“You explain,” said Ning Shu to Yue Lan. “He doesn’t believe that we’re here to repay a debt of gratitude.”
Yue Lan put her hands on her hips and rapidly fired off the entire course of events to the young man guarding the door. She spoke very fast so the young man’s eyes had turned into mosquito coils as he tried to keep up with what she was saying.
“And that’s what happened. But how could my miss and I only be worth twenty taels? It’s outrageous!” cried Yue Lan in a wronged manner.
The young man immediately replied, “Twenty taels is already quite a lot. With how you two look, my young master has already been very generous in giving twenty taels.”
Yue Lan wanted to argue but Ning Shu stopped her. A palanquin had stopped at the entrance. Ning Shu’s guts told her that it was definitely the male lead-sama that was sitting in the palanquin.
She stared at the curtain and it was soon lifted by a fan. The moment she saw that, she used her roughest voice to shout, “I finally found you!”
When Qi Sheng who was getting off the carriage heard this voice, he looked up and found that a woman whose mouth was painted atrociously red was shouting at him. His grip on the fan shook as he asked with a frown, “You are?”
“Twenty taels, sold self for father’s funeral expenses, the miss that was in dire straits.” Ning Shu pointed at her own face. “Remember me?”
Qi Sheng shifted his gaze away. “Before, although your face was dirty, it was still quite delicate and pretty. Why is it so unsightly now that you’ve washed it clean?”
Ning Shu: …
“Many thanks, Sir, for the twenty taels you gave us. This humble girl has already given her father a proper funeral service. From now now, this humble girl and her maid are servants of this residence. A drop of grace should be repaid with a spring of gratitude. This humble girl is a person with principles, responsibility, and morals.”
Qi Sheng didn’t look at Ning Shu’s face as he replied, “Alright. This sir actually thought that you wouldn’t be coming back.”
Following that, Ning Shu and Yue Lan settled down in Qi Residence. For better or for worse, she still had a bit of the main character halo after all. They were placed in the same room and each given a servant’s uniform.
Yue Lan looked at Ning Shu with pity as she asked, “Miss, are you really going to work as a servant here?”
“Of course. I’ve gone through all that trouble to get in here, of course I’m going to work as a servant!” If she didn’t get close to Qi Sheng, how was she supposed to escape from the storyline? Even if she didn’t come, the storyline would have forced her to meet him one way or another.
In the storyline, Mu Yanmeng had been tormented by Situ Qingyu and Luo Junyan to the point her body and soul were in tatters. They were even doing having threesomes with her at that point, so she took advantage of a moment while they weren’t paying attention to escape. As for how Mu Yanmeng managed to escape with her weak body, that was a complete mystery. In any case, she managed to get out, but didn’t have a single piece of silver with her.
She grew up sheltered in the lady’s chambers and had hardly ever gone out, so the moment she escaped the residence, she became lost and bewildered. Someone tricked her into a whorehouse with a bowl of noodles. When the brothel keeper saw that Mu Yanmeng had stunning looks, she decided to auction her off.
And that was how Mu Yanmeng had been bought by Qi Sheng with a high price before she even processed what happened. Although Mu Yanmeng had avoided this whorehouse in her later two rebirths, she still wasn’t able to avoid meeting these men. Regardless of what turns she took or what roads she avoided, she’d still end up encountering these men.
It was seriously a devastating state of affairs.
After Qi Sheng bought Mu Yanmeng, he didn’t do anything to her at first. He just settled her down in his back courtyard and didn’t rape her like Situ Qingyu and Luo Junyan did.
When he had time, he would sit for a while in Mu Yanmeng’s courtyard and chat with her. They’d talk about poems, life, philosophy, and such refined, cultured things.
In short, Qi Sheng looked like a perfect gentleman that was gentle as jade.