Abandoned Woman Busy Farming
Chapter 1524: Not Willing to Let Go_1

Chapter 1524: Chapter 1524: Not Willing to Let Go_1

Bai Ruozhu felt a sudden quiet outside the room and hurriedly stepped into the room.

What caught her eye was a section of Fen Wan’s arm exposed past her sleeve, skin as tender and white as that of a young girl. How could she be the mother of a child over twenty years old?

What surprised Bai Ruozhu even more was a vermillion-like red dot on the fair arm!

Even though she was not ancient, and her predecessor had never used this stuff, she recognized it as the Palace Protective Sand that maidens of this time would dot on themselves.

The Palace Protective Sand could only be applied to virgins, and it would fall off once they lost their virginity, but there it lay, stable on Fen Wan’s arm!

Everyone was stunned, Diao Yao and Chu Hai were simply dumbfounded. What on earth was going on?

Bai Ruozhu soon calmed down. Having soul-traveled here, she had encountered many incredible things, and naturally, she could make sense of them more easily than ordinary people.

"Her body was ravaged by the Reincarnation Poison, and then it seems to have been rejuvenated, this newly rejuvenated body not only became younger but also erased many of its marks," Bai Ruozhu obscurely explained the reason why Fen Wan could dot the Palace Protective Sand.

However, Fen Wan stretched her arm out forcefully, "I’ve heard that only unmarried girls could apply the Palace Protective Sand. You must have mistaken me for someone else. I can’t be the forty-something-year-old woman you speak of; otherwise, why do I not have any recollection of it?"

After finishing her words, she stamped her feet in anger, "It doesn’t matter if you made a mistake, and I blame you. But how could you join Ning Yu in deceiving me? Using my feelings? He was nice to me only to trick me into helping to save the princess he loves. What about you then? In your eyes, is that princess the most important also?"

The Empress Dowager was already so angry that her lips trembled, pointing at Fen Wan, she said, "Does not remembering absolve you of responsibility? My daughter has become what she is because of your curse—once a fine young lady, now with white hair all over. It’s not about who’s important and who’s not now, but isn’t it good to put an end to this hatred?"

"I told you I’m not, I’m not! Why won’t you believe me? Ning Yu was the first to deceive me, tricking me into breaking the curse for her. Why should I be at your beck and call?" Fen Wan’s eyes were filled with defiance as though she were ready to fight to the death.

Hao Feng let out a deep sigh, "Fen Wan, you’re as hot-tempered now as you were when you were younger, but do you really not remember your master at all?"

Fen Wan was taken aback and seemed somewhat unwilling to be harsh, but in the end, she still shook her head, "You’re very good to me and I feel as if you’re like family, but I truly can’t remember."

"Mother, what about me?" Chu Hai asked weakly.

Fen Wan tensed up all over, "Don’t call me mother. I’m not even as old as you. Isn’t it strange for you to call me ’mother’? Stop trying to persuade me. Summon Ning Yu to clarify things with me. Why did he deceive me? Why did he pretend to be nice to me?"

Bai Ruozhu couldn’t hold back any longer, rushed forward, and slapped her across the face, the sharp crack leaving everyone in the room stunned.

"Ning Yu is my senior brother, and I know his character. How has he deceived your feelings?" Bai Ruozhu asked coldly.

Fen Wan covered her face, taking a while to recover, her eyes showing a hint of grievance, and her voice choked up, "You’re siding with him, too? If he had no feelings for me, why would he get close to me? Just to trick me into breaking the curse for the one he loves?"

"What do you mean ’get close to you’? ’Deceive you’? Has Ning Yu ever acted inappropriately towards you? Has he ever openly professed his affection for you? In his eyes, you are Chu Hai’s birth mother, his elder, and he wouldn’t harbor any undue thoughts towards you. If it hadn’t been for Master Hao Feng’s recurrence of an old ailment making it inconvenient to teach you, why would he take on this responsibility?" Bai Ruozhu, with a cold face, "Stop being willful, think about your master and your children. What will become of them if you continue this way? Don’t you have the heart to see them condemned?"

"What’s it to me? I’m not lifting the curse; you might as well kill me!" Fen Wan stubbornly yelled.

"Oh, my wayward disciple." Master Hao Feng, infuriated, pointed at Fen Wan and suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood.

"Master!" Both Chu Hai and Diao Yao rushed over to support Hao Feng. Fen Wan, upon seeing this, flashed a look of panic in her eyes and promptly turned her head and ran out.

As the others prepared to pursue, Bai Ruozhu spoke up, "I’ll go. I’ll try talking to her privately."

After finishing her sentence, she chased after Fen Wan and quickly caught up with her, whose eyes had swelled into small peaches from crying.

"A melon forced off its vine is never sweet, and you don’t seem like the type of woman who lacks grace," Bai Ruozhu stopped her and said.

"I can’t accept it; why didn’t they make it clear to me from the start?" Fen Wan cried out agitatedly.

"You also don’t seem like the kind of selfish woman who doesn’t care about the lives of others," Bai Ruozhu didn’t answer her directly, instead, kept talking, "If you don’t trust your own identity and can’t accept that Ning Yu doesn’t like you, then you should compete with Princess Diao Bin openly and fairly. But if you refuse to lift the curse on Diao Bin, it will only make everyone, including Ning Yu, look down on you."

Fen Wan stared at Bai Ruozhu in a daze, forgetting even to cry. After a long while, she wiped the tears from her face and said earnestly, "Fine, I’ll lift the curse from that princess, and after she’s recovered, I’ll compete with her fairly!"

Bai Ruozhu frowned, having used a tactic to provoke her, yet she did not want Fen Wan to be so obstinate or to cause more trouble in the future.

Noticing her furrowed brow, Fen Wan mistook it for disbelief and said indignantly, "Don’t worry, if I didn’t want to lift the curse, not even death would make me submit. But since I’ve said I’ll do it, I won’t sabotage things in secret—I’m not a person who acts honorably in public but dishonorably in private!"

"I believe you, and if Ning Yu has done something wrong to make you misunderstand, I’ll make him apologize to you," Bai Ruozhu said.

"Forget it, I don’t want an apology," Fen Wan’s expression turned gloomy. What she needed was not an apology, but for him to also invest feelings in her.

When Bai Ruozhu brought Fen Wan back, she bowed her head and declared she would lift the curse on Princess Diao Bin. Sometimes it’s better to address issues after resolving them, and everyone let out a sigh of relief upon hearing this.

Not long after, Tang Yin arrived with his entourage and inquired about what happened. The Empress Dowager glanced quietly at Chu Hai and his sister, sighed, and summoned the Emperor to the Main Hall, clearly intending to keep Fen Wan’s affection for Ning Yu under wraps.

But Bai Ruozhu felt sure the Emperor must be aware; it just depended on whether he chose to pretend ignorance.

In the end, the Emperor sat for a while and then left, evidently to give face to the Empress Dowager or perhaps in light of Fen Wan’s agreement to lift the curse, he did not dwell on it. But Bai Ruozhu worried greatly for the siblings Chu Hai and Diao Yao, since their recently saved mother also seemed unreliable.

After soothing Fen Wan, Bai Ruozhu went to see Ning Yu, who sat despondently. Ning Yu looked up upon her arrival and asked, "No wonder Master entrusted you to take care of me, I really do manage to mess everything up."

Bai Ruozhu felt a twinge of sympathy. Ning Yu was just a naive child, and if the National Master hadn’t suffered a backlash so early on and couldn’t take care of him, he wouldn’t have grown up so out of touch with the ways of the world while studying in the Astrology Tower.