"Splash!"
Just as Si Mengchu was sinking into despair, a nimble, tall figure leapt into the water and swam rapidly toward her.
Si Mengchu had already swallowed several mouthfuls of lake water. Her body was sinking inch by inch, and she had slowly transitioned from struggling desperately to gradually accepting her fate.
As her consciousness faded, she caught a blurry glimpse of a stranger approaching her. His face was terrifyingly scarred, yet his facial features were sharp, refined, and three-dimensional.
"Eldest Miss! Are you alright? Eldest Miss?"
By the time the man carried Si Mengchu onto the bank, she had already lost consciousness. The maidservant attending to Si Mengchu was so terrified she lost her wits, assuming the girl had drowned.
"Stop shaking her! She’s still breathing. Go fetch a doctor, quickly!"
The man’s deep, magnetic voice rang out. He stepped past the maid and reached out to press on Si Mengchu’s abdomen to expel the water she had swallowed.
"Ah! A ghost... a ghost!" The maid caught a clear look at the man’s face and recoiled in terror, collapsing backward.
His entire face was covered in wrinkled, crimson patches, much like a birthmark. Even with his high-bridged nose and deep-set eyes, it did nothing to mask his ghastly appearance.
The man seemed indifferent to her reaction, focusing entirely on clearing the water from Si Mengchu’s lungs. Before long, she stirred and began to regain consciousness.
At the same time, alerted by the maid’s cries, a number of servants arrived on the scene, and Meng Yihuan arrived as well, drawn by the commotion.
"What is going on here? What happened?" Seeing the soaking wet Si Mengchu, Meng Yihuan’s expression turned incomparably dark.
"Answering First Madam, the Eldest Miss just fell into the water," the maid replied, kneeling on the ground, trembling.
"How could she just fall in? I tasked you with looking after the Eldest Miss—is this how you do your job?" Meng Yihuan could not suppress the rage in her heart.
"Mother, it was her own fault for falling. She doesn't watch where she's going; she’s just clumsy."
Before the maid could answer, Si Mengli stepped forward and interjected. Fearing Meng Yihuan’s fierce demeanor, she had rushed to tell a lie. As she spoke, she gave the maid and Si Mengchu a fierce, warning look. The maid caught her gaze and swallowed the truth she had intended to reveal.
The Second Miss was First Madam’s daughter, whom she had always doted on. If the Second Miss denied it and she insisted otherwise, she feared it would only look as if she were trying to frame her. She could not afford to provoke her.
Si Mengchu, meanwhile, had no desire to cause trouble for Meng Yihuan, so she had no intention of revealing the truth either. Seeing their submissive attitudes, a triumphant smirk tugged at the corner of Si Mengli’s lips.
But just as she was becoming carried away with her own arrogance, the man’s deep, steady voice plunged her into the abyss.
"The two young ladies were struggling. It was the Second Miss here on the bank who pushed the Eldest Miss into the lake."
Meng Yihuan froze.
Upon hearing this, she finally noticed the man with the terrifying face standing to the side. She was startled at first, but then a strange sense of familiarity washed over her.
Those deep, dark eyes, the thin lips, the high nose, and that cold, sharp air—even dressed in the coarse clothing of a low-ranking servant, he possessed an air of natural arrogance. Those eyes, in particular, reminded her of someone from her past.
But that person had been dead for years; it could not be him…
Shaking off the thought, Meng Yihuan turned her icy gaze toward Si Mengli.
"Smack!"
Meng Yihuan walked silently up to Si Mengli and delivered a sharp, resonant slap across her face.
Si Mengli clutched her stinging, reddened cheek in shock. Her eyes welled up with tears as she shrieked, "Mother! You hit me?"
She actually hit her for the sake of that little wild seed!
"Hitting you is getting off lightly! At such a young age, your heart is already this vicious. Chuchu is your sister, the Eldest Miss of the Earl's Mansion—how dare you push her into the water?"
Meng Yihuan stared at Si Mengli with cold, sharp eyes devoid of any warmth, filled only with intense loathing.
In her previous life, the image of Si Mengli smiling as she plunged a dagger into her abdomen replayed in her mind. Before, she hadn't known that Si Mengli was not her biological daughter, and she had cherished her like a precious jewel, giving her the best of everything since she was a child. Later, when she entered the palace, she had schemed and planned behind the scenes to help her survive, eliminating anyone who stood in her way.
She could honestly say she had never once wronged Si Mengli, yet this ingrate had shown her no gratitude and had ultimately ruined her own beloved daughter, Chuchu! With old grievances and new ones combined, how could she not loathe her?
"Mother, I didn't push her! It was she who stole my clothes, so I got angry and we argued. Who knew she didn't stand steady and fell in herself? Don't believe what that lowly slave says!"
Though only six years old, Si Mengli was already accustomed to lying.
"Who said she stole your clothes? I am the one who had them made for her. What nonsense are you spouting!" Meng Yihuan continued to rebuke her with a cold face.
Si Mengli looked up in shock. "Impossible! Mother, wasn't this year’s silk brocade meant for the clothes you were making for me and Big Brother? Why would you make them for her? What right does she have? These all belong to me and Big Brother—why would you give them to this little wild seed—"
"Smack! Who did you call a little wild seed? Who taught you to call her that?"
Hearing Si Mengli lose control in her anger and blurt out that slur, Meng Yihuan delivered another sharp slap to the other side of her face.
A little wild seed? So, even at such a young age, Si Mengli had already been calling Chuchu a wild seed!
Stunned, Si Mengli remained rooted to the spot, her face burning with pain and her heart aching with resentment. She was unable to speak. In all her life, this was the first time Meng Yihuan had ever struck her, and she could not fathom why.
"A proper young lady of a noble house, spouting such filth against her own cousin! You have no upbringing! Someone, take the Second Miss away and make her kneel. Without my order, no one is to let her out, nor is anyone to bring her anything. She will kneel in the courtyard for two hours, then be confined for a month! Copy the *Classic of Filial Piety for Women* and the *Rules for Women* three hundred times each!"
Seeing Si Mengli frozen in place, Meng Yihuan immediately handed down the punishment. Though she could not kill this spawn of Xue Wanrou and Si Yunhui just yet, she could certainly punish her—and do so quite publicly.
"Mother, no, you can't... I am your daughter..."
Only when she heard the punishment did Si Mengli snap out of her stupor and begin to beg desperately. She couldn't endure kneeling for two hours, let alone the month-long confinement and the arduous task of copying those books.
Her mother was truly heartless!
But Meng Yihuan ignored her pleas, merely waving her hand to have her dragged away. She then walked gently to Si Mengchu’s side. "Chuchu, let me take you to see a doctor. You fell into the water; we must make sure you don't catch a cold or suffer any lasting effects."
Si Mengchu was overwhelmed, looking at Meng Yihuan with cautious eyes. She could hardly believe that the First Madam had punished Si Mengli so severely for her sake. Even her own mother, the Second Madam, had never once stood up for her like this.
The First Madam was so kind. If only she were her real mother…