Chapter 17

Lin Que was not discouraged and asked Li Mu several more times.

Li Mu was lying in bed, so annoyed that she couldn’t calm down. Rarely, she used a long sentence to retort, “Why aren’t you allowed to drink?”

Why do you think Princess Zhaoming doesn’t let you drink? Don’t you have a clue?

Lin Que bargained with Li Mu, “If I tell you, will you agree to share a pot with me?”

Li Mu’s response was to turn over, her back facing him.

Li Mu planned to wait until Lin Que quieted down before turning back. After all, lying on her back was more conducive to sleep. Who knew that Lin Que’s voice came from behind after a while? It was not as light-hearted as when he asked for wine, but not very heavy, like telling a bedtime story.

“Because I was poisoned, my health is poor.”

Huh? Isn’t it because of illness? That’s what the book says. Encountering a different setting from the book for the first time, Li Mu turned over slowly, filled with doubt.

Lin Que propped his head with one hand, looking at Li Mu, while the other hand pressed the pillow with his elbow, his fingertips lightly tapping on the patterned pillowcase. “Where was I? Oh… The Lin family was gone, Ah Chi was taken into the palace by the late emperor, and mother couldn’t leave for a while, so I rushed back alone.”

“The late emperor trusted eunuchs more as he got older. I hurried to the palace in the heavy rain, only to see Zheng Dexiang from the Directorate of Ceremonies, who had looked after the late emperor since childhood. If you’re interested, you can have the Pigeon House organize his biography for you. In short, because of a few words from him, I was scolded by the late emperor for being disrespectful and not grooming myself before entering the palace. I was punished to kneel for two hours before the late emperor calmed down and allowed me to see Ah Chi.”

The night was much quieter than the day. Lin Que’s voice, soaked in the pitch-black night, was calm with a hint of nonchalance as if telling someone else’s story.

“Ah Chi was just a bit older than Qiwu is now. Before being taken into the palace, he saw our father die by the sword with his own eyes and was then locked in an empty hall for several days. Can you guess what his first words to me were?”

Li Mu shook her head, indicating she didn’t know.

Lin Que smiled, “Ah Chi, at the age of seven, already insisted he was grown up and wouldn’t let anyone carry him. But that day, he threw himself into my arms, crying and gritting his teeth, asking me if his maternal grandfather would have killed him too if he hadn’t taken his mother’s surname, Gu, at birth.”

Li Mu suddenly thought of the fates of Gu Chi and Li Zhi. She thought about King Yan’s younger brother, how tragic.

Lin Que continued, “In the end, Ah Chi and I left the palace. The late emperor’s explanation was that the Lin family was plotting rebellion. My mother was a princess, and Ah Chi and I were the children of a princess, so we wouldn’t be implicated. But Zheng Danban…” Lin Que paused slightly.

The eunuch who had served the emperor for many years was also called Banban. When Lin Que was young, he often followed his mother into the palace and saw Zheng Dexiang more often than the late emperor, calling him Banban out of habit.

Even later, when he called him by his name, even during the time after the Lin family was destroyed, when he dragged his half-dead body to plan and scheme, leading the late emperor to personally order his death, he would still habitually call him “Zheng Banban” at some unintentional moment.

Lin Que changed the address and continued, “Zheng Dexiang brought a bowl of medicine and told me to drink it to prove that my mother, brother, and I were loyal to the emperor and had no rebellious intentions.”

“No one said it was poison, but everyone knew.”

This is the whole process of how Lin Que was poisoned.

Li Mu: “Does drinking poison prove anything?”

“Drinking poison at least proves I can die.” Lin Que put down the hand supporting his head and rested his head on the back of his hand. “It was my mother’s sister, now Princess Huai Shu, who saved me.”

“Adopting Yanan was partly out of pity for his innocent involvement, losing his parents, and partly to let the late emperor know that even if I didn’t die, I was crippled, destined to be childless in the future, and could only adopt one, posing no threat to the throne.”

Li Mu: “…”

Ah, can this be said too? Crippled? Really? Or was it made up to make the late emperor lower his guard?

Li Mu was a bit curious but didn’t dare to ask. The atmosphere wasn’t quite right, and before she transmigrated, she had read R18 novels, always feeling that such a question would be followed by “Do you want to try?”

Quite dangerous.

So Li Mu didn’t ask, and the space surrounded by light gauze bed curtains fell into silence.

Li Mu felt a bit awkward, pondering whether to say something to change the topic or just stay quiet and fall asleep. She then heard Lin Que ask, “I’ve told you everything. Can you share a pot of wine with me?”

Li Mu was stunned. Did you say all that just to ask for wine?!

Li Mu suddenly felt like a fool for not wanting to ruin the atmosphere earlier.

Seeing her not respond, Lin Que reached out and tugged at her hair that had fallen on the pillow. “Look at me, so pitiful. Now I just want a pot of wine.”

Still playing the pity card.

Li Mu: “No.”

She didn’t want to be called by Grand Princess Zhaoming for giving Lin Que wine. As someone who understands the art of refusal and has social anxiety, she wanted to avoid this risk.

Who knows how late they negotiated over that pot of wine that hadn’t even been bought into the palace yet? Anyway, the next day, both of them got up very late.

Li Mu waited until Lin Que was not around, then sent Qianyun and Feixing out to buy wine. After returning, she informed Steward Wu and found a place to hide the wine to prevent Lin Que from discovering it.

Li Mu tried several times and found that drinking wine before bed helped her sleep. Moreover, drinking a small cup made her mood float like a balloon, so she happily abandoned the calming soup. However, hiding the wine did not go smoothly. Lin Que always managed to find it. Later, Li Mu deliberately avoided everyone; only she knew where the wine was, but Lin Que still found it.

One day, Lin Qiwu and Li Yunxi came to Li Mu’s place to catch up on their homework. Seeing Li Mu staring at two palm-sized wine jars on the table, they were curious about what had happened.

Qianyun and Feixing, knowing that Li Mu was hiding wine, found it quite amusing and explained.

Li Yunxi: “Sounds like hiding hooks.”

Nowadays, hiding hooks is not popular, but it was one of the small games that Li Yunxi and Li Ying played at home. The game could be simple or complex. The simple version involved many people playing together, divided into two teams. One team guessed while the other hid, guessing who had the hook. The more complex version involved guessing where the hook was hidden.

“Sending hooks across the table, spring wine warms, dividing teams to shoot under the red wax lamps.” “Sending hooks” refers to the game of hiding hooks. It is said that in the previous dynasty, someone was particularly good at playing this game at banquets. They found the hook every time by observing words and expressions, just like solving a case or catching a thief.

Hearing this, Li Mu realized that hiding it anywhere was useless. The opponent was Lin Que, and she couldn’t outsmart him. Some things had to be troublesome and involve others.

Realizing this, Li Mu handed the wine to Nanny Liu. Like Steward Wu, Nanny Liu had received orders from Grand Princess Zhaoming not to let Lin Que drink. As long as the wine was with Nanny Liu, it didn’t matter if Lin Que knew about it; he would still have to trouble Nanny Liu to bring her a cup every night.

Having solved the problem of hiding the wine, Li Mu recalled Li Yunxi’s mention of the hook-hiding expert. She vaguely felt that this game of observing words and expressions was very similar to the tabletop game Werewolf, which she wanted to play but didn’t dare to before she transmigrated.

In fact, not just Werewolf but also offline murder mystery games and online games like Goose Goose Duck were her unattainable desires. As someone with social anxiety, she was destined to have no connection with social games in this life, even though she really wanted to play.

Thinking of this, Li Mu couldn’t help but feel a bit eager. Since she had to practice writing every day anyway, she decided to write down the rules of Werewolf. However, many of the names had to be changed to fit this context. The villagers remained “villagers,” werewolves could be changed to “bandits,” the seer to “imperial astrologer,” the guard to “bodyguard,” the witch to “doctor,” and Cupid to “matchmaker.”

Li Mu didn’t write any professional jargon or those messy unwritten rules. After all, those so-called professional thresholds were one of the reasons she hesitated. She just wanted to play a game and didn’t want to be criticized for saying something wrong.

Li Mu wrote happily, and when Lin Qiwu saw the content, she didn’t even hide it, hoping Lin Qiwu would like the game.

Actually, just by reading so many words, Lin Qiwu didn’t feel the charm of the game, but she saw that Li Mu seemed to like it very much and even wrote that paper slips could be used to make the cards.

Hmm… Why not make a set of wooden ones and give them to her sister-in-law? Lin Qiwu thought and did it, asking Li Mu for the game rules and character introductions written on several sheets of paper.

Li Mu was looking forward to Lin Qiwu’s feedback on the game experience, but unexpectedly, she received identity cards made of pear wood at the Mid-Autumn Festival.

In previous years, Lin Que always took Lin Yan’an to the neighboring Princess’s mansion for the festival, and this year was no exception.

Lin Que had told Li Mu that it was a family banquet. In addition to the people from the two mansions, there was Princess Huai Shu. If Li Mu joined, there would be seven people in total. He asked if Li Mu would go.

Li Mu knew that Lin Que had been very considerate of her. She could pretend not to see the invitations sent to the Yan King’s mansion every day and stay at home alone. Now, for a Mid-Autumn family banquet, she didn’t want to spoil everyone’s fun, so she decided to go. At worst, she would just play dumb and not talk.

That night, besides various delicacies and mooncakes, there were also crabs in season at the banquet. While Li Mu was dismantling the crab, Lin Qiwu gave her the cards. Princess Huai Shu was already curious about Li Mu and asked about it. Lin Qiwu explained for Li Mu and took out the papers Li Mu had written.

Li Mu’s eyelids twitched: her handwriting wasn’t very good.

Fortunately, Lin Que reached out and took the papers, not giving them to others. After a quick look, he asked Li Mu, “Do you want to play?”

Li Mu’s heart moved: “I won’t play. Will you guys play?”

Li Mu almost wrote, “You guys play one for me to watch” on her face.

Lin Que laughed and briefly explained the game to the others: “It’s a game of villagers catching bandits. Who’s a villager and who’s a bandit is decided by drawing cards.”

There were six people besides Li Mu. Li Mu was afraid the identities would be too complicated and hard to get into, so she only took four villager cards and two bandit cards, without any other messy identities.

Steward Wu acted as the judge called “Lord Qingtian” here.

Then interesting things happened.

If Lin Que was a villager, he would be killed on the first night, even if the bandit card was drawn by Grand Princess Zhaoming, who would mercilessly swing the butcher’s knife at Lin Que. If Lin Que was a bandit, he would definitely survive the first night, and the first one to be judged guilty and imprisoned would be him. Anyway, everyone agreed that in this game, Lin Que couldn’t be left alive.

Li Mu bit her lip, trying to hold back, but couldn’t help laughing at Lin Que.

Lin Que flipped through the special identity cards and said lightly, “It won’t be like this in a while.”

As he said, later on, everyone found that Grand Princess Zhaoming was also very powerful, ruthless, and sharp-eyed. Lin Yan’an, though young, was not to be underestimated. So they no longer targeted Lin Que, who might have been deliberately spared by the bandits and turned their attention to the two of them. Finally, Lin Que added a special identity card, making the game even more interesting. However, when Lin Que was in the good guys’ camp, the probability of being killed on the first night was still very high.

By the end of the night, everyone had a great time. Lin Qiwu, who was initially uninterested, planned to make another set of cards, and Princess Huai Shu also asked if she could have a set.

Before leaving, Princess Huai Shu was very happy and told Zhaoming that Li Mu’s whimsical ideas were exciting. She heard that the potato feast, now popular in the capital, was initially concocted by Li Mu at her mother’s house. It showed that Li Mu was not stupid, just thought differently from others.