Shengjing Noble

Chapter 516: Self-Destruction

"What do you want to do? I... my family has no money and no food... Please let us go..."

As the woman spoke, she began to sob, and the girl in her arms was so frightened that she trembled all over and sobbed.

Su Lanyin couldn't help but feel distressed, and quickly explained: "We came from Shengjing, and we passed by here and wanted to use the excuse of drinking water. We have absolutely no ill intentions. If we scared you, we are really sorry. We are willing to make amends. I wonder if it would be convenient for you?"

After hearing their explanation, the woman did not believe it but was full of doubts.

"If you were just passing by to ask for a drink, why didn't you just sneak in without knocking?"

Fu Wuyang said hurriedly, "We saw that there were no candles burning in the house, so we thought no one was there. We just went to the yard next door to look for it, but there was no one and no water. We thought your house was the same. We are really sorry."

"So that's it." The woman breathed a sigh of relief, patted her daughter on the back, and then said, "Our family is too poor and can't afford candles, so it's so dark."

Su Lanyin suddenly thought of something, took out a box from her arms, and when she opened it, the room was instantly illuminated.

"Night Pearl?" Fu Wuyang frowned.

"Yes, it's part of the betrothal gift. I thought it was useful so I carried it with me." She nodded in reply.

Such a large night-shining pearl is an imperial item that only the royal family is qualified to use. Although the Lu family is rich, they can only collect a few small ones.

Only members of the royal family can own a star this big enough to light up the entire room.

Fu Wuyang got three in total, one of which was placed in his mother's tomb, one was left in the palace, and the last one was given to Su Lanyin.

Although the woman had never seen the world, she knew that this thing was no trivial matter, and she immediately became alert.

"Who are you?"

Su Lanyin hurriedly said, "Don't be afraid, we have no ill intentions, we are just passing by."

Fu Wuyang also echoed: "Yes, if we are bad people, there is no need to explain it to you like this, we can just do evil directly."

The woman thought to herself that this was indeed true. After all, they were an orphan and a widow, and there was nothing to be afraid of. If there were really bad guys, they would have killed them both long ago.

Thinking of this, she breathed a sigh of relief: "I'm sorry, I've been so worried lately that I misunderstood you two. Please take a seat, Nannan, go get two bowls of water."

Su Lanyin and Fu Wuyang sat down and placed the night pearls in their hands on the table.

With the help of the light, they could see the girl's face clearly.

She is not a great beauty, but among these farmers, she is a rare, pretty and charming girl.

Soon, Nannan brought two bowls of water and placed them on the table. She spoke timidly in a very low voice: "No, no firewood to boil water... Only cold water. Sorry..."

Su Lanyin smiled and comforted him, "It's okay. We are already grateful for having water to drink."

Nannan glanced at her and her cheeks flushed instantly. She immediately turned around and ran to hide behind her mother, quietly poking her head out and looking at her, her eyes full of surprise and nervousness.

The woman smiled and said, "Everyone calls me Mrs. Wu, and this is my daughter, Nannan. What are your names?"

Su Lanyin said: "My last name is Lu, and this is my husband, whose last name is Su."

Fu Wuyang blinked and thought, does this count as giving him a wife's surname?

"So it's Miss Lu and Mr. Su. You two don't look like ordinary people. Why did you come to us?"

"I got lost when it got dark, and when I saw a village here, I thought of coming here to stay overnight."

"What? You are so brave. I advise you to leave here quickly and find a place to live somewhere else." Mrs. Wu said seriously.

"Why?" Su Lanyin asked pretending not to understand.

Mrs. Wu sat down on the stool in front of them, with a helpless and sad look on her face: "Our Wutong Town is a well-known bully town, and has long been controlled by bad guys. If a beautiful girl like you is seen by Zhao Zide's lackeys tomorrow, I'm afraid you won't be able to escape even if you want to."

Fu Wuyang's eyes flashed: "I wonder who this Zhao Zide is?"

"He is the landowner here. All the fields in the town and the surrounding hills belong to him. If we want to make a living, we can only rent his fields. If we want to go up the mountain to chop firewood, we have to pay him."

"There's actually such a thing?" Su Lanyin pretended to be surprised. "Then why did you say just now that if I were seen, I wouldn't be able to escape even if I wanted to?"

"That Zhao Zide was a greedy, lustful beast. He kidnapped all the girls in our town who were even slightly pretty. As far as I know, some of those girls died, some went crazy, and their endings were extremely miserable."

"It's so abominable! Isn't there any government to take care of such bastards?" Fu Wuyang pretended to be angry.

"The government?" Mrs. Wu laughed in anger. "The county magistrate is his biggest backer. They colluded with officials and businessmen to destroy our families!"

Su Lanyin saw the knife dropped on the ground, and then asked: "Mrs. Wu, we were outside just now and heard your conversation in the house. Why did you insist on destroying Nannan's face?"

Mrs. Wu cried sadly: "It's not that I am a cruel mother, it's just that my daughter has grown up and I can't keep her anymore... Zhao Zide's lackeys hang around my house every day. Even though I have tried my best not to let my daughter go out, they still have ideas."

At this point, a hint of cruelty appeared in her eyes: "Instead of waiting for them to come and kill my daughter, we might as well burn our boats and destroy our faces. At least we can still live!"

"Mom..." Nannan cried and threw herself into her arms.

The mother and daughter burst into tears, heartbroken.

Seeing this, Su Lanyin asked, "Aren't you afraid of angering them by doing this?"

"Why not? It's scary but there's nothing I can do. That's how I escaped death back then. Besides, many daughters in our village have been disfigured just to avoid it."

"No wonder..."

She thought to herself, no wonder she had seen those disfigured women in the village before.

It seems that some of them had already destroyed their appearance before.

"Mrs. Wu, even if you destroy your appearance, you may not be able to escape your bad luck, right?"

"I know... but I have no choice. This is the only way. I can't watch my daughter being dragged into the fire pit like this."

"Since you gave us two a sip of water, then in return we might be able to help you." Su Lanyin said with a smile.

Mrs. Wu shook her head repeatedly: "No, you can't help us, and you might even get yourself into trouble. Listen to my advice, leave quickly while no one sees you, and don't stay here."

"Yes...let's go now..." Nannan also said in a low voice.