"You must apologize to my wife."
Hearing this, Jiang Li was instantly infuriated. He quickly pulled Ning Qingxue behind him and glared fiercely at Chen Yanran.
Yet Chen Yanran completely ignored him. Instead, she looked Jiang Li up and down, clicking her tongue in amazement. "You've got quite some unusual tastes, daring to marry a hideous freak like that."
"Then again, she does have a pretty decent figure. I suppose you can just throw a blanket over her head at night and still get yourself off, right?"
At these words, Jiang Li could hold back no longer.
"You've gone too far!"
He raised his hand and lashed out, aiming a direct slap across Chen Yanran's face.
Lacking power and connections, he had no way to bully others with status, leaving him with only the most primitive means to vent his anger for his wife.
However, before his hand could land, one of Chen Yanran's bodyguards reacted swiftly, seizing Jiang Li by the wrist.
"How dare you lay a hand on our young miss? Have a death wish, do you?"
Murderous intent flickered in the bodyguard's eyes.
"Hubby, don't be rash," Ning Qingxue urged anxiously, pulling him back. She was terrified that if Jiang Li resorted to violence and hurt someone, he would end up arrested and locked away for years.
At the same time, she was afraid Jiang Li would come to harm.
"Grab him."
"And hold her down too. Rip off her mask and bandages so everyone can see that hideous face of hers. I want to see just how repulsive she looks now."
Chen Yanran ordered.
The bodyguards moved instantly.
"Ahhh! Don't you dare touch my wife! I'll fight you to the death!" Jiang Li struggled wildly.
But he was only an ordinary man, while Chen Yanran's bodyguards were retired mercenaries who easily pinned him to the ground.
Even Jiang Li's mother was subdued.
"No... please don't hurt them. If you want to humiliate me, go ahead, just as long as you don't hurt them..."
Ning Qingxue's voice trembled, tears welling in her eyes. With shaking hands, she took the initiative to remove her mask and reached for the gauze wrapped around her face.
She clenched her teeth. No matter how wronged she felt, no matter how suffocating the humiliation... even if she became a laughingstock watched by a crowd, she was willing to endure it all, as long as her family remained safe.
She had already survived the shattering of her family and the agony of life-and-death separation once; she could not bear a second time.
"Fine. Reveal that ugly face of yours for everyone to see, and I'll let them go."
Chen Yanran said cheerfully.
Her sole purpose was to humiliate Ning Qingxue for a bit of amusement. As long as she achieved her goal, letting Jiang Li and his mother go was of no consequence.
"No! Wife, don't listen to her!"
Veins bulged on Jiang Li's forehead, but no matter how hard he struggled, he couldn't break free, driving him to the brink of despair.
Ning Qingxue bit her lower lip hard and closed her eyes as two streams of clear tears rolled down her cheeks.
Finally, she tore away the gauze bound around her face, exposing her skin.
Silence!
In that exact moment, everyone went completely still, staring fixedly at Ning Qingxue, utterly stunned by her appearance!
Ning Qingxue kept her eyes tightly shut, clutching the gauze in her hand with the grim resolve of someone facing execution.
Yet, she heard no jeers.
She heard no taunts.
No one laughed or hurled insults.
Instead, all she heard was Chen Yanran's gasp of shock: "How is this possible?"
"You weren't disfigured?"
Chen Yanran gritted her teeth.
Not disfigured?
Ning Qingxue shuddered. She opened her eyes to see Chen Yanran gnashing her teeth, her face twisted with intense jealousy.
"Qingxue, your face... how did it heal?"
Jiang Li's mother was equally astonished.
Even Jiang Li stopped struggling, staring at Ning Qingxue in sheer shock.
Suddenly, Ning Qingxue remembered what Ning Chen had told her—that by this morning, her face would return to normal.
Only, early that morning right after waking up, before they even had a chance to check her face, they had received the call from the hospital and rushed right over.
A mix of terror and eager anticipation surged within her. With trembling hands, she touched her cheek.
Smooth!
Soft!
Gone were the raised, rough scars and turned-out flesh that had formed her hideous past.
Ning Qingxue stood completely frozen.
"It's real?"
"My face is really healed?"
She murmured to herself, biting her lower lip as tears brimmed in her eyes and spilled over.
Over the past seven years, though she had learned to accept her ugliness, she had naturally been a beauty, and what woman truly doesn't care about her appearance?
She never imagined there would come a day when her face would be restored...
Chen Yanran had always believed Ning Qingxue was permanently disfigured, living at the very bottom of society, lower than a stray dog. To discover now, all of a sudden, that Ning Qingxue was still that stunning beauty was something she simply could not accept.
She immediately issued an order: "Grab her and carve up her face with a knife!"
The bodyguard hesitated. "Miss, this is a hospital, a public place. Won't doing something like this cause bad repercussions?"
Chen Yanran snapped angrily, "What nonsense are you babbling? In this Chuzhou, is there anything the Chen Family cannot handle? Whatever the repercussions, I'll take the blame!"
"Understood!" The bodyguard dared say no more.
One of them drew a military dagger directly from his waist and strode toward Ning Qingxue.
"No!"
"If you dare hurt my wife, I'll fight you to the death!"
"Ahhh!"
A sudden, unprecedented surge of potential seemed to erupt within Jiang Li. He broke free from the grip of the retired mercenary bodyguard, lunged abruptly to his feet, and charged straight at the knife-wielding bodyguard.
Yet, lacking any martial training, he was completely outmatched. The armed bodyguard simply threw a side kick right at Jiang Li.
That single kick was powerful enough to cripple Jiang Li.
Just then, however, a figure flashed like lightning and arrived in an instant. Before the knife-wielding bodyguard could even react, he was struck as if hit by a speeding train. A sharp snap echoed from his waist, and his entire body went flying sideways through the air.
"Pfft!"
While still airborne, the bodyguard spewed a mouthful of blood. By the time he crashed onto the ground, he was already dead.
Ning Chen raised his hand and made a grabbing motion in the empty air.
The military dagger that had been sent flying along with the bodyguard automatically flew back and landed right in Ning Chen's palm.
Before anyone else could react, Ning Chen slashed the dagger directly across Chen Yanran's face.