Feng Si instinctively stopped and bent over, peering down through a gap in the wooden ladder. She saw two slight figures sitting at the dining table—it was the original body’s mother and sister.
’I forgot I had a family.’
She stood frozen, just about to stand and walk down, when hushed whispers drifted up from downstairs. They mentioned her name, making Feng Si pause and strain to listen.
"What if they make Feng Si pretend to be me and send her over, but Lord Black Snake finds out? I’m an Advanced Female, after all." A glint of pride flashed in Feng Lian’s eyes.
Feng Huan sighed. "What choice do we have? If we don’t let Feng Si go in your place, are we supposed to send you to a two-hundred-year-old Beastman?"
Feng Lian shuddered.
After returning from Cang City’s Sacrificial Hall where her bloodline had been tested, she had been so excited that she took a tour around the city. She never expected to run into the City Lord of Cang City himself, Lord Black Snake.
His status was impressive, but...
The thought of that leathery, old-tree-bark face staring lecherously at her on the street made her shiver uncontrollably.
She immediately whined, "I don’t want to! I’m just worried they’ll recognize my sister. What if Black Snake comes back and forces me to go?"
Feng Huan glanced at Feng Lian. "She’s prettier than you. There’s no way Lord Black Snake will be able to tell the difference."
Feng Lian was at a loss for words. "...Black Snake is coming to pick her up tomorrow morning. What if Feng Si refuses to cooperate?"
Feng Huan waved a dismissive hand. "What strength does a mere female have to resist? Besides, didn’t we already give her the drug to induce her heat?"
Feng Lian looked worried. "But what if Feng Si still isn’t willing?"
"I gave birth to her, I raised her. You think I can’t even choose a mate for her? It’s not up to Feng Si to be willing or not. She should consider it a blessing that she gets to take your place."
Feng Huan raised an eyebrow. She took Feng Lian’s hand, sizing up the daughter she’d borne with a satisfied gaze. In a gentle voice, she said, "Instead of worrying about Feng Si, you should be putting more thought into engineering a chance encounter with the Young Master of the Black Python Clan. He’s the only Special-level Male Beast in the Southern Beast Clan, and he just came back from the northern front. I’d wager his Original Value has reached a dangerous point."
Feng Huan’s eyes narrowed greedily. "If you can make him your Male Lord, then by the Beast God, our family can finally escape this life of poverty!"
"But I’m only an Advanced. I don’t know if my pheromones will be enough to soothe him." Despite her words, the corners of Feng Lian’s mouth curved into a confident smirk.
Feng Huan said, "In the entire South, there aren’t even a few dozen Special Level females, and more than half of those are either too old or too young. In an emergency like this, how could he have so many options?"
She patted Feng Lian’s hand and continued, "Besides, I believe the only reason the Young Master of the Black Python Clan has shown up in Cang City is because he heard the Sacrificial Hall identified an Advanced Female here."
Feng Lian said, "I suppose so~"
At this, Feng Huan and Feng Lian exchanged a look and smiled. In the dim light of the oil lamp, their two scheming faces looked monstrous.
!!
’Lie down and take it? My ass!’
’This new family of mine... they’re nothing but human traffickers.’
Feng Si took a deep breath, a chill shooting up her spine to the nape of her neck. The bone-deep cold snapped her back to her senses. She crept back to the second floor in the dark, returned to her room, and tied the corners of two blankets together in a dead knot.
She hurried to the end of the second-floor hallway. The two rooms facing each other belonged to Feng Lian and Feng Huan. They were still downstairs, so the rooms were empty.
Feng Si tied her rope of blankets to a blanket in one of the rooms, then pushed open the window. Pea-sized raindrops assaulted her face. Ignoring the water streaming down her cheeks, she gripped the blanket rope and struggled out of the window.
The rainy night was frigid, and it was even colder with her long, soaked dress clinging to her skin.
But Feng Si had no choice. If she didn’t escape, she would soon be forcibly carried off to be some old Beastman’s personal captive. To avoid that fate, her only option was to flee through the rain that very night.
’I refuse to be a substitute and marry him.’
’This is their mess, so they can damn well face it themselves!’
’I just hope it takes that family a while to realize I’m gone. I need more time to get far away.’
Feng Si quickly scrambled down to the ground, her feet landing in a patch of tangled weeds. She let go of the blanket rope and, without a moment’s hesitation, picked a direction dense with trees and plunged into the downpour.
Thunder boomed and lightning flashed amidst the downpour. Branches and leaves scraped against her, from her shoulders down to her calves. The air was thick with the distinct smell of rain-soaked earth and grass. Her vision was a sea of black, with only the occasional flash of lightning to illuminate her path.
Ignoring the danger of taking shelter under trees in a thunderstorm, Feng Si stumbled through the woods, constantly falling and scrambling back to her feet. Luckily, the heavy rain weighed down the branches, which saved her from getting badly scratched.
’The rain is a good thing. It’ll help cover my scent.’
Feng Si tried to console herself with this thought, forcing herself onward through the darkness. The desperate need to escape made her heart hammer in her chest, and though she was gasping for breath, she didn’t dare to stop.
...
「Meanwhile.」
"AHHHH!! Feng Si is gone!"
Feng Lun, who had gotten up in the middle of the night, stood screaming at Feng Si’s doorway, her eyes wide with shock. Lights instantly flickered on in every room of the stone house. After a flurry of panic, everyone rushed into Feng Si’s room.
"What are we going to do~ Lord Black Snake is coming for the female tomorrow! I don’t want to be his mate!" Feng Lian burst into tears.
Feng Huan’s face darkened. She spun around and slapped Feng Lun across the face, snarling, "Useless trash! You can’t even watch one fragile female? I’d have been better off raising a sheep!"
Feng Lun didn’t dare to argue back. He just covered his face, lowered his head, and sobbed. The others began to panic as well, until Feng Kai, the family’s only Beastman, stepped forward.
"Mother, Feng Si can’t have gotten far. I’ll track her by scent and drag her back."
Feng Huan looked at him. Feng Kai’s beast form was a gray wolf of Intermediate Power with an extremely keen sense of smell. Since he’d grown up with Feng Si, he was intimately familiar with her scent.
Her heart, which had been lodged in her throat, relaxed slightly. She patted Feng Kai on the shoulder. "Hurry up and go. Catch her for me."
"Yes. Don’t be sad, Sister Feng Lian. I’ll be back right away." Feng Kai didn’t forget to comfort the family’s most precious member.
Feng Lian wiped her tears, her eyes welling up as she looked pitiful and helpless. "Okay. Thank goodness you’re here, brother. I don’t know what I would have done otherwise."
Feng Huan looked at her affectionate children and cut in, "That’s enough. You two can talk when you get back. Go catch Feng Si first."
"Right. I’m off."
Carrying the hopes of his entire family, Feng Kai went to the window at the end of the hallway and pulled it open. A fierce gust of wind howled through the second floor of the stone house, and the wooden window frame creaked under the assault of the storm.
He glanced down at the rope of blankets and snorted in disdain. Planting his hands on the windowsill, he vaulted out of the second-story window. In the midst of the rain, the powerfully built, tanned man suddenly transformed into a three-meter-long gray wolf and landed lightly on the ground.
Raindrops slid off its sleek gray fur and splattered on the ground. The gray wolf lowered its massive head and sniffed at the earth, a glint of confidence flashing in its ice-blue eyes.
’This way!’