The next morning, the Chen family came back from visiting their relatives. They noticed the clementine tree had fallen over, and its fruits spread all over the ground. There weren't a lot of residents around the area, and only the Luo family was close by. They remembered the way Luo Xianxian had looked gluttonously at the clementines, and at once concluded——
The clementines must have been stolen by that unlucky child, Luo Xianxian!
Not only had she stolen, out of jealousy, she'd even chopped down the tree!
The Chen family immediately went to Scholar Luo, full of accusations. Of course Scholar Luo wasn't about to handle this kind of humiliation and he promptly called his daughter over, asking angrily if the clementines had been stolen by her.
Luo Xianxian cried as she answered it wasn't her.
Then she was asked if she'd chopped down the tree.
Luo Xianxian continued to answer that it wasn't her.
And then she was asked if she'd sneakily eaten any clementines.
Luo Xianxian didn't know how to lie, and could only answer that she had.
Before she even had time to explain, her flustered and exasperated father ordered her to kneel down. He disciplined her with a ruler in front of the Chen family, and as he beat her he said, "Raising girls is inferior to raising boys! How could you commit this kind of deceitful act at such a young age! Ridiculous! An embarrassment to your father! As your punishment, you will not be allowed to eat today. Face the wall for three days, painstakingly repent until you can start anew——"
"Papa, it wasn't me! It really wasn't me!"
"Don't you dare talk back to me!"
Nobody believed her. Although the lower cultivation world was in a disorderly state, Butterfly Town was an exception. The residents of this town had always lived simple and honest lives, and nobody even locked their doors at night. To say that a lunatic covered in blood had turned up in the middle of the night? Who would believe that?
The skin on Luo Xianxian's hands was left raw and bleeding from all the ruler's striking.
The Chen family watched on coldly. Only the oldest boy was different; he tugged on the corner of his mother's clothing, as if wanting to say something.
His mother didn't pay him any attention. Left with no choice, he furrowed his rather well proportioned face, and stood off to the side, unwilling to continue watching.
That night, Luo Xianxian, too afraid to return inside, crouched under the roof of her house and miserably carried out her punishment.
Her father was a scholar, and thievery was the most intolerable thing to him. He tended to dwell on things, and was nothing but stubborn. There was no point talking to him, as he refused to listen to reason.
After a day of hunger, Luo Xianxian was beginning to feel faint. Suddenly, a small voice called out to her, "Miss Luo."
Luo Xianxian turned around, and noticed a head with well proportioned facial features sticking out over the earthen walls. It was the boy that had tried to plead for her earlier that day, the eldest son from the house of Chen, Chen Bo'huan.
Chen Bo'huan looked around, and after making sure no one was around, he climbed over the earthen wall. He took out a hot mantou from within his robes, and stuffed it into her hand without any explanation.
"I saw you standing by the foot of this wall for the entire day, with nothing to eat. This mantou's for you, eat it fast."
"I…" Luo Xianxian was shy by nature; though she had lived here for quite a few months already, she had barely exchanged any words with the boy next door. Right now, looking at him at such close proximity, she couldn't help but back away a couple of steps, hitting her head against the wall with a bonk. She stammered, "I can't take it…Papa won't let me…He said…"
She spoke incoherently, and couldn't form any full sentences the entire time.
Chen Bo'huan said, "Aiya, your father only knows how to speak like a book, why do you bother with him this much? You'll get sick from this kind of starvation; 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 too famished. Regardless of gentleman behaviour this or gentleman behaviour that, she grabbed the mantou and stuffed her face with it, and in no time, it was all gone.
After she finished, she looked up with her round eyes. The first full sentence she said to Chen Bo'huan was, "The clementine tree wasn't chopped down by me, and I didn't want to steal."
Chen Bo'huan was taken aback for a moment, then he slowly started to smile. "En."
"But none of them believed me…" Under his gaze that held no contempt, 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 "Wah", and began to wail as she wiped her tears. "None of them believed me…I didn't steal…I didn't steal…"
Chen Bo'huan patted her frantically. "I know you didn't steal. Aiya, you stood under the tree everyday, never taking a single clementine, if you wanted to steal you would have done it a long time ago…"
"It wasn't me! It wasn't me!" She wailed even harder, tears and snot trickling down.
Chen Bo'huan continued to pat her. "It wasn't you, it wasn't you."
The two of them began to grow more familiar with each other just like this.
Later, a homicide occurred in the neighbouring village. A couple of nights ago, a blood soaked bandit broke into a house, and demanded for a room to stay the night. The owner refused, and so the bandit killed the entire family. Then he casually slept through the night in the corpse-filled room, and didn't leave until the next day. But he didn't leave just like that. Using blood, he wrote a long and eloquent essay on the walls. He documented all the wonderful deeds that he'd done, as if he was afraid that the world wouldn't know about the existence of such a fiend.
The news spread like wildfire, and soon reached Butterfly Town. After comparing the times, it was the exact night that Luo Xianxian had met the "lunatic-gege".
Scholar Luo and the Chen family were all left speechless.
The two families got a lot closer after the misunderstanding was resolved. The Chen couple realized Luo Xianxian was really cute, and a hard working and thoughtful beauty. Considering their own family circumstances, it was probably difficult to find a better daughter-in-law. And thus they arranged for an engagement between Chen Bo'huan and Luo Xianxian. Once they reached adulthood, they would formally have a ceremony.
Scholar Luo thought his daughter and Chen Bo'huan were a pretty good match, and thus he happily agreed.
Time passed day by day. If Scholar Luo hadn't been interested in the art of fragrance, perhaps the two families would have led the modest but content life they had initially imagined for themselves.
If there was anyone to blame, it was Scholar Luo for creating, even accidentally, the "Hundred Butterfly Fragrance".
The fragrance's scent was nothing special, not particularly different from the ones commonly found in town. But it had a benefit that the other fragrances did not have——
The scent lasted for a hundred days, lingering endlessly.
The Hundred Butterfly Fragrance stayed scented for a very long time, and was exactly the type of high quality and inexpensive product that every household sought after.
Scholar Luo believed in "Everything is inferior, only knowledge is superior". Although he created the fragrance, he wasn't willing to sell it, and believed it would ruin his identity.
He wouldn't sell it, but of course someone else would have their mind on it.
Madam Chen tried to obtain the recipe from Scholar Luo, and encouraged him to open up a store, only to be rejected by him. After a few times, Madam Chen didn't want to keep making a fool of herself, so she no longer brought up the matter. However deep down in her heart, she firmly remembered this.
The year that Luo Xianxian turned fifteen, an opportunity came. Scholar Luo, who had always been sickly, contracted tuberculosis, and eventually passed away after a few months of suffering. As Luo Xianxian's mother-in-law— even though they hadn't officially married yet, the sentiments were there—she helped carry out the funeral, busying back and forth.
Luo Xianxian was moved to tears. However, she didn't realize that Madam Chen harboured hidden intentions. While she organized Scholar Luo's belongings, she quietly swiped the recipe for the perfume.
That night, Madam Chen lit up an oil lantern, full of excitement and ready to read the recipe. However 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. After staring at it for half a day, she still could not understand a single word.
Left without a choice, she could only quietly put the recipe back.
After a few months, after Luo Xianxian had calmed down, she invited the girl over for a meal. During their casual chatter, she "unintentionally" brought up Hundred Butterfly Fragrance.
Luo Xianxian thought to herself, the recipe had no use if it was just tucked away in the house. Madam Chen had always been kind to her; if she wanted it, she could give it to her.
So she took out her father's possessions, and even helped Madam Chen interpret the writing. Little by little, she sorted out the complex recipe.
Madam Chen was over the moon. Once she obtained the recipe, she began to plan for the opening of a fragrance powder shop with her husband.
Of course, at that time, Madam Chen still treasured this gentle and sensible future daughter-in-law. The older she got, the more beautiful she became. Even though her family had met misfortunes, her appearance was one in a hundred. Quite a few young men from the town had begun to notice her.
Complications could arise the longer they waited, 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 both of one's parents passed away, one could not marry within three years.
But how could Madam Chen wait for three years? She thought it through and through, and came up with a solution—
That day, Luo Xianxian was braiding the hair of the youngest daughter from the Chen family. She had a close friendship with this girl. Every day it was Luojiejie this, and Luo-jiejie that, the youngest daughter following her around like a little tail.
Madam Luo stepped into the courtyard, and called Luo Xianxian into the inner hall. She said to her, "Xianxian, you and Bo'huan are childhood sweethearts, and also had an engagement. Now that your father has passed, you are all alone, and life has been quite difficult. You were supposed to marry into our family this year, but the three years rule has to be met, and now you can't even marry. So I thought, after these three years, how old would you be?"
Luo Xianxian lowered her head, and didn't say anything. But she was clever, and could guess at 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 this—— Marry into our family first; we can do the ceremony behind closed doors, keep it quiet from outsiders. If anybody asks, you can tell them I'm just looking after you. This way we can carry out the customs and not be scrutinized by others. Your father below will be at ease as well. Once the three years are over, we shall have a proper ceremony in style. Is that alright?"
These words all sounded like they were all for the sake of Luo Xianxian. As someone who had no bad intentions and would therefore never imagine others to have them, she 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. With much building and renovations, they became a big influential family.
And Luo Xianxian thus became a shadow hidden within this big family, as someone who hardly showed her face.
Everybody in town really thought that the reason why Luo Xianxian lived with them was purely because Madam Chen was kindly looking after her. They didn't know that she and Chen Bo'huan had already been married.
Although a little unhappy about this kind of lifestyle, Luo Xianxian only thought her mother-in-law had done it to avoid rumours, and it was all for her own good, so she didn't have any complaints. Plus, Chen Bo'huan treated her with sincerity, and their time spent together was sweet and loving. They were only waiting for the three years to pass, when everything would return to normal.
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 Bo'huan was quite handsome. Soon enough, it wasn't just the girls in Butterfly Town who noticed; even the daughters of rich families in the neighboring villages started eyeing the eldest Chen-gongzi. Bit by bit, Madam Chen began to waver.
When she'd arranged the engagement between the kids back then, it was because they had been a peasant family and weren't going to find any 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 this wildly successful? When she looked at Luo Xianxian now, she felt that the girl wasn't pretty enough, or clever enough, that she was dumb and dull like her damned dry tree-root of an old man. The more she looked, the more she found the girl irritating.
She regretted it a little.
Until Mistress Yao's appearance turned her "a little" into "completely".
Mistress Yao was the governor's pampered daughter, tomboyish and with a preference for martial attire. One day, returning from the hunt atop a fine horse,
she passed by a fragrance store and stopped to look. But rather than picking out any fragrances, she instead picked out the handsome and hard-working young man inside the shop.
That young man was none other than Chen Bo'huan, Luo Xianxian's husband in all but name.
Author's Notes:
Chu Wanning (serious expression): This incident teaches us that secret engagements are not advisable. WIthout any legal documentation, it's very easy to cut ties, with no liability involved.
Mo Weiyu🐟 (innocent expression): Eh? I think a few chapters ago someone had a marriage ceremony with me in secret, but I can't remember clearly, who was he? I was planning on taking responsibility for this, but since he doesn't want this, then nevermind. (Smile)