Chapter 14
The impact of the badge was like a shot of adrenaline, pulling Serena out of the quagmire of mental numbness. But it was followed by a deeper vigilance; she had to be more careful than ever before. Lucien's sensitivity far surpassed that of ordinary people; any unnatural emotional fluctuation could attract his devastating attention.
When Lucien returned in the evening, Serena had perfectly concealed all her outward emotions. She was still sitting in the chair by the window, her posture docile, her eyes carrying the dependence and emptiness he had "cultivated." She even turned her head slightly as he approached, meeting his gaze with an almost bewildered obedience.
Lucien's gaze lingered on her face for a moment, his deep purple eyes like the most sophisticated detectors, scanning every subtle expression. Perhaps she was good at disguising herself, or perhaps he was too confident in his success in "taming" her, but he failed to notice the undercurrents stirring beneath the stagnant surface. He simply reached out and stroked the top of her head, asking in a flat tone, "How was your day?"
Serena didn't answer, but simply lowered her eyes slightly, her long eyelashes casting soft shadows on her pale cheeks—one of the responses she had recently learned that most pleased him.
Lucien seemed to accept the silent response and turned to deal with the backlog of matters that had accumulated during his absence.
From that moment on, Serena began the most difficult and demanding disguise of her life. She remained the increasingly silent and dependent "caged bird" of Lucien, but inwardly, she was like a patient hunter, using every unnoticed gap to observe, analyze, and plan.
She no longer resisted Lucien's "companionship," but instead used these opportunities to observe every detail of the bedroom more meticulously. The window construction, the type of door lock, whether the fireplace flue was even passable—but this idea was quickly dismissed as too dangerous and unpredictable. She needed to find the weakest link.
Meanwhile, she was also observing the maids guarding her. They were carefully chosen by Lucien, silent and vigilant. But Serena noticed that the younger one, occasionally, when Lucien wasn't around, would show a barely perceptible weariness and... perhaps pity? It was an extremely small possibility, but Serena remembered it.
As for his body, he was weakened by long-term imprisonment and mental torture, but the relatively "peaceful" life during this period allowed his strength to recover somewhat. Occasionally, he would secretly engage in some exercise, even if it was just pacing around the room as much as possible to move his hands and feet.
Serena recalled the layout of the manor. The broken section of the wall in the northeast corner was where she had failed last time; Lucien would undoubtedly have tightened guard there. What about the other directions? The manor was close to the mountains and forests; if she could sneak into the woods, her chances of escape would greatly increase. But the key was figuring out how to break through the layers of surveillance within the manor.
She also had to consider her survival after escaping. She had no money, no food, and no reliable contacts. The Norton family crest was her only clue and hope, but how could she contact them? Would the wounded man ever reappear?
Most importantly, we need to lull Lucien into a false sense of security.
She acted as if she were more "integrated" into the pre-defined character. When Lucien mentioned the "past" in that guiding tone, she would cooperate by showing confusion, and then, when he "helped" her recall, she would display a vulnerable dependence as if she had been awakened. She would even linger on him for a long time while he played the piano, her eyes empty, yet filled with a false longing that was enough to deceive him.
She began to "accept" the aromatherapy, no longer showing any discomfort or resistance. She would even curl up in her chair and act drowsy when the fragrance filled the air. She needed to convince him that his "therapy" was steadily working and that her mental barriers were completely crumbling.
This process was extremely agonizing. Each instance of "compliance" with Lucien felt like tearing a part of her soul apart. At night, when she was alone, fear and self-loathing nearly consumed her. She could only clutch the badge hidden in the ball of yarn, using its cold touch and the faint hope it represented to sustain herself.
The opportunity to escape came sooner than she had expected.
A few days later, Lucien received news that the Governor of the Southern Territory had suddenly fallen seriously ill and the situation might become unstable. He had to travel to a nearby city immediately to meet with several key figures, a trip that would take at least two or three days.
This is a golden opportunity! It's also an extremely dangerous moment. With Lucien gone, the guards might be less vigilant, but they will certainly tighten their defenses even further.
Before leaving, Lucien came to her room. He was dressed in dark travel clothes suitable for horseback riding, which made him appear even more upright and imposing.
"I'm leaving for a few days." He stood before her, his gaze piercing, scrutinizing her. "You'll stay here obediently and wait for me to return, right?"
Serena looked up to meet his gaze. She nodded gently, trying to make her eyes appear pure and dependent, even carrying a hint of unease about his departure.
Lucien looked at her intently, as if trying to find any trace of pretense in her eyes. Finally, he leaned down and placed a cold, warning kiss on her smooth forehead.
“Don’t let me down, Serena.” His whisper was like the final shackle, “Otherwise, the consequences… you know.”
He turned and left, his footsteps fading into the distance.
When the door was locked again, Serena remained docile, sitting motionless in her chair.
But her heart was pounding wildly in her chest, like the drumbeats before a battle.
The opportunity has arrived.
She must catch it.
During the time Lucien was away.
She slowly stood up, walked to the window, and gazed at the darkening sky outside. Night would be her best cover.
This time, she absolutely cannot fail again.
On the first night after Lucien left, the manor fell into a superficial tranquility, but beneath this tranquility, Serena's nerves were on edge and she was quietly taking action.
She didn't choose to act immediately in the dead of night. Experience told her that the initial vigilance was likely to be the highest at times like these. She forced herself to have a simple dinner as usual, "served" by the maid, and even showed more drowsiness than usual. She turned off the lights early, lay down in bed, and seemed to have already fallen into a sleep influenced by aromatherapy.
However, in the darkness where the heavy curtains blocked out the moonlight, her ears picked up on every sound outside the door. The whispers of the guards changing shifts, the faint barking of dogs in the distance, even the rustling of the wind through the rose vines... Time passed slowly in agony until the latter half of the night, when all was quiet except for the chirping of insects that punctuated the deep darkness.
Right now.
She rose silently, changed into the darkest old dress she had prepared beforehand, and tightly coiled her long golden hair into her hat. Without lighting a lamp, she relied on the familiarity she had developed from groping in the dark over the past few days to walk to the corner where the yarn balls were kept.
Her heart was pounding, and her fingers trembled slightly with nervousness, but she still managed to find it accurately and clutched the cold badge wrapped in rags tightly in her palm, as if holding onto her only chance of survival.
Next, she tucked a small but sharp knife that she had secretly hidden away for pruning flowers into her waistband, and stuffed a sturdy silk ribbon that she had taken from an old curtain into her pocket.
Now, the biggest problem was how to get out of the room. The door was locked from the outside, making it nearly impossible to open from the inside. Her gaze fell on the window and the door leading to the small terrace.
The terrace door also had a lock, but its structure was relatively simple. She had secretly used melted and solidified wax to trace the approximate shape of a key when the maid wasn't looking, and then, using a hidden knife, spent several nights painstakingly carving a rough object—almost worthy of being called a "key"—from a scrap of discarded wood. This was her boldest, and also her most uncertain, attempt.
She held her breath, walked to the terrace door, and carefully aligned the rough wooden "key" with the lock. The first time, she failed; it wouldn't go in. She adjusted the angle and tried again… sawdust fell in a flurry, and her palms were drenched in cold sweat.
Finally, the "key" slid with difficulty into the keyhole! She felt a surge of joy, but then became even more nervous. She slowly turned it... She could feel the resistance inside the lock cylinder, and the wooden key made a teeth-grinding "creak" sound, as if it might break at any moment.
Please... you must succeed...
She used all her strength to control the angle and force.
"Click".
A sound so faint, yet to her it was like heavenly music! The latch snapped open!
She was almost exhausted, but suppressing her excitement, she gently pushed open the door a crack. A cold night breeze, carrying the scent of roses, rushed in, instantly invigorating her.
Outside the terrace, the raised fence and thorny roses remained formidable obstacles. But she had already observed that the roses grew slightly weaker on the side closer to the main building wall, and a section of the fence, obscured by the wall, appeared to be rusted due to dampness.
She slipped off the terrace like a cat, pressed herself against the cold wall, and moved to that spot. She pulled out her knife and carefully pried open the rusted joint. Time ticked by, each second feeling like dancing on a knife's edge. She seemed to hear the footsteps of patrolling guards in the distance; she immediately held her breath, pressing herself firmly into the shadows of the wall, too afraid to move.
The footsteps faded into the distance. She continued what she was doing, her back soaked with sweat.
Finally, with a soft snapping sound, she successfully pried open a railing! The gap was just big enough for her slender body to squeeze through. Sharp rose thorns scratched her arms and dress, causing a stinging pain, but she paid no heed.
She was now outside the terrace, but still within the manor's inner courtyard. She needed to cross this relatively open area to reach the manor's perimeter.
Using the shadows of trees and bushes, she moved like a ghost. After Lucien left, the guards did seem to have relaxed a bit, and the intervals between patrols had lengthened. Relying on her memory and familiarity with the terrain, she crossed the inner courtyard without incident and arrived at the section of the wall near the oak grove where she had previously failed.
This time, she didn't choose to climb. She moved cautiously along the shadows at the base of the wall, searching for any possible drains or animal burrows. Finally, behind a thicket of neglected ivy, she discovered a narrow dog hole, eroded by rainwater, leading to the outside! The opening was small, covered in cobwebs and damp mud, but large enough for her to crawl through!
Without hesitation, Serena immediately bent down and plunged inside. The damp, cold mud covered her clothes, and spiderwebs clung to her face, but her heart was filled with ecstatic joy!
Just as most of her body was about to emerge from behind the wall, a faint commotion and barking suddenly came from inside the manor! It seemed that something had alerted the guards!
Have we been discovered?!
Serena's heart stopped, and with her last bit of strength, she struggled violently, finally managing to break free of the wall and roll into the grass outside!
She dared not linger, nor even have time to check her surroundings. She scrambled to her feet and ran as fast as she could towards the nearest dense oak grove! Branches whipped at her face, thorns tore at her skirt, and the path beneath her feet was rugged and uneven. She fell and got up again, her lungs pumping like bellows, but she dared not look back, much less stop!
Behind them, from the direction of the manor, came a clearer commotion and the light of torches, and the barking of dogs grew closer!
They're coming after us!
A chilling fear gripped her, but the instinct for survival drove her deeper into the woods. The dark forest was no longer a source of terror, but her only refuge.
She didn't know how long she ran, until her legs felt like lead, her throat was filled with the taste of blood, and the sounds of her pursuers behind her seemed to be muffled by the dense forest. She leaned against a huge oak tree, collapsed to the ground, and greedily inhaled the cold air carrying the scent of humus.
She escaped!
She really escaped that magnificent cage!
However, the joy of escape was short-lived. She was now alone in an unknown wilderness, penniless, with Lucien's pursuers possibly right behind her.
Clutching the Norton family crest tightly in her hand, she used the faint starlight filtering through the leaves to discern her general direction. Choosing a path opposite to the manor and the main road, she set off again, disappearing into the boundless dark forest.
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