilion lacquer.

After General Xie left, she looked at the setting sun in the west, and suddenly sneered while covering her face with a round fan.

At the second watch, Aunt Zhang entered the study, carrying a bowl of ginseng soup. General Xie was reading the Northern Frontier Military Report and immediately closed it upon seeing her enter.

"Master, have some soup to calm your nerves." She lifted a spoonful with her orchid finger. "The eldest master is young and full of vigor. Once he encounters setbacks, he will change his mind."

General Xie stared at the ginseng slices swaying in the spoon and suddenly asked, "Why did you deliberately provoke him today?"

The tassels hanging from the round fan trembled violently.

"I only spoke a few truths." Aunt Zhang smiled and fed the spoon to her. "If you want to blame someone, blame that girl for being so good at pretending. Didn't you see how violently her eyelids twitched when the eldest master said the Luo family was going to collapse?"

The candle flame burst into a spark.

General Xie suddenly grabbed her wrist and asked, "Did you see clearly?"

"I have a good eye." Aunt Zhang sat down on his lap. "When the eldest master said he wanted to provide evidence, her fingers almost tore the handkerchief apart. If I were to say, there might be something fishy going on here."

Suddenly a strong wind blew outside the window, blowing sand onto the window paper.

General Xie looked at the flickering candlelight and suddenly remembered the strange scar on his son's arm - under the scabby flesh, he could vaguely see a new wound that had not healed.

…

The main hall of Fuyuan General's Mansion.

Luo Zhaohan treated her past life memories like a nightmare from last night, recounting them from beginning to end to Luo Dinglian and his wife. She only quietly swallowed back the sleepless nights she had spent after marrying into the Xie Mansion, and the brutal fight with Xie Wuqi in the other courtyard.

The teacup on the mahogany carved chair had gone cold, and Mr. and Mrs. Luo Dinglian remained silent for a long while.

Luo Zhaohan clutched the handkerchief and said anxiously, "Daddy and Mommy, I never lied! The letter I found in Liu Yueli's room today is irrefutable proof!"

"It must be that God couldn't bear to see our Luo family being wrongly exterminated, so he sent a dream to warn my daughter. Xie Wuqi is behaving strangely now, and my daughter suspects he has also received an opportunity. This person is very scheming, and we must be on our guard from now on!"

The girl's anxious voice echoed in the hall, and the pearl hairpin on her temples swayed slightly with her movements. Qin Wan suddenly stood up, and just as Luo Zhaohan was about to speak, she was pulled into a warm embrace.

"Mother believes you." Qin Wan's voice trembled as she stroked her daughter's back. "Mother just thought, if it were really as in the dream, we would have died long ago, leaving you to bear the blood feud alone."

Luo Zhaohan shuddered, tears falling on his mother's collar, which was embroidered with lotus flowers. She had deliberately concealed the fact that she had committed suicide, but those closest to her always saw the deepest wounds.

"My Zhao Zhao is so strong-willed. If she really had no other way out, how could she be willing to live alone?" Qin Wan patted her back with tears in her eyes. "Just thinking about this breaks my heart."

Luo Dinglian's broad palm caressed his daughter's hair. He had fought on the battlefield for twenty years, yet now he was as gentle as patting a crying little girl. Although this might sound far-fetched, his daughter was not one to speak without thinking.

The old general stared at the stack of letters on the desk, a cold glint in his eyes. Naturally, the Xie family's son wasn't capable of such a grand scheme, but now that he'd been warned...

"Master and Madam!" Chunxi rushed into the front hall, holding up the hem of her skirt, but stopped when she saw the mother and daughter hugging each other.

The little maidservant panted as she described the situation in front of Xie's house. When she mentioned that Xie Wuqi was kicked out of the house holding Liu Yueli, her almond eyes were full of sparkling smiles.

Qin Wan sneered as she held the teacup in her hand: "Do you think the girls from our general's mansion are cabbages from the vegetable market?"

The daughter of the Yongchang Marquis's family was always sharp-tongued. "If it were you, I'd just beat the Xie family out with a broom!"

"Madam is right." Luo Dinglian stroked his short beard and nodded. "But if that old fellow Xie Anfeng comes, I'd like to see what ivory he can spit out."

After all, they had been married for twenty years, and Qin Wan immediately sensed the hidden meaning. Xie Anfeng's decisiveness in expelling his son from the mansion spoke volumes about his attitude. And when she thought about her daughter's description of Xie Anfeng's "short life," she feared there might be something else going on.

Luo Zhaohan wiped his tears and looked up, seeing his parents' quarrel, he couldn't help but burst into laughter.

In her previous life, her parents always said that her temperament was like her mother's, but she was afraid that she would never be able to learn the tacit understanding between the couple, with one playing the good cop and the other the bad cop, even if she lived another two lifetimes.

…

As the copper clock in the main hall of the Luo Mansion ticked to the third quarter, General Xie's sword dug a deep rut into the rosewood chair. Madam Xie stared at the jade Pixiu on the antique display shelf, and suddenly Qin Wan's sneer rang in her ears: "Madam Xie, you're lucky enough to still remember which way the door of our general's mansion faces."

The brocade curtain was lifted up with a rustle, and Qin Wan stepped over the threshold holding the hand of the maid.

Mrs. Xie hurriedly put on a smile and tried to stand up, but was pinned to the spot by a glare from the other party - the brocade cushion on the huanghuali armchair had been removed at some point, and it hurt her tailbone.

"Zhao Zhao just drank some tranquilizing soup." Qin Wan pressed her handkerchief against her eyes. "If Madam Xie really loves her, she should take good care of her son."

Before he could finish his words, the sound of porcelain breaking suddenly came from the inner room.

Luo Zhaohan, wrapped in a moon-white cloak, pushed open the beaded curtain, with red-gold hairpins swaying in disorder: "Mom, is there someone from the Xie family outside?" Her nose tip was red, and she spoke with a heavy nasal tone, as if she had just cried herself hoarse.