The carriage was also rickety, on the verge of falling apart.
Seeing this, along with the burlap sacks of gifts, Mrs. Chu and Chu Mingzhu’s faces showed even more disdain.
“No need. Take everything back. Our family lacks nothing. Wangge’s parents must be getting anxious waiting for her—you should head back now.” Mrs. Chu hastily refused. With such a poor family, the gifts could only be worthless things like chickens, ducks, and vegetables. Even if she accepted them, she’d worry about them being unclean.
“Yes, my sister’s family isn’t well-off. There’s no need to go to such expense.” Chu Mingzhu smiled, her eyes brimming with smugness. The overwhelming sense of superiority put her in an excellent mood.
The Chu family servants also revealed looks of contempt.
“But these were carefully prepared by my master and mistress,” Steward Li said, stunned. He hadn’t expected that the gifts he personally delivered on behalf of his master and mistress would be refused.
“Sister, we won’t be in Jiangzhou anymore after this. My eldest brother passed the imperial examination, and we’re all moving to Jingcheng. Even if you come back here, you won’t be able to see us.” Chu Mingzhu spoke with a slightly haughty tone, feeling a stir of excitement inside. Soon, they would be heading to Jingcheng—the most prosperous place of all.
And Feng Wangge would probably spend her entire life in some mountain valley, never mind witnessing the splendor of Jingcheng.
“That’s right. From now on, you have no connection to our Chu family. There’s no need for us to meet again.” Mrs. Chu’s words made it clear she was drawing a line between them.
Afterwards, they strode back to the mansion with proud, lofty steps.
As they left, some couldn’t help but laugh at the burlap sacks in Steward Li’s hands—what tacky, unspeakable gifts they must be.
“Hey, wait—” Steward Li tried to speak. These gifts were all priceless jewelry, antiques, rare medicines hard to find anywhere in the world, the deeds to the twenty most prosperous shops in Jiangzhou, the thirty best-yielding estates, and fifty thousand taels of silver notes.
These were all tokens of his master and mistress’s sincerity.
But watching the Chu family’s retreating backs, Steward Li had the faint impression that they wanted the young lady to leave as soon as possible.
His brow furrowed slightly. It seemed he needed to look more carefully into the young lady’s situation at the Chu family.
Feng Wangge glanced at the Chu family’s front gate. From now on, she and the Chu family were completely done with each other.
She then walked to the carriage, grabbed the carriage door, and with one heave, tossed it to the ground. She clapped her hands and sat inside.
Much cleaner this way.
Steward Li’s expression froze. That carriage door was made of Wuchenmu, weighing over a hundred catties. The young lady had picked it up and thrown it aside as if it were nothing. Was this something a delicate, frail young miss could do?
“Since they don’t want these things, forget it. Let’s go.”
“Yes, yes, right away.”
Steward Li looked at Feng Wangge’s cool, aloof expression, his curiosity growing by the moment.
“This isn’t the road into the mountains,” Wangge suddenly spoke up after the carriage had traveled for a while.
Steward Li was taken aback. “The master and mistress should have finished handling matters at Qishan. They’ve already returned to Jingcheng.”
Feng Wangge paused. So her family was in Jingcheng, not in some mountain valley. The reason her parents had spread word from the mountains was because they had business there.
She thought back for a moment. She didn’t recall any family surnamed Feng in Jingcheng.
Still, having her family in Jingcheng was fine—she could go there and meet some old acquaintances as well.
“Since we’re going to Jingcheng, let’s make a detour to Changuangsi first.”
Changuangsi was the most famous and largest temple in Yanguo.
From nobles and officials at the top to common folk at the bottom, everyone went there to pray to Buddha and make wishes.
“Are you going to worship and offer thanks?” Steward Li asked curiously.
“Old Master Chu is recuperating at Changuangsi. I’d like to say goodbye to him.”
The only person in the Chu family who had truly treated her well was Grandfather Chu.
Unfortunately, the old master’s health had always been poor. Especially after learning that she wasn’t the Chu family’s biological child and seeing how she was treated differently by the rest of the family, he’d been overcome with rage. The Chu family had then sent him to Changuangsi to recover.
Steward Li felt a swell of emotion. The young lady seemed cold and distant, but she was truly a filial child at heart.
“Very well. I’ll send word to the others to wait at Changuangsi. After that, we’ll all return to Jingcheng together.”
“Good.”
After traveling for about an hour, the carriage stopped in front of Changuangsi.
“Uncle Li, I’ll go alone. Wait for me here.” Feng Wangge hopped down from the carriage and said softly.
“Yes, miss.”
In a small meditation courtyard in the rear mountains of Changuangsi, an elderly man with graying hair and a gaunt frame lay on a bed, his brows furrowed as if troubled by something.
When Feng Wangge entered, he was still in a deep sleep, looking utterly exhausted.
This was a man who had once shielded her with his tall, imposing figure. Now he looked like a lamp running out of oil.
“Wangge, you’ve come at just the right time. I was about to send you a message to tell you about your grandfather’s illness.”
Just then, a handsome young man in simple plain robes walked in from outside. Upon seeing Feng Wangge, a smile immediately spread across his face, but it quickly turned into a frown.
Hearing this, Wangge’s brows furrowed even deeper.
“The old master’s heart and lungs are damaged. Although I use silver needles to control it daily and nourish him with medicine, in the end, it’s difficult to defy heaven’s will. You should know better than I do—the fact that the old master has survived until now is already a miracle…”
“I know, which is why I’ve come to deliver medicine this time.”
Before the young man could finish his sentence, Feng Wangge pulled a porcelain bottle from her bosom, poured out a single pill, and pressed it to Old Master Chu’s lips.
The pill dissolved the moment it touched his mouth. The old master merely parted his lips, and the medicine had already entered his organs.
“What did you just give the old master?”
The young man didn’t stop Feng Wangge, but instead asked curiously when he caught the scent of medicinal fragrance wafting from the porcelain bottle.
“Qingyusui,” Feng Wangge said casually, handing the bottle to the young man.
But upon hearing those three words, the young man’s eyes flew wide open, his face filled with utter disbelief.
“You’re not joking, are you? This is Qingyusui—the legendary miraculous medicine personally refined by the master of Yaowanggu. Only three bottles were produced this year. The royal families of the four nations and the extraordinary figures of the martial world have all exhausted their efforts searching for Qingyusui. This isn’t something that can be measured by money at all.”
Something so rare and unattainable—how on earth did Feng Wangge manage to obtain it?
This tiny bottle, to call it priceless would not be an exaggeration, and even then, there’s no market for it.