C37

From the beginning to the end, the two of them only said that they wanted to go to the Miao Boundary, and never said that they wanted to go to the Miao Village, the place where Qu Ling's birth mother resided.

From what Qu Ling said just now, it seemed like he wanted to bring Xiao Jingyue, the husband and son, to see their parents and put into practice their relationship, which could not be considered to be real.

Xiao Jingyue knew clearly that she did not have that intention in her heart, but her expression still unconsciously softened a little.

He gently put down his book, and with an inexplicable emotion in his voice, he asked, "Madam, are you bringing me to see your grandmother?"

It was only then that Qu Ling realized his mistake and blushed. She immediately shut her mouth and lowered her head to her chair.

She had her back to him, and she bit her lower lip in frustration. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't understand why she would say such a misleading thing.

She had originally planned to sneak back home to see her grandma after arriving at the Miao Boundary, and had never thought of taking him there.

After all, sooner or later, the two of them would have to leave each other.

Xiao Jingyue did not mind, and his gaze once again landed on the book in his hand.

His eyes were on the book, but his attention was no longer on it.

He suddenly remembered that when he returned to the capital, the Emperor had gifted him with a lot of gold, silver, and jewelry. Those things were still piled up in General Mansion's storage room, and would probably be covered in dust if he kept them for a while longer.

On this trip to the Miao Boundary, if he met her grandmother …

Un, it is just gold, silver, and jewelry.

The old doctor walked out of Li Chenxuan's room, and Li Yun and his wife who had been waiting outside for a while spoke: "Young Noble is fine, you just need to recuperate for a short period of time."

Lady Li heaved a sigh of relief and glanced at the servant girl beside her. The servant girl understood and fished out some banknotes from her sleeve pocket, passing them over to the old doctor before personally escorting her out of the residence.

As she watched the old doctor leave, Madam Li was just about to enter the house to take a look at her son, when Li Chenxuan's feeble voice came from inside, "I want to rest, you guys can go back."

Li Yun and Madame Li looked at each other, and Madame Li's eyes were red as she said: "Alright, Mother and your father will be leaving now. You should rest well."

Li Chenxuan replied softly, and casually waved the servant beside him.

After the sound of footsteps gradually receding from outside the door, he lowered his gaze to the bowl on the bed that he had not taken away in time. Staring at the remaining blood in the bowl, his eyes were cold.

After a long while, he retracted his gaze and reached under the pillow with his pale and skinny hand. After fumbling for a while, he took out a hairpin that was used by a woman.

The hairpin was different from ordinary hairpins. It was made entirely out of pure silver, with a thicker hairpin, like a curved snake body. It was the hairpin that Huo Xinyi was supposed to give to Qu Ling.

On the other side, the moment Madam Li left Li Chenxuan's courtyard, she couldn't help but cover her mouth and cry out loud, "I told you not to use that evil poison. Look at Xuan'er, what has happened to her …"

Li Yun quietly listened to her complaints, and did not say a word.

This was his only son, and he was very close to him. Now that he had become this person that was neither human nor ghost, his heart also felt very uncomfortable. He wished that he could take this pain in his son's place.

But at this point, nothing he said was of any use.

No matter what, he definitely could not let his only son be like Huo Xinyi!

A hint of fierceness flashed across Li Yun's eyes, and he suddenly said: "I remember that there seems to be a girl around the same age as Xuan'er in Caoital Officials's Li Hu's residence."

"You mean …" Madame Li stopped crying and frowned. "But that girl's surname is Li!"

There was always the custom of "not marrying by the same surname" because the older generation said that marriage by the same surname was unfortunate.

Li Yun replied angrily: "It's already so late, have you forgotten what the old witch doctor said?"

Naturally, she did not forget. Madame Li seemed to want to say something, but in the end, she did not.

After dinner, Xiao Jingyue wanted to bring Qu Ling home. With the excuse that she was not willing to go through the books, he did not say much and immediately went to find Prime Minister Jiang to borrow the boxes of books, leaving Qu Ling with no excuses. Ignoring her struggles, he brought the books along with him.

Returning to the General Mansion, the moment his feet touched the ground, Qu Ling glared at him in anger, "Xiao Jingyue, would a piece of flesh be missing if I were to stay overnight in the Prime Minister Mansion?!"

Xiao Jingyue held onto her finger, and softly replied. "But I won't allow it."

He left her outside, unobserved. Who knew if she would climb up the wall in the middle of the night and wander around.

It wasn't that she couldn't do such a ridiculous thing.

"Then why did you …"

Without waiting for Qu Ling to finish speaking, a joyful shout suddenly came from behind the two of them, "Big Brother Xiao!"

Qu Ling cursed under his breath, "You shameless playboy!", and forcefully retracted his hand, "I'm going back to the courtyard, take a look at those books yourself!"

With that, she turned and ran without giving Xiao Jingyue a chance to speak.

Xiao Jingyue looked at her figure that was getting further and further away, and his expression immediately darkened.

Seeing Qu Ling had left, Murong Shan's heart was overjoyed. He immediately went to Xiao Jingyue's side and said with a fawning face: "Brother Xiao, I just heard that there's a large ship hosting a tea party at the Multi Cloud Lake. It's still early, why don't we go and join in?"

This tea party is usually a gathering place for the literati, who, in addition to drinking tea, also improvised poems.

Xiao Jingyue glanced at her indifferently, "You know how to write poems?"

Murong Shan came from a sect in the Jianghu Sect, so she knew how to brandish her blade and use her spear to shoot arrows.

However, she didn't feel embarrassed at all and even smiled as she said: "I will be fine, big brother Xiao, you can do it."

"This general will not." Xiao Jingyue expressionlessly threw down the two words as he walked into the study.

Murong Shan wanted to follow her into the study room, but Xiao Er appeared in time to stop her, "The study room is very important, no one is allowed to enter."

Disappointed, she lowered her head and did not force her way in.

Just as she was about to leave, she suddenly thought of something and stopped in her tracks.

Even though she knew that some things might cause her to be humiliated, she still couldn't help but ask, "If that woman wanted to go in, would you stop her?"

Xiao Er knew that she was referring to Qu Ling. Seeing that they had known each other for so many years, he did not have the heart to tell her the truth, that Qu Ling was not only allowed to enter and exit the general's study room, he had even rested in the study room with the general.

Although Xiao Er's answer was very reserved, Murong Shan was still injured.

That woman was not an outsider, she was an outsider.

When Qu Ling returned to the Pure Wind House, he deliberately took out the hairpin on his head and threw it into the pond in the courtyard. Then, he turned and shouted to Xiao Yi who was hiding in the dark: "I fell into the water, go and fish it out for me!"

Xiao Yi could see Qu Ling's actions clearly from the shadows.

However, he had no choice but to obey Madam's orders.

Fortunately, the weather was not cold, and with the strong bodies of the martial artists, he would not catch a cold even if he were to soak in the water for a quarter of an hour.

Qu Ling stood at the side of the pool and looked coldly at Xiao Yi who was diving into the water.

When he landed on the shore with the hairpin in his hand, she walked up to him with a smile. "You've worked hard."

Xiao Jian revealed a terrified expression as he said, "This is something this subordinate should do …"

Before he finished speaking, Qu Ling suddenly slapped his shoulder.

When Xiao Yi saw the strange smile on her face, a chill rose from the bottom of his heart.

Even though he had realized something, it was too late.

A strange fragrance drifted over, and in the next moment, his vision darkened, and he completely lost consciousness.