Chapter 449: With regards to happiness
Mute Granny had lived for a long time, weathering multiple storms in the Mu Clan during her life. She could tell from the manner and bearing of this young man that he was an extraordinary figure of uncommon birth. Because she’d been knocked unconscious at the Mu Estate, she had no idea what happened that night or why Mu Xin’s painting was in this man’s hands. Did he have a relationship with Mu Xin’s daughter, and if so, what was it? But at the very least, she sensed no ill intentions from him.
The fact that he’d kidnapped and lock her up was likely because he wanted the truth about Mu Xin’s secrets. But she was both deaf and mute and only knew a few words at best. Most likely, this young man had exhausted his bag of tricks on her already. So why did he come again today? Mute Granny leisurely took a seat in front of Long Feiye.
Just like before in South Ning Prefecture, Long Feiye politely poured Mute Granny a cup of tea and pushed it in her direction. He had never shown such manners to any other elders, not even Aunt Ru or Tang Zijin. Mute Granny nodded to express her thanks before picking up the cup to sip at the liquid. She didn’t find anything peculiar with the taste.
Long Feiye silently watched as Mute Granny finished the entire cup, his eyes revealing nothing. After searching so long for this secret and being plagued day and night by the implications of the truth, he now felt unusually calm. Perhaps his heart had drawn its own conclusions long ago, and verifying the facts now would only cement the choices he already made.
Mute Granny set the cup down before her expression blanched. Her throat seemed to have suddenly caught on fire as it hurt and burned. She clutched at her throat and stared at Long Feiye with wide eyes, mistakenly assuming that he’d poisoned her. Her mouth gaped as she tried to speak or shout, but not a single sound came out.
She quickly grabbed more tea to soothe the burn in her throat, only to stop short of swallowing another mouthful. If the tea is poisoned, wouldn’t drinking it worsen the pain? Her current poison was one that already plagued her day and night. The inflammed eardrums and throat tortured her daily, but that was nothing compared to the agony she was feeling now.
Too painful!
Mute Granny pointed angrily at Long Feiye. If she could speak, she’d definitely be raining curses down on him. She kept opening and closing her mouth, wanting dearly to say something, but still came mute. Faced with a raging Mute Granny, Long Feiye was nothing but unmoved. He quietly drank his own tea, earning her ire all the more.
She suddenly rushed forward and raged, “Just who are you? Why are you torturing me like this?!”
The sound of her own voice halted Mute Granny in her tracks. Shocked, she muffled her mouth in astonishment. Heavens, just then…just then I seemed to have shouted out loud? And—and my throat’s suddenly stopped hurting!
While Mute Granny was still in disbelief, her eardrums began to burn with the same pain as her throat. This time, Mute Granny didn’t lose her temper, but simply looked flabbergasted at Long Feiye, wanting an explanation. Long Feiye continued to drink his tea, but after the third cup he finally got to the point.
“Lady Mu Xin was your mistress, right?”
Mute Granny was even more stunned. She could hear him!
For the last twenty years, she’d been living in a deathly still world, unable to hear a thing. Now that she had finally heard a human voice, the sound was both familiar yet foreign. In that moment, she had trouble comprehending Long Feiye’s words.
Without a doubt, Long Feiye had slipped the antidote into Mute Granny’s tea. The Broomcorn Millet poison had been cured! When Mute Granny realized this, she quickly sat back in her seat. She remained with her head bow for a long time, needing time to adjust her feelings. Finally, she murmured to Long Feiye, “Young man, what skills you have. You’ve actually cured my poison.”
Long Feiye pushed another cup of tea her way and repeated, “Lady Tianxin was your mistress, right?”
This time, Mute Granny heard him perfectly.
“Tell me first, just who are you?” Mute Granny said calmly.
Long Feiye took out the portrait of Han Yunxi, one of many he had painted during Han Yunxi’s disappearance. The artist he had commissioned hadn’t met his expectations, so he ended up doing the drawings himself. Of course, this was something nobody else knew—not even Chu Xifeng.
At the sight of this painting, Mute Granny grew moved again.
“I trust that you know the girl in this painting is Mu Xin’s daughter. Her name is Han Yunxi,” Long Feiye intoned.
“Han Yunxi…that girl, her name is Han Yunxi? Yunxi…Yunxi…” Mute Granny was both surprised and startled. She had known Han Yunxi to be Mu Xin’s daughter as soon as she spotted her at the Mu Estate and found the Xin (心) character sewn onto her medical pouch. Miss Mu Xin had once said she wanted have a daughter so she could teach her about medicine. She was even going to personally sew her a medical pouch as part of her dowry.
Mute Granny never expected the young Miss to really give birth to a daughter after all. And now that daughter’s grown so big.
“Just who are you?” Mute Granny asked guardedly.
Long Feiye didn’t hesitate at all. “Your lordship is Han Yunxi’s husband, Tianning’s Duke of Qin.”
Husband. It was a role that most men would come to possess at some time during their lives. It was also part of their duty and responsibility. Although he’d been a husband for a while now, this was the first time that Long Feiye had said it out loud. An inexplicable feeling filled his heart before he broke into a soft smile.
Mute Granny had been trapped in the Mu Estate for so many years that she knew nothing of the Duke of Qin’s power or influence. Surprised, she said, “Then why are you hiding the fact that you’ve locked me up here?”
Although she had no inkling of the details, she was certain that Han Yunxi didn’t know she was here.
“If she never finds out about certain things, then…” Long Feiye trailed off for a long time, but didn’t finish the sentence.
“Then what?” Mute Granny pressed.
Long Feiye still didn’t speak.
“Whatever are you planning?” Mute Granny felt her heart sink. This man is little Miss’s husband. If he has any ill intentions, then what’s little Miss to do?
“If she never finds out about certain things, then…it’d probably bring her happiness.” Long Feiye finally finished.
Happiness?
It was the first time he had ever said such words. In truth, he didn’t know what ‘happiness’ meant, and never thought he’d experience the emotion in his lifetime. All he knew was that ‘happiness’ was probably the ultimate goal of every woman. Aside from that, Long Feiye didn’t understand much about the fairer sex at all. He wasn’t sure when he started wanting to treat that woman well, but he knew he was hopeless when it came to figuring out how. He had never treated anyone kindly in his lifetime, much less stopping to understand women or even like them.
His thought process was pure and simple: if he did like a woman, he should make her happy.
Although Long Feiye was talking about serious topics, his icy face couldn’t help but quirk into a faint smile. But that small, indistinct grin dissipated his inherently frosty air. Seeing this, Mute Granny relaxed her guard. She didn’t know anything, but she’d seen her share of passionate eyes in her life and half-quirked smiles in her lifetime.
What was happiness?
Someone that made you smile in spite of yourself at the very mention of her name.
Here was happiness!
“Are there things that you know while she doesn’t?” Mute Granny asked.
“If I didn’t guess wrong, then Lady Mu Xin has the blood of West Qin’s imperial clan flowing through her veins,” Long Feiye was always to the point when he spoke.
Mute Granny’s heart shook as she stared speechlessly back. She knew all of Mu Xin’s secrets, but here was the deepest one of all. Even Mu Yingdong had no idea about Mu Xin’s true origins!
“How did you know?” Mute Granny knew there was no point in denying it now.
“It looks like your lordship’s guess was right!” Long Feiye grew earnest as well. He had started investigating Han Yunxi from the first night she stepped into the estate. Her poison skills and cool calm on their wedding night had both been greatly unexpected. He would never believe that the good-for-nothing of the Han Clan possessed such skills.
In the beginning, he suspected Han Yunxi of being a spy, perhaps one in collaboration with the Northern Li agents who had hidden themselves in the capital. But later on, he gradually came to realize that this woman was quite simple. Not only did she have no accomplices, she didn’t even have a single friend. She had no connections with the Northern Li spies but had ended up ferreting them out instead.
Despite carrying the title of ‘Qin Wangfei,’ she didn’t enjoy any glory or status, but was plagued with people bearing grudges that brought her no end of trouble. Yet she was able to handle those incidents beautifully. He had taken the role of a neutral observer from the start, but ended up making more and more exceptions in her favor. First it was standing up on her behalf, then speaking up in her favor.
Later, she told him she learned her poison skills from the books that Lady Tianxin had left behind. He doubted her words, so he went to question Han Congan in secret, then investigate Lady Tianxin herself. Only then did he find out that Han Yunxi wasn’t Han Congan’s biological daughter at all, but another man’s. His clues eventually led him to Medicine City’s Mu Clan and the rumors of Lady Tianxin’s liaisons with a Poison Sect survivor.
From beginning to end, he had connected Han Yunxi’s identity with the Poison Sect until the white-robed man from the Shadow Clan suddenly showed up. If it wasn’t for him, he wouldn’t never suspected the woman at his side to have ties to the West Qin imperial family. Leaving him aside, even the other members of the Seven Noble Families had given up on finding survivors from the West Qin imperial clan. The Nether Clan had assassinated the last of their line already!
But the Shadow Clan, as one of the Seven Noble Families, were the West Qin’s most loyal guards. Their wholehearted devotion was second to none, and they protected their charges with their lives. None of them had ever betrayed their duties or their masters. When the West Qin imperial clan was destroyed, the Shadow Clan destroyed themselves as well.
But the fact that one of their members still lived meant that the West Qin imperial clan still had existing heirs. The way that white-robed man had protected Han Yunxi only made things more suspicious. Had he been looking for his true masters? Or simply aiming for the Poison Beast? That was hard to tell, which was why Long Feiye had questioned Mute Granny instead.
Her answer verified all of his hunches. Han Yunxi was the West Qin imperial heir!
Though angry at Long Feiye’s methods, Mute Granny had no way to deny the claims anymore. Instead, she demanded furiously, “How did you manage to guess?”
“Because the Shadow Clan found us first,” Long Feiye remarked simply.
Caught off-guard, Mute Granny exclaimed, “The Shadow Clan…what do they want?”