Chapter 331

"Follow me," Yueqian’s words made Mu Heng anxious. However, the young girl showed no sign of interest.

"If I follow you, how many sweets will I get to eat? Currently, I get to eat delicious sweets twice a day, one piece each time. I also get lunch that fills me up. If I follow you, will I face starvation? Will I get to eat sweets every day?" The young girl in the court lady’s uniform asked.

It seemed that she was deeply affected by not having enough to eat before. And what was this about only getting two sweets a day, one piece each time? Not only were they exploiting child labor, but they were also cheating her out of her wages?

"Follow me, and I will treat you like any servant working in my manor. You’ll receive a monthly salary. As long as you do your job well, you can buy as much food as you want. There will be three meals a day—breakfast, lunch, and dinner—provided our manor is not too poor or under oppression. As for sweets, you’ll get to eat them every meal, as many pieces as there are available for that meal."

"Hmm? Is that even possible? You’re lying, aren’t you?" The girl did not believe what she heard.

Yueqian shook her head before laughing.

"Have you worked here for long? What kind of poisons have you made for them? Do you know how much money those poisons can fetch?"

"I don’t know. No one believes I can make poisons. Only those people believed in me and let me work for them."

"Is that so? Then from now on, I will believe you. But we don’t like to meddle with poisons. I have a sister who wants to open a medical clinic. I will have you help her in making medicinal remedies. If you want to know more, follow me. I’ll show you how much those remedies are worth and how many sweets you can buy with the money in the market."

"No, I don’t want to. I don’t want to meet people. I..." The girl stood up immediately upon hearing the word ’market,’ indicating she had bad memories associated with it.

"Afraid? If you’re scared, you can just use your poison."

"N-no, I, I..." The girl refused. Mu Heng then drew his sword from its sheath. Once all the weapons were confirmed, he could carry them with him at all times as a representative of the diplomatic mission.

"I will ensure your safety," Mu Heng said, and the little girl fell silent. She looked at him with suspicion but eventually remembered that the soldiers in this region would protect her from the bad guys. The girl rubbed her hands together, thinking, and then nodded.

"Okay, I’ll go and see. But if I don’t want to stay, you must bring me back here."

"Of course," Mu Heng agreed. The more he heard about this girl, the more he felt like he was seeing his own little sister being taken advantage of. Despite the girl’s frightening abilities, she didn’t know how to find a way out. Eating only one meal a day and having limited sweets was nothing like the hardships Mu Heng endured when he and his siblings had nothing to eat, wasn’t it?

Not to mention how this girl had been mistreated; his own sister, Huan’er, was living much better by comparison.

Yueqian had no idea that her sweets would unexpectedly win over such a powerful little ally. The mastermind behind all the villains was actually this little girl, someone no one would ever suspect.

This girl had an incredibly keen sense of smell, allowing her to understand various processes, which was a rare talent. If their master met her, he would certainly be pleased.

"Shall we go now?" The girl asked. Both Mu Heng and Yueqian shook their heads.

"Not yet, we have to wait for Xihao first."

"Xihao? The boy who’s busy with the Third Prince?" The little court lady asked.

"Huh?"

"I followed him earlier because he smelled like sweets and seemed harmless. But when I saw him busy with the scary Third Prince, I didn’t want to get involved, so I looked for you instead," the little court lady said, her eyes showing fear.

"What do you mean? Is Xihao in danger?"

"I don’t know if it’s dangerous, but that Third Prince likes to talk about ghosts all the time. He says there are many ghosts around me. He even said there were spirits around the Emperor, making people think he’s crazy and mad. Sometimes he swings his sword at the air, and he even once tried to strike the Crown Prince."

When Yueqian heard about the ghosts, she relaxed considerably. If it was about that... wasn’t her son an expert? So, she decided to let him have fun with the ghosts.

"Not worried anymore?" Seeing that both of them fell silent and didn’t ask any more questions, the little court lady was very confused. Why weren’t they concerned about their child when she had told them something so frightening?

"Parents...are all of them like this? Not worried about their own children?" Suddenly, the girl looked visibly gloomy. Yueqian lightly smacked the head of the girl who seemed to be falling into a dark mood, causing the other party to be frightened.

"D-don’t hurt me. I’m scared."

"Relax. It was just a light tap. Calm down, no one is going to hurt you," Yueqian, seeing the girl’s terrified expression, understood that physical abuse was likely a sensitive issue for her.

"I’m sorry for scaring you. I only tapped you because you were thinking nonsense. It’s not that I don’t care about my son; it’s called trust," Yueqian explained the meaning behind her words. The little court lady froze upon hearing this.

"Tr...ust...?"

Since she was born, everyone dismissed her words as nonsense. No one believed she could actually do the things she claimed. Just like her father, who beat her when she said she could make medicine to heal her mother. He didn’t believe her and wouldn’t let her touch the doctor’s herbs, resulting in her mother’s death. Afterward, he blamed her for talking nonsense, beat her severely, and sold her to others to get money for her siblings’ food.

What had she done wrong? She only wanted to help her mother. Her mother’s blood smelled too weak; wouldn’t it be better if she could make it stronger? She had smelled the medicine the doctor used to treat others. If only she could make it, her mother would surely get better. But why...?

When she was sold to a wealthy family, she starved even more, not having enough food to eat. She worked hard but, being a young servant, she was bullied by the older servants. She endured a lot. There was a kind young miss who gave her a piece of sweet once. The next day, the young miss fell ill. She knew from the start that something was wrong with the sweet but had taken an antidote herb beforehand.

The young miss seemed not to have taken the antidote beforehand. So, to help the kind young miss, she told the head court lady that she could treat her. In the end, she was severely beaten. After that, others also took turns hurting her. On the day the young miss passed away forever, everyone was very sad and took their grief out on her!

But then, something unexpected happened... Someone said that she was the one who poisoned the young miss!

Not only was she beaten and tortured severely, but she also felt like she wanted to die and leave this world. If they hadn’t grown tired of hurting her and thrown her out like a discarded animal, she might not have survived until now.

So, is this trust... really something that exists?

That child was only one year old! She was now seven years old and had never heard the word "trust."

"Why do you trust others?" The girl asked, her eyes filled with darkness.

"And why shouldn’t you trust others? You... want someone to trust you, don’t you?" Yueqian truly pitied this girl. How despondent her eyes were; anyone who tried to understand her could see that.

"I-I... don’t need it. I don’t want it," she denied, but her eyes turned red.

"Every time I seek trust, I get hurt... So don’t trust me!"

"Is that so? In that case... I don’t want to take you in as a follower in the manor."

"Huh?"

"In the Mu manor, we have to trust each other. If we work together without trust, we can’t get through the tough times," Yueqian spoke frankly. Although she felt sorry for the girl, she had to see if the girl could fit in.

Some people are truly pitiful, but their twisted minds can’t be recovered. Keeping them close could be more dangerous. It’s like what Mu Heng worried about: keeping a person who can’t be controlled is like holding a bomb. If it’s really unavoidable, then we just have to free her from her misery and prevent others from suffering because of her. So, death should be delivered to her.

It sounded harsh, but Yueqian didn’t have many other options.

"Do you... trust everyone you work with?"

"Well," Yueqian shrugged.

"Aren’t you afraid they’ll lie to you? Just like how others have always thought I was lying?"

"I’m not so foolish as to not know who’s telling the truth and who’s lying."

"Then... how will you know if I’m lying?" The little girl hesitated greatly. Why did such a beautiful woman trust so many people? How could she trust every servant in her manor? Weren’t they afraid of being betrayed? Just like when everyone thought a small child like her poisoned the young miss! They didn’t trust her and didn’t even listen to her denials!

"Because I am Furen Mu, and this is Master Mu. And the little boy running over there is the future Master Mu. We are not foolish enough to not see through lies," Yueqian was no longer looking at the little girl but at her son who was running towards her. Behind him were a young princess and a prince, whose eyes sparkled unusually.

"Mother! Run, run." Xihao shouted loudly, but behind him, a young girl was yelling.

"Xihao, you must stay with me. I want to get married right now, no need for an engagement."

"Mu family kid, come back here right now. You will be my companion! Since you’re going to be my brother-in-law, you must call me elder brother," the two children chasing after him were giving Xihao a headache.

In truth, he agreed to go with them because he wanted to cling to a golden thigh. The golden thigh he sought was the Third Prince, who could see ghosts and was considered mad. However, Xihao knew from the ghosts he sent to investigate that the prince actually saw real ghosts, specifically two very powerful ones. It seemed that his birth had caused their deaths, leading to a vengeful cycle between them.

In the original novel, this Third Prince became truly mentally unstable. However, he managed to control himself as he grew older, eventually pretending not to see the ghosts. But his heart had already been deeply shaken, turning him into a fearsome individual. Nonetheless, it couldn’t be denied that he was incredibly intelligent and skilled.

This time, Xihao extended his hand to help the Third Prince by having the spirits capture the vengeful ghosts and send them to the afterlife. This immediately restored the Third Prince to normal, and as a result, the twin prince and princess regarded him as a god!