Married with the Silent Wolf

Chapter 5： His Muteness Is Pretended

"Achoo!"

Mu Tianxing, clad in her pajamas, dabbed at her runny nose with a tissue.

The air carried a faint scent of shower gel, and her long, lustrous black hair had already been dried. Her delicate, porcelain-white face was flushed, her nose and eyes reddened—clear signs she had caught a cold from the earlier downpour.

"Let me check if you have a fever."

Jiang Xin pressed a digital thermometer onto her daughter's forehead. The numbers quickly settled at 38.6 degrees Celsius. Concerned, she said, "Go lie down and rest properly. Drink plenty of water. I'll get you some fever medicine!"

Mu Tianxing sniffled and wiped her nose again with a tissue. She pulled the small blanket over herself, about to lie down, when her father, Mu Yize, entered the room carrying a bowl, his voice filled with concern: "Drink this ginger soup."

"No!" Mu Tianxing pulled the blanket tightly over her head, resisting firmly. "Ginger soup is too spicy! I want Western medicine!"

Beneath the blanket, she scrunched her nose in defiance, but her ears perked up, listening intently to the voices outside.

"Medicine can be toxic. It's just a mild cold; drink more water, keep warm, and some ginger soup will fix it."

"She has a fever; she needs some fever medicine."

"Let her drink the ginger soup first, then the medicine."

"You know she hates bitter things! How can you expect her to drink that ginger soup?"

" Just close her eyes and she’ll drink it down. "Taking too many antibiotics isn't good for her body."

"It's your lousy idea that made her stop the Fourth Young Master of the Ling family on the highway. How dangerous was that? No wonder she got sick!"

"How could I know it would suddenly pour like that halfway?"

Mu Yize and his wife bickered relentlessly, their argument threatening to escalate.

Mu Tianxing could no longer hold back. She threw off the blanket and sat up abruptly, looking at them plaintively.

Her quick mind sought to avoid both the ginger soup and her parents’ quarrels. The only way was to change the subject: "I wonder if the Fourth Young Master suspects me. People say he’s moody and difficult. But today when I met him, I realized he was not actually mute—he even spoke to me."

What surprised her most was how calmly he took her insults.

Not only that, he revealed his own secret—telling her he was the very man with paralyzed legs who was mute.

That was something Mu Tianxing still found astonishing.

Mu Yize placed the ginger soup gently on the bedside table, chuckling softly: "Half a year ago in Qingcheng, didn’t you save a man who couldn’t use his legs? Remember?"

His gaze was meaningful. Mu Tianxing’s sharp black pearl-like eyes darted around as she suddenly exclaimed, "The man I saved was the Fourth Young Master?"

No way! Such a coincidence! Even she found it hard to believe.

Mu Yize sat by her bedside and explained: "High society is treacherous, especially among brothers vying for the head of the family. The First and Second Young Masters share the same mother and are close. They deliberately tested the Fourth Young Master, suspecting his paralysis was a sham. That’s why they took him to Qingcheng, away from the old master’s watchful eyes, and planned for him to fall into the water."

Mu Tianxing nodded in understanding, continuing, "Since people instinctively try to save themselves from the brink of death, whether the Fourth Young Master is truly paralyzed can be seen by whether he tries to rescue himself after falling into the water."

Mu Yize scratched her pretty nose affectionately and smiled warmly: "Exactly. So your rescue was coincidental. I only found out recently that the person you saved was the Fourth Young Master because his aide, Zhuo Xi, has been searching for you for half a year. They found our Mu family’s old home in Qingcheng a few days ago, and that’s how I learned you saved him."

Jiang Xin sighed softly: "So, the Fourth Young Master’s mute condition is fake, but—"

“Is his leg disability real?”

“As long as his paralysis is genuine, then Tianxing marrying into the family will put my mind at ease,” Mu Yize rose and draped his arm around his wife’s shoulders, reassuring her, “Don’t worry—everything is still going according to our plan, isn’t it?”

Jiang Xin was about to nod when she heard her daughter’s anguished cry: “It’s over!”

She hurriedly asked, “What’s wrong?”

Mu Tianxing sneezed again, her delicate face contorted in distress: “That Zhuo Xi must have recognized me—not as Miss Mu, but as the one who saved the Fourth Young Master in Qingcheng!”

Recalling the moment carefully, when Zhuo Xi first saw her face, he was startled, stammering as he called out “Mu.” Tianxing felt a chill: “Since the Fourth Young Master’s muteness is an act, and he’s managed to keep it up all these years, he must be extraordinarily cautious. If he had spoken to me openly, he must have realized that I was the one who saved him!”

Mu Yize fell silent, deep in thought.

Tianxing continued, “When I got out of the car, he gave me a phone number. Don’t you think this might be a trap? Perhaps he’s waiting—just waiting for me to call him! Think about it—so many coincidences, his precarious situation—it’s impossible for him not to be suspicious. Anyone in his shoes would be on guard!”

The atmosphere in the room thickened instantly. Tianxing glanced at her father, then at her mother.

Though clever, she was still a young girl raised in a warm and complete family, well-protected by her parents, and had never truly experienced the ruthless intrigues of high society. Her worldly experience was nearly nonexistent.

Hearing and seeing is one thing; truly living it is another.

After a moment, Jiang Xin spoke with concern: “If the Fourth Young Master becomes suspicious, he will surely reject Tianxing. This marriage would be doomed. But with the Ling patriarch so invested in the patents under our group’s name, if the youngest son’s marriage fails, there are still the second and third sons. The second is already quite old, and the third is a notorious playboy—they’re...”

“They’re not as safe as the youngest son with his disability.”

The Ling patriarch lived a life of indulgence, having married four times. How could his sons be paragons of virtue?

This business marriage was merely a transaction. Tianxing, as the sole daughter of the Mu family and the apple of her parents’ eyes, would never be willingly sacrificed to a reckless scion of the Ling family.

Their original plan was that after the union of the Ling and Mu families, the dozen or so patents owned by the Mu Group would be shared with the Ling family, and in turn, the centuries-old snow silk production techniques of the Ling family would be shared with the Mu family.

Once this mutual benefit is achieved, the marriage can be considered fulfilled.

Ling Lie’s disability was well known—he could not consummate the marriage.

Moreover, Tianxing was only eighteen—still in her prime years. Should the marriage fail, divorcing and finding a worthy husband later would be a simple matter.