Rebirth of an Idle Noblewoman

“Why didn’t you tell me that you were back, Baili Bin?!” Baili Bin was studying on arrays and seals when a sudden commotion came from outside along with someone saying something with awkward-sounding Chinese.

His hand pausing for a moment as he held a stone, Baili Bin turned towards the entrance to see the handsome face of a mixed-blood. “Feiye?”

Murong Feiye stepped into the yard in a few steps, before walking in circles around Baili Bin and saying, “You’ve improved, I’m sure you can make it into the ranking battles this year.”

Upon hearing this, Baili Bin’s expression became depressed and he looked down at his legs. “How could I do that when I’m like this?”

“I thought you would have changed this time around, but you’re still the same!” Upon hearing this, Murong Feiye smacked his palm onto the table in frustration, and he was about to say something before he remembered Tang Qingqiu’s words and swallowed his words back into his stomach. “…Are you going to leave the ancient martial arts world again?”

“No.” Baili Bin shook his head slightly as he looked at the completed array on the table. “I’ll just stay here and help out the youngsters of the Baili family.”

Murong Feiye was satisfied when he heard the first part, but he held down his words again after hearing the latter part. “Fine, but that’s not what I’m here for today… Do you still remember that aunt of yours?”

“Of course.” Baili Bin picked up another stone and placed it on the table. Even though his aunt hadn’t been back in China for a long time, they had always kept in contact.

“Okay, good. Lemme tell you something interesting.” Murong Feiye whispered as if he was about to say something controversial. “I saw someone that looked just like your aunt the other day.”

Upon hearing this, Baili Bin paused for a moment as he remembered the elegant face that had eyes that seemed to have a galaxy in them before he looked down slightly. “It’s common enough for people to look alike in the entire world.”

It wouldn’t be strange if it were just similarity in terms of looks, but with that talent, too…

“Aren’t you curious in the least?” Murong Feiye didn’t know how Baili Bin was so nonchalant about it. “Were you not curious at all about what she did in the two years that she was gone, and how she lost her memory?”

“She already planned to spend the rest of her life in England, and she won’t be coming back.” Baili Bin waved his hand dismissively as if he didn’t want to continue on the topic any further. “No need to talk about this anymore.”

“Alright, if you say so.” Murong Feiye rubbed his nose awkwardly. “I’ll be going in to see Grandpa Baili.”

After he walked in, Baili Bin’s gaze moved up and he sighed, not setting down the stone in his hand for a while before he pulled out the piece of paper that Gu Xiqiao left him the time she came here.

Even after mulling over it for a while, he still couldn’t calm himself.

***

After he got a call from his disciple, Rong Feishuang immediately rushed towards the Su family. He had diagnosed Master Su’s sickness before, and even he couldn’t do anything about it. Even though he was well known as the divine doctor, his specialty was more on creating antidotes and poisons, as well as traditional Chinese medicine, hence his hands were tied with Master Su’s sickness in particular.

Thankfully he had a jack of all trades in his disciple Zhu Yuan, and while he was displeased back when he started studying western medicine right after he finished learning traditional Chinese medicine, but as time went by he realized that western medicine had its pros too.

Zhu Yuan knew what Master Su’s sickness was just by looking at his symptoms, and while he didn’t know how to cure him completely he knew the direction he should have gone in. Rong Feishuang didn’t know about western medicine at all, but after Zhu Yuan explained it to him, he made some medical pills and used several arrays to help keep Master Su in the realm of the living.

In the end, he couldn’t do much because it simply wasn’t his profession.

That day, he suddenly received a call from Zhu Yuan saying that Master Su came to, and he was extremely shocked. According to his knowledge, Master Su’s thoughts were incoherent and he was only hanging onto life by a thread because of the pills he gave him, and such a person that couldn’t even open his eyes properly was awake?

Rong Feishuang’s first reaction was one of disbelief!

Then again, Zhu Yuan had no need to trick or lie to him, so he could only go to the Su family to see it with his own eyes.

When he got there, Zhu Yuan was still there, and his gaze was immediately attracted to the old man lying in bed. Even though Master Su was still pale and weak, he seemed to be in good spirits as he talked with his grandson.

“Divine Doctor Rong.” Upon seeing Rong Feishuang, all of the members of the Su family that were present all stood up and bowed at him respectfully.

“No need for all there formalities.” Rong Feishuang wasn’t a stickler for all this, and he only walked towards his disciple with a surprised expression. “Were you the one that did this?”

Zhu Yuan was looking at the research results left behind by Gu Xiqiao, and when he heard Rong Feishuang’s voice he stood up. “Master, you’re here!”

After a moment, he reacted and replied, “I’m not the one that saved Master Su, his savior was someone else.”

“Who was it?” Rong Feishuang asked curiously.

“The one that saved him was the genius freshman from A University that I told you about before, she’s amazing.” There weren’t a lot of people that could impress Zhu Yuan, so Rong Feishuang was immediately interested, but then he sighed upon realizing that she was a western medicine student.

Zhu Yuan realized what he was thinking immediately, and was about to tell him that she knew traditional Chinese medicine too before Rong Feishuang spoke again, “What’s that you have in your hand?”

“Oh, this is the medical plan that we researched together,” Zhu Yuan said, passing him the papers as he did.

Rong Feishuang accepted the papers and then was stunned for a moment, before staring at it seriously.

Zhu Yuan: Does he understand everything? :O

After a while, Rong Feishuang seemed to have scanned through all of the papers before saying, “Rich and bold strokes with a distinct aura that’s almost out of this world, what wonderful writing!”

Zhu Yuan: … He thought he really understood what the research documents were saying!

After being cut off like that, Zhu Yuan forgot what he was going to say, and Rong Feishuang went over to check on Master Su’s pulse instead. The moment his fingers touched the elder’s wrist, his expression turned into one of shock. “What a strong life force! What did you two do, Zhu Yuan?”

“I didn’t do anything.” Zhu Yuan couldn’t feel the life force in Master Su’s veins like Rong Feishuang could, and he could only detect his general health condition through machines and apparatus.

“Well don’t leave me hanging, what did she do?” Rong Feishuang asked.

Zhu Yuan thought for a bit, before replying carefully, “She… fed Master Su a cup of water…?”

Rong Feishuang: “…” I’m old but not senile, could you not?

What Zhu Yuan said was the truth, but Rong Feishuang didn’t believe him…

“You youngsters like to bully old people like me nowadays.” Rong Feishuang sighed. “As expected of growing old and useless, not only did that youngster from the Jiang Family bully me but my own student too…”

Zhu Yuan: “… I’ll help you contact her, but I’m not sure whether she would come to see you.” Zhu Yuan obliged, but even he wasn’t sure about it.

It was hard to get a hold of Gu Xiqiao, and Zhu Yuan was actually quite respectful of her ability and foresight. Every step of hers seemed to be calculated beforehand, and as he was being prideful for stepping one step forward, she had already calculated the next hundred steps beforehand and wasn’t prideful in the slightest when she achieved anything.

***

After getting out of the Su family, Gu Xiqiao drove back, and because she didn’t have anything else to do, she took out her computer and logged onto the game.

It was as lively as always in the game, and ever since virtual helmets became more commonplace, more and more people started playing this game and realizing how fun it could be.

Upon looking through her friend list in the game, the ID ‘A Flowing River’ was grayed out, and while Xiao Yun and Su Wen weren’t online, Wu Hongwen and Tang Qingqiu were.

And so Gu Xiqiao led the newbies in the guild around through every dungeon from low-leveled to high-leveled, killing every boss so quickly and easily that the newbies couldn’t even react before they were brought to the next dungeon.

After sweeping through all the dungeons, Gu Xiqiao was about to log off before an unfamiliar ID messaged her.

[Common]: Do you really not know how to do oil painting?

This was the second time that this person had asked her this, who was it? Gu Xiqiao squinted slightly and tapped on her keyboard, hacking into the webcam of the sender.

A good-looking face popped up on her screen, and while she had already expected it, but as soon as she saw this face, Gu Xiqiao tapped on her keyboard and a bright light emerged from her character in the game.

***

The character with the ID ‘Common’ immediately dropped to the ground, more dead than ever.

In a villa in Imperial Capital, Mu Yunfan watched as his own character was insta-killed with a frustrated expression.

“Brother Mu, I want to hold an art exhibition!” The door was pushed open along with a chipper voice.

Mu Yunfan switched off his computer and hummed dismissively. “Don’t come in, I’ll be right out.”

Meng Yufan stood there at the door, looking in at the painting that was hanging on the wall with jealousy. Mu Yunfan’s study was very minimalistic—With only a simple computer and a few painting tools and more or less nothing else, she was still never allowed inside this room.

Mu Yunfan and Meng Yufan went downstairs, where Sima Jun was waiting.

“Teacher, how is it?” As soon as they got downstairs, Mu Yunfan immediately asked Sima Jun. They had been busy ever since they got back in the country with interviews and their hands were full preparing for the biennale.

Sima Jun sipped his tea and shook his head. “Shen Nianzhi has just gotten back to B University, I’m sure we’ll get news in the next few days.”

Mu Yunfan suppressed his emotions as he poured himself a cup of tea, but he couldn’t stop his fingers from trembling ever so slightly.

Meng Yufan lowered her head to hide her emotions. If they couldn’t find her, then let it be that way forever!

***

At the same time, Madam Jiang rushed back home, kicking the chefs out of the kitchen in preparation to cook dinner for her son.

Before she could start, the butler came up to her and said, “Madam, Miss Jiang Tong is here.”

“Jiang Tong?” Madam Jiang didn’t hear any rumors because she just came back. “Let her in and invite her for dinner tonight.”

Jiang Tong waited outside the door in anticipation, wanting to tell the news that she had gotten to Mrs. Jiang immediately.

The butler immediately invited her in cordially, and after thanking him she walked inside to find Madam Jiang in the kitchen. In her eyes, Madam Jiang had always been elegant and graceful, and far beyond reach. When did such a person cook with their own hands and step into the oily and hazy kitchen?

“Tong Tong, what good timing. I’ll be cooking dinner today, and Shuxuan will be coming back too…Hm, Feiye came back to China today too, so maybe you youngsters can have a good chat, yes?” Mrs. Jiang mentioned nonchalantly.

Jiang Tong was actually not that familiar with Madam Jiang, but since she was talented and stood out within the younger generation especially as a girl, Madam Jiang knew of her and had a favorable impression of her.

“Auntie Jiang.” Jiang Tong remembered the rumors about her that were circulating in the ancient martial arts world, and in fear of Madam Jiang disliking her, she immediately told her the gossip she heard, “I heard that Young Master Jiang has close relations with someone in the outside world, a regular girl.”

Madam Jiang’s hands paused for a moment, her gaze becoming cold as she hummed dismissively.

Jiang Tong didn’t see her change of expression, and she continued to speak, “If he continues doing this, it will displease the elder council! Auntie Jiang, you have to constrain him so that he doesn’t walk onto the wrong path, it wasn’t easy for him to get to where he is today!”

She looked at Madam Jiang with a worried expression.

Madam Jiang put down the veggies in her hands and turned around with a cold glare. “Enough! No matter what my son does, educating him is my responsibility, who are you to point fingers and direct our family matters?”

Madam Jiang had always been the image of a perfect noble matriarch, but as soon as she became angry, she proved that she was indeed Jiang Shuxuan’s mother with a cold, piercing gaze that sent chills up Jiang Tong’s spine.

Jiang Tong hadn’t expected her to react in such a way, and she was stunned still for a moment.

At this moment, the butler spoke from outside. “Welcome home, Young Master.”