Le Premier ministre stupéfiant

Chapitre 33

"I wouldn't dare," the waiter quickly replied.

Because he hadn't changed his clothes for days, Mo Xibei didn't want to say much. He simply asked the waiter to prepare some hot water and bring it to his room. The waiter nodded in agreement, but then said, "Young master, since you left, another young master has moved into the inn. He stays in your room every day, saying that he knows you and has been waiting for you. I saw that he was very familiar with your maid, so I didn't dare to stop him."

Mo Xibei paused slightly, but the waiter, who had been watching her closely, quickly and cautiously said, "Why don't you sit outside for a while? I'll go over and ask that young master to return to his room." "Oh, no need," Mo Xibei shook her head, took a few steps upstairs, and went back to her room.

As soon as "Young Master Mo" opened the door, the people inside seemed to be taken aback. Hong Lü reacted the fastest, almost jumping up immediately and rushing to Mo Xibei's side, grabbing her arm. She looked her up and down, left and right, with such force that she almost ripped off the already somewhat dirty sleeve.

"Sister Honglu. It's been a few days since I last saw you, but did you have to be so excited?" Mo Xibei smiled. Only after seeing that Honglu was alright did she truly feel relieved.

"You still dare to say that?" Honglu looked up, tears welling up in her red-rimmed eyes, the anxiety and worry of the past few days finally finding an outlet. If Mo Xibei hadn't been presented as a man to outsiders, and if there hadn't been a woman in the house who mistook Mo Xibei for a man and was planning to marry him, she thought she would have rushed up and hugged her, and had a good cry.

"Alright, I know I was wrong." Mo Xibei patted Honglu on the shoulder, her eyes quickly glancing behind her. Actually, this guest room was quite lively; so many people were crammed into such a small space. Everyone's expressions towards her were different, and Mo Xibei couldn't quite decide whether she should be happy or not. She only felt fortunate. Thankfully, there was still Honglu in this world, someone who would always warm her heart.

Honglu quickly stopped crying, her tears still wet on her face, and retreated behind Mo Xibei. The others standing in the room had been quiet until Mo Xibei looked at them, at which point they began to move.

Chu Junfeng wore his usual polite and gentle smile, and said softly, "It's good that you're back." Tian Xin, standing behind him, was making a slightly teasing face at Hong Lü. When she saw Mo Xibei looking at her, she seemed a little embarrassed and smiled.

Murong Lianyun stared blankly at Mo Xibei, his eyes filled with a mixture of sorrow and joy, but he remained silent and motionless.

Mengmeng, however, knelt on the ground with a thud, tears streaming down her face before she could even utter a word.

"I'll take your reactions as a welcome back for me after my ordeal," Mo Xibei smiled, walked over and helped Mengmeng up, then turned to Lian Yun and said, "It's good to see you're alright. How have you been these past few days? By the way, there's something I want to discuss with you. I promised Mengmeng that when we go back to Jiangnan this time, she'll help Honglu manage some business. I'll also ask Honglu to find you a few more people to take care of you, or you can choose any you like. What do you think?"

"Since you've already made a plan, how can I say no?" Murong Lianyun lowered his head and said wearily, "Mengmeng has served me since she was little. You can decide how to arrange things for her, as long as you don't mistreat her."

“Miss!” Mengmeng took a step back, then knelt on the ground again, saying with tears in her eyes, “Mengmeng was adopted by the Murong family when she was a child. Miss has treated Mengmeng with the utmost kindness. Mengmeng will not go anywhere now, but will serve Miss.”

"You," Murong Lianyun glanced at her, finally sighed, and turned around to say, "Don't be so foolish. A woman always needs a home. Since Young Master Mo is willing to think about your future, it would be ungrateful to refuse him."

“Miss…” Mengmeng lowered her head, kneeling on the ground and refusing to get up.

"Honglu, take Mengmeng there. First, find a few simple account books. When you're doing business with me, you have to start from the basics. Teach her the way I taught you before," Mo Xibei instructed. She knew that Murong Lianyun probably had some misunderstanding, but she didn't want to say much about Mengmeng's experiences at the Eastern Depot. It was a matter of life and death, and the fewer people who knew, the better. Actually, today wasn't the time to arrange these things, but things were so complicated these days. If she didn't plan ahead, she was afraid she would be in a panic when things came to a head. Besides, seeing Mengmeng today, she was so thin that she was skin and bones. She guessed that she must have been suffering from insomnia and loss of appetite due to her past experiences. Rather than letting her overthink and risk her life, it was better to find her some solace as soon as possible.

After settling Mengmeng in, Mo Xibei found a chair and sat down. Although he had a thousand thoughts in his mind, he didn't know how to start the conversation, so he could only ask Lian Yun, "Lian Yun, how did you find this inn?"

"I met Brother Chu; he brought me here," Murong Lianyun replied indifferently, his mind elsewhere.

"You met Brother Chu, what a coincidence," Mo Xibei nodded, but her mind couldn't help but drift to Mu Feinan's words. She hadn't believed him initially, so although she had some doubts about the injury on his chest, she still refused to believe that Chu Junfeng had also arrived on the cliff that day. However, given Murong Lianyun's near-madness at the time, how had he managed to descend the mountain and return to Henan Prefecture so easily, and how could he have so coincidentally encountered Chu Junfeng? Mo Xibei couldn't understand any of this.

“It wasn’t too much of a coincidence,” Chu Junfeng continued, “That night, I went to check the situation around the East Depot camp. Later, I saw Murong Songtao leave the camp first, and you followed behind. I was a little worried, so I followed. Unfortunately, the horses Murong Songtao prepared were rare and excellent steeds. I was left behind after chasing for a while.”

"You went to the Eastern Depot camp that night?" Mo Xibei seemed quite surprised and pressed for an answer. "And then what happened?"

"Later, I couldn't catch up with Murong Songtao, so I had to retreat to the camp to find a horse. But when I saw that there was no chaos after the East Depot discovered your escape, there was only one person, the young master Mu who had sparred with me that day, who followed you out. I felt that something was amiss," Chu Junfeng said. "Although I couldn't catch up with Murong Songtao, the horse I stole could still keep up with that young master Mu, but it was still a bit slow."

For some reason, I'm incredibly sleepy today, so I'll stop writing here for now and revise and continue tomorrow...

Chapter 51 The Truth (To be continued)

Chu Junfeng's later account largely matched Mo Xibei's experience. While they were talking, he asked Tian Xin to check if the medicine he was making for Murong Lianyun was ready. Tian Xin knew he wanted to speak with Mo Xibei alone, so she found an excuse to pull Murong Lianyun out as well. This left only Mo Xibei and Chu Junfeng in the room.

Chu Junfeng was following Mu Feinan that day, but because the other party was highly skilled in martial arts, he had to keep a certain distance. Therefore, when he arrived at the cliff, Murong Songtao had already fallen off the cliff, and Mo Xibei was also hanging on the edge of the cliff in order to save Murong Lianyun.

"So, when I threw Lian Yun up there, you were just on the cliff, and then you stabbed that Young Master Mu." Mo Xibei asked calmly, but she felt uneasy. She thought she wouldn't mind too much, since she was still sitting there unharmed. From a modern criminal law perspective, even if Chu Junfeng really intended to kill her, she was fine, and at most he would be convicted of attempted murder. Besides, the person he wanted to kill might not even be her; she had already been pulled up there, so he might only have wanted to kill Mu Feinan. However, the logic was there, but a person's heart is something even its master cannot control.

"Northwest, are you resenting me, or have you already decided to hate me?" Chu Junfeng asked directly, his eyes fixed on Mo Northwest, his gaze filled with both regret and anticipation.

“A normal person would complain in this situation, right? That cliff is quite high, and going down there is no joke,” Mo Xibei said slowly, fiddling with his fingers. “As for hating you, I wouldn’t say so.”

"Hehe..." Chu Junfeng laughed, unable to tell whether he was particularly happy or particularly sad. He just laughed to himself for a long time before saying, "Northwest, you know what? Sometimes you can be very cruel. Actually, I'd rather you hated me."

"What's the point of me hating you? You don't believe in those silly things like 'no love, no hate,' do you?" Mo Xibei analyzed the meaning behind Chu Junfeng's words and temporarily put aside his disappointment and sadness.

"Isn't that right?" Chu Junfeng retorted.

“Of course not. Hate is never the opposite of love. If you truly love someone, then all their mistakes can be understood and forgiven. So, love will never turn into hate.” Mo Xibei shook his head, glancing at the glint in Chu Junfeng’s eyes. He then continued, “I never hate anyone. It has nothing to do with whether I love them or not. It’s mainly because I’m too lazy. Life is like duckweed, drifting and scattering without a trace. There are too many hateful people. It’s too tiring to hate them one by one. It’s a waste of my brain cells.”

Chu Junfeng remained silent for a long time before finally getting up and walking to the door. He spoke as he opened it, "Actually, I've been regretting it these past few days. If I had known you would be foolish enough to pull him away, I wouldn't have stabbed him with that sword."

"Really?" Mo Xibei shrugged. "Unfortunately, there aren't many 'if onlys' in this world. I never thought I would reach out and pull him up."

Standing at the door, Chu Junfeng seemed stunned upon hearing this. He remained standing there until Honglu and the waiter came over with a large bucket of hot water before letting out a long sigh and leaving.

"In my opinion, this young master Chu treats you very differently." After taking a bath and changing his clothes, Mo Xibei lay on the bed, listening to Honglu's rambling, "That day, he brought back Miss Murong, who was silent and had tears in her eyes, looking completely lost. It gave me quite a fright. It has been raining for the past few days, and the roads outside are impossible to travel on. But he still goes to the mountains to look for you every day. He goes out in the morning and doesn't come back until dark, soaking wet and covered in mud. I don't think I've ever seen him so disheveled since I met him. To be honest, this kind of devotion is truly rare."

"What's truly rare isn't Chu Junfeng's sentiment, but rather Tian Xindi's," Mo Xibei chuckled. "Why don't you just tell the truth?"

"How did you know?" Honglu was extremely embarrassed. As soon as she opened her mouth, she knew she was wrong again. She stomped her feet in anger and finally said after a long while, "You tricked me again. What does Tianxin want?" "It's no use denying it or getting angry." Mo Xibei turned over and comfortably leaned his head against the soft quilt. "I may not have eaten pork, but I've seen pigs run. I know from your glances, haha... something's up."

"What a vulgar analogy." Red and Green blushed, turned around and stomped their feet on the floor, saying they were going out to prepare dinner.

“Sister Honglu!” Mo Xibei grabbed her hand, his expression sincere. “You’re not young anymore, it’s time to settle down and live a normal woman’s life. But who exactly is Chu Junfeng? Is he good or bad? I really can’t say. I should have stopped you from having too much contact with Tianxin. But there are some subtle things between people, and even swearing oaths won’t work. However, I think Tianxin is a kind and blessed person. If you really marry him, it would be better than the kind of perfect match in the play.” It’s not even a done deal yet, and you’re making it sound like it’s the real deal. How will we meet then? Honglu lowered her head, rubbing the hem of her new dress. After a long while, she said, “Young Master Mo, my matter is a small matter. But you, you need to make some plans soon. Now that the Murong family has fallen, and you rescued Lianyun, she still sees you as a man, as someone she can rely on for life. You should find a time to make things clear with her as soon as possible.”

"You're really bringing up the wrong thing," Mo Xibei said, immediately clutching his head and rolling around on the bed, groaning in pain.

"I'm afraid you'll have a lot of trouble ahead," Honglu said without saying more. She took the clothes that Mo Xibei had changed out of, turned around and went out. The clothes were torn in several places and were obviously unwearable.

Outside the door, in the opposite corridor, someone caught a glimpse of red and green, then suddenly turned around, strode to their room, and slammed the door shut.

“Many things are liked by more than one person. At this time, shouldn’t we strike first?” Upon seeing that person, Honglu was not in a hurry to deal with Mo Xibei’s clothes. Instead, she turned around and went back to Mo Xibei’s room, leaving behind these words.

The only response she received was Mo Xibei's steady breathing.

After Honglu had completely left, Mo Xibei, who had been fast asleep in bed, suddenly got up, waved his hand to knock down the bed curtains, and took out an old, rusty knife from his body. The knife was quite old, and the blade had lost its sharpness and luster. However, it was this knife that had almost caused Mo Xibei to suffer a loss and be tricked on the cliff that day.

Does anyone have a magic cure for drowsiness? *sigh* What a nonsensical night...

Chapter 51 The Truth (Part 2)