Rebirth of an Abandoned Woman

CHAPTER XIII

Homecoming

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The two woke up early the next morning. They hurriedly got dressed and had a light breakfast before heading out.

For the homecoming, Sang Wan did not bring a single maidservant from the small garden with her to her parental home. Instead, she instructed Zhide to have her chamber and the garden looked after and only brought Liu Ya along.

As for Shi Fengju, he made a few adjustments so that only two manservants, Zhang Huan and Shi Ming, and their wives, Li Yan and Song He, who aided him occasionally, accompanied him to Sang Wan’s parental home.

Two horse-drawn carriages had been prepared beforehand; one for Sang Wan and Shi Fengju and the other carriage behind them for the maidservants. His two confidantes would steer the carriages, and their wives, together with Liu Ya, would be in the carriage. The gifts that had been prepared were kept neatly in the compartment of the carriage the maidservants were in.

Before leaving, Shi Fengju glanced at Sang Wan, looking for her green light. Upon seeing her smile and nod at him slightly, Shi Fengju waved his hand and ordered everyone to board the carriages.

The carriages drove past the gate and left the Shi family behind them. The sounds of the horseshoes hitting the pebbled floor gradually faded into the distance. There, behind a dense cluster of pomegranate trees, stood Gu Fangzi with a gloomy face.

“Pa!” The branch she was holding snapped in half and the green leaves in her hand crumpled. Her pale white palm was stained with different shades of green.

However, Gu Fangzi cared not for the stains on her pale white palm. Instead, her eyes boiled with rage as she gazed in the direction of the gate.

That woman! Her cousin had gone to accompany that woman back to her parental house!

Though she knew the homecoming was unavoidable, she could not help but feel sullen. Her eyebrow rose slightly as the smile Sang Wan had given to Shi Fengju just then floated in her mind. The devious seed in her heart began to grow.

“Shi Fengju has no feelings for her! Shi Fengju has no feelings for her…” Gu Fangzi murmured to herself, only to pout her lips and shake her head as she sighed. “To run out here to take a look, I sure asked for it! What’s there even to see? Seriously!”

The carriages left the city gates. Past the curtains, the many slopes of the distant hills could be seen. Sang Wan’s hands, clutching tightly to a handkerchief, finally relaxed and her body occasionally swayed from side to side, as if she were trying to suppress her excitement and nervousness. Shi Fengju could not help but size her up.

Sang Wan laughed awkwardly, ” To think that I’m about to meet my brother and his family, my heart’s feeling a little nervous!”

“Chi!” Shi Fengju suddenly burst into laughter. “It hasn’t even been a week since you last saw them. What’s there to be nervous about?”

Sang Wan was suddenly dazed by Shi Fengju’s words, but managed to force a smile. “That’s true. It has only been a few days. I sure am hopeless! Hēhē!”

A few days? To him and everyone else, it may have indeed only been a few days; however, to her, it had already been several years! To finally be able to see her blood relatives, whom she had not seen for several years… how could she not feel nervous? How could she not feel a sense of longing?