Chapter 31: Betrayal, Binding Spells, and the Nai River’s Deadly Trial
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The contract paper tore into shreds, fragments scattering across the ground like snow.
In the decrepit Yinyuan Hall, silence pressed down so heavily that even the faint rustle of falling paper seemed deafening.
Meng Ruji froze, stunned, until Mu Sui seized her wrist and yanked her firmly behind him.
“Who I am, how we were married—these are our matters,” Mu Sui declared, his voice cutting cold as steel. His gaze locked on Mo Li. “It is not your place to use this to threaten her.”
Meng Ruji blinked at him in disbelief.
Was this truly the same Mu Sui?
His tone was no longer hesitant but commanding. Cold. Arrogant. Calculated.
And, most unsettling of all—he seemed sharper, more perceptive.
When he had spoken only to her before, Meng Ruji hadn’t noticed it so clearly. But now, united “against an outsider,” the difference in him was stark.
The old Mu Sui would have charged forward with reckless bravado, shouting: “I’ll kill you first!”
But this Mu Sui… this one stood as if he’d been planning his move all along.
Meng Ruji rubbed her chin, studying him carefully. She chose to remain silent.
The tension between Mu Sui and Mo Li crackled in the air, ignoring her completely.
Mo Li, unruffled by Mu Sui’s biting words, only smiled faintly. “So be it. If you claim I’m forcing her, threatening her—then yes, I am. Why else would I have brought him here to find you?”
He tapped Luo Yingfeng’s shoulder.
Luo Yingfeng’s palm flashed open—three golden pearls erupted, their dazzling light flooding the hall.
Meng Ruji’s heart leapt. She instinctively clutched the coins hidden against her chest, but before she could act, three silver sparks burst beside her. They fused into a blinding silver beam, slicing straight toward Mo Li with lethal precision.
The strike was so fast it seemed Mu Sui had anticipated this moment.
Mo Li tried to move Luo Yingfeng to shield him, but too late—the silver light struck his wrist, forcing his grip free. The pearls clattered across the floor.
Seizing the chance, Meng Ruji’s instincts overpowered everything else. Like a starving beast lunging at prey, she dove for the scattered pearls, scrambling greedily across the ground.
Neither man spared her a glance.
Mu Sui surged forward, striking at Mo Li with speed and power that eclipsed his past self. Shocked, Mo Li found himself overpowered, slammed face-down into the dirt.
“Stop pestering her, and I’ll let you live,” Mu Sui warned, twisting his arm mercilessly.
Even crushed into the ground, Mo Li only laughed softly. “Young man, I regret wanting you as my son-in-law.”
The mocking words darkened Mu Sui’s expression. His grip tightened—
—but before he could finish it, golden light surged like ropes, binding his limbs in an instant.
Mu Sui grimaced, releasing Mo Li and reaching for his hidden coins. But hunger tore through him like knives, his body trembling, his strength faltering.
The golden threads coiled tighter, binding him into a prisoner.
Across the hall, Meng Ruji too was ensnared, trussed up like a dumpling. Even her mouth was sealed. She could only glare, muffled protests spilling as her body sagged in defeat.
And Mo Li?
He too lay bound, caught in the golden web.
All three of them, neatly wrapped and helpless.
Luo Yingfeng staggered upright, dirt smeared across his robes, fury burning in his eyes.
“Never in all my years as master of Linlan Mountain have I been so humiliated!” His voice shook with rage. “Zhuliu City sent you, Mu Sui, to take my life and my mountain! But you’ll regret crossing me.”
Dragging them out to the Nai River, Luo Yingfeng’s judgment was swift:
“Sack them. Sink them.”
Ropes, stones, and the roar of the river.
Three splashes.
The current swallowed them whole.
And as the river’s poison gnawed away at her strength, Meng Ruji’s world blurred—past and memory, pain and fate colliding in her drowning vision.
Until a hand dragged her up into the air.
Coughing, gasping, choking on survival itself, she saw through the haze of water and starlight.
“…Yan Tianjun…”
It was Mo Li.
Soaked, smiling, clutching a contract still wet with ink.
“Either sign, or die,” he said, voice as smooth as ever. “Unfilial daughter, will you support your father in his old age?”
Mu Sui, bound and seething: Yan Tianjun plays dirty.
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