41 Almost Forgot

Around one week later, the second store of Fragrant Rose was put into construction. This store would only sell clothes and would not take any private orders. The clothes in the store would be both eastern and western style from the nineteenth century.

That morning, Zhu Xiao Wan woke up from the light that was hurting her eyes.

Light?

Her eyelids lifted and the eyes that had seen nothing but darkness for a month was now back to the original eyes that were clear and deep like water in a well. Her pupils contracted upon facing the glaring sunlight. The space between her brows creased. She was glad that she regained her vision, but for her who had not been in contact with the light for a month - it was slightly uncomfortable.

As usual, Song Hui Yao entered the room when she had awoken from her sleep. Turning her head to towards him, she found Song Hui Yao's captivating face was the same, nothing changed.

So she could see now. He walked up while looking at her purple eyes that was not dull and lifeless anymore and stood before her.

"You can see."

"En."

"How is it, any discomfort, soreness, or aches?" Song Hui Yao asked upon seeing the negligible pleat between her brows.

Blinking for a few times and she looked outside the window before batting her long eyelashes at him. Zhu Xiao Wan shook her head seconds later. "But I still can't walk."

He smiled and called the servant girls to come and dress her. After the maids clothed her, Zhu Xiao Wan used Song Hui Yao for transportation again; since wheelchairs were somehow banned in this manor estate.

Initially, Zhu Xiao Wan wanted to be on the grass plain again. But this decision was halted by Song Hui Yao's motion.

"A month ago, on that day, I captured the leader of the group." He said, "Although you knew it was the Lu Family, who knows if there were others, too."

Others? It couldn't be them...

"Where is he?" Zhu Xiao Wan unconsciously wrinkled her graceful eyebrows faintly.

There was a smile plastered on his face. He had left the guy alone for too long that he had forgotten about his existence. If it weren't for the prison warder who reminded him, he would have left the guy in his prison for life.

Changing his direction, Song Hui Yao went to the west wing of the manor.

Zhu Xiao Wan saw a big wood and before the wood was a fountain. In the fountain were lotus of many kinds and the water was so clean that one could see its bottom limpidly.

Song Hui Yao walked pass the fountain and entered the grove. After a few steps, he turned left and moved forward for another few steps. He then took out a short violet stick and stomped the ground with its bottom.

If she wasn't mistaken, that was a purple wood key. The key that had an exceptional use accompanied by its distinctive barrier. This must be where the torture room was; she perceived the pungent smell of blood a while ago when Song Hui Yao started to turn left.

Song Hui Yao solved the formation for the access and throw the purple wood stick back into his space. The scenery in front of them changed when the ground opened up a passage to go down.

They went down the passage; the deeper they were, the more stomach-churning the fetor was. Shortly, they reached the destination after passing through many doors; the place was like a maze with tons of doors.

The place was dark and humid; the dirty black water on the damped floor did a good job on sullying Song Hui Yao's shoes. Torture instruments that reeked of blood hanged on the wall. Bodies of men were chained up, dangling from just a scarce height of millimeters above the ground.

They were horrifically lacerated and some were even worse - mutilated. Most of them had their eyes closed from the exhaustion of the torment, while those that opened were dreary and filled with hopes to die instead of surviving.

The foul and nauseating stench would wrench people's gut. The hideous sight would also make people feel nauseous and have the urge to regurgitate. Some of them were crucified with whip slashes on their bodies.

Particularly in the cells that had torturers lecturing or lacerating those people with their cool but scary instruments that could make people faint; like a saw that made harsh grating noise while cutting off a prisoner's limb(s).

However, Zhu Xiao Wan and Song Hui Yao didn't find the gruesome place to be so sickening and repellent as they steadily moved to the leader's cell with a lenient aspect. It was like - they were used to seeing such a horrid sight.