A graceful figure in a pink dress exuded a mature charm, her hair coiled elegantly, her snow-white face breathtakingly beautiful. Her eyes were like an autumn lake, and below them were moist cherry lips. The light pink gauze dress accentuated her tall, curvaceous figure with all the right proportions.
However, at this moment, a trace of anger flickered in the newcomer’s beautiful eyes.
Zhang Tao noticed the anger in Qin Mengyu’s eyes, but he assumed she was angry because of the little thief in front of them.
“Men—”
Zhang Tao had just uttered a single word when Qin Mengyu had already walked past him and arrived beside the little thief in the blink of an eye.
“Mu’er, he didn’t do anything to you, did he?”
Qin Mengyu asked with some urgency. She had just received a message from a female disciple that Mu’er was heading out, so she had prepared to return. The moment she came back, she saw Mu’er being blocked on the road by someone who looked fiercely threatening toward him.
“Mengyu, I’m fine.”
Qin Mu was just worrying about how to shake off this sticky nuisance, and Mengyu’s timely return was perfect.
Seeing Qin Mengyu show such concern for the young man, Zhang Tao was stunned. Wait, judging by this, Junior Sister Mengyu actually knew this person?!
Qin Mu roughly recounted what had just happened to Qin Mengyu, including the accusation that he was a thief who stole clothes.
“Junior Sister Mengyu, you must not listen to this little thief’s slander. He is—”
“Senior Brother Zhang, right?”
As soon as Qin Mengyu spoke, Zhang Tao’s face lit up with joy. He truly hadn’t expected Junior Sister Mengyu to still remember him.
“Yes, yes! I really didn’t expect Junior Sister Mengyu to still remember this senior brother.”
Zhang Tao said with great excitement.
Qin Mengyu’s delicate hand flipped over, and an appointment letter appeared in her palm. This was the appointment letter for Zhang Tao requesting her to refine a pill.
“Senior Brother Zhang’s pill, please forgive this junior sister’s mediocre pill arts. I don’t have much confidence in it. Please seek someone else.”
With that, Qin Mengyu released her hand, and the appointment letter flew in front of Zhang Tao.
At that moment, Zhang Tao was completely stunned. Junior Sister Mengyu… actually returned the appointment letter!
In truth, Qin Mengyu had already been very restrained by not asking him to leave immediately. If Qin Ruoshuang had been here, she would have already swung a sword at him.
“Junior Sister Mengyu, please believe me, he really is a thief!”
Zhang Tao insisted stubbornly.
Now it was Qin Mu’s turn to grow restless. He said,
“Senior Brother, since you insist I’m a thief, then where’s the evidence? You need to catch someone with the goods. You have no proof, so why should anyone believe your words?”
Honestly, the guy had no brains at all. It wasn’t like Qin Mu was some dragon-conquering protagonist or some villain whose brain had short-circuited just to cause him trouble. He was keeping a very low profile, thank you very much.
Qin Mu never acted ostentatiously and never made public revelations of his abilities. He had simply perfected the art of keeping a low profile.
Zhang Tao was rendered speechless because he truly had no evidence. If he claimed the boy carried Junior Sister Mengyu’s floral scent, well, judging by how intimate Junior Sister Mengyu was with the young man, having the scent rub off was completely normal.
At this point, like a deflated balloon, Zhang Tao flew away in a hurry.
“Hehe, thanks to Mengyu for coming back in time. Otherwise, I really couldn’t shake him off.”
“Don’t even mention it. Mu’er, you always run into trouble.”
Qin Mengyu extended her index finger and tapped her little brother’s forehead. Ever since Mu’er’s first trip outside the Qin Family, he had encountered trouble almost every single time. Most of the time, she had secretly handled the aftermath.
“Big Sister thinks Mu’er should just stay obediently in Sister’s pavilion and play. If you want to cultivate, here’s the jade pendant to open the treasure vault.”
Qin Mengyu took a thumb-sized exquisite jade pendant from her storage pouch. Her treasure vault contained many pills and dan prescriptions. For a disciple of the Dan Sect, it was a veritable treasure trove!
But for her own little brother, Qin Mengyu had no guard whatsoever. After all, even if she personally taught Mu’er hand by hand, he wouldn’t necessarily learn.
Besides that, the treasure vault also held quite a few ling stones, though those were all sealed. With Mu’er’s current strength, he couldn’t unseal them anyway.
“Ah, Mengyu, I swear I won’t cause any trouble today. I’m just going fishing.”
Hearing that he had to stay and play in Mengyu’s pavilion, Qin Mu felt quite gloomy. It had been fun at first, but inside, aside from herbs, there were only pills, and then all kinds of dan prescription books that he couldn’t understand at all.
But well… there were some books he did enjoy reading, such as acupuncture charts, especially the detailed illustrations of human acupuncture points. They were so vivid that Qin Mu couldn’t help but exclaim at how realistic they were! (Ahem, don’t think the wrong way.)
“Where does Mu’er plan to fish?”
“Uh… I think it’s called Moon’er Lake.”
That should be the name. Yesterday, Qin Mu had seen those three characters written on a stone by the shore.
“Moon’er Lake.”
Qin Mengyu thought for a moment. She recalled that the Dan Sect seemed to have such a lake.
“Mu’er, you can go fishing, but Sister is coming too.”
“Ah!”
Qin Mu immediately panicked. If Mengyu came along, forget catching fish—it would be hard enough just to fish peacefully.
Based on his lifelong experience, whenever Mengyu was around, someone would inevitably show up before long. Given enough time, a lot of people would gather. Fishing required few people around; if too many came, the fish would all be scared away.
Of course, if beautiful elder sisters came, Qin Mu would welcome them. But those men? Every single one of them looked at Qin Mu with unfriendly eyes. Mengyu never mentioned that he was her little brother either, which led Young Master Qin to constantly experience the saying: if looks could kill, he would definitely have died ten thousand times over.
Smack—
Qin Mu turned around and headed back the way he came.
“What’s wrong? Is Mu’er not going fishing anymore?”
Qin Mengyu kindly carried the fishing rod for her little brother and asked with a concerned expression.
“Not fishing. Not fishing.”
Watching her little brother’s retreating figure, Qin Mengyu’s lips curled up slightly.
In truth, every time she went out with Mu’er, aside from genuinely wanting to stroll and play with him, the rest of the time she deliberately revealed her position—all so Mu’er would obediently go home.
Why, you ask?
The outside world was too dangerous. Mu’er was still young and couldn’t distinguish good from bad. Only by staying by her side would he be safe.
That was Qin Mengyu’s way of thinking. Of course, if possible, it would be best if Mu’er obediently listened to her and became a good little boy.
But ever since Mu’er was very young, she had constantly reminded him: only the words of his elder sisters could be trusted. The words of outsiders—especially outside women—were absolutely not to be believed!
From childhood until now, she had found that Mu’er had listened, but only half of it.
Fortunately, Qin Mu had no idea what his Mengyu was thinking right now. Otherwise, Qin Mengyu’s image in Qin Mu’s heart would instantly crumble.
After all, in front of her little brother, Qin Mengyu had always been the gentle elder sister—not a pink-haired schemer.