In a simple thatched cottage, under a dim oil lamp, two women were eating meat buns, one was talking, the other was listening.
All of Yin Le’s good times stopped at the age of seventeen, the year when he was kidnapped by horse bandits.
She was lucky to be rescued by her benefactor and escape from the bandit's lair.
But she was also unfortunate. The relatives who had doted on her for the past seventeen years all turned their backs on her.
A woman who disappeared for several days and suddenly came back was bound to cause some gossip among the neighbors.
But no matter how much outsiders thought about it, they would never know that she was kidnapped by horse bandits.
Because the benefactor really did what she said, the government had no idea that there was a woman who had escaped from the bandit’s den.
The only people who knew about this were members of the Yin family.
On the day their daughter went missing, they tried to remain calm and returned home, and no one in the surrounding neighborhood knew the truth.
When Yin Le staggered to the door of her house alone, her neighbors asked her if she was visiting relatives.
At that moment, Yin Le's heart was filled with gratitude. She felt that as long as she got home, everything would be fine.
Her parents, brothers and sisters-in-law will make up countless excuses for her, and soon the matter will be over and she can return to her normal life.
However, the first thing her mother and sister-in-law did when she entered the door was to check her body.
No one cared about how she came back. Her father and brother kept asking her what she had experienced in the bandit's lair.
For Yin Le, that period was even more terrifying than being with a bandit leader.
She locked herself in the room, but the questioning outside the door never stopped.
Later, a matchmaker came to her house. When she heard her mother and father hesitantly hinting to the matchmaker that their daughter was no longer a virgin and hoping that the matchmaker would help keep it a secret, she knew that she no longer had a home.
The matchmaker found a wealthy businessman who was in his fifties, seriously ill, and was waiting to marry a concubine to bring good luck.
Her parents were so grateful that they even felt that their daughter was not worthy of him. They were afraid that people would look down on their family, so they prepared a generous dowry for her.
Yin Le was in great pain. She didn't want to be a concubine, and she didn't want to marry a dead old man who was half buried in the ground.
She came back desperately to end the nightmare and return to the normal and warm days of the past.
Rather than making yourself a 'shame' that cannot be mentioned openly!
After simply packing a few pieces of clothing, Yin Le left.
She was full of new hope and wanted to find a good job, support herself, and never come back.
But on her first day, due to her lack of experience, she was deceived by a matchmaker who claimed to be a broker and sold into a brothel in the county town.
In order to avoid receiving customers, she burned her pretty face with a red-hot firewood stick.
The burns were severe, and the brothel's Madam Pan was so angry that she whipped her a few more times.
Yin Le didn't think she could be more terrifying than the bandit leader, so he fought back like a madman, scratching Mother Pan and leaving several deep bloody marks.
After all, she was bought with money, so Mother Pan did not kill her. Instead, she threw her into the top prostitute's house at that time to work as a foot-washing maid.
"God loves to play tricks on people. Whenever I'm in a desperate situation and think I can't hold on any longer, God suddenly shows mercy and sends a good person to my side."
Yin Le laughed at herself and continued to describe her brief life as a foot-washing maid.
The burned face did not receive treatment, and not only did the ulceration become more severe, but Yin Le's body also became infected and developed a high fever.
She felt drowsy all day and felt that she would die tonight.
But after a day of sleep, he opened his eyes and saw the red lanterns hanging high above the brothel gate again.
When she regained consciousness one day, she discovered that someone was scraping away the festering flesh on her face, washing it with fine wine, and applying cool ointment on it.
It was the top-notch girl Shaoyao that she served, the one that Mother Pan described as having a weird and perverted temper, but in fact, that was not the case.
That was just a mask she made to protect herself. Privately, Miss Shaoyao was a very good person.
The maids who served her were never beaten, scolded or punished for no reason.
Occasionally, when there were delicious dishes left over from the guests, she would secretly give them to the maids serving her.
Under Shaoyao's secret care, the burns on Yin Le's face gradually healed, but the ugly scar could never be removed.
Yin Le did not regret it. She was very pleased that she had managed to protect her body.
Miss Shaoyao once joked, "If I were half as ruthless as you, Yue Niang, the situation would be very different right now."
Yin Le smiled bitterly, "Girl, I am just lucky to have met you. If it weren't for you, Yue Niang would have been thrown into a mass grave by now."
However, Shaoyao was right that she was indeed cruel.
After setting fire to the brothel kitchen, Yin Le fled.
Originally, she wanted to take Shaoyao with her to escape, but Shaoyao had never done heavy work before and was not strong enough to climb over the high wall.
Shaoyao was very free and easy. She immediately offered herself to be her stepping stone and helped her get out of the high wall.
"It's good if one of us can leave." Shaoyao said with a smile, "If I stay and help you cover up, you can run further."
"Go quickly, hide first, and leave the city at daybreak. Run as far as possible, and never come back!"
"Wait, this is for you!"
A red mandarin duck bellyband was thrown out from the high wall, and Yin Le caught it. It was the one she said was beautiful.
Shaoyao's favorite thing was kept at the bottom of the box, and she even took it with her when she ran away.
But at this moment, she gave it to her.
"Hold on, I will find a way to come back and save you!" Yin Le put away his bellyband, looked back and shouted loudly at the high courtyard wall while running.
The noisy sound of firefighting drowned out her voice, and to this day Yin Le didn't know whether Shaoyao heard what he said.
Most likely you didn't hear it.
Otherwise she would still be alive now.
Qin Yao had already filled her stomach. Hearing this, she put down her cup of water and frowned, asking, "Is Shaoyao dead?"
Yin Le nodded painfully, "After I escaped, I secretly returned home, stole ten taels of silver from my father, and came to this remote village. After settling down, I asked someone to inquire about it, and only then did I know that Shaoyao died not long after I left."
"She accidentally got pregnant with a client's child. The abortion drug killed most of her life. She bled continuously. Mother Pan couldn't bear to spend the money, so she found a barefoot doctor. The doctor said she wouldn't live long, so Mother Pan carried her into the coffin."
"I heard Shaoyao yelling inside: Mom, I'm still alive, I'm not dead yet! Mom, please heal me, and when I'm better, I can make more money for you."
Then, there was no sound anymore.
The oil lamp on the table flickered and a candle flame popped. The room darkened instantly and then slowly lit up.
Under the orange light, Yin Le had already cried like a tearful person.
Qin Yao stood up and walked to her side, lifting her sleeve, "Wipe your face first, then show me the bellyband."
Song Zhang specifically explained the importance of Yue Niang, which means that there is something about her that makes Concubine Pan wary.
After listening to Yin Le's description, Qin Yao felt that the red mandarin duck bellyband was the most suspicious.
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