What did it mean to never rest until one’s words astonished the world?
What was the meaning of “I already have a man”?
The harmonious atmosphere among the crowd was instantly frozen into ice by the pervasive chill. Faintly, one could even hear the sound of something shattering.
Everyone present was a wily old fox long versed in the ways of the world, each and every one of them slick to a fault. A moment later, they regained their composure. Their faces remained plastered with broad smiles, nodding politely at each other with smile after smile after smile, seemingly unafraid of pulling a facial muscle from all the grinning.
“Brother Ling Rang, don’t listen to this girl’s nonsense. The Feng family disciplines are strict. Little Nine never sets foot outside the house all day long—how could she possibly have a man?” said the Eldest Uncle.
“I…”
“Exactly, exactly. She’s just a little girl, afraid of getting married, so she casually made up an excuse. Understandable, understandable,” said the Second Uncle.
“I…”
“Brother Ling Rang, why don’t we go have a few drinks? Under such moonlight, drinking wine and singing to the moon—truly magnificent, magnificent. Those trivial matters are better left to the subordinates,” said the Third Uncle.
“I…”
“Then what are we waiting for? After midnight, you won’t be able to see the ethereal moonlight over Fairy Maiden Peak anymore. It’s rare to come here once—Brother Ling Rang, you can’t let this trip go to waste,” said the Fourth Uncle.
“I…”
She tried several times to speak, but was interrupted with smiling faces by her uncles. Ling Rang didn’t manage to get a single word out before being shoved out the door, heading toward the viewing platform at Fairy Maiden Peak in the rear mountains.
The hall was instantly emptied.
The servants who had been standing by attending them earlier, seeing only the Old Master and the Ninth Young Miss remaining, hastily took to their legs and fled.
The Old Master was going to discipline the Ninth Young Miss again—they weren’t going to stand there and become cannon fodder.
Candle flames flickered, casting light upon Feng Zhen’s expressionless face. That icy, imposing aura of his carried authority without anger.
Feng Jiuge looked up at the Old Master seated in the honored seat. Rather than being afraid, she smiled, trotted over with small steps, grabbed his arm, and began to shake it. The ingratiating smile hanging on her face was so exaggerated that her teeth were on full display while her eyes all but disappeared.
“Old Master, do you really have the heart to marry me off to the Ling family? It’s thousands of li away. What if I get bullied by the Ling family over there?”
Among the Feng family, the one Feng Jiuge was closest to wasn’t Feng Yun or He Yingying, but her grandfather, Feng Zhen.
In her previous life, she was an orphan. The grandfather who made his living scavenging trash had discovered her in a snowy garbage bin, allowing this scourge to survive. Step by step, she climbed to the peak of the underworld kingdom, becoming the underworld queen whose name made people turn pale at the mere mention.
Perhaps largely because of this, she had disliked her own frivolous, carefree father since childhood, instead preferring to stick to the Old Master. Furthermore, during the fifteen years she cultivated in the deep mountains, that old monk had only ever mentioned how the Old Master had been unrivaled in his heroic valor back in the day, making her admire him even more.
This coquettish tone—Feng Jiuge probably only behaved so much like a little daughter in front of Feng Zhen.
However, Feng Zhen let her shake him while he remained unmoved, his tone very firm: “If you really did marry over there, this old man would truly thank heaven, thank earth, and thank the ancestors. Removing a scourge from the Feng family, removing a tyrant from the common people of Xijing, and still being able to collect a pile of betrothal gifts—why wouldn’t I do it? Besides, the person capable of bullying you hasn’t been born yet, so you don’t need to worry about such meaningless things.”
The way he put it…
Feng Jiuge pressed on, hurriedly ingratiating herself by massaging Feng Zhen’s shoulders. “Old Master, you know my temper. If I truly wanted to run, not a single person in the Feng family could catch me. But why don’t I run? Because I truly can’t bear to part with the Feng family.”