Chapter 36

The Truth

Rustle…

A few brown feathers fluttered in midair as the sparrows originally perched on the top of the pavilion rose in alarm and flapped their wings in a flurry.

Looking at the damaged and crumbling pavilion below, Gu Yanfei’s gaze gradually turned cold. Her heart felt as if it had been struck by lightning, and she instantly understood some things from her previous life.

The termites had caused trouble and hollowed out the pavilion pillars? It was obvious that the pavilion had collapsed because Kang Wang and Fang Mingfeng were fighting over Gu Yunrong.

So what was the truth about the so-called “savior” in her previous life?

Gu Yanfei took out a talisman from her pouch and held it between her fingers. Her wide sleeve covered the talisman.

In her previous life, the Empress Dowager and Kang Wang could successfully hide the truth with lies because not many people knew the truth.

But what if things get out of hand?

Gu Yunzhen suddenly stood up, unable to hide the anxiety on her gentle face. She said, “Second Sister, wait for me here. I’ll go take a look.”

She was already hurrying toward the stairs as she spoke.

Gu Yanfei’s eyes were calm. Her lips moved slightly as she silently recited the incantation.

Then, with a flick of her right arm, she threw the talisman with a flutter of her sleeves.

The talisman fluttered out and flew toward the roof of the pavilion as if it had wings.

“Big Sister, there’s a fire over there!” Gu Yanfei pointed at the pavilion outside the window and shouted.

Gu Yunzhen suddenly stopped and turned around.

The moment the talisman landed gently on the roof of the pavilion and made contact with the glazed tiles, it spontaneously combusted. It was engulfed in flames in the blink of an eye and turned to ash.

Then, a mushroom cloud of white smoke suddenly exploded in midair and curled away…

When Gu Yunzhen leaned close to the window, this was what she saw. The smoke seemed to layer over each other, making the three people in the pavilion hazy and indistinct.

“Fire! The pavilion is on fire!”

The others in the garden immediately noticed the great cloud of smoke above the pavilion. They all thought it was on fire and shouted frantically.

With this shout, more and more people also noticed the commotion at the pavilion and ran over anxiously. Wherever they passed, birds were startled.

The crowd surged towards them like a flock of birds and caused a ruckus. Some people shouted, some went to fetch water, some went to get help, some ran to watch the commotion…

The commotion around them also alerted the three men in the pavilion.

Seeing so many people running over, Kang Wang and Fang Mingfeng’s expressions changed and they looked at Gu Yunrong’s torn sleeve at the same time. The two of them had the same thought.

Gu Yunrong’s current disheveled appearance was really not suitable for seeing anyone. Moreover, the two of them were here…

If others saw this scene, it would inevitably cause some baseless speculation and ruin Gu Yunrong’s reputation.

“Let go!” Fang Mingfeng’s cold gaze shot at Kang Wang. How could Kang Wang let go? His response was to stab the other party.

Seeing this, Gu Yunrong pursed her cherry lips tightly, her eyes flickering. She said in a low voice, “I’ll walk by myself!”

She flicked her sleeve heavily and shook off the two of them, but they subconsciously grabbed her.

As she moved forward, she waved away their tugging hands and stepped on a patch of broken glazed tiles. All of a sudden, she slipped, stumbled, lost her balance, and fell head-first toward the sea of Bengal rose flowers behind the pavilion…

The Bengal rose flowers were extremely beautiful. It was known as the “Queen of Flowers”, but it was covered in thorns and its stem was filled with dense spikes.

“Rong’er!”

“Rong Rong!”

Shocked, Kang Wang and Fang Mingfeng shouted in panic and reached out almost at the same time.

As Gu Yunrong fell backward, the blue sky reflected in her eyes, and a few strands of hair floated up because of weightlessness…

In the next moment, she felt her back tighten. A strong, muscular arm supported her, and a gentle blue arm appeared in the corner of her eye. Then another large, calloused hand gripped her wrist tightly and pulled her upward…

She let out a low cry and watched as the slender blue figure brushed past her and fell toward the Bengal rose flowers with an expression of pain.

It all happened in a flash.

When Gu Yunrong came back to her senses, her feet were already firmly on the ground. She met Kang Wang’s worried eyes. “Rong’er, are you alright?”

Kang Wang held Gu Yunrong’s left wrist tightly in one hand, and the sword in his other hand had already been thrown to the ground.

Gu Yunrong was still in shock when she heard a panicked scream from the northwest direction. “Crown Prince Fang!”

“Crown Prince Fang has fallen into the flowerbed!”

“Someone come…”

The crowd, attracted by the smoke, happened to see Fang Mingfeng fall from the flowerbed and also saw Kang Wang and Gu Yunrong in the pavilion.

Kang Wang held Gu Yunrong’s arm with one hand, his face full of worry. Gu Yunrong seemed to be in shock. Her face was pale and she was forcing herself to be calm.

A few sharp-eyed people noticed that a hole had been torn in Gu Yunrong’s left sleeve. They could not help but exchange glances, their hearts filled with doubts.

“Mingfeng!” Gu Yunrong anxiously looked at Fang Mingfeng in the flowerbed.

The rest of the crowd gathered around, creating a bustling and chaotic scene.

Fang Mingfeng gave a low groan as he reclined in the middle of the blooming Bangal rose flowers.

The fall was not heavy, but the flowerbed was like a trap filled with sharp knives. The moment he landed, tens of thousands of spikes pierced his body like needles. His hands, face, neck… Not only did the spikes pierce his exposed skin, but even the skin under his thin clothes.

Fang Mingfeng propped himself up on his elbows and tried to get up. His thin lips were pursed tightly as he endured the pain in his body and heard gasps around him.

The side of his face was bloody. Not only were there dense bloody holes the size of pinpricks, but there was also a stem leaf covered in hooks wrapped between his face and his hair. Dark red blood slid down his face, creating a ghastly sight…

The timid girls were so frightened that they turned pale and looked away.

Gu Yunrong looked at Fang Mingfeng in a daze. She was filled with sorrow, gratefulness, and worry.

...

“Quick, call a doctor!”

Someone shouted and ran away in a hurry. Others came over sporadically.

Gu Yanfei watched this chaotic scene from afar with flickering eyes.

The smoke at the top of the pavilion was gradually blown away by the wind. Fang Mingfeng’s bloody face was reflected in her eyes, overlapping with Gu Yunzhen’s ghostly face in her previous life and being just as shocking.

So this was what happened.

Gu Yanfei finally understood the cause and effect of Gu Yunzhen’s disfigurement in her previous life.