Chapter 7: Uninvited Guests

He Shu sat quietly, feeling a little bored.

She stared blankly at the artificial lake outside the window.

Unlike its spectacular sight at night, the lake was calm and peaceful during the day.

She did not continue pondering Hua Yanyun’s possible schemes.

She knew that even if she figured them out, she would still be powerless to do anything about them.

Just then, a loud rumble came from her stomach.

He Shu felt a wave of hunger hit her.

“Ugh… I’m so hungry…”

She pressed a hand to her belly and rubbed it.

She truly had not eaten for a very long time.

First she had been knocked unconscious by Hua Yanyun for a full day and two nights.

Then she had been left ignored for an entire day.

Last night she had endured intense physical exertion, after which she had remained unconscious until the afternoon.

All told, it had been three full days without a single bite of food.

Hua Yanyun seemed to have forgotten that the current He Shu could actually starve to death if she did not eat.

But there was another possibility.

Hua Yanyun was doing it on purpose.

And that possibility was not low.

“Damn Hua Yanyun. That old demoness is definitely leaving me to starve on purpose.”

She could not beat Hua Yanyun, so He Shu could only curse her inside her heart.

She did not dare say it out loud.

She was not sure whether Hua Yanyun had left any surveillance methods in the room.

If there really were monitoring spells, and Hua Yanyun heard her cursing, she might suffer even more painful torment.

The sound of footsteps approached from outside the door.

He Shu instantly became alert.

Had Hua Yanyun come again?

But on second thought she dismissed the idea.

Hua Yanyun could simply appear in front of her like yesterday.

Besides, from the sound of it, more than one person was walking outside.

The door opened.

A group of women dressed in luxurious attire entered the room.

Four of them had come, each with outstanding looks and bearing.

The leader, a woman in yellow, was at the eighth layer of Golden Core.

Her name was Liu Shumei, one of Hua Yanyun’s harem members, and her status in the rear palace was quite high.

Liu Shumei strolled casually toward the cage.

She looked at He Shu through the bars.

“I heard His Majesty has taken in a little beauty who hasn’t fully grown yet. As her elder sisters, wouldn’t it be rude if we didn’t come to visit our little sister?”

She bent down.

The two massive, bouncy mounds in front of her chest jiggled.

She stroked her chin while sizing He Shu up.

“Gotta say, even though she’s small, this little sister’s face is quite exquisite,” Liu Shumei commented in a neutral tone. “But why has little sister been locked up alone in a cage? Did you do something wrong and get punished by His Majesty?”

He Shu listened to Liu Shumei’s slightly mocking words and turned her head away, refusing to look at her.

“My business is none of your concern.”

Liu Shumei saw He Shu’s annoyed expression and reached a hand through the gap between the bars.

She patted He Shu’s small head.

“What are you doing?!”

He Shu flinched at the touch and glared fiercely at Liu Shumei.

Liu Shumei ignored the glare and laughed instead.

“I heard little sister used to be the City Lord of an immortal city. Tsk tsk tsk. Falling from a lofty City Lord to a bird in a cage. Just thinking about it doesn’t feel pleasant at all.”

Laughter erupted inside the room.

After the laughter died down a little, the woman in the green cheongsam beside Liu Shumei spoke up.

“Sister, don’t say it like that~ Since little sister He caught His Majesty’s eye, she must have had some skills in the past. Saying it so bluntly, aren’t you afraid of hurting little sister He’s self-esteem?”

Another round of laughter followed.

He Shu watched the four women laughing outside the cage and felt a surge of anger.

It was bad enough that Hua Yanyun bullied her alone.

Now even her harem could casually bully her!

She thrust an arm through the gap between the bars and grabbed the ankle of Liu Shumei, who was closest to the cage.

He Shu pulled back hard, trying to make Liu Shumei fall.

But she had forgotten how weak she was now.

Even using all her strength, Liu Shumei did not budge.

This action clearly angered Liu Shumei.

“Hey! You little brat actually dare to grab your auntie?!”

Liu Shumei shook her leg and flung He Shu’s hand away.

Then she slapped He Shu hard across the left cheek through the bars.

The force was considerable.

He Shu was knocked sideways onto the floor of the cage.

Her cheek burned.

She stared fixedly at Liu Shumei, eyes full of rage.

Liu Shumei reached into the cage again, grabbed He Shu by the hair, and yanked her up.

“You think you can act tough just because you became His Majesty’s girlfriend? In the past you were a Nascent Soul powerhouse and a proper City Lord, so I wouldn’t dare touch you. But now you’re nothing but a cultivation-less cripple locked in a cage with no freedom at all!”

Liu Shumei was truly angry.

Her tone grew more agitated and her expression twisted further.

“Since little sister He is so disobedient, I’ll educate you properly on His Majesty’s behalf right now! Save His Majesty the trouble.”

With that, Liu Shumei pulled out a rope.

Ignoring He Shu’s struggles, she tied her arms behind her back.

Then she took out a silk ribbon and wrapped it around He Shu’s head more than ten times, completely blocking out any light.

After admiring her handiwork, she left with her three lackeys, strutting away without a backward glance.

Only the pain-wracked He Shu was left, collapsing weakly inside the cage.

“Mmmph! Mmmph mmmph mmmph!!!”

Her mouth was stuffed full with a cloth and sealed with tape.

Any curses aimed at Liu Shumei turned into muffled, indistinct sounds.

He Shu mentally greeted Liu Shumei’s ancestors for eighteen generations, over and over.

With her eyes covered, her other senses became abnormally sharp.

The pain on her scalp and arms, along with the discomfort of the foreign object in her throat, grew even more intense.

She thrashed about, trying to break free from the bindings on her arms, but it was useless.

Gradually she stopped struggling and began thinking about other things.

Because she had slowly realized something.

The four women had stayed in her room for quite a while.

During that time Liu Shumei had not only hit her but also tied her up.

Throughout the entire incident, no one else had entered the room besides herself and these four.

He Shu had originally assumed her room had some form of surveillance.

After all, with Hua Yanyun’s personality, installing monitoring spells would not be surprising.

But after this incident, she realized there might be no surveillance in the room where she was imprisoned.

Given Hua Yanyun’s character, only she was allowed to bully her own people.

She might ignore verbal teasing from Liu Shumei, but if someone else actually harmed her, Hua Yanyun would surely step in to stop it.

Of course, it was still possible that Hua Yanyun was deliberately watching from the sidelines, or that Liu Shumei and the others had been sent by Hua Yanyun to test her.

But people tend to lean toward thoughts that benefit them.

If this room truly had no surveillance, it would be greatly advantageous for He Shu.

Since she had the suspicion, she decided to pay more attention to it in the future and verify it.

The more she thought, the hungrier she felt.

The sensation grew stronger and stronger, steadily eating away at her consciousness.