Chapter 129 The Lovebirds and the Decapitation Journey
"Next month is the Ghost Festival, and all the Liu family members who are away will be coming back."
"Husband, you can't be as busy as you were these past few days. You have to take the lead in doing a good job of the Liu family's ancestral worship. When your parents were still alive, they did these things very well. Husband, you can't slack off."
That night, in a flower hall of the Liu family mansion, the three Liu brothers and their wife, Madam Xu, sat together for dinner, a routine family gathering.
Halfway through the meal, Madam Xu, who was nearly forty but still well-maintained, lowered her bowl and gave Liu Ziwen a word of advice.
The latter pretended not to listen, then frowned and scolded:
"I know, I know what I'm doing. This is a man's business. Why should you, a woman, meddle so much?"
Xu shrank back, her face timid, and said, "I didn't care, I... I was just saying."
She dared not say another word and turned to take care of a baby sleeping in a cradle next to the dining table. Several maids, including a wet nurse, were looking after the baby.
Wow~
As if sensing his father's cold rebuke to his mother, the baby boy in the cradle cried loudly.
"Don't cry, don't cry."
Mrs. Xu quickly shook the basket, but still couldn't stop the child from crying.
She sighed with some resentment, bid farewell to her two brothers-in-law, Liu Zian and Liu Zilin, picked up the child, and left the flower hall with the wet nurse and other servants.
As the baby's cries and the woman's comforting sobs gradually faded away, the dining table in the West Pavilion fell silent for a moment.
Only the three brothers, Liu Ziwen, Liu Zian, and Liu Zilin, remained.
Both of them looked up and glanced at their elder brother's calm expression.
The Liu clan in Longcheng County is a large family, not just the Xi'an Liu family, where the three Liu brothers, Liu Ziwen, live, but naturally their branch is the main one.
This has been the case since the time when the old master and lady of the Liu family were still alive. The Liu family on the west bank of Butterfly Creek is considered the head of the clan, while the other branches have declined. The west bank is the head of all the clans.
Liu Zilin couldn't help but put down his bowl and say:
"Brother, sister-in-law meant well. Why be harsh with her? She was eating a perfectly good meal and you scared her good nephew Chuanzhi to tears."
Such words of advice, coming from the mouth of the third young master of the Liu family, who bullies men and women and commits all sorts of evil deeds, would likely make outsiders stare and feel extremely incongruous.
Liu Zian was not surprised at all.
He glanced away from the departing figure of his elder sister-in-law, Xu, whose back was curved in a graceful arc, then lowered his head to eat, remaining silent.
Unlike Liu Zilin, he did not speak up for Xu.
They also refrained from making any unwarranted comments regarding the ancestral worship arrangements for the Ghost Festival next month.
Liu Zian has always been like this, well-behaved and never saying much about things that don't concern him.
Everyone knows that the Liu family has three sons.
Little did they know that when the old master and madam of the Liu family were alive, they valued the eldest son, Liu Ziwen, the most, and doted on the third son, Liu Zilin.
Meanwhile, Liu Zi'an, the second son who had been sickly since childhood and was always taking medicine, was caught in the middle and not received much attention.
Later, when Liu Zian was young, he went to the north to make his way in the world for a period of time. After that, for some unknown reason, he returned to Longcheng after a few years away.
Speaking of which, there's something about the Liu family that has always surprised the people of Longcheng County.
Among the three Liu brothers, apart from the youngest, Liu Zilin, Liu Ziwen and Liu Zian are already quite old, with the former approaching forty.
However, after the passing of the old master and old lady of the Liu family, the three brothers never intended to divide the family property.
This was quite a rare occurrence in the Great Zhou Dynasty, especially among local clans in the Jiangnan region of the south.
Perhaps the three Liu brothers truly shared a deep bond.
However, many outsiders speculate that this is due to the leadership and maintenance by Liu Ziwen, the young head of the Liu family, which keeps Liu Zian and Liu Zilin very well-behaved.
Even in the eyes of Liu Fu and other servants in the Liu family, the Liu family was very harmonious.
Although Xu, the eldest sister-in-law, had already given birth to a son, she treated her two younger brothers-in-law, who might take away her son's family business, with great affection and consideration.
Sure enough, right now, when the eldest brother and sister-in-law are arguing, Liu Zilin stands up to speak for his sister-in-law.
Liu Ziwen glanced at his third brother, shook his head, and remained silent.
After a short while, he put down the bowl and turned his head to look around the hall.
Upon seeing this, Liu Fu, who was standing by, immediately led his servants away and guarded the door.
Liu Ziwen's expression turned serious:
"Now that we've finished eating, let's get down to business."
He got up and led Liu Zian and Liu Zilin away from the dining table to sit down at the main and guest seats in the flower hall next door.
Before Liu Zilin even sat down, he eagerly asked:
"Brother, have you found out Ouyang Lianghan's itinerary? When are we going to behead him?"
Liu Ziwen took out a small scroll of paper from his pocket and handed it to Liu Zian and Liu Zilin, saying calmly:
"New intelligence: Our county magistrate will be visiting the newly built Beitian Relief Home at the invitation of the abbot of Donglin Temple on the morning of the fifteenth day of the month, which is tomorrow."
"After the tour, he would lead his men back to Longcheng and, on the way, greet the officials from Jiangzhou. After the welcome dinner, they would take a boat together to Yue Nu Gorge in the afternoon to participate in the ribbon-cutting ceremony of Di Gong Gate."
Liu Zilin sneered:
"Holy crap, you want to rebuild even a worthless beggar's hut? Renovate, renovate, all you do is build, wasting all that money on the poor. Your Longcheng County government must be really idle and rich."
Liu Zian crossed his arms, lowered his eyes, stared at the floor in front of him, and sighed:
"The magistrate's schedule is truly well arranged. Anyone who didn't know better would think he had heard of my elder brother's best strategy and was cooperating with us so well."
His expression was somewhat wistful as he looked up and said:
"Brother, this is a golden opportunity. The timing, location, and people are all in place. We can make our move now. We'll switch them out before they come down the mountain."
“Absolutely, absolutely.” Liu Zilin nodded with a sinister grin.
Liu Ziwen placed his hands on the armrests of the wooden chair and stared at the empty rows of seats in the hall.
He was quiet for a while.
He nodded slowly.
Liu Ziwen rested his elbow on the armrest, rubbed his stiff face with his right hand, and said:
"Then let the Chang'an swordsman and the Jade Cup Fairy make a trip tomorrow."
Liu Ziwen summoned Liu Fu, calmly gave him a few instructions, and the latter respectfully withdrew.
After watching Liu Fu leave, Liu Ziwen remained silent for a while, then turned to the side and asked:
"Second brother, how's that thing I asked you to prepare coming along?"
"Um."
Liu Zilin looked around in confusion at his two brothers who were speaking in cryptic language.
Then, he saw Liu Zian silently take out two white porcelain bottles from his bosom.
The small, exquisite white porcelain bottle rests quietly in the palm of my hand.
A bottle mouth was wrapped with a red cloth.
The mouth of a bottle was wrapped with blue cloth.
Liu Zian placed the two porcelain vases one after the other on the table in front of Liu Ziwen.
His eyes were fixed on them, and he sighed:
"Boss Li is indeed quite resourceful; he was able to get this for us."
Liu Ziwen also glanced down, picked up one of the porcelain bottles wrapped in blue cloth, examined it closely, and asked:
"Is this poison really as miraculous as my second brother described before?"
"This strange poison is called the Lovebirds."
Liu Zian nodded with a rather solemn expression. His gaze pierced through the night in the courtyard outside the gate, looking northwards, a hint of reminiscence appearing in his eyes:
"Ten years ago, accompanied by a close friend, I traveled through Hebei Province and witnessed a woman using this poison to kill a difficult Qi cultivator. It left a deep impression on me."
"Could this woman be the Jade Cup Fairy?"
Liu Zian shook his head:
"No, she was a female Taoist, belonging to a special sect. I met the Jade Cup Fairy later in a coastal city, where there were many sorcerers who went out to sea and returned. That's another story."
"Lovebirds? What kind of poisonous creatures are they?"
Liu Zilin, who was listening to his two older brothers talking, couldn't help but feel a little itchy. He had lived in Longcheng County for most of his life since birth and had never traveled outside like his second brother, who had even had his own future.
Liu Zilin reached out curiously to touch the small bottle wrapped in red cloth that remained on the table, but Liu Ziwen glared at him and pulled his hand back.
Liu Zian glanced sideways at the timid Liu Zilin and said coldly:
"If you want your brothers to send you funeral paper money during the Ghost Festival, you can touch it however you like."
Liu Zilin chuckled and shook his head.
Liu Zian ignored him and continued explaining:
"Brother, this poison is named 'Lovebirds' because it is made from the colorful feathers of a rare bird from overseas that has male and female parts."
"Among them, the male bird has red tail feathers, and the female bird has blue tail feathers. So they made two bottles of poison, one yang and one yin."
"If one of these two poisons, Yang Poison and Yin Poison, is taken alone, it will not cause any harm. The poison is hidden and slowly dissipates, without causing any impact on the body. It will also not hinder the circulation of spiritual energy in a Qi cultivator. It is very discreet."
"Or rather, if you look at it alone, it's not poisonous at all. But once you're infected with both Yin and Yang poisons in a short period of time, it's like a bunch of kindling meeting a raging fire."
"Even a Qi cultivator with great supernatural powers would bleed from all seven orifices immediately if they did not use a massive amount of spiritual energy to detoxify within a few breaths, and even a god could not save them, let alone an ordinary person without spiritual energy cultivation."
"So the wonder of this lovebird is that it can poison people without them even realizing it, delaying the onset of the poison. If used properly, by the time the poisoned person realizes what's happening, it's already too late to save them."
"Among all the rare poisons in the world, the lovebird is definitely one of the most famous."
Liu Zian withdrew his gaze. "These were things that my friend told me back then."
"Oh? Is it really that amazing?"
Liu Ziwen looked at the two unremarkable white porcelain bottles in his hand with great interest.
Liu Zian observed his elder brother's expression, then pondered for a moment before offering a suggestion:
"Brother, the methods of taking the Yang poison and Yin poison of the Lovebirds are different."
"The poison inside the blue bottle is colorless and odorless, and is very difficult to detect. It needs to be ingested orally or transmitted through a wound."
"The Yang poison in the red bottle is a light fragrance like osmanthus, suitable for smelling and ingesting. Just open the bottle and wait a while, and it will spread throughout half the hall."
"Those who have previously been infected with the Yin poison will experience a relapse of the poison within ten breaths upon smelling this fragrance..."
"Brother, it's best not to try opening it now. We don't want to get infected, as it will be quite troublesome if the poison dissipates naturally."
Liu Ziwen nodded and chuckled lightly, "Interesting."
Liu Zian pondered, "I haven't asked yet, what does elder brother want this poison for?"
Liu Ziwen glanced at his second and third brothers and said succinctly:
"in case."
Liu Zian looked thoughtfully at the two small white porcelain bottles that Liu Ziwen carefully put into his arms.
Seemingly realizing that it was very likely related to what was about to happen tomorrow, Liu Zian and Liu Zilin tacitly stopped asking questions.
Liu Ziwen carefully put away the little gadget that had been used to fill in the gaps in the plan, then turned his satisfied gaze to his usually obedient and well-behaved second brother beside him, patting his thin shoulder:
"Second brother, it must have been tough for you all these years. You gave up your promising future in Hebei Province and came back to this small place, Longcheng, to help your brother. You've stayed here for so many years. It must have been quite a hardship for you."
Liu Zian raised his hand, placed it on the back of his elder brother's hand, and shook his head earnestly:
"It's all for the sake of the Liu family."
"That's right, it's all for the family legacy left by our fathers."
Liu Ziwen's usually serious and calm expression softened somewhat, and he spoke gently:
“I am very pleased that you can always think this way. I said it before, and I still remember that sentence... As long as I have it, you will never be missing out.”
"You've remained unmarried all these years, and when I ask you what kind of woman you want, you won't say..."
"Once this great undertaking is accomplished, and you rise to the ranks of the new elites in both capitals, your elder brother will find you a good marriage. You can go to the prince and ask him to arrange a marriage for you with a noble lady from the Wei family."
Liu Zian immediately shook his head, "No need, don't trouble yourself, brother."
"My second brother doesn't like the Wei family's daughters, feeling they aren't noble enough. Well... it's not impossible for her to be a daughter of one of the five noble families."
At this point, Liu Ziwen noticed his younger brother's sickly face, which seemed to lack interest, and a hint of curiosity appeared in his eyes:
"My second brother never said what kind he likes."
Liu Zian looked at his elder brother, smiled, and said nothing.
Liu Zilin interjected, "Big brother, what about me?"
Liu Ziwen said with exasperation, "You should correct your bad habits first."
Liu Zilin scratched his head and joked, "My requirements aren't high. Someone like my sister-in-law would be just fine."
Liu Ziwen snorted, and Liu Zian glanced at his third brother.
Immediately, seemingly noticing that Liu Ziwen looked pleased, Liu Zian suddenly asked:
"Brother, why did we let the Wei family take the sword we painstakingly forged? What if... I mean, what if the Wei family decides to discard it like a lost bird after its flight?"
“Actually, brother, what do you think… if we, as family members, become the sword masters of that sword, it won’t stop us from continuing our alliance with the Wei family. Who knows, we might even be able to use our influence to rise to a more important position and become allies instead of vassals. Wouldn’t that be better for the family?”
"Second brother!"
Liu Ziwen abruptly interrupted, his face as deep and serious as he stared at her and said:
"Don't say these things again, don't even think about them... Let's not even mention whether it's realistic for a commoner to possess a treasure."
"The Wei family has poured so many resources into this project, waited for so long, and sent Boss Li who agreed to everything... but all of this came at a price."
"If they didn't have absolute confidence in controlling the situation, why would they entrust everything to us?"
"Second brother, the greed of the human heart is like a snake trying to swallow an elephant; we must not fail to be wary of it."
Liu Zian lowered his eyes and agreed: "Yes, elder brother, it was just a casual remark, a suggestion that may not be fully formed."
"This will not be repeated."
"yes."
Liu Zian looked up and smiled.
Liu Ziwen glanced at him again, lightly patted the armrest twice, and suddenly stood up:
"Walk."
"Where are you going, bro?"
"Let's offer a toast to the swordsman of Chang'an and the fairy with the jade cup, and also to Ouyang Lianghan."
(End of this chapter)
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