Le Premier ministre stupéfiant

Chapitre 41

"No, no one else's soup is to my taste. I only want the soup that Chef Xu made a few days ago." Mu Fei's tone turned harsh.

"How did he know that it was Chef Xu who made the soup?" Mo Xibei stared at the waiter.

"Um..." The waiter wiped his sweat with his sleeve, not daring to admit that when he came to clean this morning, he couldn't resist the temptation of the man in front of him and blurted out that the boss had changed the chef.

"You don't need to make things difficult for him. I know you transferred Master Xu to your residence. You don't like soup anyway, so why did you transfer him away?" Mu Feinan sat up abruptly. Seeing that things were not going well, the waiter slipped away.

Mo Xibei was amused by the situation. He put his hands on his hips and went over to the building, saying loudly, "Are you the boss here or am I? Do I need your permission to ask who I want to do? If you don't like it, fine, go out, turn left, then right, then left again, and go downstairs. If you can't find the front door, just ask around. If you don't want to go through the door, there's no lock on the window, so you can jump out."

"Mo Xibei, what right do you have to yell at me? Annoyed with me? Fine, I'll leave. Don't think I don't know what you brought into this house just because I'm lying here. Let me tell you, I've seen plenty of women, but I've never seen anyone as stupid as you. What are you up to? Let me tell you, you're not a man, you don't understand how men think. No matter what your reason is, no one will appreciate what you're doing now. One day, you'll be crying your eyes out." Mu Feinan seemed even angrier than Mo Xibei. In the past few days, he and Mo Xibei had argued almost every day over trivial matters. When Mo Xibei got angry, he would curse, tell him to get out, and call him a dog. He had never gotten angry before. But today, after saying these words, he grabbed a mask, put it on, and then, in a flash, pushed open the window and jumped out.

The most infuriating time during an argument is when you're righteously in the right, ready with a whole host of things to say, and your opponent suddenly shouts a few times and disappears without a trace. Mo Xibei stared at the window, taking a long time to catch her breath. She found it funny herself; ever since Honglu returned to Jiangnan, she'd had almost no one to talk to. Every day she'd have Xiuwen play the zither for her, or drink and play chess by herself, or invite a few girls over to sing and dance. Before Mu Feinan arrived, she hadn't found this kind of life boring, but these past few days, she seemed to be finding it unbearable.

He angrily ordered his men to carry out the entire bed that Mu Feinan had slept in. However, considering that it would take another half a month to a month to make an identical bed, Mo Xibei sighed as he looked at the empty space and ordered his men to bring the bed back. He then removed all the bedding and curtains from the bed and replaced them with new ones.

Winter was approaching, and the days were getting shorter. After all this commotion, it was already getting dark. Chunfeng Ruyi Tower was gradually becoming lively. Opening the window, one could hear the noise of carriages and horses all over the street. Mo Xibei held his ivory pot, which contained warm Shaoxing wine. He took a couple of sips, but found it not as sweet as usual, so he put it down. Just as he was about to take a nap, someone gently knocked on the door a few times.

"Come in." Mo Xibei had already recognized the footsteps of the person coming in. "I don't want to listen to the zither right now. Besides, aren't you going to perform tonight?" she asked.

"I'm off today, but since you're the boss, it's only right that I keep you entertained." Xiu smiled, placed the zither on the table, and then got up to close the window, shutting out the noise.

"Who said I'm boring?" Mo Xibei sat up abruptly. "Was it your zither that told you that?"

“Perhaps,” Xiu Wen said, lovingly stroking the body of the instrument with his fingers, as if he were touching his beloved woman, with gentle tenderness. “My instrument can tell me many things that I cannot usually perceive with my eyes, ears, or even any of my senses.”

"How about that?" Mo Xibei raised an eyebrow.

“For example, feelings.” Xiu didn’t look at her, but just half-closed his eyes and gently touched the strings with his fingers, and the instrument produced a clear single note.

As usual, I'm calling for votes...

Volume Two: Traces Left by the Wind, Chapter Three: The Witness of the Qin (Part Two)

"Hehe, don't ask. I always thought you were otherworldly. It turns out, you..." Mo Xibei wanted to say, "So you have a gossipy side too," but quickly realized that it would be disrespectful to the artist he had hired at a high salary, so he changed the subject and said, "So you are also quite knowledgeable about relationships."

Xiu didn't speak immediately; he simply continued to stroke his instrument. After a long while, he said, "If a person is truly without heart, they cannot play truly good music. Therefore, I was once a person with heart."

"So you don't have a heart now?" Upon hearing this, Mo Xibei's first thought was of the myth in the Investiture of the Gods, where Bigan's heart was dug out and used as a medicinal ingredient, and then he thought of water spinach.

"I have no heart, so I can only make a living by selling my musical skills," Xiu Wen replied frankly.

"Oh! Then I can only say that your skills are indeed very good." Mo Xibei didn't know what riddle Xiu Wen was trying to play with her today. She only knew that someone like Xiu Wen, who had fallen to the point of selling his musical skills, must have a story. Everyone is born with a desire to pry into other people's privacy, and Mo Xibei was no exception. However, she tried her best to control herself and keep her distance from others. This was her experience: only distance can create beauty.

"I've talked a bit too much today," Xiu Wen blurted out again, then remained silent, without asking Mo Xibei what she wanted to hear. She simply raised her hand and plucked an ancient melody from the strings. Mo Xibei was utterly clueless about the zither; she liked it but was too lazy to practice, so she only knew one or two pieces over and over. She ran a restaurant and a brothel, and while she often listened to refined music, most of her repertoire consisted of popular tunes. Yet, she quickly recognized this particular piece. Not for any other reason than that "Phoenix Seeking its Mate" was undeniably a classic piece that had been popular throughout history, appealing to both refined and popular tastes. "Oh, seeing her, I cannot forget her. A day without seeing her, I am driven mad with longing."

The phoenix soars gracefully, seeking its mate across the four seas. Alas, the fair maiden is not there.

I strum my zither, wanting to pour out my heart. When will I be granted permission to speak, to soothe my anxieties?

I wish to be worthy of your virtue, to walk hand in hand with you. But I cannot fly with you, and thus I perish.

"You seem to be in a really good mood today. You can do it with just your skills." The darkness made people's hearing incredibly sensitive and emotional. After the song ended, Mo Xibei kept his eyes closed, feeling the subtlety and lingering emotions in it. It took him a long time to nod in praise. "Although you claim to be heartless, this song is enough to linger in the air for three days."

“The zither can tell me many things that I can’t feel with my eyes and ears. I’m just going with the flow of its feelings at this moment.” Hugh shook his head, still lovingly stroking his zither, and then stood up. “Someone has been waiting outside for a long time, I think. He can express things more fully than my zither.”

Don't ask if he went out through the door; there was no one outside. Mo Xibei didn't call for anyone. He stood up, found a tinderbox, lit the thick tallow candle in the room, and then strolled to the bedside. He opened the window and said to the person outside, "Standing outside someone's window, is it fun?" "You did it on purpose. You knew I was outside the window all along. It's so cold, and you pretended not to know." Mu Feinan always accused the innocent first.

"I'm sorry, but my Spring Breeze Pavilion only allows entry and exit through the main door. We usually arrest anyone who tries to enter through the window and send them to the authorities." Mo Xibei glared at Mu Feinan, and before the other could react, he quickly closed the window and bolted it shut from the inside.

"Northwest, please let me in." Mu Feinan knocked on the window. Such a small window could not stop him, but he could not imagine that if he broke the window and rushed in, Mo Northwest would just take his sword and kill him.

"If you want to come in, use the door," Mo Xibei replied.

Outside the window, Mu Feinan stared for a moment before obediently entering through the main door. However, after he managed to get to the private room on the second floor after being entangled by a group of heavily made-up women, he found that the lights inside were already off and the door was locked. Mo Xibei had already left.

"Sir, the boss instructed that if you wish to stay at the inn, please settle the bill for the past few days, which totals seven hundred and twenty taels of silver," the waiter who usually served him said respectfully as he approached him.

Meanwhile, Mo Xibei returned to the inner courtyard in a cheerful mood and saw Tian Xin idly feeding the koi in the lotus pond with steamed buns.

"How is your young master today?" Mo Xibei asked as he walked over. "Young Master Mo is back. My young master is fine." Tian Xin quickly stood up and said to Mo Xibei, "Young Master asked me to wait here and said that as soon as you returned, he would invite you over."

"What happened? Did Lian Yun disturb his rest?" Mo Xibei frowned, feeling inexplicably nervous, and had a very bad premonition.

"My young master received a message by carrier pigeon today. After reading it, he has been looking gloomy ever since. Miss Murong came to see him and was frightened by him. She only said a few words before leaving in a hurry." Tian Xin frowned, seemingly very troubled.

"What happened?" Mo Xibei followed Tian Xin to the courtyard where Chu Junfeng lived. The candles in the main room were lit, making the room as bright as day. Chu Junfeng was sitting on the bed, leaning against the pillow, looking increasingly pale.

"Northwest," Chu Junfeng looked up when he saw Mo Northwest return, a hint of embarrassment flashing in his eyes. After a pause, he finally said, "Northwest, when you fell off the cliff last time, did you pass through a mountain village on your way back?"

Mo Xibei's heart skipped a beat, but his expression remained calm as he asked, "It's been so long, why did you suddenly think of asking this?"

“It wasn’t something I suddenly thought of. Rather, I received a letter from a fellow martial artist. He’s been staying in Henan Prefecture, so he heard about a shocking case there.” Chu Junfeng stared at Mo Xibei with a hint of worry and said, “I was looking for you everywhere back then, and I’ve crossed several mountain ridges, so I’m quite familiar with the terrain there. The place this fellow martial artist mentioned today isn’t too far from where the incident happened, so I think you’ve probably been there.”

"Let's get straight to the point, what happened?" Mo Xibei didn't like beating around the bush. When she returned to Henan Prefecture, she didn't go into detail about her experiences, mainly because of the knife she had unexpectedly obtained when she left the mountain village. Murong Songtao's whereabouts were unknown, and she didn't want to cause any more trouble. She didn't want to, but it wasn't easy for her to forget.

"The local constable noticed that the villagers hadn't gone to the city to buy or sell anything for a long time. Autumn is usually a good time to sell medicine, and in the past, the villagers would go in groups to sell medicine and exchange it for daily necessities. However, this year, no one went, causing medicine prices in the city to skyrocket. The constable found this strange, so he went to check. As a result, he found that there wasn't a single living person in the village. From elderly people in their sixties and seventies to infants a few months old, everyone was dead. Moreover, judging from the time of death, it had been some time since then." Chu Junfeng repeated the facts he knew in a low voice.

Volume Two: Traces Left by the Wind, Chapter Three: Doubts (Part 1)

"They're all dead?" Mo Xibei felt a chill run down her spine to her head. She closed her eyes briefly before asking, "There should be many small villages in the mountains. Where exactly is the village where the incident occurred?"

Chu Junfeng reached into his pocket and pulled out a thin sheet of paper, unfolding it and handing it to Mo Xibei. The paper was ordinary, the kind commonly used for carrier pigeons—soft, lightweight, and easy to fold. Besides a brief summary of what Chu Junfeng had just said, the paper also included a detailed map. Mo Xibei had lived in the mountains since childhood and loved geography in school, so understanding the map was a piece of cake. Following her memories, she quickly located the approximate location of the small mountain village on the map, where a dazzling red dot had been drawn.

"Who did it, and for what reason?" Mo Xibei slammed down on the rattan rocking chair, making it creak almost immediately. The massacre of a village—the kind of bloodshed she had only seen in history books and TV dramas—had actually happened in real life. She dared not think about it; her heart was pounding, as if something was pressing on her chest, making it hard for her to breathe.

"The government is investigating, but most cases like this are unsolved mysteries. Due to the circumstances, the government investigates for a few days, and if there are no clues, they are simply recorded in the case file and shelved. Unless a similar case occurs in this area several years later, I'm afraid no one will intentionally think of such a thorny case again." Chu Junfeng shook his head, and seeing Mo Xibei's gloomy expression, he could only comfort him, "You really have been here, haven't you? Don't worry too much. My friend is investigating in the mountain village. He is meticulous and shrewd. The government may not be able to find any clues, but he may. Let's wait and see."

“I can’t leave the capital right now. It seems I can only wait.” Mo Xibei smiled bitterly that night. Hu Zi, A Dong, and many other faces from the mountain village appeared in her dream. Strangely, this was the first time she had seen these people in her dream since she left the village so long ago. Hu Zi was still squatting on the ground, practicing writing in the mud with a twig. A Dong was still standing under the big tree outside the village, playing cops and robbers with the other children in the village.