Chapter 46
In no more than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, Mu Qing and the others were brought face to face with the legendary Steward Li.
She had almost been misled earlier—nearly fooled by Liu Feng and that pudgy jade shop assistant—but thankfully, she had snapped out of it in time.
Something about this whole situation felt off.
Logically speaking, this wasn’t Liu Feng’s usual style, and the appearance of her husband’s fifth younger brother was far too coincidental. The whole setup reeked of a trap.
One tailored specifically for her and Qin Qin.
To test her suspicion, she used a seemingly insignificant object—and it worked.
What she brought out was a bit of powder.
The same powder from the jade pendant that her husband had crushed with his bare hands when intimidating Liu Feng.
At the time, Mu Qing had casually stashed a portion of the powder into the sachet she carried—not because she had a habit of picking up junk, but because of her long-standing hobby of experimenting with fragrance blends.
To create new and delightful scents, she relied on her keen sense of smell and her occasional bursts of inspiration, which often led her to collect all sorts of odd materials.
Beyond the usual spices and herbs, she would sometimes add things like pearl powder, gold and silver dust, flower pollen, and bits of plant material.
So when she saw her husband crush a jade pendant into fine powder that day, she had been so impressed that she instinctively saved a small portion of the clean fragments in her embroidered sachet.
It was a habit she’d had since childhood. In the past, with Bingtang and Xueli by her side, she rarely had to do things personally.
That sachet, after all, had been sewn by Bingtang herself—despite her boisterous personality, her needlework was nothing short of exceptional.
Even Xueli had to admit that this girl had serious skill.
And because of her fiery temperament, when she focused on embroidery or stitching, her work was both quick and flawless—truly awe-inspiring.
Thinking of them made Mu Qing feel a subtle pang of sadness.
She suddenly felt like some heartless man who’d forgotten his old love after finding a new flame—she couldn’t help but feel a bit guilty.
Ever since her husband had arrived, her relationship with the two girls had grown distant. Though they still served her closely, the intimate bond they used to share—the long, heartfelt conversations—had subtly faded.
Especially after she moved into White Crane Academy with her husband for their studies. The school had strict rules against female visitors.
She could still barely get by with her own disguise—though a few insiders knew the truth, she could manage to maintain the facade.
But if Bingtang and Xueli came along, the risk of exposure for their whole “cross-dressing in school” act would skyrocket. It would become exponentially more dangerous.
Her husband had helped with most things lately, but little tasks like collecting materials, she had taken on herself again.
In truth, ever since her husband showed up, she’d stopped collecting new ingredients as often—despite their marriage being fake, she still had to spend time building chemistry and cultivating their image as a loving couple.
That took up a lot of time.
Half a year had passed, and she hadn’t developed any new scents or recipes. Sure, moving the whole family to Tongzhou and enrolling in White Crane Academy played a role in that, but most of it—yeah, still because of her husband.
As it turned out, fake or not, love really was expensive.
Mu Qing sighed at her own tendency to get “distracted,” and realized that if her husband hadn’t left temporarily to take care of something at home, she might’ve forgotten all about this.
So perhaps a bit of separation wasn’t a bad thing.
Look at that—it had already sparked her creativity, helping her deal with this group of men who dared treat her and her sister-in-law like mindless pretty faces.
She calmly retrieved a pinch of the powder and, mimicking her husband’s dramatic flair, made a grinding gesture while striking the pose of a lonely, mysterious master.
Sure, she wasn’t exactly a martial arts expert, but she could still pull off the act.
After all, she wasn’t trying to overpower anyone physically—she just needed to remind them of who did have power.
Clearly caught off guard by this move, the others were stunned into silence.
None of them, even the sharp-minded Fifth Brother, could figure out what kind of strange performance Mu Qing was putting on.
But Mu Qing didn’t bother explaining. As long as they were confused, her goal was achieved.
She blew the final traces of powder from her fingertips and clapped her hands lightly, then asked casually:
“Did you all see that?”
The group, in perfect sync, shook their heads, gazing at her with puzzled expressions—one of them even wore a look that clearly said: Are you an idiot?
Mu Qing didn’t mind at all. In her eyes, they were the idiots.
Still, her little act of mystique had worked.
It was time to flex her real talent—deception.
She cleared her throat and began with a casual tone, quickly commanding the room. “You all saw that powder just now? It used to be a beautiful piece of jade. And now it’s dust. What does that mean?”
“What?” replied none other than the jade shop clerk, Er Gou.
Mu Qing smiled. “It means—‘See this beautiful jade? Even if I crush it, you still won’t get it.’”
The words were baffling, but paired with her enigmatic expression, they carried a strangely persuasive weight.
Especially since several of them were exceptionally intelligent—and intelligent people always overthink things.
With just a little push, they could fill in the blanks with elaborate assumptions. For instance, the two smartest in the group—Fifth Brother and Liu Feng—fell silent for a moment, then their expressions shifted.
Liu Feng glanced at Fifth Brother, opened his mouth to speak, then stopped.
The first to respond was naturally Fifth Brother.
He looked at Mu Qing for a while, then suddenly smiled. “As expected of Fourth Sister-in-law. I concede this round. I’ve already sent someone to fetch Steward Li. Let’s just wait a bit—he’ll be here shortly.”
Mu Qing silently exhaled in relief. She’d won the bet.
Qin Qin, beside her, was already dumbfounded.
Though normally sharp and composed, the stress of her father’s disappearance and the flurry of strategic exchanges today had left her completely overwhelmed.
But her best trait was knowing when to speak and when not to.
She never made things hard for the people she liked—and right now, whether it was Mu Qing or Fifth Brother, it was clear neither wanted to explain this just yet.
So even though she desperately wanted answers, she stayed quiet, only tugging at Mu Qing’s sleeve, looking more and more like a confused, fragile little creature.
Seeing her like that, Mu Qing’s heart softened. But now wasn’t the time to explain.
Since Fifth Brother had already surrendered and dropped all the unnecessary mind games, there was no point in dragging this out.
As long as things were moving in the right direction, that was enough.
So she whispered to Qin Qin, “Ah Qin, let’s take care of the important matter first. I’ll explain all this to you later.”
Qin Qin obediently nodded and sat quietly by Mu Qing’s side.
Mu Qing turned back to the others and resumed sipping tea with them.
It looked like a casual tea gathering, but everyone had their own undercurrents.
Fifth Brother remained calm and composed, even making small talk with Mu Qing now and then.
Liu Feng, however, was clearly uncomfortable.
He had been the one sent by Fifth Brother to the academy to play his role—to help extract Mu Qing and Qin Qin as part of Fifth Brother’s performance.
If everything had gone according to plan, he would’ve come out looking very impressive. But unfortunately, halfway through, Fifth Brother had shown up himself.
And worse still, Mu Qing had caught on midway and used a few mysterious gestures—ones they couldn’t fully interpret but clearly understood to be critical—to ridicule him.
That had bruised his pride deeply.
So he’d been sulking ever since.
And watching Fifth Brother get along so well with Mu Qing only made him more sour. He’d assumed the Fourth Brother’s return to the capital would leave the youngest helpless.
Who would’ve thought the youngest was even harder to deal with?
Just one appearance, and he already had something to hold over Liu Feng—forcing him to agree to three tasks. And the first was already turning out to be a mess. Who knew what the next two would be?
As Liu Feng wallowed in his troubled thoughts, the jade shop assistant Er Gou had already made his exit.
After Mu Qing’s impressive display and Fifth Brother’s decisive intervention, the charade was over.
Er Gou resumed his true identity—and the shift in his demeanor was startling.
From the way he addressed everyone, and from what Mu Qing had observed earlier, it was now obvious: he was one of Fifth Brother’s people.
Specifically, someone who gathered intelligence and delivered messages.
Just like the black-clad subordinates who occasionally appeared by her husband’s side. Clearly, her husband came from a powerful family—each son had their own capable agents. What a luxury.
Mu Qing couldn’t help but conjure up another dramatic scene of aristocratic power struggles in her mind. When she met Fifth Brother’s faintly amused gaze, she jolted back to reality and calmly took a sip of tea, pretending nothing had happened.
Right after, Er Gou respectfully saluted Fifth Brother and took his leave.
And just one cup of tea later, an older man appeared at the doorway of their private room, right on time.
Though he was dressed plainly, he commanded attention—because no matter how much he tried to seem ordinary, he simply didn’t look the part.
He looked to be in his fifties or sixties. His face was pale and beardless. Though he tried to lower his voice, there was no mistaking its distinctive tone.
“Fifth… Fifth Young Master, you summoned this old servant?”
