Chapter 225: You Swear First!
Ruan Xiang’s self-mutilation had actually been to save her money!
Shaoyin’s tears suddenly spilled over. She reached out to brush away the stray hairs caught in the blood on Ruan Xiang’s face, choking out, “You’re too foolish, Ruan Xiang. You’re too foolish…”
Ruan Xiang, however, replied, “Yes, I am too foolish. If only I were foolish enough… to have thought of this trick earlier, I wouldn’t have lost my innocence, been ridiculed by everyone, and been loathed by my family.”
Yesterday’s case regarding Feiyue Pavilion was the biggest spectacle in Xiqiao County, so Ruan Xiang’s family must have heard the news.
Unfortunately, just like when she was trapped by Manager Yue and the others into signing that exorbitant debt contract and forced to sell her body to pay it off, her family remained completely indifferent from start to finish.
Now, they had even sent a message through someone, telling Ruan Xiang never to contact them again. After all, Ruan Xiang was now a filthy woman known to everyone in Xiqiao County. Since she held slave status, she no longer had any relation to her home.
Shaoyin supported Ruan Xiang as they walked out of the government office’s main gates. Ruan Xiang had taken ten strikes of the staff; she was currently completely devoid of strength and gasping from the sharp pain, so she could only lean against a stone mounting block by the entrance to stop and rest.
With her hair disheveled, she raised her eyes to look at Shaoyin. “Shaoyin, thank you for redeeming me. It’s just a pity that I can no longer repay you…”
That day, Xu Shaoyin had been covered in injuries, and it looked as if Manager Yue’s coercion was about to succeed. It was Ruan Xiang who couldn’t bear to see Shaoyin meet the same end as her, so she found an excuse to draw Manager Yue away.
This gave Fan Shishi, Qin Hua, and the others the chance to help Shaoyin escape from Feiyue Pavilion.
She had assumed Shaoyin wouldn’t know she had called Manager away on purpose. Though her heart was filled with a complex tangle of emotions, she was ultimately thankful that Shaoyin had escaped.
Yet, she hadn’t expected that while Shaoyin had only escaped in the morning, she would turn right back around in the evening to find her.
First to thank her, and second, to plot the events for the courtroom the next day.
Now, she had thrown away her own reputation and innocence to help Shaoyin, and Shaoyin had redeemed her in return.
Although Ruan Xiang was grateful in her heart, she no longer had any will to live. She could only callously ask Shaoyin for her deed of sale. “I have no chance left in this life. If I die carrying my deed of sale, at least I’ll die a free soul…”
Ruan Xiang let out a wretched smile. “In the next life, then. If we are fated in the next life, I will work like an ox or a horse to repay you.”
Shaoyin blurted out, “No need for the next life! This life is fine!”
“What?” Ruan Xiang frowned.
She knew Shaoyin kept her word and wouldn’t back out, but Shaoyin’s words were a bit too easy to misinterpret…
Shaoyin, however, seemed to suddenly realize something, and her whole mind cleared.
She pulled Ruan Xiang all the way through the alleys until they found a secluded spot under a bridge.
Then, she asked Ruan Xiang solemnly, “Ruan Xiang, is death truly the only thing on your mind right now?”
“Yes,” Ruan Xiang replied without a moment’s hesitation.
“Then have you also thought that if given the chance, you must definitely repay your benefactor?”
Ruan Xiang’s brow furrowed tightly. She felt that ever since Shaoyin escaped and came back for her, the girl had been speaking very strangely.
But she admitted, “Yes. If given the chance, I will definitely repay you.”
The only benefactor she could think of was Shaoyin.
But Shaoyin became excited instead. “Then that’s right! But don’t just think about me. You have to think that in the future, whoever helps you, you must repay them too!”
Ruan Xiang couldn’t understand what Shaoyin was getting at.
The only thing she could think of regarding the “future” was that after she died, perhaps some kind soul would help bury her corpse.
She didn’t know if Shaoyin meant she would help bury her and therefore wanted her to be grateful.
But she currently possessed not a single coin—her earnings from her many years at Feiyue Pavilion had first gone to support her family, and later were stripped away in that trap to pay off the debt.
Ultimately, the debt wasn’t cleared, and she was forced to sign a deed of sale. She had long since ceased to have anything else to give Shaoyin.
Her eyes dimmed. “I’m sorry…”
Shaoyin, however, pressed her to look toward the water’s surface. “Hurry, quickly swear to the water! Say that you will definitely repay your benefactor well!”
Ruan Xiang frowned; she was truly starting to grow angry.
Although Shaoyin had helped redeem her body, she had already resolved to seek death, yet Shaoyin was still pressuring her like this.
Filled with indignation, Ruan Xiang snapped toward the water, “Fine! I swear, I swear that even if I die, even in the next life, I will repay you. Is that enough!”
“No, that won’t do, that won’t do!” Shaoyin anxiously cried out. “I told you it’s not to repay me, it’s to repay your benefactor! Oh dear, it’s useless for you to swear now. Wait a moment, wait until I walk a bit further away before you swear.”
Shaoyin hurriedly backed off, running a few paces away before letting Ruan Xiang swear: “Swear now! Oh, and if you see your benefactor in a moment, absolutely do not be afraid. She is an exceptionally, exceptionally good person, the best in the world… Uh? Ruan Xiang?”
The moment Shaoyin had started shouting, Ruan Xiang had already begun swearing toward the water out of disappointment and fury.
Thus, before Shaoyin could even finish her sentence, Ruan Xiang’s oath was already complete, and she resolutely threw herself toward the water—the only person in this world willing to save her was now making sport of her like this; she had nothing left to hold onto.
And so—
She fell right into a forest.
A thick layer of leaves cushioned Ruan Xiang’s descent. She tumbled into a patch of soft grass, her entire body aching.
She couldn’t fathom her current situation at all. “Where… is this? I’m… not dead?”
Turning her head, she suddenly saw a tall, hulking, mountain-like Kunlun slave with flashing white teeth charging toward her, squeaking and shouting wildly.
Ruan Xiang’s eyes rolled back, and she swooned dead away.
Well, now she must truly be dead.
After she fainted, Da Hei quickly trotted over, looking thoroughly heartbroken. “This morning! The vegetable seedlings I just dug up!”
He had just sorted them and laid them out neatly to one side, waiting to plant them.
This person falling out of nowhere had completely crushed his vegetable seedlings!
Da Hei was angry, but then he remembered his master’s instructions—if he encountered people in the mountains, they were all her guests and must be sent to the manor.
Grumbling to himself, Da Hei fetched a straw mat, wrapped Ruan Xiang up in it, hoisted her onto his shoulder, and walked toward the old house.
Ruan Xiang couldn’t have weighed more than eighty or ninety catties; she was incredibly light, not even as heavy as the basket of radishes he had brought!
hoisting her up was effortless for Da Hei.
However, his movements were rough, and his strength far exceeded that of ordinary men, which quickly jolted the swooned Ruan Xiang back to consciousness.
Ruan Xiang was being carried while dangling upside down, her feet facing forward and her head pointing downward.
The world was spinning.
It took her a good while to realize she was being carried on someone’s… or a black bear’s shoulder, and she instantly began to shriek.
No! She would rather die! She did not want to be carried back to a lair by wicked men or wild beasts!
What awaited her there could be a fate worse than death!
Ruan Xiang was in utter agony, her shrieks piercing through the wild grass and reeds, giving Da Hei a fright.
He set Ruan Xiang upright on the ground, though the straw mat hadn’t been unwrapped yet.
Da Hei glared. “You’re noisy! My ears hurt!”
Ruan Xiang gasped for air, her body ice-cold. “What… are you…”
Da Hei was honest: “I am Da Hei.”
Ruan Xiang froze. “You can speak?”
Da Hei was displeased. “Of course I can!”
Not only could he speak, but he could also speak Kunlun, Dayu, and now the language of his master’s place.
If a Kunlun slave didn’t know how to speak the official language, they would be looked down upon.
Da Hei was unhappy that Ruan Xiang questioned his capabilities as a Kunlun slave.
Ruan Xiang stood there blankly. “Are you here to take me to the Underworld?”
Da Hei scratched his head. “What Underworld? Don’t know. Sending you over there.”
He extended a thick, dark arm to point. Ruan Xiang followed his arm, shifting her gaze for quite some time before she finally saw the direction he was pointing.
There stood a strangely shaped, white two-story building.
Somehow, just by standing there, the little building exuded a reassuring sense of peace.
Ruan Xiang instinctively took a step toward the building.
If this was the place one went after death, it didn’t seem so bad.
However, in the next instant, she pitched forward and planted her face into the ground—she was still wrapped inside the straw mat!
The moment she took a step, she tripped and fell straight down.
