Jiang Fan felt relieved and repeated the question he had just asked.
"What's wrong with her? Did she use some secret technique again?"
"No, that's not it. Our ancestor was just wearing makeup," the fat man replied truthfully.
"Makeup?" Jiang Fan looked shocked and turned to stare intently at Wang Yao, scrutinizing her from head to toe.
At this moment, Wang Yao appeared as a young girl, quite different from the mature demeanor of the aloof and powerful patriarch of the Wang Family.
Are you sure it's just makeup?
Why would I lie to you?
All right.
Jiang Fan was speechless; all he could say was that Great Xia's makeup skills were comparable to a dark art of disguise.
Then, as if remembering something, he took out a peach from his storage ring and handed it to the fat man.
Seeing the pink peaches shimmering with a golden light, the chubby guy, a self-proclaimed foodie, immediately had his eyes light up and his mouth water.
" Brother Fan, you're so good to me, even thinking of giving me good food. This looks delicious."
Without a word, the fat man snatched the peach from Jiang Fan's hand and eagerly stuffed it into his mouth.
These are peaches.
Jiang Fan's simple words brought the fat man to an abrupt halt, as if a pause button had been pressed, freezing him in place with his mouth agape.
After a long pause, he finally managed to utter a single word.
"What?"
"Peaches."
"Peach, peach, peach -- peach fruit?"
The fat man's mouth was already wide open, and when he heard the same words again, his jaw almost dropped.
"Tell me—tell me—tell me this is a peach?!"
Glug!
He swallowed hard.
" Brother Fan, you're not kidding me, are you?"
"Do I look like the kind of person who would joke about something like this?" Jiang Fan asked instead of answering.
The fat man shook his head vigorously, just as Jiang Fan had said; he was indeed not the type to joke about such things.
But—but it was precisely this that caused him to lose his composure and become so shocked!
You know, peaches are a rare and precious treasure produced by Lord Turtle's Brother Peach!
As that person's contracted beast, this rare treasure isn't something just anyone can obtain.
How did you get it?
"It was given to me by Peach Fruit Old Man," Jiang Fan replied truthfully.
"Huh? You said--you said--"
The fat man was so shocked that he couldn't utter a complete sentence. At the same time, his gaze towards Jiang Fan was filled with disbelief, and in the end, it completely changed.
Jiang Fan read what the fat man was thinking from his eyes and explained speechlessly, "Quickly stop your fantastical ideas. This matter is actually..."
After hearing the whole story, the fat man let out a long sigh of relief, his expression extremely exaggerated.
"I see."
"Or what do you think it is?" Jiang Fan gave him a look as if he were an idiot.
"Hehehe." The fat man chuckled twice, "But Brother Fan, you really have guts. You actually dared to impersonate that person in front of Peach Fruit Old Man. Aren't you afraid that it will come back and kill you afterward?"
"If I hadn't done this, I would have been dead long ago," Jiang Fan said.
The fat man had no way to refute that.
"You're really lucky. On your first trip into the Outer Wilderness Zone, you accidentally stumbled into a special secret realm and even bumped into Peach Fruit Old Man. Tsk tsk tsk, I'm impressed!" The fat man grinned and flattered, giving two thumbs up.
Jiang Fan didn't bother to respond. "Just give this to your ancestor; consider it repaying her favor."
"Me??" The fat man pointed to himself.
"No, no, no—" the fat man shook his head like a rattle-drum, "You should hand it to her yourself. If I help pass it on, I'll definitely be in big trouble."
Are you even a brother anymore?
"Of course I have to! It's just that I'm afraid if I pass it on to you, my brother will be a dead brother."
Seeing the fat man backing away in fear, Jiang Fan couldn't help but twitch his lips.
Before he could say anything more, the fat man had already retreated to Wang Yao's side.
"Cousin, Brother Fan has something for you."
Jiang Fan "..."
"Really?" Wang Yao asked excitedly, her cheeks flushing.
At the same time, Lan Shengxue turned her head to look at him with her icy, piercing eyes.
At that moment, Jiang Fan inexplicably felt a desire to go outside for some fresh air.
"What is that? What is that?" Wang Yao ran over excitedly.
Since things had already come to this, Jiang Fan had no choice but to accept his fate.
"Come with me."
After saying that, he led the way and left the villa.
Lan Shengxue's gaze followed the two departing figures from beginning to end, until they completely disappeared.
Outside the villa.
Jiang Fan handed the peach directly to Wang Yao.
"This is... Brother Peach's flavor!"
The Little Turtle poked its head out of Wang Yao's pocket, its surprised tone filled with excitement.
As soon as it peeked out, it saw the peach in Jiang Fan's hand.
"Peaches! Just like Brother Peach's flavor! But how did you get peaches?!"
The Little Turtle snatched the peach and examined it repeatedly to make sure it wasn't making a mistake in its excitement.
The reason it wasn't quite sure wasn't because of the peach's authenticity, but rather because it wondered how Jiang Fan could possibly have a peach.
That doesn't make sense!
Compared to the Little Turtle with its extremely strange and complicated expression, Wang Yao was much calmer, even taking the peach from the Little Turtle's hand with an air of matter-of-fact composure.
"I told you, he is your master, but you wouldn't believe me."
"Impossible! Absolutely impossible! A thousand times, ten thousand times impossible!"
As the Little Turtle spoke, it shook its head vigorously, as if it absolutely refused to believe the truth.
"Kid, tell me quickly, how did you get these peaches? Did you use some kind of trickery or deception?"
Jiang Fan nodded, "You were right, I did get these peaches by trickery."
He had to tell the truth because that person wasn't someone anyone could impersonate, and once Peach Fruit Old Man recovered from his injuries, he would inevitably come back to find him.
Given his fame in Great Xia and his striking good looks, it wouldn't be difficult for Peach Fruit Old Man to find him.
Once it finds him and learns the truth about him impersonating its master, he wouldn't be able to pay for it even with a hundred lives.
So he had to tell Wang Yao and the Little Turtle, so that Peach Fruit Old Man would know that everything he had done was for his master's woman, and that way his life could be saved.
Hearing Jiang Fan's answer, the Little Turtle breathed a long sigh of relief.
"See! I told you so!"
Wang Yao acted as if she hadn't heard Jiang Fan's words, hugging the peaches to her chest, looking extremely pleased with them.
"Kid, tell me quickly, how exactly did you swindle and cheat me out of this?" the Little Turtle asked curiously.
Jiang Fan frowned slightly. Did he have to explain it again?
He should have known better than to ask the fat guy for help.
Despite his complaints, he still recounted the story of how he met Peach Fruit Old Man in a simple and truthful manner.
After hearing this, the Little Turtle's mouth dropped open in astonishment.