“Wait, what?” Luo Yunzhu was stunned for a few moments before snapping out of her daze. She excitedly caught up with Feng Tianlan and asked, “Tianlan, I didn’t hear wrongly, right? You’re going to find the herbs to make a Beautifying Pill, which means …you’re going to restore your looks?”
Whenever she saw that fierce scar on Tianlan’s face, she always felt upset. To Yunzhu, it seemed like a scar on Tianlan’s heart. Until she got rid of it, Tianlan would always be holding onto the past.
But now…
“Tianlan, are you admitting that you’re going to beautify yourself for the sake of the one you love?”
“I just want to restore my looks,” Feng Tianlan denied.
“I don’t care why you’re doing this, but I’m so happy,” Luo Yunzhu replied. She was so excited she nearly started jumping up and down. “Wahaha! I’m so happy! I’ve waited for this day for so long! You can finally slap Tu Xiupei hard in her disgusting and self-assuming face.”
Feng Tianlan smiled faintly when she saw how Luo Yunzhu was getting so worked up. She said, “Watch your foot.”
“Tianlan, you want to restore your face because of His Highness, right?” Luo Yunzhu couldn’t be bothered with her foot right now. She was filled with nothing else but joy because Tianlan was finally ready to restore her appearance.
“That’s not it,” Feng Tianlan denied it again.
“I know you don’t mean what you say,” Luo Yunzhu breathed as she continued hobbling behind Feng Tianlan. “You’re not sure if you like him, but you’re sure that you don’t dislike him, so now you’re ready to try liking him. Or, at least, give him a chance, which would be the same as giving yourself a chance. You can’t reject him before you’ve even started your relationship. If you try to get along with him as a friend, then maybe you’ll end up liking him as more than a friend.”
“If I didn’t know better, I would have thought you were friends with him and not me.”
“This is for your good, Tianlan. I’m afraid that you’ll lose your way and miss this amazing man that’s right in front of you,” Luo Yunzhu replied as she pulled a face. She looked upset. Like she had done everything for Tianlan’s good, but Tianlan had ended up being jealous instead of grateful.
After walking out of the room, Feng Tianlan looked up before closing the door behind her to look at Si Mobai’s mesmerizing face while he slept. Her heart skipped a beat and trembled. She couldn’t deny it or ignore it.
On their way into town, Luo Yunzhu was so happy that she forgot all about the pain in her foot. She chattered away like a little bird.
At the foot of the mountain in the forest, there were many herb sellers. Everything was much cheaper than it would have been at an auction. The ingredients to make a Beautifying Pill were rare, but they weren’t impossible to find. Beautifying Pills had become a rarity, mostly because there were few alchemists. And very few of those alchemists were interested in making Beautifying Pills.
They made the rounds in the small town and spent a million gold coins. They bought all the herbs to make a Beautifying Pill.
It was approaching noontime, and many people were on the streets. The hawkers on either side of the road moved back to a create walkway about six or seven feet wide, while the pedestrians all stood to one side and looked out.
“Tianlan, do you think that His Highness will have trouble recognizing you after he wakes up? That send you flying with a wave of his hand?”
Feng Tianlan replied without even thinking, “No. He won’t.”
Luo Yunzhu laughed teasingly, “Look at you! You’re so confident of His Highness. This is…”
“Lady Phoenix has arrived!”
Suddenly, a solemn voice rang out and cut off Luo Yunzhu’s chattering.
“Lady Phoenix?” Luo Yunzhu looked up curiously and saw a sedan with a thin red muslin cloth slowly approaching from outside the town. She looked and tried to see what the person inside looked like but could only make out her silhouette.
“Tianlan, can you see what Lady Phoenix looked like?” Luo Yunzhu was on tiptoes, but she still couldn’t catch a glimpse.
Feng Tianlan squinted at the shadow seated inside the sedan. She felt, somehow, that this woman seemed familiar. “I can’t see her, but she seems familiar.”
“Who is Lady Phoenix, anyway?” Luo Yunzhu had a lot of questions. With people throwing fresh flowers at this flashy sedan with its red muslin cloth passing, it looked more like the top prostitute of a brothel was passing by.