mandarin duck
Yaoxian remembered that day, she was kneeling in the busiest section of the market, wearing a linen dress and mourning clothes. Under the straw mat in front of her was her grandmother, who depended on her for everything. Passersby would stop and take a look from time to time. Where did this girl come from, and how dirty she looked? They must have thought that the person under the mat was her only close relative, who had left her and was left without support, otherwise she would not have put up a sign in the street saying "Selling myself to bury my relatives."
The four large characters on the sign were written by the scholar next door who wrote couplets for others. He was a poor scholar who had spent his entire life studying for the imperial examinations but never achieved a single official position. His passion for scholarship had ultimately given way to a lifetime of sorrow. In his old age, he earned a living selling calligraphy and paintings. Seeing that he was childless and had poor eyesight, his life was difficult. As a fellow wanderer, she often helped him during his already difficult financial times. The scholar, mindful of an old favor, did Yaoxian this favor.
My grandmother said that when she was three years old, there was a famine in her hometown. Everyone in the village who could not die starved to death, including Yaoxian's parents who were in their prime. But my grandmother and Yaoxian, one old and one young, survived. My grandmother said that Yaoxian had a strong life and could survive even in a natural disaster that no one could escape. My grandmother herself had earned an extra lifespan that she should not have. She took Yaoxian to escape, wandering from south to north, begging for food to survive, and firmly believed that as long as people are alive, there is hope.
My grandmother felt that her later life was given to her in vain, and she often told Yaoxian that it was a loan from her parents, and that she should be grateful and cherish her blessings, do good deeds every day, and accumulate merits for Yaoxian and herself. She had been here for less than a year, living in someone else's home and living in hardship, but she and her neighbors all lived in harmony.
The fortune teller said that Yaoxian had a strong life, but she didn't feel it before, until the day her grandmother passed away, she finally believed it.
She has a tough life, and her father and mother are unlucky. Now, even her grandmother, who depended on her for survival, has passed away.
There was a noisy chatter above her head. Occasionally, one or two words reached her ears in the chaos, all of which were words of pity. She was indifferent and had no tears to shed. After her grandmother left, her heart, like her life, was as hard as a sword and could not be penetrated.
A carriage passed through the bustling street. A middle-aged man in black jumped out. He walked through the crowd and stood in front of Yaoxian. He looked down at her for a moment, then leaned over to her, pinched her chin, and raised her head. He asked, "What's your name?"
"Yuanyang." She was forced to raise her head and look at the other person coldly, without any emotion in her eyes.
The middle-aged man looked at her for a moment, loosened his grip, stood up and stood straight in front of her, his hands behind his back, and said in a cold and resolute voice: "Will you come with me? I can help you bury your relatives."
She looked up at the man, without a trace of fear in her eyes, and said, "I do."
That year, she was ten years old.
The carriage carried her for an unknown amount of time before stopping in a remote place. There was a hidden entrance deep in the mountains. She went in with a torch and went down to countless floors. The candlelight illuminated the entire basement, making it as bright as daylight. It was an underground palace. Many people were standing in a line in the palace, all wearing the same black clothes as the middle-aged man.
The middle-aged man cupped his fists and said to the yellow-robed man in the lead, "Captain, bring one person back."
The man called the chief had his back to them, and only a faint voice could be heard saying, "Is it a man or a woman?"
"She is a girl, but her eyes are more cruel than those of a boy. She is very stubborn and a good prospect." The middle-aged man who brought her back said while looking at her with his head tilted.
He turned his head and leaned over to look at her, his whole body filled with murderous intent, as if he could smell the scent of blood.
"From now on, follow me and learn some skills so that no one will dare to bully you anymore. How about that?" he asked her harshly.
She looked at the general indifferently, "Have you had enough food?"
The general laughed heartily, "I've had enough food and warm water, and now I have a place to stay and a place to rely on!"
She looked at the general, knelt on the ground with a thud, and kowtowed loudly.
The general then asked, "If I ask you to kill someone, do you dare?"
She lay on the ground, listening, her eyes staring at the ground without a trace of fear. Suddenly, she raised her upper body, stood upright, looked up at the general and said, "Dare!"
In the years that followed, she learned many skills, passed many levels, and her heart became increasingly hardened.
The day she escaped from the death camp, she had been starving for ten days without a single grain of rice. The camp was like a trap, with ten young men killing each other. In the following days, some of them began to hallucinate, and so did she. In her daze, she seemed to see her grandmother standing before her, cooking her favorite red bean porridge from her childhood. "Yuanyang, eat the porridge, then go to the fields with grandma to work. Wait for the harvest next year, and you'll have food to eat and won't be hungry."
She devoured the bowl of red bean porridge like a hungry beast. When she woke up, her consciousness instantly cleared. Suddenly, she saw a young man swinging a knife at her desperately. She picked up the sword in her hand and slashed it down, "Ah!!"
Most of the boy's neck was chopped off and hung diagonally on his shoulders. His face was twisted into a strange posture and his whole body fell to the ground with a heavy sound.
Like a beast that survived a catastrophe by fighting and biting, she dragged her feet out of the maze-like death camp and became the ultimate winner.
Her skinny body and tattered shirt stained with blood and flesh finally staggered and fell to the ground after dragging a few steps. She was gasping for breath. A handkerchief came over and gently wiped the stains on her face, being very careful when touching each wound.
She opened her eyes and met a pair of gentle eyes.
"Can you get up?" the owner of the eyes asked softly.
She nodded.
The man pulled her up.
"Hong'er, from now on, everyone here will be under your command, and she is yours too." The general said to the man.
A few years later, that man came more frequently than the general, and most of the time he came to train the people in the underground palace. Like all the people in black, she had to listen to his orders.
Finally one day, the new emperor ascended the throne, with the reign titled Hong. However, she only remembered that when she was seventeen, the man's handkerchief had a fragrance and was embroidered with a rainbow. The touch of the handkerchief sliding gently across her face reminded her of her grandmother's hand stroking her cheek when she was a child.
When she was secretly summoned to the palace, her black clothes still looked dim in the palace hall, and she was not noticed. She listened silently to the secret order of Emperor Hong, who ordered her to kill the sister of the Qiangrong tribe leader, and then disguise herself as the tribe leader's sister. Then Emperor Hong would give her to the son of King Ping as a gift, and use her to place her beside King Ping to spy on him and wait for an opportunity to act.
She accepted the order calmly. When the Western Region painter changed her appearance, he told her that this secret potion would permanently change her into someone else's appearance and it would be irreversible. After hearing this, she closed her eyes without hesitation.
There is no choice in this life. She is a person with a tough fate. She is alone and lonely, like a lone star chasing the sun, but she met him in hell. He is a person above her parents. Parents and hell are thousands of miles apart and cannot be crossed. He is the auspicious cloud in the dome, and she is the mud in the ditch. The difference between clouds and mud cannot be underestimated.
She only remembered the old general's words, "From now on, she is yours," and she would do anything for him, even if it meant heaven, earth, or hell.
From then on, she was called Yaoxian.
At dusk, Yifei returned home with King Ping after court. After taking off his court robes, he felt exhausted all over. He just wanted to collapse his body and mind in a soft place to get even a moment of peace. He walked towards that room involuntarily.
In the past, he had frequented brothels, been the top prostitute in brothels, and been a famous actor in brothels. Who among them had not tasted and experienced all that? So when he saw Yaoxian in the hall that day, although he found her charming and elegant, with a unique exotic style, he did not like her too much.
Place her in a separate courtyard, which was a gift from Yihong, and take good care of her. Does this king lack beauties?
That day, Yixiang got her drunk in Mianxiang Tower. When she handed me a glass of wine with her tender hands, she said sarcastically, "Now that the prince has a foreign beauty, he probably has forgotten me."
Yifei was drunk and dizzy. He squinted his drunken eyes, burped, and waved his hands, saying, "How could it be, how could it be? The beauty is my sweetheart. The one at home is just a decoration on the table. She is good-looking but useless." After saying that, he reached out to hook Yixiang's chin.
The beauty opened his mouth and said, "I don't believe the prince's nonsense. The prince stays in the winding alleys every day, today in Mianxiang Tower and tomorrow in Zuihua Garden. How can he know whether the man in his family is useful or not? He is just perfunctorily answering my words." She rolled her eyes and turned her head to the other side, snorted, and fanned herself without looking at Yifei.
Yi Fei's blushing face came closer: "Oh my beauty, why are you angry? Blame me for not visiting you for some time. Today I want you to serve me well. I don't care whether others are useful or not, I just want to know whether you are useful or not!"
Yifei stayed in Mianxianglou until noon the next day. He left the building and went to a restaurant, where he played with a group of guys until dusk before returning home.
The same sunset as today was reflected on the window frame. Yifei passed by Yaoxian's villa and suddenly remembered Yixiang's words. He recalled that he had not entered that room for some time and did not know whether it was useful or not.
He turned around and walked in. Yaoxian had not put on any makeup, her face was plain without a trace of powder, and there was no hairpin on her hair. When she saw him come in, she was stunned for a moment, perhaps she was not expecting it. When she reacted, she just stood up and saluted, and said lightly, "Your Highness."
Yifei was half sober. Yaoxian was completely different from the one he saw in the hall that day. Her eyes were cold and indifferent. He thought she was just like the girls in the alley, but she was just the sister of the Qiangrong King. But he didn't expect... Yifei's heart skipped a beat and felt itchy.
He stammered, "This king... This king was just... passing by, and saw you here, so I came in to talk to you."
Yaoxian bowed her head and saluted without saying a word.
Yifei felt a little uncomfortable. Yaoxian's villa was not big and there was no proper living room, so he sat down on the edge of the bed. Yaoxian sat on the carved round stool opposite him.
Sweat oozed from his palms. Yifei rubbed his hands awkwardly, feeling a little overwhelmed. He took a deep breath and carefully looked up from Yaoxian's pair of embroidered hairpin shoes, then from the top of her head down, until he stopped at her pale pink lips. She really hadn't even put on rouge, but how could she be so delicate and charming? Yifei thought of the flower petals in the garden in summer, which must be soft, tender and fragrant. Finally, he couldn't resist and ate them.
Yifei had tasted all the flowers in the world. Before this day, he thought that this exotic flower in his home, which grew in an uncivilized and wild place with such a variety of charm, must have been licked countless times.
I never thought that she was still a novice.
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