The fifth wife of Marquis Wu'an, also the current Madame Marquis Wu'an, didn't get much coverage in the plot, but her characteristics were distinct. First, there was the twenty-year age difference between her and the Marquis, yet their relationship was affectionate, and she’d borne him three children in succession. Second, she excelled at managing a household and had great popularity. Even Er Yao, who hated everyone and everything in the family, thought the Madame Marquis was a decent person.
The original host had been stationed here with his family for five years now. His eldest son, Er Xiao, was still taking remedies arranged by the Madame Marquis. Her ability to win people over was evident.
Qin Jingzhou said to Xiao Xi, “Go tell the steward to call for a physician.” He didn’t forget to quietly explain to his daughter, “A scummy man getting slapped, a violent man getting treated like a fool—Dad thinks that’s only right.”
When he’d transmigrated into Xiao Jingzhou those years ago, he hadn’t gone after the one who had stabbed Xiao Jingzhou, and this was the reason.
Watching his treasured daughter trot out the door, Qin Jingzhou turned to his cheap son, who was sweating profusely, lost in confusion, shoulders trembling, as if he might collapse at any moment but still forced himself to kneel properly. At that sight, he felt slightly more tolerant. “Let’s wait until the physician checks you over before we speak.”
Just then, it suddenly occurred to Er Xiao that Father must have known what he and his younger sister were up to all along! If he were the father and learned his children wanted to harm him...he’d probably have the heart to kill them!
Er Xiao peeked carefully at his father but couldn’t sense any anger at all...His heart chilled. Did his father not see him and his younger sister as his children anymore? But then, when he and his sister had plotted against their father, had they thought of him as their father at all?
The more Er Xiao thought about it, the more guilty and regretful he became. He staggered to his feet. Then, turning to the pillar in the room, he ran headfirst toward it.
Just as his forehead was about to meet the pillar and the thought “it’s finally over” flashed through his mind, his collar tightened abruptly. The next moment, his feet left the ground...and naturally, his forehead moved away from the pillar.
He’d been picked up by his father again.
Struggling, Er Xiao barely managed to turn his head, but before he could speak, his younger sister scolded, “Coward.” He was a coward, indeed.
He couldn’t hold back anymore and burst into loud sobs.
Qin Jingzhou carried his foolish son into the study’s inner chamber, dropped him onto the bed, opened the cabinet to fetch a cotton undershirt, tore it into suitable strips, and quickly splinted the boy’s fractured wrist, to stop him from hurting himself again—having experienced living as a disabled son once was more than enough.
After tidying up the fool, Qin Jingzhou said to his daughter, who was frowning at the door, “Let’s talk outside.”
Xiao Xi reached out and took her father’s hand. “Okay.”
Once back in the outer room, Xiao Xi kept her voice down, figuring her cheap older brother in the other room wouldn’t hear. “Just now he was all fired up leading the stewards, then he hit a low and almost went to an extreme because of regret...it looks like he’s having an episode. Is he crazy?”
Qin Jingzhou laughed. “He not only needs regular medication. He ought to be hospitalized.”
Xiao Xi gave a cold snort. “He’s getting off easy!” Thanks to her upbringing, she couldn’t really do anything to someone in the midst of a mental episode, except send him for treatment. Feeling aggrieved, she stamped her foot, then pressed, “Dad, are you really going to cure him? Help him rise up again?”
Qin Jingzhou replied seriously, “I could, but there’s no need.” He didn’t hide anything from his precious daughter. “That cheap brother of yours isn’t exactly gifted. If I can just stabilize him, teach him to be a bit smarter, so he can protect himself among the powerful, that’s enough.”
Xiao Xi asked, “What about cheap big sister?”
“It’ll be harder to teach her properly. I’ll get her out of the Jin Wang Manor first.”
Xiao Xi let out a laugh. “Prince Jin really loves that mistress of his. To marry her, he’ll do anything—dismissing his other consorts is barely an effort.” She paused, then said, “Dad, I think the real Er Xia must have been reborn. Once she realized what was coming, she felt she couldn’t do it and didn’t want to face it, so she put me in her place...I have a feeling that mistress of Prince Jin isn’t just anybody.”
Qin Jingzhou offered a brief explanation that also answered her doubt. “She’s quite the ambitious transmigrator, well-matched with Prince Jin and Prince Chu’s affections.”
“If you say so, Dad, then she must be quite something.”
Qin Jingzhou continued, “You can probably guess, the real trouble lies with Prince Chu. After he takes the throne, he turns into a completely different person: biased, suspicious, slaughtering innocents left and right, a mixture of all the worst tyrants. Disasters pile up, war follows, and by the time the chaos ends, eighty percent of the continent’s population is gone. And this planet isn’t like our old home. Here, ninety-nine percent of people live on this mega-continent, which is about as big as Eurasia plus the Americas combined.”
“Good grief!” blurted out Xiao Xi.
Since reincarnating, she’d mysteriously gained some common sense; for example, the Old Heaven, or World Will, really did exist. Generally, the World Will’s power and rank were directly tied to the population of intelligent life.
With eighty percent wiped out, it’d be like turning a vibrant young man into a dying old man overnight...Xiao Xi sincerely remarked, “No wonder anyone would fight for survival in that case. But Prince Chu’s still Fate’s Son, right? Before he commits any atrocities, he gets lucky in every situation, and he’s a tough one to beat? But we also have to take him down fairly and squarely, reasonably and righteously? Dad, is our current status even enough to compete for the throne?”
Qin Jingzhou fondly patted his daughter’s head. Such a thoughtful little girl! He was about to tell her, “If our status isn’t enough, we’ll rely on marriage ties. With your mother around, this is a small matter.” But then the sound of many footsteps came from outside the courtyard.
He looked out the window to see his foolish son Er Xiao’s maidservant and pages finally returning...Clearly, these cronies had gone out to deliver messages.
Whenever the servants saw the master sitting by the window, they all lowered their heads at once. The unease and guilt from having their plot exposed made their steps unsteady as they came in. The leading maid nearly tripped and fell flat at Qin Jingzhou’s feet, which prompted several others behind her to collapse to their knees.
Xiao Xi clicked her tongue at this. Comparing these to the sharp young elites beside her father in her last lifetime, she quietly commented while tugging his hand, “If we want to train Big Brother to be self-sufficient, it’s going to be a long road...”
Qin Jingzhou just smiled. “That’s why you can always train up a side character.” Just then, the steward arrived with the physician, so he had the servants resume their duties.
The physician was skilled in treating injuries. After checking over Er Xiao, he praised Qin Jingzhou’s handling at great length, prescribed some internal decoctions and an external ointment, accepted his payment, and took his leave.
Qin Jingzhou looked over the physician’s prescription, then compared it to the regular medicine his foolish son had been taking. He instructed the steward, “Stop the Energy-Calming Talisman decoction for now.”
Because of severe insomnia, Er Xiao had long relied on the Energy-Calming Talisman prescribed by the Imperial Physician. The real reason for his madness—apart from external influences—was without a doubt that medicine.
Facing Er Xiao and the stewards, he carefully explained the prescription.
When he finished detailing all the problems caused by the calming medicine, Er Xiao slapped himself across the face. “Right on the mark! I’ll never touch it again!”
Qin Jingzhou looked meaningfully at him. “I never claimed to be a dutiful father. But what possible benefit would I gain from harming you or your sister?”
Xiao Xi chimed in, “Compared to Dad, are the people in the Marquis Household really that good? Maybe not.”
Er Xiao felt as if he’d been struck by lightning. His head buzzed. His ears buzzed.
All the maids in the room fell to their knees, while the stewards lowered their heads even more respectfully.
Years ago, the original host had been valued by Prince Qiyang, a celebrated scholar of the imperial clan, who even wanted to break precedent to take him as a final disciple. So Qin Jingzhou had revealed his talent. To Er Xiao and the stewards, this was no evidence that “the Third Master had changed inside,” only that the Third Master had been provoked enough to finally drop his humble act.
He purposely left a moment for them to process, then continued his lecture, “Marquis' Consort is younger than me, married the old man five years, had two sons and a daughter. The old man has four legitimate sons—she produced two. Eldest Brother sabotaged me so I had to refuse Prince Qiyang’s offer, and even angered Mother to death. Unless all the sons died off, the old man would never let him inherit the title. I, on the other hand, have been a mess these years and disappointed the old man so much he can’t even be bothered to scold me… Marquis' Consort understands all this and is afraid the old man might change his mind, so she struck first. If she can’t harm me, she can still target my son.”
Er Xiao was fully lucid now. After listening to this, he promptly knelt again—he was completely floored by his father’s “What benefit would there be for me to harm you or your sister?” It was crystal clear that Marquis' Consort was the one scheming against them.
The three stewards exchanged a glance: they’d have to write a long letter to the Marquis tonight!
They weren’t afraid of the extra work. In fact, they were happy for the Marquis: whatever the reason, the Third Master had been provoked and was finally going to stand up for himself.
Incidentally, the two older stewards had both been Prince Wu'an’s personal guards in the past and would never side with Madame Marquis now. The younger one was the nephew of the elder steward.
Qin Jingzhou knew exactly what the stewards were planning and didn’t interfere. He only said, “Get ready, we’re heading back to the Capital.”
This time, nobody objected.
The stewards could see it clearly: just with what the Third Master had said today, the Marquis would never again send him off to some pointless post.
With his limited wits, Er Xiao figured that his father must be angry and planning to go back to the Capital to confront the Marquis and Marquis' Consort... He felt both glad and anxious at this. Glad that Father would stand up for him, anxious about the enormous trouble he’d brought on himself...
Incidentally, the original host’s five-year term was up, so by the rules of Great Qi, he should have returned to the Capital for his official report. But clearly there were many who didn’t want him to go back, especially after the stewards’ urgent letters reached Marquis Wu'an.
Qin Jingzhou took his family on the road. With his foolish son’s fractured arm, they couldn’t travel fast, and they encountered “accidents” along the way.
However, the attendants and stewards assigned to him by Marquis Wu'an were all extremely reliable. After the first, easily resolved accident, the steward hired some veteran escort guards. Qin Jingzhou also showed some of his own skills, mainly because he didn’t want an assassin scaring his precious daughter. Protecting the foolish son was secondary.
But after being saved three times by his own father, Er Xiao puffed up his face every day and would mutter solemnly to the Buddha statue.
Xiao Xi could only sigh, “He really is sick.”
Qin Jingzhou let him be. Healing—whether of body or mind—wasn’t urgent. He planned to take his cheap children to rely on Xiaoling, and then treat them together. After all, raising one sheep or a whole flock was the same.
At this point, they had disembarked and reached a post station outside the capital, planning to rest a day before entering the city. Just as he was thinking of Ling Jing, word arrived that his confidant had brought a message and invitation: Prince Qiyang was throwing a banquet, really a forced marriage banquet specifically aimed at her. He was told in no uncertain terms to bring his “deadweights” along to attend. For this banquet, she was “madly in love and would marry no one else!”
Reading halfway through the letter, Qin Jingzhou couldn’t help but laugh out loud. “So I’m supposed to dress up and outshine all the weeds at the banquet?” He didn’t actually show the letter to his daughter, instead summarizing its contents.
Xiao Xi thought about it, then spoke directly, “Dad, I think Miss Ling mostly wanted to say she’s missing you.”
Qin Jingzhou blinked. “Guess I was too hasty...”