Chapter 66: Retreat to Advance
At this moment, Chai Che suddenly walked quickly to the kneeling Jiaoran.
The disguise on her face was torn off in a flash.
What was exposed was Jiaoran's face, appearing openly in front of the owner of the Governor's Mansion.
The governor, who was still furious, widened his narrow, slightly upturned eyes upon seeing this. They had not been so wide in years.
Chai Lie pointed at her and pretended to stutter, "You...you are not..."
Three years ago, Mu Jin disappeared, and Jiaoran, the maid from Si Yuyuan, disappeared with her. But the Chai brothers knew exactly how she disappeared.
Originally, he wanted to investigate the reason why she appeared in the secret room, but Ah Hui insisted on keeping her at home like a pet. It would be troublesome if her father found out. Fortunately, he let Archer deal with her to prevent future troubles.
Mu Jin is missing, and Chai Lie doesn't want anyone related to his disappearance to appear in the Governor's Mansion again. It would be best if his father could never find him.
What's strange is that only half a year after Mu Jin disappeared, his father claimed to be ill and refused to see outsiders or leave his courtyard. Even the few of them disappeared, and only his mother was always by his side.
Having his disguise torn off, Jiaoran suddenly felt as embarrassed as a turtle without its shell, "Uh... I..."
This is even harder to explain than when I just argued that I was not the murderer.
She tilted her head and looked at Chai Che, wondering what he was up to. Did he really want to kill her?
The Lu family members present were also shocked, "This is——"
Even if people in the martial arts world could disguise themselves simply, no one could make such a realistic human skin mask to cover their face, let alone the servants serving in the mansion, who were all dumbfounded.
The governor was about to speak when he heard Chai Che say, "Look, it was this woman who assassinated your master?"
Of course it wasn't this face. The maids all shook their heads.
Cha Che continued, "My friend is a quack. She usually likes to do some unconventional things. Disguising herself as someone else is her usual way of entertaining herself."
It turned out to be a matter of removing the fuel from under the cauldron. Jiaoran understood it immediately.
They said that the owner of that face had killed their young master, so now he had to solve the immediate problem first and let her restore her original appearance to survive this crisis.
Mu Jin shook her head and thought to herself that the people from the Lu family were not that easy to deal with.
A maid said, "Since this woman can disguise herself as someone else, what if she used the human skin mask and this knife to assassinate our young master? Oh, and this knife, how do you explain it?"
Chai Lie said, "Although this sword is indeed from the Chai Mansion and has a unique appearance, if others had seen the appearance of this sword many years ago and imitated it for use, then we were indeed unaware of it."
The maid Yun Fei said, "When it comes to sophistry, you Chai family are smarter, but our Lu family is not an ordinary family. You can't get rid of us with this trick."
He refused to give in, his words filled with anger.
Mu Jin watched for a moment and then interjected, "Why don't you just take the person away?"
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone present fell silent.
Chai Xiao wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes, "Brother Mu Jin, what are you talking about? It's unclear what happened now, how can you force an innocent person to confess?"
He looked at Chai Xiao and said with a smile, "Don't the Lu family just want a murderer? This woman used to belong to my Siyuyuan. Uncle, do you still remember her?"
When asked by him, Chai Yu said, "You are the one who knows you."
Mu Jin nodded and said, "Since my uncle has also admitted that Jiao Ran is mine, I will deal with it impartially. If you think this woman is the murderer, take her away."
The people of the Lu family didn't know that there was such a young man in the Chai family. When they saw him for the first time, they felt that he was as pure as white jade and his charm was hard to conceal. "This girl is the young master..."
"She is my former maid. You can take her away if you want."
Chai Lie couldn't understand Mu Jin's true nature. Was he truly so heartless? He remembered how they had been inseparable a few years prior. At that banquet, his gaze towards Jiao Ran was like honey. He was vaguely worried that he had changed his mind since returning, and had been drawn back to Cheng Yuan's beauty. After all, a beauty as stunning as Cheng Yuan was rare in the world.
Jiao Ran endured for a moment, then burst into a curse, "Mu Jin, you bastard, you **** ...
The Chai and Lu families were both aristocratic families, and not many girls dared to swear so vulgarly in public. For a moment, even the maids and servants stood there in a daze, at a loss as to what to do.
Mu Jin raised an eyebrow, not avoiding Jiao Ran's gaze, and said to the Lu family, "If you don't bring someone back to report, I'm afraid it will be too late."
"Mu Jin, you ****, go to hell, you bitch." She struggled desperately and several people couldn't hold her down. Chai Che was afraid that she would really cause trouble, so he hurried forward to help subdue Jiaoran.
After the farce at Pisces Garden was over, Mu Jin stood up and said goodbye to her uncle. "I'm sorry for disturbing you today. I'll leave first."
There was no further explanation as to why Jiaoran also appeared in the Governor's Mansion.
Chai Yu turned his attention to his second son, Chai Che.
After finishing the work, it was already late at night when I arrived at Siyuyuan.
He was heading inward, crossing a stone bridge. The wind was blowing hard in the evening, and clouds and mist were rising from the mountains and forests. He walked out of the misty pavilion and found Chai Lie.
"Brother, why are you also in Siyu Garden?"
Chai Lie smiled and said nothing, but if you looked closely, you could see scratches on one side of his cheek.
Chai Che didn't have time to ask more questions. Thinking of Jiaoran, he hurried to find Mu Jin.
There were many trees in Siyu Garden, and after the sun went down, the houses were quickly trapped in darkness.
He walked through the dimly lit courtyard.
After a while, I saw Susu holding a lantern and waiting, "Second Young Master."
"Well, Mu Jin is in the study?"
"The young master expected you to come and has been waiting for a long time."
After that, he held up the lantern and led him forward.
Since Mu Jin left, people from Si Yuyuan were retained to serve the lady of the Cheng family. She was not an easy master to deal with, and the servants under her might not have had a good life in recent years.
I remember that when this little girl first came to Siyuyuan, she was her father's spy, but she never got any evidence against Mu Jin. Later, when Mu Jin left, she was no longer useful, so she was left here and became a useless chess piece.
"Susu, how long have you been in the mansion?"
"To answer the Second Young Master, Susu was brought into the Governor's Mansion when she was five years old."
"You used to serve in your mother's garden, didn't you?"
"Second Master, remember correctly, this servant did serve soup to Madam."
"We're here. Second Young Master, please go and see Young Master Mu Jin. It's inconvenient for this servant to follow you."
Chai Che looked up and saw that lights had been lit in the stone corridor leading to the study, and the orange light illuminated the way ahead.
There are a lot of mosquitoes in summer. Fuming with mosquito-repellent herbs is somewhat effective, but mosquitoes still keep flying into places near candlelight.
He pushed open the door and Mu Jin had already prepared some tea to cool him down.
She raised her hand and made him a cup, "Sit down."
"Do you know that Jiaoran's life might be in danger because of your words? And you can still sit down and have tea now?"
Mu Jin looked at him with a smile and said, "It should rain heavily in a while, so please stay a little longer."
"Just ask the servant to prepare an oil-paper umbrella for me."
He asked anxiously, "Do you really want Jiaoran to die?"
Mu Jin asked back, "What about you? Will you watch her die?"
"I want to save her, but now that things have come to this, the Lu family won't give in easily. Even if we hand over Jiaoran, we'll already be at odds with the Lu family. My father is furious and has ordered my brother and me to find a way to resolve this matter and restore the marriage."
Mu Jin had long seen through his inherent coldness, so he was not necessarily too worried about Jiao Ran. What really worried him was that Chai would lose the Lu family as a relative by marriage.
"Tell me, since you pushed her out, you must have a foolproof plan."
Mu Jin took a sip of tea and asked slowly, "What was that jade pendant you gave Jiaoran just now?"
He didn't get to the point, which made Chai Che anxious. "Did you see it?"
"It's a life-saving talisman for Jiaoran, isn't it?" Mu Jin asked back. He knew Chai Che wouldn't sit idly by. This incident was definitely not Jiaoran's doing, but if Jiaoran died immediately, it would completely ruin the chances of an alliance between the Chai and Lu families.
"That jade pendant was given to me by my aunt when I was a child. I was very young at the time, and she was pregnant. One day, I went to see her. Seeing that I liked the jade pendant, she took it off and gave it to me. She told me that she was pregnant with a girl, and then jokingly asked me if I would marry her when she grew up. When I was a study companion in the palace, Lu Minzhi, the son of the second wife of the Lu family, was an old friend of mine. One day, he asked me why I had a small jade pendant hanging from the tassel of my sword, and I told him, in childish words, that it was a token of our love."
He gave it to Jiaoran during the chaos, and asked her to find a way to give him the token when she saw Lu Minzhi. He meant that he wanted Lu Minzhi to protect her for a while, so that the Lu family would not take hasty action against her.
Mu Jin also understood the deeper meaning, but said dissatisfiedly, "You have kept the sword tassel for all these years, you are truly loyal."
Chai Che was afraid that he would think too much, "I didn't keep it for... This is a gift from my aunt. When I see it, I will think of my aunt. Besides, I originally wanted to give this ear of corn to a girl, but - she didn't want it."
Mu Jin pushed the tea away and dipped some in it. He didn't want to hear any more about the spike. "Listen, this situation can be solved."
"How do you solve it?"
Chai Che is not a fool, but he cannot escape the current situation because he is a member of the Chai family. This matter involves his sister and the entire Chai family, and Jiaoran is also involved.
What confused him was actually - Mu Jin smiled. Who would have thought of that person? He also connected what had happened in so many days to look at today's situation.
No matter how sophisticated a martial artist's moves are, there will always be flaws, and this game naturally has flaws as well.
Now all he had to do was let Chai Che see the flaw and make the choice himself.
"Why are you looking at me? Go ahead and talk about your thing," Chai Che said.
He hummed, "Let's go for a run."
"Lu family?"
"Yes, let's go check on the seriously injured man from the Lu family and see if he's still breathing."
"Even if he's still alive, the Chai family still has the charge of assassinating him. How can I exonerate Jiaoran?"
"What is the most important thing you want?"
"Save Jiaoran and suppress this matter."
Mu Jin shook her head. "A broken mirror is hard to mend. How can you possibly stick it back together again? You can only do the first one."
"Okay, then I'll rescue Jiaoran first. If she really is my aunt's bloodline and something goes wrong, I won't be able to face my aunt in my grave."
Mu Jin continued, "When you go to investigate, remember to spread the word and let everyone in the Chai family know that you are working on this matter."
"Why?"
"Come back to me when you've done it. Tomorrow, tell me what you've learned, and we'll discuss the next step."
"good."
Before dusk the next day, Chai Che arrived impatiently and said, "Lu Xu is seriously injured and is now unconscious. It is uncertain whether he will live or die."
After hearing this, Mu Jin said, "Just say this in front of your uncle and the rest of the Chai family. You said that Lu Xu seems to be waking up now. He remembers the assassination that day and some features on the murderer's arm. Miss Jiaoran has been cleared of suspicion and is now helping to find the murderer at the Lu family."
Cha Che said, "But my father will also send other people to investigate. If I say this, he will definitely be able to tell that this is not the case."
"so what?"
“…”
Mu Jin was helpless. "Whether you can investigate thoroughly or not, your uncle won't blame you, because this matter was not caused by you in the first place. Besides, he has also sent people to investigate, and your eldest brother is here. You are too concerned about the result."
"You want me to say this on purpose?"
"That's right."
"You want me to tell the murderer."
Seeing that he had understood, Mu Jin nodded, "That's right."
"Why do you think the murderer must be in the Chai family? We are the only ones who can disguise ourselves, including you. Do you think the person who seriously injured Lu Xu is among us?"
"Who else is the murderer?"
Chai Che said, "Absolutely impossible. If it were my eldest brother, he might want to help Sixth Sister, but weighing the pros and cons, he won't do it. Ah Hui is not here, and even if he was, his skills would not be able to bypass the many guards of the Lu family."
Mu Jin said, "You haven't finished yet."
"Are you saying that you and I are also suspects?"
Chai Che laughed a few times, "If I were the murderer, Lu Xu would definitely be dead now. As for you, you are too weak to break free from the shackles of the Governor's Mansion."
Mu Jin sighed, "Just do as I say. Oh, and tell your old friend to protect Lu Xu for the next few days."
"Do you think a real assassin would still take action?" Chai Che thought about it for a moment and felt the same way.
He stood up, leaving his tea untouched. "When Jiaoran comes back, you must explain it clearly to her this time, lest she get angry with you again."
Mu Jin refused, "You don't need to say more about what happened between her and me."
"Don't be so stubborn. Jiaoran has a wild temper. You let the Lu family take her away this time, and then you directly pinned the blame on her to retreat and advance. The way she thinks, she won't understand unless you explain. Then she will take her anger out on you, and you will suffer."
Mu Jin shouted to see him off, and soon Shao Feng came over, "Second Young Master, please come in."
He bowed and said goodbye, "Okay, I can't take care of your affairs anymore. Don't come crying and beg me to help you make peace with her."
Mu Jin threw a cup out and said, "Get out of here."
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