Chapter 127 True and False Grandma
"But..." Qin Taihe hesitated, his eyes filled with pain and confusion, "I'm sorry to disappoint you. I don't have the ability to be an enemy of the Qintai family, and... I'm going to die soon, so I won't be able to let you become my protector."
"No?" Ruan Xing was anxious, "Are you still thinking about going to Nanzhou?"
Qin Taihe lowered his eyes, "Well, we originally agreed on that, didn't we? I just came to Xizhou to take a look. If I really don't have a family member who cares about me in Xizhou, I might as well go to Nanzhou to avoid Master being punished."
"Although you have no family, you have a few more enemies, right? Can't we just lie low in Xizhou and make plans for the future?" Ruan Xing advised earnestly.
She also wanted Qin Taihe to inherit Qin Taimo's legacy to see if there were any clues left.
Cang Lin interrupted with a strange look on his face, "Actually... Young Master, there is another family member who cares about you."
Qin Taihe was stunned, "Who is it?"
"She's your biological grandmother." Cang Lin said.
"She... is still alive? How is she now?" Qin Taihe was a little overwhelmed, and clumsily began to care about this grandmother whom he had never met.
Cang Lin nodded. "Your grandmother was injured in her early years. She has not been in good health for many years. She is just holding on. Fortunately, you came back in time, otherwise you might not be able to see her."
He looked around and whispered to Qin Taihe, "Young Master, please come back with me first. It won't be too late to make a decision after you meet your grandmother."
Qin Taihe agreed. Cang Lin originally wanted to destroy the body, but he didn't expect that Ruan Xing was quick enough to act. She had already put the body into the storage bag.
Although in the simulation you can’t take the waste back even if you make a puppet out of it, it’s a real waste to just leave it here.
In line with the good habit of diligence and thrift, Ruan Xing put away the Foundation Establishment Stage body that was blown beyond recognition on the way back, and burned all the other things.
Cang Lin led them to use a sleight of hand, and walked in front of several mortal servants at the door. "With me here, the stone forest formation at the door is useless. It's better not to let others know that the young master is back."
I don’t know if the other person Canglin was talking about was the woman who called herself the second wife and her married daughter.
Thinking of this, Ruan Xing asked, "Qin Taimo and Qin Taihe's father are not born from the same mother, so what about his mother?"
Generally, a cultivator in Xizhou would only have one cultivator companion, and the rest were mortal concubines, but that second wife was obviously a cultivator... A cultivator has a proud character, how could he be willing to be a concubine? And the original wife was alive and well, so she didn't mind?
"It's a long story..." Cang Lin paused, "I am not in a position to talk about the master's family, but the only lady who knows the inside story may not want to mention it, so I will tell you."
"I've said before that Madam had suffered a hidden injury in her early years. It's not easy for cultivators to get pregnant, and Madam doesn't care whether she has an heir or not. But if she wants to compete for the position of clan leader, she must have an heir to pass on the legacy. So she decided to let the master take a mortal woman as a concubine. After that, she gave birth to the second son. Madam treated him as her own son and loved him very much. However, after a few years, Madam found out that she was pregnant too. At this time, the second son had not yet attracted qi, so Madam no longer registered the second son under her name."
Ruan Xing nodded secretly. No wonder Cang Lin called Qin Taimo the Second Young Master, but in the last simulation, the Second Grandma said that Qin Taimo was Qin Taihe's uncle.
It turns out that the Qintai family cares about status, while the Second Wife cares about age.
Cang Lin continued, "Qin Taimo lost his noble status, and the mortal girl cried to the Madam. The Madam felt guilty for going back on her word and gave her resources to help her practice martial arts, draw in qi, and cultivate her spirit bones. She cultivated her all the way to foundation building and compensated her with a hundred years of life. The mortal girl happily agreed. By the time the master went into seclusion, she was almost two hundred years old. It was probably because Qin Taimo inherited the master's legacy and spent a lot of money to find her the longevity elixir that allowed her to live to this day."
"Before the master passed away, no one in the clan took her seriously. She was just a mortal woman who had given birth to children. They just wanted to eat and drink well and keep her until she died. I didn't expect that now she can call herself the second wife." Cang Lin shook his head and smiled bitterly.
Qintai He listened silently, feeling somewhat complicated.
The inner house affairs of the Xizhou clan had a great impact on his worldview. Several people deliberately avoided the place where Qintai's strange mother lived and the small flower hall garden she often visited, and went to the deepest part of the entire courtyard.
There were a few lifeless back rooms, with a few old locust trees planted next to them, and the hanging shades blocked out all the sunlight.
I passed by here last time when I simulated Ruan Xing and Qin Taihe strolling around, but this place was not as glamorous as Second Grandma made it appear, and I thought it was an empty house with no one living in it.
Cang Lin knocked on the door, and an old and peaceful female voice came from inside, "Come in."
The three of them walked in and passed a boxwood screen. Ruan Xing then saw the quiet room at the back. Although it did not look gorgeous, it was clean and tidy. What surprised her was that there was a small spirit gathering array embedded in the ground of the quiet room, which also had the function of locking spirits. She could not sense any spiritual energy leaking out from outside the door.
A woman in an off-white robe is meditating with her eyes closed on a cushion. There are traces of time in the corners of her eyes, but one can still vaguely see the beauty of her youth.
She turned her head slightly, with a soft and faint smile, "It's Cang Lin, who did you bring?"
"...Madam." There seemed to be a faint light flashing in Cang Lin's eyes. He lowered his head, "Madam, you have been waiting for me."
The woman was stunned, and stared at Qin Taihe with a tender gaze, "You are finally here."
"Grandma?" Qin Taihe called softly, somewhat unconfidently.
The woman nodded. "It's me."
Qin Taihe squatted down and knelt beside the woman. The woman hugged him with tears in her eyes, "You are so big now, but this is the first time I see you. You won't blame grandma, will you?"
"No." Qin Taihe leaned against the woman's shoulder with his cheek pressed against her like a child who had not grown up. "So you have been waiting for me. I am late."
He breathed in the light and warm scent of the woman somewhat greedily.
It turned out that it was not an illusion. This was exactly the feeling of family he had always dreamed of and imagined.
The woman patted his back gently to comfort him. Suddenly, she coughed weakly twice, and a hint of blush appeared at the corners of her mouth.
Qin Taihe quickly stood up and supported her, frowning and asking worriedly: "Grandma, what's wrong with you?"
The woman waved her hand. "It's okay. It's an old problem. This is why I have been locking myself up here. My health is getting worse day by day. Once I leave the room, my cultivation will gradually decline. Therefore, I can't go to Xizhou to pick you up and take you home. I can only passively wait for you to come back."
This underground spirit gathering formation is both her lifeblood and her shackles.
Qin Taimo and her son controlled the family, and Canglin was trapped beside Qin Taimo. She couldn't even successfully deliver the letter to Zhongzhou.
"Now that you can come, I can put my worries aside. He'er, grandma has something to ask of you." The woman said solemnly. She stood up with the help of Qintai He, took off the white hairpin on her head, and made a gesture with one hand. The floor under the feet of several people emitted rippling fluorescent lights, and then the light gathered into a ball, gradually condensing into a one-inch long key, with a simple shape, ice-blue and translucent all over, and faintly flashing light like mysterious patterns on it.
Thanks to high school girl Zhou Yingting for the monthly ticket~
(End of this chapter)
