A-Tong said bitterly, "If I can't defeat them, other people can't either."
A-Ding laughed, "How do you know that other people can't defeat them? Let me tell you—today, some cultivators came to Mo Village. I heard that they were from a very prominent clan! The madam is talking to them in the main hall, and everyone in town is watching. Can't you hear the noise? I don't have time to play around with you; they might give me more work afterwards."
Wei WuXian listened attentively. Sure enough, the faint bustling sounds of people came from the east. He pondered for a moment, stood up, and kicked the door. It cracked with a clank.
At the moment, the two servants, A-Ding and A-Tong, were flirting with each other, and screamed when the door suddenly flung open. Wei WuXian threw away his bowl and walked outside, flinching from the glare of the sunlight. He brought his hand to the tip of his brow and closed his eyes for a moment. Just now, A-Tong screamed even louder than A-Ding, but as he took a closer look and realized that it was Mo XuanYu, the person whom everyone could humiliate, his courage came back to him. He figured that he probably lost face in front of A-Ding, and wanted to make up for it, so he jumped over and waved his hands like he was reproaching a dog, "Shoo! Shoo! Go away! Why did you come out?"
A-Tong treated him even worse than he treated a beggar or a fly. Most of the time, all of the servants of the Mo family treated Mo XuanYu like this because he never resisted. Wei WuXian gave A-Tong a light kick, knocking him over, and laughed, "How daring of a mere errand-running child to humiliate others like this."
With that, he headed towards the commotion in the east. Quite a lot of people crowded in and around the East Hall. Just as Wei WuXian stepped into the courtyard, a woman spoke in a voice a few pitches louder than the others', "A member from the younger generations of our family use to be a cultivator as well…"
It must have been Madam Mo trying to make connections with the cultivation family again. Wei WuXian didn't wait for her to finish speaking, and quickly hustled through the crowd, into the hall, and grinned, "I'm coming, I'm coming. Right here!"
A middle-aged lady sat in the hall, with well maintained health and wearing extravagant clothing. She was Madam Mo. Her husband sat below her, and the opposite side sat a few white-robed boys*. Because of how an unkempt freak just appeared from within the people, all of the chatter came to a halt, but Wei WuXian spoke shamelessly, as if he did not notice the motionless atmosphere at all, "Who was calling me earlier? I am the only one who use to be a cultivator!"
*In this case, the word "boys" refers to older youths in their teenage years.
There was too much powder on his face, and as he smiled, the powder sprinkled off. A younger cultivator was on the brink of laughing, letting out a pfft sound. His face grew serious again as another one, seemingly the leader of the group, gave him a disapproving look.
Wei WuXian followed the voice and scanned over. He thought that the servants were being ignorant and exaggerated the situation, but he was surprised to see that they were really disciples of a "prominent clan".
The boys wore robes with drifting sleeves and flowing belts, appearing to be ikemen and doubtlessly a treat to the eyes. Looking at the uniform, it was obvious that they were from the GusuLan clan. They must have also been younger generations of blood-relationship to the Lan family, as they all wore white forehead ribbons around a finger's width, with cloud patterns sewn onto them.
The motto of the GusuLan clan was "righteousness". The forehead ribbon implied to "conduct oneself well", and the cloud pattern was the official pattern of the Lan family, of which cultivators who came from other families did not have the right to wear. Wei WuXian got toothaches whenever he saw anybody from the Lan clan. In his past life, he had always thought of his clan's uniform as "mourning clothes", which was why he would never mistake it.
Lady Mo hadn't seen this nephew of hers in a while, and only got over her dismay after a long time, when she realized who the heavily-makeuped person was. She was furious, but she didn't want to lose her temper and discompose herself, so she lowered her voice at her husband, "Who let him out? Get him back there!"
Her husband promptly smiled to calm her and walked over with an irksome look, ready to pull him out of here. However, Wei WuXian suddenly dropped to the ground, his limbs tightly clinging to the floor. Nobody could get him up, even after more servants were called to help. As Lady Mo's face darkened bit by bit, her husband was also sweating. He scolded, "… You… Damn madman! If you don't go back now, wait and see how I'll punish you!"
Although everyone in the Mo Village knew that the Mo family had a young master who lost his marbles, Mo XuanYu had already hid in that dark room for a couple of years, scared to come outside. After seeing how both his face and actions were like those of a monster's, the people whispered among themselves, looking forward to a good show to watch. Wei WuXian spoke, "I could go back if you wanted me to," he pointed at Mo ZiYuan, "But tell him to return the things that he stole from me first."
Mo ZiYuan did not expect that the good-for-nothing lunatic had the guts to cause trouble here, even after his disciplining yesterday. His face grew pale, "That's nonsense! When did I ever steal your things? Would, would I need to steal anything from you?"
Wei WuXian said, "Yeah, yeah. You didn't steal, you robbed!"
Madam Mo didn't say anything yet, but Mo ZiYuan was furious, raising his foot to kick him. However, a white-robed boy carrying a sword moved his finger slightly, and Mo ZiYuan's feet slipped, falling to the ground with his foot only scraping him. Even so, Wei WuXian still rolled on the ground, as if he was really kicked over, and pulled open the front of his robe, showing the footprint that Mo ZiYuan made yesterday.
The others thought that, obviously, Mo XuanYu couldn't have kicked himself. Along with the fact that Mo ZiYuan had always been imprudent and arrogant, who else could have done it? No matter what, the Mo family had been being too ruthless to their own blood relative. It was plain to see that, when he first came back, he wasn't this insane, and so it must have been worsened by the people of this family. Nevertheless, all is well as long as there was a good show to watch. This one was much more interesting than the cultivators!
Before this, Madam Mo ignored him, as she didn't bother to argue with a sick person. She ordered the others to take him out. Now she knew—Mo XuanYu had definitely come prepared. His head was completely clear and deliberately disgraced them. She felt both shock and hatred, "You made a big scene on purpose, didn't you?"
Wei WuXian replied blankly, "He stole my belongings, and I'm here to retrieve them. Does that also count as making a big scene?"
With so many pairs of eyes staring, Madam Mo could neither hit him nor throw him out. Anger welled up deep inside her, and she could only forcefully compromise the two sides, "Stealing? Robbing? That's a bit disrespectful, if you ask me. We are all part of one family, and he only wanted to take a look at them. A-Yuan* is your younger brother, so what's wrong with taking a few of your things? As an older brother, you shouldn't be reluctant to lend one or two playthings, should you? It's not as if he won't return them."
*The "A" prefix can also be used to refer to someone you're close to. A-Yuan refers to Mo ZiYuan.
The boys from the Lan clan stared speechlessly at one another. These young boys grew up in a cultivation clan, exposed to splendor and that only. They'd probably never seen farces like this, or even heard of this kind of logic. Wei WuXian laughed hysterically in his mind, and extended his hand, "Then, return them."
Of course, it was impossible for Mo ZiYuan to return anything, having either thrown them out or disassembled them. Even if he was able to return them, his pride wouldn't have allowed it. His face turned purple with anger and he shouted, "… Mom!" His glare raged, are you really allowing him to treat me like this?
Lady Mo glowered at him, signaling for him to not worsen the situation. However, Wei WuXian spoke again, "Not only should he not have stolen my belongings, he shouldn't have stolen them in the middle of the night. Everyone knows that I am into men. Even if he was not ashamed, I knew to not look suspicious."
Lady Mo gasped and shouted, "What are you talking about, in front of the villagers? How shameless—A-Yuan is your cousin!"
In terms of running wild, Wei WuXian was definitely a master. In the past, if he wanted to run wild, he would have to keep his status in mind, but now, he was a lunatic anyways, which meant that he could do whatever he wanted to, whichever way he wanted. He stiffened his neck and argued defiantly, "Even though he knew that I was his cousin, he chose to not avoid me, so who was more shameless? I don't care about your reputation, but don't ruin my innocence! I still want to find a good man!"
Mo ZiYuan let out a loud scream and started swinging a chair at him. As soon as Wei WuXian saw that his anger finally went out of control, he rolled over and climbed up, dodging so that the chair only smashed on the ground, falling apart in the process. The mass of people in the East Hall were originally gloating at the disgrace of the Mo family, but, after the fight started, they'd all fled away. Wei WuXian bolted towards the group of boys from the Lan clan, who all gaped at the scene, and yelled, "Did everyone see that? Did you? The burglar is also beating someone up! How heartless!"
Mo ZiYuan chased him, and was close to pouncing on him, when the leader of the boys hurriedly stopped him, "Please calm down. Words are more powerful than weapons."
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