Chapter 390

Chapter 390: See You Again, Red Luan

Li Yu was still inside the Hundred-Flower Slaughter formation.

After sensing the formation and making sure Li Yu wasn’t in danger or out of control, Yu Zhi Yi returned to her room, sat cross-legged, and began absorbing the strands of merit golden light.

She hadn’t done many good deeds lately, yet the merit golden light still grew by five or six strands a day. The credit all went to Yiluan Charity. She was still a long way from the Golden Core Realm, and she didn’t know if these few hundred strands would be enough. [No point worrying-just absorb and refine.]

By evening, Yu Zhi Yi finished refining ten strands and opened her eyes to the darkening sky. Remembering how her mother and brother had waited to eat with her yesterday, she resisted pushing for more. After one more check on the Hundred-Flower Slaughter formation, she headed to the dining hall.

As soon as she stepped in, she froze: “Red Luan? When did you get here?”

Red Luan was sitting with her mother at the table; the table was still empty. Jiang Liu Yun sat beside Xiao Qing Xuan, leaning forward to talk with Red Luan. The three of them were chatting happily.

Red Luan smiled: “I arrived not long ago. Aunt said you were busy, so I didn’t disturb you.”

Yu Zhi Yi nodded: “I may be busy for a while. If you need anything, tell me ahead of time, and I’ll come find you as soon as I finish my closed-door practice.”

Red Luan sensed something different about her friend, but she didn’t pry. She laughed: “It’s nothing big. I just came up with a few new dishes lately and brought them for you to taste.”

Yu Zhi Yi’s eyes lit up. She knew Red Luan’s cooking well; if she brought it specially, it had to be delicious.

Sure enough, when Red Luan opened the insulated food box, a rich aroma spread through the room. Red Luan said: “These are skewers-they’re already a bestseller at the restaurant. There are also spicy tripe skewers and spicy squid.”

Besides the skewers, the other two dishes were a bit hot. Yu Zhi Yi didn’t avoid spice and often ate Red Luan’s spicy food. But Xiao Qing Xuan, after years of light meals, started coughing hard the moment she tried a tripe skewer. Red Luan hurried to pour her water. After a while, Xiao Qing Xuan pushed down the urge to cough and laughed: “It’s tasty!”

Smiling with squinted eyes at Red Luan, she asked: “Miss Red Luan, is your hometown in the Sichuan–Shu region?”

Red Luan blinked, then shook her head: “Aunt, my home is in Su Prefecture. But I like making friends and know quite a few people from Sichuan–Shu. I got these recipes from them.”

“No wonder.”

Red Luan asked with interest: “Aunt, you’ve eaten Sichuan–Shu dishes too?”

Xiao Qing Xuan smiled: “I went there when I was young. It’s not as prosperous as the inland, but the food is wonderful. I even ate a kind of sausage-numb and spicy, perfect with rice. After returning to the Central Plains, I never found that taste again. Friends from Sichuan–Shu have made sausages here, but the flavor just isn’t as authentic.”

Red Luan’s eyes brightened: “Aunt, you actually went to Sichuan–Shu? I’ve never been!”

After leaving home, she had traveled to many places, but Sichuan–Shu was too desolate. Desolate meant hard travel and all kinds of accidents. She had dodged two traps and didn’t dare keep going that way. After all, who knew whether the next little roadside inn would turn out to be serving human meat buns. [Better not risk it.]

Yu Zhi Yi chuckled: “My mother is a famous heroine of the Martial World. When she was young, she roamed the rivers and lakes and upheld justice.”

Red Luan’s eyes shone even brighter: “That’s amazing!”

Looking at Xiao Qing Xuan like she was staring at stars, she said: “I admire heroines the most! If my father hadn’t been so old-fashioned, I wanted to learn martial arts when I was little.”

She had managed to grow up mentally healthy and skilled thanks to being a transmigrator who was born with her memories. If she had been a local girl of this era, raised by a father like that, she would have been warped long ago. Of course, to her father, the way she was now was the one that was “warped.” But [who cares.]

The meal ended with everyone cheerful.

After dinner, Xiao Qing Xuan took her son away. At the table, that silly kid kept pestering the young lady with questions-almost all about his sister. It was obvious Red Luan and Jin’er were very close, and Red Luan knew a lot about her. But the kid had no sense of timing; he couldn’t tell the young lady had come to have a heart-to-heart with her good sister. If she hadn’t dragged him off, he would have kept getting in the way.

When only Yu Zhi Yi and Red Luan were left in the dining hall, Red Luan took a sip of tea and smiled: “Aunt is a very good person, and your brother is fun. I can tell your family is wonderful.”

Yu Zhi Yi nodded: “Mm, they’re wonderful.”

“Then I’m relieved,” Red Luan said with a smile: “Heaven is finally being kind to you, letting you find family who truly love you.”

She had always thought the Yu Clan people were not right in the head. They learned the truth about the real and fake daughters years ago. If they really minded that Yu Zhi Yi was a fake heiress, they could have sent her away. Keeping her and then not cherishing her made no sense. It wasn’t until that day when Yu Chun Yue and his wife publicly exposed everything in the street that she knew those two were really sick-sick in the brain.

Yu Zhi Yi didn’t want to dwell on it and changed the subject: “Has anything happened lately?”

Red Luan shook her head: “Yiluan Charity is fine. A few groups came to snoop around. I dealt with the ones who wanted to cause trouble; I ignored the rest.”

“This month we took in fifteen people: one person with a disability, an old man with a serious illness and no relatives, five baby girls, and five beggars. There are also three…”

She hesitated.

“What is it?”

“These three are women from nearby villages who were raped.”

Yu Zhi Yi’s expression shifted.

Red Luan explained: “You know it’s not their fault, but the ignorant villagers wanted to drown them in a pond.”

“All three to be drowned?” Yu Zhi Yi tapped the table lightly.

Red Luan shook her head: “Two were going to be drowned. One is an orphan girl; her parents died, leaving three mu of good fields and a dozen taels of silver. The one pushing to drown her was her own uncle.” The motive was obvious-to seize her property.

“Another is the eldest daughter of her family, with three younger sisters and a younger brother. After it happened, her family said she ruined the girls’ reputations. They wanted to get rid of her so the younger sisters wouldn’t be affected.” The real plan was to sell the younger sisters for a good price to earn bride-price money for the family’s son.

“The third wasn’t being forced to drown, but she couldn’t cope and planned to hang herself. I happened to pass by, noticed something off about her expression, and found a reason to stay the night at her house. Sure enough, at midnight she got up to end her life.”

Yu Zhi Yi sighed.

Of the fifteen people they took in, eleven were female. Besides the five abandoned baby girls and the three raped women, the other three were women who, for various reasons, currently couldn’t support themselves. This world really isn’t kind to women.