Every word was like an icy needle, piercing Cui Yan's eardrums. Her pupils constricted, and her restrained body stiffened.
"I'm actually quite puzzled," Yao Zhenyun finally took a bite of the bun and chewed it slowly. "You're so loyal to your master. Are you stupid, or do you really think your mistress can protect you forever?"
He swallowed the food in his mouth, and his voice became even colder, with undisguised contempt, "Silly girl, open your eyes and look! When she ran away, did she ever think about you at all? Did she ever think about whether you would live or die if she couldn't take you with her? Oh, in her eyes, your worthless life is not even worth a stumbling block on her way to her lover!"
"Still confused?" Yao Zhenyun's tone was almost harsh. "Alright, then I'll show you another way. If I turn around now and send you back to Madam Sang's house, how do you think the Sang family will deal with you, a lowly servant, in order to cover up the shocking scandal of their eldest daughter eloping before marriage and having a maid take her place in the bridal sedan, and to preserve their own daughter's so-called 'reputation'?"
He didn't utter the word "silence".
But the cold murderous intent, like tangible cold air, instantly filled the entire carriage.
Mrs. Sang's usually graceful and dignified face was now twisted into a demonic Shura in Cui Yan's mind. There was only a deep chill and a condescending indifference on that face.
She remembered the maid Xiaohong who had helped the young lady wash clothes half a year ago. She disappeared silently the next day because she accidentally discovered something not very glorious about the second young master.
The old maids in the mansion whispered privately that the lady had found an excuse to "sell" her to the dirtiest and most vulgar brothel in the south. It was said that she died before she could even survive three months.
The scar on her forehead, which was caused by the young lady hitting her with a bronze mirror in anger, seemed to be burning with pain again, throbbing violently.
"How dare a lowly maid control me!" Sang Wenyin's sharp voice was still ringing in her ears.
The life of a slave is truly worthless, as worthless as grass. It is so worthless that the master can beat, kill, and sell him at will, just like discarding a worn-out piece of clothing.
Perhaps her reaction was too desperate and thorough, Yao Zhenyun's cold eyes seemed to hesitate and loosen imperceptibly for a moment.
He was silent for a moment, and after a long time, he sighed slightly.
"Don't think that the world is unfair to you alone. My biological mother was once a slave," he began, his voice so calm that it was almost indifferent, without any ripples in his voice.
"Before she was brought in as a concubine from the Yao Mansion's backyard, she was just a maid. She endured half her life, walking on thin ice, but was just a servant from one place to another. In the end, she could never get rid of that skin."
"I can see your difficulties and your fears. In front of the master, your fate is not your own."
Yao Zhenyun leaned forward slightly, and his deep eyes, under the dim light of the glass lamp, tightly grasped Cui Yan's terrified and desperate gaze, with an unquestionable heavy power.
"Do you want to live?" he asked, his voice low, each word weighing a thousand pounds. "Not as a slave of the Sang family, not as a substitute bearing your young lady's title, but as a real person—live."
Cui Yan suddenly raised her eyes to look at him. The intense fear in her eyes receded temporarily like a tide, revealing a trace of confusion and doubt beneath, as if struggling on the verge of death.
Yao Zhenyun didn't avoid her gaze and continued clearly, "Come with me, Cuiyan, to Jiangnan. Stay by my side and listen to my instructions. I can help you erase the stigma of the Sang family and completely break free from this damned slavery."
Escape from slavery?
These three words were like a sudden thunderclap in the darkness.
No longer a slave with the power of life and death? No longer a beast of burden, a slave to their very own children and grandchildren? Could I be a human being? A free person?
"The road is right in front of you." Yao Zhenyun's cold voice pulled her back from the huge mental shock. "Nod your head, follow me to Jiangnan, and gamble on a chance to live like a human being. Shake your head..."
He didn't say anything else, but the words he left unsaid were more terrifying than the cold night in the wilderness - going back would only lead to death, and the death would be meaningless and silent.
The desire for life has never been as strong as it is now.
Live! Live like a real person!
This thought overwhelmed the last bit of blind loyalty to the Sang family.
Cui Yan's body was tightly bound and she couldn't move. She suddenly closed her eyes, and scalding tears rushed out from under her tightly closed eyelids. The next second, she tried her best and nodded heavily!
Yao Zhenyun looked at her. Without saying anything more, he finally reached out his hand to Cui Yan's face.
That bony hand easily pulled off the veil that covered most of Cui Yan's face. Then, it pinched a corner of the handkerchief with two fingers and pulled it outward with force.
"Puff—cough cough cough..." The air that suddenly rushed into the mouth brought about a violent cough.
Cui Yan gasped for breath in panic, like a fish out of water and dying.
Without waiting for her to catch her breath, Yao Zhenyun, without hesitation, stuffed the warm meat bun that he had taken two bites of into her mouth.
Cui Yan froze.
Looking at the food that was within reach, he looked up at Yao Zhenyun in horror, as if silently asking: Is this... really for me?
There was no expression on Yao Zhenyun's face. He simply pushed the bun towards her mouth again.
Cui Yan opened her mouth and bit the plump white bun hard, almost like pouncing on its prey.
She chewed greedily, stuffing too much and too fast, almost choking herself. Her throat swallowed violently, and her tears flowed even more violently.
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