The tea house by the roadside was doing a brisk business.
Mu Ran poured a cup of warm tea for the woman sitting across from her, her posture a bit stiff. "Auntie, how did you find me?"
Mu Shuqing didn't rush to drink her tea. Instead, she looked Mu Ran up and down several times. She noted that Mu Ran didn't look like someone worn down by the hardships of time as others might have imagined; on the contrary, her complexion was rosy and healthy. It seemed that after leaving the mountain, her life had been quite good.
"I was wandering through the city yesterday and happened to spot you," Mu Shuqing said, picking up her cup and taking a sip. "My paper cranes remember your aura. Naturally, I can find you as long as you are within ten miles."
Mu Ran grew nervous. "Do the others at Biyun Mountain know I'm back, then?"
"Rest assured, I haven't mentioned seeing you to anyone else."
Mu Ran finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Mu Shuqing was Mu Ran's elder, but most cultivators are skilled at preserving their youth. Though Mu Shuqing was two hundred years old, she appeared to be roughly the same age as Mu Ran.
Truth be told, back when Mu Ran lived on Biyun Mountain, she was a total homebody. Her parents had both passed away, and she knew she wasn't as favored as Mu Zhizhi. She also had the self-awareness to know that with her "not-so-bright" mind, she would likely come out on the losing end of the schemes and power struggles for resources among the sect's cultivators. Consequently, she disliked going out even more.
Naturally, she hadn't had much contact with her aunt, Mu Shuqing.
However, on the day Mu Ran was driven off the mountain, it was Mu Shuqing who had sought her out in secret. She had given Mu Ran a large amount of spirit stones and many defensive talismans. Without those items, Mu Ran might have lost her life to bandits the moment she descended the mountain.
In truth, Mu Shuqing was quite similar to Mu Ran, yet different. She lacked the courage Mu Ran possessed—the courage to refuse an engagement arranged by the Head of the Clan.
"You’re married."
Upon hearing this, Mu Ran nearly choked on her tea. She looked up cautiously.
Mu Shuqing said, "Don't be nervous. I saw you acting intimately with a man yesterday, which led me to that conclusion. It seems you really have married."
Mu Ran nodded. "Yes."
"That man has no spiritual foundation? He’s just a commoner?"
Mu Ran replied, "Yes. Although he is just an ordinary man, he treats me very well. Auntie, I like him very much."
Mu Shuqing questioned, "Can he help you repair your spiritual foundation? Or help you restore your cultivation? He is but a mortal with a lifespan of a hundred years at most. You are in the prime of your youth and your beauty is intact. But what if ten or twenty years from now, your dark hair turns to white and your beauty fades? If he abandons or loathes you then, what will you do?"
"Then I will simply continue living my life as I always have," Mu Ran said. "Auntie, I am living very well right now. I’ll leave the worries of the future to my future self. If things truly turn out as you say—if he changes his mind and no longer likes me—I can live on my own. After leaving Biyun Mountain and before I got married, I lived perfectly well by myself. I may have lost my cultivation, but I still have my crafts. I can support myself."
A flicker of emotion touched Mu Shuqing’s eyes.
Cultivators prioritized breaking through realms above all else. Because of this, cultivation families were often cold and detached. Only those at the Void Cave Realm or above placed more importance on their progeny, because at that level, the higher the cultivation, the harder it became to produce an heir.
Mu Shuqing was actually no different from other cultivators. Her relationship with her brother was average, and she wasn't close to either of her nieces. The only "outrageous" thing she had ever done was quietly providing Mu Ran with life-saving supplies after witnessing her refusal to back down even after Mu Feilin had shattered her spiritual foundation.
Like many others on Biyun Mountain, she had assumed that Mu Ran—who had lived her whole life on the mountain—would suffer after being cast out. Moreover, Mu Ran was beautiful; at the time, there were even disciples of Biyun Mountain who wanted to secretly capture her and keep her as a human furnace for cultivation.
Fortunately, Mu Ran had used her talismans to slip away ahead of time. She hid her tracks so well that those with ill intentions couldn't find her and eventually gave up.
Mu Shuqing remained quiet for a moment before saying, "Li Mohan is awake."
Mu Ran asked blankly, "Who?"
Mu Shuqing pressed her fingers to her brow. "The Young Lord of the Heavenly Desire Palace."
Mu Ran had a sudden realization. "Oh."
"That’s your only reaction?"
Mu Ran looked puzzled. "What reaction should I have?"
"If you hadn't defied the Clan Head and had obediently married into the Heavenly Desire Palace, you would be the Young Mistress of the Palace right now." Mu Shuqing looked at Mu Ran’s expressionless face and continued, "Not long after Mu Zhizhi married him, Li Mohan woke up. Now, he dotes on her immensely. You should know that many people are saying that if you hadn't refused the marriage, everything Mu Zhizhi has now would be yours."
Mu Ran replied, "Then I guest there are probably also many people saying I’m ungrateful and blind, unwilling to share hardships with my betrothed—that I’m a woman of poor character."
Mu Shuqing smiled slightly. "You are quite clever."
Indeed, many were gossiping. People at Biyun Mountain called Mu Ran stupid, while those at the Heavenly Desire Palace cursed her for being wicked. Thanks to Mu Ran's "betrayal," Mu Zhizhi—who had stayed by her comatose husband—was being hailed as a celestial goddess.
Mu Ran, however, was very composed. "I don't feel any regret. Even if you sent me back to two years ago, I would make the same choice. Auntie, it’s not that I’m unwilling to share hardships with someone. It’s just that he was a stranger to me. I had no emotional connection with him. I was also a child held in the palms of my parents' hands. Why should I have to obediently follow Mu Feilin’s arrangements when he treated me like a mere commodity to be traded for profit?"
Mu Ran added, "If Mu Feilin were my father and had treated me well, I might have been unable to bear seeing him in a difficult position; I might have agreed to the marriage even if it meant living a lonely life. But he was neither. Besides, if my parents were still alive, they would never have agreed to marry me off like that."
Mu Shuqing asked, "You truly don't regret it?"
Mu Ran shook her head. "I don't."
Mu Shuqing saw the spark in Mu Ran’s eyes. Her answer was so decisive and straightforward that it couldn't be faked.
Back on Biyun Mountain, no one could have predicted that the seemingly obedient and quiet Mu Ran would possess such a rebellious streak. If there was something she didn't want to do, even Mu Feilin’s pressure was useless.
Since ancient times, among all the daughters of the Mu family, Mu Ran was the only one this stubborn.
Mu Shuqing curled her lips into a smile. "If you ever run into Mu Zhizhi and the others in the future, it’s best if you don't tell them so firmly that you don't regret it."
Otherwise, the sense of superiority those people felt would likely be shattered by Mu Ran's words, and they would only end up causing her more trouble in return.
