The Fortunate Lady and Her Mountain Man

Chapter 183: Chapter 183: An Inaccurate Fortune

After changing her clothes, Ji Xiu’e called Mrs. Zhu out to the vegetable garden in the backyard, to a fairly secluded corner.

She was still reeling from the shock, and now that she had composed herself, her expression was absolutely foul—as dark as a thundercloud.

But Mrs. Zhu was completely oblivious. The moment they stopped, she lowered her voice and asked impatiently, "Eldest Sister, you went to see that wretched girl’s house, didn’t you? How was it? Is the house huge? Did she have a lot of valuables? You didn’t happen to pocket anything on your way out, did you?"

Ji Xiu’e’s mind was elsewhere, so she just forced herself to be patient and offered a few vague replies.

Upon hearing this, Mrs. Zhu was both intrigued and disappointed. "Eldest Sister, that fortune teller you found... he wasn’t a fraud, was he? His predictions are all wrong!"

Ji Xiu’e remained expressionless, feigning ignorance. "What do you mean, ’wrong’?"

Mrs. Zhu grew anxious. "Have you forgotten? When you came back last year, Mingmao was sick all the time. You introduced me to a fortune teller and told me to have him check if Mingmao was afflicted by something malevolent. You said his predictions were incredibly accurate..."

"And didn’t Mingmao get better right after seeing him?"

"No, no, it’s not about Mingmao," Mrs. Zhu said, waving her hands dismissively.

She craned her neck, glanced furtively around the yard, then pulled her head back and lowered her voice even further.

"At the time, that fortune teller came over, walked around the house, and said that the reason Mingmao was so susceptible to illness was because someone in the Ji Family had an overpowering birth chart, a jinx who was actively harming him..."

Ji Mingmao was the apple of Mrs. Zhu’s eye; how could she possibly let someone jinx her son? She immediately dragged the fortune teller to see Ji Qingshan and Aunt Kang.

Ever since Ji Liantang had become a child student, Ji Qingshan and Aunt Kang had grown increasingly superstitious about things like gods, buddhas, and feng shui. Therefore, they took Mrs. Zhu’s words very seriously.

They even gave him a large red envelope, begging the fortune teller to find this person who was a jinx on their family.

After all was said and done, the blame landed squarely on Ji Huan.

When they thought about the string of misfortunes that had befallen the second branch of the family over the past few years, it seemed certain. The one with the overpowering birth chart, the jinx, had to be her. There was no doubt about it!

The fortune teller, to his credit, was quite thorough and even offered a solution to break the curse.

And so followed the incidents where Ji Huan was repeatedly sold off, and even arranged into a ghost marriage.

"Back then, the fortune teller was spot on. He said that wretched girl was born a jinx and would bring ruin to the whole family. Especially my Mingmao! He said as long as that girl remained in the house, my Mingmao’s star of destiny would be suppressed, and he’d never become an official..."

This was why she had been so frantically urging her in-laws to sell Ji Huan off quickly.

"But over the past six months, the more I think about it, the more something feels wrong. Judging by that wretched girl’s current success, there’s no telling how prosperous she’ll become. She doesn’t look like someone with a bad fate at all! Eldest Sister, do you think it’s possible... that the fortune teller got it wrong?"

Mrs. Zhu was green with envy over Ji Huan’s good fortune, but that was only part of it. The other reason was fear.

’She was the one who’d brought the fortune teller to the family. She was the one who’d believed his words and relentlessly pushed her in-laws to sell Ji Huan.’

’If the fortune teller really was wrong, and her in-laws found out later, they’d surely cast her out!’

’After all, Ji Huan wasn’t just a beast of burden anymore. She had learned how to make money!’

’That fact was extraordinarily significant to the Ji Family right now, especially to Ji Qingshan and Aunt Kang.’

So Mrs. Zhu was afraid. The more she thought about it, the more terrified she became. She just wanted some confirmation, anything that could put her mind at ease.

Ji Xiu’e had never been the comforting type. Instead, she turned the questions back on Mrs. Zhu accusatorily.

"I only introduced him to you out of kindness because I heard he had a great reputation. It was just to get Mingmao’s illness checked out; it had nothing to do with Ji Huan. You’re the one who decided on your own to have her fortune told, which caused all that trouble later... What are you coming to me for now? This has nothing to do with me!"

"But I wasn’t the one who asked to have her fortune told! The fortune teller suggested it himself! And the solution to sell that wretched girl out of the Ji Family, that was also his idea..."

Mrs. Zhu was finding it hard to explain herself, so she resorted to complaining to Ji Xiu’e.

"The fortune teller said what he said, and I couldn’t just stand by and watch Mingmao be jinxed... And when you get down to it, you’re the one who introduced him to me, Eldest Sister!"

Ji Xiu’e’s face went cold. "So I try to do a good deed and get bitten for my trouble. Are you blaming me? Or are you trying to sling mud in my direction?"

Mrs. Zhu forced a smarmy, shameless smile.

"How would I dare blame you, Eldest Sister! If that fortune teller really is a fraud, then you were just as tricked as I was. I just want to ask, do you know where he lives? We should go find him and settle the score! What kind of nonsense fortune was that? The one who was supposed to be dead is alive, and the one who wasn’t supposed to prosper is prospering. If his predictions were wrong, he needs to refund our money! Our family gave him several pieces of Silver back then! He has to give it back!"

Mrs. Zhu’s eyes gleamed as she rubbed her hands together, eager to find that fortune teller right away and snatch the money back. It would also be a convenient way to find a scapegoat.

’So after all that, this was just about getting the Silver back.’

Ji Xiu’e breathed a sigh of relief, though her contempt for the woman grew.

"It’s been so long. Where would we even find him? Yeyang is a big city, and he doesn’t have a regular stall... Besides, what makes you so sure he’s a fraud? For everyone else in our village who went to him, his predictions came true."

At this, she shot Mrs. Zhu a sidelong glance.

"As for whether he was right or not, it’s too early to tell. A bit of good luck doesn’t mean it’ll last forever. If she wasn’t fated to have a good life, then no matter how much she struggles, things won’t end well for her."

Her words were rather ominous.

But Mrs. Zhu wasn’t sharp enough to grasp the ominous undertone.

"Eldest Sister, are you saying that Ji Huan is still destined for misfortune?"

Ji Xiu’e’s expression hardened. "I’m not the one saying it. It’s dictated by fate."

Mrs. Zhu nodded eagerly. "Right, right, it’s all fated. Now that you’ve said that, Eldest Sister, I feel much better."

’As long as that wretched girl’s life turns sour, Father and Mother-in-law won’t blame me for what happened.’

’Besides, she didn’t actually want to believe the fortune teller was a fraud.’

’The man himself had said that Mingmao was the earthly incarnation of the Scholar star, destined to become a great official, a minister, or even a chancellor!’

’For that reason alone, he couldn’t possibly be a fraud.’

’It was a pity, though. If he wasn’t a fraud, she wouldn’t have an excuse to get her money back, and it had been a lot of Silver...’

Ji Xiu’e had no more patience for her rambling. "Let me ask you, how many people have you told that I was the one who introduced you to the fortune teller?"

She didn’t ask *if* Mrs. Zhu had told anyone, but *how many* people she had told, which showed she was already certain of the answer.

Mrs. Zhu looked a little guilty. She had, in fact, promised Ji Xiu’e she wouldn’t tell another soul.

"N-not that many... I was just chatting with some people, and it... it slipped out..."

Ji Xiu’e was so angry she felt like she was about to have an aneurysm.

’If she hadn’t needed someone to be the public face of this operation, she would never have partnered with such an imbecile!’

Mrs. Zhu couldn’t figure it out. ’What is she so angry about? What’s there to be mad about? And what’s so secretive about it?’

’It was just an introduction to a fortune teller!’

’Acting all mysterious, as if she was terrified people would find out it was her...’

Oh! A flash of insight struck Mrs. Zhu.

’She understood now.’

’Ji Xiu’e was so scared of people finding out she was the one who made the introduction because she was afraid that if the prediction turned out to be wrong, the family would come after her to settle the score!’

’So that’s it! She was trying to wipe her hands clean of the whole affair, so that if anything went wrong, all the blame would fall on me!’

’Does she take me for a fool!’

’Good thing she’d already told who knows how many people about it during her idle gossip. At least half the village probably knew by now.’

’Now, even if the whole thing blew up, she wouldn’t be afraid. Ji Xiu’e would have to take her share of the blame!’

Unaware of Mrs. Zhu’s scheming, Ji Xiu’e suppressed her anger and asked, "I just have one question for you. Does Ji Huan know?"

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