Chapter 730: Chapter 4AA: Ruyi

Duan Rong sat in front of the desk, casually flipping through the stack of documents organized by Zhu Cheng.

He had gotten up before dawn today, spent the entire day in a teahouse, and then busied himself until now. Duan Rong reckoned it was well past midnight.

Despite his years of rigorous training, he felt quite exhausted. Reading under the candlelight only added to the sleepiness. He hadn’t flipped through many pages before he began yawning repeatedly.

He had no choice but to close the documents, intending to sleep first and read them the next day.

Duan Rong extinguished the lamp and turned towards the screen.

Behind the screen was a sizable bed draped with sheer curtains, and not far from the bed, there was a column with a brass lamp holding a candle.

The candlelight cast a somewhat ambiguous dim glow on the curtains.

Duan Rong lightly shook his head and chuckled to himself, murmuring, “This arrangement looks like a brothel.”

He didn’t know that this atmosphere was meticulously arranged for him by Zhu Zhengfu.

Duan Rong then removed his outer robe and footwear, placed them by the bed, lifted the curtain, and got onto the bed.

The bed was covered with a large red quilt embroidered with mandarin ducks frolicking in the water. The satin embroidery was clearly of high quality.

Duan Rong lifted a corner of the quilt and slipped inside.

As he got under the covers, his expression immediately froze, his breath slightly halted. His arm had obviously touched something smooth and soft.

Duan Rong immediately sat up and lifted the quilt.

“Ah!”

With a tender scream, he saw a fair-skinned woman wearing only a dudou and undergarments, curling up timidly, lying there with a pair of captivating eyes that seemed to ensnare Duan Rong’s soul.

A flush of heat surged through Duan Rong’s abdomen.

The woman was indeed tempting, and the hint of white beneath her protruding dudou stirred an urge within Duan Rong that was hard to suppress.

However, recalling Xiao Yu, still steadfastly holding out in the Tower Forest, Duan Rong circulated the Primordial Qi within his Dantian, forcefully suppressing his agitation.

Duan Rong’s expression was as cold as water, and he asked frostily, “Did Zhu Zhengfu send you?”

The woman seemed to sense Duan Rong’s anger. She flinched like a small animal and responded faintly with a sound as soft as a mosquito’s buzz.

Duan Rong sighed slightly and said, “You should leave. Tonight, I prefer to sleep alone.”

At these words, the woman suddenly looked panicked, her eyes flashing with intense fear. She knelt on the bed, knocking her head like a pestle: “Sir, I beg you! Don’t send me away. If you refuse to take me, Madam will beat me to death.”

“Enough!” Duan Rong snapped, clearly losing patience.

Hearing this, the woman lifted her head. Her fair face was already streaked with tears as she sorrowfully said, “Sir, I am clean. I was raised by Madam, and no one has ever touched me. It was Master Zhu who bought me to serve you.”

Duan Rong’s eyes flickered, immediately understanding what the woman was trying to convey.

So, she was a ‘so-called thin horse.’

In this Divine Cloud Prefecture, the trade of thin horses had a history of over a hundred years.

The brokers bought girls of good appearance from impoverished families, trained and raised them until they blossomed, and then sold them at a high price to dignitaries and wealthy merchants, making a fortune in silver coins with each transaction.

Typically, only in years of disaster did families, unable to survive, sell their sons and daughters.

The girls were skin and bones when the brokers acquired them, hence over time, they came to be known as thin horses.

This business was indeed lucrative and gradually became an industry.

Looking at the woman’s tear-streaked face, Duan Rong felt a pang of sympathy and said, “I’m not in the mood today. You should take a quilt and sleep by the pillar.”

The woman seemed somewhat reassured by Duan Rong’s words. She knocked her head again on the bed before obediently replying, “Yes, sir!”

She slipped off the bed barefoot and took another quilt from a nearby cabinet, spreading it directly on the floor by the pillar.

The floor was very clean, polished to a shine by the servants long ago, and the quilt was large enough to cover and drape over her sufficiently.

Once the quilt was in place, she brought over a stool to the pillar, preparing to step on it to blow out the red candle on the brass lamp arm.

Duan Rong, sitting on the bed, glanced at her and said, “Lie down! I will extinguish the candle.”

The woman hesitated, thinking it was the servants’ task and inappropriate for a dignitary to do, but there was a tone in Duan Rong’s voice that brooked no refusal.

“Yes!”

After a brief hesitation, she decided to obey Duan Rong’s order. Since the master said she should lie down, she couldn’t disobey—a lesson taught by Madam in the compound.

Seeing she had lain down, Duan Rong sat there, lifted a corner of the curtain, extended a hand. His palm surged with Primordial Qi, and with a gentle motion, a gust of wind stirred, causing the curtain to flutter and the candle to go out.

The woman, nestled in the quilt, let out a small gasp of surprise.

When Duan Rong lifted a corner of the curtain and extended his hand, she noticed, wondering what he was doing with a claw-like gesture.

Suddenly, as the wind arose, she felt as if witnessing a magic trick, and the next moment, the candlelight was extinguished.

Though intrigued and filled with curiosity, she dared not question or converse with Duan Rong.

After the candle went out, the room plunged into complete darkness.

From the bed came Duan Rong’s quiet voice. “What’s your name?”

“Replying to the master, my name is Ruyi,” the woman’s voice was soft and timid.