Le Premier ministre stupéfiant

Chapitre 61

Volume Two: The Wind Leaves a Trace, Chapter Fifteen: The Shocking Change at the Lantern Festival (To be continued)

"She has hands and feet, and she's not an ignorant child. What's the big deal?" Since New Year's Eve, Mu Feinan had been occupying Mo Xibei's study every night. He was also woken up by the knocking and came out wearing his coat.

"Did you get up early this morning and the maid didn't see you?" Mo Xibei rubbed his eyes, feeling slightly uncomfortable, but he couldn't quite put his finger on why.

“It shouldn’t be. Yesterday, on the Lantern Festival, although the maid who served her went out to play, she didn’t come back late. I just asked her, and she said that when she came back, she saw that Murong Lianyun hadn’t returned yet, so she stayed in the room waiting. Although she dozed off, she woke up when it was already dawn. But Murong Lianyun’s bed was neatly made, with no trace of her sleeping there. Moreover, she was very sure that she was in the room the whole time. If Murong Lianyun had come back, she couldn’t have missed the sound of the door opening and closing.” Honglu shook her head. “How should we punish this girl?” “Forget it. It’s the first month of the lunar year. Don’t make things difficult for her. Lianyun is capable and her martial arts skills are not weak. It’s not surprising that she came back at night and went out again in the morning without disturbing the maid. First, tell people to search the mansion. If she doesn’t find her, then tell everyone to go out and look.” Mo Xibei frowned. The wind outside was strong, and she couldn’t help but shiver after standing for a while. Mu Feinan quickly draped the coat he was wearing over her shoulders and pushed her into the house.

"What do you think?" Mo Xibei asked Mu Feinan, sitting on the bed wrapped tightly in the quilt.

"I think you could send someone to check on Chu Junfeng," Mu Feinan scoffed, unconvinced.

"How would I know if Chu Junfeng is in the capital, or where he lives?" Mo Xibei was taken aback. Ever since he brought Murong Lianyun here last time, Chu Junfeng had vanished without a trace. Quite some time had passed, yet he hadn't appeared at Chunfeng Ruyi Tower even once. "He's naturally in the capital, and he doesn't live far away. He's staying at Xinglong Inn, which is diagonally opposite us." Mu Feinan nodded slightly and suddenly smiled. A chilling murderous aura flashed between his brows, and although it was only for a moment, it still startled Mo Xibei.

"What's wrong? Why do you look like that when Chu Junfeng is mentioned? Did he offend you?" Mo Xibei asked. "Could it be that your long absence this time is also related to him?"

Mu Feinan glanced at Mo Xibei, his eyes momentarily unreadable, but in the end he just sighed, ruffled Mo Xibei's messy long hair, and said with a hint of affection, "You always overthink things when you have nothing to do. Don't take my words lightly. There are many things about men that you don't understand."

"For example?" Mo Xibei shook his head, letting his hair fall loose, and grabbed an ivory comb. He combed it, stroke by stroke.

“There’s no example.” Mu Feinan took the wooden comb from Mo Xibei’s hand and combed her hair one stroke at a time.

"Okay. No examples." Mo Xibei snorted in response, mimicking his manner. He then fell silent.

After breakfast, Mu Feinan hurriedly left. Only after he had left did Honglu enter Mo Xibei's room and ask, "When I came to deliver the food, I vaguely heard you say something about 'nothing like,' what's wrong?"

"It's nothing. He just said I don't understand men's affairs, and I asked him to give an example, but he refused." Mo Xibei asked, "Have you found Lian Yun?"

“No,” Honglv shook her head. “Then why don’t you ask him about it?”

"Why bother asking him about such a simple truth? Men do everything for nothing more than three things: status, money, and women. These three things are vulgar enough, and it's pointless to force him to say them." Mo Xibei tied her hair up in front of the mirror. Today she was wearing a modified arrow-sleeved blouse made of moon-white satin. The hem of the blouse was flowing and it was a women's style. However, too many hairstyles would make her feel restricted, so she followed the old style and styled her hair into a ponytail-like hairstyle.

On this day, Mo Xibei sent Honglu to Xinglong Inn to see if Murong Lianyun was there. However, Murong Lianyun was not there. At least, Tianxin told Honglu that he had never seen the eldest daughter of the Murong family in all these days.

Murong Lianyun was missing for three whole days. During this time, Mo Xibei mobilized many people to investigate openly and secretly, but they had no clue. Murong Lianyun's appearance was as abrupt as her disappearance. Early in the morning of the nineteenth day of the first lunar month, she walked out of her room and went to the well in the courtyard to fetch water for washing, scaring the maids in the courtyard half to death.

Mo Xibei arrived upon hearing the news and tried to ask Murong Lianyun where he had been for the past three days, but Murong Lianyun just kept smiling and remained silent in the face of all of Mo Xibei's questions.

After the initial excitement subsided, Mo Xibei turned and walked away. She thought she understood enough that Murong Lianyun was Murong Lianyun. Regardless of her past life, future life, or this life, she was just Murong Lianyun, someone who, in essence, had no connection with her except for staying at her place.

Since they had no connection, she had no right to question what Murong Lianyun did.

A few days later, even Honglu noticed the change in Mo Xibei and came over to advise him, "Miss Murong is spoiled and pampered. I know you usually can't stand being treated like this, but since you took pity on her and took her in back then, there's no reason to kick her out now."

"Did I say I wanted to kick her out?" Mo Xibei peeled a segment of tangerine and popped it into her mouth. The tangerine was very sweet, and she squinted her eyes slightly in satisfaction.

“But I’ve noticed that since she came back, you’ve stopped paying attention to her.” Honglu also peeled an orange and ate it. For a moment, the air was filled with a fresh, slightly sour, sweet aroma.

“I didn’t ignore it. I just felt that Lian Yun is not a child anymore. She has the right to choose her own future. I just felt that I had no right to interfere with her choice, that’s all,” Mo Xibei said very frankly.

"What you said makes me feel a little helpless and sad." Honglu shook her head and stopped commenting, so Mo Xibei also stopped bringing up the topic.

A few days later, someone suddenly delivered a gold-embossed invitation, inviting Mo Xibei to his residence for a chat.

Volume Two: The Wind Leaves a Trace, Chapter Fifteen: The Shocking Change at the Lantern Festival (Part Two)

"I've never heard of you having any friends in the capital," Honglu said when the gold-embossed red invitation arrived. At that moment, Mo Xibei was reclining in a grand chair, earnestly gnawing on a braised goose foot in abalone sauce. It snowed almost every day throughout the first month of the lunar calendar. Mo Xibei's habit from the modern era was that she hated snowy days because the roads were slippery and she could easily fall. Therefore, except for the Lantern Festival, she hardly ever went out, and naturally, she was bored to death.

There weren't many customers at Chunfeng Ruyi Tower during the day. She invited Xiuwen to play the zither, and Mu Feinan brewed a pot of Dongding Oolong tea to accompany him. Honglu deeply hated Mo Xibei's bad habit of either drinking or eating meat while listening to the zither, but she also liked listening to Xiuwen play the zither, so she found a place in a corner of the room to sit down and listen attentively with her eyes closed.

Mo Xibei licked his fingers, gesturing for Honglu to open the invitation. A faint fragrance filled the air—the scent of plum blossoms. The calligraphy on the invitation was elegant and well-proportioned, containing only a few words. Mo Xibei glanced at it; it simply said, "I have heard of your refined taste. The plum blossoms at the manor are in full bloom, their fragrance carrying for miles. Enjoying them alone is unpleasant; I wonder if you would be willing to share them with me."

"Such an elegant friend, to be honest, I don't even know when I met him." Mo Xibei's gaze finally fell on the layers of plum blossom petals delicately painted with gold powder on the invitation. "It would be impolite not to go if such a commoner like me is invited so warmly. Where is the person who sent the invitation? Go and ask about the time and place."

"Boss, the person who delivered the invitation said that if you're willing to go, he'd be happy to show you the way." The waiter went downstairs for a while and then jogged back.

"Alright, let's invite him to the lobby for a cup of tea first. I'll change my clothes and then go." Mo Xibei nodded, rubbed his oily hands in mung bean flour, and then washed them with water. He applied some grease and ointment, stood up, and walked out.

"Northwest!" Mu Feinan swayed and stood blocking the doorway. His face was cold and incredulous as he asked, "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to admire the plum blossoms." Mo Xibei smiled and walked around him, saying, "Don't follow me, I need to change into something warmer."

"Do you know the person who invited you?" Mu Feinan frowned; Mo Xibei seemed rather strange today. While she could be muddle-headed at times, she had never been this reckless. "No," Mo Xibei shook her head casually, a smile still on her face.

"Aren't you afraid of encountering danger?" Mu Feinan was getting angry. Mo Xibei clearly didn't have a deep understanding of the martial arts world, and he also lacked self-awareness.

"In broad daylight, under the clear sky, where could there be so much danger?" Mo Xibei laughed, his voice slightly strange. After a pause, he reached out and put his arm around Mu Feinan's neck, leaning his head close, and said gently, "Feinan, I'm not a child. You have to believe me. Even if there really is danger, let alone if there isn't, I can still protect myself."

"I hope so." Mu Feinan sighed. "You mean I shouldn't follow you, right?"

“Exactly.” Mo Xibei nodded, let go of him, and walked around him to the door. “Just don’t follow me.”

This time, Mo Xibei changed her clothes surprisingly quickly. In less than a quarter of an hour, she was already standing outside the Chunfeng Ruyi Tower, wearing a white fox fur coat. The person who delivered the invitation was a middle-aged man dressed in ordinary clothes. Not only were his clothes ordinary, but his appearance was also ordinary. His eyebrows, nose, eyes, and mouth were completely unremarkable. Honglu followed him out, worried, and caught a glimpse of the man. However, she almost immediately realized that in the blink of an eye, she couldn't remember what the middle-aged man looked like at all. She had no impression of him whatsoever.

The middle-aged man also drove a carriage, the most ordinary kind. In the capital, almost every wealthy family had several such carriages. The carriage was not large, with thick cotton curtains hanging on it. When he saw Mo Xibei come out, he respectfully lifted the curtains, watched Mo Xibei get into the carriage, then lowered the curtains again. After that, he sat down in the carriage, cracked the whip, and the carriage chugged away.

“Eh…” Honglu remembered that before she could ask Mo Xibei when he would return, the carriage had already reached the street corner and disappeared in a turn. She felt a little uncomfortable and hurriedly turned around, only to see Mu Feinan and Xiuwen standing behind her at some point, their eyes also fixed on the now empty street corner.

“Young Master Mu, I have a feeling something is wrong. Why don’t you go and take a look?” Honglu usually doesn’t talk to Mu Feinan, but today… well, let’s make an exception for today.

"Why should I follow them to see?" Mu Feinan snorted and retorted.

“Because Young Master Mo doesn’t know anyone in the capital, no one would invite her.” Honglu complained. Usually, Mu Feinan doted on Mo Xibei, so why was he acting so strangely and sarcastically today?

"That's what you think," Mu Feinan said, turning and going upstairs.

"You... how could you be like this? Men really are all unreliable." Honglu stamped her foot, momentarily forgetting that the person she was talking to was also an unreliable man. "Boss Mo seems confused, but he's not. Miss Honglu, you should calm down." Xiuwen reached out and caught a few snowflakes, watching the white petals melt in his hand. "Besides, Boss Mo is right. There aren't that many bad people in this world."

Mo Xibei dozed off in the carriage. When she woke up, the carriage had stopped outside a manor. The middle-aged man lifted the curtain and asked her to get out.