Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The protective talismans from Changling’s Cloud Peak Temple are exceptionally effective.

High-ranking officials travel thousands of miles just to seek a single divination stick, to say nothing of those who stay here briefly while passing through.

I crouched in the prickly bushes halfway up the mountain, holding my breath as I waited.

Before long, a luxurious and elegant carriage passed by. I silently blew a fine powder through a bamboo tube.

The wind assisted me at that moment, carrying most of the colorless powder into the carriage through the swaying curtains.

The driver sneezed and looked around warily.

I pressed my body even lower.

In an instant, the person inside the carriage grew restless.

The footmen and maids following the carriage were so frightened by the commotion that they scrambled back dozens of yards.

There were muffled groans of pain and the sound of something being torn or snapped inside the carriage.

It was, truly, agonizing.

Unfortunately, the medicine they carried was useless.

How could it work? Changling was famous for producing herbs that treated headaches.

Naturally, it also produced the rootstalks that triggered and exacerbated them.

It wasn’t until a hand reached out from behind the curtain to grip the edge of the carriage that I moved. His fingernails, once like white jade crescents, were now dripping with crimson blood, staining his pristine robes.

Only then did I crawl deeper into the bushes, circle around, and rush forward urgently with my hidden herb basket on my back.

“What happened?” I asked with feigned concern.

“Oh, miss, are you a local herb gatherer from Changling? My master’s headache has suddenly flared up for some reason.”

Yun Jian, in the throes of his chronic headache, was like a frenzied beast. His well-groomed black hair had been stripped of its hair chain and hung wildly about him. He had crushed the tea table and cups inside the carriage with his bare hands.

His eyes were like the darkest ink in an inkstone, looking as if they could grind and tear apart anything caught within their gaze.

I steeled myself and pulled back the curtain, hoping to catch him off guard with a quick move.

I hadn’t expected that even under the influence of the drug, he would remain so agile. He dislocated one of my arms before I could react, but I endured the sharp pain and pressed a handkerchief soaked in herbal juice against his nose and mouth.

While no one was looking, I shifted my hand up half an inch, pressing my wrist against his lips.

The beast instinctively sought the healing scent of the medicine and bit into my wrist. The antidote I had applied earlier flowed into his mouth along with my blood.

When everything finally calmed down, I sat to one side, clutching my wrist with a pained expression.

Yun Jian wiped the blood from his lips and lifted his eyes to look at me.

A long silence followed. A chill ran down my spine, and I almost thought he had seen through my scheme.

However, he let out a short laugh and picked up the scattered ear chain from the floor, the silver lotuses wrapping around his blood-stained fingers inch by inch.

“What do you want?” he asked.

“To be your savior.”

Yun Jian took action. My deed of sale was bought back from the human trafficker, and I stayed at the Yun Manor to earn a living.

I was not entered into the slave registry; I was a free person.

Yet, this was a far cry from my original plan.

Yun Jian showed none of the warmth one might expect toward a savior who had saved his life.

Instead, he treated me with almost total indifference and disgust.

The monthly silver he gave me was even less than that of the lowest-ranking servant in the manor. Outside the Yun Manor, my parents frequently sent letters or intercepted me when I went out to buy supplies, either threatening me or weeping to gain my sympathy.

Yun Jian had saved me, but he had no intention of helping me.

The maids in Yun Jian’s manor were very exclusionary toward me, an outsider.

One day, while I was handing over meals to the head maid of his courtyard, she curled her lips and tried to trip me so I would drop the dishes.

Having grown up under my father’s switch, I had long ago mastered the skill of reading faces and anticipating movements.

I shoved the tray toward her with force. As expected, she was caught off guard and instinctively splashed the food toward me.

The glazed bowl shattered into pieces on the ground. “Sister, please don’t splash me!” I cried out in terror, hurriedly kneeling onto the jagged shards.

Blood began to seep from my knees.

The head maid was left speechless, unable to defend herself. She looked timidly toward Yun Jian, who was reading a book in the courtyard.

He had been sitting there the whole time; he must have seen everything.

She splashed me.

However, Yun Jian only lazily raised his eyes, glancing over my blood-stained knees and my panic-stricken face.

I clearly saw the disgust rising in the depths of his eyes.

“Is this the only skill you have, yet you insisted on entering my manor?”

He did not punish his maid.

After Yun Jian left, I remained kneeling where I was. My knees throbbed with a cold pain, but my mind was clearer than ever before.

Yun Jian was no ordinary man.

He was too clever; he saw through all my tricks and ploys.

He didn’t fall for schemes.

I lowered my eyes, ignoring the sneers of the surrounding maids.

I began to do my work dutifully.