Chapter 31: Substitute, you just need to learn from Cui Miao...

Chai Heng didn't dwell on this question. After all, she was the one who was leaving. What Yang Yan did or thought was of no concern to her.

Early the next morning, Chai Heng asked for leave from the Beijing Guards and went to the clinic to look after Cui Miao.

Cui Miao had already woken up. Cui Rushi asked Chai Heng to bring some homemade cakes and soups to the clinic. When Chai Heng arrived, Cui Miao was changing his dressings. His upper body was firm and hard, the result of years of exposure to the elements. Upon seeing Chai Heng, his handsome face flushed, and he quickly sought something to cover himself.

The old doctor at the clinic had a rather impatient temper. He was halfway through changing the dressing when he saw the patient was in such a state of distress. Naturally, his tone was not very pleasant:

"The fact that the girl came to see you shows that you two have a close relationship. She's not shy at all, but you, a grown man, are being shy. How can you possibly get a wife if you act like this?"

Just one sentence made Chai Heng, who had originally looked calm, blush.

"Doctor, be careful with your words. We are just friends now." Cui Miao quickly glanced at Chai Heng, hurriedly pulled off his shirt on the hanger beside him, and wrapped his upper body tightly.

Chai Heng coughed lightly and turned sideways.

After he changed his clothes and weakly called her "Miss Chai", Chai Heng turned around again and looked him up and down. A doctor who could bring back the dead was a doctor who could bring back the dead. In just one night, his condition was much better than the night before.

"You look much better than last night," Chai Heng said.

Cui Miao hummed, "I'm sorry for getting you into trouble yesterday. If you hadn't been with me, that danger wouldn't have happened."

"It's not a matter of being implicated. You pushed me out when the fire broke out, so we lived and died together." Chai Heng put the lunch box in his hand on the empty table beside him and sat down.

There were some cakes and some thick black nourishing soup in the lunch box.

Cui Miao frowned as he finished the bowl of nourishing soup Cui had prepared for him. He then said, "You told me before that you were leaving the capital, so there's no real possibility of us getting together. Tomorrow is Madam Chai's birthday. Mothers all over the world love their children. Are you really not going to go see Madam Chai before you leave?"

Over the past few days, they had been sharing their hearts. Cui Miao probably knew something about Chai Heng's connections in the capital. He wasn't familiar with Mrs. Chai, so he asked this question not to persuade Chai Heng, but simply to hope that if she were to leave, she wouldn't regret it one day.

"No."

Chai Heng smiled and said, "Going would only cause more trouble for both of us. It's unnecessary. I won't grow up to be what my mother wants me to be, and I won't be as kind and virtuous as my elder and second sisters. If I go, she'll be disappointed. When I see her disappointed look on my face, I'll feel that everything I did in the past wasn't worth it. We'll just get tired of each other when we meet."

Before going to Xirong, she had actually had a big conflict with Mrs. Chai.

The cause of the conflict was nothing more than Madam Chai's damned need for control. Before she married into the Marquis's mansion, Madam Chai constantly disliked her and tried to discipline her. At the time, Chai Heng was young, and although she felt it was wrong, she obeyed everything to gain her mother's approval. Even after marrying into the Marquis's mansion, she remained like this. She frequently visited the mansion. Since Yang Yan had no mother, Madam Chai naturally felt like her mother-in-law was Yang Yan's mother, constantly finding fault with Chai Heng and telling her what to do.

A few months ago, when she was teaching Chai Heng how to use an abacus, Chai Heng didn't move an abacus bead correctly, so she picked up the whole abacus and slapped him in the face, treating him roughly.

Her face was fine, but her forehead was swollen. When Yang Yan came back that night, he thought she had gone to the Longevity Temple. Because of this, Yang Yan simply stopped letting her come.

This incident left a grudge in Chai Heng's heart, and naturally in Mrs. Chai's heart as well.

So, she hadn't been home these days, and Mrs. Chai hadn't sent anyone to ask. Husbands and wives need steps, and so do mothers and daughters.

Mrs. Chai was actually waiting for Chai Heng to throw a staircase over so that she could go down. But Chai Heng had grown up and was no longer willing to throw the staircase.

In particular, her feelings towards Mrs. Chai are more complicated than those towards Yang Yan.

Right, Yang Yan.

If you slap him, he may be unhappy, but he won't be upset for too long.

For Madam Chai, her mother, things were different. She still didn't know who had poisoned the trap in her previous life. Yang Yan said he hadn't set the trap, but she didn't believe him. He had said he would cut off her limbs if she made another rash move. She didn't know if he had poisoned her. Could it have been her mother? She didn't know. But no matter which of them wanted her dead, it was a tragic thing for her.

She could slap Yang Yan out of anger.

But she couldn't slap Mrs. Chai, her mother, because of her injustice. So after thinking about it, she decided that the best outcome was to never see each other again.

"When you leave, will you miss the people in the capital? Will you miss Lord Yang?"

Cui Miao's sudden mention of Yang Yan surprised Chai Heng for a moment.

"I will miss the people in the Beijing Guards, I will miss you, and I will miss my senior brother who is staying in the capital and cannot leave. As for Yang Yan, I will choose to forget him."

Chai Heng said.

"If I want to see you, can I go to Furong Mountain to see you?" Cui Miao was silent for a long while before he asked this question nervously.

"sure."

Chai Heng looked up at Cui Miao and laughed. What was wrong with being his benefactor in his previous life?

After receiving a positive answer, Cui Miao felt relieved: "When will you leave?"

"My senior brother said that my master and his wife will arrive tomorrow. They will attend a palace banquet and present to the emperor some details of the battle against the Western Rong. They will stay for about two days. I will go to welcome them tomorrow, and I will be able to leave in about three days."

"Then I wish you a safe journey. The mountains are high and the waters are long, Miss Chai, no, can I call you Ah Heng?" Cui Miao's palms were full of sweat, and he looked at Chai Heng cautiously.

Chai Heng said, "You can call me whatever you want."

"Aheng, I hope you can live the life you want in the next few decades." Cui Miao's tone became serious.

Chai Heng curved his eyebrows and said, "I'll give you my good wishes."

*

Yang Yan slept until the afternoon, when he woke up. Chai Heng was no longer around. Zhou Jiu was concentrating on grinding the ointment the doctor had given him with a pestle. This ointment was newly developed by the Imperial Hospital and was said to be much more effective than the previous ointment, healing the wound faster.

"Where's Chai Heng?"

Zhou Jiu's hands kept moving: "I heard that Prince Jing and his wife will return triumphantly tomorrow, and Madam must have gone to prepare the post station for them."

She always went to clean up the post station early the next morning to prevent the waiter from destroying her work. She never had the habit of going a day early. Yang Yan almost didn't have to think about it: "Did she go to see Cui Miao?"

Zhou Jiu said "hmm" softly, and thought with pity in his heart, Sir, you clearly know the answer, why do you still ask this question again and humiliate yourself?

"Did she worry about my injury last night?"

This really exists.

"The doctor came too late last night, only at midnight. Madam asked him with concern if he would die."

Yang Yan: “…”

What kind of concern is this? Even if it wasn't him, but someone she had only met once, she would still worry about whether this person was dead.

Thinking of this, Yang Yan recalled what Chai Heng had said yesterday about repayment. He narrowed his eyes and suddenly asked Zhou Jiu, "If you've made a serious mistake and your wife falls in love with someone else, but at the same time, she tells you that even if she does fall in love with someone else, you can't do anything because she's been through this before, what would you do?"

Zhou Jiu: "Then I will respect her. Love between men and women is common in the world. If I make a big mistake and my wife no longer likes me, it means that my mistake is very serious, and I deserve it. Similarly, if she likes someone else, it must be because that person is worse than me. Instead of trapping her, it is better to let her go completely."

Yang Yan said, "But what if this person has been with you for many years and you really can't let go?"

"As long as she doesn't want to, then she has to let go."

Zhou Jiu had a rare opportunity to persuade Yang Yan again. He had long been unable to bear it. What kind of good man would lock up his ex-wife? If Yang Yan was not his master, he would have punched such a person if he saw him outside.

At this moment, Chai Heng walked in from outside: "What are you putting out?"

“Fly a kite.”

Zhou Jiu's mind raced, "The weather has warmed up these past few days. I thought I'd take my little girl out to fly kites when I have some free time."

Chai Heng nodded without thinking much about it.

"Madam, this medicine..." Zhou Jiu wanted to help his master one last time.

"You apply it on him." Chai Heng glanced at it and had no intention of taking action.

As expected, Yang Yan said to Zhou Jiu calmly, "Go down."

As soon as Zhou Jiu left, the room instantly returned to peace. Chai Heng came back to get her sword. She had taken it off before going to bed yesterday and forgot to put it back on this morning.

The two looked at each other in silence, with nothing to say.

It was Yang Yan who spoke first: "If you feel uncomfortable and don't like being in the Marquis' Mansion, you can return to your villa outside the capital from today."

"Okay, why did you suddenly change your personality?" Chai Heng looked at him in surprise. Letting her go so easily was definitely not Yang Yan's style.

Yang Yan didn't answer her question, but just asked: "Are you still so happy with Cui Miao today?"

"happy."

Yang Yan continued: "Then why do you think he is better than me?"

"He has a better temper than you. He's straightforward and enthusiastic, chivalrous, and willing to help those who are suffering injustice in the world. More importantly, he's very kind to me and never mocks me."

After saying this, Chai Heng deliberately said, "You ask me this because you plan to change your bad habits? That's too much trouble. You just need to spend more time with him and learn from him. That way, when he's not in the capital and I can't see him, it's good for him to see you."

As soon as these words were spoken, Yang Yan's alarm bells went off.

"You want me to be a stand-in?" He frowned.

"Not willing?"

"That means your attitude towards repayment is not good enough."

In fact, she could not stay in the capital for a few days, but when she thought of her past life, she still felt a little unfair, so she wanted to tease him before leaving.

"When you and mother both liked Xue Ruyue, I spent a period of time trying to imitate Xue Ruyue. I even wanted to become her." Chai Heng recalled his past.

Yang Yan's expression suddenly became complicated. Turning himself into another person was an extremely humiliating thing. If Chai Heng hadn't said it, he really wouldn't have known that she had such an idea in her previous life.

"I never thought of making you become like Xue Ruyue."

"But now I want you to become like Cui Miao, and you have to promise not to retaliate against him because of this." Because he could feel the changes in Yang Yan, Chai Heng's evil taste rose up again, and he wanted to hurt him.