Chapter 67: Slacking Off, Day 67
Wen Ying said nothing more. She simply acknowledged the request and left the room.
The reason for Lin Ruge’s father’s scolding was completely different from what she had expected, but Wen Ying had deliberately tried to provoke his parents’ dislike, so she couldn’t exactly claim innocence.
Seeing how readily she agreed, Lin Ruge’s father felt a pang of pity, but the expression was fleeting, replaced in the next moment by firm resolve.
The person who had ruined his plans… couldn’t stay.
After exiting the room, Wen Ying didn’t leave immediately.
She chanted a spell and circulated her qi, concealing her presence as she observed the movements inside the room.
Given that Lin Ruge’s parents’ identities were unknown, Wen Ying had to be cautious.
Only after Wen Ying’s presence had completely disappeared did Lin Ruge’s father finally move. He stood up and hurried into the inner chamber to check on Hua Pi.
“Pi’er,” he said, sitting on the edge of the bed and tenderly holding Hua Pi’s hand, which was tightly clutching the blanket. “Pi’er, it’s me. Don’t worry, you can let go of the blanket.”
A muffled whimper came from underneath the covers.
“Pi’er, I’m here to put some medicine on you. You’ll be better in no time…” Lin Ruge’s father’s eyes were full of both pity and pain.
Pi’er was… she had always been so concerned with her appearance, and yet now, for some unknown reason, she had become this way.
He didn’t know where the illness came from, but lately, the only thing Pi’er had been in contact with was the pickled garlic. He spoke of medicine… but both Lin Ruge’s father and Hua Pi knew in their hearts that there was no way of knowing when an illness of unknown origin would heal.
After a long while, Hua Pi finally slowly lowered the blanket.
Wen Ying took a look and was instantly surprised.
Hua Pi’s entire body, including her face, was covered in yellowish-brown spots. The yellowish color seemed somewhat familiar to Wen Ying…
Rather than a skin disease, it looked more like…
Rust?
Indeed, when a mixture of seasonings like sugar, salt, and vinegar comes into prolonged contact with iron, it can easily rust.
But…
How could a person rust?
Unless, Hua Pi wasn’t a person at all, but iron.
…
Wen Ying continued to observe for a while, but besides the affectionate murmurings of the couple, she didn’t uncover any useful information. Wen Ying decided to leave.
Her goal had been to help Lin Ruge solve his marriage problem. Now that her mission was complete, it was time to go. But since they had been “allies” for a while, she felt she should at least leave a note for him.
After some thought, Wen Ying left a message for Lin Ruge:
“The ‘Hail the Single Life’ plan is a success. Your parents now know the downsides of marriage, so I believe they won’t pressure you for a while. My work here is done, and I’m heading back down the mountain. Goodbye.”
Having spent this time with them, Wen Ying was able to confirm that Lin Ruge was completely uninvolved in and unaware of his parents’ strange affairs.
In the stronghold, even though he was the titular leader, he actually followed his parents’ every command.
A moocher with a heart condition, a freeloader, and a mama’s boy.
It was truly a pitiful fate.
Wen Ying walked to the mountain gate, intending to leave, when she suddenly noticed something unusual.
There was a strange fluctuation of spiritual energy at the gate.
When she had entered the stronghold, she had been carried in by Ah Bao and Ah Niu, moving so fast that she hadn’t noticed anything. But this time, she was walking down the mountain at a leisurely pace. And since she knew the stronghold was strange, she was paying careful attention, which was why she noticed the anomaly.
The spiritual fluctuation was extremely faint, but upon closer inspection, she discovered it was actually a hundred smaller fluctuations converging from below the mountain, passing through the gate, and spreading to every part of the stronghold.
Because each individual fluctuation was so faint, the only place to truly feel them was at the point of convergence at the mountain gate.
What were these things?
Wen Ying circulated her qi and slammed her palms together, aiming for the strongest point of the fluctuation. The spell concealing them was broken, and in the sunlight, Wen Ying finally saw what the source of the fluctuations was.
They were incredibly fine, transparent silk threads.
Wen Ying withdrew her hands, and the threads once again became invisible.
Could the strangeness of the townspeople below the mountain have been caused by these threads?
If so, these threads looked a little like… puppet strings?
The source of all this manipulation was, of course, somewhere in the stronghold itself.
The person behind it was already obvious.
Lin Ruge’s parents were so insistent that no one from the stronghold leave. Combined with all the other strange phenomena…
The source of everything could only be Lin Ruge’s parents.
But before she went looking for answers, Wen Ying decided to return to Ping’an Town to confirm her suspicions.
Her time in the stronghold… even though her plans had repeatedly failed, she didn’t actually dislike the couple.
After her investigation, Wen Ying didn’t linger at the gate and continued her descent.
She remembered that the mountain was to the east of Ping’an Town. Since she was passing by, Wen Ying felt a flicker of curiosity about Aunt Wu’s eight kittens.
Cats! And kittens at that! Who could resist a litter of newborn kittens, especially a whole eight of them!
And yet…
Wen Ying walked all the way to the center of town and still hadn’t seen Aunt Wu’s house, which was so frequently mentioned in Li Xiangyue’s newspaper.
This was utterly bizarre.
Li Xiangyue would never lie or report something that wasn’t true. What happened at Aunt Wu’s house must have been real.
But then, why didn’t the town have an “Auntie Wu’s house”?
…
[Congratulations, Host, mission successful!]
The system’s voice rang out, reminding Wen Ying that she had a mission to stop Sheng Qing from being kidnapped by the bandits.
But what did she care about that?
She had already figured out most of the strange phenomena in Ping’an Town. What happened to Sheng Qing was completely irrelevant to her.
Wen Ying waved away the mission notification and pushed open the door to the Shen residence.
She truly hadn’t expected to open the door and see Shen Linfeng standing quietly in the corner.
After a moment of surprise, Wen Ying asked, “Were you waiting for me?”
Shen Linfeng nodded, his eyes filled with happiness and excitement upon seeing her.
He handed her a note. “Sister, you’re finally back.”
Wen Ying’s suspicions were immediately aroused. “How did you know I would be back today?”
Could Shen Linfeng have gone up the mountain as well?
But he was just an ordinary person. The mastermind behind all this would never allow him to go to the mountain.
Unless…
Unless he, like her, wasn’t being manipulated by the person behind the scenes.
If that were the case, what kind of person was Shen Linfeng?
Shen Linfeng shook his head and handed her the note. “I didn’t know. But ever since you left, I’ve been waiting for you at the door every day. I’m so glad I finally waited for you today, sister.”
Wen Ying read the note, then used a mind-reading spell on a nearby servant to confirm that Shen Linfeng was indeed telling the truth.
Wen Ying put the note down and looked at the young man, a strange mix of emotions swirling in her heart.
She had been through dozens of reincarnations, but no matter how many times she succeeded in her mission, she had always felt like a passing visitor.
The people of this world might be foolish or strange, but they were bound by genuine emotions of love and hate. Like Xu Tongtong and Fu Shuangxue’s pure affection, Xu Huang and Murong Mo’s complex relationship, or even Feng Sixuan’s love-hate feelings for her old family. All these emotions were real.
And Wen Ying… she was just a tool in a mission, a passerby in everyone’s lives, rushing to the next task.
Before this reincarnation, she had never formed a deep connection with anyone.
But this time… it seemed different.
There was Wang Goudan in the kitchen, whose cooking was absolutely awful, but he was willing to be her disciple.
There was Lu Xiaojie, who was just a background character, but he was willing to trust her.
There was Feng Sixuan, with whom she had a deeper relationship than in any of her previous cycles.
And now…
Someone was waiting for her here. Waiting so tirelessly and with such devotion.
Shen Linfeng’s identity and self-awareness might be a lie, but the emotion of waiting for her was completely real.
For the first time, Wen Ying felt a sense of truth in this world of endless reincarnation.
She looked at the note in her hand and laughed.
She laughed a genuine laugh, something she hadn’t done in a very long time.
Shen Linfeng, seeing her expression, quickly scribbled a few words on another piece of paper and handed it to her.
“Sister, you have a beautiful smile.”
Wen Ying took the note, reached out, and gently patted his head. “Thank you.”
She didn’t know what to say or how to say it. A torrent of complex emotions had boiled down to two simple words.
Maybe this endlessly repeating world…
Wasn’t so bad after all.
…
But beautiful moments never last long. Frustration, however, is eternal.
Wen Ying’s good mood was mercilessly shattered the moment she returned to her room.
[Second Female Lead in a Sweet Historical Romance, Mission Five: Catch Sheng Qing in time before she falls into the water!]
Falling into the water.
How cliché and overused.
The plot was simple enough: at the town’s annual River Lantern Festival, Wen Ying was to push Sheng Qing into the water.
Wen Ying couldn’t care less about whether Sheng Qing fell in or not. But the River Lantern Festival was indeed a good day.
Everyone in town would be out to attend. The more people there were, the better her chance of discovering if a spiritual fluctuation similar to the one at the mountain gate existed here.
The lantern festival was set for the evening of the next day, the day after Wen Ying’s return.
According to the plot, everyone would come out to see the lanterns, and the three Shen siblings would be no exception.
Shen Linfeng happily walked over to Wen Ying and handed her a note. “Sister, I’m so happy I get to see the lanterns with you.”
As a child, he was clearly very excited about the festival.
Sheng Qing, meanwhile, wore a veil that covered the lower half of her face. The veil was adorned with small flowers and hooked behind her ears.
It was clear she had done her best to hide the fact that she was missing two front teeth.
When they arrived at the riverbank, Cao Ruobing was already waiting there.
“Qingqing, you’ve come too?” Cao Ruobing’s face lit up with a faint smile upon seeing Sheng Qing.
“Young Master Cao,” Sheng Qing gave a slight curtsy. Due to her missing teeth, the simple phrase caused the veil to flutter wildly as she spoke, and she dared not say anything else.
“Your face… has it not healed yet?” Cao Ruobing asked with concern.
Sheng Qing lowered her eyes and shook her head.
At that moment, Wen Ying and Shen Linfeng arrived. Cao Ruobing politely greeted them as well.
“And Miss Wen, Young Master Shen. You’ve come to see the lanterns?”
“Mm,” Wen Ying replied casually.
Cao Ruobing’s attitude towards Wen Ying seemed to have changed slightly since their last encounter. But Wen Ying paid it no mind.
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