Chapter 552 Going to the Xie Family

Master Zhang stroked his beard, condoning Song Chunxue's behavior.

Since my junior brother is in a bad mood, and Zhao Jian insisted on coming at this time, it wouldn't be right not to take advantage of it.

It's not his fault; it's a case of each getting what they want.

Seeing the sharp dagger embedded in the table, Zhao Jian was stunned for a moment, then turned to look at Song Chunxue, seemingly not expecting her to be so forceful.

"Master Song, are you threatening me?"

Zhao Jian is the second-in-command of the Zhao family. Apart from the head of the family, he has the highest power and status in the entire Zhao family. Everyone who sees him must respectfully call him Master Zhao.

The Zhao family is the head of the four major families in Jincheng. They have seen all kinds of storms, but this is the first time they have been threatened by a woman.

His eyes gradually filled with murderous intent.

Song Chunxue knew that she seemed to have been offending people lately, but she also knew that these people were bound to be offended sooner or later.

Moreover, since her senior brother did not stop her actions and even seemed to encourage them, she knew that he still held her in a very weak position.

Otherwise, my senior brother wouldn't have spoken so directly just now.

“If you threaten my senior brother, I dare to threaten you. You can’t just rely on your family’s wealth and power to force others to do things you don’t want to do.”

They said they wanted to befriend their senior brother, but they were clearly still hoping he would save their younger brother.

How is this any different from taking my senior brother's life?

If her senior brother is reluctant to say something, she can say it instead.

“My senior brother has already made it very clear: if you want your younger brother to live to be a hundred, you are taking my senior brother’s life. There should be a bottom line to being a decent human being. The Taoist temple was built for the sake of those who died in the previous three years…”

"Smack!"

Song Chunxue suddenly stood up, pointed at the Taoist priest, and questioned him:

"Did you exchange your own life for the previous three years, Senior Brother?"

"..." The Taoist priest didn't expect the fire to spread to him so quickly, and stared at her in astonishment.

"Well, you've got a long life ahead of you. You're willing to risk your own life to extend someone else's for a shabby Taoist temple. Senior brother, you're truly a bodhisattva incarnate." Song Chunxue looked coldly at the Taoist priest. "Senior brother, you keep everything from me. Do you not consider me one of your own at all?"

"No, junior brother..."

"Heh!" Song Chunxue pulled the short sword off the table, her eyes slightly narrowed, and glanced at Zhao Jian sideways.

"Senior brother is truly kind-hearted. You are very patient with outsiders, and you can tolerate this kind of person bullying you again and again. I am truly impressed by your kindness."

She pointed at Zhao Jian, "They were about to kill you, and instead of kicking them out, you invited them in for tea. No wonder you're my senior brother, hmm, you have a better temper than me."

Zhao Jian felt uneasy.

The Taoist priest silently picked up the teacup and took a sip of tea, not daring to refill it with a hot cup when it got cold.

Here we go again. Who did he learn this damn sarcastic tone from? It's giving me the creeps.

"Senior brother, you always tell me how you dealt with being drugged with aphrodisiacs?"

At this moment, the Taoist priest wished he were deaf.

Zhao Jian sensed the awkward atmosphere and couldn't help but interject, "Besides finding a woman, what other solution is there?"

"Did I ask you to speak?" Song Chunxue's voice suddenly rose. "Knowing that he ruined his cultivation by finding a woman, you didn't even offer a sincere apology, yet you still have the nerve to chase after my senior brother and risk your life to save him?"

"Are the faces of everyone in your family covered in city wall plaster?"

Zhao Jian was annoyed, "How can you speak so arrogantly? We've known the Taoist priest for many years, why would he care about these things? Besides, we know the Taoist priest has a way, it's not like we're going to exchange lives for lives."

Song Chunxue clenched her fists.

"Besides, I..."

The next moment, Zhao Jian was grabbed by the front of his clothes by a pair of hands and easily lifted up.

"What are you doing? Let go... Ahhh!"

As the sound grew louder and farther away, it was followed by a loud "bang" from downstairs.

Song Chunxue clapped her hands and looked at the Taoist priest with a sinister gaze.

"Senior brother, you should be glad you chose the second floor instead of the third!"

Master Zhang picked up her whisk; it seemed she wouldn't let this go today.

"Junior brother, calm down first. I have something to do, so I'll be leaving now."

As soon as he finished speaking, Master Zhang jumped out of the window.

The sound startled passersby downstairs, who screamed in alarm.

Song Chunxue looked down from the window, "You still dare to save him?"

Master Zhang looked at Zhao Jian lying on the ground and said, "Good luck to you. I can't even save myself."

Zhao Jian lay on the ground, wincing in pain. He could still hear the people upstairs who usually fawned over him, peering out the window and groaning about who this was.

I really want to drag them down and strangle them!

...

When Sanwa returned home from the yamen, he saw Mulan sneaking around waiting for him at the door.

Her expression was one of grave alarm, as if something terrible had happened.

"What's wrong?"

He lowered his voice and glanced towards his mother's room. "Did your mother scold you?"

"Mother came back from who-knows-where. She looked very unwell and seemed very angry. She practiced swordsmanship in the yard for half an hour, getting more and more ferocious as she practiced. Hearing the commotion in the yard, neither the cook nor the guard dared to peek out. Why don't you go and ask her?"

Sanwa was a little scared.

He still can't bear to recall how his mother beat Wang Can so badly that he couldn't move and even bared his teeth in front of everyone, and then demanded a hundred taels of silver from him.

In the afternoon, his former colleagues who had looked down on him would bow and smile obsequiously when they saw him. They would not take off their fake smiles until he turned his head away, which made him feel uneasy.

He didn't think his mother's reputation was so powerful, or that it was more effective than Lord Xie's.

But apart from the incident of his mother hitting Wang Can, there doesn't seem to be any other major news in the past few days.

He didn't dare ask, "It's nothing, Mom's just in a bad mood, she can handle it herself, don't bother her."

"Oh, then I'll deliver the food later."

"Okay, then be careful." Sanwa didn't dare to go.

"..." Mulan looked bewildered. What did she mean by "be careful"? Did her mother eat people?

The next day, Song Chunxue disappeared after breakfast, but returned in the evening with a much calmer expression.

Seeing that she had picked a lot of cypress leaves, Mulan's anxiety quietly subsided.

"Mother, why are you picking these things?"

Mulan picked up a piece, brought it to her nose, and smelled it. "It smells quite nice."

There are very few Chinese cypress trees in Zhuanglang County. There were two trees in front of a family in Mulan's hometown village. When they were children, they secretly took them back and put them in their books.

She was scolded and cried by her mother for stealing a piece from her second brother's book, and it seems she was even beaten.

"These leaves can be boiled to make a decoction for washing hair, or used as incense in the room. Anyway, they smell nice when dried. If you like, I'll give you some. This stuff isn't poisonous."

Mulan grabbed a handful and thought the smell was really nice. "Then I won't be polite."

Song Chunxue changed into a simple dark green cross-collar long gown, her hair neatly combed and pinned up on top of her head, and came out of the room.

She said to Mulan, "I'm going to your second brother's place. Don't wait for me tonight, get some rest."

Mulan nodded, wondering why her mother's wrist was bare when she used to wear two strings of wooden beads.

After leaving the house, Song Chunxue went straight to Lord Xie's house.

She knew that her senior brother must be at Xie Zheng's house.