coobybook Chapter 187 just feels uncomfortable no matter how you look at it.
Chapter 187 just feels uncomfortable no matter how you look at it.
"Yes," Xia Erge came back to his senses, his lips curving upwards with barely suppressed joy.
He actually passed the exam!
If he passes the county-level imperial examination, he can save a lot of effort. He can just focus on practicing calligraphy, reading books, and preparing for the provincial-level imperial examination three years later!
"Little sister, is this really my name?" Brother Xia lost his composure and asked cautiously, afraid that he had misread it.
“Yes, Second Brother, that’s your name!” Xia Mo smiled as well.
"Hehe...hahaha..." Brother Xia Er laughed a few times, a rare moment of losing his composure.
"Let's go tell our parents and older brother the good news," Xia Mo urged.
"Ok!"
Xia Erge and Xia Mo squeezed through the crowd and reunited with their family members outside the crowd...
"Father, Mother, Eldest Brother, guess whether Second Brother passed the exam or failed?" Xia Mo asked playfully.
Brother Xia immediately understood, and after a moment of surprise, he was overjoyed: "Second brother, you passed the exam!"
Brother Xia also laughed.
Mr. and Mrs. Xia's eyes widened in surprise and joy, and Mrs. Xia was so excited that tears streamed down her face: "Waaah..."
"Mom, you passed the exam, be happy," Xia Mo's heart clenched, and she hurriedly reached out to wipe away her mother's tears.
"Hehe, yes, yes, yes," Xia's mother let her daughter wipe away her happy tears, and then laughed foolishly.
"Let's go home, we have to tell the whole village the news!" Xia's father said excitedly.
“Father,” Xia Mo called softly.
With a mix of excitement and confusion, Xia's father looked at Xia Mo and asked, "Nannan, is something wrong?"
Xia Mo said, "Let's go back first."
Xia's father and mother only considered the house in Anjia Village as their home. Although they lived in the mansion in Anning Prefecture, they did not consider it their home.
“Yes, let’s go back first,” Xia’s father nodded.
"Next, will the yamen send over the scholar's examination papers?" Brother Xia looked at Xia Mo uncertainly.
Xia Mo nodded with a smile: "Yes."
She was so engrossed in the relaxed and pleasant atmosphere at home that she almost didn't want to care about the affairs of Lingzhou Prefecture anymore, but unfortunately, she couldn't...
* * *
Back in their house in Anning Prefecture—
Having regained her youthful appearance, Yin Rou rushed forward to greet Xia Mo and the others when she saw them return.
"Something's happened!" Yin Rou rushed to Xia's mother and looked at her.
Xia's mother then asked, "What happened?"
"Miss Lu sold her maid Miao'er!" Yin Rou instinctively felt that Miss Lu was not right, that she was a bad person, but she didn't know the details.
"Hmm?" Xia Mo, who already knew what was going on, blinked her eyes in feigned confusion.
Sure enough, the master and servant made a terrible move.
"Hmm," although Xia's mother felt a little sorry for the maid Miao'er, she also knew that Miss Lu was the mistress and that doing so was her own choice. As outsiders, they shouldn't say anything.
"Aren't we going to find Miao'er?" Yin Rou thought the Xia family was kind and would help.
Xia Mo blinked again, feigning confusion, and asked, "That's a matter between master and servant, what does it have to do with us?"
When Yin Rou met Xia Mo's clear and bright eyes, she didn't know what to say for a moment. She looked at Xia's mother and said, "Miss Lu sold her maid Miao'er, sold her to... a brothel!"
When the brothel was mentioned, hatred and murderous intent flashed in Yin Rou's eyes.
"Ah! How could this be so cruel!" When Xia's mother heard that it was a "brothel," she also felt distressed.
"Oh," Brother Xia and Brother Xia simply nodded perfunctorily.
Father Xia looked at his two sons, and he felt that his two sons were very capable now, so he had to hear what they had to say.
Brother Xia said, "Father, that's a matter between master and servant. To be frank, we're outsiders too."
“Yes,” Xia Erge, who had just obtained the title of Xiucai, nodded in agreement.
Yin Rou looked at Xia's mother, then at Xia Mo.
Xia Mo continued to feign innocence, asking in return, "Are my eldest and second brothers wrong?"
Yin Rou thought about it and realized that it was indeed a matter between the master and servant.
“Father, Mother, we have already arrived in Anning Prefecture. It wouldn’t be appropriate for Miss Lu to continue living in our house, would it?” Xia Mo said.
Yin Rou was surprised.
“She sold Miao’er and now she has money, so she can rent a courtyard to live in,” Xia Mo continued.
After thinking about it, Yin Rou decided that kicking out the suspicious Miss Lu would be better for the Xia family.
She thought again that although Xia Mo was naive, her intuition would help her avoid danger, which was good.
“Yes,” Xia’s mother also wanted to send them away.
Just because Miss Lu sent her maid to a brothel, she no longer wanted to take Miss Lu in.
Miss Lu, who had been eavesdropping nearby, couldn't stand it any longer and rushed out from the corner.
"Master Xia, Madam Xia, please don't send me away. I have nowhere to go if I leave here... I..." As soon as Miss Lu opened her mouth, her maid's true nature came out.
"You have a hundred taels in your hand right now, don't you?" Xia Mo revealed with a smile.
Yin Rou asked in surprise, "How did you know?"
After Xia Mo winked playfully at Yin Rou, she suddenly made a move and snatched the hundred-tael silver note from Miss Lu's arms.
"Just wait until we take you to Anning Prefecture, then we'll sell the maid and get the property. Now that we have the property, don't even think about shirking us," Xia Mo said in her sweetest voice.
Miss Lu panicked and looked at Xia's mother: "I...I...I also thought...I can't rely on you all the time, that's why I sold it. Here's the hundred taels, please...take me in for a while longer, okay?!"
Miss Lu looked at Xia's mother, who was the most soft-hearted.
Xia's mother is now preoccupied with the fact that Miss Lu sold Miao'er to a brothel. No matter how she looks at Miss Lu, she feels uncomfortable.
"Stop talking nonsense, we can move out now!" Xia's mother said.
Miss Lu gritted her teeth and looked pitifully at Second Brother Xia.
Miao'er's target was Brother Xia, but Miss Lu thought Brother Xia the Second was better. Brother Xia the Second was a scholar! Moreover, judging from their happy looks, they probably passed the exam. If she could marry Brother Xia the Second, she would be a scholar's wife!
Xia Erge got goosebumps from Miss Lu's gaze, took a step back, and distanced himself from Miss Lu, leaving Xia's mother in the center.
"So, your maid is after our son, and you're after my second son!" With her straightforward nature, Madam Xia directly exposed Miss Lu's little scheme.
Miss Lu put on a pitiful look and looked at Second Brother Xia. She thought that as long as she could make Second Brother Xia's heart flutter, what could Xia's mother and the others do even if they saw through her?
When a son goes against his parents, doesn't it always end up with the parents giving in?
That is, at this moment—
"Wow—"
A cry of an eagle echoed through the sky, the majestic eagle reminding those below that it had returned.
Startled, Miss Lu took a few steps back, closer to the door, so she could easily slip inside at any time.
Summer beckoned to the eagle at the end of summer.
The eagle swooped down straight down, not attacking anyone, but landing on the ground, loosening the larger bamboo tubes beneath its feet, and then pointing its head towards the end of summer.
"Little sister, what's this?"
Brother Xia expressed his doubts.
Xia's father and the others also looked at Xia Mo with curiosity.
"I asked someone to help me investigate Miss Lu and Miao'er's identities. The eagle was the one who delivered the message, and the information I needed was in that bamboo tube," Xia Mo deliberately said, so that Miss Lu would understand.
Miss Lu's face turned pale instantly.