Chapter 25: Identity – Wife, I’m Scared Part 2

Shen Yanting did not agree. She was watching Feng Yingbo.

Like Fu Aoqing, she felt something was off with Feng Yingbo.

“Jin’er.” Feng Yingbo’s expression was not great—not so much angry as aggrieved, which confused Bo Xuenong even more.

After shedding the arrogance and ferocity Feng Jin had put on, Bo Xuenong saw Feng Jin as a sensitive and attentive girl besides being timid and weak. Xiang Yu had been too quiet on the road, so Bo Xuenong had completely overlooked her presence in the carriage, but Feng Jin had not forgotten to assign her a role. She must have guessed that Feng Yingbo would dislike this arrangement.

Though she still did not fully understand how Feng Yingbo had given birth to Feng Jin, she knew that no one would be happy with their birth mother becoming a little mother. She did not believe Feng Jin was foolish.

Feng Jin ignored Feng Yingbo, but Feng Yingbo circled back on her own.

She poked Feng Jin’s little face forcefully: “Why am I the little mother?”

Feng Yingbo looked deeply resentful. Feng Jin looked up, her voice unconsciously softening: “Didn’t you just say you wanted to be the little mother?”

“I didn’t say I wanted to be your little mother.”

Bo Xuenong and the others rarely saw Feng Yingbo so serious, which made Bo Xuenong even more convinced they were mother and daughter. But there was still much she did not understand: how Feng Yingbo had Feng Jin, and why Feng Jin seemed intent on upsetting Feng Yingbo.

Feng Jin did not dare look at Feng Yingbo. She buried her head low, hugging Bo Xuenong’s leg tighter, as if treating Bo Xuenong as a lifesaver.

It seemed that at this moment, Feng Yingbo was even scarier than Bo Xuenong.

Yet Feng Yingbo clearly treated Feng Jin extremely well.

Bo Xuenong could not figure it out, and neither could Shen Yanting. She reached out to pull Feng Jin, who was huddled in the middle of the carriage, up first. Unexpectedly, seeing Shen Yanting’s hand, Feng Jin found an even better excuse: “Elder Shen said you’re the younger sister and she’s the elder sister. It can’t be that the younger sister has a daughter but the elder sister doesn’t, right?”

Her reasoning was not very sound.

Shen Yanting had meant blood sisters, not sisters sharing a husband.

Bo Xuenong thought Shen Yanting would be angry enough to hit Feng Jin. Unexpectedly, Feng Yingbo actually went along with Feng Jin’s reasoning and crawled down a bit: “That makes sense. Alright then, I’ll lend you to Eldest Senior Sister for a few days.”

Feng Yingbo smiled lightly, a faint seductive charm floating in her beautiful eyes.

Bo Xuenong found it somewhat strange, but since Feng Yingbo had agreed, she seemed to have no reason to refuse.

Just as Bo Xuenong was about to agree, Shen Yanting’s Sound Transmission Technique reached her ear: ‘Don’t agree. Junior Sister Feng is angry.’

Seeing Bo Xuenong did not quite understand, Shen Yanting transmitted again to explain: ‘She’s always like this—the angrier she is, the more she smiles.’

Bo Xuenong had been raised by Shen Yanting, so she knew the Sound Transmission Technique too. However, her cultivation was not as high as Shen Yanting’s, so she could not transmit with just a thought silently like her master.

She formed a hand seal, her lips parting slightly as her voice turned into a strand of spiritual light that floated over: ‘Master seems to know Junior Aunt Feng very well.’

Shen Yanting raised her brow bone in surprise but did not ask anything extra. She only sent back: ‘I know you well too.’

Bo Xuenong’s heart felt stuffed with honey. She clutched her chest, joy leaping onto her brows.

Her master said she understood her, which meant she paid close attention to her usually.

Bo Xuenong ignored that Shen Yanting had the task of monitoring her and was filled with excitement that her master kept an eye on her at all times.

She, who already obeyed Shen Yanting greatly, even began finding reasons to reject Feng Jin: “No, your arrangement doesn’t make sense at all. Mom, little mother—where’s your dad?”

Bo Xuenong stumped Feng Jin, and Feng Jin’s grip on her leg loosened.

Fu Aoqing chimed in too: “Right, I’m missing a son.”

Fu Aoqing did not notice Bo Xuenong and Shen Yanting’s intent to refuse Feng Jin. She genuinely thought Bo Xuenong made a good point. Her gaze swept over everyone in the carriage and suddenly pointed at Bo Xuenong: “Xuenong will be my son.”

“Ah?” Bo Xuenong looked incredulously at Fu Aoqing. In the next instant, she pulled out a familiar bronze mirror from her storage jade bracelet and carefully examined the face in it. Her brows and eyes held a gentle softness like rippling water, without a trace of masculinity. No matter how she looked, she appeared to be a beautiful girl.

She tossed the bronze mirror back and asked discontentedly, “Why me?”

Fu Aoqing spread her hands helplessly. “Eldest Senior Sister is too beautiful, Junior Sister is too delicate, Xiang Yu is too frail, Feng Jin is too young. Only you, my martial niece, have some potential to disguise as a man.”

Bo Xuenong took it as a compliment from Fu Aoqing, but she still did not understand. “Do we have to disguise as men? Can’t female cultivators marry female cultivators? Sect Master, didn’t you say before that in the Cultivation World, choosing a Dao Companion isn’t limited by gender? We just need to consider the other’s talent, cultivation, and the benefits of dual cultivation.”

“Junior Sister.” Shen Yanting’s gaze lightly swept over Fu Aoqing. “When did you say that to Xuenong?”

Fu Aoqing touched the side of her face, feeling a bit guilty. “During… casual chat.”

Shen Yanting frowned slightly. She grasped Bo Xuenong’s wrist. “Character matters more.”

Bo Xuenong treated every word Shen Yanting said as divine scripture and wished she could memorize them word for word. Of course, she nodded. “Master, I remembered!”

She had always been good at acting endearing in front of Shen Yanting. At times like this, she could not help but add a compliment. “Master has excellent character!”

“Hahaha!” Fu Aoqing burst into laughter, bending at the waist. As she laughed, she said, “Then you can take your Master as your Dao Companion in the future.”

Fu Aoqing’s voice trembled, showing how hard she laughed.

Shen Yanting’s hand, which held Bo Xuenong’s, trembled and let go.

Bo Xuenong did not understand what Fu Aoqing found so funny and, unlike before, did not feel annoyed by her.

She simply followed her heart and corrected Fu Aoqing with a straight face. “Sect Master, Master naturally has excellent character. But my character is too poor compared to Master’s. I can’t take Master as my Dao Companion; that would be too unfair to her.”

Bo Xuenong meant it would be too unfair to Shen Yanting, not that they were master and disciple.

“?” Fu Aoqing stopped laughing and instantly widened her eyes.

Feng Yingbo stopped sulking too. She quietly pinched the soft flesh on her face, wanting to confirm if she had misheard.

After confirming she had not hallucinated, she could not help but ask, “You… aren’t you going to consider the master-disciple relationship first? There’s a generational gap between you.”

“No one said master and disciple can’t become Dao Companions.”

“But… once a teacher, forever a mother.”

Feng Yingbo tried to reason with Bo Xuenong, but Bo Xuenong only listened to Shen Yanting’s reasoning.

Bo Xuenong pointed at the silent Shen Yanting beside them. “Master just said that phrase is wrong. She won’t be my mother, and I won’t be her daughter.”

Shen Yanting did not talk much to begin with, and now she was completely speechless.

She truly was not a good master, having raised a perfectly fine disciple to become more and more wayward.

In the carriage, only Feng Jin was happy. She secretly laughed and even lightly clapped her hands.

The sound was very soft, but it still did not escape the cultivators’ ears. When Feng Jin saw them all look over, she hurriedly swallowed her words. “I think Sect Master’s arrangement is great. Eldest Senior Sister can be my dad, Elder Shen my mom, Xiang Yu my aunt, and Master can be my little… little aunt.”

She had really wanted to say little mother, but glancing at Bo Xuenong and Shen Yanting sitting together, she quickly changed her words.

Feng Yingbo was so exasperated that she laughed, her laughter growing more charming. “I can’t even be little mother anymore.”

Feng Jin shrank back her head, feeling guilty yet harboring a trace of imperceptible pain. “Master, you won’t understand mine.”

She did not give Feng Yingbo and the others a chance to refuse. She let go of Bo Xuenong’s leg, grabbed Fu Aoqing, and jumped off the carriage, still chattering, “Dad, you have to act the part.”

“…”

Bo Xuenong’s identity changed once again.

She did not even remember what her own father looked like, and now she had to pretend to be someone else’s father. It felt very awkward.

Bo Xuenong did not move immediately and sat there in a daze. “Master, just because I’m a woman, does that mean I can’t marry you? Why do I have to disguise as a man?”

“You can.”

Shen Yanting responded before realizing how strange Bo Xuenong’s words were—how had it become about marrying her?

Feng Jin’s random role assignments had caught them off guard.

Although Shen Yanting also thought Fu Aoqing’s suggestion to change identities and forms of address was reasonable, this particular identity was not. She was still Bo Xuenong’s master, after all. What kind of logic was there in a master and disciple pretending to be husband and wife? She was conflicted too, but her point of conflict differed from Bo Xuenong’s.