Yao Zhenyun looked at her expressionlessly as she ate in such a disheveled and greedy manner, neither urging her nor stopping her.
Only after she wolfed down the bun in two or three mouthfuls and stretched her neck out in choking did he reach out, go around her back, and touch the rope that bound her wrists.
With a few nimble flips of the fingertips, the knot loosened and fell off.
Cui Yan didn't care about the bruises and pain on her wrists that were numb and swollen from being strangled. She immediately broke free from her arm and almost snatched up another intact bun next to her. She started to gobble it up again, with a crazy look in her eyes as if she had survived a disaster.
Yao Zhenyun's calm voice rang out again, carrying a hint of bone-chilling coldness: "The rope has been untied. But don't think about anything you shouldn't have."
He leaned back against the soft pillows of the carriage wall, his eyes half-closed. His voice was not loud, but it was like invisible shackles. "Escape? Look at this desolate wilderness. Without the Yao family's carriage and horse documents, without a proper identity and travel permit, a young woman running away alone will have no choice but to starve to death or freeze to death in the mountains, or be caught and beaten to death in the streets as a runaway slave, or suffer a fate worse than death. There is no third way. If you are a wise person, you should understand the meaning of the word 'obedient'."
Cui Yan's chewing suddenly froze.
She lowered her eyes, staring at the half-eaten bun in her hand. After a long moment, she struggled to swallow the tasteless food. The cold reality once again weighed heavily on her.
In this world where she has no relatives, she is still a fragile floating duckweed, and the man in front of her is both her only hope and a pair of shackles.
Looking at her submissive look with her head down, a barely perceptible relaxation flashed across Yao Zhenyun's eyes.
He closed his eyes, his voice carrying a barely perceptible hint of fatigue: "After you finish eating, lie down for a while. We still have a long way to go."
The carriage fell silent again. Only the rumbling of the wheels could be heard as the train rolled forward into the endless night.
Cui Yan slowly finished the second bun, and the terrible pain in her stomach finally subsided a little.
She licked the corners of her cracked lips and curled up in a corner, her body still tense, not daring to completely relax. She looked across at the man who had his eyes closed, seemingly asleep.
The moonlight penetrated the clouds at some point, and a cold white light, like a thin blade, slipped in silently through the gap in the slightly bumpy car window curtains, and just happened to fall on Yao Zhenyun's dazzling red auspicious suit.
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