Exile after Divorce? Empty the Scumbag Husband First!-Chapter 143 - 141: Mrs. Zhang and Her Husband Are Worried, Constantly Coming Out to Ask
"Well, Aunt, there’s no need to dig into these matters any further. You’re thinking too far ahead. Young Master Xie was just joking around; he doesn’t actually have any intentions towards me as you say."
"Besides, as a woman who has been through a separation and is now exiled here, there are some things I choose not to think about."
Her aunt held her hand, agreeing with her words, and advised earnestly.
"Mianmian, you’re right. All that love and romance is useless! Even if you’re a woman, marrying into a family doesn’t guarantee a worry-free life forever."
"Aunt believes that rather than being trapped by love and depending on others, you should grow your own skills!"
It’s rare for her to have such thoughts, probably something she realized in recent years.
Unknowingly, they had been walking for a long time. For some reason, this aunt made Ruan Mian feel a subtle sense of familiarity.
So when they arrived at the house, her guard relaxed a little.
It was already nightfall by now, and Cui Zhu and the others, worried about her, had already lit a bonfire outside the house to wait.
Mr. and Mrs. Zhang also couldn’t rest easy, coming out from time to time to inquire.
When Ruan Mian returned, Mr. and Mrs. Zhang were just at the entrance of the house.
However, the first to rush forward was her aunt.
She went straight to her knees in front of Mr. Ruan and Mrs. Zhang, tears brimming in her eyes.
"Brother!"
When Mr. Ruan saw it was his elder sister, he was stunned in place, utterly in disbelief!
"Sister?"
But remembering past events, Mr. Ruan’s face immediately fell.
Her aunt knew he would react this way and began to recount how she was coerced by Jiang Ruohuai back then, and how she survived under his watchful eye, telling him the whole story.
By the end, even Mr. Ruan, a grown man, was shedding silent tears.
Seeing this, Ruan Mian thought to herself that her aunt’s account was probably true.
So she stepped out to let the siblings talk.
Cui Zhu and the others had been standing outside the house. Seeing her come out, they immediately came over to ask a couple of questions.
"Miss, was that really your aunt?"
"Little sister, I’ve only heard my mother and the others mention this aunt before, but I’ve never seen her. How did she come to this place, and how did she happen to meet you?!"
Just talking about it feels a bit surprising.
Let’s hope she is here purely to find Mr. Ruan and not with any other intentions.
Ruan Mian placed the silver she earned today on the table, causing Cui Zhu and the others to be overjoyed!
"Those things can sell for that much money?! Miss, are we going to have a good life from now on?!"
Cui Zhu was excited beyond measure: "Shaoxi and I can weave day and night to make even more money."
Ruan Mian chuckled: "Are you hoping to fall into a money pit?"
Thinking about pits of money, indeed, all around Longchang Mountain were pits of money, and weren’t they in this valley, a kind of money pit themselves?
Suddenly she remembered something and asked Cui Zhu to get some angelica, peach kernel, and dioscorea from the medicine chest.
Cui Zhu was a bit curious: "Miss, have you thought of something new?"
Ruan Mian smiled mysteriously: "Finding more ways to make money, you’ll know soon."
After speaking, she took a clean pottery jar to first grind these herbs into powder, then soaked the prepared ginseng in hot water, strained the juice after a while.
Finally, she mixed this juice with the herbal powder, stirring it into a paste like mud.
Cui Zhu and Ruan Qing leaned in: "Little sister, how do these things make money?"
"Come over."
Ruan Mian beckoned them forward, gracefully applying the mixture to her face: "This is called a ginseng nourishing mud mask; for women, it’s a wonderful thing."
"See these lines on our faces? Applying it periodically helps lessen our wrinkles, makes our complexion better, and our skin fairer."
"After the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, you can wash it off. It works similarly to moisturizing cream, but the difference is that the cream’s effect is short-term, while this, with continued use, can have increasingly better results."
Hearing its benefits, Ruan Qing and the others were eager to try, jostling to have Ruan Mian apply it more for them.
Having nothing else to do, she joined them in applying a face mask.
When the time was up and they were about to wash it off, a head poked out at the doorway, startling Cui Zhu immensely!
"A ghost!"
She screamed, but her aunt quickly pushed the door open and entered: "It’s me, it’s me!"
"Aunt, are you here to see me?"
Ruan Mian saw her eyes were swollen and red, clearly from crying.
About to offer her some words of consolation, her aunt suddenly fixed her gaze on their masked faces, surprised: "This is... whose idea was this?"
Ruan Mian looked over in puzzlement, "Aunt, is there something wrong?"
Realizing it was Ruan Mian’s idea, her aunt, still in shock, rushed over again. After calming herself down, she lowered her voice to ask.
"Mianmian, do you know what this thing is called a face mask?"
A modern term like ’face mask’, how did she know?
As she pondered, her aunt suddenly pulled her out into the courtyard, away from others’ eyes, continuing to ask.
"Mianmian, do you know in another world, there are large birds that can fly, taking you wherever you want to go? And there are vehicles with four wheels, faster than a carriage, also called cars, but they’re automobiles."
Upon hearing, Ruan Mian was also taken aback: "You... a time traveler?"
Her aunt shook her head as if waving a hand and corrected her.
"Rebirth, I was reborn! And a second-time rebirther! Mianmian, can you believe it? It’s utterly absurd!!"
She had been a hapless victim under someone’s oppression, married the wrong person in her first life, causing her own mother’s death, and was ultimately abandoned by that heartless man, left to die.
After death, her restless spirit traveled to another world.
Everything there was different, with gender equality, monogamy, lots of delicious foods, and fun things, only for her to die unexpectedly before enjoying it all.
When she woke again, she was back to her hapless self, reborn at the time she was abandoned at a manor.
In this life, the first thing she did was see Jiang Ruohuai and slit his throat.
What followed was endless escape.
Having endured countless hardships, she barely clung to life until she met Ruan Mian.
This life, having met her brother and clarified past truths, fulfilled a deep wish.
But witnessing Ruan Mian’s uniqueness left her shocked.
"Mianmian, are you also..." Ruan Mian quickly shook her head, explaining honestly: "I’m not reborn; I traveled here from a strange world."
"A strange world? Could that world be the same one I visited?"
"In a way, yes, but compared to the world you visited, my strange world is more chaotic."
