Fix Smile Order

Tan Lingyin no longer remembered how she got out of Zhu Dacong's place. Her mind was in a mess as she went to Gutang Bookstore. When she heard that Qingchen was not here, Tan Lingyin anxiously asked, "How many days has he been away?"

"Two days." Xiao Zhuang replied.

"Why didn't you tell me?!"

"The boss left a note. It said that he was going on a trip. At the very least, it would last for a few days, and at most ten days." Xiao Zhuang replied, handing over the note.

Tan Lingyin looked at the handwriting on the note, and confirmed it was indeed written by Qingchen. But Qingchen may have been forced to write this letter. After thinking about it, she went out to look for Zhu Dacong again.

"I want to see Qingchen first."

Zhu Dacong stated, "You go back with me. When you arrive in Jinan, you will naturally see him."

"No, I want to make sure he's safe first."

"Well coincidentally, he wanted to pass this message to you." After Zhu Dacong finished speaking, he took out a letter.

Tan Lingyin rushed to read it. There were only five words on the letter:

Jiejie, Qingchen is fine.

It was still Qingchen's handwriting. Tan Lingyin received the letter and stated coldly, "You are too despicable."

Zhu Dacong sighed helplessly, "I had no other choice. You obediently go back with me, let's live a good life. I promise to treat him like a real brother, okay?"

Tan Lingyin didn't answer him. She turned and left with a sullen face.

Tan Lingyin didn't know what to do. Zhu Dacong kidnapped Qingchen, which made her lose all good feelings for Zhu Dacong. Zhu Dacong's father is a prefectural magistrate. As the saying goes, ‘commoners shouldn't fight with officials.’ How could their family go against Zhu's family? Even if she didn't care about her own life and death, she couldn’t disregard her whole family. Even if she ignored the others, Qingchen was still...

Xiaobao doesn't hold too much weight in Tan Lingyin's heart; Qingchen was her real brother. He is such an obedient child, so smart and loving. When she ran away from home, he followed without hesitation. The two of them have gone through so much wind, she couldn’t just sit back and watch something happen to him. If something were to happen to him because of her, she would hate herself to death.

It's not that Tan Lingyin never thought of asking the County Magistrate for help. But one was just a county magistrate and the other was a prefectural magistrate. One was in Tongling and the other was in Jinan. No matter how smart the County Magistrate was, he may not be able to help. Besides, although Tang Feilong's family background was average, he himself was born as a jinshi, a palace graduate, who would surely be promoted. He will definitely be successful in the officialdom in the future. How can she let him offend his colleagues and ruin his future?

Thinking about the daughter of the Assistant Minister of Rites, it was obvious that although Tang Feilong had a poor family background, he was very popular with high ranking officials. He caught the eye of the Assistant Minister of Rites, and maybe tomorrow he will receive the favor of the Minister of Revenue. Wasn’t her presence just delaying him?

When a person was in a bad mood, they were more likely to think pessimistically. The result was the more she thought, the worse she became, and the worse she became, the more she thought. Tan Lingyin felt weak and helpless the more she thought. It seems she and Tang Feilong could only go this far.

Tan Lingyin went to the Southern Study and told her father to pack and prepare to leave, and she went back to pack up herself. While packing up, she thought how she should say goodbye to Tang Feilong.

Just thinking about those farewell scenes made her heart throb in pain.

However, this scene happened before she had the chance to leave her room.

What kind of person was Tang Tianyuan? The maids he sent to the Southern Study weren’t sent there to be idle. When they saw that something was amiss, they immediately came to report to the County Magistrate. When Tang Tianyuan heard about this, he immediately returned to the inner courtyard. At this moment, Tan Lingyin was still packing up her things.

"You’re leaving?" Tang Tianyuan asked. After asking this sentence, he realized that his voice was trembling a little. It was hard to tell if it's anxiety or anger. It may be both, oh, and sadness, disappointment, sorrow...

Tan Lingyin didn't expect him to barge in suddenly. She opened her mouth, "I..." Her voice was also trembling.

Tang Tianyuan stared at her firmly. "You don't want me anymore?"

Tan Lingyin lowered her head and did not dare to look at him. Her lips trembled for a long time before she finally said, "I'm sorry."

"Why are you leaving?" Tang Tianyuan asked with a gloomy face, "Did your father force you?"

Tan Lingyin shook her head.

"Then it’s Zhu Dacong?"

She didn’t reply.

"I'll go teach him a lesson." Tang Tianyuan said as he turned around, ready to go out.

Tan Lingyin quickly caught up and hugged him from behind, "Don't go!"

Tang Tianyuan was furious and the veins on his forehead visibly throbbed. He needed to vent; he wanted to beat up a certain someone. And so, Tang Tianyuan gently unwrapped Tan Lingyin's hands from his waist.

"Don't go, Qingchen is in his hands!"

Tang Tianyuan was startled. He turned around to hold Tan Lingyin's shoulder. "What did you say? Zhu Dacong kidnapped Tan Qingchen?"

Tan Lingyin nodded, and couldn't help but start to cry, "I'm sorry, I never told you that Zhu Dacong is actually the son of the Prefecture Magistrate of Jinan." She continued and told Tang Tianyuan the original grievances between her and Zhu Dacong. She was reluctant to leave this person in front of her, but she was powerless about her own fate. The more Tan Lingyin thought about it, the more powerless she felt, and finally she bursted into tears.

Tang Tianyuan almost died of distress. That Zhu Dacong was obviously pretending to be innocent in order to win Tan Lingyin's sympathy and guilt.

At first Tang Tianyuan was indeed very angry when he found out she was leaving. He was angry because Tan Lingyin didn't seem to care about him and didn't trust him enough. But now, watching her heart wrenching cries, his heart also felt as if it was about to shatter.

Someone dared— someone dared to cheat her, hurt her, threatened her, and made her so full of grief. Even if he was angry, he was reluctant to use any harsh words on the girl in front of him, but now she was being bullied to this state!

He wouldn’t be a man if he were to just ignore this!

Tang Tianyuan felt all the blood in his body rushing into his head. He hugged Tan Lingyin and ran out, and shouted towards the Southern Study’s courtyard gate, "Order! Bind Zhu Dacong up and bring him to this Lord!"

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T/N: So the last sentence, the one where Tang Tianyuan gave out his order… That ‘this Lord’ was said in a very arrogant way. It will be for the next chapter too, when he confronts Zhu Dacong. When he refers to himself, it’s all using the very arrogant ‘I’, which in chinese pinyin is ‘Laozi’. He’s very angry that someone was messing with his girl haha.