50、Disfigurer

  The white pearl rejected at the door did not wait in front of the Yun Wang Fu, but after a moment of silence outside the closed gate, she returned to the mansion. In the carriage, her long eyelashes drooped over her eyes, blocking out her gaze, making it impossible for anyone to see what she was thinking, and thus no one saw the deep-seated venom in her eyes.

  Shamu watched as the white pearl carriage gradually disappeared into the distance, and inexplicably felt a sense of unease in her heart.

  It was night at the mansion of the champion scholar.

  The courtyard that should be filled with the joy of a new marriage now has only a lantern swaying in the wind, which is just a short distance away. The cold autumn air blows over the fallen leaves on the ground, making the chill of late autumn even more biting. The entire courtyard is gloomy and quiet, as if no one had set foot there for a long time. There was neither joy nor even a hint of human presence.

  If one looked closely, they could see a lantern swaying in the distance, moving towards this other courtyard. As the lantern drew near, it became clear that the person holding it was a young woman with a single braid, wearing a plain pale blue dress that made her delicate face look somewhat pale. It couldn't be anyone else but Cui'er, Princess Xiahou Lü's personal maid.

  All that could be seen was Cui'er holding a lantern in one hand and a food box in the other, her figure cautious and hurried in the dim light, as if something frightening was following closely behind her.

  Suddenly, a withered branch above her was blown down by the night wind, and a fallen leaf landed on her hand holding the lantern, startling her so much that her hand shook violently, as if something terrifying had stuck to her hand. She couldn't even hold the lantern steady, and it fell to the ground with a clang, the flame bursting out and instantly burning the thin silk lampshade.

  Cui'er stared at the wind lamp on the ground, which was being slowly licked by the flames, and took two steps back in terror. Then, she slowly turned her neck, as if she had been greatly shocked, and looked around her body with a trembling lip, her breathing becoming rapid. In the soft crackling sound of the burning wind lamp shade, it seemed that even her extremely fearful heartbeat could be heard.

  The suddenly enlarged flame gradually approached extinction, Cui Er's heart was violently heaving, like all those who had experienced extreme fear and whose legs were as heavy as boulders and couldn't move for a moment. When another fallen leaf fell down and hit her face, she gathered up the courage of her whole body, opened her footsteps and rushed forward in a mad dash, almost shouting out loud.

  Behind her, the wind lanterns that had fallen to the ground went out, and the surroundings were still quiet, with only a faint sound of the wind passing by. There was nothing scary anywhere.

  Cui'er ran wildly with her lunchbox until she reached the two-story pavilion with lanterns, where she finally stopped and panted heavily, covering her mouth. She looked back in the direction she came from to make sure nothing scary was following her, then swallowed her saliva and tidied up her disheveled hair before approaching the pavilion.

  Cui'er arrived in front of the tightly closed door, making an effort to calm her own breathing. After taking a deep breath, she raised her voice respectfully and said: "Princess, I've brought your midnight snack."

  Inside the house was quiet, only the candle flames were jumping, not even a silhouette could be seen. Cui'er panicked and called out again, "Princess, are you inside?"

  There was still no movement inside, let alone a response.

  "Princess, I'm Cui'er. You haven't had dinner yet, so I've brought you some supper." Cui'er's increasingly shrill voice due to nervousness revealed her inner anxiety as she raised her hand and knocked on the tightly closed door.

  However, Cui'er's hand had just barely grasped the door handle when the two doors that should have been tightly closed slowly creaked open from within, as if they were slightly ajar. Cui'er was taken aback for a moment, and then with a nervous heart, she pushed the door open with her hand while carefully and respectfully saying: "Princess, I've come in. You..."

  "Ah......" Cui'er's words were not yet finished, when a hand suddenly appeared from behind the door and accurately grasped her throat! The sudden suffocating feeling forced her to let out a cry of surprise.

  In the moment of horror, Cui'er's lunchbox fell to the ground with a loud crash, the lid opened, and all the food inside spilled out. The thick soup flowed through the tightly woven bamboo strips of the lunchbox and onto the floor, wetting Cui'er's shoe tips.

  "Pr...princess..." Cui'er looked at Xiahou Lü in horror, her eyes wide with fear as he choked her with one hand, his grip so tight that she could barely breathe. She reflexively raised her hands to grab onto Xiahou Lü's wrists, trying to loosen his grip before he could strangle her to death. Her body shook violently and her voice trembled with fear.

  This is the seventh day Xiahou Ru has been married into the Zhuangyuan Fu, she should be a beautiful bride, but at this moment, she is as different from her former self as heaven and earth. It's not that she's just changed, it's more like she's become eerie and frightening, to the point where even Cui'er, who has seen her the most in these few days, feels shocked and disbelieving every time she sees her.

  At this time, Xiahou Lü was still wearing the big red brocade dress she wore on the day she married Yu Shiyuan, but it was already full of wrinkles. Her makeup from that day was still intact, but it had become disheveled and ugly, making her originally beautiful face look ugly and eerie. At this moment, she stood barefoot in front of Cui'er, with bloodshot eyes. In just a few days, her plump and smooth face had become emaciated, with high cheekbones, a waxen complexion, dark eye circles, and deep sunken eye sockets. She didn't look like a beautiful bride at all, but rather like a female ghost crawling out of a dry well. Even her slender white hands were now yellowish and bony.

  So let Cuier feel that what makes her heart tremble every time she sees Xiahou Lü these days is not just the day-by-day changes in her face, but also her day-by-day hair!

  Nowadays Xiahou Lü's hair is no longer the raven-black locks that even the imperial concubine praised, but rather a few sparse strands of yellowish-brown fine hair on her head, revealing large patches of scalp, as if one could clearly see each and every hair follicle. Not only that, but on top of her head, there are also irregularly-sized reddish-brown spots the size of fingernails, and the remaining few strands of hair stand upright on those disgusting spots, as if they might fall out at any moment, ugly and nauseating.

  Cui'er didn't know why Xiahou Lü's body would undergo such a terrifying change, she only knew that on the night of Xiahou Lü and Yu Shiyan's grand wedding, she was frightened into a coma by an ugly and frightening person, and when she woke up again, she saw her master's hair falling out at a visible speed, one strand after another. When Xiahou Lü woke up and reached for her own hair, it came off in a big handful with just one touch, and she fell into a state of semi-madness!

  The number one scholar's reason for sending away the crowd of people who were making a ruckus on their wedding night, using various excuses to shoo them off as they stepped into the bedroom, was that he absolutely could not let anyone see his new wife's terrifying appearance after her transformation. He also couldn't let the world know that their highly anticipated marriage had turned out like this, so he told everyone outside and even those in the mansion that the princess was unwell and needed to rest and recover, forbidding anyone from entering the separate courtyard, and still having her wait on the princess as usual.

  She thought she could understand the ways of the Zhuangyuan Master, after all, once such a situation gets out, no matter what, it would be bad for his reputation. He's such a perfect man, and now the princess looks like this, how can she possibly match up to the Zhuangyuan Master!? Even a small servant girl like her is stronger than the princess now!

  Although Xiahou Lian was pinching Cui'er's throat with one hand, she was after all a person who had practiced some martial arts. Moreover, the hatred in her eyes was enough to show how heavy her grip was. Cui'er, a maid who had grown up in the palace since childhood, struggled in vain, and her breathing became more and more difficult. "Princess..."

  This arrogant master has become so ugly and still dares to monopolize the champion?

  Just as Cui'er was about to suffocate, Xia Houlu suddenly let go of her hand. When Cui'er thought she had been saved, a shiny pair of scissors appeared in Xia Houlu's hand!

  "Bei Wei, don't think that I, the princess, don't know what you're thinking in your heart," Cui'er fell to the ground, panting, and then saw the scissors in Xiahou Lü's hand, scaring her into retreating backwards on all fours. Xiahou Lü held the scissors and slowly approached her, a venomous smile hanging from the corner of his mouth. "Laughing at my current appearance? Thinking of seducing my Yu Lang?"

  "No, no......" Cui'er was so frightened that her mind went blank.

  "This princess will first cut off all your hair!" Xiahou Lian's venomous laughter suddenly rose sharply, "This princess wants to destroy you like a small tortoise shell, one knife at a time, just like killing Bai Liuli!"

  Xiahou Dun burst out laughing, and Cui'er let out a terrified shriek.

  Suddenly, Xiahou Lian's sinister and sharp laughter stopped abruptly, looking towards the courtyard, his tone surprised: "Yu Lang!"