Chapter Fourteen: The Farewell Banquet

  "Prince Qin, you've arrived. Please take a seat quickly." A middle-aged woman stood up beside the host's seat at the square table and said to Qin Lang.

  This middle-aged woman was dressed in finery, looking elegant and refined, with no signs of age on her face, looking just like a young girl in her early twenties. There was a hint of resemblance between her eyebrows and Lin Yuqing's, and since Lin Yuqing was standing next to this middle-aged woman at the moment, Qin Lang could guess that this middle-aged woman was likely Lin Yuqing's mother.

  "Thank you, madam, for your hospitality." Qin Lang didn't stand on ceremony and found a nearby seat, plopping himself down with a thud. His eyes didn't even glance at Lin Yuqing, all his attention focused on the full table of dishes. Qin Lang had never seen such a spread before and almost lost control, wanting to roll up his sleeves and dig in. However, since the host hadn't spoken yet, everyone was waiting by the table, so he too had to maintain some decorum. He couldn't give people the impression that he was a starving ghost.

  Finally, after everyone had arrived, the middle-aged woman said: "The dinner party has started, Mr. Qin, please don't be polite, just relax."

  "Ah, I won't be polite." Qin Lang swiftly picked up a roasted chicken from the opposite side with his chopsticks and placed it on his own plate. As he tore into the chicken wing, he replied in a swift motion that was too fast to describe.

  At once, everyone on the table was frightened, and no one understood the chopsticks, staring blankly at Qin Cang.

  Lin Yuqing directly covered her eyes, as if telling everyone: "I don't know him, I don't know him."

  In the blink of an eye, Qin Lang's plate was left with only a pile of chicken bones. It wasn't until then that he realized he had become the center of attention for everyone, but he didn't feel the slightest bit embarrassed.

  "What's wrong with you guys? Stop staring at me and eat! Don't be polite!"

  A middle-aged woman coughed twice, picked up the cup in front of her and said: "Come on, let's all raise our cups to thank Qin Lang, the benefactor who saved Qing'er's life."

  As soon as the words fell, everyone at the table raised their cups. Qin Guang also hastily raised his cup, while swallowing the food in his mouth and pretending to be upright, saying: "When you see injustice on the road, draw your sword to help, it's not worth mentioning, it's not worth mentioning."

  "Hmph, hypocrite." Lin Yuqing muttered to herself. She still remembered the scene where she first asked Qin Cang for help and was bluntly rejected. Now seeing Qin Cang's righteous appearance, she couldn't help but feel disdain: "Hmph, it's all because I said I could satisfy any of your requirements that you agreed to save me. You're so capable, yet you still had to bring me along and escape, getting me to drink all that water. And in the end, you actually made such a request to my father, it's infuriating."

  As soon as she thought of Qin Lang, Lin Yuqing felt annoyed.

  "For you, it was just a simple task, but for me, you saved my daughter." The middle-aged woman looked at Lin Yuzheng beside her and also felt a lingering fear in her heart. "Look at you, daring to sneak out with your father without telling me. If it weren't for Qin Gongzi, I'm afraid I would never have seen you again." When the middle-aged woman said this, her tone was also choked with emotion, obviously if Lin Yuzheng had gotten into trouble, it would be a disaster that she could hardly bear.

  "Mom, I'll never dare again." Lin Yuqing saw the tears in her mother's eyes and felt very guilty.

  "En. Never mind that. Tonight's banquet is the Lin family's thank-you dinner for you, Master Qin. From now on, consider this place your own home."

  "Like one's own home."

  "Ah, thank you, Mrs. Lin." Seeing the deep affection between this mother and daughter, Qin Lang also felt a surge of indescribable emotions in his heart.

  In his memory, he could no longer recall what his mother looked like.

  Shaking his head, Qin Cang didn't want to think about those unhappy things anymore and put his attention back on the big table of wine and dishes.

  Just as Qin Huang was preparing for another battle, Lin Yuqing walked up to him with a wine cup in one hand and a wine jug in the other.

  "Qin Gongzi, I've come especially to thank you for saving my life. Come, let me toast you a cup." Lin Yuhua said with a smile.

  "Little girl, can you even drink?" Qin Lang looked at Lin Yuqing with a slanted eye, but also picked up the wine cup in front of him.

  "Who are you calling a silly girl? When I was drinking, you didn't even know what to do!" Lin Yuqing whispered in Qin Cang's ear. She dared not let her own mother hear this, or else she would be skinned alive.

  "Cough cough" A sixteen or seventeen year old little girl, actually called herself "old mother" in front of him, Qin Cang almost choked to death on the meat in his mouth.

  "Hmph, come on, I'll toast you a cup, let's drink first." Lin Yuqing drained the cup in one gulp.

  "Since it's already done" Qin Lang, as a man, how could he be intimidated by a woman.

  "Good, this cup is to thank you for bringing me back to Luoyang City." Lin Yuqing refilled her own cup and drank it in one gulp.

  "Don't mention it!" Qin Lang would never back down.

  "This cup, thank you for sending me back to the Lin family."

  "I don't know the way either, but you're the one who brought me back."

  "Then I'd like to thank you too. This cup is to thank you for not bringing up that request." Lin Yuqing clinked her glass again and again, finding all sorts of unrelated excuses to make a toast.

  "It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter." Qin Huan was very strong and believed that he would not be defeated by a woman.

  It wasn't long before Lin Yuqing's wine jug was empty, and she poured the last drop into her cup. With a sly smile, Lin Yuqing said, "Qin Gongzi really has a good capacity for liquor."

  "It's nothing, Miss Lin is overpraising! " Qin Lang's eyes had already sparkled with golden stars, and his face was red like a monkey's buttocks. Although he was extremely unwilling, he could only make excuses to push her away: "Thank you for Miss Lin's generous hospitality, I suddenly feel a bit sleepy, I want to go back and rest."

  "Oh, come on, Master Qin, finish the last cup and then you can go rest. Everyone's watching, you can't just leave like this."

  Everyone was watching Lin Yuqin and Qin Cang's performance, each of them covering their mouths to stifle a laugh. The middle-aged woman shook her head and said to Lin Yuqin: "That's enough, Yuqin, don't make things difficult for Master Qin anymore. Someone, please escort Master Qin back to his room to rest."

  "Then I'll have more, thank you, Mrs. Lin." Qin Lang nodded his head, pushed the chair away and walked out, whispering to Lin Yuqing's ear as he left: "Don't think I don't know that your wine jug is filled with water!"

  "Ah!" Lin Yuqing's face changed, and a red flush rose to her pale face, as if she had really drunk wine: "You know I drank that water, why are you still drinking it with me?"

  "Hmm!" Qin Lang didn't respond, and with a swaying body, he slowly walked out of the dining hall.

  Just as Qin Huan was about to step out of the restaurant, he was suddenly bumped into by a flustered figure and almost fell to the ground.

  That figure rushed into the dining hall and said to the middle-aged woman sitting at the table: "Madam, something's wrong! The master and others were ambushed on their way to the city lord's mansion. Young Master Hai was injured."