Chapter 68 Chapter 68 She and the scholar love the word, really called...
Liu Yingying raised her hand to untie the thick veil on her face, revealing a hideous scar on the right cheek. The newly grown flesh was pink, which shocked Zhao Mingsheng.
She seemed to be used to it and smiled generously: "It's ugly, right?"
After Zhao Mingsheng carefully observed Liu Yingying's injury, she assured him, "This scar isn't difficult to remove. If you're willing to use this ointment, it will heal in less than a month."
Her slender fingers touched the scar on her right side, rubbing it slowly. "It wasn't deep originally, but I deliberately applied powder to it, and it took so long to heal that it became this scar."
Zhao Mingsheng widened his eyes in surprise. Did Liu Yingying leave the scar on purpose?
She was about to ask why but swallowed it back. What kind of experience would make a woman who loves beauty so much be willing to destroy her own appearance?
Seeing the confusion in her eyes, Liu Yingying nonchalantly revealed her own scars bit by bit. "When I was eight, my mother fell ill and passed away. My alcoholic father then sold me to a human trafficker, who then sold me to Yanliu Pavilion. At first, I worked as a maid for three years, serving the previous head prostitute of Yanliu Pavilion."
She narrowed her eyes as if recalling something. "She was a very gentle person, but also a pitiful one. She could have fallen in love with anyone else, but she chose to fall in love with a poor scholar. We all tried to convince her that a poor scholar was no good, and that we wouldn't have the money to buy her freedom in the future. But she refused to listen, her heart fixed solely on that scholar."
"They were discovered on the night they were about to elope, and both were caught."
"What happened next?" Zhao Mingsheng was fascinated by what he heard and couldn't help asking.
Liu Yingying lowered her eyes to hide the mockery in them: "She was beaten to death, and the scholar returned to the academy to continue his studies."
The word love is really hard to understand.
Her tone was calm, but her eyes revealed a hint of sadness.
"Later, after three years of training, I succeeded her as the top performer in Yanliu Pavilion." She laughed self-deprecatingly, "In total, I've been the top performer for three years now."
"These past three years, I'm really...tired." She lowered her head, a strand of hair falling from her temple, and her tone was filled with unspeakable fatigue. "That's why I deliberately used powder to leave the scar on my face. With this scar, I can at least breathe for a while..."
Zhao Mingsheng didn't know how to comfort her for a moment, so he had to use his little hands to hold her cold fingertips in his palms, trying to warm them.
Feeling the warmth on her fingertips, Liu Yingying was stunned for a moment, and she murmured:
"You shouldn't come here. I'm already stuck in the mire, like a piece of mud rotting in the ground, and you..." But you are that pure and flawless jade, you shouldn't be involved with a piece of mud like me, lest you get stained.
Before she could finish her words, the girl in front of her suddenly stood up.
She had to look up at her, and the moment she looked up, she met a pair of clear and bright eyes, without a trace of disgust or aversion in them.
Zhao Mingsheng looked into the deepest part of her eyes. In the pitch black, there was a small figure covered with scars. She was about to be buried by the darkness around her, but she longed for that little bit of light.
The girl smiled with an extremely gentle smile, her eyes filled with determination. She said word by word, "You are not mud. These things that shackle you are the mud."
Zhao Mingsheng could see that although she was in the mud, she was still trying hard to grow upwards. Even ants tried to survive, and she just wanted to survive!
Zhao Mingsheng gently touched the scar on her right side. "You can't punish yourself with other people's mistakes. Do you want to change your life?"
The girl's voice was so gentle that Liu Yingying began to cry as she listened, and a crystal teardrop slid down her cheek.
During these nine years, she had resisted, but finally succumbed to the whip. She had been desperate, but now she saw hope again.
"good."
She was willing to try again, even if she was torn to pieces, she would break free from these shackles.
If you want to get out of here, the first step is to redeem yourself.
When Liu Yingying thought of this, her brows and eyes became gloomy again.
"At first, Mother Yan told me that the ransom would only require one thousand taels of silver."
Zhao Mingsheng touched the banknotes in her sleeve and showed a happy face. She just had one thousand taels here! But before she could be happy for too long, Liu Yingying said again:
"When I saved up a thousand taels of silver and went to redeem her, she said she wanted ten thousand taels."
Zhao Mingsheng:!!! This has increased tenfold!
Why didn't Yan Mama just go and rob her! You have to know that when the traffickers sold Liu Yingying to Yanliu Pavilion, they only sold her for fifty taels of silver! Over the years, she has made Yanliu Pavilion a hundred times more money, if not a thousand times more!
"It doesn't matter. If directly using silver to redeem you doesn't work, we can think of other ways!" Zhao Mingsheng comforted her.
If she hadn't heard the gossip of that group of people on the roadside that day, she and Liu Yingying might never have met again.
Thinking of this, she suddenly had an idea and said happily, "I have an idea!"
Zhao Mingsheng leaned close to Liu Yingying's ear, and the two of them lowered their voices and whispered in the room for a long time. Finally, they came up with a good way to get rid of Yanliu Pavilion.
But this plan cannot be implemented immediately, it will take a few more days.
"This is the best method I can think of, but it may make you feel aggrieved for a while," said Zhao Mingsheng.
Liu Yingying doesn't care about these things. Hasn't she suffered enough grievances in these years since she entered Yanliu Pavilion?
Compared with those, the grievances Zhao Mingsheng suffered in this method are really nothing.
She agreed decisively, "Let's do it this way. I can bear this little bit of grievance."
Before leaving, Zhao Mingsheng was a little worried, fearing that something might happen in the next few days. However, Liu Yingying comforted her, "Don't worry. Considering the injury on my face, Mother Yan shouldn't do anything to me in the short term."
Only then did Zhao Mingsheng leave Yanliu Pavilion and prepare to start their plan.
As soon as I stepped out of the gate of Yanliu Pavilion, I saw Huang Yuexin and her maid strolling not far away.
She was standing at a jewelry stall, looking through the jewelry on the stall, and from time to time she picked up a hairpin and tried it on her bun.
Zhao Mingsheng was planning to find another time to visit her, but she didn't expect to meet them here, so she happily walked forward to say hello, but as soon as she approached, she was stopped by the maid beside her intentionally or unintentionally.
"Young master, please respect yourself!" The maid loyally protected Huang Yuexin, looking warily at the "young master" who was trying to approach her and strike up a conversation with a look of caution.
Zhao Mingsheng was a little puzzled when she was suddenly stopped. She glanced at the maid with a bad look on her face, then looked down and saw herself dressed in men's clothes. Suddenly she realized that they might have misunderstood something.
She suddenly felt playful and folded her folding fan. She deliberately lowered her voice and said in a pretentious manner, "Young lady, you look unfamiliar. I'm afraid you're from Qingkang Town. Why don't I treat you and take you for a stroll?"
It was the first time that Huang Yuexin was approached like this on the street. She was so embarrassed that she took a quick glance and felt that the person opposite her looked somewhat familiar, but she didn't think much about it and quickly hid behind the maid.
If she took a closer look, she would find that this was the little sister she had been thinking about!
"Young master, please respect yourself!" The maid loyally protected Huang Yuexin, looking warily at the "young master" who was trying to approach her and strike up a conversation with a look of caution.
She had just seen the young man walk out of the building in front. Although she didn't know what it was for, she could tell from the women standing at the door, dressed in fancy clothes with their shoulders half exposed, that it must not be a good place.
The 'young master' from that place was naturally not a good young master, although he was fair and handsome.
Zhao Mingsheng decided not to tease them anymore. Just as he was about to restore his original voice and reveal his identity, a male voice suddenly came from the side.
"Brother, why are you being so disrespectful in broad daylight? Confucius once said that a gentleman's etiquette is to start from the heart and end with propriety. It's not just about propriety, it's about the heart... that's what it means to behave properly." The man spoke incessantly, "Brother, do you understand the etiquette of a gentleman now?"
"I understand, but I'm not a 'gentleman', I'm a woman." Zhao Mingsheng turned around and smiled sweetly, "Brother."
"younger sister?!"
"Sister Zhao?!"
Hearing the girl's voice, Zhao Qingyue and Huang Yuexin were shocked and said in unison, their eyes widened in shock.
Zhao Qingyue came to the shop to buy paper and ink. As soon as he came out, he saw two women being approached by a young man in a purple robe. He remembered that one of them was his sister's friend whom he had met once before in the government office.
He rushed over to help them out, but now...
"Why are you dressed like this?" Zhao Qingyue was very puzzled looking at his sister who was dressed in men's clothes. He didn't recognize her at all when he saw her from behind just now.
If the girl hadn't spoken in her own voice, Huang Yuexin wouldn't have recognized her at all, but she was too shy to even look up.
"Haha...my clothes got dirty accidentally, so I changed." Zhao Mingsheng certainly couldn't tell her brother that she had just taken a stroll through Yanliu Pavilion, so she laughed it off.
Zhao Qingyue narrowed his eyes slightly. His clothes were dirty, so why did he change into men's clothes? There must be something wrong. But now was not a good time to question him. He would ask him thoroughly when he got home tonight.
He turned around and bowed to the two young ladies, "I'm sorry, I was naughty and disturbed you two."
Huang Yuexin quickly waved her hands, her cheeks slightly red. "No, no, Sister Zhao was just joking with us. You don't have to apologize, sir."
"You didn't recognize me, it seems that I pretended to be quite successful!" Zhao Mingsheng said with a smile. He was about to put his arm around Huang Yuexin, but when he saw Zhao Qingyue's gaze, he put his hand down awkwardly.
"Since you are dressed as a man now, you can't flirt with other young ladies on the street, so as not to ruin their reputation." Zhao Qingyue said with a stern face.
"I know! Brother, are you busy right now? If not, let's have lunch together?" Zhao Mingsheng glanced at the sun. It was almost noon, and she felt a little hungry. "Sister Huang hasn't had lunch yet, right? Why don't you join us?"
Huang Yuexin nodded, "Okay."
"I'm not busy. I'll treat you to whatever you want to eat." Zhao Qingyue couldn't help but smile as he looked at his well-behaved sister.
"Baxianlou!" She had always heard others say that this restaurant was delicious, but she had never tried it.
Zhao Qingyue smiled helplessly. It seemed that he was going to be slaughtered, but who else could he favor if not him?
"good."
No one noticed.
Huang Yuexin looked at the doting smile on Zhao's handsome face, and her face turned even redder.
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