Chapter 990 - 992: Unfilial Son (3)
He was utterly tied up, as today officials and royal family members, in the hundreds, had come to celebrate his wife’s birthday. Greeting one after another, he was simply too stretched to attend to anything else.
Not far away, Nangong Yi sat leisurely in his chair, clad in a sky blue brocade robe, exuding a handsome grandeur and an artistic flair. Flicking his folding fan with ease, he casually but attentively responded to the compliments and flatteries from several ministers gathered around him. Nevertheless, the corner of his eye involuntarily glanced towards a corner of the banquet where Mu Zhongqing was seated.
At that table sat his future father-in-law, Taishan, and the men of the main branch of the family, as well as Lin’an’s Magistrate Han Zhicai and Yingtian Prefecture’s Magistrate Zhao Hongwang who had come to extend birthday wishes. Magistrate Han was related by marriage to Duke Li Guo’s Mansion, as his legitimate eldest son was married to a daughter of Mo Yuanshan, which was why he endured the long journey to offer his birthday wishes to the old lady.
Mu Zhongqing and Magistrate Han were old acquaintances. The previous year, during the lantern riddles in Lin’an, Magistrate Han had even awarded Mu Zhongqing fifty taels of silver, and afterward came to propose marriage on behalf of Huo Yuan to Cai Wei.
Back when the Mu Family rejected the proposal, Magistrate Han and his wife had thought that the Mu Family was being pretentious for not accepting the position of Young Madam of the Huo Family, thinking them utterly confused. Little did they know that the Mu Family had never coveted that position, setting their sights instead on the throne of the Wife of King Qin!
It seems he had underestimated the capability of this family.
The Prefect from Yingtian was also well-acquainted with Mu Zhongqing, because last time the State Duke’s Mansion falsely accused the Mu Family of theft, and Mu Zhongqing was thrown into Ying Tianfu’s jail. Later, it was Young Master Huo who had him released. Back then, had he known that one day Mu Zhongqing would become the father-in-law of King Qin, even if a ghost dragged him, he would not have dared to arrest him!