Chapter 203: A Startling Conspiracy
Translator: Antonia
It meant that in the future she should just keep herself in the domestic temple and never come out to see her son again.
Xie wasn’t surprised. He wouldn’t be Ning Botao if he didn’t make it so ruthless. Making up her mind, she didn’t hesitate, “Okay.”
“Since you can be so sensible, what you did is written off. When you see Shaoyu, tell him that there is bloodtie between him and Shaoyu. Let him not worry too much.”
“Yes.”
The old master heard her reply and didn’t look back, pausing for a second before he stepped out again, ordering coldly, “Put nanny Li to death!”
There were servants coming up and twisting nanny Li’s neck. Before she could yell for help, she already collapsed to the ground, dead.
Xie just clenched his fists, gritted her teeth, without saying anything. Only the death of nanny Li would make Ning Botao restful even after she moved to the domestic temple.
It seemed that she going to the temple was a right option. She was afraid that if she hadn’t made the proposition earlier, not only the nanny died, she herself would also die a sudden death.
Old master Ning just left, and Xie had Ning Shaoyu summoned over.
She didn’t explain much about her moving to the temple, and Ning Shaoyu was clever to know the reason. To this matter, he could do nothing. Certainly, he didn’t ask much either.
Xie beat around the bush and said many things, telling him what old Ning had said and asking him to take care of himself and so on.
But her real purpose was to give him a token and then wrote in front of Ning Shaoyu a note. After he read it, she swallowed the paper and drove him away.
Ning Shaoyu understood that at the critical moment, she feared there were ears in the wall.
Stepping out of the courtyard, Ning Shaoyu felt his mind burdened. The words on the note compelled him to think.
He was down not because Xie was moving to the temple, but because his daydreaming was broken. His long-worked plan finally couldn’t surpass his a few days. So hateful…
Why? Why? Just because he was born first, he was the most loved son of father? Just because of it, he had been the future master and the focus of attention in the minds of the elders?
It had been so since childhood and was still so right now when they both grown-ups.
Hearing the footsteps from the front, he looked up and saw a person strolling over here. Behind him was the rising morning sun, the millions rays of which fell on his shoulders like gold threads, brilliant and dazzling.
The totem on the cuffs and neckband made him incomparable noble. The natural air from between his brows of overriding the world produced am oppression that forced people to submit to him.
Roaring jealousy rose in Ning Shaoyu’s heart, which was hard to hold it down.
All this should have been his.
The person was exactly his half-brother, the most beloved son of father, the new master to the Ning clan, a talented young man in Tianqi.
He was also his elder brighter and the biggest enemy.
Yes, an enemy.
A legal son, excellent, noble, bright as a sun coming out of the mountains, radiant over the whole Ning family. Under such light, everyone was dwarfed.
Father treated him as a treasure and loved him so much that he had been cultivated him at the very beginning as a future master. Whatever he had was the best.
Learnings, martial arts, etiquettes, military tactics, yin and yang. He had received all kinds of education and started to work for the family at a young age and gain an authentic fame for himself…
However, what about him?
No matter how hard he tried, father never looked at him squarely. Neither did father praise him or smile at him.
Before Ning Shaoqing got near, Ning Shaoyu put on an eager smile, and the gloomy face was replaced by a smile with surprise.
He stopped and waited for Ning Shaoqing to walk close, stepping aside to greet him, “How are you, brother?”
The Ning family was a super family controlling the country’s finance. Although the big courtyard wasn’t as magnificent as the imperial palaces, the houses were in a great number.
And Ning Shaoqing, as the master, had moved to the courtyard exclusive to the master. He kept a low profile and had many things to deal with. Basically he didn’t stay in the courtyard, so the two had few chance to meet.
If it had been a year ago and the brothers happened to meet, Ning Shaoqing would hug him with a grin, pat on his shoulder and invite him to have lunch together and drink a little.
But today, after everything changed, there was only sorrow and indifference in his heart, without any trace of love.
Ning Shaoqing took a brief glance at Ning Shaoyu, not joyful or surprised, stopped and looked up, his hands behind the back, jaws raising up slightly, face grim and chilly. The manners of a master spread over, “Call me master in the future. Our brotherhood was already cut off by your knife.”
The master of a super family was distinguished, but after all, they weren’t imperial family with that many rules. The brothers would usually continue to call each other brother to show their intimacy.
However, a son of a concubine wasn’t allowed to call the master brother anymore.
Ning Shaoyu was choked by the words, his smile frozen on the face. It was nothing but a slap in his face and classifying him as an illegal son. Although his mother was originally a concubine, why couldn’t he call him brother?
Wasn’t he so drunk on that day? How could he remember the stabbing so well? Ning Shaoyu regretted that he hadn’t stabbed deeper.
In the fast, Ning Shaoqing only smiled at him and never blamed him even if he did something wrong. He even had never said anything harsh to him.
On that day, after he got rid of the knife by internal strength, he clutched his neck in rage, looking murderous, but he still stopped when he called him brother.
In retrospect, Ning Shaoyu believed that even with the stabbing and all the other vicious acts, as long as he didn’t mention a word, Ning Shaoqing would still be the pushover and forgive him anyway like a fool.
Besides, when he was driven away by hitmen, he had said: Just take it if you want the wealth and identity so much. From now on, we’re strangers!
Dishonest and unfaithful man!
He had said that he wouldn’t come back, but now he did come back, take away all that belonged to him and be so pretentious. Now, he even wanted to make him a joke among the nobilities.
The more he thought about it, the more indignant he was. Ning Shaoyu couldn’t help pointing at Ning Shaoqing, “Brother, you…”
“How dare you!”
From somewhere a black shadow sprang out and dashed over at the fastest speed, pinching his finger and twisting upward. With a crispy sound in the knuckles, the finger was broken.
The followed immediately was a raging scold, “How dare you to point at distinguished master…”
“Retreat, Knife!” Ning Shaoqing’s voice rang, and the black-suited guard called Knife released Ning Shaoyu’s finger and replied, “Yes.” Then he respectfully retreated to behind Ning Shaoqing.
As he withdrew the painful finger, resentment flickered in Ning Shaoyu’s eyes. Since when could a slave ride on his head and scold him?
During the blow, it wasn’t that he couldn’t escape, but he didn’t want to.
The place was open and spacious. If he had really escaped and fought against Knife, then the thing changed in nature. Even if Ning Shaoqing didn’t punish him, the elders would definitely use him as an example in order to set authority for the new master.
His not escaping was also a test-out.
When his finger was broken, his good brother didn’t even blink. It turned out that he really no longer treated him as a brother, and the bloodite was no more a weapon to fight against him.
Certainly the flashing resentment in his eyes couldn’t escape the eyes of Ning Shaoqing.
Ning Shaoqing squinted and remained the calm tone, “Since this the first time, I choose to forgive you. If there is a second time, you’ll suffer according to the clan rules.”
Ning Shaoyu held his broken finger, fought back the pain, bowing and saying with extreme politeness, “Yes, master.”
Since he no longer treated him as a brother, there was no need to pretend either.
With a flicker of distain, Ning Shaoqing stepped forward and stood right before Ning Shaoqing, giving a subtle smile and staring straight ahead, not going forward nor looking at Ning Shaoyu.
He just stared at the glorious sun, saying in a voice that could only be heard by them, “Have you thought of this day when you sent the first batch of people to kill me, when you sent people to the Wang village, when you made an ambush in Yunqi town, when you tried to assassinate me on the outskirt of the city?”
These words stabbed into Ning Shaoyu’s heat again, “Why are you back?” He nearly growled it out.
He gave him a slight chuckle, “It was you who forced me to come back step by step.”
“I…”
“It’s not late to regret now.”
Hearing the words, Ning Shaoyu didn’t make a reply. The words reminded him that he couldn’t be careless anymore. All thoughts coming to his mind, his words didn’t show a bit of his resentment, “Sorry, I’m too stupid to understand master’s words.”
A smirk crawled onto Ning Shaoqing’s lips. Someone was setting up a startling conspiracy, and Ning Shaoyu was merely a stupid chess piece in it.
That person behind him had a shocking ambition. The series of the actions weren’t simply targeted at the Ning clan, but the entire Tianqi Dynasty.
He had tried to leverage on the imperial family and set the large families up against one another, in order to seduce the Ningling to send troops, to fight against which the Zhennan Prince would borrow troops from the central government… Every step seemed aimless, but in fact purposive and ruthless.
To pull one hair and shake the whole situation!
The person had provoked the Zhennan Prince to take control of the imperial family’s military power, killed the Founder by scheme and then shifted the blame to the Emperor. He utilized the Emperor’s ambition of eliminating large families and becoming the only hegemony to set the Emperor up against the Emperor and the families, so that after the balance of Tianqi was broken, he would end up to be the final winner.
How bold the person was! To leverage on the Emperor and the Zhennan Prince and to use the Ning family as an anchor point to mess up the whole Tianqi Dynasty. Did he aim to destroy Tianqi?!
How was this person?!
He would find it out.
Coming back from his thought, Ning Shaoqing warned, “Don’t act as others’ gun and be complacent. Remember, you’re a Ning.”
Saying that, Ning Shaoqing strode forward without looking back, leaving Ning Shaoyu there with a frosty face.
After quite a while, the pain in the finger woke him up, and he also left determinedly.