Chapter 52, please keep hugging me...

A bonfire party was about to begin, but Si Yao never expected that it would stir up her childhood ailment again.

While she was in a coma, she dreamed of scenes from her childhood.

She hadn't revisited that memory in a long time.

She didn't want to remember, and her body trembled uncontrollably.

Li Ye carried her and brought her back to the giant ship.

He opened his own guest room and casually waved his hand, illuminating the room's lamps.

He also opened all the windows and gently placed Si Yao on the bed by the window frame.

Seeing Si Yao's furrowed brows, Li Ye leaned closer and asked softly, "How are you feeling right now?"

Si Yao, however, covered her head and curled up into a ball on the bed, repeatedly muttering, "No...don't hit me..."

Li Ye was slightly taken aback, guessing that she might be having a nightmare, and quickly channeled his spiritual energy into her body.

Fortunately, a quarter of an hour later, Si Yao slowly opened her eyes.

"You're awake?" Li Ye's voice was full of concern.

Si Yao lay on the bed, gazing at the dim night outside the window, "I thought I was about to be beaten to death..."

Li Ye frowned slightly, completely bewildered. "Who hit you?"

He jumped into the trap in such a hurry, even though he had already caught Si Yao with both hands just before her body hit the bottom.

Who hit her?

"They whipped me...it hurt so much..."

Li Ye came to his senses and guessed that Si Yao was probably still talking nonsense.

He couldn't help but move closer to her, gently helping her up, and then letting her lean against him.

Tell me, who whipped you?

His voice was gentle, like he was coaxing a child, yet he uttered the cruelest words: "Tell me, and I'll kill them for you."

Si Yao's eyelids were heavy, and she looked tired. "When I was seven years old, my birth mother sold me to a brothel in my hometown for eight taels of silver..."

She did indeed recall her childhood, and she spoke of it without any hesitation.

"Because I was only seven years old and worked in a brothel, I could only do odd jobs."

She spoke slowly, “I spent a year in the brothel, and I was careful in everything I did. I did everything the madam asked me to do very well. Back then, the madam even praised me, saying that I was diligent and clever.”

Li Ye paused, unaware that Si Yao had been sold at such a young age, and for such a low price.

What shocked him most was that the person who sold her was actually her mother.

Mother……

Li Ye held this word in high esteem.

My fondest childhood memories are all from my mother.

Because he had enjoyed his mother's love during his childhood, he couldn't imagine why a mother would do something like selling her own flesh and blood.

Si Yao in his arms continued, "Because I was diligent and clever, the madam assigned me to the courtesan in the brothel to be her maid and serve her well. During that time, the courtesan was quite nice to me, and she was gentle. She would also give me some tips from time to time."

She suddenly smiled. "Back then, I was so naive. I thought that since the courtesan always gave me money, I would save it up for three or five years and then redeem myself. At least, I could escape the brothel before I came of age and not have to serve customers."

Upon hearing the words "entertainment," Li Ye frowned deeply.

He looked down at her. "And then?"

"But once, when the courtesan was entertaining a wealthy young man, I was serving him. The young man glanced at me and said that although I was young, I was very beautiful. He even joked that if I came of age and started entertaining customers, I would definitely be the top courtesan in the brothel."

"How could that man say such things to a little girl?" Li Ye was already angry.

Si Yao nodded. "After the young master left, the courtesan asked me to pour her tea. Who knew that when I handed her the cup, her hand slipped, the cup fell to the ground, and tea splashed all over the floor. You have no idea how angry she was. She scolded me for being clumsy and even called me a little slut!"

Memories flooded back one after another, and Si Yao said weakly, "The courtesan was always very gentle, to everyone. I was stunned at the time, not knowing why she was angry. Before I could even react, she had already slapped me."

At this point, Si Yao looked up at Li Ye, then touched her cheek with her hand: "She must have hit me with all her might. My face is burning, it hurts so much."

Li Ye stopped breathing, his chest rising and falling slightly. "She's jealous of you."

"Yes, I only figured it out later. I was only eight years old at the time, how could I understand these things?"

Si Yao sighed, "I apologized to her that night, but I wasn't too willing to admit defeat, so I bluntly exposed her, saying that it was clearly her slip of the hand and that she did it intentionally."

“If you expose her, she will never tolerate you.”

Hearing Li Ye say this, Si Yao nodded, "Yes, she cried and begged the madam to make a decision. What kind of person is the madam? She's a money-grubbing person. When it comes to the courtesan, who is a cash cow, she will definitely side with the courtesan."

Si Yao's body began to tremble again. Leaning against Li Ye's chest, she couldn't help but curl up into a ball again. "That night, the madam had someone whip me without saying a word. The whip was very thick, and it hit my body again and again. My clothes were torn. I remember that the clothes on my back were wet and sticky. I knew that was my blood."

Li Ye couldn't help but raise his hand and gently stroke Si Yao's back, as if he could see her being whipped, as if he could see the bloody scars on her back...

His eyes were filled with pity, mixed with a touch of heartache. "You must have been in a lot of pain back then, right?"

"It hurts, it hurts so much." Si Yao choked up. "They beat me so badly, but I didn't cry, I didn't cry at all. Until I passed out, they threw me into a deep pit in the back mountain."

"A deep pit?" Li Ye suddenly realized, and he already had a guess in his mind.

Si Yao said, "That night it was pouring rain. When I woke up, I found myself lying in a deep pit. I tried to climb out, but I was so small and the pit was so deep that I couldn't get out at all. The wind and rain surrounded me, along with the endless darkness."

"So, from that time on, you've always been afraid of the dark, right?"

"The pit was very deep, yet very narrow, and even during the day it was pitch black inside. I stayed in there for three days and three nights. Sometimes I could hear wolves howling. It was summer, and snakes crawled by, and rats scurried around everywhere. I was terrified."

It turns out that it was a childhood trauma that caused Si Yao to react that way whenever she encountered dark, confined spaces.

She was terrified, she trembled, she lost consciousness, and she even fainted.

Li Ye couldn't help but recall the time in Yunshui County when he and Si Yao fell into the space at the bottom of the lava in the "River God" cave.

There, Si Yao once again experienced a dark and claustrophobic space.

As the stone wall pressed ever closer, Si Yao watched helplessly as the space shrank room by room until finally, darkness enveloped her once more.

She was filled with fear and torment once again.

In the previous instances, the inner trauma would have caused her to lose consciousness and fall into a coma.

But at that time, Si Yao fought to the death.

In the end, her hands, though mangled and bloody, finally gave her and Li Ye a sliver of hope.

Li Ye still remembers that she said at the time, "Disciple, with your master here, I will not let anything happen to you unless I die."

So, she worked so hard back then, not only for herself, but also partly for him, right?

That should be the case.

She didn't need to make up these lies just to appease him...

That must be it.

Li Ye convinced himself.

Suddenly, Si Yao hugged Li Ye's waist with both hands and buried her head in his chest. "Really, I was terrified at the time."

Li Ye couldn't help but open his arms and hug her, then gently patted her back to comfort her, saying, "It's okay now, you're fine, I'm here with you, and I won't let you fall into that kind of place again."

After he finished speaking, his lips froze.

He actually said such a thing to Si Yao.

Suddenly, I feel like I'm not the person I used to be...

Right now, I feel like I'm doing something stupid, something he thinks is outrageous.

But when he looked at Si Yao in his arms, who looked so pitiful, his heart softened again.

He shook his head, no longer caring. He had done this stupid thing many times since he started living with Si Yao.

"And then what?"

He became interested in Si Yao's past and wanted to know how she had managed to climb out of that predicament.

“I was trapped for three days and three nights, starving and on the verge of death. Then a snake crawled over and tried to attack me. Guess what? I fought it, killed it, and then ate its flesh raw.”

Hearing this, Li Ye couldn't help but say, "You're quite brave. If that snake had been poisonous, you would probably be dead by now."

"But I was lucky, the snake wasn't poisonous. After eating the snake meat and drinking the snake blood, I regained some strength. I took a sharp stone from the bottom of the pit and slowly chipped away at the walls around the pit. I dug one small hole after another in the walls, and then climbed up step by step through those holes."

She recalled those scenes as if they had happened yesterday: "Every few steps I climbed, I would dig a few holes in the wall, and that's how I finally climbed out."

Incredulity flashed across Li Ye's eyes. "It's quite remarkable that you have such ingenuity at such a young age."

"You're praising me..." Si Yao smiled, "So I'm still very smart."

She was still lost in her memories. "After I climbed out, I naturally didn't plan to go back. I headed deeper into the back of the mountain, and guess who I ran into?"

Li Ye, unaware of the question, asked with great interest, "Who?"

“Deep in the jungle, I encountered the old sect leader, Qingyue, who was seriously injured and unconscious. I don’t know what she had suffered, I only remember that she was covered in wounds and on the verge of death.”

"You saved her, and from then on you joined the Hehuan Sect?"

Hearing Li Ye's guess, Si Yao hummed in agreement. "I was only eight years old at the time and knew nothing about cultivation, so I can't really be considered to have saved a cultivator like the old sect leader. I just picked some herbs to stop her bleeding, fed her water, and took care of her for a few days. After she woke up, she was eager to thank me."

"She dealt with the brothel madam and courtesan for me, as well as those who whipped me. She was still not satisfied with that and insisted on bringing me back to the Hehuan Sect. Because of the old sect leader, I lived a very good life in the Hehuan Sect. I had cultivation to rely on and even got an elder position that I held for decades."

Li Ye knew roughly what happened after that.

Si Yao didn't continue speaking.

Li Ye looked down and noticed that Si Yao's emotions had gradually stabilized after she recounted her past.

Right now, she's like a docile cat, lying in Li Ye's arms with her lazy eyes open, quietly not saying a word.

Li Ye took another deep breath, a voice in his heart asking himself, "Am I going to have to hold her all night until dawn?"

He would never have been able to do that before.

But now, he actually thinks it's not bad at all.

Li Ye shifted slightly, trying to adjust his posture, but Si Yao seemed to wake up with a start, grabbing his clothes tightly with both hands. "No, don't let go, please keep hugging me, okay?"