3. I Become A Chef

 Third-person POV

Hong er slowly opened her eyes and her head felt like it was smashed by a stone. Her head slammed to the floor as the cart abruptly stopped. She rubbed her head and pulled herself to the sitting position. She leaned her back on the side of the cart and exhaled tiredly with her eyes closed.

But then she heard whispers and sniffling noises, she opened her eyes and saw there were other people in this cart. She panicked and anxiously used her hand to comb her long bangs to cover her eyes.

The granny had always told her to not let anyone see her eyes as she had a rare eye color. If by any chance she encountered shady people, they would want to gouge out her eyes and sell it at high prices. Of course, the innocent Hong er was scared out of her wits and since then she used her bangs to cover her eyes.

Hong er tried to change her position as her feet were getting numb but a clinking sound resounded inside the cart. She looked down at her ankle and saw she was being restrained by chains. She observed her surroundings and found the other kids mostly were around her age.

Their eyes were swollen and stained with dried tears. Although they were very terrified, they didn't dare to make any sound. The bruises on their bodies showed that they were heavily punished from crying out loud.

The sound of the door being unlocked caught all of their attention. Even the brave Hong er also trembled profusely. The kids who had stopped crying started to cry once again. Everyone scooted away from the door in hope that they wouldn't be noticed.

5 burly men appeared and pulled the chains that bound the kids' feet. Hong er stepped down from the cart and cautiously walked in line. Her breath hitched when she caught a glimpse of corpses at the side of the road.

There were numerous scars on their body and most of them were skinny as if the bones wrapped with skin. The mountain of corpses consists of elderly, adult, women, men, and children that even younger than Hong er.

Hong er turned her head away from the horrible sight but it caused her to bump the person in front of her. She apologized profusely to the person that she bumped into and made the line behind her to stop. Out of blue, her hair was roughly pulled and she was thrown to the ground by one of the burly men.

Burly man: "What the f*ck you doing?! You can't even walk properly!"

Hong er immediately kowtowed to the man and slammed her head to the hard ground repeatedly while begging for forgiveness. Blood trickled down from her forehead, yet she didn't stop kowtowing to the man. The burly man grabbed her head and lifted her up to the air with just one hand.

(A/N: warning, the burly man is a pedo, so I'm sorry if this triggered any of you. But don't worry, nothing will happen to Hong er.)

Burly man: "You… have quite soft skin, don't you?"

The burly man licked his dry lips as he stared at Hong er's soft cheeks. He used his dagger to swept Hong er's bangs but Hong er quickly stopped him before he could see Hong er's full face.

Hong er: "Please don't My Lord. This slave has a disease that if you look into my eyes, you will be infected by the disease."

Burly man: "The f*ck! Disgusting!"

The burly man slammed Hong er to the ground and dusted off hands like there were viruses on it.

Burly man: "She is useless, kill her."

Servants: "Yes!"

Hong er: "There is something I can do!"

Hong er quickly interrupted. The burly man glanced at her and asked with a smirk on his lips.

Burly man: "What?"

Hong er: "I can cook and clean. I also know a little bit about herbs."

The burly man's eyebrow arched in interest. He pondered for a while and untied her chain from the others before he pulled her to somewhere. Not long after, they arrived at a quite large tent with a weird odor steamed out from the tent's entrance. A skinny man with protruding teeth approached them and curiously asked.

Skinny man: "Isn't she a slave? Why bring her here?"

Burly man: "She said that she can cook and know a bit about herbs so I'm going to test it out. If I know she lied to me, I will immediately kill her."

Skinny man: "Well then, better taste good. Every time I eat that old man's cooking, I felt like I was eating shit rather than food."

The burly man pushed Hong er into the tent and sat at a corner to watch over her so she wouldn't escape.

Burly man: "Cook."

Hong er swiftly started to cook as he ordered. It took her about an hour to complete her dish, without wasting any time, she placed the plate on the table in front of him. The burly man stared at the steamed fish with ginger and couldn't help but drool.

He picked up his chopstick and tweezed the fish meat then put it into his mouth. His eyes widened in delight. Although the fish had been stored in an icebox for quite long, it tastes like a fresh fish. Furthermore, the ginger lessens the fishy scent which made it more appetizing.

Burly man: "Hahahaha! Good! From now on, you are our chef!"

Skinny man: "Oooh! I could smell the fragrance from outside, let me have a taste!"

Burly man: "Kill that old man, we don't need him anymore!"

.

.

Hong er sat silently in her new place, the kitchen, while staring at the soldiers who were passing by her tent. She recognized the uniform that they wore was Da Chu's uniform so that means they were Da Chu soldiers. She started to get suspicious of the real identity of the men that enslaved them.

However, as far as she knows, Da Chu soldiers especially the Xu soldiers are known to be kind and friendly.

As why she knew about this despite living in an isolated village was because her granny had brought her to visit the border when Da Qi and Da Chu was having a peace treaty exchange.

There were two sides, one was wearing a red uniform and the other one was black. From the red side, a tall and well-built man with a demonic red mask is known as Great General Xu. He is extremely popular among the folks and nobles for his kind-hearted and carefree personality.

Unfortunately, he lost his daughter just after she was born and caused the Xu family to become more distant from the world.

With his fiery red horse, Great General Xu ambled towards the center of the field. Then from the Da Qi's side, the soldiers step aside to give way to a boy that was around 12 years old. A bit similar to the Great General Xu, the boy also wore a very scary looking black mask. Despite his young age, he sat dignifiedly on his jet black horse.

She and the granny couldn't hear their conversation and also couldn't read their lips as they were wearing a mask over their faces. The granny patiently explained the identity of the boy to Hong er.

Granny: "He is His Highness Crown Prince of Da Qi, Liu Weisheng. If I'm not wrong, he is about 5 or 6 years older than you. He become Da Qi's representative at such a young age, truly admirable."

Hearing the granny's explanation, Hong er's eyes twinkled in admiration as she stared at the boy. However, Hong er felt like the boy just looked at her direction. She pondered for a while and shrugged her shoulder as she thought who would look at someone as poor as her.

Just with that few seconds of eye contact, Hong er noticed that the color of the boy's eyes were unique.

Hong er: 'Red as blood.'

Although the color supposed to give anyone who looked at it a horror, yet she could only feel reminiscence and warmness from those bloody red eyes. Nobles have unique eye color and it was one of few things that they could use to show off their status and power.

Curious of Great General Xu's eye color, she turned her eyes towards the tall man and saw his eyes are bright gold. But before she could take another look, the granny told her to go home. She obediently listened to her order and helped the granny to walk.