Su Su turned around with a look of impatience: "Dad, what else is there?"

Gu Jingxi smiled and said dotingly, "Darling, don't be anxious, Dad just remembered something he forgot to say. This slave doesn't seem to be a peaceful one. For your safety, it'd be better to break his hands before taking him away."

Hearing that his hands were about to be broken, Chu Mo's expression instantly changed, and panic flickered in his eyes.

He had wanted to find a chance to kill this woman or escape, but without his hands, he wouldn't be able to. He would probably be tortured for the rest of his life.

He would rather die now than be taken to be tortured slowly.

Su Su saw that Chu Mo looked extremely anxious, and blurted out without thinking, "Dad, there's no need."

Gu Jingxi said disapprovingly: "But bringing him home just like this is too dangerous."

Su Su thought that it wasn't because it was impossible, but that if the male lead's hands were really ruined, he would do his best to ka-cha¹Ka-cha is the sound of something breaking, which is used to represent 'kill' here. her. And when the time came, the original host's father would definitely not let Chu Mo go. With the Gu family's ability, even if Chu Mo was able to hide a little longer, he would still be found, tortured, and killed.

If the male lead died, she would fail her mission in this world. And if she failed, she would be wiped out.

Seeing that Su Su was silent, Gu Jingxi had to back down: "Alright, it doesn't make much sense to cripple his hands. Just put fetters and shackles on him and block his mouth."

Su Su actually wanted to refuse, but thought, if she refused again, Gu Jingxi might stop her from taking Chu Mo away: "Okay, I'll listen to you just this once, but never mind about the fetters. He won't be able to walk with the fetters on."

Seeing Su Su compromise when she had always been stubborn and not listened much, Gu Jingxi rejoiced.

Although it was possible that his darling girl was only agreeing for her own safety, he still felt happy.

Gu Jingxi waved his hand, and a guard at the side took out shackles and stepped forward.

Chu Mo stared at the guard who came up and hesitated.

If he resisted now, there wouldn't be any chance to escape, but maybe there would be on the road or at the Gu Mansion.

But he was afraid. After arriving at the Gu Mansion, he might still stay tied up.

While hesitating, Chu Mo had already been pinned down by the guards and forced to stretch his hands out. He could only watch as the ice-cold shackles cuffed his hands and wrists, completely losing his freedom.

After being shackled, Chu Mo's mouth was blocked by a rectangular piece of wood. The wood was very long and touched his throat, nearly making him throw up.

But the guard didn't care and even screamed at him forcefully as if wanting to force it down.

Chu Mo couldn't close his mouth or grit his teeth and could only clench his fists to endure the suffocation pain.

After the stick was inserted, in order to prevent him from spitting it out, the guards covered his mouth with a strip of cloth and tied it behind his head.

After all this had been done, Gu Jingxi waved his hand to allow Su Su²The author put 苏蔓 (Su Man) but I think it's supposed to be 苏粟 (Su Su). to leave. Chu Mo walked behind Su Su, his dark, bottomless black eyes watching Su Su's back with a deep hatred, like a wild beast, extremely viciously.

When they walked to the end of the hall, the carriage Su Su had come in was already waiting for them outside.

The maid standing outside of the carriage saw Su Su coming out and quickly greeted her. She took the snow-white fur she was carrying and covered Su Su's body with it.

Another slave similarly rushed forward and knelt in front of the carriage, waiting for Su Su to step onto him.

Su Su was about to lift her foot when she saw Chu Mo, who had been following her, being pulled towards the back of the carriage by a guard.

Su Su was surprised and stopped the guard unconsciously: "What are you doing?"

The guard was stunned for a moment, but quickly lowered his eyes and replied submissively, "Miss Gu, we are going to tie the slave to the back of the carriage, and he will run following it."

Su Su was shocked. Let alone if he could even keep up, running while following the carriage was clearly torture.

If someone couldn't run anymore or tripped, there would be no opportunity to get up again, and would only be dragged the rest of the way. By the time they would arrive at the Gu Mansion, even if they wouldn't have died they would still only be half-alive.

Although Chu Mo, who was at the side, had realized that he would be tortured a long time ago, he didn't expect the torture to begin before even arriving at the Gu Mansion.

He naturally thought of Su Su. Ordinarily, he wouldn't have been afraid with his physical strength. However, he had previously suffered plenty of injuries on the battlefield and fought with wolves empty-handedly just now, so his body was weak and lacking strength. He was afraid that he'd fall to the ground without traveling even a few steps.

Chu Mo lowered his eyelashes slightly, and his dark eyes were dull and unclear. The wooden stick he was biting already had teeth imprints.

Su Su said lightly, "No need, let him sit in the carriage with me."

Letting a slave ride in a carriage, the entire Great Kingdom of Yao had never heard of it before! The guard was taken aback. He lifted his head in surprise and said to Su Su, "Miss, he is just a slave, how can he sit in a carriage with you..."

Before he could finish speaking, Su Su interrupted coldly with a raised voice: "I said, let him get onto my carriage."

Su Su imitated the original host's lofty attitude and arrogant look: "What is there to doubt about my words? Just do it!"

The guard was so scared that he dared not continue to persuade her.

Even though Su Su's decision was quite shocking, he still respectfully obeyed her and pushed Chu Mo to be in front of the carriage.

Su Su was the first to get onto the carriage. After she had sat down, she lifted the curtains and said to Chu Mo: "Get on."

Chu Mo's hands were tied behind him. He couldn't get up solely relying on his legs, and the guards at the side wouldn't step forward to help a slave.

Su Su also didn't ask the guards to help, but reached out to Chu Mo, grabbed his arm, and hauled him up.

Chu Mo was startled. His dark eyes fell onto Su Su's hands.

This wasn't the first time Su Su had touched him. It had to be known that his sleeves were stained with dirt and blood from the injury from the clash with the wolves earlier. They blended together and had already dirtied the clothes.

Even when they hadn't been injured, most people still didn't touch slaves. Sometimes when they did accidentally bump into them, they would yell at them as if they were stinkbugs, as if they would become infected and fall sick.

Not to mention that he had seen many slaves who had touched nobles; a lighter punishment was to chop off the hands, while a heavier one would be to kill right away.

However, this person had touched him a second time.

Through the thin cloth, he could feel the other side's warmth, as if finally reaching the heart of this place.

Chu Mo's eyelashes couldn't help but tremble lightly.

Inside the carriage.

After Su Su had wiped clean the dirt on her hands using a soft and smooth silk handkerchief, she leaned onto a soft cushion and quietly looked at this male lead Chu Mo.

Looking from a distance, she did feel that the male lead was quite handsome. But this close, he looked even better while still having that flawless beauty.

It wasn't the milky white skin and elegant face that the women of the imperial court adored, instead, Chu Mo looked very masculine.

His skin was a healthy wheat color due to all-year-round sun exposure, with slightly deep contours and a rather three-dimensional look.

Under the fine eyelashes were a pair of beautiful eyes similar to a starry night sky. His nose was tall and straight, lips thin but with a great shape, making people want to taste it with just a glance.

Su Su was shocked by her own thoughts. The system suddenly issued a sharp warning sound in her mind:〚Warning, warning, host violates character personality and is about to be OOC, please retract your gaze.〛

Su Su felt so much pain that she almost couldn't contain her scream. She quickly resisted the exploding pain and put on an arrogant expression to watch Chu Mo contemptuously.

The system immediately stopped its noise.

Su Su: "......"

Unexpectedly, after living for over 20 years, she had suddenly been allowed to act as an arrogant and rude noble lady, from a good girl with a gentle personality.

Difficulties upon difficulties!

But what else could be done? She had to go on acting even while crying.

The one thing she could be thankful for was that she didn't have to secretly peep at the male lead; she could openly stare at him.

Chu Mo, who was kneeling at the side of the carriage, was silent. His hands were tied behind his back, and he couldn't keep his balance due to the carriage's bumping shaking his body.

His back happened to be against the wall, and the back of his head hit it over and over again, making a dull sound. Su Su felt pain just by hearing it.

But the male lead's eyebrow didn't even twitch, as if he wasn't the one being struck.

The clothes on his body had some tattered parts from the entanglement with the wolves. Blood could be seen constantly leaking out from those tattered holes.

Su Su couldn't bear to watch any longer so she could only look away. Then she saw that the other side's mouth was bound by wood and cloth strips.

Because of the large opening, his saliva couldn't be swallowed properly, and along with having to bow his head to show respect, the black cloth strip blocking his mouth was already wet.

It was probably because of the difficulty of breathing that his chest was moving up and down so much that Su Su couldn't even see across.

Su Su was expressionless as if she was looking at a small dog. In Chu Mo's eyes, this domineering noble lady was thinking about how to torture him.

His arm still had her remaining warmth. He thought of when he was in the hall just now, not only had she pulled him up, she had also dusted him off with a clean handkerchief. After that, she had also not had him tied to the back of the carriage but let him kneel inside.

This kind of care was something he could have only hoped for before. But he understood in him that this kindness was just on a whim, and certainly not to bring him back to treat him well.

For slaves like him, in the eyes of the nobles, they were inferior to even dogs and pigs.

They existed only for either hard work or pleasure and torture.

So he would never indulge in those unrealistic delusions. He was only guessing what means this noble lady would use to torture him.

As he was thinking, he suddenly saw the other party's hand stretching out towards him. Chu Mo tried to control himself to not move, but his body still tensed up because of the sudden movement.

***

TL Note:

I realized that I overestimated my time to work on this quite a lot, especially since I also do some proofreading for another group, so I'm not going to be translating this anymore. Sorry! :(

(Maybe I should just stick to doing teasers?)