After hiding the silver tickets and gems, Rou Yan went to sleep.
It was midnight.
In a daze, a breeze came in, accompanied by a faint fragrance.
Rou Yan slept even deeper.
After a while.
A man in black leaped into the room through the window, glanced at the sleeping Rou Yan, and quietly approached the place where the silver tickets and gems were hidden.
Skillfully opening the secret compartment, he took the silver tickets and gems inside, along with the jin box, and put them all into his bag.
After that, he jumped out of the window again without making a sound and disappeared into the night.
Rou Yan was completely unaware of this; she remained deeply asleep, with no hint of sensing anything.
The next morning, sunlight seeped through the cracks of the carved wooden window, casting a patchy glow on Rou Yan's face.
The hangover and headache from last night seemed to linger in her body, making her feel quite uncomfortable.
Thinking about the silver tickets and gems she had hidden last night, she got up with some worry to check on them.
This was the foundation for her departure from the Wan Hua Lou and regaining her freedom, and it couldn't be lost.
Sure enough, the more you fear something, the more it seems to happen.
She opened the secret compartment under her bed and found it empty.
The silver tickets and gems, as well as the jin box containing them, were all gone.
Her face turned pale, and she felt dizzy and light-headed.
"How could it be gone? I clearly placed it here?"
Rou Yan stood in a daze, looking at the empty secret compartment, filled with despair.
She tried to recall everything from last night, confirming that no one had discovered the place where she had hidden the silver tickets and gems.
However, they vanished without a trace, plunging her into a deep panic.
She forced herself to calm down and considered the possible scenarios.
Her first thought was of her mother, although it could have been someone else as well, but her mother's suspicion was the greatest.
She began to carefully inspect the room, looking for any possible clues.
However, there were no signs of anything being disturbed in the room, making her increasingly suspicious that her mother had done it.
In fact, since last night, her mother had sent people to watch her in secret.
She had stolen the silver tickets and gems while she was asleep.
Rou Yan became angrier and angrier as she thought about it, knowing she couldn't act impulsively and that her mother wouldn't admit it, but she couldn't help it.
Anybody would be unable to bear this if it happened to them.
Under the anger, she rushed out of the room and headed straight to the madam's quarters.
Her face full of coldness, she looked strange to all the girls and servants in the Wan Hua Lou.
Miss Rou Yan received so much reward from the guests last night, so why does she look even less happy?
Rou Yan had no time to care what others thought at the moment, as she arrived at her mother's room with anger in her face.
The madam was leisurely sipping tea when Rou Yan, with an unpleasant expression, entered. This made her pause slightly.
Then she quickly put on her false smile, "Oh, Rou Yan, you're up so early? How are you feeling?"
Rou Yan looked at her mother's false face and felt sick, without beating around the bush, she asked directly, "Mother, where are my silver tickets and gems?"
The madam's face changed slightly, but soon returned to normal, "Rou Yan, you are so impolite? Where are your silver tickets and gems, how would mother know? Perhaps you put them in the wrong place."
Rou Yan felt desperate in her heart, yet she was not willing to give up. Taking a deep breath, she knelt down before her mother, looking pitiful and begging:
"Mother, those silver tickets and gems were obtained with my life, and they were also the silver I was going to use to redeem myself. Please, return them to me."
The madam looked at Rou Yan kneeling in front of her, with a complex look in her eyes, but soon replaced by indifference.
She let out a light snort, a coldness flashing in her eyes, "Rou Yan, don't talk nonsense. Mother really didn't take your silver tickets and gems. Get up quickly, don't cause trouble here."
Rou Yan didn't believe it at all and wouldn't get up. She only continued to cry and beg.
"Mother, those silver tickets and gems are really important to me. Please, give them back to me."
The madam's face showed impatience and irritation, and her eyes flickered with coldness, "Rou Yan, I've already said that I didn't take your things. Don't blame me if you keep pestering me."
Rou Yan heard this and felt like her heart had died.
She finally understood that in this human-eating place, there was no such thing as trust or genuine feelings.
She took a deep breath, trying to calm her emotions, and she no longer knelt; instead, she stood up.
Her gaze turned towards the madam, coldly saying, "Mother, since it's come to this, I have nothing more to say. From now on, I won't take any more guests or earn any more money for you. If you want my life, just take it."
After speaking, she turned to leave, but was blocked by several of the madam's henchmen.
The madam walked to Rou Yan's front, coldly laughing, "Rou Yan, you think you have any choice? In this Wan Hua Lou, I am your heaven and earth. If you don't listen to me, I have plenty of ways to make sure you can't live well or die easily."
Rou Yan looked at the madam's ferocious face, a sense of hopelessness she had never felt before surging up in her heart.
She had worked hard to save money for her redemption, to gain freedom, but now that she had enough silver, it had been taken away by her mother through dishonorable means.
Must she continue living the way she used to, being ridden by a thousand men and slept with by ten thousand, smiling every day and living in a humiliated way?
Until her beauty fades away, becoming of no value, and being discarded by her mother?
No, she doesn't want...
She used all her strength to push away the several henchmen blocking her path, staggering out of the room.
She didn't know where she was going, but she knew that as long as she left here, left this place that made her feel sick and desperate, it was her only way out.
Too bad, in this heavily guarded Wan Hua Lou, where could she run to?
Before she could run out of the courtyard, she was roughly pulled back by several burly men.
The madam, seeing Rou Yan being pulled back, flashed a look of ruthlessness in her eyes and without any hesitation, she slapped her across the face.
It was like last night's precious daughter, the name she was called wasn't hers.
"Hmph, you still want to run? In this Wan Hua Lou, even with wings you can't escape. Lock her in the shed and watch her closely. Don't give her food or water, I want to see how strong her bones are."
Rou Yan's face was struck and skewed, and a bright red palm print appeared on her snow-white skin, looking extremely disheveled.
The several burly men heard the madam's command and immediately dragged Rou Yan roughly towards the shed.
Rou Yan struggled fiercely, but her strength was insignificant in front of these big men.
Her heart was filled with fear and despair, and in that moment, she truly wished she could die.
She was forcibly taken to the shed, and the door slammed shut with a loud "bang," plunging her into darkness and silence.
Indeed, in the following days, no one brought her food or water.
She was thirsty, hungry, and cold, with no one to care for her. Her body became extremely weak.
She huddled in the corner of the shed, holding her knees, looking very pitiful.
Yu Yao and Ye Ming didn't know about this. At this time, they had already left Qixia City and returned to the Flower World.
The Flower World is a fairyland embraced by a sea of splendid flowers. The air is filled with a faint scent of flowers, as if every breath could wash away the dust in the soul.
Yu Yao and Ye Ming's figures landed in a certain place in the Flower World.
The two walked through the flower path, with petals dancing with the wind. Sometimes they fell on their shoulders, adding a touch of poetry and romance.
"Ye, look at the Flower World. Isn't it beautiful?" Yu Yao asked.
Yu Yao turned to look at Ye Ming, and her eyes flashed with childlike innocence and joy.
Ye Ming gently caressed a blooming peony, his lips curling into a doting smile: "Beautiful, but not even a fraction compared to you."
Hearing this, Yu Yao blushed slightly, scolding him with an eye roll before bursting into a laughter that shook the flowers: "You're getting better and better at flattering people."
As the two were joking, they had already arrived at the core of the Flower World – the Hall of the Goddess.
Here, it is not only Yu Yao's residence as the supreme ruler of the Flower World, but also the place with the most concentrated fairy essence in the entire Flower World.
The Flower Grandmother knew that the ruler would return today, and had already brought a group of flower immortals to wait here.
Seeing Yu Yao, they all bent down respectfully to bow and said, "Greetings, Supreme Mistress!"
Yu Yao lightly raised her hand, indicating to everyone to stand up, "Everyone doesn't need to be too polite. Just get up."
The original owner was the ruler of the Flower World, as well as the Flower Goddess personally appointed by the Heavenly Emperor, who ruled over the entire Flower World.
Unfortunately, the original owner was a love-brain, and her eyes and heart were full of Qixuan God.
