The mournful cries of crows pierced the long, silent night. Under the frosty white night, the rumbling of the carriage rolled over the mountains and the thick darkness.

Zhu Jiayu groaned and woke up in the moving carriage. She was dazed for a moment before finally recalling what had happened before she fainted—

She was strolling through the lantern market when she suddenly heard a little girl sobbing in a dimly lit alley. After going over to ask, she discovered that the little girl had twisted her ankle.

The little girl looked only seven or eight years old and had become separated from her family. Zhu Jiayu had no other choice but to help her up and take her to a nearby clinic. However, as soon as she bent down, someone covered her mouth and nose with a handkerchief. She only had time to struggle a couple of times before losing consciousness.

When I woke up again, I was already in this carriage.

She opened her eyes wide in panic, wanting to cry for help, but then she found that her hands and feet were tied with ropes and her mouth was stuffed with a wad of coarse cloth.

"Sister woke up so quickly? Don't be afraid, it's just that the adults in my family want to invite you to their home."

After quietly observing the bewilderment and fear on Zhu Jiayu's face for a while, Tao Yao swung her legs and said to her with a smile.

She had wiped away her tears, replaced by a sweet smile. But in this situation, her smile looked not cute at all, but rather eerily unsettling.

Zhu Jiayu looked at her silently, his eyes filled with pain and pleading.

Tao Yao smiled even sweeter, "Oh dear, don't look at me like that. Since you like doing good deeds, sister should see it through to the end, right?"

Her tone was innocent, exactly the same as it had been at the alley entrance. But now that the situation had reversed, Zhu Jiayu could no longer give her a friendly look.

"You son of a bitch, if you keep babbling on, I'll throw you out! Damn it!" A man's gruff voice came from outside the carriage, clearly annoyed by the girl's incessant chatter.

Zhu Jiayu saw that she looked very displeased after hearing the man's words, but she still angrily shut her mouth.

The carriage traveled for a long time, so long that Zhu Jiayu was almost asleep, before finally stopping.

"We've arrived." Zhu Jiayu thought to herself, and sure enough, she heard a rough male voice again: "Get down, all of you! Hurry up! Before dawn, I can still sleep a little longer!"

Tao Yao urged Zhu Jiayu in a low voice, "Hurry up and go down. If you're too slow, you'll make him angry. He has a terrible temper, and you'll be in big trouble!"

Zhu Jiayu nodded, then moved her legs to indicate that the ropes binding her feet had not been untied and that she could not walk.

Tao Yao found her troublesome, so she looked for scissors while keeping a long face and cut the rope on her feet.

Zhu Jiayu stretched her legs before slowly getting up, bending over to get out of the carriage. Just as she was about to get off, she was suddenly pushed from behind, falling to the ground.

The fine sand and gravel rubbed her palms raw, and she turned around in disbelief to see Tao Yao standing on the carriage, smiling triumphantly at her.

"You've got bad luck, haven't you!" The man cracked his whip, striking the ground hard and kicking up a cloud of dust. He made no attempt to help her up, simply standing coldly to the side, seemingly wanting to see her make a fool of herself.

Tao Yao had already obediently jumped off the carriage.

Zhu Jiayu struggled to get up from the ground and stood beside her.

The man raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised by her reaction, and looked at her with interest: "You're not spoiled or difficult."

Zhu Jiayu looked up at him timidly. She saw that he had a pointed mouth and monkey-like cheeks, and a long scar on his face that ran diagonally from below his ear to his eyebrow. Seemingly frightened by the scar, she quickly lowered her head and said in a voice barely audible, "I..."

She thought that her overly calm demeanor had probably aroused his suspicion, so she spoke haltingly, her voice trembling with tears, "I dare not..."

The wariness in Scarface's eyes had barely subsided when he scoffed and said in a rare, gentle tone, "Don't worry, as long as you behave, I won't do anything to you."

Tao Yao glanced at him secretly, thinking sarcastically to herself, "Of course he wouldn't. The last person who moved the goods has already been devoured by wolves and dogs until there's not even a bone left."

But his expression towards Zhu Jiayu was far from friendly.

She pursed her lips and, without Scarface giving any instructions, led Zhu Jiayu to a tiled house filled with straw. She said casually, "You'll sleep here for the next few days."

Zhu Jiayu walked to the far corner and sat down. She touched the straw beneath her; it was dry.

The dim moonlight filtered through the gaps in the roof tiles; if it were raining, the straw inside the house would probably be soaked by the leaking rainwater.

It had rained just the day before yesterday, and now it's early winter, so the weather is even colder. If the straw was laid out earlier, it would definitely be damp and rotten by now.

So the straw in the house now is newly replaced.

Why?

She remembered what the little girl had said, "You'll sleep here for the next few days." So, where would she be sent in a few days?

Just then, two soft sounds came from the wall.

It was Lin Zhi who arranged it.

Following the agreed-upon code, Zhu Jiayu tapped the wall twice with her fingers in response.

This means she's alright.

...

As dawn broke and the sky turned a hazy gray, the gates of the Zhu residence were knocked open.

The butler yawned, looked at the newcomer, paused for a moment, and called out, "Miss Song?"

He subconsciously looked behind her and saw that she had come alone, without anyone else with her.

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!