Hua Shu understood that Liu Fengying wanted to keep secret the method by which she got rid of her scars and improved her overall appearance. However, she was confused as to why Liu Fengying chose, out of all known treatment methods, to credit traditional medicine for her recovery, especially since it was the most controversial option.

She thought that if Liu Fengying wanted to avoid the spotlight, she could have come up with a more believable story. For example, she could have claimed that she underwent treatment at a state-of-the-art clinic in Country K, known for its advancements in cosmetic surgery. Even if the truth came out a few days later, by then, the topic of her recovery would no longer be trending, so it wouldn’t cause much of a stir.

However, now that everyone in the class was watching them, it was too late to advise Liu Fengying. The only way she could help her was by working together to make the story about traditional treatments as credible as possible.

"Hmm, now that I think about it, I think I heard something last year. Wasn't there an archaeological discovery near a village at the foot of Mount Yunshan? I remember the news mentioning the discovery of a secret passage beneath the ruins of a temple..."

Liu Fengying was taken aback by her deskmate’s addition. However, since nothing she had said contradicted her own story and because it would be much more convincing if someone else confirmed her words, she figured it wouldn’t hurt to agree.

"Yes, that's pretty much what I was told too...", Liu Fengying gestured to Hua Shu, signaling that she had done a good job. She was fairly certain that, for most people, this explanation of her recovery method would suffice. As for those who remained skeptical, they were free to investigate on their own if they had nothing better to do. Since the story was deliberately vague, disproving her claims would be difficult.

However, it seemed that Hua Shu didn’t share the same opinion. Encouraged by Liu Fengying’s approving look, she let her imagination run wild, embellishing the story with details about the discovery of manuscripts containing traditional remedies.

"From what I understand, the discovery was made by following clues from a legend known to the locals. According to the legend, beneath a temple at the foot of Mount Yunshan lies the tomb of a great emperor..."

"...Huh?", Liu Fengying didn’t understand what Hua Shu was trying to do. A vague story was much harder to disprove, so Liu Fengying didn’t want to discuss the source of these miraculous traditional treatment recipes in too much detail.

'No, I have to stop her...', she thought, fearing the situation was getting out of hand.

Unfortunately, once Hua Shu became passionate about something, she lost touch with reality and failed to notice Liu Fengying’s attempts to stop her, continuing to elaborate on the story she was making up on the spot.

"The legend says that when that emperor was just a prince competing for the throne, he was wounded in an ambush while traveling to inspect a gold mine... no, it was a salt mine. Back then, salt was extremely valuable. Anyway, although he managed to escape with his life thanks to the sacrifice of his guards, who stayed behind to fend off the attackers, after a day of traveling while bleeding, he lost consciousness upon reaching a small clearing. His wound wasn’t too serious—just a sword cut on his arm—but he had no survival skills and couldn’t find any food or water.

Luckily, before he could be eaten by a leopard or a bear, he was discovered by a young girl who had brought her flock of sheep to graze. Seeing that the prince was still breathing, she tended to his wound as best she could, gave him water, and after he regained consciousness, she led him to the cabin where she lived. No, she wasn’t alone; she lived with her grandmother. As for her parents, they had been killed when invaders ravaged the area.

After spending a month with the girl and her grandmother, the prince was finally found by a patrol sent by the emperor to discover his fate. However, before leaving, he promised the girl that as soon as he defeated his brothers in the battle for the throne and could guarantee her safety, he would return to take her as his wife. You see, he had been deeply moved by the care she had shown him. Plus, she was truly a great beauty, probably thanks to her diet rich in dairy products and the physical labor she did every day.

So the prince returned to the capital, determined to win the fight for the throne. He spent nearly three years achieving as much as possible to gain favor in the eyes of the people and his father while also scheming to cast his brothers in a bad light. Basically, something similar to what happens in palace dramas..."

"What is she talking about?", Liu Fengying looked at her deskmate with a bewildered expression.

Not only her, but even those eavesdropping on their conversation were very confused; they wanted to learn more about Liu Fengying, not to get a history lesson. However, Hua Shu didn’t care at all about what was happening around her as she was too absorbed in her own storytelling.

"In the end, his efforts were rewarded, and he was named crown prince, while his brothers were exiled to the outskirts of the empire and given positions without any real power.

Now that he had no threats left, he decided it was finally time to reunite with the girl he loved. For the past three years, the only news he had of her came from reports sent by the secret guards he had stationed to protect her. So, he prepared a grand procession and set off for Mount Yunshan to ask for her hand in marriage.

The journey there was peaceful, but the return had to be postponed for over half a year because the girl’s grandmother was on her deathbed, and she wanted to be by her side in her final moments. During this time, the prince ordered the construction of a temple in the clearing where he had collapsed years before, as a way of thanking Heaven for allowing him to meet the girl who saved his life and whom he fell in love with, which, surprise, turned out to be the very temple under whose ruins the secret passage was discovered.

So, where was I? Oh, right. The girl’s grandmother eventually passed away, but she left this world at peace, knowing her granddaughter would be in good hands. After a month of mourning, the girl accepted the prince’s proposal, and together, they set off for the capital.

However, I forgot to mention that things in the capital were not as smooth as the prince had imagined. Although he had his father’s support, some of the noble families did not look favorably upon him—one reason being that he had refused to take their daughters as wives or concubines.

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Furthermore, when rumors spread that the prince intended for his future empress to be a simple girl, many began to fear that he wanted to have as much power as possible once he became emperor.

As a result, two or three influential noble families decided to back one of the prince’s exiled brothers. Together, they plotted an assassination attempt, hiring professional killers from a neighboring country to make it harder to trace back to them.

But it seemed that the prince was truly blessed by Heaven, or rather, he had been blessed the moment he met the young shepherdess because she saved his life once again. Specifically, while dining outdoors with the prince, she noticed that the birds around them were more restless than usual, and looking through the branches of the trees to find out why, she caught sight of the light reflecting off the tips of the assassins’ arrows. Realizing what was happening, she jumped without hesitation and pushed the prince to the ground, causing the assassins' arrows to miss their target and giving the prince’s guards enough time to surround him with shields for protection.

Although there were no casualties, the attack was not without consequences. Unfortunately, the young shepherdess paid a steep price for saving her beloved as the tip of an arrow pierced one cheek and exited through the other, leaving her face permanently scarred. Her only bit of luck was that she had been screaming at the time, her mouth open, which prevented the arrow from damaging her teeth.

The prince was furious after this incident. Not only did he have to see the person he loved in great pain, but he was also tormented by guilt for breaking the promise he had made to her grandmother before she passed that he would keep her safe. After staying awake for 24 hours to watch over his fiancée until he was certain she was out of danger, he spent another two full days torturing the assassins that his guards had captured, trying to find out who had sent them.

Of course, he couldn’t learn much from them, as their leader had not revealed their employer’s identity. However, he did manage to gather some clues about, umm, where they came from, so the prince didn’t have to start his investigation from scratch upon returning to the capital.

Long story short, by the time the young shepherdess’s wounds had healed, the prince had discovered who had orchestrated the assassination. Using the excuse that they had collaborated with people from a foreign country, an act considered high treason, he had them all executed, including his brother, while their families were stripped of everything they owned.

After these events, things proceeded smoothly. The prince married the young shepherdess without further opposition, and when the emperor passed away, the prince succeeded him on the throne, making the girl his empress, just as he had promised.

However, for almost the rest of his life, the prince could never feel truly fulfilled, as he couldn’t move past the suffering his wife had endured. How could he forget when he saw, every day, her cheeks with two round scars that turned red in the cold? I wonder if she was the inspiration for the character Pikachu.

But the reason for his frustration was not that his wife was no longer as beautiful as when he first met her, it was the guilt he carried, knowing that she had been hurt because of him. She had thrown herself in front of those arrows to save his life, and he had been the one to underestimate their enemies.

So it’s no surprise that not only did he try to fulfill his wife’s every wish, but he also never took another wife or a concubine, a rare thing for emperors of that time, who sought to strengthen their power through marriages and wanted to have as many heirs as possible. He feared having anyone around her who might mock her appearance.

Additionally, he poured vast amounts of money into medicine, determined to find a treatment that could completely erase his wife’s scars. Because of this, it’s no wonder that highly effective treatments emerged during his reign.

Legend has it that the emperor eventually managed to find a cure for his wife, but when exactly this happened remains uncertain, as multiple versions of the story exist. The most well-known version says that this happened when the emperor was already old and sick, and that he lived just long enough to see his wife healed on his final day. Another, more optimistic version says that he was so overjoyed upon seeing his wife cured that he recovered and lived for another ten years.

"However, in all versions of the story, the emperor wished to be buried at the temple at the foot of Mount Yunshan, which he had ordered to be built in his youth. As for his wife, after ensuring that one of their sons could govern the empire without issue, she left the palace and retired to that very temple, spending the rest of her days beside her husband's resting place."

Liu Fengying didn’t know what to say when her deskmate finally fell silent. She understood that Hua Shu had been trying to make her recovery story sound as believable as possible, but the chances of such a long-winded tale actually spreading were close to zero.

‘Well, maybe she didn’t talk so much for nothing. At least the rest of the class isn’t staring at me anymore...’, Liu Fengying thought, noticing that, aside from a few girls still engrossed in Hua Shu’s story, most of the class had their eyes glued to their phones.

Regardless, Liu Fengying had to admit that Hua Shu’s imagination was truly impressive. Even though the love story she had crafted between a prince and a shepherd girl had quite a few plot holes and seemed more like a movie script than a legend, it was remarkable that someone could come up with something so intricate almost instantly.

‘Compared to her performance in science classes, you could say she’s wasting her talent being in this class. Maybe a career as a screenwriter or a podcaster would suit her better...’

But despite Liu Fengying’s conflicting thoughts about Hua Shu’s storytelling, she couldn’t ignore the proud expression on her face, practically screaming, 'Praise me!' Resigned, she simply gave her another nod of approval, letting her know she had done a great job.

That said, Liu Fengying was now hesitant to let Hua Shu continue helping her make her story more convincing. What she had said so far was vague enough that it wouldn’t cause trouble, but now that she had gained confidence, there was a real risk she might say something that contradicted her own plans. Besides, it was already suspicious enough that she had suddenly "remembered" so many details out of nowhere.

"You really have a great memory, ShuShu! Well, we’ll talk more another time. Didn’t you say you wanted a mirror? Fortunately, I have one with me. But you’d better hurry up because it’s almost 8 o’clock. I’m guessing you want to look presentable when the teacher calls you to the board..."

"Maybe he's not crazy! And I made it on time today...", Hua Shu jumped like a cat splashed with water. Considering that the math teacher had called on her more than anyone else over the past month, if he singled her out again without a good reason, she could only conclude that he had it out for her.

Honestly, just thinking about being called to the board again killed any motivation she had to fix herself up. If anything, the worse she looked, the better; maybe then the math teacher wouldn’t want to look at her either.

But when she looked at Liu Fengying, who that morning looked flawless from every angle, she was overwhelmed by a sense of inferiority imagining how she must look next to her. More precisely, she thought that if their lives were part of a novel where Liu Fengying was the protagonist, then she would most likely be the clumsy sidekick, the one whose sole purpose was to highlight the heroine’s perfection by comparison.

So in the end, she took the mirror from Liu Fengying’s hand and, without wasting any more time, started battling her tangled hair.

‘She’s like a child...’, Liu Fengying thought, watching Hua Shu’s pouty face. The way she fumbled with the comb, struggling to untangle her hair with just one hand, was almost comical; she looked like a little princess sulking at the entire world.

"Give me the comb and turn around...", Liu Fengying sighed, finally deciding to step in. After all, Hua Shu had just helped her so it wouldn’t feel right to watch her struggle now.

Besides, she didn’t mind spoiling such a cute girl.