Nonsense! She’s Not a Bad Woman! - Chapter 71

Yun Heng quickly explained, “It wasn’t my intention to give you the Hehuan medicine. I didn’t know when the restorative pills in this small porcelain bottle were replaced by Hehuan medicine, which is mild in effect! Please don’t misunderstand.”

Qiao Wanyan studied his expression—calm, unmoved—and finally felt a flicker of something in her heart. She believed that the Hehuan medicine had not been given with ill intent.

It was almost impossible to imagine what kind of allure someone like him would have if desire ever touched those otherwise emotionless eyes.

She lifted a harmless smile. “Yun Gongzi, I believe you.”

Hearing her words, Yun Heng’s chest tightened with an overwhelming sense of guilt.

She had come here at his prompting, trembling and uncertain for days without knowing the reason. Yet now, faced with a truth even he himself found difficult to accept, she still said she trusted him.

“Yun Gongzi is a good person. Yun Gongzi would never harm me.”

When beautiful people spoke half-truths or lies, it was easy for their words to cloud a person’s mind.

Yun Heng had traveled far before, but he had never encountered a woman like Qiao Wanyan—serene and poised like Guanyin on the surface, yet cunning as a viper beneath.

Qiao Wanyan suddenly lowered her gaze, her voice soft and tinged with a lonely melancholy. “Even though you nearly made me swallow that Hehuan medicine, I know you didn’t do it intentionally. Yet knowing that, I still feel a lingering fear.”

She gently pressed a hand to her chest, her misty brows curved delicately like distant mountains, looking like a startled little rabbit.

Yun Heng felt a shiver through his chest. Standing so close, seeing her expression like this, his scalp tingled and his mind went completely blank.

“How can I ease your heart?” he asked.

Qiao Wanyan slowly lifted her eyes, her clear, luminous gaze meeting his. Without answering, she countered, “How do you think you can ease my heart, Gongzi?”

At the entrance, He Zhiyu and the others had been searching for three days. Zi Yuan grew anxious. “Why can’t we find it yet? Isn’t this your own home?”

Yun Yao was equally distressed. “My brother must have changed the formation. I can’t find the entrance either!”

Qiao Yihuan spoke gently. “Yao Yao’s brother is a renowned divine physician. He must be kindhearted and trustworthy. Even though Wanyan was taken to the Medicine Valley, she won’t be in any real danger. Yao Yao, don’t worry. We’ll find a solution.”

Zi Yuan couldn’t help snapping. “It’s not you who was kidnapped, so of course you aren’t worried! And you call yourself a sister? What kind of heart do you have?!”

Qiao Yihuan bit her lip. “I-I didn’t mean it that way. Wanyan’s disappearance worries us, yes, but being anxious solves nothing. We need to calm down and think of a solution.”

Xiao Ying added hurriedly, “Exactly! Our Miss is kindhearted—someone like you couldn’t possibly understand.”

Yun Yao’s head ached. “You don’t understand! My brother may be a brilliant physician, but he’s difficult to deal with! He only cares about medical texts and herbs; everything else is a nuisance.”

Her thoughts raced. “If Wanyan encounters my brother’s type, she’ll inevitably be unintentionally hurt. She’s so fragile, and no one is there to protect her. I’m terrified just imagining it!”

She couldn’t even fathom how alone and helpless Wanyan must feel. Would her brother, seeing her as a nuisance, lock her in a dark room? Would he give her some medicine just to keep her calm if she tried to escape?

Yun Yao circled around with her companions, still unable to locate the entrance she remembered. As they searched back and forth, she suddenly sensed the formation shifting.

The thought seemed to strike her, and she hurriedly led the group in one direction. Sure enough, the entrance to the Medicine Valley appeared before them.

“This is the Medicine Valley?” Qiao Yihuan asked, astonished. The place resembled a hidden paradise.

Secluded and serene, it felt like an entirely different world from the outside. Occasionally, the calls of mystical birds rang out, adding to the tranquil atmosphere.

Lu Jinye, walking behind, suddenly felt as if all his strength had been drained. The sensation of powerlessness made him uneasy.

Jing Yuan muttered, “Your Highness… I suddenly feel my limbs weak and limp.”

Before He Zhiyu could respond, Yun Yao explained, “That’s the effect of the Soft Bone Powder. The air here carries it. The Medicine Valley has long been protected by a maze to prevent intrusions, but the maze isn’t infallible. If someone accidentally stumbles in, the Soft Bone Powder will render even skilled fighters ordinary.”

In simple terms, even if intruders entered, they wouldn’t have the power to cause any real trouble. Longqing would remove them before they could.

Yun Yao led the group toward the pharmacy. From her knowledge of her brother, he would either be there or in the study.

The closer she got, the wider her eyes grew.

When they reached the pharmacy, the scene stunned them into silence: a charred ruin, the smell of burnt wood heavy in the air. Even her mouth fell open.

The pharmacy had been right here… hadn’t it? Had she come the wrong way?

He Zhiyu furrowed his brows. “This is the Medicine Valley? Why is it all in ruins? Looks like it caught fire—and recently.”

Liu Yanran suddenly asked, “Could it… have been Qiao Wanyan? She’s impulsive. If she had a disagreement with Yao Yao’s brother, she might’ve acted on impulse and burned it down. Otherwise, nobody in the valley would ever set their own pharmacy on fire.”

Yun Yao shook her head. Though reluctant to admit it, she felt a twinge of worry.

Longqing, Chang’an, and Uncle Zhang and Aunt Zhang would never dare burn down the pharmacy. Could it really be that Sister Wanyan, pushed to her limit, acted impulsively?

Her heart skipped a beat. “The pharmacy is my brother’s lifeblood… if Wanyan burned it, then… what about her…”

She couldn’t bear to think further.

Zi Yuan’s heart twisted into knots at Yun Yao’s words.

He Zhiyu’s expression grew grave. If Wanyan were truly in danger here, the existence of the Medicine Valley itself would be meaningless.

Liu Yanran snorted lightly in her heart. The malicious supporting female truly lived up to her role—reckless and headstrong, destined only to serve as a backdrop to the heroine. If it had been Yihuan taken instead, she would’ve been treated as an honored guest by Yun Heng.

“My brother isn’t here. He should be in the study or at the Tingyu Pavilion. The study is closer; let’s go check there first.”

Everyone hurried toward the study, minds racing. Based on Yun Yao’s reaction, it seemed Wanyan’s fate hung by a thread. Yet, when they arrived, silence fell over the group.

There she was—Qiao Wanyan—lounging on the soft divan, bored, flipping through a book. Yun Heng, in his ethereal white robes, knelt on one knee, peeling a lychee to feed her.

As if sensing movement at the doorway, he glanced toward the entrance.