Lord Changfeng’s residence lay in the eastern part of the imperial capital. Although he was a royal relative, his household was a lonely and desolate place. When Lord Xihe’s carriage arrived, the servants waiting beside the stone guardian at the entrance were so flustered that they could barely manage themselves. Clearly, distinguished guests rarely came calling.
It was hardly surprising. When the late king had originally betrothed Qu Ruowei to Gu Mang, Marshal Gu had been at the height of his fame. The Qingya household had been so grateful that they could hardly have been more pleased with the marriage alliance. At the time, Lord Changfeng’s elderly mother was still alive, and the old lady would boast to anyone who would listen about how well her eldest daughter had married.
“Marshal Gu is so handsome, and he knows how to cherish a woman. He’s so young, yet he’s already covered in military achievements! Oh, my daughter is truly blessed!”
The old lady’s boasting had made many wealthy families green with envy back then. Although they had all smiled and congratulated her, praising the match to her face, behind closed doors they had seethed with resentment.
“What’s wrong with our daughters? Why should that ordinary-looking girl, Qu Ruowei, be the one to land such a good match?”
But times had changed. When Gu Mang fell from being the empire’s shining light to its greatest disgrace, those families’ jealousy turned into schadenfreude and a desire to kick the Qu family while they were down.
“Gu Mang was so young and already covered in military achievements. What a pity he turned out to be a traitor! Oh, your daughter is so unfortunate. How pitiful! Old Madam, shouldn’t you hurry up and reconsider her marriage arrangements?”
“It’s all that beast Gu Mang’s fault, pretending to be human while hiding the heart of a monster. He’s dragged Miss Qu down with him for no reason. Fortunately, it was only an arranged betrothal and they never actually married. Miss Qu can still make do with another husband.”
“Old Madam, don’t be too upset. The marriage never took place, so Miss Qu’s virtue remains intact. Her reputation has suffered a little, that’s all. She may no longer be able to marry a first-rate young master, but surely you can find someone outstanding among the commoners. Or perhaps…” The speaker giggled suggestively. “She could become someone’s secondary wife. There’ll always be a place for her somewhere.”
Words could sometimes be more poisonous than arsenic. Such remarks, ostensibly intended to offer comfort but actually dripping with mockery, tormented the old lady day and night like tongues of fire. Before she had even reached the age traditionally associated with knowing one’s destiny, she was already utterly exhausted in body and spirit, and eventually died.
Now, the only members of the Qingya household left were Lord Changfeng himself, his second younger sister, his youngest brother, who had yet to reach adulthood, and Qu Ruowei, who had become the object of everyone’s ridicule.
“We are deeply honored that Lord Xihe would deign to visit our humble home.”
After several cups of wine at the banquet, tears began to gather uncontrollably in the corners of Lord Changfeng’s eyes.
“This is truly… truly an honor beyond anything our humble household deserves.”
His younger brother also bowed in greeting.
“All these years, everyone has held a grudge against our family because my sister Wei once had a marriage agreement with that traitorous minister, Gu Mang. Yet despite your deep enmity with Gu Mang, Lord Xihe, you have been willing to put aside our family’s past. I… I…”
Lord Changfeng had never been eloquent. His mind was slow, and his words stumbled over one another, so he simply filled two more cups and offered them to Mo Xi.
“Alas, I cannot express what is in my heart. I can only offer my gratitude through wine.”
After several rounds of drinking, Lord Changfeng called for the women of the household to perform.
Music and drums began to play. Dancers in flowing red sleeves swayed among the colorful shadows and beautiful faces, until a young woman of exquisite beauty emerged gracefully from their midst, carrying a qin.
She wore only a light dusting of makeup, and her glossy black hair was arranged in a simple bun. Yet her natural beauty was all the more striking for it. Beneath the lamplight, her skin seemed as white as fresh snow, and her graceful bearing radiated an irresistible charm.
She continued playing. When the piece ended, she lowered her bright, shy gaze, her eyes soft and luminous as a young deer’s, and curtsied.
“Lord Xihe. Elder Brother.”
Mo Xi was slightly surprised.
So this is Qu Ruowei?
Everyone had said that Qu Ruowei was merely ordinary-looking. But setting aside his own prejudices and judging her fairly, the young woman before him was undeniably a peerless beauty.
“This is my second younger sister, Qu Fuqu,” Lord Changfeng hurriedly explained. “She’s rather shy by nature. Usually… sigh, people are always making sarcastic remarks about our family because of her elder sister’s marriage arrangement. After a while, Fuqu became unwilling to show her face in public. Only when someone as virtuous and magnanimous as Lord Xihe visits does she agree to make an appearance and play a couple of pieces.”
Qu Fuqu spoke softly. “Lord Xihe, I hope my humble performance has not offended you.”
As she spoke, her peach-blossom eyes, limpid as spring water, turned toward Mo Xi. Beneath her long, curled lashes, shyness seemed to flow in endless currents.
Mo Xi met her gaze for a moment. Then he spoke.
“Where is Qu Ruowei?”
Everyone in the Changfeng household was stunned.
What kind of man had absolutely no sense of romance?!
If this book had been posted on a website like Qidian for straight male readers, they would probably have been furiously pounding their phones and hammering the “Report” button. Their reasons would have been something like:
The male lead’s conversation with a beautiful woman is so stupid it makes me uncomfortable.
Or:
I already took my pants off, and THIS is what you give me to read?!
But the upright Captain Mo was completely oblivious to the situation. He merely frowned and turned his gaze back to the dumbfounded Lord Changfeng.
He had a very clear objective. He had come here to dump the mess of rescuing Gu Mang onto Qu Ruowei. While he was at it, he also wanted to see what the female lead of Forbidden Book actually looked like. He had no interest in anyone else in the Qu family.
“Is Qu Ruowei not here?”
“Th-this…” Although men and women in Chonghua were not bound by particularly rigid etiquette or restrictions, Marshal Mo specifically asking to see Qu Ruowei by name was still enough to shock Lord Changfeng.
And it wasn’t the pleasant kind of shock. It was sheer terror.
Lord Xihe and Gu Mang were sworn enemies! What could he possibly want with Gu Mang’s former fiancée? Could anything good come of this?!
Lord Changfeng’s lips began to tremble, and his legs shook so badly that he could barely stand. He couldn’t manage a single coherent response.
Fortunately, Qu Fuqu was quick-witted. She lowered her head and answered in a gentle voice.
“Lord Xihe, my elder sister’s health has been poor for years. She recently caught a chill and has been bedridden for more than a month. That is why she cannot come in person to offer her apologies to you. I hope you will forgive her.”
As she spoke, she bowed delicately, as fragile as a willow in the breeze.
“Please allow me to apologize on her behalf.”
“…Very well,” Mo Xi said. “You may rise.”
Qu Fuqu thanked him softly and rose with graceful movements, her picturesque features still gazing at him.
Mo Xi remained completely oblivious. His mind was still burning over the question of the “female lead.” In truth, the fire of resentment in his chest had not died down since the moment he saw Gu Mang’s scented pouch.
After thinking for a moment, he finally allowed his pride to win out over his longing and spoke in a stiff, deliberately indifferent voice.
“If she wishes to see Gu Mang, I can bring him here.”
The moment those words left his mouth, Lord Changfeng turned deathly pale.
“No, no, no! Lord Xihe, you misunderstand! You misunderstand! The Qu family has long since severed all ties with Gu Mang. Ruowei feels ashamed of that marriage arrangement. She certainly isn’t pining for him!”
After a long, frantic explanation, he noticed that Lord Xihe had simply furrowed his brows, closed his eyes, and stopped paying attention to him. His heart began pounding even more wildly.
What he didn’t know was that Mo Xi had suddenly closed his eyes and fallen silent not out of anger, but because Li Junlei had begun shrieking inside his head.
【SEVERE WARNING! LORD XIHE WILL ABSOLUTELY NOT BRING GU MANG OUT AND HAND HIM OVER TO QU RUOWEI! ABSOLUTELY NOT! THIS ACTION WILL RESULT IN A DEDUCTION OF—】
“Why not?” Mo Xi interrupted coldly.
He hadn’t realized that his attitude made him sound exactly like a jealous concubine who, after quarrelling with her husband, spitefully pushed him into the arms of the principal wife.
His voice was cold enough to freeze water.
“Qu Ruowei is the female lead.”
【QU RUOWEI IS NOT THE FEMALE LEAD!!!】
“…” Mo Xi’s expression improved slightly, only to turn cold again. “True. Gu Mang likes pretty people. Then what about Qu Fuqu?”
【QU FUQU IS NOT THE FEMALE LEAD EITHER!!!】
“Then tell me who she is,” Mo Xi said. “As Gu Mang’s former friend, bringing him to the female lead is perfectly reasonable. You cannot deduct my character fidelity without a valid reason. Do you have one? Care to explain?”
【A DEDUCTION IS MANDATORY! BECAUSE THIS NOVEL IS—】
Mo Xi didn’t hear the rest of what the novel was supposed to be.
Suddenly, a buzzing noise erupted inside his head, like the blaring of a loudspeaker. The shrill drone made his sword-like brows draw together in a deep frown. He gritted his teeth and cursed under his breath.
“What the hell is wrong with you?!”
Li Junlei remained silent for a long time, as though something were interfering with its signal. The buzzing continued until Mo Xi was forced to sit down in his chair. Only then did its mechanical voice finally return.
【THIS IS A PASSIONATE BROTHERHOOD NOVEL! BROTHERLY LOYALTY MUST COME FIRST IN ALL THINGS! PUSHING GU MANG TOWARD A FEMALE CHARACTER IS A SEVERE DISTORTION OF THE NOVEL’S FUNDAMENTAL GENRE! YOUR CHARACTER FIDELITY WILL BE REDUCED BY 100%!】
Wouldn’t that kill him outright?!
Mo Xi felt as though his head were splitting apart. He pressed a hand against his throbbing temple and gritted his teeth, saying nothing more.
Having delivered its warning, Li Junlei went silent with a sense of accomplished duty, leaving everyone in Lord Changfeng’s household staring at Mo Xi’s dark, inscrutable expression in nervous trepidation.
Lord Changfeng was so frightened that he didn’t dare utter even a single word. After a long silence, Qu Fuqu finally broke the oppressive atmosphere, which hung over them like storm clouds.
She asked cautiously, “Lord Xihe… are… are you all right?”
“…I’m fine.” Mo Xi slowly opened his dark eyes, which looked as though they had just been washed clean. “I misunderstood Miss Qu’s intentions. My apologies.”
“How could we dare take offense? Oh dear!” Lord Changfeng had barely stammered out half a sentence before abruptly stopping, as though someone had stepped on his foot.
Qu Fuqu lowered her eyes demurely and continued smoothly.
“Lord Xihe is truly magnanimous. You not only refuse to hold my elder sister’s past against her, but even show understanding toward the feelings of a young woman. I have heard that your integrity is as pure as snow, unmatched beneath heaven. Now that I have seen you with my own eyes, I feel that even the rumors have not done you justice. Please allow me to thank you on my elder sister’s behalf.”
With that, the banquet resumed. She offered two more pieces, her music flowing like the song of an oriole, then withdrew with her qin in her arms.
Lord Changfeng, meanwhile, seemed desperate to demonstrate his position to Mo Xi. Throughout the rest of the banquet, he repeatedly seized every opportunity to curse Gu Mang. One moment, he accused him of having “betrayed the heavens and the earth”; the next, he denounced him as someone whose conduct was “worse than that of a beast.”
Mo Xi listened in silence. He neither interrupted nor joined in.
He gazed at the plants and trees in the courtyard, their branches trembling in the wind, his thoughts drifting elsewhere.
“They say Lord Wangshu spared his life back then because he wanted Gu Mang to experience a fate worse than death.” Lord Changfeng had drunk quite a bit, and his inhibitions had loosened. At last, he was speaking less haltingly. “But really, what good does that do? Gu Mang no longer has human emotions. He doesn’t even understand human decency or shame. They might as well have tied him up and killed him. At least that would comfort the spirits of the fallen!”
“…”
“Oh, right!” Lord Changfeng suddenly remembered something and turned to Mo Xi. “Since returning to the capital, have you met Lord Wangshu yet, Lord Xihe?”
Mo Xi returned to the present, paused, and answered, “No.”
As for the legendary Lord Wangshu, he actually had a rather deep history with Gu Mang.
In Forbidden Book, Gu Mang had originally been nothing more than a servant. Even now, Mo Xi couldn’t understand why Gu Mang had written him that way. Perhaps he had grown tired of playing a six-foot-eight rich tycoon who had everything, and wanted to try a different flavor.
In any case, Lord Wangshu had been Gu Mang’s master before Gu Mang rose to prominence.
Lord Wangshu was about the same age as Gu Mang. Although he was a noble, he was nowhere near as clever as Gu Mang. When Gu Mang later distinguished himself in military affairs, shed his status as a slave, and won repeated military victories and generous rewards, Lord Wangshu’s jealousy only grew.
It was therefore Lord Wangshu who came up with the vicious idea of throwing Gu Mang into Plum Blossom Courtyard and forcing him to sell his body for the pleasure of others.
However, according to Lord Changfeng, “After Gu Mang entered Plum Blossom Courtyard, he endured every kind of humiliation, yet he never cried even once. Sigh. If a person can no longer even shed tears, what does humiliation mean to him? I think Lord Wangshu truly miscalculated this time.”
He then ingratiatingly added, “It would have been better to leave him to you, Lord Xihe. You would certainly know exactly where to strike Gu Mang to hurt him most! Hahaha!”
Mo Xi merely sneered.
Seeing that the subject wasn’t winning him any favor with Mo Xi, Lord Changfeng laughed awkwardly for a while and licked his lips.
“Um… Lord Xihe, you’ve been back at court for some time now. Why haven’t you met Lord Wangshu yet?”
“He’s lazy,” Mo Xi replied indifferently.
“Oh, oh, oh! Indeed! Quite right!” Lord Changfeng hurriedly agreed. “Although Lord Wangshu holds an important position in the Military and Government Office, it’s really just a sinecure where he can collect his salary without doing any work. He’s of noble birth and arrogant about his status. I heard that in the past, out of three hundred and sixty-five days in a year, he’d consider himself diligent if he showed up for fifteen!”
Mo Xi glanced at him, lowered his eyes, and began peeling a mandarin orange from the fruit platter.
Lord Changfeng was certainly a pedantic scholar, but he had acquired only the scholar’s sourness, not the scholar’s integrity.
Since Lord Xihe and Gu Mang had a history involving a knife in the chest, he had relentlessly cursed Gu Mang. Since Lord Xihe and Lord Wangshu were on bad terms, he now shut the doors and cursed Lord Wangshu instead.
As for Mo Xi, even when he disliked someone, he wasn’t the sort of person to seize every opportunity to disparage them. He said nothing at all.
Lord Changfeng had only made it halfway through his tirade when he suddenly remembered something. He slapped his forehead and lowered his voice.
“There’s something I forgot to tell you, Lord Xihe. You’re looking after that young master from the Yue family, aren’t you?”
“More or less.”
“Young Master Yue is young and lively, and naturally full of curiosity. If you intend to cultivate him, you must be careful. Whatever you do, don’t let him get too close to Lord Wangshu!”
“…” Mo Xi lifted his eyes. “Why?”
“Alas, Lord Xihe, you may not know this, but Lord Wangshu has changed far too much over the past two years. Ever since he inherited his father’s title, he’s become an even worse person.”
Lord Changfeng covered his mouth and whispered.
“Some things are difficult to discuss openly. Once you meet him in person, you’ll understand. He’s now… sigh!”
Lord Wangshu was, after all, the monarch’s cousin. As a royal relative, he was still bound by the delicate distinctions of kinship and seniority. Lord Changfeng merely waved his hand and made a disgusted face, refusing to elaborate further.
What exactly had happened to Lord Wangshu?
The setting manual’s answer was brief and to the point.
【Drunken indulgence. Illusions of flowers reflected in the water and the moon in the mirror.】
In other words, it was as good as saying nothing.
Li Junlei, however, provided somewhat more useful information.
【The plot involving Lord Wangshu’s appearance will be triggered in five days. At that time, you may observe him for yourself.】
Mo Xi gritted his teeth slightly.
“Can’t you tell me in advance?”
【According to the setting, this will be Lord Xihe’s first meeting with Lord Wangshu in several years. Before this encounter, Lord Xihe should not be familiar with Lord Wangshu’s current circumstances. Informing you in advance would disrupt the progression of the plot. Therefore, I cannot tell you.】
Fine. If it couldn’t tell him, then it couldn’t tell him. He would simply wait five days.
In any case, Mo Xi had never had a good impression of Lord Wangshu. Back in the cultivation academy, the man had spent practically all his time tormenting, humiliating, bullying, and envying others.
Yet something had always made Mo Xi vaguely uneasy. A substantial portion of the memories of Lord Xihe that he had lost seemed to be connected to Lord Wangshu.
For example, he vaguely remembered that once, back at the cultivation academy, the young Gu Mang had said to him, “Lord Wangshu…” But his voice had gradually faded, and everything that followed had been completely erased.
There was also a memory of him walking through Lord Wangshu’s residence. The sky had been dim as he passed beneath a covered corridor. There had been hardly anyone around. He remembered feeling terribly anxious, as though he were in a hurry to see someone or accomplish something.
Yet the memory always came to an abrupt halt at the same turn in the corridor.
Mo Xi knew that Forbidden Book was deliberately concealing certain events from him. And so many of those hidden events were inseparable from Lord Wangshu…
But what exactly was the book deliberately hiding?
Or rather, what was its author, the Angry Bird—that is, Gu Mang—deliberately keeping from him?
Because of these unanswered mysteries, Mo Xi was actually looking forward, at least to some extent, to finally meeting Lord Wangshu in person.
That way, given enough time, he might be able to uncover the truth for himself by observing Lord Wangshu—about the past events Gu Mang had written into this book but refused to tell him.