In the stone house—

"I have prepared everything for you. We are about to depart. Now you tell me you don't want to go?"

The masked man groaned angrily and chopped at Gu Yunxi. The fierce palm wind, with an irresistible murderous momentum, blew in Gu Yunxi's face.

She stood still. Without evading, she even closed her eyes calmly.

The next moment, that cold and pale hand stopped suddenly, only a few millimeters away from her face.

"Hah..."

The clear Adam's apple rolling twice, the masked man let out a series of sullen and hoarse laughs.

The voice was so frightening that anyone who listened to it would instantly feel a chill on his back, like a sharp ghost's claw scratching the skin of his spine.

Behind the mask, two cold eyes stared at Gu Yunxi. He said to her appreciatively.

"You are indeed as sly as a fox, full of tricks. You deliberately provoked me to kill you, but I will not easily fall for it!"

Mind seen through, Gu Yunxi showed some uncomfortable expressions on her calm and small face.

After taking a deep breath, Gu Yunxi suppressed her inner panic, lowered her eyes and said.

"You want me to get into the Palace only to help you find the map of the Kunhuang Island. Why don't you look for it yourself when you have what it takes? Is it very difficult for you to enter or leave the Palace at will?"

"Because you're the only one who can help me prove another thing."

The masked man shook his head slightly with his hands behind his back, as if he had been trying to make sense of the girl with doubts.

Unwilling to give up, Gu Yunxi continued asking him.

"What's the matter?"

"I will tell you after you find the map."

Seeing Gu Yunxi's facial expression turning gloomy, the masked man smiled again, whose voice was too cold to figure out any emotional outpouring.

"You are going to be free. It seems that you look unhappy!"

Gu Yunxi forced a smile on her sorrowful face.

"Free? If you really give me freedom, why force me to eat Hanfu pills. Didn't you purposely make me rely on that pill to control me forever?"

At first, the pain of her wounds was so extreme that she almost died. In a trance, she felt someone giving her a fragrant pill from time to time.

After that she didn't feel painful any more. Then she fell asleep.

Now her wounds had healed and she looked so fresh that no blemish or scar could be seen, but she had been relying on the pills ever since.

If she had not taken it for two days, her whole body would have been extremely itching, spreading from every inch of her skin to her bones. This would immediately let her experience another painful feeling.

"So knowledgeable. You are indeed ingenious."

On the opposite, the diabolical man's cool and thin lips moved, and a clear and indifferent smile appeared at his mouth.

In an instant, he was at the head of the bed. Behind the mask, his eyes were bright and fierce, but they were like a bottomless abyss, hiding the ice-like cruelty.

Enveloped by such eyes, Gu Yunxi's whole body suddenly shivered, and she imperceptibly opened her eyes wide vigilantly.

His fingers, as cold as the corpse, suddenly stretched out and held her chin, forcing her to look at his sharp and matchless eyes.

"It was I who changed your face, and you are my masterpiece. Don't dream of getting rid of me completely, unless you are strong enough to kill me with your own hands."

Oppressed by his fingers, Gu Yunxi could not swing her head freely, so she had to stare at the enlarged mask. Her big, clear eyes were full of anger and unwillingness.

She ventured to ask him in a firm voice, with a slight tremor.

"I, I'm going away... Could you please... grant me one wish?"

"...Say it."

After hesitating for a while, he finally chose to give her a chance.

"Let me...see your face..."

In the blink of an eye, his cold fingers had moved from her chin to the throat, tightening fiercely.

The masked man spoke slowly.

"Don't play tricks on me. You want to remember my face and find out who I am. Do you think you deserve that?"

Feeling painful on her throat, Gu Yunxi frowned, but she raised her head proudly, and her face slowly turned red.

"Don't I deserve that?"

The pain of her body made it difficult for her to breathe. A mist of water emerged from her eyes.

She struggled to make a series of muffled sounds, and a pale smile spread across her lips.

The masked man deliberately relaxed his grip and gently pushed Gu Yunxi's soft, paper-like body onto the ground.

"Don't think about anything else. Just go to the Palace, and keep your duty. I am sure you would still like to live to see your Master, though you have been abandoned by him over and over again."

Gu Yunxi was trembled, with a stunned and sad look. She looked down on the dark, cold ground and smiled bitterly.

"What was your purpose for making me look like this, and arranging my meeting with him?"

With hands on the back, the masked man laughed cruelly.

"Believe me, sooner or later, you'll hurt yourself and hurt him as well if you hang around the capital with your original look. A change of face will do both of you no harm."

"So I owe you instead?!"

Gu Yunxi stopped being sad and rolled her eyes with rage.

"It is up to you to thank me or not, but it is up to me to decide what to do. When you find the map I need, I'll teach you how to get rid of the obsession with Hanfu pills."

"But before this, don't play any tricks. You know what will happen if you don't take the pills!"

Seeing Gu Yunxi turning shocked and scared, and holding her arms tightly together, as if frightened by the consequences, the fury of the masked man subsided.

Shaking his cloak with one hand, he spun nimbly. Instantly, he had already flashed out of the stone house, leaving a long and resonant sound coiling in the house.

"Pack your luggage quickly. Soon someone will give you food and you can depart after taking it. It is already one year. It's time for you to go back to your world."

One year...one year?

Gu Yunxi sat on the ground, full of sorrow.

One year had passed since she was caged in this dark and gloomy place—

...

After eating the meal sent by Baoting, Gu Yunxi felt dizzy and soon fell asleep. She woke up in the shaking carriage.

Outside the carriage, the lively and noisy city made Gu Yunxi feel quite familiar. With intolerable surprise, she stretched out her hand to lift the curtain.

Immediately she was stung by the shining sunlight outside.

With a low murmur, she pulled her head back into the carriage.

For the whole one year she had been in a ghoulish place, without seeing any sunlight. Now as she was suddenly exposed to the outside world, no wonder there would be a sense of discomfort.

After relaxing herself for a moment, fury emerged from Gu Yunxi's eyes, and she suddenly jumped out of the carriage.

"Hey, girl, what are you doing—"

The driver was concentrating on his work when suddenly he was strangled. It was a small hand, but with mighty strength.

For the one year, she had been forced by the mysterious masked man to learn some skills, among which were tonality and how to use internal strength to make her move more nimbly.

In a panic, the driver jerked the reins and the carriage stopped on the road.

"Tell me, who take me to the carriage and where did you drive me to the capital from?!"

With a serious look, Gu Yunxi pressed him for the answer and tightened her grip.

This trick was what she had just learned from the masked man.

"I, I don't know them..."

The driver, looking frightened and aggrieved, answered intermittently.

"I, I'm just doing this to make some money...Three days ago a man... a man found me and told me to wait for him today in the northern suburbs of the capital. I, I found he offered so much money, so I agreed without a second thought..."

"What did the man look like and how old was he?!"

"I... I can't remember now. Just...an ordinary person... Well, it was an old man who did business with me. Today, today, those who took you on the carriage...were two young men in their twenties... Girl, I pull the carriage just to make a living, and I don't mean to offend you. I've told you what I knew. Don't hurt me..."

Gu Yunxi sighed with regret, let go of her hand and shook her head, saying.

"Pull your carriage!"

It was meaningless to embarrass an honest man who knew nothing. Gu Yunxi had to let go of him and sit quietly in the carriage.

The driver was so frightened that he shook the reins in dismay and went forward. Along the way he kept rattling, making endless explanations and apologies.

Ignoring him, Gu Yunxi leaned at the corner of the carriage, thinking.

The masked man was sly enough to have drugged her food and sent her in unconscious to the carriage, rather than reveal where he was hiding.

At present, only Baoting, whom she often saw in the stone house, could be the clue for her to find out where the mysterious stone house was located—

With the carriage jolting, Gu Yunxi's body slightly swayed from side to side.

At this time, she could hardly repress her solicitude for those people in her heart.

Captains, Chiliarch Cheng, Xiaoshen, Qinger, Brother Lu and the Master—

One year seemed very short, but for those who were anxious about her and looked for her everywhere, what a long time it should be!

She didn't know how they were doing now, and whether they had forgotten her existence...

Now she was back, with another strange face, like a rebirth, with a new identity.

Even if one day she would meet those familiar people, they couldn't avoid the fate of becoming strangers and passing by—

The carriage stopped outside Youzhu Garden.

Gu Yunxi got off the carriage with mixed feelings. At once, a servant from the Garden came to welcome her.

Deliberately looking back, she saw that the driver had made a vigorous turn of the horse and went away like an escape.

The speeding wheels grinded up the dust, drawing many people on both sides of the road to curse.

Youzhu Garden was too familiar to Gu Yunxi. It was a place that carried her memories of more than ten years.

As she stood under the lintel, complicated emotions rose from her heart.

She suddenly thought of the little girl who had run out of the same place two years ago, and stood before the handsome man in full view, swearing to him.

"Master, I will follow you to the Eastern Depot!"

Everything seemed like an illusion. Love and hatred had been perished in vicissitudes. After all, it was just a dream...

The servant's impatient urge made Gu Yunxi come back to her senses. She subconsciously looked around, stopped thinking and stepped over the threshold.

There was a square table near the vestibule of the front residence. A male manager in his forties sat there to check the household registration of newly arrived damsels.

Every January and July, Youzhu Garden would receive new damsels nationwide. It was the busiest time.

After detailed recordings, the manager stopped and asked the servant to open Gu Yunxi's parcel. Any detected irregularities would be confiscated on the spot.

As the water green silk with flower patterns spread out, there were a set of dresses for the four seasons respectively, two pairs of embroidered shoes, several money bags and a rouge box.

When Gu Yunxi saw the hibiscus enameled silk rouge box, a sense of suffocating tension rose from the bottom of her heart.

What was contained in the box was not the lip-grease that women used to dot their lips, but the salve made of Hanfu pills.

Considering the fact that there was a checkup for damsels entering the Garden for the first time, the masked man made a cream out of one month's share of Hanfu pills. When she took it, she just needed to scratch a little with her finger and swallow it.

Fortunately, the servant didn't open the rouge box and check it carefully. Gu Yunxi then felt relieved.

When turning over the pile of clothes, the servant suddenly exclaimed.

"Ah! What's this?"

Stunned, Gu Yunxi turned to have a look.

A flute lay across the pile of clothes.

Seeing that, the short manager almost jumped up from the chair.

Before Gu Yunxi could respond, his white and plump hand had already grabbed the flute and put it in front of his eyes to scrutinize it.

The flute was not very big. It was about the size of a girl's palm. Its whole body was green and smooth, as if made of special polished jade. The flute body was also carved with protruding hibiscus patterns.

"Is it yours?"

The manager stared at Gu Yunxi with his sharp and unfriendly eyes.

Gu Yunxi didn't know when the masked man put this into her parcel.

She remembered that before she took food in the stone house, she had checked the parcel. At that time there was no such a unique flute.

Was it put by the strange man when she was asleep?

What was his purpose?

"Come on, catch her—"

The manager's loud and violent cry came to her ears.