Chapter 79: Chapter 79
Chapter 79
“It’s a great gift, indeed!” Yueqian exclaimed loudly, standing up with a flushed face. She carried the bamboo tube straight to the head of the Qin family. Meanwhile, Qin Mazhu was also very interested in the gift, but he refrained from speaking out. He feared that his dear sister might think of him as the second recipient and pass the “great gift” to him instead.
“Father, this is a very precious gift from my husband. Please accept it.” Yueqian’s exciting demeanor at this moment drew the attention of many to the gift.
It was normal for a husband to bring a gift to his wife’s family when visiting their home after the wedding. But for this poor man to have such a precious gift to offer?
Recently, there were rumors that someone in the nearby village possessed a valuable carved jade, so beautifully crafted that the people from the Art Institute had come here themselves. Hence, they wondered if Mu Heng might have another such treasure.
The princes were equally excited. The Third Prince even put down his chopsticks, waiting to see what the Eldest Young Miss of the Qin family called a “great gift.”
“Young Miss Qin, is that truly a great gift? If so, may we have the honor of seeing it?” The Fifth Prince asked on behalf of his older brother.
“Um...yes, Your Highness. Because the prince has ordered, I will show it to you.” With that, her small hands opened the tube.
Suddenly, the contents inside burst out rapidly.
Whoosh!
Each as thick as a pinky finger and about one cubit long. They lunged forward, right in front of Qin Majiao. The middle-aged man, nearly elderly, recoiled in shock.
Those that lunged forward were “Red Fang Snakes”, eight of them!
But Mu Heng wasn’t too cruel; he had secured them within the bamboo bottle, preventing them from harming anyone, they could only coil in the tube. The snakes, sensing movement, would naturally dart out to strike, and the rapid motion and noise were enough to frighten those who saw them.
“W-What! What are you doing?! Yueqian! Are you trying to harm your father?” Qin Majiao roared. Since he almost fell over, he felt both furious and humiliated.
What kind of son-in-law gives his father-in-law a gift of eight venomous snakes?!
He had never seen such a thing in his life, and it was not from somewhere else, but his own son-in-law.
“Father, how am I trying to harm you? These Red Fang Snakes are very rare. If it weren’t for my husband’s skill in trapping animals, he wouldn’t have been able to find them. These snakes, when stewed into a medicine, can greatly invigorate a man. If sold, they could fetch a significant amount of money.”
“Stop making excuses! No matter how beneficial they are, if I were poisoned before making the medicine, I’d still die.” Qin Majiao refused to accept her explanation. He wanted to find fault with this son-in-law to have an accusation using for their divorce.
“Father, my husband didn’t intend any harm.”
“What do you mean, ‘didn’t intend any harm’?! This act is equivalent to attacking me. It is extremely unfilial. Staying with such a wicked man like this will only bring you hardship. As your father, I don’t want to see this again. Fine! I will petition for your divorce!” Qin Majiao did not want to waste much time, once he found the opportunity, he spoke out immediately.
After all, attempting to harm a wife’s father is a serious offense. No decent person would do such a thing. Therefore, asking the authorities to decree a divorce would be surely possible.
And if they were fortunate, they might even imprison this poor son-in-law on charges of attempting to murder a noble!
“But Father, my husband truly didn’t mean to harm you. Even when bringing this gift, he secured them together, tying them within the bamboo tube. You can take a close look. This is the correct way to capture snakes for sale. If you claim otherwise, it implies that others who catch snakes this way are attempting to harm apothecaries, doesn’t it?”
“You’re still defending him! Yueqian, you...”
“Father! Besides... if you want to find someone who really intended to harm you, you should blame the prince. It was the Fifth Prince who told me to open the bamboo tube, even though it had Red Fang Snakes inside. My husband never told me to open it,” Yueqian continued. She even placed the bamboo tube with the hissing snakes right in front of Qin Majiao.
The snakes, all eight of them, hissed and struck at the air repeatedly. However, due to the tight binding, they couldn’t get out, further confirming that their restraint was the work of an expert.
Moreover... Yueqian’s statement about “blaming the prince” was terrifying enough to potentially get the entire family beheaded!
“Y-Yueqian, you, you!”
“I’m serious, Father. Fifth Prince, you were the one who told me to open it, weren’t you?” Yueqian persisted, even daring to turn to the Fifth Prince for confirmation.
“Um, well... about that...” The Fifth Prince’s face began to sweat.
He understood that the head of the Qin family wanted to take Yueqian back to the manor in the capital and wanted her to divorce her husband. Therefore, he tried to find a fault to pin on him, claiming the gift was meant to kill him. But... this claim was too ridiculous.
Although the man was a commoner and should have been trembling in fear, easily accepting blame, the matter should have ended quickly with a few lashes and then the divorce as Qin Majiao desired.
However, the situation became complicated due to Eldest Young Miss of the Qin family herself, who now dared to implicate him in the matter!
It was unfortunate that today he and his older brother had come here to find a gift for their father. They couldn’t afford to ruin things, so they weren’t ready to help or stage a performance with Qin Majiao.
“Head of the Qin family, it was I who suggested it earlier. Surely you don’t think I intended to harm you as well?” He spoke calmly. Among his brothers, princes, he was the most obedient and harmless.
However, when he was with nobles and people, he was still a prince. Both his words and actions commanded respect and fear.
“Ah, well, then it must have been a misunderstanding,” Qin Majiao gritted his teeth as he replied. He wasn’t angry with the Fifth Prince but rather wanted to lash out at the woman before him.
“Of course, Father. So... this gift from Qian’er husband, I present it to you,” Yueqian smiled, her manner obsequious, as if she hadn’t planned to cause any trouble.
Majiao’s mustache twitched slightly, but he ultimately waved for a servant to take the live snake gift away. In truth, the benefits of Red Fang Snakes for men were well known. Though they weren’t so rare as to be exorbitantly priced, they weren’t easily acquired either.
Eight Red Fang Snakes were quite a lot, and sending them to the family physician to be ground into powder, making it convenient to make medicine for drinking was a good idea.
Hence, Qin Majiao didn’t order the snakes to be discarded, despite his disdain for the gift from his soon-to-be ex-son-in-law.
After presenting the gift, Yueqian openly attended to her husband, her actions seemingly confirming her affection for this husband. It appeared it would be difficult to take her back to the capital without the commitment.
Previously, people had said, “After marriage, love will come later.” Many believed this to be true but certainly not for the Eldest Young Miss of the Qin family. People speculated that by now she would have died from frustration or heartbroken about the Young General until she became a vengeful spirit.
No one expected her to change her mind so quickly. Moreover, she seemed so in love and infatuated with this husband of hers. She didn’t even seem to view him as lowly as she had previously viewed others. According to many rumors, Yueqian despised the poor immensely. When she was in the capital, she always held her head high and never glanced at the lower classes.
Just seeing her arrogance made many villagers curse her!
Who would have thought that after just a few months of marriage, from despising the poor, she would disregard the fact that her husband was one of them, taking care of him as if he were a little son, feeding him food and drink? It was quite laughable!
“Seeing this scene is quite surprising, isn’t it, Third Prince, Fifth Prince?” A man’s voice rang out. That was a seat of the Fang family of the capital. The family head hadn’t come himself but sent his deputy to join this journey, this was to please the two princes and to ensure their safe journey.
It was clear that the Fang family was aligned with the Qin family and openly supported the Third Prince’s bid for the throne.
“What scene?” The Third Prince raised an eyebrow slightly. He looked at the Fang family representative with interest. After witnessing Yueqian daring to use his younger brother as a pawn to humiliate her own father, he was finding the whole situation continuously amusing.
As a prince, he was always strategizing and planning, so he understood that the other party’s comment was intended to highlight an issue. But, as mentioned, he was indeed enjoying himself.
Initially, he had come for the carved jade from the Art Institute, but he had no specific goal during that. Now, seeing the drama unfold among people of lower status, the Third Prince thought he might as well join in to alleviate his boredom.
“Because I never imagined that the Eldest Young Miss of the Qin family would know how to dote on someone like this. Previously, we saw her chasing after the Young General, causing chaos everywhere.”
“Any woman who came near him had to face her wrath. I thought that the arrival of the Young General, who was sent by royal decree to suppress bandits, would make the Eldest Young Miss happy. Unexpectedly, instead of showing any interest, the Eldest Young Miss of the Qin family clings to her husband closely. That’s why I said the scene we see is quite surprising,” Fang Zhugong said.
His expression resembled that of a middle-aged man admiring a daughter growing up, yet every word he spoke made the head of the Qin family narrow his eyes involuntarily.
