Li Yun only emerged after Ming Lingyi had left Huaided Fang.

Liu Ye was by his side. It was unclear if Li Yun was muttering to himself or asking the man beside him, "Do you see the resemblance?"

Liu Ye said, "...To answer Your Majesty, in this servant’s opinion, her way of doing things is indeed very similar to Her Ladyship’s."

Li Yun let out a soft chuckle, his expression unreadable, and then followed Ming Lingyi and her servant.

"Right, that family from today... you know what to do with the ones she didn’t want spared. And pay special attention to that old crone. Since she has a filthy mouth, I want you to... clean it up for me," Li Yun ordered.

The pebble that Ming Lingyi and Xiao Chun hadn’t seen clearly earlier had been thrown by this very man.

For now, Li Yun set aside the question of whether the woman he’d seen after leaving the palace was truly his first wife. But simply because she had a face nearly identical to the mistress of Kunning Palace, he would not permit anyone to insult her.

And besides...

When Li Yun thought of the Jade Plum Shocking Snow Cake Liu Ye had brought back, his heart was already in turmoil. He had tasted a few pieces.

It was the work of his Yuan Niang.

And the milk tea... he and she had first tried it together at a herder’s home. Later, he could often drink it in his own manor, but there was a difference. The herder’s milk tea was salty, while the kind his Yuan Niang made was delightfully sweet.

Ming Lingyi and Xiao Chun made their way to the section of the brokerage where slaves were sold. But after looking around for some time, Ming Lingyi still hadn’t found a suitable guard to buy.

The more desirable slaves sold at the brokerage were actually sent to the great houses and aristocratic families of the Capital City first, allowing them to take their pick. Only the leftovers made their way to the public market.

The ones who looked honest and had some skills had mostly been taken by the stewards of the wealthy households. Finding a female guard, which was what Ming Lingyi wanted, was even more difficult.

After all, there were only the two of them in the shop. If she brought a brawny man into the mix, Ming Lingyi wasn’t sure she could keep him under control.

She had seen plenty of cases where a servant grew arrogant and bullied their master.

Just as Ming Lingyi was preparing to leave and come back in a few days, a commotion suddenly erupted at the brokerage’s entrance.

"Make way, make way—" A gruff voice echoed from the entrance. When Ming Lingyi turned toward the sound, she saw a burly man stride in, hauling a young girl who looked to be on her last breath.

The girl was covered in blood and wounds. Her head hung low, and it was hard to tell if she was even still breathing.

"Damn my luck! I’ve done countless deals, and I get stuck with a money-losing piece of trash like you!" The burly man found an empty space and unceremoniously dumped the girl on the ground. He didn’t even bother to tie her up before starting his pitch: "Just fifty wen, and you can take her! This little gal can do anything. Heh heh, and if you gentlemen, heh heh... she’d make a fine little bed-warmer, too."

The girl was clearly covered in injuries. Fifty wen was incredibly cheap, but healing those wounds would undoubtedly cost a lot more Silver. It could end up costing several taels, which would make it no bargain at all.

As a result, the man’s shouting didn’t draw much of a crowd.

"...Hey, sir, how about you take a look at this girl? She’s got a fiery spirit. Even with all these injuries, she’ll give a man a special kind of thrill when she serves him! And if you don’t want to pay to heal her, that’s fine too. Just think of it as buying an untouched girl for a bit of fun. It’s way cheaper than going to a brothel!" Seeing that the low price wasn’t working, the man tried a different angle.

And what do you know, his new pitch actually worked. Two sleazy-looking men stepped forward.

"She’s really untouched?"

"Absolutely. I wouldn’t dare lie to you, sirs!"

"Alright, lift her head. Let me get a look."

As the girl’s head was forced up, the two potential buyers got a clear view of her right cheek, which was marred by a deep gash from a blade.

"AAGH!"

"What a hideous monster!"

Two different cries of shock rang out simultaneously. One of the men was so startled by her face that he fell right on his backside, cutting a pathetic figure.

"A face like that? I wouldn’t take her even if you paid me!" the badly startled man spat, then turned and stormed off.

The other man did the same.

This scene, however, prompted Ming Lingyi to walk over.

"You said this girl is fifty wen?" Ming Lingyi asked.

The man selling the girl nodded. "If you want her, I can give you a discount. Forty-five wen, how about that?"

Sensing that he’d never get rid of this damned girl, the man lowered the price himself.

"Xiao Chun, give him the money," Ming Lingyi said. "I’m taking her now."

The man’s eyes lit up. "Excellent, excellent! This young lady has a good eye! Really, aside from being a bit stubborn, this girl is perfectly fine. Don’t mind her ugly face—being ugly has its advantages, right? No man will ever fancy her, so in the future..."

"Our business is concluded."

With that, Ming Lingyi led the girl to the exit to complete the paperwork, ignoring the man’s rambling.

’Listening to another word from him would just be dirtying my own ears.’

Ming Lingyi first took the girl she had just bought to a clinic. Only after an examination by a doctor did she realize how severe the girl’s injuries were.

According to someone from the brokerage, the girl she’d bought was somewhat memorable. She had been sold once before, just two days ago, directly to a wealthy family.

No one expected her to be sent back today with her face ruined.

"No wonder Liu Mazi thought it was such bad luck. The girl was perfectly fine when he first sold her; even if she was returned, she could have fetched several taels of Silver. But now she’s injured like this, and it’s not like Liu Mazi can go argue with a family like that, so he had to eat the loss. Even selling her to you for fifty-odd wen, he still lost money. That girl is from an escort agency over in Datong. Her family offended someone while on a job, and they were all wiped out overnight. She’s the sole survivor. I guess you could say she’s selling herself to pay for her family’s burial."

Ming Lingyi stood outside the clinic, the words she’d just heard replaying in her mind.

She hadn’t bought the girl with any particular goal in mind. She just thought Liu Mazi’s words were vile, and if the girl had been sold to some ruffian, she surely wouldn’t have survived.

’Spending a little extra money for a servant girl was a small price to pay.’

What Ming Lingyi hadn’t expected, however, was that the girl was from an escort agency.

The man from the brokerage had said that it was because of her escort agency background that she’d fought with the young master’s concubine in the previous household, and had even beaten up the young master himself. The result was predictable: she was overpowered and beaten even more brutally.

That was how she had ended up in her current, half-dead state.