Chapter 696: Slapping Mo Qingze’s Face in High School (1)_1
Having learnt the reason Xue Tuanzi was reluctant to speak, Mo Yan scratched the little creature mercilessly until it no longer had the strength to cry or laugh. Then, her conscience finally kicking in, she let it go, yet in her heart, she approved of its actions.
If one always relies on external forces and does not seek to improve oneself, over time, a strong dependence will inevitably develop in one’s psyche, and she wanted nothing less than to become such a person.
However, considering the difficulty of the matter, Xue Tuanzi ended up revealing some information, such as indirectly confirming the accuracy of her and Xiao Ruiyuan’s earlier speculations. The leverage the Lin family had indeed related to Emperor Huian’s past struggle for the throne, which made approaching the issue from this angle much easier.
From Xue Tuanzi, Mo Yan learned that apart from Master Lin, who was a wise man even in his advanced years and had served as the Imperial Teacher for three dynasties, others in the Lin family were less remarkable. He had only one legitimate son who was good for nothing, and a concubine’s son who was equally mediocre.
Having devoted his early years to serving the Imperial Family, Master Lin had neglected the upbringing of his descendants. As he grew older, his ability to teach and discipline them weakened further. Thus, he sometimes turned a blind eye to their antics, and later, when his legitimate son and granddaughter conspired to kill the Pure Empress, he had no choice but to use that leverage to threaten Emperor Huian in order to protect them.
Mo Yan surmised that Master Lin probably hoped that King Heng would ascend to the throne because only then could the Lin family avoid the disaster of extinction.
What he likely didn’t anticipate was that she would emerge as a proverbial Cheng Yaojin in the midst, and that Chu Heng, the Crown Prince, hadn’t died. Instead, King Heng had become disabled, depriving him of the chance to ascend to the throne and shattering the Lin family’s last illusions. Such a heavy blow was more than the Lin family could bear, and they had probably long since wished to tear her, the "chief culprit," into pieces.