Chapter 14
Chapter 14
I admit that, in that instant, I seemed to hear my heart pounding hot and fierce in my chest again, like a war drum long silent being struck with force once more.
Yes. What did I want to do?
I had saved this man and used the gap in information to drive a wedge between them, turning him into an unknown variable to restrain the madam’s movements.
And then?
Kill the madam?
How could I guarantee the yamen would believe my side of the story?
Use the madam’s hand to kill Master Liang?
How could I guarantee this man wouldn’t come to some new agreement with the madam?
The instant when the old order was broken and the new rules had yet to be established-that was the moment that belonged to me alone.
And how was I supposed to grasp such a fleeting opportunity?
I looked at the man.
Our eyes met. Countless thoughts had already flashed through my mind, yet in the end, only one sentence came out.
“At the very least, you should tell me your name.”
And so, in that seemingly endless night, I heard the first complete name-with both surname and given name-since I had transmigrated here.
“Gu Changfeng.”
The cramped little courtyard did not seem to change in the slightest because of Gu Changfeng’s arrival.
It was like a machine that looked crude beyond belief, yet fit together with perfect precision. With Luo Niang, that one nail, gone, Gu Changfeng immediately came in to fill the gap.
Master Liang brought the madam a newcomer, the first in a long while.
And this time, Gu Changfeng was in charge of training her.
The familiar sounds of beating passed through the walls and dissipated into the cold winter air.
The memories I had thought long dead began to stir, waking once more.
“What are you doing?”
I grabbed Gu Changfeng as he was about to go fetch something, feeling a chill seep through my entire body.
“Why are you…”
I wanted to ask him how he could fit in so seamlessly, how he could torture someone without showing the slightest discomfort.
The man glanced at me, then followed my gaze toward that earthen room.
“Don’t you want to escape?”
The knuckles of the fingers I had wrapped around his arm had gone faintly white.
“Don’t tell me you think that if you train the newcomer well, the madam will happily return my indenture contract to me.”
Gu Changfeng lowered his head and looked at my hand.
After a long moment, he suddenly laughed.
“Why would you think that?”
He leaned closer to me.
“I’m merely proving to Mother that I’m useful.”
The man’s pitch-black gaze was like a shackle, locking me in place with ease.
“Isn’t that what you told me?”
“Right now, I have no power, no influence, not even an identity. Aside from attaching myself to the brothel madam, where else can I go?”
“A girl can still take clients and earn her own keep in this courtyard with the money from selling herself. But what can I do? They don’t need me to serve tea or pour water, and using me to wash clothes or cook would be far too much of a waste. If I can’t prove I’m useful, how can I coax Mother into willingly keeping me?”
Amid the heart-rending cries scattered all over the ground, Gu Changfeng’s lips opened and closed, spilling out a way of thinking I had never imagined.
“If I want to replace Master Liang, I have to prove I’m more useful than he is. This is only the first step. What you want is to escape this cage, isn’t it?”
“If I take his place, then with the life-saving debt between us, I will naturally be closer to you than the brothel madam is. When that time comes, whether you want to leave or stay will, of course, be entirely up to you.”