C19 Chapter 19

From the memories she’d inherited, she knew this was where the original owner of the body had lived. The place sat far from the main residence, so when she climbed in over the outer wall, she didn’t alert anyone.

She’d come to see how the original owner had really been living—whether life in the Tang family had truly been as miserable as those memories suggested, shunned by everyone.

When the original owner had been tricked into leaving the estate, she must’ve had no warning at all.

Two pieces of clothing were still tossed across the daybed. The thin blanket and mattress pad had been chewed up by rats and turned into nesting material. On the table sat two leftover steamed buns from before she’d left—now moldy and dried hard.

Dust coated the mirror. In the window, a chipped bottle held two dried flowers.

Everything the original owner owned was still here. It only looked like this because no one had bothered to take care of it.

This courtyard was just like her—completely cast aside by Tang’s Mansion. It wasn’t hard to imagine that after she left, no one had even set foot here.

Tang Yao let out a quiet sigh, thinking, Looks like getting help from that so-called dad of mine to get into the Royal Academy won’t be easy.

She glanced at herself in the mirror again. The scar on her left cheek was still there.

Her skin was much lighter than it had been in the army, which only made the scar look darker—meaner, more brutal.

In her memories, the original owner hadn’t had this scar. She’d only learned later that she’d been sold to a brothel, and in desperation she’d taken a disfiguring drug called Faceless.

According to those memories, there was no antidote for Faceless. But if her cultivation ever reached the fifth tier again, her body would stop reacting to it, and the scar would fade on its own.

Thinking about how some people needed more than a decade just to reach the first tier, Tang Yao couldn’t help but sigh again.

If she wanted her face back, it was going to be a long road—hard and dangerous.

Just then, there was a loud clatter at the doorway, like a basin hitting the ground, followed by a shrill female voice screaming, “A ghost!”

When Tang Yao rushed out, the woman who’d been screaming had already bolted through the iron gate, still shouting over and over, “Ghost! Ghost!”

A metal brazier lay on the ground, along with scattered joss paper—some of it folded into little ingot shapes.

This place was out of the way. If the woman had brought a brazier all the way here, was she here to pay respects to Tang Yao?

A name suddenly surfaced in her mind: Caifeng.

Because she carried all of the original owner’s memories, she recognized that voice—it really did sound like Caifeng’s.

From those memories, Caifeng had been the original owner’s personal maid back then, practically raised alongside her.

They’d been close as sisters. When the mistress of the house had exiled the original owner to this remote courtyard, Caifeng had come too, staying with her through a brutal stretch of days.

Then one day, she simply never made it back.

Tang Wan had lied to the original owner, claiming Caifeng had left the Tang family estate, had her leg broken by some thugs, and was waiting for her at a clinic.

The original owner had snuck out and met Tang Wan outside—only to be tied up and handed over to traffickers.

Back then, the original owner had suffered that fate trying to save Caifeng. That alone showed how much Caifeng meant to her.

And if Caifeng had come today to mourn Tang Yao, it meant she still hadn’t forgotten her.

Because of those memories, Tang Yao couldn’t help hoping Caifeng might come back again—so the two of them could finally talk.

She was still caught up in that regret when more people arrived outside.

“Caifeng, did you imagine it? It’s broad daylight. How could there be a ghost? And the Third Miss’s ghost, no less—have you lost your mind?

Besides, how do you know that bitch is dead? For all you know, she’s alive and doing just fine!”

The speaker was Tang Wan. She hadn’t forgotten that even though Tang Yao’s Genuine Spirit had been damaged and she could no longer cultivate—reduced to someone everyone looked down on—her face was still breathtakingly beautiful.