Chapter 177: The Mu Family's House Style is Indeed Unrestrained

Commander Mu had known beforehand that the Patrol Guard Division was looking for that "military advisor" who had ties to the horse bandits.

He had not expected that they would find definitive information so quickly.

"What is the true identity of that 'military advisor'?" he asked.

"The second son of the former Minister of Revenue Xue Wu, Xue Yanzhi." Wen Gu observed Commander Mu's expression.

"It's actually him?!" Commander Mu was surprised.

Although the Mu Family had long been kicked out of the Huangcheng, they still had relatives and friends there; he would run social errands in the Huangcheng during holidays and festivals. He had also been to the Xue Mansion.

"I have actually met the second young master of the Xue family! But he was still small back then, a mischievous young lad," Commander Mu said.

Years had passed, the boy had grown into a young man, and he must have changed his appearance. Commander Mu tried hard to recall the looks of Minister Xue and the eldest son of the Xue family, to make it easier to compare and identify the adult Xue Er.

Wen Gu took out another Grain Ticket customized by the Earl's Mansion and spoke of the clues regarding the Grain Ticket.

Handing all the Grain Tickets to Commander Mu, Wen Gu said, "I must trouble Commander Mu to keep an eye out and pay attention to who is using these kinds of Grain Tickets."

Commander Mu carefully took the Grain Ticket, fearing he might damage it.

Once in his hand, he could tell the difference in the border at a glance.

The Grain Tickets the Mu Family usually used were standard versions, the same as what most people used. But this one in his hand...

"A scrolling grass pattern? Understood, I will pay close attention!" he said.

This was the reason Wen Gu came to find Commander Mu.

Many Clerks in Jingxing Fang, including most of the people in the Patrol Guard Division, might not be able to identify which pattern it was at a glance, and it was easy to get them confused. If one's memory was not strong enough, it was truly hard to remember.

The Mu Family was different; marginalized noble families were still nobles. To maintain noble dignity, they had been exposed to such things since childhood and had a stronger ability to distinguish such patterns.

More importantly, they also possessed a full sense of ambition!

Commander Mu's mindset was indeed very full.

His thoughts had already jumped to how to go find the person!

His family and the Xue family could barely be considered old acquaintances. But, times change.

Now that the second young master of the Xue family was involved with horse bandits, he had to be arrested if he needed to be!

Since the Earl of Yangchuan himself was willing to disclose the information, he did not need to have too much of a psychological burden on his end.

At most... he would go a bit easier when making the move.

Commander Mu became invigorated.

Several of his own youngsters often ran to Jingxing Fang; if they caught him before the people of Jingxing Fang did, the credit would be their own!

When Commander Mu went off duty, he tucked the Grain Ticket away like a treasure and returned home, calling his family members to a meeting!

Ever since the family members and clansmen arrived in Xinzhou, social activities between families had also begun.

The younger generation liked to go to Wanfu Garden in Jingxing Fang to spend money.

A portion of Wanfu Garden had already been renovated and opened to the public.

The wealthy households finally had a place to have fun!

Large expenditures here were all made using Xinzhou Money Vouchers, but a little bit of small change was also needed for tips or to send people on errands, and Grain Tickets were a very good substitute. Commander Mu took out the Grain Ticket and let his family look at it carefully.

Whether they were managing the household or going out to handle business, they all had to keep an extra eye out.

If they happened to discover it, that would be credit delivered right to their hands!

They had to bite off this piece of meat!

This day.

The Mu Family invited their ally, the Wei Family, to be guests at their home.

The relationship between the two families had been average before, but that did not hinder them from huddling together for an alliance now to resist risks.

The ancestors of the Wei Family were also military officers, but later, people with a talent for study appeared among the Wei descendants, entering officialdom through the imperial examinations. Accumulating generation after generation, they had become a family of officials, imbued with a heavy scholarly air.

If this were during a time when the world was not in chaos, the future of the Wei Family would certainly be brighter than that of the Mu Family. At that time, the imperial court revered the literary and suppressed the martial.

But it was hard to say now; too many talented scholars and too many noble families had gathered in Xinzhou City, and the competition was fierce.

Although the competition was also great in terms of military officers, the Mu Family was just too good at fighting! The head of the family had come to Xinzhou for a year and had already fought his way to the position of Commander!

And the Mu Family was very clear about their own shortcomings and wanted to rub off a bit more scholarly air; the purpose of the two families strengthening their connection was very clear.

It was a cloudy day, the sunlight was not too scorching, and quite a few people were out.

The Wei Family brought all the surviving children of the family over; their purpose was very clear.

The Mu Family also held a tacit attitude.

Commander Mu's eldest son, Mu Jun, under the hints of the elders in the family, took a young girl of the same age from the Wei Family to stroll around Jingxing Fang.

His cousin Mu Feng followed as well, but lagged a step behind, not disturbing the two in front.

Mu Feng smelled the fragrance of food in the air and let the accompanying maids and servants continue to follow, while he went to see what new snacks had come out in Wanfu Garden to buy some.

Wanfu Garden had added a shop selling snacks. Ordinary people could not afford them now; they could not even eat their fill, so how could they bear to eat snacks?

This kind of shop was mainly aimed at the children of wealthy families who came here; they could afford the consumption.

Mu Jun ran to Wanfu Garden often and knew it better; he was telling the young girl from the Wei Family about the past and present of Wanfu Garden.

At this moment, his peripheral vision caught a person coming from ahead, and that person quickly stuffed something into their sleeve.

That person's complexion was not right, and their footsteps were hurried.

Mu Jun intuitively felt something was off, and by reflex, he quickly stretched out his foot to trip the other party as they passed by.

"Ouch! Sorry, sorry, brother!"

Mu Jun put on a look of having accidentally tripped the person, his face full of apologies, and hurriedly helped the person up.

He also observed this person.

They did not look old, and the dullness on their face should have been deliberately smeared with mud.

Their hands had the roughness of someone who had done manual labor, but it was not rough enough.

The other party seemed to have something on their mind; they didn't say anything and left quickly.

Mu Jun stood where he was.

He didn't know when he had ended up holding a Grain Ticket in his hand.

He looked closely at the patterns on the border, his breathing somewhat rapid.

The young lady of the Wei Family asked, "What's wrong?"

Mu Jun came to his senses: "...... Ahem, the person from just now dropped this."

He raised his eyes to look at the figure that had left, then looked around, and raised his hand to call out: "Brother Zhou!"

Zhou Shan, who was responsible for the security within the Fang, was patrolling and was called over by Mu Jun.

Mu Jun entrusted the other party to take the young lady of the Wei Family and the maids and servants to the Jingqing Public Office; the flow of people here was complicated, and it would be safer staying at the Public Office. After finishing with Zhou Shan, Mu Jun took out another handful of Grain Tickets and stuffed them into the hand of the young lady of the Wei Family: "If you want to buy something, buy it yourself!"

Seeing that the person ahead was about to disappear from sight, Mu Jun couldn't care about anything else and hurriedly chased after them.

"Hey... this..."

The young lady of the Wei Family did not understand the situation and could only stamp her feet on the spot.

Zhou Shan asked: "What happened here just now?"

The young lady of the Wei Family said: "Mu Jun accidentally tripped someone, and the other party had Grain Tickets fall to the ground. After the person left, Mu Jun said he wanted to return them." Zhou Shan's expression changed abruptly.

"What Grain Tickets?!"

These words were not shouted by Zhou Shan, but by Mu Feng, who had returned after buying snacks; he said angrily:

"Damn it! Is that how you act as a brother!"

He stuffed the snacks he was holding directly to the servant beside him and ran off in a flash.

The Mu Family servant, holding a pile of snacks, was unable to chase after them for the moment.

The young lady of the Wei Family saw that something was wrong, but still did not understand why. She couldn't lose her temper at Zhou Shan beside her, and she was worried about the situation with the Mu brothers, so she told the Mu Family servant to hurry back to the Mu residence to report it.

The Mu Family.

The pavilion in the garden.

The younger sister of Commander Mu, Mu Zhao, the aunt of Mu Jun and Mu Feng, was also sitting in the pavilion at this time, sipping tea and chatting with a young gentleman from the Wei Family. She was not on duty today, so she was not wearing the standard uniform of a patrol guard.

With hairpins and ornaments, she was chaste, quiet, and virtuous.

The young gentleman of the Wei Family sitting opposite her was elegant in his manners and overflowing with talent.

Just as they were talking, the servant who had followed the Mu brothers out ran back and quickly reported the sudden situation in Jingxing Fang.

The young gentleman of the Wei Family was very angry upon hearing this; although the security in Jingxing Fang was decent now, and he had heard the Clerk was very responsible, in these chaotic times, people's hearts were unpredictable, and one couldn't just leave his sister there!

He was just about to express his dissatisfaction tactfully.

Bang!

A palm slapped onto the tabletop opposite.

The tabletop shook, and the lid of the teapot clattered with a 'clack' sound.

The young gentleman of the Wei Family trembled all over, almost jumping up from his seat. He forgot whatever he had just wanted to say.

The Wei Family servant beside him also shook his shoulders in shock.

He suspected that if the young lady of the Mu Family had used any more force, the entire tabletop would have split open.

Mu Zhao said angrily: "Too much!"

The young gentleman of the Wei Family: "Uh... this..."

They had been a little angry just now, but seeing that this aunt was even angrier than they were, he instead advised:

"Perhaps there really is an urgent matter; I will immediately send someone to go and see..."

Aunt Mu forced a polite smile: "Truly rude of me!"

As she spoke, she stood up: "Those two are really too much; I'm going to go catch them and bring them back to apologize right now!"

Mu Zhao stood up and walked quickly out of the pavilion, walking faster and faster.

As she walked, she quickly took off the hairpins and ornaments she was wearing and threw them to the maid beside her.

To save time, she didn't go to change her clothes, only cinched her dress.

She touched her waist.

Today, for the sake of entertaining guests, she did not carry her saber with her.

But that didn't matter.

When she went out from here, she passed the weapon rack of the small martial arts practice field. At this time, there was only a broadsword and a long staff on it.

Mu Zhao took the broadsword off the weapon rack with one hand. The blade flashed with cold light.

The young gentleman of the Wei Family chased after her from behind with his servant; they had almost caught up, but seeing this situation, the master and servant slammed on the brakes.

They looked at that long-handled big blade, then looked at the figure leaving rapidly ahead.

Seeing the other party walking further and further away, the young gentleman of the Wei Family was still mostly worried and continued to chase forward.

You say you're going to catch your nephews, why are you taking a big blade?!

Unfortunately, Mu Zhao increased her speed even more while holding the big blade.

The Wei Family master and servant still didn't catch up; by the time they ran to the gate of the Mu residence, they couldn't even see a shadow ahead.

The two of them were panting at the gate.

It left them not knowing what to do for a moment.

After catching their breath, it just so happened that the head of the family returned.

The young gentleman of the Wei Family looked as if he had seen a savior and shouted: "Uncle!"

Because there were guests in the house today, Commander Mu had swapped his shift time with a colleague.

Just as he returned home, he saw this scene and asked: "What is going on?"

The young master of the Wei Family said urgently, "Uncle, hurry! Hurry and go stop them!"

He briefly explained what had just happened.

Commander Mu's expression changed abruptly: "How preposterous!"

He had just dismounted, but he flipped back onto the horse's back and quickly signaled a few trusted subordinates to follow.

He said to the young master of the Wei Family, "You all go inside and have some tea first; I'll go drag them back right now!"

After speaking, he rode off on his horse, carrying his broadsword, singing "hai-hai" as he went.

While running, he even practiced a few moves, seemingly to get a feel for the weapon. The blade flashed, looking exceptionally formidable.

The young master of the Wei Family stood rooted to the spot, left in a daze by the wind.

"It shouldn't be this serious! It really shouldn't!"

He just felt like something was not quite right.

Uncle, you are going to find your son, nephew, and younger sister, but this posture of yours looks like you are going to surround and capture criminals!

However, at this moment, these few from the Mu Family could see nothing else in their eyes but the desire to perform a meritorious deed!

The Mu Family gatekeeper was unfazed and even advised the young master of the Wei Family, "No need to worry, go back inside."

The young master of the Wei Family twitched the corner of his mouth and said, "The Mu Family's house style is truly unrestrained!"