Save him

  Song Lingyu observed the entire village's every move, everyone's face seemed to be smiling like a blooming flower. The calmer the surface, the more turbulent the undercurrents!

  Song Lingyu went into the kitchen of the mountain stronghold early in the morning when no one was around, adding a small amount of honeysuckle, mung beans and licorice root to the pot. Song Lingyu stood aside, although she didn't know if it would work, these were all antidotes and shouldn't counteract each other. Someone came into the kitchen and asked what Song Lingyu was cooking, she said she was making mung bean soup, anyway, she had told Mu Qian to buy mung beans when he went down the mountain, this was something everyone in the stronghold knew about.

  Song Lingyu cooked a big bowl of mung bean soup and sent it to Mu Xiaojuan. No need to worry about anything, even if they didn't take action today, the mung bean soup wouldn't harm anyone and could even help relieve the summer heat.

  In fact, it was not much different from what Song Lingyu had expected.

  The people of the imperial court have indeed taken action today. This is a full four months earlier than she had expected in her previous life!

  When Mu Xiuzhen was still in the house, the medicine had already taken effect. However, after being fed a large bowl of mung bean soup by Song Lingyu, he didn't eat too much food at noon, and the dose of the medicine wasn't very sufficient. With the detoxifying effects of the mung beans as a base, although there was some slight influence, his footsteps were somewhat unsteady, but not to the point of staggering.

  Song Lingyu had been observing the movements outside the village, and when she saw the imperial army approaching, she immediately took the freshly cooked medicinal soup and ran to Mu Xiao's room, without even knocking on the door.

  Mu Xiuzuo, who was leaning against the table, was somewhat surprised by Song Lingyu's actions, but before he could think much about it, he heard Song Lingyu say: "The outside has already been surrounded by the imperial army."

  Mu Xiao's face changed as soon as he heard it, his hand clenched into a fist so tightly that even his fingernails seemed to be digging into the flesh: "Is it you? Isn't it?"

  Song Lingyu slowly walked forward, placing the bowl of medicine in front of Mu Xiaojuan: "Whether or not you believe me, it's not me who harmed you. This bowl of medicine is made from mung beans, honeysuckle and licorice root, which should temporarily alleviate the toxicity in your body."

  Mu Xiaocong stared at Song Lingyu with a fierce gaze, his hands grasping her wrists tightly. Song Lingyu slightly furrowed her brow but didn't pull away. Mu Xiaocong supported himself against the table and said: "You still say it's not you? If it wasn't you, how would you know I was poisoned? If it wasn't you, why would you have sent Mu Qian down the mountain to buy licorice root earlier?"

  Song Lingyu rudely pushed away his hand, Mu Xiaoqiu was poisoned and felt weak all over. "What a waste! You're still the leader of this mountain stronghold, but you can't even see through this. I'm asking you, why do so many refugees come here? Even if they really are just passing by, they should be able to take some dry rations and leave. Why are there still people living here? This is a bandit's lair, not a refugee camp! Do you think these refugees have the guts to stay here?"

  "Those who pass by are just taking a gamble. Not coming to the village would also mean starving to death, either way it's death, so why not come to the village and try one's luck, maybe they can even get some food. But what about those who stayed? Do you really think they have the guts?! Either they don't want to live anymore or they have a good reason to stay here! The former are just living day by day, as long as they have a breath left in them. And the latter are officials from the imperial court."

  "The imperial court spent so much effort this time just to persuade the mountain stronghold people to surrender, but after a long siege and spending so many human and material resources, it all ended up being a waste of time because you kidnapped the eldest daughter of the prime minister's mansion. Do you think they will swallow their pride?"

  Mu Xiao listened to Song Lingyu's analysis, and couldn't help but feel a bit annoyed. As the leader of a mountain stronghold, his thinking was no match for that of a woman from a noble family. Mu Xiao looked at Song Lingyu, he didn't think she was someone who would unconditionally help others, including when she first agreed to stay in the stronghold. Now it seemed that with her intelligence, she had every means to escape from here. "Then why did you save me? Aren't you also a person of the imperial court?"

  Song Lingyu smiled and said: "Right, I am a court official, but I need to spare your life."