Sick Man Turns Out to be a General

0Time passed quickly, and in the blink of an eye, the day of the Ancestor's sacrifice arrived.    

    

Before dawn, Shen Jingli was awoken by the sound of the rooster crowing. When he opened his eyes, he saw that Mu Chen had already put on his clothes and was about to go out.    

    

"Why so early?" He stretched himself and sat up, then turned his head to look at the sky outside. It was dark outside, and he didn't know if it was five o'clock or not.    

    

"Patriarchs have a lot of things to do." When Mu Chen got up, he had already done his best to move as quietly as he could in case she woke him up. Unexpectedly, he was still woken up by his, "If you're tired, then sleep a bit more."    

    

Shen Jingli shook his head. No matter what, he was still a new wife that had followed him back. How could he still be sleeping when everyone else was working? Then how would others view Mu Chen?    

    

"You go and busy yourself first, I will wash up and then go to the ancestral hall to help out." He pulled Mu Chen's hand, talked about private matters for a while, and then chased Mu Chen away.    

    

Xun Er and Huaixin had played a little crazy yesterday, and now that they were sleeping like two little pigs, Shen Jingli covered them with a blanket, changed their clothes, and followed them out the door.    

    

Jin Yu and Nian Hua had already woken up and boiled the water. They were waiting for Shen Jingli to wake up and wash up.    

    

"You guys stay at home and watch over Xun Er and his. I'll go to the ancestral hall to help." Shen Jingli said.    

    

Jin Yu and Nian Hua nodded, offering sacrifices to the ancestor was a huge matter, how could they allow the servants to interfere.    

    

After instructing the two to prepare breakfast for Xun Er and Huaixin, Shen Jingli rushed to the ancestral hall.    

    

When he went to the small courtyard in front of the ancestral hall, there were already many people there. Some of the nimble men were slaughtering chickens, dyeing the paper paper with chicken blood. There were also two kitchens set up nearby.    

    

Shen Jingli didn't know what to do, he just stood there stupidly. Qing Sheng came out to get something, and when he saw Yue Yang, he pulled him in to the house to pick vegetables with him.    

    

"Why are you standing outside?" Qing Sheng brought out a short stool for Shen Jingli, "Everyone is busy inside, it's not nice to see you standing outside alone."    

    

"No one came to get me, and I don't know what to do." Shen Jingli washed his hands and went to pick vegetables with Qing Sheng.    

    

Hearing that, Qing Sheng facepalmed himself, and apologized: "It's all my fault, I forgot to call you."    

    

"It's fine, you're busy too." Shen Jingli understood him and said, "Are we going to pick all of these dishes?"    

    

They were sitting in a corner outside the kitchen, with a dozen baskets of radishes beside them. Shen Jingli felt a headache watching them.    

    

"Get these for breakfast, then get those for lunch." Qing Sheng casually nodded, "Let's hurry up and do it. We need to cook lunch for several hundred people in the afternoon, I'm afraid we won't make it in time."    

    

Shen Jingli nodded his head, and followed Qing Sheng's work. After a while, the patriarch's voice came from the ancestral hall, followed by the sound of popping bamboo.    

    

Qing Sheng quickly dragged him to wash his hands, then went to the ancestral hall to offer incense to pay his respects. After bowing to his ancestors, he put out a few firecrackers, and each of the strong men picked up a basket, sickles, small shovels, small hoes and other tools to sweep the graves.    

    

As for the women who stayed, they took the opportunity to eat breakfast. After finishing their breakfast, they prepared to make lunch.    

    

Many of the women in the village had experience and arranged themselves in an orderly manner. They didn't cause any trouble and had already prepared lunch before noon.    

    

The time it took to go up the mountain was longer than Shen Jingli expected. When the men returned to the village, it was already late, so they went to the ancestral hall to pay respects before starting their lunch.    

    

"..."    

    

By the time everything was over and it was almost time to turn young, Shen Jingli was already extremely tired. When he returned to his room, he immediately wanted to sleep.    

    

Mu Chen came in behind him. Seeing him lying on the quilt with his hands on his waist, he walked over and helped him massage his waist.    

    

"Exhausted?" Mu Chen said.    

    

"It's just that I've been sitting here for a long time, I'm a bit tired." Picking up vegetables was actually not tiring at all. It was just that it was tiring to keep bent over, washing and chopping the vegetables.    

    

Mu Chen did not say much and only rubbed his palms, carefully massaging his waist. Mu Chen was already very familiar with doing this, he squeezed with great strength, causing Shen Jingli to feel very comfortable while squinting his eyes in enjoyment.    

    

After a long while, he felt that it was enough, so he called for Mu Chen to stop, and got up by himself to massage his shoulders.    

    

"Third Grandpa said that he will go to the clan tomorrow to ask about my expulsion from the sect."    

    

Just as they were carefully helping Mu Chen massage his spine, they suddenly heard Mu Chen say that. Shen Jingli paused for a moment, but was not surprised.    

    

But from what I have observed for the past few days, the reason why Mu Chen was expelled from the sect, was very likely because of the Old Lady Mu and the Dehui County Lord alone. They may have mentioned this to the clan, but the majority of the Mu Family ancestors were scholars, and there were a lot of youths within the clan preparing to take the Imperial Examinations. If they took advantage of the time when Mu Chen was in trouble to expel Mu Chen from the sect, the Mu clan would probably be despised by the world, and the career of the scholars within the clan would probably be affected as well.    

    

The Emperor did not take the opportunity to execute King Jing's group, which showed that he was biased towards the King Jing in his heart, and it also showed that he was suspicious about this matter. Under these circumstances, no matter how good the Old Lady Mu's conditions were, the Mu Clan would not dare to do such a thing.    

    

"It's good to find out as soon as possible so that we don't create trouble in the future." Feeling that his hand was a little sore, Shen Jingli stopped, fell backwards, and laid on the quilt.    

    

"If I were to be exterminated …"    

    

"I have money, I'll support you." Shen Jingli patted his chest confidently.    

    

Why did these words sound so familiar? Mu Chen turned around and looked at the yawning and drowsy Shen Jingli, who seemed to have already said this when he was still at the Da Ping Village. He really intended to keep him alive for a lifetime.    

    

"It doesn't matter, I won't despise you for being soft …" Shen Jingli muttered in an indistinct voice.    

    

Mu Chen only felt that it was funny after hearing his words. He reached out to help him take off his outer clothes, covered him up, and then left.    

    

— —    

    

On the second day, Third Old Master Mu followed Mu Chen to the patriarch's house and asked about Mu Chen's expulsion from the sect.    

    

"There's actually such a thing?" After the Patriarch heard what Mu Chen had to say, he excitedly slammed the table and stood up, "Zi An, I truly do not know about this, if I did, I would not have let them cause such a ruckus."    

    

When Mu Chen had gotten into an accident, the Old Lady Mu had indeed sent a letter, saying that if they wanted to expel him from their clan, that was a matter of Marquis Zhen Yuan Mansion, so they naturally would not get involved. However, they absolutely would not do something like this if the was to personally expel Mu Chen from their clan.    

    

Mu Chen saw that the Patriarch was angry, and only laughed, regardless if the Patriarch was sincere, being able to say such words, gave Mu Chen face.    

    

"I will gather everyone to open up the clan shrine tomorrow to clear up this matter. I cannot let Zi An take the blame for nothing." The Patriarch was furious in his heart. Why did the Old Lady Mu, who used to look good, become more and more muddle-headed after sealing the title?    

    

"This is a must, if news of him being expelled from the sect gets out, Zi An will have to bear this stain on his name for the rest of his life." Third Old Master said, it was not like he did anything to harm the Sky Evil Clan, how could he just kick him out of the sect like that?    

    

"Yes, yes." After the Third Old Master Mu became an official, he helped the clan's juniors to recommend them to the academies in the capital. All these years, the clan had produced many officials, and those were all thanks to the Third Old Master, so the clan leader did not dare to offend him.    

    

"Zi An, how do you think we should handle this matter?" The patriarch asked Mu Chen.    

    

"Uncle Ting will see to it, Zi An just wants to get to the bottom of this." Mu Chen said casually, but his voice was filled with vigor.    

0

    

"Then I'll look for a few elders in the afternoon to clear up this matter with the ancestral hall, and also give your wife and son the family tree." The chief said.    

    

Giving and Xun Er the genealogy book truly caught Mu Chen's attention. He happily gave a curve to the corner of his mouth.    

    

No matter what, the Mu Clan was a large clan with a great amount of Great Yan Dynasty, there were many officials outside, and they understood the Imperial Court's actions. With regards to the matter with Mu Chen, everyone could tell that the Emperor had intended to let them go, and only Old Lady Mu was blinded with lard in her eyes, thinking that Mu Chen and his son must have died somewhere else.    

    

After sending off the Third Old Master and Mu Chen, the Patriarch stood at the door and sighed.    

    

"Dad, how can you sigh when you're fine?" Mu Yiming was just about to leave when he heard the Patriarch sighing and walked over.    

    

"Isn't it the Old Lady's Marquis Zhen Yuan Mansion? That Old Lady …" The chief shook his head. "If she continues to be this muddleheaded, who knows what kind of trouble she will cause."    

    

"Old Lady is not that stupid, right?" Mu Yiming said.    

    

"She's not muddle-headed enough?" The Patriarch angrily raised his voice, "You know about the matter of Zi An conspiring against us, but she's behind it all. She also doesn't think that if Zi An were to bear the responsibility of conspiring against us, how can the Marquis Mansion still stand?"    

    

The patriarch looked at Old Lady Mu in disdain, "That old lady's hair is long, and her knowledge is short …"    

    

He wanted to say something, but he only shook his head in the end, "Forget it, let's not talk about this annoying thing. I'll go to your great-uncle's place later and tell him about this matter."    

    

"..."    

    

In the afternoon, the clan head summoned a few elders to a meeting. After discussing with the clan elders and great-uncles, they opened the ancestral hall on the second day.    

    

Mu Chen's family of three immediately took the incense and kowtowed to their ancestors, then calmly kneeled down. The surrounding atmosphere was solemn and even the lively Xun Er could feel the seriousness of the atmosphere.    

    

The chief did not mention a single word about Mu Chen being expelled from the sect. He only said that Mu Chen would always be a descendant of the Mu Family, and now that he had brought his wife and son back to pay respects, it was also on the family tree.    

    

After he finished speaking, he invited the other Mu Clan elders out of their clan tree. He flipped to the page where Mu Chen was written, and added Shen Jingli's name onto the page beside him, which was below them. Xun Er's big name was Mu Jing Rui, and his title was given to him by his great-uncle.    

    

Shen Jingli looked at the brush in the patriarch's hands that had fallen, and raised it again. He had a subtle feeling of absent-mindedness, and it was hard to tell if it was joy or unease.    

    

The person beside him reached out and held his hand, making him feel warm. He quietly turned his head, and saw that Mu Chen's lips were pursed tightly together with a serious expression, and suddenly calmed down. As long as he was by his side, nothing would happen to him.