After being forced to leave the marriage, I became the wife of a top scholar.

Chapter 32 Are you the most beautiful courtesan?
When Bai Wanqing slipped out of the manor, she found there was nothing around her. She could only walk towards the county town against the cold wind.

However, the winter wind was colder than Bai Wanqing had expected. She had only taken a few steps when her eyelashes and hair were covered with frost, and her body began to freeze stiff.

She had to force herself to run. Although running warmed her body, her feet became even colder, as the soles of her shoes were still too thin.

"drive!"

The sound of a carriage came from behind Bai Wanqing. Thinking that Bai Qinglian had caught up, Bai Wanqing turned around and hid in the nearby woods.

However, the two carriages in front of them did not seem to be looking for anyone; they were speeding along the main road.

Strange! Did Bai Qinglian intend to let her go? Bai Wanqing stared at the departing carriage, completely unable to figure it out!
However, now is not the time for her to think about other things. If she cannot reach the village or find a place to rest tonight, she may very well freeze to death on the roadside.

In that case, Bai Qinglian won't need to lift a finger.

Bai Wanqing smiled bitterly, then straightened up and continued walking forward, enduring the cold wind of the night.

Bai Wanqing didn't know how long she had been walking, or whether she was going in the right direction. She could only vaguely see a light ahead.

But now she felt her eyelids were very heavy, and her limbs seemed to be out of her control!
The next second, everything went black again.

"Sister, sister, save me!"

Bai Wanqing spotted Bai Chengdong in the middle of the river at a glance, his small body struggling desperately.

"Chengdong! Don't be afraid, I'm coming to save you!" Without thinking, Bai Wanqing jumped into the river. For some reason, the river water was warm. She swam towards Bai Chengdong with all her might.

Just as she was about to grab Bai Chengdong's arm, Bai Chengdong suddenly disappeared from her sight.

"Cheng Dong! Cheng Dong!" Bai Wanqing shouted desperately as she swam in the water, but the surroundings were as silent as if under a spell, without a sound.

"Cheng Dong!" Bai Wanqing suddenly opened her eyes and found herself sitting peacefully in a bathtub in a wooden house.

"Awake?" A man's voice sounded behind Bai Wanqing.

Bai Wanqing instinctively crossed her arms over her chest, only then realizing that she was dressed. She then mustered the courage to turn around and look at the man behind her.

The man was arranging the herbs in his hands and did not look up at Bai Wanqing, but Bai Wanqing seemed to recognize him. His narrow, alluring eyes and high nose bridge made her think, "Are you the courtesan in that casino?"

"Me? A courtesan?" The man frowned; he didn't like this title.

"I'm sorry!" Bai Wanqing felt that she had been too abrupt. Last time, the man had disguised himself as a woman to help her out of a predicament. How could she have said that he was a courtesan!

"Hmph! The girls from your Bai family are truly extraordinary!"

"Last time you stormed a casino, and this time you're venturing into a snow-capped mountain. Are you tired of living?" The man glanced at Bai Wanqing with a half-smile.

Bai Wanqing then realized that she had gone completely the wrong way; she was getting further and further away from the county town and heading towards the snow-capped mountains to the north.

She fainted on the snowy mountain? He saved her!

"Thank you for saving me!" Bai Wanqing said sincerely.

The man stood up, walked to Bai Wanqing's wooden tub, and was about to reach out to touch the water when Bai Wanqing slapped him away.

"I'm just thanking you for saving me, it doesn't mean you can do whatever you want." Bai Wanqing looked at the man in front of her warily and hugged herself tightly.

The man chuckled. "Young Miss Bai, who do you think you are? I was just checking if the water in your bucket was still hot. If you catch a cold and develop a fever, wouldn't I be the one taking care of you?" "Besides, we're in the middle of nowhere. If I wanted to do anything to you, I wouldn't have waited until now. I would have done it just now."

The man gave a wicked smile, then turned around and added another bucket of hot water for Bai Wanqing.

The water, which had just cooled down, warmed up again.

"If you feel warm enough, get out of the tub. Otherwise, you'll get sick if you soak like this all night." After saying that, the man handed over a set of clean clothes and placed them next to the wooden tub before turning and leaving the wooden hut.

Bai Wanqing pursed her lips, looking at the clothes beside her with some hesitation.

"Hey, hurry up and change if you're going to, I'm freezing outside too!" The man's voice came from a distance; he wasn't near the cabin.

Bai Wanqing lowered her guard slightly, picked up the clothes next to the wooden tub, and changed into them.

The clothes were men's clothes, and they were a bit too big for her, but fortunately they were new and warm, probably having just been dried over a fire.

"Hey, have you even changed your clothes yet? I'm freezing!" The man at the door was shivering from the cold and had no choice but to urge him on.

"I'm all changed! Come in!" Bai Wanqing said, placing her clothes by the fire to dry as she let the man in.

The alluring man had only been gone a short while when he was covered in ice crystals. As soon as he entered the room, he moved closer to the brazier. The two were quite close, and Bai Wanqing could clearly feel the man's breathing.

She had never been so close to a man before, and involuntarily shifted her body away.

The alluring man smiled slightly as he looked at her, and moved his body further in, clearly telling Bai Wanqing that he did not want to take advantage of her.

The two sat by the fire, the quiet atmosphere rather awkward.

"My name is Lin Yunche, the eldest daughter of the Bai family. What's your name?" Lin Yunche didn't have a good impression of Bai Wanqing, and he asked her purely to ease the awkward atmosphere.

"Bai Wanqing!" Bai Wanqing only answered his question.

"Oh! So why aren't you at your Bai residence in the middle of the night? What are you doing out in this deep mountain forest?" Lin Yunche asked sarcastically.

Bai Wanqing did not respond.

"Could it be that you mistreated some servant or an old person again, and they retaliated by throwing you out in this mountain forest?" Lin Yunche said while observing Bai Wanqing's reaction. But to his surprise, Bai Wanqing did not get angry or embarrassed. She remained sitting there quietly, as if she wasn't the one he had just ridiculed.

"Hey! Say something!" Lin Yunche continued.

Bai Wanqing gave him a cold glance. "What did I say? What can I say about something you've already decided on?"

Lin Yunche curled his lips. This eldest daughter of the Bai family was really hard to please. If it weren't for the kindness her mother had shown him, and if he hadn't seen how desperate she was for her sister last time, he wouldn't have saved her!
"By the way! I wanted to ask you this last time! Were you really confident you could beat that bearded Yan when you were at the casino?"

Bai Wanqing stared at the fire before her, still offering no response.

Lin Yunche decided not to make a fool of himself. "If you don't want to talk about it, then don't. I've never seen a woman as ambiguous as you."

Neither good nor evil? Bai Wanqing raised her eyes, looking at Lin Yunche with some confusion. Was he describing her?

"Alright, you don't need to look at me like that. Rest assured, I'll stay here and watch over you. I'll send you back to the Bai family first thing tomorrow morning." After saying that, Lin Yunche leaned against the side and closed his eyes.

Bai Wanqing waited for a while and, finding that the other party did not make any move, finally fell asleep peacefully. Perhaps because of the firelight beside her, she felt that her whole body was warm.

(End of this chapter)