Free Web NovelChapter 26: Chapter 26: Mu Tangfeng’s Dark History
Shi Lan had always kept her work and personal life separate.
She had gotten to know He Hanshi and the others because of her position as Prison Director, but that was just work. It didn’t mean someone at her level could normally interact with people like them.
So, after more than three months on the job, she’d never thought about having any contact with them outside of work; they weren’t even on each other’s friend lists.
But now, suddenly receiving friend requests from five people at once, her first reaction was that something had happened at the prison.
Shi Lan immediately accepted the requests and couldn’t resist sending a message to check on Chen Xiong: "How’s it going? How was your second day of work?"
At that moment, Chen Xiong had no time to reply, because he was in the kitchen, completely frazzled.
Young Master Mu said he wanted a cold drink but with no visible ice cubes, and Young Master Jiang said he wanted flower tea brewed from fresh blossoms, but the temperature had to be exactly 45°C.
So, he was busy in the kitchen "playing" with heating and cooling.
But thankfully, they had said that as long as he sent them Shi Lan’s contact info, they would let him rest in the afternoon.
Chen Xiong, who had developed dark circles under his eyes in just one day, couldn’t wait to pass on this hot potato.
’It would take a woman like Shi Lan to handle them.’ And since she was the Prison Director anyway, Chen Xiong felt no guilt in sharing her contact.
Shi Lan hadn’t received a reply from Chen Xiong yet, but she did see a message from He Hanshi. The others had all sent messages as well.
They all asked the same thing: "Where are you?"
Shi Lan replied to He Hanshi first: "I’m on Capital Star right now. My school is issuing graduation certificates tomorrow, so I had to take leave to come here."
He Hanshi quickly replied: "Okay. Stay safe."
"Okay. Are you guys all right? Nothing’s happened on Black Star, has it?"
Shi Lan couldn’t help but think about how they had all added her at once, so she asked out of concern. Seeing He Hanshi’s reply that everything was fine, she breathed a sigh of relief.
Then, looking at the identical messages from the others, she simply copied and pasted her reply to all of them.
However, she asked Mu Tangfeng a couple of extra questions.
"Lord Mu, how is Chen Xiong? You haven’t been bullying him, have you?"
Far away in the Black Ming Star Prison, Mu Tangfeng’s face didn’t redden in the slightest: "Of course not. Am I that kind of person? I already apologized to him the day before yesterday." freewebnøvel.coɱ
Shi Lan was a little skeptical, but she knew she wouldn’t get anything more out of him, so she dropped it.
Jiang Yan saw her put down her chopsticks and start replying to messages on her chip, and asked curiously, "Are you seeing someone?"
Shi Lan turned off her chip and shook her head. "No, it’s just some work stuff."
"Besides, think about my current situation. Males flee within a hundred meters of me."
Hearing that she wasn’t angry and was even making fun of herself, Jiang Yan couldn’t help but laugh. "Lanlan, I never knew you had such a sense of humor~"
"What’s important in life is to be happy."
She winked at her cheerfully. Beneath her long, thick lashes, her dark pupils were crystal clear and exceptionally captivating. With a healthy, faint blush on her small, porcelain-white face, she looked like a delicate and beautiful doll.
It made Jiang Yan’s mind go blank for a moment before she shook her head firmly. "Impossible. My Lanlan is so pretty and cute. If those males don’t appreciate you, it’s their loss."
’If I were a male, I’d want to marry Shi Lan, too.’
Being praised by the great beauty, Shi Lan’s smile grew even wider.
After dinner, Jiang Yan made a point to hand Shi Lan a wedding invitation. "I was originally planning to have the wedding later, but then I thought that since all our classmates would be back for the graduation ceremony, I might as well have it around this time. After all, we’ve all graduated, and some people might have jobs far away, making it inconvenient to travel back and forth."
Jiang Yan really had thought of everything. Take Shi Lan, for example—traveling from Black Star to Capital Star was indeed very time-consuming.
Seeing her take the invitation, Jiang Yan asked, "By the way, where are you working now?"
"For the past four months, my mother forced me into closed-door training at a military medical work station, so I haven’t been able to message you. I was only let out because I have to get my graduation certificate."
Shi Lan hadn’t realized how tough it had been for her and sighed sympathetically. "I’m doing okay. I’m the Prison Director on Black Star now. It’s not bad there."
"Black Star? And you’re the Prison Director?"
Jiang Yan was dumbfounded. "Lanlan, you haven’t been treated poorly, have you?"
Jiang Yan’s family had some connections. An outsider might only know about Vice Admiral He and the Eldest Prince being on Black Star, but they wouldn’t know that several other thorny troublemakers were there as well.
A relative of hers had held the position for two months. Apparently, he didn’t get paid a single cent, came back having lost a ton of weight, and would cry in his sleep, muttering that he’d never go back. It was clear he’d suffered a lot there.
Thinking of this, she couldn’t help but turn Shi Lan around, looking her over from front to back several times. Still worried, she even checked her arms for any injuries.
Shi Lan hadn’t expected such a strong reaction from her. "What’s wrong? I’m fine."
"How about I find you a different job?"
Jiang Yan breathed a sigh of relief when she didn’t see any injuries on Shi Lan, but thinking of Mu Tangfeng’s dark past, she still felt uneasy.
In truth, she hadn’t told her this, but she had joined the closed-door training for Shi Lan’s sake. She had been worried that Shi Lan would have trouble finding a job, so she had specifically asked her mother to arrange one for her, and that was the condition her mother had set.
So, as long as Shi Lan wanted to switch, she could arrange a job for her in the Capital at any time.
However, Shi Lan refused. She said sincerely, "Jiang Yan, thank you, but I’m really doing well on Black Star. No one’s bullying me, and the pay is good, too."
Jiang Yan looked searchingly into her eyes, and only when she confirmed there wasn’t the slightest hint of reluctance did she relax.
She said, "It’s not that I’m overreacting. You should know that Young Master Mu is in there, too. He just has such a long, dark past that I was worried you’d be bullied by him."
"A dark past?"
In the original owner’s memories, Shi Lan couldn’t find any record of her interacting with Mu Tangfeng. And in the book, besides the occasional mention of He Hanshi and the Eldest Prince, the others weren’t even named.
So, she really didn’t know what kind of dark past Mu Tangfeng had, or why Jiang Yan was acting as if she were facing a formidable enemy.
Jiang Yan explained, "Mu Tangfeng is the young master of the Mu Family, one of the Capital’s Four Great Families. He’s the only son, so he was spoiled rotten and became completely lawless. His family background and spiritual power are both very strong. Back in the Capital, he didn’t care if you were male or female—if you crossed him, you’d get a beating."
"Of course, he usually doesn’t hit females, but his words are venomous. I heard a few females pursued him once, and he verbally abused them until they became withdrawn. One of them even became suicidal."
Shi Lan had gotten a small taste of Mu Tangfeng’s sharp tongue, but she sometimes found him amusing. When he couldn’t win an argument against her, he would just sulk by himself. She never expected him to be so formidable in Jiang Yan’s telling.
She was a little curious. "What did he say to them?"
Jiang Yan had heard a few of the insults, but she was too embarrassed to repeat them, afraid of tainting her friend’s innocent ears.
But looking at Shi Lan’s big, dewy almond eyes, she couldn’t bear to keep her in suspense.
"Things like... ’disgusting pig,’ ’I wouldn’t even glance at an ugly thing like you if you were lying naked in my bed,’ and ’a toad with two eyes still fantasizing about eating swan meat’..."
With every insult Jiang Yan listed, Shi Lan’s shock deepened. It took her a moment to realize: ’So when he was cursing out Chen Xiong the other day, he was actually holding back?’
"Oh, right. And it’s not just him. You need to be careful of Jiang Xia and Yan Huoshui, too."
Not wanting her good friend to be sold and still be counting the money for her captors, Jiang Yan continued to spill the tea.
