The Slender Waist-Chapter 339 - 237: The Lady is Too Brave_2
Xiaoman followed her, "Miss, I’m sorry..."
Feng Yun: "It’s fine."
It isn’t easy for one to overcome the fear within, and to overthrow the moral shackles that weigh heavily upon oneself. If she hadn’t lost her life once, faced with the patriarchal pressures of society and the accumulated tyranny of Lady Chen over the years, she wouldn’t have dared to rebel...
Of course, there was also the confidence given by Pei Jue in this lifetime.
She glanced into the crowd.
Just a moment ago, she had seen Pei Jue.
But by the time she finished dealing with the matter and turned around, he was gone.
As if she had been seeing things.
Wen Xingsu walked beside her, heaved a sigh of relief, "I was really sweating just now. I didn’t expect that you could let go."
He was referring to Feng Yun’s final compromise and the thawing of her previous enmity with Feng Jingteng.
There was a light in Feng Yun’s eyes that gradually faded.
"It’s not about letting go, it’s about learning from a setback."
To be slapped, to find justice, and then to feign goodwill, casting all blame onto the other party while occupying the moral high ground and earning praise for being reasonable and not bearing grudges...
Wasn’t all of this learned from Feng Ying?
Feng Yun was clear-headed.
Now, she viewed the current Feng Ying, Feng Jingteng, Lady Chen, and anyone else with whom she had grievances through a different lens compared to her previous life.
Perhaps knowing the outcome, she could reflect on her shortcomings, learn from others, and treat it as a form of cultivation.
Of course, the reconciliation that Wen Xingsu believed in was impossible.
It was just that she needed this relationship for the time being. By not burning all bridges, she could seek to exact her and Queque’s suffering back twofold...
Just three slaps, how could that be enough?
This was just the beginning.
The Feng Family, reeking of decay, needed to be smashed from top to bottom to truly vent her anger...
Wen Xingsu sensed her emotions and was about to say something comforting when Puyang Yi called out to Feng Yun from behind and rushed over to hug her arm.
"Madam is truly brave. I admire that."
Wen Xingsu naturally stepped aside a little.
Puyang Yi seemed not to notice, squeezed into the middle, forcibly separating Wen Xingsu and Feng Yun, and then completely monopolized Feng Yun.
"Does your hand hurt?"
Feng Yun frowned slightly, looking at her reddened palm.
"It hurts."
Puyang Yi chuckled, "Madam really opened my eyes today."
Feng Yun: "Really?"
Puyang Yi hummed a laugh, "I thought you were gentle and virtuous, but who knew you were so fierce at heart, and a bit crazy..."
Feng Yun smiled faintly.
Wen Xingsu stopped in front of a store.
"Yunyun, I won’t go in with you."
He pointed at the parlor, "I still have some matters to attend to."
Feng Yun guessed that Puyang Yi’s presence made him feel constrained, and she smiled and nodded her head.
But Puyang Yi was quite disappointed.
"You’re leaving just like that? I was hoping to find a chance to have a couple of drinks with General Wen, and to spar a bit."
She was bold and enthusiastic, her eyes unabashed as they roamed over him without a hint of modesty.
This was entirely different from the daughters of noble families that Wen Xingsu had seen in Tai City. His embarrassment was visible on his face as he made an apologetic gesture with his hands, and then he hurriedly took his leave.
Puyang Yi watched his retreating figure and chuckled softly.
"Madam’s elder brother is quite interesting."
Feng Yun gave her a sidelong glare, "Don’t pester him."
Puyang Yi rolled her eyes, whispering, "It’s called admiration, infatuation. Do you think I’m Empress Dowager Li?"
Of course, she wasn’t Li Sangruo.
But Wen Xingsu wasn’t Song Shou’an or Wei Zheng either.
Feng Yun said, "My elder brother is very chaste, with no concubines or maidservants, and still a bachelor to this day. My future sister-in-law is indeed fortunate."
Puyang Yi blinked and tightened her grip on Feng Yun’s arm.
"Do you think I look like someone who could be your sister-in-law?"
Feng Yun: "Not at all!"
Puyang Yi: "You’re no fun!"
Both of them exchanged glances, each smiling.
Once back in the room, Feng Yun asked Nan Kui to bring all the delicious treats from the store to Puyang Yi, then she left to take care of business, calling over Cong Wentian and Xing Dalang among others to the back room.
The account books were all laid out on the table.
She skimmed through them at an incredibly fast speed, then closed the ledger and brought up today’s contentious "sugar-coated hawthorn."
"Uncle Wentian, what do you think about me setting up a sugar refinery in Mingquan Town?"
Cong Wentian was startled.
"Madam, how did you suddenly come up with this?"
Feng Yun smiled slightly, "Sugar is a fine thing, it sweetens the heart when eaten."
Cong Wentian:...
Feng Yun continued, "A delightful food shouldn’t be a rarity. The world is so cold, dirty, without delicious sugar, how difficult it must be..."
She looked up, her eyes steadfast and smiling.
"I want to make sugar something everyone can afford..."
Cong Wentian’s eyebrows were furrowed enough to kill a fly.
It wasn’t his place to say, but the madam was thinking too far outside the box, wanting too many things.
Yunchuan with graphite, experimenting with blast furnaces for iron smelting in Tu Family Fort, the agricultural tool workshop in Andu, Yutangchun, the clothing workshop, and now hundreds of acres of land in Mingquan Town along with these stores...
Her scope had spread a bit too wide.
Multi-tasking, it required too much energy...
Even men could become tired and weary, as a woman of the house, supported by the Great General, shouldn’t she focus on bearing a son and raising children?
Why bother with all this toil and trouble?
Cong Wentian didn’t understand.
Feng Yun couldn’t say much more.
And she certainly wouldn’t tell him now that the sugar she wanted was not the kind with low purity and less appealing color sold in the market.
What she intended to make was more refined and tastier sugar.
"Please, take a seat. Let’s talk," she said.
She then handed over the drawings she had brought to Cong Wentian.
"Uncle Wentian, once the construction of the store you’re handling is completed, rest for a while. Then we’ll find a suitable place to build the workshop. I’ve decided, next spring, all the remaining land in Mingquan Town will be used to grow sugarcane."
"Grow sugarcane?"
"The soil here is suited for sugarcane. Using sugarcane to make sugar, Mingquan Town’s geographical location where water and land routes converge will ensure a good market in the future..."
Cong Wentian, staring at the drawings, voiced his doubts.
"Madam, where did you learn all of this?"
Feng Yun gave a slight smile, her eyes misty.
"When my mother married into the Feng Family, she brought five thousand volumes of books, that was no joke. Had it not been for the war, causing the loss of so many books, I would have possessed even more skills..."
Cong Wentian was deeply moved.
"Madam, you are already like a walking encyclopedia. With more skills, you might become too extraordinary for this world."
A walking encyclopedia?
Feng Yun couldn’t help but laugh.
"Uncle Wentian flatters me; I live to learn," she replied.
Cong Wentian had no suspicions.
The monopoly of books by prestigious families also meant a monopoly on knowledge. His own skills were learned from the old craftsmen of Tu Family Fort; it was only in Feng Yun’s presence that he felt enlightened as if he had met a great teacher.
Given the chance to learn from a capable person, one should diligently study the craft and not ask too many questions.
Cong Wentian walked away with the drawings.
Feng Yun then gave some instructions to Xing Dalang before heading out to find Puyang Yi.
"Have you eaten well? Let’s return to Xinzhou."
Puyang Yi was somewhat reluctant to leave.
"Shouldn’t we wait for your elder brother and leave together?"
Feng Yun gave him a glance.
"Don’t you have a banquet tonight?"
"Is my elder brother going?"
"Go ask if Empress Dowager Li has extended an invitation."
Puyang Yi sighed.
"Without my elder brother, it’s truly dull."
Feng Yun looked at him with a smile that wasn’t quite a smile, her eyes pitch-black and unrippled. Puyang Yi shook his head, sighed a few times helplessly, and got pushed into the carriage by Feng Yun.
