My Senior Sister Says She Will Marry No One But Me - Chapter 4

“I see,” Du Yunge finally stammered out an explanation to the person after a chaotic flurry of movement. However, the other party didn’t show any sign of relief; instead, they sighed with disappointment:

“Ah, what a pity, what a shame. If you had actually ended up with Shu Yan, we could’ve saved ourselves some trouble.”

Du Yunge: “Guardian Chun, am I really that much of a handful?”

The visitor was none other than Feng Chengchun, the leader of the four guardians Chun, Xia, Qiu, and Dong. She raised her eyebrows in surprise, and her Liaodong accent became even more pronounced as she spoke: “Oh my goodness, do you really think you’re not a handful?”

Du Yunge: It seemed, perhaps, there might be some truth to that.

Guardian Chun’s full name was Feng Chengchun, given to her by Du Yunge’s mother, the former sect leader of the Miaoyin Sect. The name was derived from three characters in the line, “Borrowing the misty waters of Shandong’s stronghold, to purchase the spring scenery of Fengcheng,” combining both laziness and poetic elegance, simple yet pleasant to the ear. The four guardians Chun, Xia, Qiu and Dong were all orphans taken in by the former sect leader. After receiving their new names, they devoted themselves wholeheartedly to their duties within the Miaoyin Sect. This was especially true for Feng Chengchun, who coincidentally had been found in Fengcheng in Liaodong. Even someone as foolish as Du Yunge knew that praising Guardian Chun for her hard work and immense contributions was entirely justified.

After the former sect leader died in childbirth, Feng Chengchun took on the responsibility of raising her benefactor’s only child. She acted as both father and mother, painstakingly bringing Du Yunge up to this age. If anyone thought raising a child wasn’t an incredibly difficult task, then that child definitely wasn’t Du Yunge.

When Du Yunge was young, Guardian Chun’s main duties included retrieving her from the back hills often from unimaginable places like up in trees, in ditches, or under rocks to come eat, separating her from the monkeys she was enthusiastically fighting with to take her back for medicine and meals, and identifying Du Yunge from a pack of monkeys (by then she had nearly turned into a mud-covered monkey herself), then cleaning her up and bringing her back to eat.

After Du Yunge came of age, Guardian Chun’s responsibilities shifted to chasing away the ill-intentioned “pigs” from other families trying to “dig up the cabbage,” preventing their own “cabbage” from blindly falling for wild “boars” outside, stopping their “cabbage” from pairing up with dubious “cabbages” from unknown origins, and, while preparing the dowry, ensuring that the “cabbage” wasn’t snatched away by a “pig” that broke through the fence.

It was no exaggeration to say that Du Yunge’s safe growth to adulthood was largely thanks to Feng Chengchun. In theory, once Du Yunge married, Feng Chengchun could finally take a long break, accumulating all her unused leave might even allow her to rest for a full year. Everyone in the Miaoyin Sect understood this well, especially the other three guardians Xia, Qiu, and Dong who often joked about it among themselves:

“Sister Xia hasn’t taken a break in a long time. Are you waiting to rest together with Guardian Chun after the sect leader gets married?”

“No, no, if I wait that long, I’ll probably be exhausted to death by then.”

“Guardian Chun is truly impressive, older ginger is spicier! Are you really not taking any breaks, Guardian Chun? Determined to save up for a ‘long drought ending with sweet rain’?”

Feng Chengchun’s sudden roar, fierce as a lioness from the east, jolted Du Yunge awake from her drowsy laziness, even though she was at least four rooms away:

“Enough of your nonsense snap out of it and get to work!”

But after Du Yunge got married.

There was no “after.”

Feng Chengchun died on the night of Du Yunge’s wedding banquet, at He Manor, where an unknown assassin slit her throat in one swift motion, killing her instantly.

To be honest, Du Yunge had felt something was off from the start: How could security be so lax on the grand wedding day of the Misty Sound Sect’s leader and the master of He Manor? Not only had an assassin slipped in unnoticed and killed the skilled Guardian Chun, but the culprit had also managed to escape unscathed!

At the time, however, He Zhenzhen appeared even more shocked and grief-stricken than the naive Du Yunge. Her display of sorrow was more heartfelt than even the tearful pleas of those girls at the foot of Mount Wangyou, who wept prettily while claiming they needed to “sell themselves to bury their mothers, fathers, or any other possible deceased relatives” just to join the Misty Sound Sect:

“Guardian Chun, Guardian Chun, your death is so tragic! To my dear Yunge, Guardian Chun was like a mother, an elder sister, a teacher, and a friend all in one. How could she meet her end at the hands of such a vile villain? I, He Zhenzhen, swear to investigate this matter thoroughly and ensure Guardian Chun’s spirit finds peace!”

He Zhenzhen even followed through by launching a full-scale investigation that turned the entire Misty Sound Sect and He Manor upside down. Convinced by her fervor, Du Yunge believed her. Yet, the fact that the killer was never caught weighed heavily on her heart. Every year around that time, she would secretly cry her eyes out, careful not to let He Zhenzhen whose temper had grown increasingly foul, see her tears.

It wasn’t until after Du Yunge had died and come back to life that she finally realized the truth: Feng Chengchun had likely been killed by He Zhenzhen herself.

Everyone said Feng Chengchun was like a mother hen protecting her chick, even more devoted to Du Yunge than her own birth mother. With someone like that around, it would have been nearly impossible for He Zhenzhen to manipulate Du Yunge as she pleased. But solving that problem was simple: just send Feng Chengchun to meet the King of Hell.

And everything would fall into place.

The most shocking thing that He Zhenzhen, that beast, ever did was also related to Feng Chengchun:

After Feng Chengchun’s death, He Zhenzhen spent a fortune to find a master of disguise, crafting a near-perfect likeness of Feng Chengchun. On the anniversary of her death, this imposter appeared before Du Yunge, who was quietly sobbing at the time, and frightened her so badly she nearly lost her breath and passed out on the spot.

Truth be told, Du Yunge’s initial reaction was a mix of terror and joy: terror because she had always been fearless except when it came to ghosts and supernatural beings, and joy because even if Feng Chengchun had become a ghost, she would never harm her. And seeing Feng Chengchun again, even as a spirit, was better than not seeing her at all.

Just as Du Yunge was about to pour out her heart to the “Feng Chengchun” shrouded in the smoke of burning paper offerings, and ask how she had died and whether her death was so unjust that Du Yunge should seek revenge, He Zhenzhen shattered the illusion with seemingly comforting words:

“My dear, so you believe in such things. Ah, it’s my fault. I noticed you’ve been looking so down lately, surely from missing Guardian Chun too much, so I hired someone to dress up as her to ease your sorrow. But who would have thought.”

She gripped Du Yunge’s shoulders with such force, as if genuinely apologizing for her actions, and began to pour out a stream of apologies. Even the disciples of Miaoyin Sect and the master of He Manor couldn’t help but blush at her honeyed tone, inwardly praising how gentle, virtuous, and considerate the master of He Manor was truly enviable: “Ah, it’s my fault, all my fault.”

At the time, Du Yunge had actually believed this nonsense. But now, having died once, even a fool could see things more clearly. She finally understood what He Zhenzhen had been scheming back then:

He Zhenzhen had been testing her, trying to see if Du Yunge had truly forgotten Feng Chengchun, the Spring Guardian who was both a mentor and a friend, and if she was wholeheartedly devoted to her. Otherwise, the Miaoyin Sect, which hadn’t yet been completely uprooted at the time, was like a dying behemoth. If Du Yunge, as the sect leader, had exerted even a little effort, it could have still put up a decent fight.

The result had been quite satisfying for He Zhenzhen. Even though Du Yunge, that sentimental fool, couldn’t forget Feng Chengchun, the hardworking and meritorious guardian, she was still almost entirely obedient and compliant easy to manipulate.

However, no matter how resourceful He Zhenzhen was, she could never find someone exactly like Feng Chengchun her ability to frighten Du Yunge earlier had been entirely due to the deep night and the obscuring smoke nor could she replicate Xue Shuyan’s hands as if they were cast from the same mold.

In other words, Du Yunge had truly been given a second chance at life.

Du Yunge looked at the woman before her, whose long eyebrows arched into her temples, and noticed that Feng Chengchun who had once been one of the four guardians representing the face of Miaoyin Sect alongside the Summer, Autumn, and Winter Guardians now had faint wrinkles at the corners of her eyes. Even the small scars and beauty marks on her face were exactly as she remembered. The lip rouge she wore was still the vibrant and bold “Wanjin Red,” favored only by the women of Liaodong. Everything about her was so familiar, yet felt so long ago.

Overwhelmed with emotions, Du Yunge found herself unable to speak. She could only hold Feng Chengchun’s hand, and after a long moment, she choked out a sob:

“Spring Guardian, I truly can’t bear to part with you.”

Feng Chengchun was taken aback by this sudden outpouring of genuine emotion and immediately turned to Xue Shuyan:

“What’s wrong with the sect leader? Do you know?”

Xue Shuyan: “Perhaps she was choked by your scent.”

Only then, reminded by Xue Shuyan, did Du Yunge belatedly feel an itch in her nose. Three seconds later, she let out a sneeze so earth-shattering it nearly shook the dust off the roof:

“Ahchoo!”

This really couldn’t be blamed on her Feng Chengchun’s scent was simply too overpowering. It was strangely appetizing and quite pleasant, but also intensely pungent. Among all the people Du Yunge knew, only Feng Chengchun, that bold and straightforward beauty from Liaodong, carried this particular aroma. After all, for so many years, she had only focused on two things: first, raising Du Yunge, and second, reviewing account books.

Since she didn’t need to practice martial arts or engage in intelligence gathering, there was no need to conceal her identity. Moreover, this rather pleasant yet slightly pungent fragrance allowed the young Du Yunge to find her even from a distance just by following the scent, truly quite practical.

Du Yunge once asked Feng Chengchun what she had put in the scented powder to make it smell so appetizing, only to receive a jaw-dropping answer:

“What scented powder? It’s just cumin, star anise, and pepper.”

Du Yunge: ???

These words were overheard by Xue Shuyan, who had been silently standing beside Du Yunge at the time. Du Yunge swore she saw an extremely rare smile on the face of this usually stern senior sister. And it took the ever-slow-to-react Du Yunge several days to finally figure it out.

Wasn’t this just sprinkling barbecue seasoning on herself?

So, even the simple-minded Du Yunge understood why “the fact that Du Yunge, the sect leader of Miaoyin Sect, grew up safely and soundly was largely thanks to Protector Feng Chengchun”:

To ensure that the silly girl could find her immediately, the esteemed Protector of Miaoyin Sect had stooped to sprinkling barbecue seasoning on herself. If that wasn’t enduring humiliation and fulfilling her duties with dedication, then what was?

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