“Of course it’s you, Sister Ruoyan!” Lin Qingxue called out from behind them. “I wish it were me! And to think Qingchen called me infatuated—Sister Ruoyan’s clearly the one besotted by her own beauty!”

Yun Ruoyan looked at her face in the mirror, both familiar and not. In her mind emerged the image of the woman who had appeared in her dreams, the splitting image of her new countenance.

No, there were a few minute differences. That woman’s brows were finer, and her face gentler. Yun Ruoyan’s brows were thicker, her face more resolute.

So, this was her original appearance. When Yun Ruoyan realized that she was actually beautiful, for some reason, she wasn’t as happy as she would have expected.

Her mind was calm. She knew that this was, would have been, her original appearance. But she too knew that, although her ugliness might have ruined her past life, her current beauty would not be enough to succeed in this one.

What she needed, more than anything, was formidable strength!

A weak but beautiful woman was no more than a flower in a garden that could be plucked at will. She would rather be a phoenix orchid, struggling amidst the tallest cliffs, emerging from beneath thistles and thorns.

Lin Qingchen combed Yun Ruoyan’s hair and took out a pink gown that perfectly suited her body, and Yun Ruoyan’s elegant appearance when she put it on dazzled the sisters once more.

After washing up, Yun Ruoyan had a small bowl of porridge that Lin Qingchen had brought over. She’d also informed her that Lin Zainan would await her in his study, and so she walked there alone.

When Lin Zainan saw Yun Ruoyan, he too fell into a daze, as if mired in his memories. “You look just like Yuemei…”

Lin Yuemei was the woman of Yun Ruoyan’s dreams, who had died of a strange illness when she was one. Yun Ruoyan’s nightmares had begun ever since.

“Grandfather, how is your body?” Yun Ruoyan’s concerned tone dragged Lin Zainan back from his thoughts.

“I’m fine.” He waved his hands about. “I’ve dropped from fifth-rank to third-rank, so I can only make low-grade pills in the future, but luckily I’ve all but gone into seclusion and refused to make pills for others, so I’m not too worried about people finding out.”

Yun Ruoyan couldn’t express her heartfelt gratitude in words, and she could only clutch her grandfather’s hand tightly.

“There, there, it’s alright.” Lin Zainan patted her hand. “Seeing you like this, I’m happier than I would have been had I broken through to sixth-rank, and I’m sure Yuemei would be happy for you too.”

Lin Zainan’s expression became sorrowful. “Yuemei was born under an ill star… Child, you have to make a decent showing of yourself, and I’ll do my best to help you.”

“Grandfather, when my mother died, I was only one, and I don’t have any recollection of what happened.” Yun Ruoyan began provingly, “But, as I grew older, I began to notice servants speaking behind my back, pointing at me and saying that I had cursed my mother to death.”

“A pack of lies!” Lin Zainan slammed his palm on the table. “Everyone from the Yun family loves to talk nonsense. Ruoyan, ignore them.”

Yun Ruoyan nodded, indicating that she didn’t much mind. Upon seeing that Lin Zainan was no longer enraged, she continued, “But those servants weren’t wrong in one aspect: the strange conditions of my mother’s death.”

She looked at Lin Zainan once more and frowned. “Grandfather, can you tell me how my mother truly died? Did she really die of a sudden, strange illness?”

Lin Zainan seemed to grow old in a single moment. He clasped his hands and looked down, and only after a long pause did he continue, “I’d thought you too young to tell you the truth, but you actually discovered it on your own.”

Yun Ruoyan’s heart thumped. It seemed that she had guessed correctly: her mother, that picturesque beauty, had truly been killed by someone else!

Lin Zainan told Yun Ruoyan that, when she was one, Lin Yuemei brought her to the Lin manor for a temporary stay.

The sakura flowers blossomed particularly beautifully that year, and Lin Yuemei would often play around in the grove with Ruoyan.

One day, while the two were playing, Lin Yuemei suddenly began vomiting blood. Afterwards, her body began failing day by day, and not a month later, she died.

Lin Zainan had been participating in a pillmasters’ competition in the Yue kingdom, and by the time he returned, Lin Yuemei had long since been buried. This matter had long since plagued him.

“Although I was a little suspicious about the timing of that event, Yuemei fell ill while she was at the Lins, and I had no excuse to try to identify what had truly happened. Furthermore, at that time, your first and second uncles also left without saying anything. Your first aunt went off in search of them, and I’ve not heard from her since, either. Your second aunt died in an accident, and then your grandmother, taking blow after blow by the disappearance of her sons and daughters, succumbed to a severe illness and passed not long after. In those few years, so much happened to the Lins that I never had a chance to spend much time investigating.”

Yun Ruoyan’s first and second uncles, Lin Tianming and Lin Tianhai, were Lin Qingchen and Lin Qingxue’s fathers respectively. Both of them had left the family when the Lin sisters were very young, and their mothers quickly followed. Just like Yun Ruoyan, the Lin sisters led an unfortunate life.

Lin Zainan continued, “Until two months ago, when you told me that you had been poisoned. Only when I began studying this poison did I discover something remarkable.”

“Remarkable? In what sense?” Yun Ruoyan’s hands were tightly clasped together, her body leaning forward, as if she were afraid of missing even a single word of what Lin Zainan would say.

“Most of the poison in your body wasn’t transmitted to you directly.” Lin Zainan’s white brows furrowed. “It had been transmitted via your placental cord!”

“Placental cord—Grandfather, you mean…?!”

“Your mother had already been poisoned by the time she gave birth to you, but it was such a slow-acting poison that there were no symptoms of it until about a year after your birth. During this process, the poison entered your body while you were still in the womb.”

Yun Ruoyan felt her hands and legs, her entire body, tremble.

Who was it? Who was so evil, so malicious, that they would harm her mother so cruelly?! That they wouldn’t even spare her child?!

“Grandfather!” Yun Ruoyan forcibly repressed the fury in her heart. “Do you know who could have poisoned her?”

“Your mother’s been a kind, gentle girl since her childhood, and I really can’t think of anyone who would be so ruthless.” Lin Zainan sighed, and even his usual ramrod-straight posture began to droop. “I’d been planning on investigating this alone, but now that you’re also aware of it, let’s work together to find this underhanded culprit.”

All of a sudden, Yun Ruoyan stood up. “I swear I’ll find this person, to return the misery and pain to him tenfold, hundredfold!” She said this as much to herself as to Lin Zainan.

Lin Zainan looked at his granddaughter and slowly nodded. He was about to speak when a knocking sound from outside the doors interrupted him. “Master, servants from the Yun family are here again to urge Miss Yun to return home,” Lin Bo called out.

“Tell them that Ruoyan’s not yet well, and send them back.”

“But,” Lin Bo said somewhat embarrassedly, “They said that, on Master Yun’s orders, if Miss Yun doesn’t return today, not to ever return.”

Lin Zainan slammed his palm on the table once more, thundering, “That Yun Lan doesn’t think of me as a father-in-law after Yurmei’s death, does he?! Tell them that we’re keeping Ruoyan!”

“Yes, Master!”

“Lin Bo, wait!” Yun Ruoyan rushed to the front of the study and said to Lin Bo, “Tell them to go back first. I’ll return on my own shortly after.”

Lin Bo left, and Yun Ruoyan turned back to placate her furious grandfather.

“How dare they.” Lin Zainan had incredible self-restraint, and he wouldn’t let his emotions show lightly. It was only Yun Lan that could make Lin Zainan so furious.

“Ruoyan, I’m telling you, your mother was excellent in all regards except for her taste in men, finding someone like that bastard. I opposed their marriage so vehemently, but your mother insisted. Oh, how I regret not having locked her up!”

He looked toward Yun Ruoyan. “Child, make sure you open your eyes wide, that you’re not deceived by others’ appearance and flowery words.”

“Don’t worry, Grandfather, I won’t.” Not in this life, not anymore. Yun Ruoyan gently massaged her grandfather’s shoulders.

“But, luckily, with your appearance, regular men would probably be too intimidated to approach you.” His tone was filled with pride and gratification.

Yun Ruoyan stopped what she was doing and went to his front. “Grandfather, my mother was so beautiful, but she still couldn’t avoid falling into someone else’s schemes. I’m worried that my beauty will end up more a hindrance than a help, drawing unnecessary attention to myself. I don’t want to appear like this in front of others before having the ability to protect myself. Grandfather, can you help me?”

Lin Zainan gazed at his granddaughter once more. Although in appearance she seemed almost an exact duplicate of his daughter, her will and determination reminded him of himself, no, it surpassed him during his prime!

He smiled in satisfaction.

By Yun Ruoyan’s request, Lin Zainan gave her some ointments to reproduce her ugly appearance once more.

He handed Yun Ruoyan a few bottles of different colors, telling her which ones would cause her skin to become red and swollen, which would reduce the swelling, which would create a fishy, rank odor when mixed together, but not harm her skin at all.

When Yun Ruoyan once again appeared in front of the Lin sisters, they were both shocked and regretful—regretting that they hadn’t seen more of her transcendent appearance while they had had the chance.

It was near noon, but Yun Ruoyan didn’t stay at the Lins for a meal. Instead, she asked Lin Bo to send her home.

Perhaps because of that golden-yellow pill, despite having slept for three days and nights but only consuming a small bowl of porridge, Yun Ruoyan didn’t feel hungry in the slightest.

As she got to the front doors of the Yun estate, the servants began running into the manor as soon as she got off the carriage.

Before Yun Ruoyan could even return to her residence to tidy up, she was summoned directly to the great hall.

There, almost everyone in the family was gathered and eyeing her!