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Chapter 1 Su Yan
*The setting of this story is based on ancient China. None of the characters, Kingdoms, cities, and money is real. They are just based on my imagination. So if there's anything that doesn't go well with what you already know, kindly call my attention to it in the comment section or you take It as the fictional work it clearly is. Thanks and sorry for keeping you all waiting for so long. I was very busy...and oh, I edited the first two chapters I updated before.*
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In the Northern Wing of the prime minister's manor.
The maids were running around doing their chores, the sun has just set and they know their little mistress would be waking up soon, and when she does, they would be punished if she isn't attended to immediately. And when the madam goes to see her but finds the courtyard not properly cleaned, they would be in bigger trouble.
As the maids were almost done, they heard a shrieking sound coming from the second miss room. The two maids closest to the door ran inside only to see a face full of blisters staring straight at them and three maids kneeling on the floor with their faces down, shivering non-stop. One of the maids ran out to call the physician, while the other maid ran to call the madam.
A while later, an old physician was seen rushing into the second miss's courtyard with his attendant rushing after him with the medical kits in hand.
The physician met Madam Su in the second miss room scolding and hitting the maids who were kneeling. Second Miss was crying on the bed behind a screen.
When Madam Su saw the physician, she immediately stopped hitting the maids and rushed to him, "please check on my daughter and find out what is wrong with her" her voice sounded anxious.
Madam Su hasn't seen her daughter's face because her daughter refused to let her. Frustrated, she unleashed the annoyance on the maids she met kneeling.
The physician walked to the bed which has now been blocked by a screen. He saw a fair and smooth wrist stick out of the screen, he took the wrist to take the pulse. After some time, he removed his hand when he felt no abnormality in her pulse.
'if she was normal then why was he called? Do this mother and daughter think he has nothing to do' he complained in his heart. Then he cleared his throat and said. "Second Miss pulse is normal and she seems to be fine"
"That's not possible! you are a quack! mother, send him out of the Manor now!" Su Yan screamed.
"Calm down, Yanyan. What is happening? Talk to your mother and I will seek justice for you" Madam Su comforted her as she made her way to her daughter's bed.
Because Su Yan was too engrossed in her grief, she didn't see her mother coming. She jumped up in shock, knocking the screen over when she heard her mother scream.
Everything happened too fast that the maids couldn't react in time to place back the screen, so Su yan's face which was full of blisters was exposed to everyone in the room.
Everyone from the maids to the physician and even to the other members of the Su Manor whom no one knew when they came in saw Su Yan's face and was so frightened and shocked that the room became so silent that they could all hear their heartbeats.
"Second sister, your... your... face!" Exclaimed Su Mei Mei.
Su Mei Mei's reminder made Su Yan go on a rampage, throwing anything her hands could touch and screaming at the top of her voice for everyone to get out.
The behavior she was displaying was so unbefitting of the goddess image she engraved on everyone's mind.
"Yan Yan, wh... What happened to you?" Madam Su couldn't believe what she was seeing, her beautiful daughter who was the envy of every lady in Hua Xia kingdom has become a... How do I describe this face?.
"Get out, all of you get out! Leave!" she continued screaming like a crazy woman.
The physician didn't understand how he couldn't find anything wrong with her when her face was like this. He was lost in thought when he heard Madam Su ask
"Physician Wang, what is wrong with my daughter?"
Physician Wang shook his head, indicating he didn't know.
Madan Su felt her soul has been ripped off her chest, she lost her balance and fell backward, into the arms of her maid who was standing behind her. "how could this be?" she asked in an inaudible voice. If physician Wang couldn't find anything wrong with Yan Yan then who could?
Physician Wang was the third-best physician in Hua Xia.
The first was the miracle doctor, who roams the world and the second are the imperial physician. If physician Wang couldn't help Yan Yan, that leaves her to asking the Crown prince for help. Her eyes lit up with hope as she left the support of her maid and left in a hurry to find the master. Not forgetting to drive away all the guests in the room, leaving only Su Yan and her maids alone in the room with Su Yan crying her eyes out.
.....
In the study, Su Tian was looking through the letter he received from his shadow guard when the study door was pushed open with Madam Su rushing inside like a crazy woman.
"How many times will I tell you not to rush into my study room without prior notice?!" he demanded with his face turning dark. This woman is getting bolder by the day and he wasn't pleased with that.
"I am sorry Master, but Yan Yan needs your help urgently," She Said nervously.
She didn't bow in greetings which was a surprise to him. The tradition of the Hua Xia kingdom takes respect for husbands and parents seriously. Once, a woman was reported for disrespecting her husband and she was killed.
He could hear the nervousness in her voice which piqued his interest that made him put her act of disrespect to rest.
Shu Xi is a scheming woman who is hardly scared of anything because she has the powerful Xi family behind her.
"What happened to her?" he asked, still sitting nonchalantly. Although, he liked this daughter of his, however, she has become too presumptuous of late and he wasn't finding it funny. What he hated the most was someone challenging his authority. If not because she was still very useful in building an intermarriage relationship with the royal family and also the fact that her maternal family is not to be messed with, he would have clipped her wings long ago.
"Her face has been ruined, please talk to the crown prince and have him send the imperial physicians over to have a look at her" she cried while begging her husband.
"What did you say?!" he jumped up from his chair while pushing the chair in the process. "Where is she? Lead the way!".
....
After seeing the state his daughter was In, Su Tian was so angry, that his face alternated between red and white. "Who did this?!!" he thundered.
Silence followed his question and the maids present shivered. Who would dare to admit they did it?.
The maids knew they were done for this time. No mistakes are allowed in the minister's Manor and those who had made mistakes in the past were either sold off or beaten to death, depending on the gravity of their mistake. However, this time, they know they would definitely be killed.
"Guards!!" he roared when he heard no answer from the maids. "Have these incompetent servants whip to death."
Following his order, five strong guards rushed in and dragged out the four maids who were in attendance the night before. Begging and sobbing sounds were heard in the courtyard for a while before silence followed. The bodies of the dead maids were wrapped in a mat and dumped on a cart to be pushed out of the minister's Manor by nightfall.
"How did this happen?" Su Tian asked Su Yan.
"I don't know father, I remembered using my facial product before going to sleep last night." Su Yan said amidst sobbing.
"Don't worry, I will have the crown prince invite the imperial physicians for you. You have to learn from this and be more careful next time. Your engagement with the crown prince will be annulled if your face is ruined" he turned to Madam Su and said: "How do you run the manor? investigate and find out who had the gall to scheme in my prime minister's Manor" after saying that, he walked off angrily.
"Mother, will my beauty ever be restored? Father will abandon me if I become useless. Mother, please help me" she cried even more.
Just then something struck her. "I think I know who did this to me mother, it's Su Mei Mei and her concubine mother. They don't want me to marry the crown prince. Mother, kill them all, I want them all dead!" Her voice became louder the more she cried. She took the mirror she had dropped from shock earlier and looked at her face with it. Seeing that some of the blisters were shrinking and pores were coming out, she screamed and threw the mirror at one of the maids standing not far away from her, injuring the maid on the forehead in the process.
"Calm down Yan Yan" Madam Su hugged her. "They do not have the guts to do something like this, and if after Investigation, I find they are responsible..." her face turned sinister.