Chapter 9: Collaborating with Others, Fake Illness to Escape
He slept very restlessly, dreaming of being chased by monsters. He ran and ran until he finally saw a small wooden house at the end of the road.
He thought he had seen hope, and with all his might he opened the door, only to be met with Xu Linguang's face!
"It seems I really need to teach you a lesson." Xu Lingguang's voice rang out like a devil's whisper.
Xu Linguang dragged him into the house, turned around and took out a small whip, pretending to lash him, which frightened him so much that he screamed.
No!
Zhu Mingyue suddenly woke up with a start, and what was in front of her was indeed Xu Linguang's slap-worthy face.
ah!
Another scream rang out.
Zhu Mingyue's chest heaved violently. What kind of good person would like to stare at someone face-to-face while they're sleeping? Just say you want to scare him to death.
The other person, however, seemed completely oblivious, his brow furrowed as if he could trap a fly. He hissed, "What were you yelling about just now?"
Zhu Mingyue suppressed a strong urge to roll her eyes, wanting to simply tell the truth, but the words that came out were a dry, curt "It's nothing."
"Really nothing?" Xu Linguang asked, looking unconvinced.
"It's nothing really." It's just that I've been scared by this persistent ghost in front of me, both in my dreams and in reality.
After getting up and washing up, he sat at the table drinking rice porridge and asked Xu Linguang in a good-natured manner what he was going to learn that day.
"Learn bedroom skills."
Zhu Mingyue choked on a mouthful of porridge, unable to swallow it, and finally choked so loudly that people outside stopped to ask what was wrong.
Xu Linguang dismissed the onlookers and then closed the open door tightly.
"I can't do it. This is too big a leap. Shouldn't we teach people step by step?"
“You’ve already forgotten what I taught you yesterday.” Xu Lingguang completely ignored his accusations and instead leisurely sipped his tea, picking on his faults.
"What did I forget?" Zhu Mingyue was confused. He had only said one sentence, so how could this old man have found fault with it?
"No," Xu Linguang replied.
"What do you mean no?" Zhu Mingyue still didn't understand.
"What did I teach you yesterday? Never say no to a customer. You have no right to refuse."
Zhu Mingyue understood this time and retorted angrily, "You're not a customer."
“Now it is.” Xu Lingguang finished his tea in one gulp, stood up and walked closer to him, looking down at him from above. “From now on, I am your customer.”
Zhu Mingyue: "..."
Sometimes he really felt that this guy was even more terrifying than the madam. Logically speaking, the other person should be his colleague in the future, while the madam should be his boss, but he was just afraid of this person.
Was he really going to get the almonds through this person? Zhu Mingyue looked up at the person's chin and inevitably began to waver in her plans.
Before he could think any further, a pair of hands grabbed his chin, disrupting his thoughts.
"Holy crap! What are you doing!" Zhu Mingyue was furious, even blurting out a traditional Chinese phrase she had long forgotten.
"You fuck?" Xu Lingguang laughed. "You can't fuck, so today I'll have to fuck you."
Zhu Mingyue's words were abruptly cut off, a sense of helplessness washing over him. He suspected that Xu Lingguang was sent by heaven to bring him down, his words always so harsh and vicious, leaving him speechless.
A strong force pushed Zhu Mingyue down onto the soft mattress, and Xu Linfeng braced himself on both sides of his body, making him unable to move.
He could feel his body pressed against the other person's, their slightly heavy breaths brushing against his face and tickling his ear tips.
He tried to scratch, but he was trapped and unable to move.
Zhu Mingyue stared intently at Xu Linfeng, trying to express her extreme dissatisfaction with his behavior through her eyes.
"Looking at me like that?" Xu Lingguang smirked. "It's hard not to suspect that this is a ploy by you to seduce me."
Upon hearing this, Zhu Mingyue turned her head away, cursing inwardly, "This person's mouth is truly boundless."
Their bodies gradually drew closer, until they were almost touching. This dangerous distance made Zhu Mingyue unable to stand idly by any longer, and he twisted his body and began to struggle slightly.
"Don't move." Xu Linguang's breathing seemed a few degrees heavier than before.
He said in a vicious tone, "If you don't know what's good for you, I'll really kill you."
Upon hearing this, Zhu Mingyue immediately frightened herself into standing still, like a rabbit playing dead, obediently lying on the bed and letting him do whatever he wanted.
Seeing that the threat had finally worked, Xu Linguang began to move on to the next step.
He used his fingers to pull aside Zhu Mingyue's windbreaker, immediately revealing a thick linen coat, dusty and gray. Xu Linguang's disgust was evident in his words, "It's filthy."
Despite his complaints, his hands were busy. After some effort, he untied the hempen clothes and saw a cotton T-shirt underneath. Xu Linguang took a deep breath and lifted the T-shirt up.
What came into view was a white cloth wrapped tightly around the body.
...
Xu Linguang fell silent, his eyes lowered, lost in thought.
Zhu Mingyue wondered if her eyes were playing tricks on her, but she also saw a look of disbelief on his face.
He bit his lip, feeling somewhat embarrassed. It was such a cold winter day, and unlike these people who could simply stay in the restaurant drinking and warming themselves with hand warmers, he naturally had to wrap himself in everything he could and couldn't wear. This cloth was his…
After a long silence, Xu Lingguang finally spoke, his fingertips brushing against his waistband, and asked, "So what's the purpose of wearing this thing on your body? To protect yourself from me?"
Zhu Mingyue grinned, not wanting to explain such a question, and said, "Hehe."
Xu Lingguang twitched his lips and his sharp tongue kicked in again: "Don't smile like that, it's really ugly!"
Zhu Mingyue immediately pursed her lips and stopped smiling.
The cloth covering her body was wrapped very tightly, and to prevent it from falling off, Zhu Mingyue even tied a knot on her waist.
Xu Linguang touched the knot a few times but didn't untie it. Instead, he turned his hand towards Zhu Mingyue's lower body.
"What are you doing?" He covered his buttocks tightly with both hands, determined not to let the other person get close.
"As your customer, I think I should be qualified to touch your butt."
Zhu Mingyue was unable to struggle due to her supine position, and her hands were quickly pried open by the other party.
Just as the other person's hand reached out, Zhu Mingyue's mental defenses collapsed instantly, and she burst into tears.
"Please don't touch me!"
Xu Lingguang stopped what he was doing and watched him cry indifferently. Only when he cried himself out and his voice gradually subsided did he speak calmly:
"Feeling disgusted?"
Zhu Mingyue nodded, her little face covered in tears, her hair soaked and clinging messily to her neck.
“If you’re planning to stay here, there will be even more disgusting things to come.” Xu Lingguang straightened up from the bed and released Zhu Mingyue from her grasp. He then went straight to the washbasin and carefully washed his hands once or twice… until his hands turned white before he was satisfied.
After doing all that, he turned around and stared at Zhu Mingyue, continuing, "Every day, different men will specifically request you, and you will be pinned down and touched by different people."
"Can you handle all this?"
Zhu Mingyue shook his head. He didn't even dare to think about such a situation, so he would rather risk his life to take a gamble and escape.
He was too emotional just now, which caused his mind to go blank. Now that he had calmed down and thought back on Xu Linfeng's behavior, he realized that something was wrong.
Xu Lingguang didn't seem to be provoking him; rather, he was deliberately guiding him to leave Nanfeng Pavilion.
Zhu Mingyue focused his attention on Xu Linguang again, realizing that he seemed to know nothing about the other person.
Xu Linguang stood silently, his calm and composed demeanor, coupled with his handsome face, had nothing to do with the jealous person he had initially imagined. Instead, he seemed more like a virtuous gentleman.
However, the next second:
"Scared stiff? You can't even speak?"
Zhu Mingyue retracted his thoughts and had to admit that Xu Linfeng was not a gentleman at all.
But he knew that Xu Lingguang was willing to help him, and that was enough.
He straightened his disheveled clothes, jogged over to Xu Linfeng's ear, and whispered, "Bring me some almonds, because I get hives if I eat them."
What is urticaria?
"It's a disease that causes red bumps on the body."
"Plague?" Xu Lingguang's attitude became much more serious, reminding him, "Do you know the consequences of pretending to have the plague? They will silently stuff you into a sack and burn you to destroy the evidence. You will not have any chance of escaping."
The light in Zhu Mingyue's eyes gradually dimmed. So even if he did this much, it wouldn't work. Did he still have a way to survive?
"There is another way."
Xu Lingguang's voice rang out again, "After you eat the almonds, just focus on getting sick. Don't worry about what happens after that. I will find a way to return you to the person who sold you. Only in this way can you escape the fate of being burned. As for what happens to you after that, that's up to you to do your best and leave the rest to fate."
Zhu Mingyue felt nauseous at the thought of those two, but he knew that Xu Lingguang's suggestion was the best solution at the moment. The madam wouldn't allow any rumors of disease to spread about her Nanfeng Pavilion, so if he fell ill, he would either be burned or taken away by those two.
"What if they don't agree to let me go and insist on burning me?" This is an uncertain factor that Zhu Mingyue cannot ignore.
Xu Linguang said confidently, "Don't worry, as long as you're sure, I have a way to make them act according to this plan."
"Have you thought it through? You have no other choice. No, there is one more choice: stay at Nanfeng Pavilion."
Zhu Mingyue shuddered and quickly replied, "I've thought it over, I'll do whatever you say."
Xu Linfeng nodded, leaving behind the words, "For dinner tonight, I'll have the kitchen make you an almond cake. You can decide how much to eat yourself." Then he left without looking back.
Zhu Mingyue spent the entire afternoon trapped in endless anxiety, knowing full well that every step he was taking was a risky gamble, and he couldn't see any future for himself.
He sat on the edge of the bed, releasing his tension by clenching the hem of his clothes, while quietly waiting for the almond cake that Xu Lingguang had promised him.
At dusk, the servant brought the food tray into the room as he had the day before. After the food was served and the servant left the room, Zhu Mingyue approached the table and immediately noticed the plate of pastries.
Perhaps because almonds were cheap, there was an unusually large amount of them in the kitchen, and he began to feel disgusted just by smelling them.
Zhu Mingyue glanced outside the door, took most of the almond cake and hid it under the bed, then slowly began to eat her dinner.
An hour after the servant cleared away the food, he took out the almond cake he had hidden, took a deep breath, and carefully put it in his mouth, swallowing even the crumbs that fell on the table.
His illness progressed very quickly; symptoms appeared in no time.
Her airway felt blocked, and she experienced chest tightness and shortness of breath. Then, her skin began to itch intensely. While desperately inhaling oxygen, Zhu Mingyue also managed to lift her sleeve to examine her skin.
Her fair skin was now largely covered by wheal-like rashes. With her goal achieved, Zhu Mingyue was finally relieved.
His consciousness was already blurred. In his last moments, he staggered to the door, half-walking and half-crawling, and used his last bit of strength to push it open.
The frantic screams reached his ears, and gradually, the sounds faded away.
"Tell me, everyone, what exactly happened!" The madam was trembling with anger, slamming her fist on the table, making the tea water shake violently.
Just then, Xu Lingguang arrived slowly, his wide robe sleeves fluttering.
They were in the backyard at this moment, and this was a decision made hastily by the madam in a moment of confusion after Zhu Mingyue's accident.
Many guests choose to stay overnight at the Nanfeng Pavilion, and the madam cannot allow this news to spread through any outsiders.
So he immediately made a decision and ordered people to secretly carry Zhu Mingyue to the backyard, and then summoned several elderly people from Nanfeng Hall who were currently on leave to discuss the matter.
Xu Linguang held the highest position and arrived the latest.
The madam was displeased, but dared not show him any displeasure.
"I heard from the cook in the backyard that you ordered Zhu Mingyue's dinner tonight?"
"Yes," Xu Lingguang said frankly, toying with the teacup in his hand.
The madam wanted to ask him if he had secretly poisoned the food, but she didn't dare to ask.
He and Xu Linguang had been at odds for a long time; the latter, relying on his current position in the academy, never took him seriously.
This is why he was overjoyed when he saw Zhu Mingyue. He wanted to cultivate a new top performer to suppress Xu Lingguang, and Zhu Mingyue met his requirements because she was young and easy to control, and she was also very beautiful.
But now that Zhu Mingyue has become like this, his wish to cultivate a new top performer has been dashed, and he still has to endure the other party's checks and balances.
The madam's face contorted in shock, her features contorted into an extremely unsightly grimace.
Xu Lingguang poured himself a cup of tea and sipped it slowly, thoroughly enjoying himself. He loved watching the madam's expression—she wished he were dead but couldn't do anything about it—it was quite amusing.
After admiring the view enough, he turned his gaze to the inner room and slowly asked, "Did you put the person inside?"
He pretended not to know the madam's intention in asking the question and continued, "I heard that you have developed a lot of red rashes. Have you seen a doctor to check if it is an epidemic?"
Little did anyone know that his casual remark would cause such a stir, with gasps of surprise rising and falling inside the room, and some even running outside and refusing to come any closer.
The madam was terrified.
He was confused! His mind was filled with the chef's private complaint about Xu Linguang, and he completely forgot that the red rash all over his body did not resemble the symptoms of poisoning at all.
He had witnessed the epidemic and vaguely remembered that many people had symptoms similar to Zhu Mingyue's.
A note from the author:
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