At the old woman's words, Jiang Shan froze, then said in shock, "You never married?"
"Why would I have married?"
"I'd already left by then. Surely you had long since..."
"Because you left, I was supposed to marry someone?"
Cutting Jiang Shan off, the old woman stepped forward and said angrily, "What do you take me, Hong Jing, for? Some object for people to fight over?"
"If that were true, would you have been qualified to court me back then?"
"Don't forget, I was the daughter of the Head of Nine Caves and Eighteen Forts, while you were only the adopted son of a minor lineage."
"In status, I stood above you. In talent, I was even a shade better."
"If I hadn't pulled strings for you behind the scenes, what would have given you the right to compete on equal footing with that fellow from the Outer Heavens?"
"But..."
"No more buts. Could you give her the Di Yuan Fruit before you carry on talking?"
"A few days ago, she and the others took a palm strike from me. If you don't replenish her lifespan soon, she really will die."
"And if she dies, don't come begging me afterward."
Jiang Shan was interrupted again, though this time the voice came from up in the tree.
Looking up, he saw Chen Changsheng and Bai Ze sprawled on its branches, watching the drama with relish.
"Sir!"
Jiang Shan called out anxiously. He was furious and embarrassed that his private affairs had been exposed, and he also resented the plan Chen Changsheng had devised earlier.
"Don't look at me like that."
"You lived through what happened in the Greenwood Epoch. Whatever you told me, I took at face value."
"I built my plan around the feelings you showed."
"The plan was perfect.