kvmb Chapter 2 She Has a Name
Chapter 2 She Has a Name
She turned her face away and walked step by step toward the gate of the Duke of Sheng's mansion.
Behind him were the sounds of Madam Lan crying and fainting, and the chaotic cries of people calling for a doctor from the Duke of Sheng's mansion.
She didn't know if there were still needles hanging in her foot that couldn't be removed.
Every step felt like walking on a needle's point.
Just like the days she spent in the Duke of Sheng's mansion over the past two years.
But it's okay, she doesn't want it anymore.
I don't want any of them.
To be an orphan or a beggar, the name Sheng Yunyang, this family.
She doesn't want any of it.
She walked out of the side gate of the Duke of Sheng's mansion and into the empty alley.
Suddenly everything went black, and I collapsed to the ground.
She was awakened by the splash of cold water, and what came into view was a burly man with a face full of scars.
"Pah! You're such an ugly thing, how dare the Duke's mansion marry you off to me! Just looking at you makes me want to vomit!"
The burly man's palm, as thick as a fan, slapped her across the face, making her dizzy with pain.
"Am I married to you?" she heard herself ask weakly.
The burly man slapped her again: "Otherwise what? If I weren't a soldier under the Duke of Sheng, do you think I would want such an ugly monster like you! Just give up, the people from the Duke of Sheng's mansion personally delivered you here! It's a Duke's mansion after all, how could they have a maid as ugly as you? What bad luck!"
He grabbed a dirty cloth and slapped it on her face: "Cover your ugly face, don't fucking ruin my mood for getting things done!"
As he spoke, he took off his clothes and pressed himself against her.
She touched the long, thin embroidery needles still stuck in her body, clutched them tightly in her hand, and just as the burly man lunged at her, she plunged them into his eye.
A piercing scream rang out as the burly man grabbed her by the neck. She struggled for a moment, then lost all strength.
In the fading light, she seemed to see someone enter the room.
The figure was rather short, and she couldn't make out his features.
She could only hear some indistinct voices, which seemed to be calling her.
"Yangyang, Yangyang!"
……
"Yangyang!"
Lu Yangyang woke up from a nightmare once again, sitting up in a cold sweat. Looking at the familiar dilapidated house around her, she took a deep breath and wiped her forehead.
Why am I having this strange dream again?
Who exactly is Sheng Yunyang in my dreams? Why do I keep dreaming about her for no reason?
Lu Yangyang was completely bewildered when Aunt Zhang entered through the door. "Oh my, Yangyang, why are you still sleeping? Go out and see what's going on! Someone important is looking for you! That carriage is so impressive, and it even has guards with it! Yangyang, you're about to make it big!"
Lu Yangyang was still immersed in the nightmare and a little frightened. She was confused by what Aunt Zhang was saying. She groggily put on her shoes and got out of bed. "Aunt Zhang, what happened? Isn't Old Zhou's family going to slaughter a pig today? It's hot, I'll go later."
Lu Yangyang is the most famous barefoot doctor in the surrounding villages. He is skilled in bone setting and also works as a butcher.
Without a word, Aunt Zhang dragged her out of her little thatched hut. The small courtyard outside was completely visible, and as Aunt Zhang had said, a horse-drawn carriage that seemed completely out of place in their small mountain village was parked at the door.
A plump old woman dressed in fine silk stood in front of the carriage. Seeing the person emerge, she gave him a disgusted look and asked, "Why are you dressed like this? You're the little girl who was abandoned by the He family back then?"
Aunt Zhang chimed in, "It's her, it's her. Yangyang grew up in our Qinghe Village, there's no mistake. Could it be that Old He's family had a change of heart and came to take Yangyang back?"
The old woman said coldly, "Since it's you, then come with us. Back then, when our Duke's Mansion came to pick up our young lady, we picked up the wrong person. You are the young lady of the Duke's Mansion!"
Lu Yangyang felt her mind explode. She heard herself ask, "What's the name of the person you got the wrong number for?"
“Sheng Yunzhu,” the old woman said impatiently, sizing up Lu Yangyang. She was short, with dark skin, and half her face was covered by an ugly mask that looked like tree bark. Her clothes, though washed clean, were patched in many places. Her eyes were bright, but her hair was sparse and dry, making her look extremely shabby. The old woman couldn't help but purse her lips: “Why ask so many questions? With that appearance, how can she compare to the Third Miss?”
"Hey, how can you talk like that? I knew it! How could the He family be so heartless as to abandon a three-year-old girl? It's like they're using a substitute to let their own girl enjoy a life of luxury. What a tragedy!" Aunt Zhang couldn't help but spit.
Lu Yangyang snapped out of her daze and told Aunt Zhang to leave first.
Then he stared intently at the old woman in front of him.
She had that nightmare for many years. In it, she dreamt that she, an ugly country girl, was originally the true daughter of the Duke of Sheng's mansion, but was maliciously switched by her wet nurse, disfigured, and abandoned in the countryside. Later, the truth came out, and she was brought back to the mansion. However, because the Duke's mansion couldn't bear to part with their daughter Sheng Yunzhu, whom they had raised for many years, they told everyone that the two were twins. In the dream, she was jealous of Sheng Yunzhu and committed all sorts of evil deeds of comparison and rivalry, which made her despised by the entire Duke's mansion. In the end, she was driven out of the house, hastily married off to a military family, and then strangled to death.
Not only that, she also dreamed that all of this was because Sheng Yunzhu, the girl in the Duke's mansion who was switched at birth, was reborn. She was jealous of the young lady she had looked up to all her life, so after being reborn, she did not hesitate to lie to her grandmother and disfigure the real young lady of the Sheng family and throw her into the mountains. She herself took the place of that young lady and entered the Duke's mansion, becoming the apple of the Duke's eye.
They stole her name, they stole her life.
Lu Yangyang had woken up from her dreams countless times, thinking it was just a dream.
Because Lu Yangyang couldn't believe it; she couldn't believe she had fallen into such a completely different state.
Although she grew up alone in the countryside, struggling and relying on the village's madwoman for survival, she possessed superhuman strength and learned bone-setting techniques, becoming a well-known barefoot doctor in the surrounding villages, enough to support herself.
How could she possibly be that pitiful, resentful creature from my dream?
Moreover, she has a name; her name is Lu Yangyang.
She didn't believe the dream was real.
But the person who came before her seemed to confirm that the stolen life was real, and that this was her fate.
But why should Lu Yangyang accept her fate?
She refused to believe it; she wanted to prove herself through her own life, not through those unrealistic dreams.
"I'll go with you," Lu Yangyang said coldly.
The old woman gave her a disgusted look. "Since that's the case, let's not waste any more time and go."
Lu Yangyang followed her into the carriage and left Qinghe Village, where she had lived for ten years.
The carriage traveled for three or four days before arriving at the gate of the Duke of Sheng's mansion. It passed by the main gate and stopped at a small side gate.
The old woman, Liu Mama, got off the carriage with a look of disgust on her face. She called out to Lu Yangyang in the carriage in an unfriendly tone, "Miss, we've arrived. Get off the carriage."
Lu Yangyang, with her withered hands, gripped the car door and nimbly jumped out of the car.
Granny Liu muttered to herself, "She really is a wild girl."
Just as Lu Yangyang stood still, a shadow suddenly flashed past her and ripped the mask, which looked like withered tree bark, off her face, revealing Lu Yangyang's small face, no bigger than the palm of her hand.
But all that could be seen on that dark face, from below the left eye to the temple, almost half of the face, was a large, hideous scar, as if it had been pressed down by something.
"what--"
"Ugly monster! Ugly monster!"
Several voices rang out, and Lu Yangyang looked in the direction of the voices. She saw several well-dressed children. The one holding her mask was a boy, who was taller than her and had a flamboyant and handsome face. At this moment, he stared at her with wide eyes, looking at her with disgust and disbelief.
A little girl, about three or four years old, suddenly hugged the boy's leg and burst into tears. "Fifth brother, is this ugly girl really going to come to our house and be our older sister? I don't want to! She looks so scary. I'll be laughed at to death!"
The boy, his lips pursed, snapped at Granny Liu, "Granny Liu, are you sure you haven't picked up the wrong person? Does this kind of beggar even deserve to enter our Duke's mansion?"
"Waaah, Fifth Brother is right, tell her to get lost, you stinking beggar!" the little girl wailed.
Granny Liu was terrified and hurriedly apologized: "Oh my goodness, we're outside, we absolutely can't let anyone see us. I'll take some people inside to tidy up first, and then we'll go to pay our respects to the old lady."
Two or three boys, aged five or six, and seven or eight, picked up pebbles from somewhere and started throwing them at Lu Yangyang, yelling, "You stinking beggar! You ugly monster!"
"Hahaha, that's disgusting!"
"That scar on her face is uglier than a toad!"
"How can she compare to Sister Yunzhu!"
Lu Yangyang glanced at them indifferently and walked towards the boy who was leading the group and holding her mask.
Under the boy's disgusted gaze, she snatched her mask away, then swiftly raised her hand and, with lightning speed, slapped him across the face.
"Listen to me carefully, I am your real sister."
Then, to everyone's astonishment, she walked up to the three little boys who had thrown stones at her, slapped each of them once, and then pointed to the scar on her face, coldly saying,
"Do you think this scar is ugly?"
“Then listen to me. This scar on my face was branded on me by your sister Yunzhu’s own grandmother when I was a child.”