Chapter 227: An Opportunity to Turn Back
She had never eaten such a large chicken leg before.
No, it would be more accurate to say she had rarely eaten chicken meat at all in her life.
Her family’s circumstances had been poor; otherwise, they wouldn’t have sent her to Feiyue Pavilion to become a dancing girl.
Most of the dancing girls at Feiyue Pavilion were sent there as apprentices from a very young age; those who entered later like Shaoyin were a minority.
Ruan Xiang’s family rarely managed to eat chicken more than once or twice a year, and when she was a child, those portions were almost always given to her brother and her grandmother.
One was the family’s most precious “male heir,” while the other was an elder to whom filial piety was strictly owed.
Ruan Xiang couldn’t even get a few scraps of meat—aside from her brother and grandmother, the chicken meat also had to be given to her father, because her father was the head of the household who had to do hard labor and needed the strength.
She only ever got to gnaw on a few skeletal leftovers during the New Year.
Because of this, after entering Feiyue Pavilion, Ruan Xiang practiced her dancing with immense diligence. Later on, she gradually earned the chance to perform on stage and receive tips, and Manager Yue would also give them some food and wine.
However, food often represented a reward, or a punishment.
Only when she was the most popular dancing girl and her tips doubled those of the others would she receive a reward.
If she was injured at Feiyue Pavilion and could not perform on stage, there would be no chicken soup for her to drink. Manager Yue would only dock her food and drink and assign her to do hard manual chores as a form of punishment.
Holding the half-chicken leg that was practically as large as her face, Ruan Xiang felt as if she were in a dream.
She opened her mouth, her fine, white, and even teeth biting into the chicken leg. The skin was springy, the meat was smooth and tender, the chicken fat was fragrant without being greasy, and the rich juices burst forth inside her mouth.
Ruan Xiang’s eyes widened—
So this was what it felt like for a single person to eat an entire chicken leg!
She ate in a daze, and beside her, the young Manor Owner, Lin Sanniang, and Auntie Pang all looked at her with deeply affectionate, maternal gazes.
Those gazes were calm and soft, as if saying that she didn’t need to do anything at all; just by eating properly, they were already incredibly proud of her.
Ruan Xiang’s tears spilled over.
At this moment, she suddenly didn’t want to die anymore.
It turned out that good things could still happen if one stayed alive, right?
Ruan Xiang ate a large chicken leg, followed by several pieces of meat, drank three bowls of broth, and even finished a small bowl of chicken soup noodles.
Auntie Pang said regretfully, “You’re only eating this much? Won’t you have a bit more?”
Ruan Xiang shook her head embarrassedly.
This half of a chicken was already a level of privileged treatment she had never experienced before.
Jian Xingxia seized the opportunity to say to Auntie Pang, “Auntie Pang, look, Ruan Xiang is so thin, yet she can eat half a chicken in one sitting. Let’s make more food in the future! It won’t go to waste anyway.”
Whatever was left over could be taken care of by Da Hei and Shang Yue; those two would take as much food as was available.
Even if they didn’t come on a particular day, the leftovers could be stored in the refrigerator.
This was the modern world, after all!
Auntie Pang wasn’t about to indulge this spendthrift Manor Owner. Picking up the bowls, she called out to Lin Sanniang, “Sanniang, let’s go to the kitchen and have a bite ourselves.”
It would be a terrible waste not to boil some noodles in such a wonderful chicken broth.
Lin Sanniang smiled subtly, picked up the washbasin, and walked out.
Jian Xingxia remained in the west wing, asking Ruan Xiang what her plans were.
Ruan Xiang hesitated.
Before coming to the manor, her purpose had been explicitly clear: to die cleanly, rather than remain in such a filthy, dark human world.
But after arriving at the manor, she suddenly wavered.
She bit her lip, not knowing how to voice the thoughts in her heart.
Jian Xingxia looked at her with a gentle smile. “Ruan Xiang, we have a saying where I come from. It goes: even if one day you have already climbed to the top of a tall building, stepped outside the railing, and stand looking down at a crowd filled with officers, passersby, family, and close friends—even if absolutely everyone knows you are about to leap… you can still turn your head back around, step back over the rail, and say that you’ve thought it through and don’t want to die anymore.”
Ruan Xiang’s tears cascaded instantly.
“Miss Manor Owner… is that really allowed? Can someone truly still turn back?”
“Of course you can. My manor exists precisely to give a path of survival to those who have reached an absolute dead end.”
Ruan Xiang threw herself into Jian Xingxia’s embrace, weeping uncontrollably.
“But… but I’m different. Shaoyin is still pure, but my body has already been ruined… I have nothing left!”
The case had been tried right before the eyes of everyone in Xiqiao County; the fact that she had lost her innocence was already known to all.
Jian Xingxia comforted her, “Perhaps that’s how it is in your world, but inside this manor, that is absolutely nothing. In our world, people who are divorced, remarried, or who choose to just date without ever marrying… can be found everywhere.”
Ruan Xiang didn’t speak, but judging by her expression, she wasn’t convinced by Jian Xingxia’s words.
Jian Xingxia offered a few more words of comfort. Seeing that Ruan Xiang still remained skeptical, her eyes flickered slightly. “Let’s put this matter aside for now. I’ll treat your wounds first, and later on, I’ll take you out for a walk, alright?”
Ruan Xiang nodded and agreed.
For some reason, she felt that no matter what the young Manor Owner said, she was willing to listen and obey.
She felt that the young Manor Owner carried a warm scent, somewhat like a beautiful hen that had basked thoroughly in the sun.
Jian Xingxia went outside to make a phone call. “Hello, Auntie Lu? I have something I’d like to ask your help with… Ah, yes, yes, help me find a few aunties, older matriarchs are fine, or sisters-in-law. Right, right, it would be even better if Auntie Houjun could come…”
“Great, when you all reach the entrance later, just call out at the gate barrier and I’ll open it for you.”
After finishing the call, Jian Xingxia washed her hands, brought the medicine box inside, and began treating Ruan Xiang’s wounds.
Ruan Xiang’s injuries were actually not as severe as Shaoyin’s. Shaoyin had just undergone a prolonged ordeal of coercion and torment, compounded by her struggles during her escape, making her condition complex and multi-layered.
Ruan Xiang’s injuries mainly fell into three types: the impact wound on her forehead, the blunt trauma on her buttocks and thighs from the heavy boards, and the gashes she had inflicted on herself with the pottery shard.
The wound on her forehead was no longer a major issue. Jian Xingxia applied some medicine, wrapped it with gauze, and that was that.
The injuries from the heavy boards looked intimidating, but upon a meticulous inspection, Jian Xingxia found they were merely superficial.
“Huh, who was the one administering these strikes? This is so strange—it’s only a bit swollen with some light bleeding.”
When Ruan Xiang arrived, the back of her clothes and trousers had been soaked in blood, leading Jian Xingxia to assume her flesh had been torn to shreds.
But looking at it now, the bleeding points were very shallow. If anything, it looked as though the capillaries near the surface of the skin had merely ruptured slightly, comparable to mild scrapes.
Recalling the execution of the sentence, Ruan Xiang also realized something had been amiss.
“Manager Yue and Boss Wu received their punishment first. The moment a board came down, the pain was unbearable, and by the third or fourth strike, blood began to splatter… their flesh was completely torn apart.”
By the time those dozens of strikes were finished, the men couldn’t stand up at all when the boards stopped; they had to be dragged away by attendants, leaving long trails of blood on the ground.
Ruan Xiang knitted her brows as she recalled, “But when they struck me, although it felt painful with every strike, that pain didn’t even match what it felt like when Manager Yue used to whip us.”
“And I only saw blood on practically the last one or two strikes.”
“Even though I received fewer strikes than Manager Yue and the others, after those ten strikes, I could still move around normally, only feeling a slight pulling pain in the flesh when I walked…”
Jian Xingxia’s eyes shone brightly, and she looked up to voice the suspicion in Ruan Xiang’s heart: “Your guess is correct—the person striking you was showing you mercy!”
Jian Xingxia looked at Ruan Xiang with a smile. “Ruan Xiang, perhaps some people ridicule and mock your ordeal, but there are definitely others who admire and revere your courage.”
“You did beautifully, and even the executioner was helping you. Do you see that now?”
