Chapter 160: A Halidom
Translator: Antonia
If on another case, Su Qi would be more than happy when Mo Qianxue got so close to him.
However, at this point, his pupils contracted. This wasn’t an easy topic, because it involved too much. One slip, and death came. Su Qi didn’t talk, face dignified. Mo Qianxue’s heart also plunged, and she knew she had asked it too abruptly.
Su Qi tested out, “Are you doubting the cause of your father’s death?” If that was the case, he wouldn’t tell her a world. The less she knew, the longer she lived, and the happier she was.
Mo Qianxue had just realized the complexity of the question, so she at this time she stopped being serious and put on a light face, “Not really. I just want to the distribution of his military forces.”
This pitched Su Qi’s heart down again. The two questions appeared different, but in fact they were interrelated. He felt distressed and concerned for her and comforted, “What should a girl know that kind of thing?”
If someone really intended to hurt her, he vowed to protect her to the end.
“No matter how you view me, I treat you as a friend.” Mo Qianxue smiled bitterly, “I disappeared for half a year, and known as a couple with Ning Shaoqing in the Wang village. If others didn’t know it, didn’t the Emperor? He allowed me to live until now probably because of the military power. But now, I still have no idea of it. If this continues to be the case, I’m afraid…some day I will die without knowing why.”
Finishing this, Mo Qianxue looked up at Su Qi, with begging, helplessness, and determination and unyieldingness.
This was her!
In a perilous situation, she didn’t give in to fate or cry, but went all out to fight. Even if the opponent was the Emperor, a man with supreme power, she remained the same attitude.
It’d be better for her to know those things which would at least make her less passive.
What he more wanted to ask was why she hadn’t go back to the Ning family with Ning Shaoqing, and what had happened between them. However, asking these questions would make him think less and mean of himself.
Judging from the current situation, it was because Ning Shaoqing wanted to cause less trouble and avoid the Emperor to shift all his rage to the Ning family, which would force him to give up on her.
Hence, what he replied was, “These are top military secrets. You don’t want me to tell you here, do you?” As these words were spoken, the sternness on his face also disappeared.
Mo Qianxue smiled and clapped her hands.
The bamboo trees shock a little, and nanny Mo with a guqin, Shiwu with a flute, began to play in the east and west respectively, which formed a nice symphony.
As nanny Mo and Shiwu began to do their work, Mo Qianxue smiled slyly, “Now, could you tell me? There aren’t walls or ears.”
This woman was really smart.
In this way, outsiders would believe that they were playing musical instruments. Besides, with these sounds, even if someone had sneaked and hid in the forest, it was harder, almost impossible, for him to hear clearly of their conversation.
Only she could come up with such a superb idea.
The nanny played okay, but the servant girl played out of tune, not pleasing to the ear at all. He was afraid that the outsiders would only regard Su Qi as a stupid dandy without a taste.
Su Qi shook his head helplessly and turned to look at Mo Qianxue, affection hidden in his eyes, but his face showing greediness, “It can’t be better. However, …top secrets… Qianxue, think of it. No one knows better of forces distribution in Tianqi than the Su family, and nobody would help you analyze it without concealment like me. Right?”
“Just do the farting, and tell me what you want.” She knew Su Qi wasn’t a kind person and would blackmail her again at this point.
“Girl, it’d be better if you’re more civilized. Do you agree?” Seeing Mo Qianxue’s impatient glare, Su Qi quickly smiled to please her, “I mean of course I should get paid. Right?”
“Just tell me, what do you want?” Mo Qianxue replied at once, generously.
She had figured his thought, but, thinking of the last time’s blackmail of the factory’s share, added, “Let me put it first. I only have five shares of the seasoning factory. I won’t give you more. But you also have the tofu recipe already. What on earth do you want?”
Certainly, Su Qi wouldn’t care about money. Except for the share of the factory, she really couldn’t think of something that Su Qi might like. The restaurant on the dock? When she left, it began to have many customers already…
Before Mo Qianxue thought more, Su Qi already told her happily, “I think the cute version big-headed portraits are very nice, very much to my likings. If you could specially draw more of me in different martial art movements so that I can make a booklet, I’ll answer every of your questions.”
That’s all? Mo Qianxue was dumb. She thougth he would have asked for something huge. Portraits were not big deal. She could finish in a few days.
But no wonder he wanted these. The ancients might found the style novel and interesting. Su Qi was a playful guy, so not strange that he was interested in this kind of things.
As if she feared that he would regret it, Mo Qianxue stretched out her palm, “Deal!”
Su Qi smiled with joy and also held out his palm to clap with hers, “Deal!”
In this way, if she wanted to draw well his different movement, she had to observe and think of him more. Would his chance to win her become bigger?
As their palms toughed, Mo Qianxue laughed, “Could you say it now?”
Su Qi started unhurriedly, “We should say you can ask questions now.”
“Okay, first of all, how did my father die?”
“He died in a war of course.”
“More details.”
Su Qi frowned, trying to warn her, “Qianxue…” Could he tell her that her father died under a well-designed conspiracy? He was afraid then…
Mo Qianxue had already figured it out and didn’t want to stagnate on this point, “Alright, let me ask another question. How about his forces? What’s the distribution?”
Seeing Mo Qianxue jumped to another question, Su Qi answered seriously, “Your father’s forces have one name Mo Forces, which was a famous unauthorized force among all the forces in Tianqi. Except for your father, none of the soldiers surnamed Mo.”
Father hated the previous master Mo for having abandoned him and not saved his mother. As a illegal son, certainly he didn’t like the clan or arrange any Mo people into the forces.
Su Qi continued, “Although your father was a Mo boy, you know the actual situation, he was the same as an ordinary folk, even more indecent. Hence, all his forces, his power and reputation were accumulated base on his own effort.”
“The military power of Tianqin is controlled by three, the Su family, the imperial family, and Founder Mo. There are other forces of course, but they’re insignificant ones with much less soldiers, thousands or fifty thousand at most. They don’t belong to the imperial family but the Su family. So they aren’t worth mentioning.
There weren’t Mo Forces twenty years ago. At that time, there were only Su and Imperial Forces. The Imperial Forces mainly guarded Tianqi on the west and south borders while the Su Forces on the east and north.
The north and east borders were relatively peaceful. Even if there was a riot, it was quickly suppressed. However, the west borderline had been harassed by invaders. Since the founding of the country, a dozen, small or large, cities were lost.
The Emperor at that time was actually abandoned by his father and sent to the west to crack down riots. Very likely, in such a place, with such an identity, he could have died.
It was your father who took a team of riders, regardless of risks of losing their lives, emerged in the battlefield, going all out, and finally saved the Emperor.
After saving a prince and winning a war, he was naturally appreciated by the previous emperor. At that time, the imperial family needed talent, so your father was promoted to be a general. He had been expected to safeguard the territory, but to everyone’s surprise, he, a hard-boned ambitious man, kept winning battles one after another.
Within a few years, he not only retrieved the lost cities but also conquered Heimu City and Ruoshui City from the Cang people. The Emperor was able to become the crown prince and then take the throne exactly because of his military feats in the west and your father’s support.”
As Su Qi said these, admiration was visible in his eyes. Yet, Mo Qianxue sighed that her father had saved the Emperor, who two days ago, had tried to kill her at court.
“Heimu and Ruoshui cities didn’t belong to the Cang people. They were two neighbor but independent cities, respectively controlled by two mysterious clans, the Heimu and Ruoshui clans. The two clans forges marriages every generation and never have feuds. Since the founding of the country, they were citizens of Tianqi, also the last barrier against the Cang people.
However, the imperial family was useless and let the two cities fall into the hand of Cang.
Your father’s forces are closely related to these two cities.
It’s said that your father has a black wooden token, a gift from the clan heads of the two clans. It’s a halidom of them. With that, one can commander all the people of Heimu and Ruohsui clans.”
A halidom? That Xue had given her? Mo Qianxue lowered her head to stroke her forehead. It turned out the wooden token was so useful…
When Su Qi talked of it and saw Mo Qianxue just lowering her head without any surprise, his heart plunged and lights burst out of his eyes, “Qianxue, this wooden token is a top secret. Less then ten people in the world know it. Less then three in the capital do. Even my father and brother have no knowledge of it. Qianxue, did your father leave it to you?”
Mo Qianxue suddenly came to the realization, and her eyes turned sharp. If his father and brother had no knowledge of it, then the news didn’t come out from the Su family, “Then how did you know?”