Chapter 207: Slavery, the end of the road, and the opportunity to join forces.

Chu Ziling was woken up by a splash of cold water.

The cold water was rancid and greasy, it must have been pot-washing water, because the smell of pot-grease that followed almost made Chu Ziling vomit.

The visitor splashed him awake and then turned away, dinging the bell and locking the door with a large lock.

Chu Ziling choked and coughed twice, and sewage mixed with acid reflux flowed from the corners of his mouth, contracting from his stomach to the opening of his throat, burning and astringent.

He vaguely recalled that he seemed to be because he intended to escape from the post station, was captured by the people of the Southern Border Mission, beaten up, and was knocked out alive.

It was obviously the work of a skilled hand, and all the wounds on his body would not have broken bones, but would have been enough to make him roll his eyes in pain if he had moved.

Kang Yang is a dignified scholar in front of others, but in reality, he is very vicious.

After Chu Ziling was recaptured by his men, he gently tapped the legs of his glasses with the small fan he had with him and said gently, "I was entrusted by my friend to bring you back alive, but I didn't say I wouldn't bring you back in pieces. If you run away next time, you'd better hope you can escape, if not, I'll bring you back in pieces. If not, I'll bring you back in pieces. My friend hates you so much, I'm sure he won't blame me for not doing my job properly."

Chu Ziling lifted his swollen eyelids, got up with difficulty, and wiped away the stains running down his face.

He was now in an empty hut with a dog-like chain around his neck, only enough to get within a five-meter radius, not even allowing him to go to the window and check what was going on outside.

Chu Ziling is blue in the face.

He was very urgent in the abdomen, but waited for a long time to see people, shouting no one to answer, but also do not want to dirty the only pair of pants, so he had to grit his teeth in the corner to solve the problem.

After he had forced himself to be ashamed and solved the problem of hygiene with a small tree stick from the corner, he began the long and ghastly wait.

No one paid any attention to him, no one spoke to him.

The only thing that proved he wasn't being held here was the rancid food that was brought in every day.

He was given only two meals a day, and each time he was given only a moment to dine, and at the end of the hour, an expressionless Southern Border-looking man would enter the door and collect the plates and bowls.

Chu Ziling also knows what's good for him, and every time he gobbles, he swallows, and even if he is forced to, he swallows himself half-full.

He can't die yet.

Kang Yang said he knew Ai Sha.

He had to live to see Ai Sha, even if it was the unidentified lieutenant.

There was bound to be a misunderstanding, and as long as he could explain it, he still had a chance to turn the tables!

However, as he swallowed his food like a wild boar, he would always think of the exquisite snacks in the general's residence, and the not-so-luxurious but tasty enough hot meals at the same table with Shi Tingyun, and the rice in his mouth would add a few more tinges of sour flavor.

Realizing this, Chu Ziling would raise his hand, which was covered with stale rice residue, and slap himself hard on the face to wake himself up.

What's the point of thinking about this shit?

He still has a future, he still has hope, as long as he grasps it, he still has a chance to rise again, so why should he look back on his past glory like a poor, broken man?

On the sixth day of his captivity, a trance had set in.

When the door was pulled open from the outside, Chu Ziling, leaning crookedly against the wall, stirred his eyelids and instinctively crawled on his hands and knees toward the door to catch his meal.

The odor that filled the room called for the visitor to frown, signaling two men to come in and remove the object from Chu Ziling's neck.

Chu Ziling was so weak and short of breath from the rancid food he was fed twice a day that he was unable to struggle and could only be coaxed like a sick dog.

When he was stripped naked, hastily pressed into the hot water, and roughly brushed from head to tail with a bristle brush, the hot bath, which was commonplace in the Central Plains, told his dirt-filled pores to open up, and surprisingly, it gave him a feeling of floating in the air and wanting to drown in it.

Chu Ziling, like a giddy chicken, had only slightly recovered from his hunger and injuries when he was put into a crude burlap shirt and shoved into the front hall.

He looked to the man sitting at the end of the hall.

It was a strange martial artist, with one eye wrapped in white cloth, Chu Ziling had never seen before.

Must be an insignificant figure, he thought.

With that in mind, Chu Ziling barely straightened his back and asked, "Are you Ai Sha?"

A kick from behind came at first, sending him sprawling to the ground at once.

The boy cursed in Southern Border language, then said, "What are you? Dare to call Lord Ai Sha by his name?"

The man in the upper position waved his hand and surveyed the man whose face was so swollen that he could no longer see his former handsome profile, "You are Chu Ziling?"

Chu Ziling held back his harboring fire and said, "Yes. My lord."

"I've heard you're from a slave background?" The man took a sip of his wine, "It doesn't look like it."

Chu Ziling said, "I was not a slave, but I became a slave of my own free will."

"Oh?"

As he had hoped, the man did take some interest.

Chu Ziling straightened his aching back, wanting to wait for him to ask him why he was willing to degrade himself and sell his body as a slave.

The man took another sip of wine, turned his words around, and gave a contemptuous harumph, "...... None of my business."

He leaned down and asked Chu Ziling, "Do you know who I am?"

Chu Ziling: "Ai Sha ......"

"Sethi Ai Sha," the man's one eagle-like eye stared at Chu Ziling, "My uncle is Ibu Ai Sha, my father died young and my uncle brought me up. Do you recognize him?"

Hearing that familiar name, Chu Ziling relaxed.

He thought that Kang Yang's "Ai Sha" and the Ai Sha he knew happened to share the same surname, and that they might have a grudge against each other, so they wanted to bring him here so as to jeopardize his ladder of upward mobility.

Now that he knew that this person was a close relative of that Ai Sha and had done him a favor, Chu Ziling decided that it was just a misunderstanding, and even answered in a lighter tone: "I recognize him. If you don't believe me, take me to see your uncle. He will give you an explanation."

Sethi Ai Sha stared intently into his eyes, showing a mouthful of white teeth, "You want to go see him?"

Chu Ziling saw that there was a hidden scowl in his expression and felt that something was wrong somewhere, "I ......"

Not waiting for him to finish, a cup of hot wine exploded in Chu Ziling's face along with the wine glass: ''You killed my uncle, and now you have the face to say that you want him to give you an explanation? What are you? You are a small servant, a lowly slave, who has been getting what he wants, and when you see that the Central Plains is gaining power, you want to step on my uncle's and General Pa Sha's life to climb up the ladder, how can there be such a good thing?!"

Chu Ziling's mind was shaken, and he only felt a roar in his head, as if he had been trampled by a horse's hoof for several rounds.

Ai Sha is dead? Why does this man claim to have something to do with it?

Without giving it a second thought, Chu Ziling heard an angry order from his superior: "Drag this ungrateful slave down, brand him with a slave mark on his face, break both his legs, and throw him to the commode to be handed over to the old kiln, who will know how to deal with him!"

Chu Ziling didn't dare to show off anymore and struggled to get up, "Then do you know who I am?"

Ai Sha: "Who do I care who you are?"

Chu Ziling was afraid that if he had any more scruples, he would lose everything, so he hissed and called out his identity, "I am the Southern Border Emperor's son! The bastard son of the Southern Border King, if you dare to touch me, the Southern Border King will not indulge you lightly!"

Ai Sha was stunned, looked him up and down for a while, and then let out a loud laugh, bending over in joy.

"Truly a madman! You say it's the Prince of the Southern Border, what proof do you have?"

Chu Ziling : "I have a piece of jade from the King of the Southern Border to prove my identity!"

"Where's Jade?"

Chu Ziling stalled, the tip of his heart throbbed once again, "I was there, but was thrown into the Cang River by that Kang Yang ......"

Ai Sha once again laughed, laughing so hard that Chu Ziling was cold through and through, "I ...... really have jade! If you don't believe me, there should be a letter from your uncle that depicts that jade!"

Ai Sha's one eye was already filled with a cold light of mockery: "Yes. There is a picture of jade in that letter, and my uncle must have believed it, but who knows if you are a copycat? You want me to believe you when you make a piece of jade out of thin air? You are so cunning that you have swindled my uncle, General Wu, and General Pa Sha, do you think I don't know that?"

Chu Ziling heart gradually froze into a piece of ice.

Ai Sha The three of them, may not have even told the others about their true identities.

So who else can prove his identity?

He wracked his brain, thought for a second, and realized that Jade was gone, and everyone who could testify on his behalf was dead.

Why did ...... turn out like this? Why?

Realizing that he had destroyed his own cards, Chu Ziling's voice was no longer as tough as Fang Cai's, but more of a trembling plea.

Holding on to his last ray of hope, he said ruefully, "Your uncle ...... and Pa Sha, and ...... and Wu Yichun, wouldn't have spoken with you... ..."

"Bah!" A mouthful of spit was spat straight into Chu Ziling's face, "You still have the face to mention the three of them? Who are you trying to insult by bringing up the matter of death without proof?"

He did not want to bother with this man any longer and, amidst Chu Ziling's pleas and cries of "You go and look into it again, ask around", he signaled the two slaves to throw him out the door.

Ai Sha repeated, "Keep him alive, don't let him seek death! I want him to know what it means to be a slave."

......

The river breeze, yellow leaves into the river, upstream and downstream, a common sense of autumn color.

Yan Yuanzhao found Shi Tingyun on the banks of the Cang River.

He sat in the absence of sunlight and landed on one foot on a dirt depression, hitting the water with gravel.

The gravel chipped diagonally out of the way, skipping a few steps in a slight spin on the water's surface, and then disappearing in a whirl into the gently sloping river.

He sat down beside Shi Tingyun, took a small piece of peanut candy from his pocket, peeled off the surface sugar paper and fed it into his mouth without a word.

The sweet aroma of peanuts and caramel melted in his mouth, causing Shi Tingyun to smile a little, "Thank you, Sixth Prince, for the reward."

"Thank you my ass." Yan Yuanzhao tossed the candy paper into the river, "The Southern Border side did take the initiative to admit surrender for the first time, and in order to make a truce, the Southern Border King also intends to marry the Princess into the dynasty, which is said to be a sign of friendship in name, but to put it bluntly, it's a peace marriage."

Yan Yuanzhao said this with pleasure in his voice.

"Promised to whom?"

"I don't know. But there are only a few princes of the right age. Listening to the Southern Border King's meaning, he is favoring the thirteenth brother, right?"

Yan Yuanzhao deliberately observed Shi Tingyun's expression, and said with a smile: "Thirteenth brother is at the right age, and this time he has done a great service, so he deserves to be rewarded. Moreover, the only people around him are the Palace Maiden given by his father, and that Southern Border Princess is afraid that she can't be his wife due to her lineage, but she is more than enough to be his concubine. That south border king is also smart, one for goodwill, two for pulling together, only with table said, want to choose Yuanheng for son-in-law."

He watched Shi Tingyun's reaction and sighed long and loud, "--Pity that princess, to be paired with a stuffy man."

Shi Tingyun, however, smiled without saying a word.

Yan Yuanzhao was not amused, but he wanted to tease Shi Tingyun again, and looking around, he found something new: "...... What's that?"

Shi Tingyun looked up.

It is a nearby household residents in the riverside geese, seven or eight white fat geese gathered together teal.

Shi Tingyun lowered his head, "Don't look, that's your goose brother."

Yan Yuanzhao: "......? What does it mean?"

Shi Tingyun said, "Compared to them you are a younger brother meaning."

Yan Yuanzhao was aroused by his words, "Aren't they just meat ducks raised by the townspeople? I'll go and catch two of them and give you some wine tonight."

Shi Tingyun looked up at him, "For your own good, I advise you not to go."

Yan Yuanzhao had already changed back to his usual luxurious purple robe, and at his words, he neatly adjusted the hem of his coat and patted the money bag hanging on his lapel, "You're worried that the Sixth Master is freeloading."

Shi Tingyun said, "No. You'd better rest. You'd better rest. As I see it, your fighting strength is less than half a goose."

Yan Yuanzhao gave a "tsk" of apparent defiance, jumped to his feet, and headed for the geese not far away.

Chi Xiaochi watched Yan Yuanzhao go to his death, smiled gently, and hit a series of water floats with a flat stone.

He said to Shi Tingyun inside him, "I'm going to leave."

To tell the truth, he wasn't very eager to go because of that scanty engagement with Lou Ying.

But the problem is that in the past few days, Chu Ziling's remorse value has been in a state of eruption, and if you don't pay attention to it, it will be close to the full value. In order to redeem the card, Chi Xiaochi can't even sleep well every day, and he thinks about how to redeem the card, and the quality of his life and liver function have both declined significantly.

"It wouldn't hurt me to hurt myself a little, so there's money to be made. You don't have to punish yourself for the mistakes he made." Chi Xiaochi made small talk with him, "If a man grows on a good chicken, can you be blamed?"

Shi Tingyun laughed.

Just laugh Chi Xiaochi inaudible.

Chi Xiaochi continued his idle chatter without responding to the object, "Right. Back in the General's Mansion, when I hadn't received the Worldline yet, I had a match with Chu Ziling. At that time, why didn't you have any killing intent towards him?"

Shi Tingyun: "...... "Because you have a mission that you have to accomplish, if you suddenly kill him, the mission will not be accomplished. At that time, I thought I should cooperate with you, so ......

When he said that, he apologized a little.

When Chi Xiaochi was competing with Chu Ziling, he was probably trying to use his emotions to find out if the "target" he wanted was really Chu Ziling.

But by over-restraining himself, he almost misled Chi Xiaochi.

Shi Tingyun wanted to apologize to Chi Xiaochi and explain what happened, but Chi Xiaochi, as if he knew what was on his mind, casually said, "I don't want to know the answer. I asked you this question, and it's up to you to come up with an answer."

Shi Tingyun: "......" huh?

Chi Xiaochi: "When he is still around, you force yourself to restrain yourself; what are you going to do to yourself after he is gone?"

Shi Tingyun is silent.

For some reason, he suddenly thought of what Fang Cai Yan Yuanzhao had mentioned.

...... Yuanheng, to be married ah.

Probably because people really can not withstand chanting, Shi Tingyun just thought of that person, a figure noiselessly sat down beside himself.

Yan Yuanheng had been watching Shi Tingyun from behind for quite a while.

He had a very inexplicable urge to go up and take his hand and wipe his soiled hand clean.

But Yan Yuanheng is still a strict and self-restrained Yan Yuanheng, and eventually he took his seat with discipline.

He asked Shi Tingyun, "Who are you talking to?"

In just one instant, Chi Xiaochi skillfully changed into Shi Tingyun's expression Shi Tingyun's tone, raised his hand and pointed, changing the subject, "Look, Yuanzhao."

Yan Yuanheng took a glance before recognizing the person in the distance, surrounded by large wings that covered the sky and being chattered to the point of screaming in agony, as Yan Yuanzhao.

He was a bit surprised, "Sixth Imperial Brother ......"

Shi Tingyun laughs, "Don't go over there. He's catching geese."

Yan Yuanheng : "...... hmmm."

The two men watched the geese fly side by side, the two phases silent, in silence.

Shi Tingyun looked at him and smiled, "Yuanheng, congratulations on the marriage."

Yan Yuanheng was surprised, "What?"

Shi Tingyun: "Princess of the Southern Border."

Yan Yuanheng, who had wanted to talk to Shi Tingyun about the day, didn't really want to spend his time with strangers and frowned slightly, "...... What Southern Border Princess?"

Shi Tingyun : "The King of the Southern Border is intent on making peace and wants to betroth the Princess of the Southern Border to you as a side consort, don't you know that?"

Yan Yuanheng's face changed drastically in an instant, "...... What did you say?"