Chapter 84: Ren Jiapei
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“They… have all become so heartless?”
The young lady was pale-faced and desolate.
She never imagined that the daughters of the other grand families who had previously been as close as sisters to her would turn their backs on her in her time of need after being expelled from the Yang family.
Not just that, each one of them was trying to push her into the pit.
In the past, she had shared with them more than once that she would rather die than marry that Young Master s.h.i.+ Yu of the s.h.i.+ family…
Now, were they really trying to force her to her death?
“Zixi, we had better find an inn to stay for now.”
Zhou Donghuang sighed. He did not know how to console the young lady given her situation because this was reality.
No one ever objected to making a good situation even better. However, no one would ever be willing to give help when it was most needed.
“No… I cannot believe it, I cannot believe it…”
The young lady shook her head with an indignant expression and proceeded to bring Zhou Donghuang to the family mansions of two more grand families, with similar results. They were turned away at the door.
“Young Mistress, listen to Medicine Master Zhou, let’s find an inn for the night.”
Aunt Mei sighed. “Right now, you have already looked up everyone who could have helped.”
“No… there’s still one more.”
There was a look of stubbornness on the young lady’s face.
“Still one more? Who?”
Aunt Mei was momentarily stunned. She knew all her young mistresses’ friends, and she could not recall anyone else besides those whom her young mistress had already sought out.
“Ren Jiapei!” the young lady said solemnly.
“Ren Jiapei? The daughter of the grand Ren family?”
Aunt Mei smiled bitterly. “Young Mistress, you and Young Mistress Ren don’t seem to have interacted much with each other? The only interaction you had with her was ten years ago, when she was almost knocked down by the carriage of the tyc.o.o.n Kong family, and you pulled her aside just in time and saved her life.”
“Although she owes you her life, how old was she at that time? She might not even remember.”
Aunt Mei shook her head. “That year, the patriarch of the Ren family brought her to the Yang family mansion to thank the patriarch of the Yang family, and after presenting a lavish gift, you and she had no more interactions with each other thereafter.”
The Chu royal city was not huge, but neither was it small.
Yang Zixi and Ren Jiapei had not interacted with each other since that year because Ren Jiapei had followed her mother when she left the Ren family and left the Chu royal city. They had been away for ten whole years, and they had just returned a month ago.
Hearing Aunt Mei relate this story, Zhou Donghuang could not help shaking his head to himself. He did not believe that this young mistress of the Ren family would take the young lady in at this point in time.
“Big Brother Zhou, just one more… this is the last person I’ll look up. If even she does not agree to take me in, I’ll go with you to find an inn,” the young lady said to Zhou Donghuang.
“Let’s go.”
Zhou Donghuang nodded.
On the way to the Ren family, Zhou Donghuang found out from Aunt Mei that although the Ren family was also a grand family, they were much stronger than the Yang family.
The Yang family had only one level-six adept of Qi-gathering, while the Ren family had three. For this reason, the Ren family’s position in the Chu royal city was much higher than the Yang family’s.
Of course, they could still not compare to the s.h.i.+ family, which was a tyc.o.o.n family.
Soon, the small group arrived at the main entrance of the Ren family mansion.
“I… I am Yang Zixi, looking… looking for Young Mistress Ren Jiapei.”
The young lady was not holding on to too much hope after the repeated setbacks, and she spoke to the two Ren family juniors without much confidence.
“Yang Zixi?”
One of the Ren family juniors gave a start and asked with a serious expression, “Young Mistress Zixi of the grand Yang family?”
“In the past… however, I have now been expelled from the Yang family.”
Yang Zixi shook her head with a self-deprecating smile.
What the Ren family juniors said next surprised everyone, including Zhou Donghuang. “Young Mistress Zixi, our young mistress instructed us yesterday that if you came looking for her, we should bring you to the receiving chamber immediately and notify her to go over.”
“Young Mistress Zixi, this way please.”
As they spoke, the Ren family juniors ushered the group of four into the Ren family mansion and led them to the receiving chamber.
“Young Mistress Zixi, please wait here for now. I’ll proceed to notify our young mistress.
After greeting the young lady, the Ren family junior jogged away from the receiving chamber.
“I never imagined, really never imagined…”
Aunt Mei looked at the young lady in disbelief, sighing and shaking her head. “Young Mistress Ren has not seen you for over ten years now… I never imagined that just when Young Mistress is in need, she would be more reliable than those young mistresses of the other grand families who you are usually close to and treat like sisters. I never imagined, never imagined, really did not imagine.”
Aunt Mei could still not believe it.
Now, Zhou Donghuang was already thinking about something else.
Earlier, the Ren family junior said that his young mistress had instructed them the day before to bring Yang Zixi to the receiving chamber and alert her to go over if Yang Zixi came looking for her?
This meant that Young Mistress Ren already knew since the day before that Yang Zixi would be expelled from the Ren family.
The young mistresses of the grand families who are usually so close to Zixi obviously also knew about this, which is why they instructed their family juniors in advance to turn Zixi away at the door.
Zhou Donghuang’s eyes narrowed at this thought. It’s that Patriarch Yang, could he have made arrangements with the daughters of the other grand families in advance for them not to take Zixi in?
Or could it be… the tyc.o.o.n s.h.i.+ family?
At this point, Zhou Donghuang could already make several intelligent guesses.
Huh?
Suddenly, with a slight movement of Zhou Donghuang’s ear, he heard the sound of hesitant footsteps drawing closer, and although they were still some distance away, he still managed to detect them.
This was the reward of practicing the Lord of the Four Supremes. While building up his store of qi, practicing the Lord of the Four Supremes also greatly increased the acuity of his eyesight and hearing.
Just as Zhou Donghuang was looking out of the receiving chamber.
“Sister Zixi!”
A crimson figure entered, accompanied by a melodious and delicate voice.
It was a young lady wearing a figure-hugging crimson outfit, about fifteen or sixteen years old, with an alluring figure. Her pretty face was captivating, as it seemed delicate and mature at the same time. This apparent contradiction gave the young lady an attractive sense of uniqueness.
“Sister Zixi, it’s been ten years, and you’ve grown even more beautiful.”
The young lady in crimson immediately came up to Zixi with a brilliant smile, two small dimples appearing intermittently, her gaze softening.
“You are… Sister Jiapei?”
Seeing the young lady in red, Yang Zixi’s expression froze. She could not reconcile the slender and elegant young lady with the alluring figure with the little girl from many years ago who cried so easily.
“What? Don’t you even recognize your sister?” Ren Jiapei asked with a smile.
“No… it’s just that, Sister Jiapei, you have changed so much.”
Yang Zixi gave a bitter smile.
“It has been ten years after all, big changes are normal. In the month since returning, my level of practice has been on the verge of a breakthrough, which is why I have not looked you up. I intended to do so after I had broken through.”
Ren Jiapei stopped there and hesitated, and a cold gleam flashed through her eyes. “But I never imagined that before I could break through, someone from the s.h.i.+ family came looking for me, putting on the air of being a tyc.o.o.n family and telling me politely but with an implied threat that if you were expelled from the Yang family, I must not take you in. At first, I thought that the patriarch of the Yang family could never expel you from the Yang family… but I never imagined that he would actually do it.”
As she finished, a hint of anger appeared on Ren Jiapei’s face. “From what I know, if your parents had not sacrificed their lives that year, he would have died at the hands of the bandits. What an ungrateful scoundrel!
“It appears that the s.h.i.+ family has offered him substantial benefits.”
Ren Jiapei got angrier as she spoke.
However, when Ren Jiapei looked back at Yang Zixi, there was no trace of anger on her face. “Sister Zixi, from now on, the Ren family is your family, stay as long as you like… others may be afraid of the s.h.i.+ family, but I, Ren Jiapei, am not afraid!”
“Many thanks to Sister Jiapei.”
Yang Zixi thanked her with an expression full of emotion.
“No need for thanks between us… that year, I would have been crushed by that carriage that suddenly appeared from nowhere if not for you.”
Ren Jiapei shook her head with a smile.
“Sister Jiapei, I don’t have to introduce Aunt Mei, you have met her in the past.”
Yang Zixi looked at Zhou Donghuang, and introduced him to Ren Jiapei. “This is Big Brother Zhou Donghuang, he is a medicine master, my first uncle…”
At this point, a pained look came over Yang Zixi’s face, and she corrected herself, “The poisoning that Patriarch Yang Yunji of the Yang family was suffering from was purged by Big Brother Zhou himself.”
“Big Brother Zhou.”
Ren Jiapei followed Yang Zixi in calling Zhou Donghuang “Big Brother,” and Zhou Donghuang, who was quite positively inclined towards Ren Jiapei, returned her greeting with a smile. “Young Mistress Ren.”
“Sister Zixi, this is not right.”
Ren Jiapei looked at Yang Zixi with a slight frown. “These two days, the news spreading in the Chu royal city is that… the poison that Patriarch Yang Yunji of the Yang family was suffering from was purged by one of the ten great medicine masters of the Chu royal city, Xiao Chen. That Medicine Master Xiao Chen’s stock has skyrocketed because of this, and he has already eclipsed the other nine of the ten great medicine masters in the Chu royal city because they had been helpless against the poison that Yang Yunji was suffering from,” Ren Jiapei said.
“It’s not like this!”
Yang Zixi shook her head. “My first… Xiao Chen had nothing to do with the poison that Yang Yunji was suffering from! I personally witnessed the whole process of detoxification, and only Big Brother Zhou was involved.”
“But… the news, many people have verified that it comes straight from the mouth of Patriarch Yang Yunji of the Yang family.”
Ren Jiapei knitted her eyebrows again. “One more thing… that Medicine Master Xiao Chen is now a part of the s.h.i.+ family, and is now in service to the s.h.i.+ family as their medicine master. Many people find this odd because previously, he refused to be a part of the s.h.i.+ family when he was less renowned. Moreover, although the s.h.i.+ family is a tyc.o.o.n family, it is a tyc.o.o.n family at the bottom of the hierarchy of tyc.o.o.n families in the Chu royal city, where there is no shortage of tyc.o.o.n families.”
As she finished, Ren Jiapei had a perplexed look on her face because it really did not make sense.
“Yang Yunji himself said that it was Xiao Chen who purged the poison from him?”
Yang Zixi’s expression changed completely.