She Is Such A Jerk, And Yet She’s The One Crying! - Chapter 29

Qiang Ning looked at Lin Dongruan beside her and felt that the other woman was about to faint from hunger. Yet, Lin Dongruan seemed utterly indifferent to such matters, continuing to stroll leisurely while leading the way with the red hairband as if nothing were amiss.

“Sister, let’s go to the Shangshi Pavilion up ahead; it looks like there’s plenty of delicious food there,” Qiang Ning pointed forward, speaking with great enthusiasm. “The people of Sanqi Prefecture love sweet and sour flavors. There should be some local famous dishes we can try there.”

Lin Dongruan nodded, but she did not head straight for the pavilion. Instead, she led Qiang Ning a bit further away to buy a sugar painting.

Fearing that she might collapse from hunger, Qiang Ning quickly tugged at the red ribbon: “Sister, you shouldn’t keep walking. Your body won’t be able to take it.”

Lin Dongruan replied that she was not hungry.

She used to eat only one meal a day and could even endure the inhumane practice of the “Twenty-Four Tonic Meal.” Qiang Ning suspected that Lin Dongruan didn’t even know what hunger felt like; having suffered through such hardship for so many years, she had long since grown accustomed to it.

Qiang Ning lengthened her voice in a whine: “Sisterrrr—”

“The sugar paintings they sell have a butterfly pattern; it’s something A-Ning would like,” Lin Dongruan said, gazing into the distance at a small sugar painting stall. She added, “A-Ning likes sweets, and that old uncle’s craftsmanship is quite good. The butterfly sugar paintings he makes are exceptionally vivid and magnificent.”

The moment she mentioned butterflies, Qiang Ning finally couldn’t help but look into the distance as well—from such a distance, she wondered how Lin Dongruan had even spotted it.

In that moment of hesitation, Qiang Ning was already being led in that direction. Just as Lin Dongruan had said, the old man dipped his brush in sugar and moved with fluid grace; in just a few moments, he outlined a sugar butterfly that was aggressively beautiful.

When Qiang Ning finally held the sugar painting butterfly in her hand, she realized she had never seen such a beautiful butterfly before. She asked Lin Dongruan with genuine curiosity: “Sister, what kind of butterfly is this? Why have I never seen it?”

“This butterfly is extremely rare. it only ever appeared in a small county south of the Huai River. During the previous dynasty, it was recorded in the county annals, but because its name was considered extremely rebellious, the compiler of the annals and his staff were beheaded by the Emperor. The name of this butterfly then became an unspeakable matter,” Lin Dongruan explained. “Later, someone in Jiayi rose in rebellion. On the path to overthrowing the tyrant, they encountered this butterfly and won every battle they fought. After the world changed hands and a new dynasty began, the people began to call it the ‘Emperor Butterfly.’ Of course, these are things one should not speak of lightly. After the gag order was issued, no one dared mention it again, and gradually, few people knew of it.”

Qiang Ning bit the edge of the sugar butterfly’s wing, amazed by the other’s vast knowledge: “Sister, you really know so much.”

Lin Dongruan smiled and asked her: “The Emperor Butterfly—is it sweet?”

Qiang Ning joked: “It’s sweet. Sister, you should try it; after eating it, you could be an Emperor too.”

The moment those rebellious words, which defied the heavens, left her mouth, Qiang Ning regretted them. If Lin Dongruan heard this, at best she would scold her for having an improper heart; at worst, she would spend days and nights lecturing her on benevolence and righteousness to correct her thinking.

However, to her surprise, Lin Dongruan did not blame her. Instead, she leaned in closer to take a shallow taste, answering the joke with a gentle expression: “But I wouldn’t know how, so A-Ning should be the one to eat it.”

Qiang Ning was amused by her earnest tone: “Sister, eating an Emperor Butterfly sugar painting will only give you a toothache. It won’t make you grow taller, nor will it make you smarter.”

So why do you insist on giving it all to me?

The bitter days they spent together in Wusang Town seemed to have etched themselves deeply into her heart. Lin Dongruan did everything in her power to provide a better life for her, treating her even better than she treated herself. Yet, she still seemed to feel a sense of debt, always thinking of how to be even kinder to her—even when coming out to eat, she would set aside the most urgent matters to prioritize Qiang Ning’s preferences.

Qiang Ning suddenly felt that the sugar painting in her hand was excessively sweet. She looked at Lin Dongruan’s profile and secretly wound the restraint around her wrist a little tighter, drawing closer to her.

In the midst of Qiang Ning’s wandering thoughts, a group of rowdy men suddenly approached from the front. They pushed through the crowd with total disregard for others, chasing after a “prey” that was almost within their grasp.

This shove, by pure coincidence, knocked the sugar painting out of Qiang Ning’s hand.

Qiang Ning’s expression darkened like an approaching storm. A surge of stifled anger rose in her chest that she could neither swallow nor release. She tightened her lips, and as the people who knocked down her sugar painting passed by, she stuck out her foot and tripped one, sending him sprawling face-first into the dirt.

“Which blind fool did that!”

After those men scrambled up, the person they were chasing had already disappeared into the distance. They looked at the crowd in fury and shouted: “We advise you not to mind other people’s business! The person our young master wants to seize—not even the gods can save them!”

Qiang Ning thought to herself: Oh, the classic drama of forcing a virtuous person into a bad situation.

She didn’t want to get involved in other people’s business, but these people had knocked down her sugar painting. Shouldn’t she be angry?

“You walk without eyes and then blame the road for being uneven,” Qiang Ning laughed from within the crowd. “If you choke on water one day, will you turn around and blame the water for drowning you?”

This was Sanqi Prefecture, not some remote wild land beyond the Emperor’s reach. This was a place governed by her own people, so she didn’t need to hide her identity too strictly and acted a bit more arrogantly.

Beside her, Lin Dongruan seemed to misunderstand something, casting a look of approval toward her: “A-Ning actually has a side that punishes evil and promotes good.”

Qiang Ning hadn’t intended to keep meddling, but since Lin Dongruan praised her, she immediately changed her tune: “Indeed! They are kidnapping a lady from a good family in broad daylight; it’s simply a total disregard for the law! How could I possibly stand by and do nothing!”

Lin Dongruan asked again: “Then how does A-Ning plan to resolve the current situation, and how will you wrap things up?”

Qiang Ning looked up and realized the surrounding crowd had moved back, leaving her a bit of space—and the enraged men had noticed she was the one who tripped them. They began to close in on her.

Qiang Ning: “…”

For a moment, she wondered if killing people in the middle of the street would frighten Lin Dongruan.

The next moment, she was grabbed by the hand by Lin Dongruan and pulled into the bustling market.

Qiang Ning was being led by the hand as they fled together; her heart couldn’t have been more delighted. However, she couldn’t show her smile too plainly, so she had to pretend to be panicked, only taking the chance to throw a provocative smile at the pursuers behind them whenever she could.

The pursuers’ tempers flared instantly. They charged through the crowd recklessly to catch them.

Qiang Ning reached into her sleeve for a concealed butterfly dart, intending to turn around and play dirty. But then she felt Lin Dongruan’s wrist move. She didn’t know what the other woman had done, but the pursuers behind them suddenly fell to their knees in a large heap.

Qiang Ning was also startled—what did Lin Dongruan just throw? Why hadn’t she noticed anything?

Lin Dongruan finally led her a long way off until they both stopped. They looked at each other and began to laugh.

Seeing that Lin Dongruan wasn’t even out of breath, Qiang Ning felt a sense of admiration: “Sister, you are truly amazing.”

Lin Dongruan calmly pulled out a row of dense, long, soft needles and said humbly: “It is these that are amazing.”

Qiang Ning: “…”

She suddenly felt lucky that when she had bullied Lin Dongruan that day, the other woman didn’t have these needles at hand. Otherwise, she really wouldn’t have known how she died.

It was fortunate that Lin Dongruan was kind-hearted and had a soft temper; otherwise, with just a slight move of her hand, Qiang Ning would likely be bleeding from all seven orifices.

“A-Ning thanks Sister for the grace of not killing me,” Qiang Ning joked, cupping her hands in a mock salute. “It’s a good thing I have Sister to protect me, otherwise I would have surely been bullied today.”

Lin Dongruan gave a soft hum of acknowledgment. Looking at Qiang Ning’s face, which was flushed with a healthy color, she suddenly realized something and looked down—while they were running for their lives, they hadn’t cared about that restrained “red line.” She had actually been holding the other’s hand the entire way.