Chapter 195: Mixing Blood as Proof

Chapter 195: Blood Fusion as Proof

"What's wrong? Did I scare you?"

After being pushed away, the man was dejected for a moment, then tremblingly touched his own face and muttered to himself, "That's right, I must look terrifying now. I don't look like a ghastly dried corpse, do I?"

As he spoke, he suddenly broke into violent coughing again. "Cough, cough... Qin Jiao, don't be afraid. I won't... cough! I won't hurt you..."

Hearing this, Qin Jiao's brows furrowed even deeper.

Wu Tuyin, however, was clearly even more impatient than Qin Jiao. "Enough. You've seen him now. Remember to stop courting death from now on!"

Wu Tuyin's words were clearly cold, but Qin Jiao still caught a hint of concern in them.

"What are you looking at?" Wu Tuyin glared fiercely at Qin Jiao. "Keep staring and I'll gouge your eyes out."

Qin Jiao wasn't the least bit scared of Wu Tuyin's threat. In the dim tent, the young master dropped his gaze and spoke for the first time since arriving in Mengqin:

"You wouldn't do that, big brother."

The moment Qin Jiao finished speaking, the tent went so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

"Big brother?"

Wu Tuyin let out a cold, disbelieving laugh. "You've got the nerve to call me big brother?"

"Why wouldn't I dare? Earlier at Xiaoxiang Medical Hall, didn't you say I addressed you incorrectly?" Qin Jiao raised his chin, his beautiful eyes full of defiance. "This time, did I get it right?"

Wu Tuyin looked down at Qin Jiao, his expression unreadable. After a long moment, Wu Tuyin suddenly grabbed Qin Jiao and dragged him outside. "Come out with me!"

Qin Jiao didn't resist, allowing Wu Tuyin to drag him away.

"No, don't... cough, cough... don't argue..."

The man on the bed naturally heard the confrontation between Qin Jiao and Wu Tuyin. He struggled to sit up to stop them, but the moment he spoke, he spat out a mouthful of blood...

Wu Tuyin seemed already accustomed to this. Once outside the tent, he began giving orders: "Go fetch the High Priest. The old man is having another episode."

"Yes!"

The attendants outside didn't dare delay, acknowledging the order before quickly running off.

Qin Jiao was dragged along by Wu Tuyin. At this moment, the sun was setting, moonlight spilling across the land. The night wind lifted Wu Tuyin's long hair, and Qin Jiao caught a glimpse of a sun-shaped birthmark behind Wu Tuyin's ear too.

The two walked for a while, until finally Wu Tuyin brought Qin Jiao to the giant tree hung with skulls and crow feathers.

"Your background—when did you find out?" Wu Tuyin's gaze was sharp as a blade, his menacing aura making your skin crawl.

The prayer flags snapped in the wind, the moon hanging high in the night sky. Qin Jiao leaned against the tree, tired, moonlight casting a soft silver glow over his handsome face.

"It wasn't that hard to figure out." Qin Jiao's gaze was calm. "I first started suspecting it back in Xiaoxiang County, and then just now, I confirmed that you and I are half-brothers."

Qin Jiao gazed at the vast, boundless night sky in the distance, his mind drifting back to his time in Xiaoxiang County...

It was the third day after Xie Ji'an's suicide. Qin Jiao was accompanying Xie Nai to inspect the construction of the Xiaoxiang County Memorial Tomb. Wouldn't you know it, on their way back to the city after inspecting the tomb, they happened to run into Shen Fuqing and Si Lu in the middle of a conversation.

Qin Jiao had always been curious about those two, so he stopped to watch a little longer. But what he saw nearly floored him—Si Lu threw himself into Shen Fuqing's arms, and Shen Fuqing gently wrapped his arms around him in return.

No exaggeration—Qin Jiao felt like he'd been struck by lightning.

Qin Jiao had a rough idea of what was going on between Si Lu and Wu Tuyin. And now, beneath the rain-soaked flowering tree, Si Lu was leaning against Shen Fuqing with complete trust, while the usually stern-faced Shen Fuqing not only looked at him with soft eyes but even reached out to ruffle Si Lu's hair.

"Lord Shen and Si Lu... they're already, already embracing? What exactly is their relationship?"

When people get awkward, they pretend to be busy. So Qin Jiao first paced back and forth, then glanced at Xie Nai like he wanted to say something but held back. Luckily, his awkwardness didn't last long, because Shen Fuqing had already noticed them.

"Come, let's go over there."

Shen Fuqing released Si Lu, whose eyes were red, and gently led him toward Qin Jiao and Xie Nai.

By the time the four of them "came face to face," Qin Jiao had already pulled himself together. The only problem was his smile was a little stiff.

As the head of the Court of Judicial Review, Shen Fuqing excelled at reading people and discerning hearts. The moment he saw Qin Jiao's expression, he knew Qin Jiao had gotten the wrong idea.

"Let me introduce you—Si Lu is my biological younger brother." Shen Fuqing explained. "We got separated when we were kids, and each of us was adopted by a different family. I have to thank Little Master Qin for helping us brothers find each other again."

"Ah?" Qin Jiao felt like he'd been hit by lightning again. "You two are brothers?"

He looked carefully at Shen Fuqing and Si Lu's faces. "But you two don't look anything alike."

Not just different—Shen Fuqing and Si Lu looked almost nothing alike.

Shen Fuqing had that classic cold look—long brows sweeping into his temples, eyes deep as a frozen pond. Meanwhile, Si Lu's grey-blue eyes made it obvious at first glance that he had foreign blood.

"Young Master Qin may not know this, but our father was from Mengqin and our mother was from the Central Plains. So my big brother and I each took after one parent—one looks like our dad, the other like our mom." Si Lu explained from the side.

"I see..." Qin Jiao nodded thoughtfully. "Brothers separated for years, finally back together. Congrats to you both."

What a twist of fate, Qin Jiao couldn't help thinking. It all seemed like fate had planned it. Who would have thought that Shen Fuqing and Si Lu would turn out to be biological brothers?

When Shen Fuqing first showed so much interest in Si Lu, Qin Jiao thought he had a crush on him.

Xie Nai's gaze also landed on Shen Fuqing and Si Lu. After a moment, he asked, "You two were separated for many years—how did you two recognize each other after all this time?"

Xie Nai remembered that Shen Fuqing had once told him long ago that he was only four or five when he was adopted. Now, over twenty years had passed, and his reunion with Si Lu seemed almost too easy.

"Because of this." Si Lu turned his head to show them the birthmark behind his ear. "Every descendant of the Mengqin tribe has this mark behind their ears. We call it the 'Blood Seal'—'seal' meaning mark. In Mengqin, this is how we recognize blood ties between family and brothers."

"How does it work?" Xie Nai's eyes lowered slightly, his expression grave.

"Blood fusion as proof." Si Lu explained. "In Mengqin, to verify whether two people share a blood relation, each person offers a drop of blood. If the two drops merge and turn dark brown, it indicates they are blood relatives. Like this..."

Si Lu held out his hand, showing Xie Nai and Qin Jiao the dark brown bloodstains still remaining on his fingertips.

"What a fascinating custom." Qin Jiao said, turning to look at Shen Fuqing. So when he'd mentioned earlier that he had an annoying birthmark behind his ear, he meant the Mengqin blood seal.

Qin Jiao looked at Shen Fuqing curiously, and Shen Fuqing looked back at him. Their eyes met, and then Shen Fuqing suddenly gave Qin Jiao a strange smile. "You."

Qin Jiao: "Hmm?"

Me? What about me?

What now, is Lord Shen about to lose his mind again?

After smiling strangely at Qin Jiao, Shen Fuqing turned his gaze to the serious-faced Xie Nai. Clearly, Xie Nai and Shen Fuqing shared a much higher level of mutual understanding—almost at the first glance, Xie Nai understood what Shen Fuqing was getting at.

"Qin Jiao."

Xie Nai let out a soft sigh, then turned Qin Jiao by the shoulders. The handsome man's face was filled with gravity. "You also have the crimson birthmark of the Mengqin tribe behind your ear."

Xie Nai had never told Qin Jiao about the birthmark behind his own ear before, but now seemed like the perfect time to mention it.

"Me?" Qin Jiao was taken aback by Xie Nai's words. "That can't be right. I've never had a birthmark behind my ear my whole life."

This time it was Shen Fuqing's turn to clear things up for Qin Jiao: "The birthmark behind my ear didn't appear at birth either. I've heard that some people's birthmarks only show up in adulthood—it's caused by mixed blood."

Xie Nai took Qin Jiao's hand and guided it to the birthmark behind his ear. Qin Jiao was confused and shocked. "So my biological father must also be Mengqin?"

When Qin Jiao finished speaking, Si Lu gave him a slightly surprised look.

"That's obvious." Shen Fuqing spread his hands, his expression calmly saying, "What else would it be?"

"I... how could I be one of the Mengqin people..."

Qin Jiao muttered to himself, struggling to process this news. When he returned to his quarters that night, he kept checking the mirror, staring at the birthmark that had suddenly appeared behind his ear.

He even went to Xiao Baiyu to make sure the birthmark wasn't some weird poison, but Xiao Baiyu firmly told him it was just a normal birthmark.

"Sixth Brother, who do you think my biological father could be? I..."

In the stillness of the night, Qin Jiao leaned against Xie Nai, tangling their hair together. "My feelings right now are just like this lock of hair—all tangled up."

"Xiao Jiu." Xie Nai wrapped his arms around him, gently soothing the restless cat. "You already have an answer in your heart, don't you?"

Qin Jiao's hand, which had been tangling their hair, stopped.

Xie Nai was right.

Yes, once the initial shock wore off, Qin Jiao already had a vague answer in his heart.

Recently, the only person who had appeared out of nowhere, paid him close attention, and acted strangely was Wu Tuyin.

And his situation with Wu Tuyin was almost identical to Si Lu's with Shen Fuqing.

It was precisely because he had a vague guess about his relationship with Wu Tuyin that when he later learned on the lake island that Wu Tuyin might be "using people as medicine," his feelings became just as conflicted as Si Lu's.

The moonlight spilled down like silver frost, and the wind kept whistling past Qin Jiao's ears... At that moment, Wu Tuyin's cold laugh sounded along with the wind: "Qin Jiao, you're really clever."

"Thank you."

Pulled back to "reality," Qin Jiao couldn't help but snap back at Wu Tuyin: "I appreciate the compliment."

Everything Wu Tuyin had said to Qin Jiao on the lake island, Qin Jiao now threw back at him word for word.

"Don't get cute with me." The vast grassland under the night sky was full of secrets. Wu Tuyin glanced at Qin Jiao with an indifferent expression. "I'm not that old man, nor am I Xie Nai. I won't indulge you."

"Then what exactly do you want?" Qin Jiao's tone grew irritated.

He had hit his head when Wu Fei threw him onto the boat earlier. In fact, his head had been hurting ever since he woke up, but he had been enduring it silently all along.

Now that he was certain he wasn't in immediate danger, the pain surged up fiercely, almost beyond what Qin Jiao could bear.

"Simple." Wu Tuyin looked down at Qin Jiao from above. "I ask, you answer."

"Fine, ask away!" Qin Jiao agreed readily.

You can ask whatever you want—whether I answer is up to me.

Qin Jiao thought to himself silently...

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