Chapter 23

Chapter 23

A face transplant?

I was stunned, but I quickly regained my composure.

In my previous life, Yuan Heng only married me after we had known each other for a year. During that time, he sent me a constant stream of bird’s nest and various skin-nourishing tonics. My legal mother’s eyes would practically bleed with envy, and I once believed he truly loved me.

As it turned out, one only fattens the pig to make the slaughter more worthwhile.

Combine that with the fact that he drugged me before taking my face, and his extreme panic over my recent facial injury-it all made sense now.

“What, has that woman’s face been ruined, so they’ve set their sights on mine?”

Meng Huaiqing didn’t deny it. “Yes.”

Just as I thought.

I let out a cold snort. “It seems Yuan Heng is nothing more than a superficial man. If he truly loved her, wouldn’t he just marry her regardless of what she looked like? To have her wear my face, steal my identity, and take my name… his so-called love is utterly worthless!”

Meng Huaiqing merely smiled, offering no reply.

After that, we fell into silence, sitting together quietly. Between the wine and the exhaustion from the earlier tension, I found myself drifting off to sleep.

I didn’t know how long I slept, but in my hazy state, I dreamed I was imprisoned again, my limbs pinned down by iron needles.

Yuan Heng sat beside me, his cold fingertips tracing my face as he asked with a smile, “Qing Qiu, where do you think you’re running to?”

I snapped awake, my heart pounding wildly.

At that moment, I saw a sliver of light above my head. Meng Huaiqing had opened the wooden board of the cellar and was slowly shifting the wooden crate on top, having already moved it a finger’s width.

I was startled. “What are you doing!”

Meng Huaiqing turned his head and explained with a smile, “I have to let some air in every so often, otherwise a person would-”

Before he could finish, the sound of a door being kicked open echoed from outside, followed by the sound of people entering.

My scalp went numb with terror. With nowhere to retreat, I pressed my back tightly against the dirt wall. Meng Huaiqing rushed over, half-squatting and raising his arm to shield me.

The voices of two men drifted down from above.

“Where on earth did the Madam run off to!”

“Who knows? They say a masked beggar snuck over the wall into Jingzhu Hall and knocked out two old servants. Tsk, tsk… he hit Hongyu in the back of the head with a candlestick. He really showed no mercy!”

“It was probably mountain bandits who saw how beautiful the Madam is and kidnapped her. Look, even Lord Cheng has been mobilized. He’s got several dogs searching the back mountain.”

“You didn’t see the Marquis’s face; it was so grim, it was terrifying. He won’t let anyone in the manor spread rumors. They’re just saying a maid went missing.”

“Ha! Who are they trying to fool? Would they make such a fuss over a maid?”

“Enough. We’ve searched the Scripture Pavilion several times already. This tiny room can be seen through at a glance. Let’s go.”

…

I stared fixedly at the crack above my head, feeling as though I could hear the sound of my own heartbeat. Meng Huaiqing remained in his defensive posture, cold sweat already breaking out on his forehead.

The sound of a door closing followed.

After a long while, when there was finally no sound at all, Meng Huaiqing let out a sigh of relief and slumped onto the ground.

I hurried over, took off my cloak, and draped it over him. Unable to find a handkerchief, I used my sleeve to wipe the sweat from his brow.

He flinched back slightly and wiped his face haphazardly with his hand, forcing a smile. “It’s nothing, it’s nothing. I’ve made a fool of myself in front of you, Madam.”

I looked at him and knelt on the ground to kowtow. “Before, I doubted your intentions, sir. But now I see that without you, it would have been impossible for me to escape Ci’en Temple.”

Meng Huaiqing quickly helped me up and draped the cloak back over my shoulders. He raised his hand as if to wipe away my tears, but seeing his dirty sleeve, he lowered it and instead brushed away a tear that had fallen onto the cloak.

“Though my Meng Family has fallen from grace, I dare not forget our ancestral teachings of practicing medicine to help the world and saving those in peril.”

He looked at me, his eyes shimmering. “I am powerless to stop the Marquis from killing you for your skin, but I can save you. Miss Ye, do you trust me?”

I nodded heavily. “I do.”