Chapter 2
Why would Yumo buy my freedom?
Had she been reborn too?
That was my first thought.
But otherwise, the woman showed no sign of changing. She still fawned over her betters and bullied those beneath her.
I could only put it down to a random, meaningless bug in a program that had run successfully thousands of times.
Sure enough, the moment the carriage reached the main road, the two people facing me became one tangled person.
Their cloying noises and the sight of them made me squirm. “My lord, miss, perhaps I should get out.”
Both refused.
“No!”
“Don’t get out!”
“Stay right there and watch!”
I had nothing to say.
Wonderful. Now I was part of their kink too.
Fortunately, the prince was always considerate of his servants: he tended to finish before he had properly begun.
When it was over, he gathered Yumo tenderly into his arms. “Yumo, my Yumo, what a delightful creature you are!”
“Then please be kind to me, Your Highness!”
“How could I be otherwise? Compared with that block of wood in my household, you understand my very soul!”
Another round of sweet nothings followed. Tracing the beauty’s face, the man could not help sighing. “Yumo, there’s something I hardly know how to say.”
She looked surprised. “You bought my freedom, Your Highness. You gave me a new life. What could you possibly hesitate to tell me?”
“Ah…”
After a long sigh, the prince finally came to the point. “Only with a woman who understands me as you do have I discovered life’s true pleasures.”
“Yet my royal brother, for all that he is emperor, sleeps alone night after night. It’s pitiful…”
“His Majesty?” Yumo asked innocently. “What’s wrong with His Majesty?”
The prince put it delicately. “If only you could serve His Majesty on my behalf.”
Here it came. Here it came!
The crucial scene at last!
Just as the prince was coaxing Yumo to offer herself, several sets of hoofbeats rang out beyond the window.
Curfew was already in force. Only an imperial party could be traveling along the main road at this hour.
Before either of them reacted, I lifted the curtain as though I wanted some air. At that very moment, a wooden cart piled with corpses rolled past. Even in the gloom, the injuries covering those jumbled limbs were plain to see.
The stench of blood swept over us.
Yumo immediately threw herself into the prince’s arms, complaining in a coquettish voice. “Oh! Where did all those dead people come from?”
Sitting downwind, I deliberately raised my voice. “I hear they’re all consorts His Majesty has favored.”
Yumo’s alluring smile froze.
After an excruciating silence, the prince seemed finally to discover my existence. Slowly, he turned to stare at me.
His easy elegance vanished. His expression became cold and dark.
“You know rather a lot, Hua Nu.”