“Oh, dear patron, please add a little more… Though our girl’s looks may be somewhat lacking, her body is fair and tender, and she’s untouched… Here, you can inspect her yourself!”
In the elegant room on the top floor of Zui Xian Ju, the doors and windows were tightly shut, and a faint, alluring fragrance filled the air.
Seated in the hall was a portly middle-aged man, draped in a glossy mink coat. In the dimly lit room, he looked like a looming, dark mountain.
Hearing this, he lifted his eyelids, pushed aside the teacup offered by the maid, and glanced at the woman beside him, who wore an ingratiating smile. “Is that true?”
“True, true! Of course it’s true!”
Seeing the man’s interest piqued, the woman hurriedly ordered the sturdy maidservants below. “Quick, strip her clothes and bring her forward!”
It was the dead of winter. Though a brazier was placed in the room and thick carpets covered the floor, the half-undressed girl, dragged by two maidservants to the man’s feet, still trembled uncontrollably.
This pitiful appearance only delighted the man further. With effort, he extended his hand, adorned with a gold-inlaid thumb ring, lifted the girl’s face for a look, and asked her, “What’s your name?”
“Jiang… Jiang Yin.”
“Not bad,” the man shifted his bulky frame and gestured to her. “Stand up.”
Jiang Yin was stunned. Before she could react, she was roughly hauled up by the maidservant beside her.
Her slender arms were pinched red, and her small, palm-sized face instantly turned deathly pale. Unconsciously, she bit her lower lip.
Leaning forward, the man clumsily squeezed Jiang Yin’s waist. Seeing her shrink back in fear, the flesh on his face bunched up, and he grinned so widely his eyes nearly disappeared. “Looks interesting… Spread your legs.”
“…What?”
Originally planning to feign obedience first and then consider her options, but seeing the man grow increasingly aggressive and the maidservants about to act, Jiang Yin could no longer hold back.
She cried out in fright, struggling desperately to retreat. “Let me go! Don’t touch me!”
But the two maidservants were too strong. With Jiang Yin’s frail, slender frame, she couldn’t resist at all.
Seeing the man about to reach out, in her desperation, she stepped forward instead, stomping hard on his foot and grinding down with all her might.
“Ahhh—”
The man’s massive frame was wedged tightly in the chair, unable to move. Stomped on by Jiang Yin, his whole body shuddered, his expression instantly contorted, and he let out a pained howl.
No one had expected Jiang Yin to pull such a move. For a moment, everyone froze in place.
Seizing the opportunity, Jiang Yin struggled free from the two maidservants’ grip and turned to run out of the room.
The moment she stepped out, the madam’s furious curses echoed from behind. “Jiang Yin! You ungrateful wretch! Worthless scum! When I catch you, I’ll skin you alive!”
Immediately after came a flurry of chaotic, hurried footsteps, growing closer and closer.
Overwhelmed by tension, her heart pounding in her throat, Jiang Yin stumbled and nearly fell.
Fortunately, she steadied herself in time and pushed over a waist-high vase she happened to touch, hoping to slow down her pursuers.
Without a moment’s pause, she kept running desperately forward, not daring to look back.
Thankfully, the vase seemed to have worked somewhat—the footsteps grew slightly more distant.
Still, Jiang Yin didn’t dare to look back. Relying on her familiarity with Zui Xian Ju, she swiftly weaved through the mingling patrons and gaudily dressed courtesans, holding her breath as she hurriedly dashed downstairs.
On the way, she tripped over a flower stand at a corner, stumbled against the railing opposite, nearly breaking her ribs, yet she dared not stop.
Rushing headlong like this, she finally managed to temporarily shake off those matrons.
But misfortunes never come singly. Just as Jiang Yin had reached the staircase on the second floor, with escape only a step away, she realized that guards below had already been alerted and were closing in with weapons.
Looking back, the stout, burly matrons had also caught up.
“…”
—Wolves ahead and tigers behind, every step was fraught with difficulty.
Her clothes were disheveled, her chest ached, and the pounding of her heart thundered in her ears, each beat hammering against her temples, nearly suffocating her.
She slowly came to a halt, momentarily at a loss.
Go back and admit her mistake? Or…
No, she couldn’t go back.
Recalling the lecherous appearance of that man and the vile rumors about him, a wave of nausea rose in Jiang Yin’s heart.
She knew that man’s surname was Liu, born into a merchant family, and was notoriously depraved in the capital. He often gathered with his sons, and in front of the household servants, subjected the young girls they purchased to various forms of humiliation…
Such behavior was utterly despicable.
Even though Jiang Yin was not a native of this world but a Transmigrator sent by the System, she absolutely could not accept such inhuman acts.
But now…
Seeing no way out and unwilling to fall into the hands of that filthy man, Jiang Yin gritted her teeth, grabbed the railing beside her, and prepared to leap over, gambling with her life.
—However, at that very moment, among the group approaching from ahead, a slender, tall figure caught her eye.
To be more precise, what drew her attention was the obviously expensive water-blue Crane Cloak with subtle patterns, the flawless white jade Jin Bu resting upon it, and the gleaming golden waist token at his side.
Based on Jiang Yin’s years of novel-reading experience, a character with such attire was undoubtedly of noble status.
Almost instantly, a simpler and more feasible plan than gambling with her life surfaced in her mind.
Without a second thought, before the fierce-looking matrons could seize her, Jiang Yin dashed forward, knelt with a thud, and clutched the hem of the young man’s robe.
Under the astonished gazes of those around her, she pinched her thigh hard and spoke in a trembling voice, “Young master… young master, save me…”
Only then did the people surrounding the finely dressed young master react, rushing forward to pull her away.
Anxious and fearing she might lose this lifeline, Jiang Yin simply wrapped her arms around the man’s leg, pressing herself tightly against him, her voice growing even more pitiful, “Young master… I beg you, save me. I don’t want to be sold, save me…”
Thus, the attempts to drag her away ceased, as they feared involving the nobleman.
The finely dressed young master, however, neither resisted nor grew angry. He stood quietly for a moment and, just as his attendants were about to intervene, slightly raised a hand hidden in his sleeve to stop them.
Once the attendants stepped back, he bent slightly, reaching out to help Jiang Yin up, his voice gentle, “The ground is cold… please rise.”
Yet, for some reason, instead of taking her hand, he touched her exposed shoulder.
As if startled by the unexpected sensation, the young master quickly withdrew his hand and apologized, “My apologies. I am blind and did not mean to offend you, young lady. Please forgive me.”
“…”
Jiang Yin was taken aback. She looked up and only then noticed that the young master not only possessed an extraordinary bearing, but also had a refined and handsome face—his lips were red, his teeth white, with delicate features yet not the slightest hint of femininity. He seemed ethereal, like an immortal.
Yet, despite such astonishing beauty, he had a pair of phoenix eyes that stared blankly straight ahead, their gaze unfocused and without any point of concentration.
She hesitated for a moment before quickly speaking up: “It’s fine! As long as the young master is willing to save A-Yin, A-Yin will do anything!”
“…Save you?”
The elegantly dressed young master repeated her words, fell silent for a moment, and then asked, “How do you want me to save you?”
“…”
At that moment, Jiang Yin truly wanted to say: have him redeem her, so she could leave this wretched place as soon as possible.
After all, as a cannon fodder character who had transmigrated into the book, she had only been sold here to follow the plot as required by the System.
But that broken System, which was supposed to give her a generous reward to ensure she lived comfortably for the rest of her life, had inexplicably gone silent and disappeared at this critical moment.
Left with no other choice, Jiang Yin could only muddle through day by day, praying for the System to return soon.
Yet, instead of the System, what she ended up waiting for was the madam’s plan to sell her to the perverted Liu family.
Jiang Yin admitted that her dancing was unsightly, her singing voice grating and unpleasant, she knew nothing of music, chess, calligraphy, or painting, and her looks were average—so it was only natural that her performance was poor.
However, as a person of sound mind, she could accept punishment through hard labor, but she absolutely could not accept being sold to a pervert.
…And now, she had only this one chance to turn her situation around.
Glancing at the several sturdy matrons in the crowd not far away, who were eyeing her like tigers watching their prey, Jiang Yin briefly considered her options and chose the safest approach.
She carefully took the young master’s hand and spoke meekly:
“A-Yin asks for nothing else, only that the young master take A-Yin in for one night… I beg the young master to grant this.”