Steward Wang asked in confusion, “Young Master, is something wrong?”
Hearing himself addressed as “Young Master,” Mu Xueshi instantly felt his status rise several levels. Even his voice became more authoritative.
“Nothing!” Mu Xueshi declared loudly. “I just think it smells good. Can you give me a bottle?”
Steward Wang immediately smiled kindly. “This floral dew is brewed from fresh nectar gathered in the manor garden. There is plenty more in the storeroom. If Young Master likes it, I can bring several bottles.”
“No, no, no…” Mu Xueshi waved his hands. “One bottle is enough. I don’t need that many. Hehe…”
With that, Mu Xueshi left the main hall and wandered around the courtyard. He had become more cautious now. Grand Tutor Mu was dead and most evidence had disappeared, but if someone had truly committed murder, it was impossible for every object connected to the crime to have been destroyed without leaving a trace. So aside from the tables and chairs, he intended to take back and examine everything still being used in the main hall. Sometimes the most ordinary, easily overlooked objects were the most dangerous.
As Mu Xueshi turned the bottle over in his hands, a voice suddenly came from nearby. He looked up and saw Madam Mu. Since the brief glimpse of her the day before, she seemed to have stayed mostly inside her room, and Mu Xueshi had rarely seen her.
Mu Xueshi instinctively felt that the original owner of this body had not been very close to his mother. He had been back for two days, yet she had shown little special concern. The one time they met, she had cried briefly, then stopped so quickly it was almost startling.
Whatever he thought privately, Mu Xueshi still spoke obediently. “Xueshi greets Mother.”
Madam Mu’s heart jolted, and a complicated look immediately entered her eyes. Mu Xueshi had never called her Mother before. Since returning, he had somehow become far livelier than he used to be. She had also heard that he was now practically the second master of the Third Prince’s courtyard, and assumed that having the prince as his backing had given him confidence even in the way he spoke.
Madam Mu smiled faintly and took Mu Xueshi’s hand. “Mother was just about to pay respects to your father. Today is the fiftieth-day memorial. Your father has been gone for fifty days. You should come and pay respects as well.”
Mu Xueshi nodded and started to follow her, but halfway there he suddenly stopped. “How long do we have to stay?”
He remembered the Third Prince once kneeling for seven days and seven nights while mourning his mother. If this memorial meant being left here alone again, Mu Xueshi knew he could not bear it.
Madam Mu answered gently, “By custom, close family should keep vigil through the night and pray for your father’s spirit. I am pregnant, and staying awake all night may be bad for the child, so I can only do as much as I am able.”
Mu Xueshi’s eyes widened with excitement. “You’re having a baby? Then that’s my little brother! Wow, I like little brothers. I don’t like being alone.”
As he spoke, Mu Xueshi crouched down without hesitation and listened at Madam Mu’s belly with open curiosity. “Does he kick you?”
Madam Mu’s eyes curved as she smiled with genuine happiness. And as she did, Mu Xueshi suddenly noticed a hairpin in the left side of her hair. Three bright pearls were set into it, each with a long, delicate pendant hanging below. It was exactly the same silhouette he had seen the previous evening.