"Well, well, so that’s what you’ve been thinking all along!" Mrs. Lin looked at Xiao Han with a strange, mocking expression.

Then she turned to Mu Dashan and Yu Si Niang and said, "Old Third, Si Niang, you heard that, didn’t you? This is the good son you’ve raised. We elders having a meal, what’s wrong with that?

And he dares talk to us like this. He’s simply lawless. Makes you wonder if all that stuff he learned in the school has just gone straight into a dog’s stomach!"

Even at this point, Mrs. Lin was still arrogant.

She was certain that Mu Dashan and Yu Si Niang wouldn’t make things hard for her over just a few mouthfuls of food.

At first, Mu Dashan really hadn’t thought of falling out with Mu Danian over a few bites of food.

After all, he knew the situation of the Old Mu Family.

Now that his elder brother was back, everyone’s days weren’t any better than before; they were actually just like when he was sitting for the imperial exam.

All the good food and drink went to Mu Dade, Mr. Mu, and Old Mrs. Mu.

Mu Danian and the other branches not only couldn’t get any good food, even whether they could go to the county was still unknown!

But a person’s patience has its limits after all!

Especially when Mrs. Lin spoke of his son Xiao Han like that.

"Get out! Get out!" Mu Dashan stepped forward, shielding Xiao Han behind him, and shouted at Mrs. Lin and Mu Danian.

"Third Brother, what are you doing? Isn’t it just a mouthful of food? Is it worth telling us to get out?" Mu Danian asked.

"Don’t say a mouthful of food, even if it’s just a single blade of grass—if it belongs to our third branch, we won’t give it to you two bastards!" Mu Dashan’s voice suddenly rose sharply.

Mrs. Lin and Mu Danian refused to leave no matter what.

For a moment, everyone was stuck in a standoff in the kitchen.

Xiao Han swept a glance at the kitchen counter where a cleaver was lying. Without thinking, he picked it up and swung it toward Mrs. Lin and Mu Danian.

People always say, don’t bully an honest person, because when an honest person blows up, no one can bear it!

Xiao Han was exactly that so‑called honest person. Normally, no matter how much hardship he suffered, it was hard for him to truly resent anyone.

And with his fundamentally kind nature, most of the time he would think the best of others.

But the people before him had crossed his bottom line again and again.

The cleaver in Xiao Han’s hand sliced past right in front of Mrs. Lin’s eyes. It didn’t chop anyone, but it scared Mrs. Lin half to death.

Mrs. Lin let out a scream: "Murder! Help...!"

Mu Danian reacted the fastest; the moment she screamed, he had already started bolting out.

By the time Mrs. Lin fell to the ground in fright, he had already run out of the courtyard.

Yuanbao refused to be outdone. He grabbed the firewood stacked beside the stove and swung it down at Mrs. Lin.

Little Zhi, meanwhile, was clutching a small stool. The three kids used their actions to prove just how much they hated Mu Danian and Mrs. Lin.

Mrs. Lin rolled and crawled her way out of the third branch’s kitchen.

Her backside was struck by Little Zhi’s stool; she thought it was Xiao Han’s cleaver. After a blood‑curdling scream, her lower body went slack, and a yellowish liquid with a distinctive stench flowed out from the hem of her trouser leg.

Looked like she’d been scared into wetting herself.

Xiao Han coldly watched the wretched figure on the ground. Under the stunned gaze of Mu Dashan and Yu Si Niang, he put the cleaver back in the distance.

"Father, Mother, Little Zhi, Yuanbao, let’s eat!" At this moment, Xiao Han was like the pillar holding up the third branch.

After doing all that, he calmly called everyone to eat.

Mu Dashan and Yu Si Niang exchanged a glance and in the end decided not to say anything.

If the children were happy, they’d just let them be!

...

Mu Shuangshuang finished stir‑frying the dishes, and Xing Beichen was basically certain now that this old man knew his father.

And it wasn’t as simple as just being his father’s former subordinate.

The way the old man looked at Lu Yuanfeng and Xing Beichen was mostly one of appraisal.

Only when Mu Shuangshuang brought the freshly stir‑fried dishes back to the table.

An eggplant casserole, a plate of greens with tofu, a honey‑glazed roast chicken, a braised fish, and a tomato egg soup—five dishes in total, and Mu Shuangshuang had taken less than half an hour.

The speed was nothing if not fast.

The old man stared at the dishes on the table, drooling.

"Just by the smell, you can tell this is going to be tasty!"

With that, the old man simply picked up the chopsticks and started eating as if no one else was there.

Xing Beichen and Lu Yuanfeng didn’t dare move their chopsticks at all.

"What are you two standing there for? Eat. What, you planning to let this old fellow get a huge bargain and eat it all by myself?" After a few bites and two gulps of wine, the old man finally urged the other three.

Mu Shuangshuang wasn’t polite with this old man.

"Old sir, you still haven’t told us your family name and given name!"

After she sat down, the first thing Mu Shuangshuang asked was the man’s name. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

"Cheng Dagang. How about my name—got that domineering ring to it, doesn’t it?" the old man said smugly.

Mu Shuangshuang curled her lips and nodded.

You could say she was going against her conscience with that.

Hearing the name, Xing Beichen’s eyes lit up.

"Senior, it’s you, it’s really you..." Xing Beichen shouted excitedly.

Cheng Dagang had once been a military general of the Da Ning Dynasty, older than Xing Ningtian.

When he became famous, no one in the Da Ning Dynasty had even heard of Xing Ningtian yet!

It was just that he had a strange temperament. After winning a few battles, he abruptly abandoned the brothers in the camp and ran off.

No one knew why, but anyone who had served in the army would certainly have heard his name.

Lu Yuanfeng also knew of him.

But he was nowhere near as worked up as Xing Beichen.

Cheng Dagang shot Xing Beichen a disdainful look. "Boy, how come you don’t have a shred of your old man’s presence?

Always making a fuss over every little thing. This kid’s temperament is much better than yours!"

Cheng Dagang’s words were blunt, and Xing Beichen’s face flushed red.

He immediately looked at Cheng Dagang with some embarrassment.

"My apologies, Senior! Right, Senior, this is Lu Yuanfeng, the Vanguard that Northwest General Wen Nantian values highly. He returned from the Northwest a year ago."

Xing Beichen took the initiative to introduce Lu Yuanfeng.

Cheng Dagang swept his gaze over Lu Yuanfeng.

"So you’ve already been to the army. No wonder your stamina’s that good! All right, enough chatter from you lot—you’re giving me a headache. Once I’ve eaten and drunk my fill, I’ll take you to see some of the old Xing Family Army men.

If you can persuade them, then do it. If you can’t, once the stuff in the city is more or less done, hurry up and leave Yulin County. You don’t look like you’re from around here anyway!"

When Cheng Dagang finished speaking, Lu Yuanfeng and Xing Beichen both nodded respectfully.

Three grown men plus one woman, Mu Shuangshuang, eating and drinking together—very soon, the entire table of dishes was wiped clean.

Mu Shuangshuang basically didn’t eat; she was too busy pouring wine and serving dishes for the three of them!

Once they were full and the Governor Mansion servants came to clear the table, Mu Shuangshuang, seeing this wasn’t her home, didn’t go over to help.

After a short rest, Cheng Dagang, keeping his promise, led everyone to find Xing Ningtian’s old subordinates!