Chapter 1094 — At Least You Have Some Sense
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
"So what if you die?" Little Mule replied with perfect indifference. "Since time immemorial, who among men has not died? If you die, you die!"
"You..." Yunhai Shuku was so angered by Little Mule that he nearly choked, yet he dared not lose his temper. He hesitated a moment, then ventured, "Suppose I go fight for you - would you let my wife and daughter go?"
"No, Dad! Don't you go. If anyone goes, it's me!" Yu Yuanyuan was ever the devoted daughter. She knew that stepping into the ring meant certain death. Common folk like them, with no training to speak of, were no match for those professional fighters.
And so Yu Yuanyuan reasoned: if her own death could buy her parents their safety, then it would be worth it.
"Yunhai Shuku, have you gone soft in the head? When I hire a fighter for one match, I pay a hundred or two hundred thousand at the outside - and you think you alone are worth five hundred thousand? What a dream!" Little Mule snorted, disdain dripping from his voice. "I'd feel cheated even if your whole family climbed into the ring!"
"You... you're driving us to our deaths!" Yunhai Shuku cried in fresh alarm. If the whole family went up there to fight, they would surely never come back.
"So what if I drive you? If you've got it in you, go die; if not, pay the money!" Little Mule snorted.
"I... I..." A bitter taste rose in Yunhai Shuku's mouth. There was truly nothing he could do about it.
At the thought of this, Yunhai Shuku could not help but sigh and hang his head.
"Don't make things hard for my father. A father's debt falls to his child. I'll go fight for you!" Seeing the anguish on her father's face, Yu Yuanyuan could not keep quiet and stepped forward.
"You? How much could you earn in the ring? But I'll say this much, little girl - you're not bad-looking. Tell you what: I'll sell you to a brothel, and when you've earned me back your five hundred thousand, we'll talk!" Little Mule narrowed his eyes at Yu Yuanyuan, and as though a bright idea had just struck him, he spoke.
"Ah -" Yu Yuanyuan gaped, dumbstruck at Little Mule's words. She did not care about dying, but to be sold into a brothel and insulted by a different man every day? She would sooner be dead! Yu Yuanyuan shook her head at once. "How could I? I'd rather die!"
"Heh, then die by all means! If you're dead, I'll drag your parents into the ring instead!" Little Mule said, utterly unmoved. "Who do you think you're frightening with death?"
"How... how can you be so heartless..." Tears spilled at once down Yu Yuanyuan's cheeks. She had never met people so unreasonable, so overbearing. Still, she would never agree to sit as a hostess in a brothel - not in a thousand years!
"Well now? This little one's not bad - quite to my taste!" Master Li, who had not uttered a word until now, finally spoke up. He gazed at Yu Yuanyuan with a lecherous look, eyes narrowed to slits. "Not bad, not bad at all..."
Though Yu Yuanyuan was no peerless beauty, she had a fresh, untouched innocence about her - the kind of face that grows on you the longer you look. As for Master Li, he had had his fill of women of the demimonde, and it was precisely that innocent type he craved. Had it not been so, he would never have become so fixated on Yu Yuanyuan and stirred up all this trouble.
Still, he did not mean to have Yu Yuanyuan once or twice and be done with her. He wanted to keep her as a long-term concubine at his stronghold - and preferably one who served him willingly, for that was where the pleasure lay. Coercion was never to Master Li's taste.
"Oh? Master Li, you've taken a fancy to this little girl?" Little Mule asked, feigning surprise he did not feel.