Chapter 1758: Confession

“Hey! Where’s my fruit?” It was at this moment Lingyu’s voice reached them. She herself arrived a second later.

Ye Qing glanced at the girl and decided to tease her. “What fruit?”

Lingyu said, “My Fruit of Fate, duh!”

Ye Qing crossed his arms. “I thought you didn’t want it because you were scared?”

Lingyu tried to argue, “I... I wasn’t scared! You’re the one who sent me flying!”

“Oh, you should’ve mentioned it sooner. We didn’t grab your Fruit of Fate because we thought you didn’t want it.”

Ye Qing shrugged. “It’s your fault, you know. If you wanted it, you should’ve said it sooner. It’s not like we can read your mind.”

“Y-you didn’t grab my Fruit of Fate?”

Lingyu stared wide-eyed at him for a moment before bursting into tears. “Uwah... you... you’re all bullies! I want to go home! Uwah!!!”

“Stop teasing her.”

Feng Qingyou gave Ye Qing a look before producing Lingyu’s Fruit of Fate. “Stop crying. He’s just playing with you. We wouldn’t forget you as a matter of course. Here’s your Fruit of Fate.”

“W-what? Y-you have my Fruit of Fate?” Lingyu asked between sobs. When she saw the Fruit of Fate in Feng Qingyou’s hand and confirmed that it was hers, the grievances on her face were immediately replaced by excitement. “It really is my Fruit of Fate!”

“Of course I do. Why would I lie to you?” Feng Qingyou smiled and handed it back to her.

Lingyu was ecstatic as a matter of course. The fruit was rather big, and Lingyu was petite. So, it looked like she was holding a big head. It was quite an amusing appearance.

Ye Qing smiled. “If you’re done celebrating, can you tell us how we should use the Fruit of Fate?”

Lingyu turned her head to one side and harrumphed. “Hmph! I’m not telling you!”

“That’s fine,” Ye Qing said. “It’s a fruit, so we should probably eat it. I’m sure we’ll recover our stolen fate afterward.”

“Hmph!” Lingyu harrumphed again when she heard this. “Sure, if you want to die!”

Old Man Turtle was barely holding back the urge to consume the Fruit of Fate when Lingyu’s remark snapped him out of it. “What do you mean? Can’t we eat our Fruit of Fate directly?”

Lingyu said matter-of-factly, “Of course not. The flesh of the Fruit of Fate contains a terrible curse. If you eat it directly, then you will be cursed by fate.”

Ye Qing frowned. “What will happen if we are cursed by fate?”

Lingyu did not beat around the bush this time. “If you are cursed by fate, then you will be unlucky for as long as you live. It is a fate far worse than having your fate stolen by the Fate Taking Tree.”

Everyone exchanged shocked looks with each other after hearing this. Before this, they thought that consuming the Fruits of Fate was enough to cure them. In fact, they all felt an almost unnatural instinct and desire to devour the fruits in their hands.

But now, they realized the instinct and desire were, in fact, unnatural. It was a trick to convince them into eating the Fruit of Fate and becoming cursed by fate.

“That was dangerous!” Without Lingyu, they might have fallen for the trap and been cursed by fate already. What a treacherous trap it was!

“Thank you, Lingyu. We would have suffered a terrible fate if it wasn’t for you!” Ye Qing smiled and thanked the girl sincerely.

He didn’t think that Lingyu was tricking them either. For one, there was absolutely no need. And two, their instincts were warning them of terrible danger after they listened to Lingyu’s warning.

It would have been nicer if their instincts had warned them before Lingyu’s warning, but it was proof that the girl was telling the truth.

“Hmph! Like I care about your thanks.” Lingyu did not even look at him. “I wouldn’t have told you anything if not for big sis Feng and Grandpa Turtle, you baddie!”

“Yes, yes, it was my fault. I shouldn’t have lied to you earlier.”

The little girl just saved their lives, so it was only right that he pampered her a little. Besides, a wise man knew when to submit to circumstances. “I promise I won’t ever lie to you again, so don’t be mad, okay? You look ugly when you’re mad, you know?”

“Hmph! You’re the ugly one!”

Lingyu was still puffing her cheeks, but it was clear that she was feeling much better than before.

Feng Qingyou stepped in and played the mediator. “Just ignore the baddie and tell me how to use the fruit, Lingyu.”

“Yeah! I’ll ignore him!” Lingyu echoed in agreement and stopped throwing a tantrum. “It’s very simple. You simply need to cut open the fruit and eat the core.”

Old Man Turtle exclaimed in surprise, “Really? It’s that simple?”

Lingyu replied matter-of-factly, “Yeah?”

“I’ll try,” said Ye Qing as he cut open the Fruit of Fate with his bare hands and exposed a fist-sized core.

The core was translucent, limpid, and covered in strange patterns. Profound liquid seemed to be flowing inside the core, and they occasionally formed the vague outline of Ye Qing’s appearance.

“I think she’s right.”

At this moment, Ye Qing could feel an inexplicable connection to the core.

Ye Qing pulled out the core and tried to eat it. Right as he moved the core to his mouth, it turned intangible and slipped into his mouth of its own accord.

Physically, Ye Qing did not feel like anything had changed. However, his intuition whispered to him that he had regained what he had lost; his fate.

“My fate is back to normal.”

Ye Qing looked at Feng Qingyou, Old Man Turtle and Lingyu and smiled. “Lingyu is right.”

Lingyu proudly declared when she heard this, “Everything I say must be the truth!”

That was what she said, but she secretly hid a sigh of relief. It was because she wasn’t all that confident. After all, everything she knew had been learned from the books she read. Who could say if the knowledge contained within the book was accurate or effective? Thankfully, it looked like she was right.

And so Feng Qingyou, Old Man Turtle and Lingyu cut open the Fruit of Fate and produced the core. Then, they swallowed it.

“Phew... I’ve recovered! I’ve finally recovered! Hahahahaha!”

It was at this moment Old Man Turtle laughed boisterously. It was clear that he was overflowing with excitement.

“Congratulations, elder!”

“Congratulations on retrieving your lost fate, elder.”

Ye Qing and Feng Qingyou both saluted him in congratulations.

“Thank you, but I must apologize to you two about something.”

Old Man Turtle withdrew his excitement and turned serious. “I did not tell you the whole truth as to why I wish to come to Dong Ji. It is true that I wish to retrieve my memory, but it is also because I wish to retrieve my lost fate.”

“I didn’t hide it on purpose though. I did lose my memory, so I didn’t even know what I lost. All I know is that it is so important that I must retrieve it no matter what.”

“It wasn’t until I saw the Fate Taking Tree and the fruit that I realized what it was. I apologize for my mistake and sincerely beg for your forgiveness.”

Old Man Turtle knew he had to explain himself even if he didn’t want to. It was because he knew that the duo must have guessed the truth the moment they saw his Fruit of Fate on the Fate Taking Tree. He must explain himself so that a rift wouldn’t appear between them.