At the bottom of the stairs, he crashed into the wall and died on the spot!
Aunt Wang was still chattering away in complaint. "Ye Heng should take a look in the mirror and see what he is. He's just a powerless live-in son-in-law. Does he think Grandfather's last words give him the right to meddle in our Second Young Master's affairs? So what if we're usually a little strict with him? Last time, we hung him from the beam for three days and three nights, and he still didn't learn his lesson. Beating him and scolding him was because he was in the wrong first!"
Every word Aunt Wang said was like an invisible knife plunging into Tang Mingxi's chest.
After several stabs, Tang Mingxi was barely clinging to life. Holding onto the bedside cabinet, he shakily let out a wisp of his soul and completely gave up on the idea of clinging to the male lead's thigh.
Besides, given Ye Heng's cunning personality in the original novel, if he tried to cling to him, Ye Heng might immediately discover that "Tang Mingxi" had been replaced.
By then, it wouldn't just be Ye Heng who wanted to kill him. If the Tang Family learned that he had stolen someone else's place, they would hunt him down too!
Thinking of this, Tang Mingxi let out a long sigh. My life is more bitter than bitter melon.
"Wang Ma." Tang Mingxi interrupted Aunt Wang's complaints. Thinking of the male lead kneeling in the courtyard, he imitated the original owner's arrogant tone. "Why is Ye Heng kneeling in the courtyard? Is he deliberately trying to let my eldest brother and the others see him, so they can accuse me of abusing him?"
Hurry up and let the male lead get up!
Wang Ma slapped her forehead. "Right, right, right, Second Young Master. You really are thoughtful. That little bastard is truly full of schemes! I'll bring him inside to kneel right away!"
Tang Mingxi: ? That wasn't what I meant.
Before long, Ye Heng was roughly dragged into the room by the servants and thrown inside in a stumbling heap.
He had knelt for too long, and his knees were badly frostbitten. He lost his footing on the final step and fell straight to the floor.
The thud startled Tang Mingxi out of sorting through his memories.
Seeing Ye Heng, the male protagonist of the original novel and the man who would soon kill him, Tang Mingxi would be lying if he said he wasn't afraid.
But when he saw Ye Heng's current state, even Tang Mingxi, who had read the original novel, couldn't help drawing in a sharp breath.
There wasn't a single patch of uninjured flesh on Ye Heng's body. His brows and eyes were gloomy, blood stained the corner of his mouth, and his exposed skin was pale as snow, mottled with bruises of varying sizes and covered in wounds.
The youth wore nothing but a thin hoodie as he knelt in the snow for an entire day and night. His lips were cracked and darkened, and only a faint glimpse remained of the peerless beauty he would one day possess.
What was more, when Tang Mingxi saw his face, he was even more startled—Ye Heng's frame had yet to fully develop, and his features were still youthful. In the original novel, he had just turned seventeen this year and had only recently become engaged to Tang Mingxi. They were to marry once he came of age.
And their wedding day would be Tang Mingxi's death day in the original novel.
Fine, at least he still had a year to figure out how to get divorced and run away qvq.
Tang Mingxi found some comfort amid his misery and quietly breathed a sigh of relief, though his expression remained unmoved.
Although Ye Heng was lying on the floor, he had raised his head. His overly long bangs hid his brows, his raven-feather lashes trembled lightly, and his peach blossom eyes stared calmly at Tang Mingxi, like a cold, venomous snake lurking in the darkness.
Tang Mingxi's scalp tingled beneath his gaze. He felt that beneath those eyes lay overwhelming killing intent and hatred.
Outside the window, the blizzard howled past. The cold wind raged, sharp as blades and swords, carrying frost and snow that blanketed the entire Tang Family Manor.
Tang Mingxi's room was clearly covered in soft wool carpets, and scorching underfloor heating washed over him, making the room warm as spring.
But at this moment, beneath Ye Heng's cold stare,
Tang Mingxi felt as though the room was even colder than the world outside.
Tang Nuo!
The strange silence in the room was broken by Aunt Wang.
Ye Heng was suddenly kicked by her and coughed up a thread of blood, leaving a vivid smear at the corner of his lips.
"The Second Young Master was kind enough to let you kneel in the room, and now you don't even know how to address him?"
Kind? Ye Heng sneered inwardly. He was probably worried that Tang Yun, his eldest brother, would see him and come looking for trouble.
Tang Mingxi came back to himself. Seeing the frostbitten wounds all over Ye Heng's body, he drew a deep breath. There was only one thought in his mind: he couldn't let anyone discover that the original "Tang Mingxi" had been replaced!
He casually grabbed a piece of clothing from the bed and threw it to the floor.
It landed squarely on Ye Heng.
A clean, sweet scent enveloped Ye Heng. The warmth from the clothing gradually restored feeling to his limbs.
Tang Mingxi was about to speak when Aunt Wang immediately understood. She glared viciously at Ye Heng and snapped, "Who are you trying to disgust with that rotten body of yours?"
He: ...That wasn't exactly what I meant.
Forget it. At least the vicious cannon fodder persona of "Tang Mingxi" hadn't fallen apart.
Ye Heng's face was pale and bloodless. He struggled to prop himself up, enduring the pain. Right now, he truly had no power to contend with Tang Mingxi.
Besides, his younger sister—Ye Yue—was still unconscious in the hospital and needed the Tang Family's relief funds.
"Go stand over there." Tang Mingxi waved a hand, deliberately making his voice sound impatient.
Aunt Wang shoved him fiercely. "Didn't you hear him? The Second Young Master means for you to get over to the side and kneel. Hurry up!"
Tang Mingxi choked. Wang Ma's corporate-level reading comprehension is really stirring up too much hatred, isn't it? qvq
The side?
Ye Heng glanced coolly at the person behind the bed curtains. The figure was hazy and indistinct, making his features impossible to see clearly.
There was only a thick layer of cashmere carpet at the side, and the underfloor heating was tirelessly radiating warmth.
Before he could make sense of it, Aunt Wang pressed down on his shoulders and viciously forced him toward the floor.
Normally, the marble floor would surely have shattered his kneecaps.
But now, the instant his knees touched the ground, there was unexpectedly none of the excruciating pain he had imagined.
The carpet was thick and greatly eased his pain, yet it also made Ye Heng even more wary.
Behind the bed curtains, Tang Mingxi quietly let out a breath of relief.
But when he looked up and saw the boy's even darker, more vigilant expression, Tang Mingxi knew that this old... ah, no, this young schemer wouldn't be so easy to fool.
Even if he did something only slightly different from the original owner, Ye Heng could keenly sense it.
After being made to kneel, there was no movement from behind the bed curtains for a long while. It was unlike Tang Mingxi's usual style.
Ye Heng considered it coldly. In the past, after kneeling for just one day, there was no way he would have been dragged into the room. At the very least, he would have had to kneel until Tang Mingxi's anger subsided. By then, he would probably be dead.
Last night had been the first time Ye Heng fought back against Tang Mingxi. In a moment of carelessness, he had accidentally pushed Tang Mingxi down the stairs, causing him to fall unconscious.
The scene had frightened the Tang Family servants pale. Before Tang Mingxi awoke, Aunt Wang had followed Tang Mingxi's usual methods and sent Ye Heng out to kneel in the courtyard, waiting for Tang Mingxi to wake and punish him—after making such a grave mistake, even if he didn't die, he would lose a layer of skin.
But unlike what he expected, Tang Mingxi had not flown into a rage as usual after waking up. Instead, he was acting strangely.
Ye Heng sneered inwardly. Had that useless fool damaged his brain when he fell down the stairs?
Just as Ye Heng was considering it further, his mind, warmed by the heated air, gradually grew heavy. The alternating cold and heat brought fine beads of sweat to the young, handsome youth's face.
An unnatural flush also spread across his cheeks, especially conspicuous against his snow-pale skin.
His long, straight lashes trembled lightly, and his vision darkened in waves.
Tang Mingxi's bedroom spun around him, while his knees began shaking like a sieve.
With a loud thud, Ye Heng's body hit the floor. His consciousness went dark, and he immediately lost all feeling.
The noise also startled Tang Mingxi, who had been figuring out how to get divorced and run away. He hurriedly lifted the bed curtains, revealing a slender hand with neatly trimmed nails, fair with a touch of pink.
A pale white wrist emerged as the bed curtains were raised, followed by a face with delicate brows and almond-shaped eyes, the corners of his eyes slightly downturned and his lips full and soft, naturally