Chapter 77

At this point, He Zhiran was completely disappointed.

Originally, she still thought that the birthmark on Mo Jiuye might have been tattooed on later by the Mo family.

But Nan Qi did not have the unique birthmark that the Mo family members had at all, which completely showed that they had not been switched at birth after all.

In other words, the unofficial historical records on this were completely implausible after closer examination.

After getting the last answer from Mo Jiuye about his birth, He Zhiran completely gave up her doubts about his identity.

At the same time, she was even more puzzled by Nan Qi's behavior towards him.

The one who bells the cat must take the bell off. It seemed now that only Nan Qi himself knew the answer.

Seeing that He Zhiran was still deep in thought, Mo Jiuye really wanted to ask her where she had heard such a preposterous thing.

But thinking of the promise he had made to her, Mo Jiuye still tried his best to restrain his curiosity.

In order to prevent this woman from indulging in wild fantasies, Mo Jiuye chose to share his guesses.

"I grew up with Nan Qi since childhood, and we were the closest of friends. He has always been truly good to me.

I remember when I was fighting on the border and we were running out of food supplies, I sent a letter to the court but got no solution for a long time. My soldiers were about to run out of food at the critical moment when Nan Qi took money out of his own pocket to hire people to collect food supplies from various places to deliver to the border. That time he really gave me timely help.

The first time I went into battle, I accidentally got hit by the enemy's poisoned arrow. To help me detoxify, Nan Qi raced to Medicine Valley to get me antidotes.

There have been many more such things that can fully prove Nan Qi's true feelings for me.

It wasn't until I returned to the capital from the borders earlier this year that I sensed something wrong with him. Although he still welcomed me back from the city outskirts as usual based on our many years of friendship, relying on my understanding of him over the years, my intuition told me that he wasn't happy to see me come back.

Moreover, his eyes were always dodgy, and when I asked him curiously if something had happened to him, he chose not to answer me directly but beat around the bush instead.

After I had settled down in the capital, the first thing I did was rush over to Wang's mansion to see him.

But he asked me a question – if I were not the emperor's son, would we still be good brothers.

At that time, I didn't take his words to heart and casually reassured him.

Thinking about it now, based on the question Nan Qi asked, it is very likely that he had heard something, or that he was really not of royal blood himself, but the one who was swapped with him would definitely not be me."

After listening to Mo Jiuye's account, He Zhiran thought of another possibility.

"From what you said, Nan Qi's brotherly affection for you was definitely real before, and his sudden change in attitude later on. I guess he should not really be of royal blood himself, and had indeed been swapped at birth.

However, the news he obtained was that the one he was swapped with was you. Worried that the truth would be revealed after a long time, that was why he tried to kill you?"

Mo Jiuye said solemnly, "These are just my guesses after all. His true identity still remains unknown."

"If that's really the case, don't you want to clear up the misunderstanding with him?" He Zhiran wanted to understand Mo Jiuye's true thoughts.

Mo Jiuye shook his head with a wry smile.

"Whether it was a misunderstanding or not, the moment he made a move against me, we can no longer be brothers."

Seeing Mo Jiuye becoming increasingly dejected, they had analyzed everything they could think of regarding the matter. He Zhiran decided to end this topic.

The two of them fell silent at the same time, not knowing what to say for a moment.

Finally, it was Mo Jiuye who broke the quiet in the tent.

"I'll go sit by the river for a while, it's cooler there."

It was indeed a little stuffy inside the tent. The first thing He Zhiran thought of was that it would be great if she could enter her space and take a bath.

Seeing Mo Jiuye about to leave, this might be a good opportunity.

"Uh... can you come back after half an hour?"

Mo Jiuye looked at her deeply and murmured in agreement.

He Zhiran knew he had agreed. Seeing his figure disappear, she immediately slipped into her space.

Time was precious. He Zhiran took the quickest cold shower, then blow dried her hair and changed into a set of clean undergarments.

Looking at the clock on the wall, it had just been 40 minutes since she entered.

After leaving her space, Mo Jiuye had not yet returned. He Zhiran lay down on her side and gradually fell asleep.

She clearly felt the familiar scent appearing next to her after some unknown period of time.

Knowing Mo Jiuye had returned, He Zhiran's body subconsciously shifted aside to give him more space.

Mo Jiuye had just entered the tent when he smelled the long-absent fragrance.

He didn't know why, but he felt strangely obsessed with this smell.

He even felt some kind of primitive impulse churning inside him.

Mo Jiuye shook his head hard a few times in effort to keep himself sober. Then he gently lay down on the other side...

In the next two days, they still had to wait for the Eighth Old Zhou and others to return.

He Zhiran couldn't lend the ladies a hand in what they were working on, but she wasn't idle either. Besides being responsible for three meals a day, she spent all her remaining time making medicine.

The silver ring snake had been kept in her space for several days now. He Zhiran planned to make use of the free time to make the toxins she wanted from it.

Hidden in her tent, she used some modern medical tools to extract snake venom from the silver ring snake.

According to some formula notes, adding different medicinal ingredients could make toxins with different effects.

This was also not difficult for He Zhiran. All kinds of medicinal materials could be purchased from Taobao Treasure.

After two days of effort, He Zhiran finally successfully produced two toxins and an anesthetic incense.

One kind could paralyze a person's consciousness for a short time. He Zhiran named this toxin 'Loss of Consciousness'.

The other was more straightforward. Once someone ingested it, they would die immediately, saving He Zhiran the trouble of making an antidote.

She named this toxin 'Death Descends'.

The anesthetic incense was self-explanatory. Once lit, any person that smelled it would quickly lose consciousness, with drug efficacy lasting about two hours.

Of course, for her own safety, He Zhiran also simultaneously made the antidote to the incense.

She treasured and carefully kept these things for future need.

On He Zhiran's side, she had successfully produced anesthetic incense and toxins. On the other side, the ladies had finished making all the clothes and shoes.

It so happened that the Eighth Old Zhou had also returned from the capital with several officials.

Looking at the sky, it was already the early Geng Hour. Peng Wang decided to stop over here for one more night and set off early the next morning.

After resting for another night, everyone took the opportunity to change into new clothes and shoes, putting those old dirty ones in packages for later use.

At the first light of dawn the next day, after breakfast as commanded by Peng Wang, the troop set forth again in full strength.

Pingyuan County was a requisite stop on the way going northwest. In the afternoon, the mighty parade entered Pingyuan County.

Had it not been for the few officials following in the parade, nobody would have guessed that this group of neatly and properly dressed people were exiled convicts.

As they entered the city, the group aroused many inquisitive gazes. Following tacit understanding, the Mo family members lowered their wide-rimmed hats a bit so that people could not see their faces.