Competing with the Male Lead for the Female Lead (Transmigration) - Chapter 10
“Where did this come from?”
Wen Wuning held the flower stem, her expression sharp.
The junior disciple who delivered the flower trembled, not knowing what he had done wrong. “I… I don’t know. This… this is Elder Brother who asked me to bring it to Senior Sister.”
“Elder Brother?”
Where would her elder brother get a Peacock White Feather? The only person Wen Wuning knew who possessed a Peacock White Feather was that one person, and that person actually dared to approach the Wen family!
The delicate flower trembled in Wen Wuning’s hand, the fragile stem almost snapped by her grip.
“Where is Elder Brother now?”
“Elder Brother… he… he went out.”
Wen Ran knew his younger sister’s temper and also knew that helping Sheng Baihe deliver flowers would anger Wen Wuning. But at that time, he couldn’t refuse Sheng Baihe, after all, Sheng Baihe had done the Wen family a great favor. Therefore, he sent a junior disciple to deliver it for him and went out to hide himself.
Not understanding why her elder brother would help that shameless villain Sheng Baihe, Wen Wuning felt both sad and angry, and even more afraid that her elder brother had been deceived by Sheng Baihe.
After dismissing the junior disciple who delivered the flower, Wen Wuning looked at the flower in her hand and recalled Sheng Baihe’s hypocritical and hateful face. Her hand unconsciously tightened, and with a *crack*, the flower stem finally broke and drooped in her hand.
Wen Wuning disgustedly threw the flower on the ground and turned her back.
Sheng Baihe, that insidious villain!
A slight movement came from behind her. Wen Wuning turned around and saw that the white feather flower on the ground was gone. A familiar small head popped out from behind a red lacquered pillar nearby.
The white feather flower was carefully held in its arms.
“What are you doing here?”
Since their last parting with Lan Feier, they would occasionally meet during morning lessons, but Lan Feier would usually just greet her from afar like the other disciples and then leave.
Seemingly not wanting to get involved with her.
The ginseng doll heard Wen Wuning’s question and walked out from behind the pillar, gesticulating and making squeaking noises. Wen Wuning couldn’t understand its words, only assuming it had come for this white feather flower.
“Here’s the flower. Go back quickly.”
The ginseng doll jumped three feet high in surprise and joy, holding the flower and hopping around Wen Wuning in circles.
Wen Wuning, who had been feeling depressed, felt a bit better after being stirred up by it.
The ginseng doll happily returned to Lan Feier’s residence. It sat on the steps outside the house, broke off a petal, and very carefully sipped the dew hidden inside.
“You’re back, why don’t you come in?!” The voice of the tyrant Lan Feier rang out from inside the house.
The ginseng doll, like a child who had done something wrong, hid the white feather flower behind its back with both hands and shuffled into the house, lowering its head to receive the scrutiny of its exploiter, Lan Feier.
“What’s that you’re holding?”
Squeak squeak squeak~
“White feather flower? What is it? Let me see.”
The ginseng doll was unwilling. This was something Wen Wuning had given it; it didn’t want to give it to Lan Feier.
“What are you dawdling for?!”
Tears immediately welled up in the ginseng doll’s eyes. Reluctantly, it gave the flower to Lan Feier.
Lan Feier took it and looked at it casually. It was just a pretty flower. She threw it back to the ginseng doll and asked lazily, “Where did it come from?”
The ginseng doll immediately treasured it and put it away, squeak squeak squeak~
Lan Feier suddenly dropped her nonchalant attitude, sat up, and stared at the ginseng doll, asking, “Wen Wuning gave it to you? Why would she give you something?”
The ginseng doll wanted to say it was naturally because she was a good person, but saying that would definitely lead to another beating, squeak squeak squeak~
“Threw it away? You really pick up any trash and bring it home,” Lan Feier lay back down.
The ginseng doll squeaked softly to protest, indicating that this was not trash. Peacock white feathers were treasures of the Peacock clan, made into incense and carried around, having a miraculous effect of calming the mind and gathering spiritual power.
Peacock white feather? Hearing this familiar name, Lan Feier flipped over again. Wasn’t this the thing the male lead risked his life to find to please the female lead?
Looking at the white flower the ginseng doll was treasuring in its arms, and thinking about the expression Wen Wuning would have when she received this flower, Lan Feier shook her head, smiling helplessly and mockingly. Wen Wuning, oh Wen Wuning, this plaster of dog skin called the male lead, you can’t shake him off no matter what.
It was truly not simple for the male lead to return to the Wen family so quickly and openly send flowers to Wen Wuning.
Unexpectedly, the male lead was making moves so soon. The ginseng doll had another task: to pay attention to Sheng Baihe’s movements, noting who he met and what he did in the Wen family.
But before Sheng Baihe’s unusual behavior was discovered, something not big but not small happened in the Wen family first. To be honest, it was a bit awkward—a family matter.
On this day, everyone in the Wen family, whether direct descendants or outside disciples, was trembling with fear and dared not go out.
This was all because Wen Wuning, who had always obeyed Wen’s father’s orders, suddenly had a big fight with him. In a fit of anger, she even overturned the Qionghua tree in front of Wen’s father’s door, his most beloved tree.
This Qionghua tree was already over two hundred years old. Wen’s mother had loved it most when she was alive. After her death, Wen’s father had always taken care of it meticulously, often reminiscing about his deceased wife in front of the tree.
Wen’s father had originally felt guilty towards Wen Wuning because of Sheng Baihe’s matter, but seeing the beautiful Qionghua tree ruined like this, he took a deep breath and said unequivocally, “Reflect in the back mountain. You are not allowed to come down for three months!”
Wen Wuning was already regretting her impulsive act of overturning her father’s beloved Qionghua tree, but seeing that her father and elder brother still didn’t believe her and were still angry, she went straight to the back mountain.
After Wen Wuning left, Wen Ran accompanied Wen’s father to clean up the mess in the courtyard, assigning people to help prop up the Qionghua tree.
“Father, don’t be angry with Wuning,” Wen Ran said.
Wen’s father picked up the scattered yellow soil on the ground and put it back into the pit, saying calmly, “Father is not angry with her. She doesn’t like Sheng Baihe, but he will inevitably be coming and going at home during this time. Letting her go to the back mountain will also prevent them from clashing, and if something happens then, I’m afraid we won’t have time to take care of her.”
Wen Ran knew what his father was referring to and nodded.
Wen Wuning was not weak, but the father and elder brother always couldn’t help but want to protect her in the palm of their hands.
Wen Wuning being punished to reflect in the back mountain was a family matter that Wen’s father forbade from being spread outside. Therefore, apart from the Wen family disciples who were at home that day, even Sheng Baihe didn’t know about it.
Every time Sheng Baihe came to the Wen family, he and Wen Ran and Wen’s father would lock themselves in a room, seemingly plotting some unspeakable major event.
The ginseng doll was too timid to get too close, so it didn’t know anything about their conversations. All it could tell Lan Feier was when Sheng Baihe came again and who he met.
Lan Feier felt something was wrong. As the days passed, she became increasingly uneasy. But in her memory, nothing major would happen in Ancheng in the next two years. She wondered if she was being paranoid. She felt that the guards in the back mountain had increased, and the Wen family was in a state of great unease.
Lan Feier was not one to sit and wait for death, but she was also a cautious person.
First of all, Wen Wuning definitely didn’t know about the things Sheng Baihe was plotting with the two Wen family members. Wen’s father had sent her to reflect in the back mountain, which was the safest place in the entire Wen family, wanting her to stay away from trouble. It seemed that something big was really going to happen in the Wen family.
That night, the moon was bright and the stars were sparse. Lan Feier didn’t sleep in her room. The several fellow disciples living in the same courtyard had already fallen asleep.
It wasn’t until a small figure silently emerged from the ground in her room that Lan Feier asked, “Did Sheng Baihe leave?”
The little ginseng doll nodded. Lan Feier sat in the darkness and thought for a long time. Finally, she turned her gaze to the ginseng doll. The little ginseng doll felt uneasy under her stare. Seeing her suddenly get up and walk towards it, it trembled even more in fear.
Lan Feier squatted down in front of it and took out a small jar from her bosom. She pulled out the cork, and a clear fragrance wafted out. The little ginseng doll, which had been afraid, immediately jumped up in surprise upon smelling the scent, its eyes shining as it stared at the small jar.
Lan Feier placed the jar in its arms.
This was the jar of flower dew she had collected from within a ten-mile radius in the interspatial space that day in order to catch this ginseng doll.
“Tonight, you follow him and take a look,”
The excited little ginseng doll hadn’t recovered yet and looked up blankly at Lan Feier.
“Get closer,” Lan Feier’s eyes were hidden in the shadows as she continued.
She couldn’t risk going herself, and if the ginseng doll was discovered, with its ability to escape, it might still be able to return. Even if it couldn’t escape, it didn’t matter.
No pain, no gain.
Lan Feier lifted the small jar from the bottom, indicating for it to drink first. The little ginseng doll couldn’t wait. Since leaving Tomb Mountain and coming to the Wen family with Lan Feier, it hadn’t drunk such pure and spiritually rich flower dew again. The dew from that white feather flower was too little and had been automatically ignored by it.
The little ginseng doll gulped down several mouthfuls, then, remembering that it wouldn’t have any more to drink for a long time, it immediately put down the jar and carefully put it away, saving it for later.
The little ginseng doll seemed to have something similar to a storage space on its own body. The jar disappeared as soon as it put it on itself.
Seeing its actions, Lan Feier didn’t say anything. After it finished, she suddenly, like lightning, quickly bit two of her fingers and forcefully pressed them against the little ginseng doll’s forehead. Her eyes widened, her spiritual power surged, and with the other hand forming a hand seal, she quickly chanted the spell she had seen in the book.
The little ginseng doll was caught off guard and immediately screamed in pain, wanting to escape but being firmly sucked by the two fingers on its forehead, unable to move.
Gritting her teeth to restrain the squirming little ginseng doll, sweat poured down Lan Feier’s forehead. The speed of her chanting slowed down because each syllable seemed to be spoken against great resistance. When the last syllable was finally uttered with difficulty, the surging spiritual power suddenly receded. The ginseng doll under her fingers took two steps back and sat down on the ground, then instinctively burrowed into the ground and disappeared.
Lan Feier didn’t care about it. She first returned to the bed and sat down to rest for a while. After a moment, she raised her right hand and saw that there was no bloodstain on her bitten fingers. She formed a hand seal with one hand, closed her eyes, and chanted a spell.
Then, when she opened her eyes again, she saw a piece of darkness, a pure blackness different from the night. The sound of sobbing was in her ears, and the pungent smell of soil filled her nostrils.
Lan Feier lowered her hand, closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, she was back in her familiar room.
A master could empathize with a ginseng doll, but there were two prerequisites: first, the ginseng doll’s age had to be at least five hundred years old, and second, the ginseng doll had a deep emotional bond with its master.
Neither of these conditions was met. Lan Feier could only use this forceful method to make it empathize with her, but this only had an effect for ten hours and caused great damage to the ginseng doll.
Lan Feier would never feel guilt. In her eyes, either something wasn’t done, or if it was done, there was no regret.
Lan Feier knew that the ginseng doll was definitely still in the room, just hiding from her underground.
“Go follow Sheng Baihe, and stick close,” Lan Feier said unhurriedly, “If you come back alive this time, I will consider being more patient with you in the future.”
Lan Feier sat cross-legged on the bed, saying no more.
She wasn’t afraid that the ginseng doll wouldn’t listen to her, because it couldn’t disobey the power of the contract seal.