Chapter 20: This Venerable One Will Tell You a Story (Pt. 2)

The next morning, the Chen family came back from visiting their relatives only to see that their tangerine tree had been chopped down, its fruits strewn across the ground. There weren't many families living in the area, and only the Luo family lived close by. When they recalled the way Luo Xianxian had looked gluttonously at the tangerines, they swiftly concluded…

That the tangerines must have been stolen by that unlucky child, Luo Xianxian! And not only had she stolen them, she'd even jealously chopped down the tree!

The Chen family immediately went to Scholar Luo, full of accusations. Of course, Scholar Luo wasn't about to take this kind of humiliation. He promptly called his daughter over and asked angrily if she had stolen the tangerines.

Luo Xianxian cried as she answered she hadn't.

Then she was asked if she'd chopped down the tree.

Luo Xianxian continued to answer that she hadn't.

And then she was asked if she'd sneakily eaten any tangerines.

Luo Xianxian couldn't lie. She could only answer that she had.

Before she even had time to explain, her father flew into a mortified rage and ordered her to kneel. He disciplined her with a ruler in front of the Chen family, and as he beat her, he said, "Daughters are truly worthless! You're so young, yet you're already a little thief! Shame on you! You're an embarrassment! No food for you today! Face the wall and repent for three days—"

"Papa, it wasn't me! It really wasn't me!"

"Don't you dare talk back to me!"

Nobody believed her. Although chaos reigned in the lower cultivation realm, Butterfly Town was an exception. The residents of this town lived simple and honest lives, and nobody even locked their doors at night. And she claimed that a lunatic covered in blood had turned up in the middle of the night? Who could believe that?

The skin on Luo Xianxian's hands was left raw and bleeding from all the ruler's strikes. The Chen family watched on unsympathetically. Only the oldest boy differed; he tugged on the corner of his mother's clothing as if he wanted to say something. But his mother paid him no attention. Left with no choice, he furrowed his rather comely little face and stood off to the side, unwilling to continue watching.

That night, Luo Xianxian was too afraid to return inside, and she crouched under the roof of her house to miserably carry out her punishment.

Her father being a scholar, theft was something he could not abide. On top of that, he tended to dwell on things and was nothing if not stubborn. There was no point in talking to him, as he would refuse to listen to reason.

After a day of starvation, Luo Xianxian was beginning to feel faint. Out of nowhere, a voice called out softly to her, "Luo-meimei."

Luo Xianxian turned around and noticed a head with comely facial features sticking up over the earthen wall. It was the boy who had tried to plead for her earlier, the eldest son of the Chen household, Chen Bohuan.

Chen Bohuan looked around, and after making sure no one could see him, he climbed over the earthen wall. He took a hot mantou from within his robes and stuffed it into Luo Xianxian's hand without any explanation. "I saw you standing by the foot of this wall for an entire day with nothing to eat. This mantou's for you; go ahead and eat it."

"I…" Luo Xianxian was shy by nature; though she had lived in this house for quite a few months, she had barely exchanged any words with the gege next door. Now she looked at him up close, and she couldn't help but back away a couple of steps, hitting her head against the wall with a thud. "I can't take it…" she stammered. "Papa won't let me… He said…"

She stuttered incoherently for a while, unable to explain herself.

"Aiya, your father yammers on about sayings all day," said Chen Bohuan. "Don't mind him too much. Starving like this is bad for you. Eat up, before it gets cold."

The mantou was white and tender, soft and fluffy, still hot enough to steam. Luo Xianxian lowered her head and stared at it for a moment, and she swallowed her saliva with a gulp.

However, she really was beyond famished. Thinking nothing of, "gentlemanly behavior this" and, "gentlemanly behavior that," she grabbed the mantou and stuffed it into her mouth. In no time at all, it was gone.

After she finished, she looked up with her round eyes. The first full sentence she said to Chen Bohuan was, "I didn't chop down the tangerine tree, and I didn't want to steal anything."

Chen Bohuan was taken aback for a moment, then he slowly started to smile. "Mn."

"But none of them believed me…" Under his nonjudgmental gaze, Luo Xianxian gradually began to open up. Her grievances, like ice and snow melting, began to pour out. She opened her mouth and let out a wail, and she sobbed as she wiped away her tears. "None of them believed me… I didn't steal anything… I didn't steal…"

Chen Bohuan patted her frantically. "I know you didn't. Aiya, you stood under that tree every day, never taking a single tangerine. If you wanted to steal one, you would have done it a long time ago…"

"It wasn't me! It wasn't me!" Luo Xianxian wailed even harder, tears and snot trickling down her face.

Chen Bohuan continued to pat her. "It wasn't you. It wasn't you."

And just like that, the two of them began to grow close.

Later, a murder occurred in a neighboring village. Rumor had it that one night, a blood-soaked bandit broke into a house and demanded he be given a room to stay the night. The man of the house refused, and so the bandit killed the entire family. Then he'd casually slept through the night in the corpse-filled room, not leaving until the next day. But before leaving, he'd used the blood to write a long rant on the walls, documenting all the wonderful deeds he'd done—as if he was afraid that the world wouldn't remember the existence of such a fiend.

The news spread like wildfire and soon reached Butterfly Town. After comparing the dates, it became clear this had happened on the exact night that Luo Xianxian had met that "lunatic da-gege."

Scholar Luo and the Chen family were all left speechless.

With the misunderstanding resolved, the two families grew closer as well. The Chen couple realized Luo Xianxian wasn't just cute with the makings of a beauty, she was also hardworking and sensible. Considering their own family circumstances, it would probably be difficult to find a better daughter-in-law. And thus, they arranged for an engagement between Chen Bohuan and Luo Xianxian. Once the two were of age, they would have a formal ceremony. Scholar Luo thought his daughter and Chen Bohuan were a pretty good match, and thus he happily agreed.

Time passed, day by day. If Scholar Luo hadn't had an interest in elegant things and liked to dabble in perfumery, perhaps the two families would have lived out the modest but content life they initially imagined for themselves. If there was anyone to blame, it was Scholar Luo for creating, even if accidentally, the "Hundred Butterfly Fragrance."

The fragrance's scent was nothing special, being not particularly different from the ones commonly found in town. But it had a benefit that the other fragrances didn't: the scent lasted for one hundred days, lingering endlessly.

Because Hundred Butterfly Fragrance held its scent for an exceptionally long time, it was exactly the type of high-quality yet inexpensive product that every household sought. Even so, Scholar Luo believed in the saying, "Everything is inferior; only knowledge is superior." He had created the fragrance, but he was unwilling to sell it, believing this would be beneath his dignity.

However, although he didn't intend to sell it, of course someone else had their mind on doing so.

Madam Chen tried to obtain the formula from Scholar Luo and encouraged him to open a store, only to be rejected. After a few attempts, Madam Chen didn't want to keep making a fool of herself, so she no longer brought it up. Nevertheless, deep down in her heart, she continued to keep it in her thoughts.

The year that Luo Xianxian turned fifteen, an opportunity arose. Scholar Luo had always been sickly, and he contracted tuberculosis. After a few days of suffering, he passed away. As Luo Xianxian's mother-in-law—even though she and Chen Bohuan hadn't officially married yet, the sentiments were as such—Madam Chen helped arrange the funeral, busying herself back and forth.

Luo Xianxian was moved to tears. However, she didn't realize that Madam Chen harbored hidden intentions. While the madam organized Scholar Luo's belongings, she quietly swiped the formula for the perfume.

That night, Madam Chen lit an oil lantern, full of excitement and ready to read the formula. After only one glance, she was left dumbfounded. Scholar Luo's writing was like a dance between a dragon and a phoenix; the characters were written in an elegant, confident, cursive script. Even after staring at the formula for half a day, she couldn't understand a single word. Left without any other choice, she could only quietly return it to its rightful place.

After a few months, when Luo Xianxian was less distraught, Madam Chen invited the girl over for a meal. During their casual chatter, she "unintentionally" brought up the Hundred Butterfly Fragrance.

Luo Xianxian thought to herself, The formula has no use if it's just tucked away in the house. Madam Chen has always been kind to me; if she wants it, I can give it to her.

Thus, she retrieved it from her father's possessions and even helped Madam Chen interpret the writing. Little by little, Luo Xianxian worked out the complex formula.

Madam Chen was over the moon. Once she obtained the formula, she and her husband began to plan to open a fragrance powder shop.

Of course, at that time, Madam Chen still treasured her kindly, sensible future daughter-in-law. The older Luo Xianxian got, the prettier she became. Even though her family had met misfortune, her appearance was one in a hundred. Quite a few young men in town had even begun to notice her.

The longer we let things drag on, the higher the chances of complications arising, Madam Chen thought to herself. They needed to take care of this matter as quickly as possible.

However, Luo Xianxian had just lost her father. According to the traditions of Butterfly Town, if one's parents were to pass, one could not wed for the following three years. But how could Madam Chen afford to wait three years? She thought it through and came up with a solution.

One day, Luo Xianxian was braiding the hair of the Chen family's youngest daughter. She had a close friendship with this girl. Every day, it was "Luo-jiejie this" and "Luo-jiejie that"; the girl followed her around like a little tail.

Madam Luo stepped into the courtyard and called Luo Xianxian into the inner hall. "Xianxian, you and Bohuan are childhood sweethearts, and you're also engaged," she said. "Now that your father has passed, you're all alone, and your life has been quite difficult. You were supposed to marry into our family this year, but the three-years rule must be respected, and now you can't even marry. I was thinking: How old are you going to be in three years?"

Luo Xianxian lowered her head and didn't say anything. But she was clever and could guess what Madam Chen was about to say next. Her cheeks began to turn pink.

Sure enough, Madam Chen continued. "Living alone is difficult and tiring. Why not marry into our family now instead? We can conduct the ceremony behind closed doors to keep it quiet from outsiders. If anybody asks, you can tell them you're staying with me and I'm taking care of you. This way, you can get married without inviting outside scrutiny and criticism. Your departed father will be at ease as well. Once the three years are over, we'll have a proper ceremony in style. Is that all right?"

Her words all sounded like they were in Luo Xianxian's best interests. Luo Xianxian, as someone who had no bad intentions and would therefore never imagine others did, naturally agreed.

Later, through the sales of Hundred Butterfly Fragrance, the Chen family became wealthy. They moved out of their old home and purchased a large piece of land in town. After much building and renovations, they became a large, influential family.

Thus Luo Xianxian lived a rarely seen existence, obscured in the shadows of this great clan. Everybody in town genuinely thought that the reason Luo Xianxian lived with them was because Madam Chen had been kind enough to look after her. No one knew that she was actually married to Chen Bohuan.

Although a little unhappy with the state of things, Luo Xianxian only thought her mother-in-law had arranged things like this to avoid rumors, and that it was all for her own sake. So, she didn't have any complaints. Moreover, Chen Bohuan treated her with sincerity, and the time they spent together was sweet and loving. They were only waiting for the three years to pass, at which point everything would go back to the way it was supposed to be.

But the day of the official marriage ceremony, the day that Luo Xianxian was waiting for, never came.

The Chen family's business was flourishing, and Chen Bohuan was quite handsome. Soon enough, it wasn't just the girls in Butterfly Town who noticed him; even the daughters of rich families in the neighboring villages started eyeing the eldest Chen-gongzi. Bit by bit, Madam Chen's heart began to waver.

When she'd arranged the engagement between the children years ago, it had been because they were simple farmers and weren't going to find anyone better, and so she had hurriedly laid claim to Luo Xianxian.

Who could've anticipated this reversal in fortune—that the Chen family would one day become so wildly successful? When she looked at Luo Xianxian now, she felt that the girl was not elegant or clever enough, that she was dumb and dull, just like her damned, dry tree-root of an old man. The more she looked, the more irritating she found the girl.

She regretted it a little. Then the appearance of Young Mistress Yao turned this "a little" into "completely."

Young Mistress Yao was the governor's pampered daughter, who was tomboyish and had a preference for martial attire. One day she returned from the hunt atop a fine horse, and she passed a fragrance shop where she stopped to look. But rather than picking out any fragrances, she instead picked out the handsome and hardworking young man inside the store.

That young man was none other than Chen Bohuan, Luo Xianxian's husband in all but name.