Chapter 7: Her True Freedom

Night deepened.

A gentle breeze swept through the forest, rustling the leaves.

Occasionally, a nocturnal animal would flash past between the treetops.

The distant howls of wolves echoed faintly, yet at this moment, those sounds seemed very far away.

Under the moonlight, a lithe figure moved swiftly through the woods. He carried a woman on his back and a tattered bundle around his neck, yet he seemed to bear no weight at all.

The man walked quickly, carefully avoiding branches that might brush against her.

His hands, gripping the woman’s knee pit, were clenched into fists, serving as a support without taking liberties.

Ahem, of course, the slightly frivolous actions taken earlier to force the woman to tell the truth didn’t count!

The woman lay on the man’s shoulder. In the gentle breeze, her eyes grew increasingly hazy. Her little head bobbed, finally resting in the man’s neck, where she began to softly snore…

The man’s body stiffened. His movements slowed. His left foot tripped over his right, causing him to stumble violently, nearly falling…

Thinking of the scar on his face, the man wondered, when had he become so reassuring to others?

The man slightly slowed his pace, slightly hunching his shoulders.

He was unaware of these subconscious actions…

Night deepened further…

~~

Morning

A light mist hung in the air. Nestled amongst the trees, a small cabin, simply constructed of pine wood, stood quietly.

On the distant mountain peak, the sun rose. The first rays of sunlight streamed through the window, illuminating the dimly lit cabin.

Outside, leaves rustled, birds chirped, and the aroma of food wafted through the cracks in the cabin.

Underneath a slightly raised wolfskin blanket on the wooden bed, a barely perceptible movement occurred.

The small woman on the bed slightly twitched her nose.

Her thick, curled eyelashes fluttered, then stilled again.

The smell of food continued to stimulate her olfactory nerves.

After a while, the woman finally struggled to open her eyes. The bright sunlight caused her to instinctively close them again, then slowly try to open them once more.

“It smells so good!”

The woman sniffed again, taking a deep breath, fully waking up.

‘Gurg… ‘

She hadn’t felt hungry while sleeping, but now, the aroma made her stomach rumble.

As if sensing the movement inside, heavy footsteps sounded outside the door.

The woman instinctively pulled the blanket over her head, pretending to be asleep.

“Awake? Come out to eat!”

The man’s voice was as cold and emotionless as last night.

The woman cautiously peeked out from under the wolfskin blanket. The man wasn’t visible. She breathed a sigh of relief.

This man had such a strong presence. Even when she tried to flirt with the emperor in Dayan Kingdom, she hadn’t been this nervous. Her heart thumped like it would burst from her chest, it was terrifying!

She slowly looked around. This place was comparable to the cold palace she once lived in. The interior furnishings consisted only of a simple table, chair, and bed, nothing else!

The only difference might be that her cold palace at least didn’t leak air, and although the furnishings were old, they were at least carved with two flowers!

This guy seemed to be even worse off than she was…

“Hey! If you don’t come out, I’ll feed your portion to the dog!”

Like…

This guy is so mean!

She got up grumbling, the soft fur under her hand causing her to look down…

No wonder she felt so warm, she had this!

This guy… isn’t so bad after all, right!

“Okay, for your sake, I’ll forgive him this once!”

The woman patted the wolfskin blanket, got up, put on her shoes, and opened the wooden door…

The sight before her stunned her~

Was this… a fairyland?

Before her stretched an endless expanse of lush green pines. Beneath her feet was a carpet of green grass, dotted with a few yellow flowers.

Birds perched on branches, chirping merrily…

Everything was so unreal yet so real…

The woman eagerly went around to the back of the cabin, staring blankly at the scene before her, smiling foolishly…

At the foot of the mountain, smoke curled from the roofs of the village houses. A light mist hung in the air. People who had risen early for work gathered in small groups, herding cattle? Or horses?

Others were working in the fields, digging? Were they farming?

This was just as the books described: farmers! Livestock! Farmland! Food! Harvest…

She…

Was truly free…

“What’s wrong with you?”

The man had been cooking porridge on a makeshift stove in front of the cabin. Seeing the woman awake, he quickly ladled out a bowl and placed it on a tree stump serving as a table, waiting for her to come out and eat…

Unexpectedly, the woman completely ignored him after leaving the cabin.

When had his presence become so low?

The thought that the woman didn’t have him in her eyes somehow made him angry…

However, before he could regain his presence, he saw the woman’s mouth drop open in shock, then she stumbled towards the back of the cabin!

Suddenly realizing something was wrong, he put down his bowl and followed…

Then… the woman’s crying smile unexpectedly gripped his heart…

“Nothing, it’s just that seeing all this suddenly feels unreal… It’s beautiful here, really beautiful…”

“Then why are you crying?” He wondered if it was his imagination, but the man’s pressure dropped again.

“Am I crying?”

The woman touched her cheek in confusion. The wetness told her!

She had unknowingly cried a stream of tears~

“It’s okay, I’m happy, haha, I’m happy, I escaped, I escaped completely!

And, in the future, they will never catch me again… never…”

“Who are they?”

The pressure dropped again.

The woman lowered her head and said indifferently, “They… are my relatives, blood relatives!”

The man caught something!

He said incredulously, “So, your relatives sold you?”

She could have been secretly sent to the palace, how could it have been hidden from the master of the house? So it was no different from being sold, right?

“I suppose so, but I have to thank them for selling me. If they hadn’t sold me, I might still be locked up in the backyard, counting the clouds floating overhead every day, without freedom…”

The man was shocked: “They locked you up?”

“Yes, for a long time…”

For 16 whole years…

The woman narrowed her eyes, stretched her arms, and took a deep, intoxicated breath.

But, from now on, they will never have the chance again…

The woman spoke casually,

Although he didn’t want to believe it, the man had a feeling she was telling the truth!!

His heart felt like it was being squeezed tightly, aching terribly!

“Tell me, where are they now?”

Who is so bold? How many years have the New China been established? Why are they still using feudal methods?

If they didn’t like their daughter, they could have given her away to a childless family when she was young, or sent her to an orphanage. Why raise her, lock her in the backyard, and even sell her?

Was it also because they needed to get a bride price for their brother?

“They should be at the border now! Anyway, they’re definitely far from here, you won’t find them!”

The border? An ancient term!

Now it should be called the national border. So, she escaped from a small village near the border?

The man was deep in thought…

At this point, the suspicion that she was a spy had completely disappeared…