People in the Qin Dynasty, entertained during the Warring States period

Cao Ze simply nodded and went straight to the point: "Do you know which nobles in the city support the Bai family?"

Lady Mingzhu hesitated and said, "My knowledge is limited. As far as I know, there are quite a few in Xinzheng City, no less than thirty."

Cao Ze smiled and asked, "Does the Korean royal family know?"

"They should know, but there's nothing they can do about these old nobles." Madam Mingzhu answered truthfully, not daring to deceive Cao Ze in the slightest.

Cao Ze was not surprised; these old nobles were even more troublesome than the later powerful clans.

"Hmm." Cao Ze paused and said, "Didn't you say you were going to continue disciplining your aunt tonight?"

Lady Mingzhu smiled charmingly and said, "Master, please follow me."

……

Chapter 329 Mingzhu's Second Instruction to Her Aunt

The night was as dark as ink, and it was pitch black outside the window. I had no idea which night it was.

The Marquis was somewhat dazed. She tried to move her stiff and rigid hands and feet, but they were still tightly bound by hemp ropes, making her almost lose all feeling in them.

A faint light suddenly shone through the doorway.

The Marquis opened her eyes slightly and recognized the newcomer as the madam, a woman with cheap makeup.

She opened her dry, chapped red lips, but before she could utter a sound, the madam launched into a torrent of insults.

"You cheap slut! You dead whore! You worthless piece of trash!"

The Marquis felt a little dizzy.

She had never heard such foul language before, nor had she ever been insulted like this.

After scolding the Marquis, Madam Mingzhu, disguised as a madam, skillfully kicked the Marquis in the back a few times, as if she were treating pigs or dogs.

Several footprints appeared on the Marquis's fair and smooth back. The Marquis was furious and glared at Lady Mingzhu, her eyes almost spitting fire.

"What are you glaring at me for! Do I have something on my face? You shameless slut, are you trying to lick my boots?!"

Lady Mingzhu picked up the broken wooden stick from the table and beat the Marquis again, slapping her several times across the face.

The Marquis felt like vomiting; her stomach was churning, and she was in excruciating pain all over her body. She had been beaten so badly by the madam that she was almost unconscious.

She gritted her teeth and finally closed her eyes, powerless.

Now he didn't even have the strength to bite his tongue and commit suicide. The more he struggled, the more he would be beaten, and he would only be humiliated by this lowly madam.

"Dogs can guard the door, chickens can lay eggs, but you, you worthless whore, can't lift a finger, can't pull a rope, can't grind grain. Besides the three inches of rotten flesh under your belly that can make those lazy men happy, what else do you have to be proud of? Pretending to be a virtuous and chaste woman! I spent a gold coin to buy you, this piece of trash, and now I have to feed you, this glutton. I've really lost my mother's money!"

Madam Mingzhu, disguised as a madam, cursed a few times, turned and went out the door, bringing in a bowl of spoiled rice.

Even though it was spoiled food, it still smelled delicious to the Marquis, who had been starving for a long time.

The Marquis then realized that she was starving and had not eaten or drunk anything for days.

She has been unconscious multiple times in dark, enclosed rooms where it is difficult to see, and now she can no longer tell the time.

Perhaps three or four days have passed, perhaps five or six days have passed... He has lost all his cultivation, is unable to abstain from grains, is hungry and thirsty, and has no strength at all.

She needs to eat and needs strength to have the ability to commit suicide.

Lady Mingzhu, disguised as a madam, suddenly became amiable, as if she had beaten the Marquis and made her calm down.

"Little aunt, you haven't eaten for days. Don't let yourself get sick from starving."

The Marquis looked at the smiling woman and almost vomited as she watched the cheap face powder fall into the spoiled rice bowl.

She was filled with anger, hatred, rage, and resentment, and her original intention to commit suicide by eating food vanished instantly.

She would rather starve to death than eat a single bite!

Madam Mingzhu, disguised as a madam, seemed very patient, her mole twitching as she spoke. "Little aunt, have a bite. Look at your alluring fox face, you're almost starving. It breaks my heart."

The Marquis closed her eyes and remained silent, deciding to play dead.

"You slut! You whore! You've got to put on airs for me now?"

Another round of insults followed, but the Marquis seemed to have become immune to it and remained silent.

Lady Mingzhu, disguised as a madam, changed her expression, picked up her chopsticks, took a bite of food, and placed it near the Marquis's mouth.

"Will you eat or not?!"

The Marquis suddenly opened her beautiful eyes, raised her head, and spat fiercely at the madam disguised as Lady Mingzhu.

Madam Mingzhu, disguised as a madam, froze for a moment, then let out a scream.

"You shameless whore! You're a slut who was sold after committing adultery, and you really think you're some virtuous and chaste woman! Should I put up a memorial arch for you in this brothel?"

While beating the Marquis with a broken stick, Madam Mingzhu, disguised as a madam, jumped up and down, cursing, "You worthless whore, even dogs wouldn't chew on you! You think you're a respectable woman? Starve to death, you slut!"

Another beating ensued, and the Marquis kept her eyes closed and gritted her teeth to barely avoid fainting from the pain.

Madam Mingzhu, disguised as a madam, dumped the spoiled food on the ground, stomped on it a few times, and stormed out.

The Marquis bit her lip, gasping for breath intermittently. The pain emanating from her body, the almost broken bones, made her heart sink deeper and deeper into despair.

Who in the Seven Kingdoms could have imagined that the First Female Marquis of Korea, a peerless female prodigy, a master who had reached the pinnacle of the Grandmaster realm, one of the strongest in the world, would now be naked and bound, lying in a filthy brothel, unable to live or die...

After a long while, the Marquis, having recovered, slightly opened her eyelids.

The first thing you see is dirty food on the ground.

The Marquis turned her face away and looked at the table with the oil lamp on it.

The tiny flame flickered slightly, as if shaking the portrait of a figure in the shadows behind the lamp.

The portrait depicted a figure whose face was indistinguishable, and the painting was extremely rough and simple, making the portrait look quite ugly in the shadows.

The Marquis closed her eyes, feeling somewhat powerless.

In the darkness, it seemed as if an invisible demon was grinning, mocking, and staring at her greedily, as if it wanted to devour her flesh and soul.

The Marquis had her eyes tightly closed, and beads of sweat kept appearing on her forehead.

Some distant memories surfaced in her mind.

In her youth, she roamed the martial arts world and often heard stories of female warriors who fell into the traps of their enemies, suffered humiliation and inhuman torture, and were even forced to marry the son of their enemies, becoming playthings for their families to continue their lineage.

Rumors flashed through her mind, making the Marquis feel suffocated, her mind shaken, and her delicate body trembled slightly involuntarily.

A clicking sound came from the darkness, and after a while, the Marquis realized that it was her teeth chattering.

Fear spread through her heart. She hadn't tasted fear for many years, and when it came, it shook her, made her almost unable to breathe, and all her former pride vanished.

She regretted it.

She regretted offending Cao Ze, and regretted not setting aside her arrogance to flatter and fawn over that young man. Instead, she insulted him, which led to her current predicament.

If only back then, if only back then...

The Marquis opened her eyes, breathing heavily. She dared not close them again, staring intently at the tiny lamplight, trying to dispel the nightmare in her heart and burn away all the unbearable experiences of the past few days.

But the rope tightly binding her clearly tells her—you are powerless to break free.

Time seemed to stretch on endlessly at that moment.

The Marquis didn't know how much time had passed.

Perhaps it was an hour, perhaps a day, perhaps a year; time lost its meaning at this moment. Outside the window, all was dark; the oil lamp on the table had burned out; and the small room was swallowed by the deep darkness.

The Marquis opened her eyes wide in despair, trying to see something, even just one thing, anything at all, as long as it occupied her mind, as long as there was no space in her mind to be occupied by those nightmare scenes.

But she couldn't see anything, not even her own body; she could only smell the faint aroma of food.

She knew it was spoiled food, dirty food that had been dumped on the ground and stepped on...

She had never before so desperately desired to regain her cultivation, even at any cost.

As long as I can regain my strength, take my revenge, and live with dignity...

The Marquis bit her lip tightly, her chapped lips bleeding, streaks of blood seeping between her teeth. Desperate tears welled up and silently slid down her cheeks in the darkness. No matter how unwilling she was, how much she wanted to hold back her tears, it was all in vain.

The sound of light footsteps echoed in the small room, but the Marquis didn't hear them until they reached right next to her ear.

Having lost her cultivation and starved for many days, she was even weaker than an ordinary woman and had completely lost her former alertness.

The Marquis barely managed to lift her head and saw a very bright oil lamp being held by someone. Behind the lamp was the face of a woman covered in cheap cosmetics, deathly pale, like the White Impermanence of the underworld, giving her endless nightmares.

For once, the madam disguised as Lady Mingzhu did not come up to insult or beat the Marquis. Instead, she placed the oil lamp she had brought on the table and, like a mentally deranged patient, rambled on about her heartache over the burnt-out lamp, adding a little more oil to it.

"A madwoman, a crazy woman..." The Marquis comforted herself inexplicably, thinking that she had encountered a madwoman, not that it was her fault.

Lady Mingzhu, disguised as a madam, held up an oil lamp and shone it on the Marquis's face. Suddenly, she spat on the Marquis's tear-streaked face.

"You filthy, shameless whore, you know how to cry?!"

The Marquis stammered a few words, her hands and feet bound, preventing her from wiping away her tears, which were clearly seen by the lowly woman before her.

The Marquis was filled with shame and indignation at being seen in such a vulnerable state, especially by that despicable madam. She wanted nothing more than to smash her head against the wall and die, but she had no strength left.

"What exactly do you want?" The Marquis took a breath, controlling her emotions.

"What do you want? I spent a gold coin to buy you, what could I possibly want?! Of course, I want to sell you for money!" Madam Mingzhu, disguised as a madam, brandished her broken stick and cursed, "What's so precious about you? Just that little bit of rotten flesh, won't it just rust away?!"

The Marquis remained silent, her initial anger gone.

It's perfectly reasonable for a vulgar and lowly madam to make her a prostitute.

"If you figure it out, there's a rotten couch right ahead. Crawl over and lie down, let those lazybones use it, and it'll only cost a dozen or so coins, without any hard labor. Where else can you find such a good deal?!"

The Marquis felt a chill run through her heart.

As the dignified head of the Bai family and the only female marquis in Korea, every piece of clothing she wears is worth a fortune in gold coins... How could she be as cheap as a prostitute in a brothel?

The Marquis was trembling with rage: "Don't even think about it! I'd rather starve to death than let you earn a single penny!"

"You worthless wretch! You think you're so precious?!" Madam Mingzhu, disguised as a madam, yelled and then proceeded to beat the Marquis again.

The Marquis endured the excruciating pain.

The vile woman specifically attacked the most painful spot on her calf, until she could no longer feel the existence of that leg.

In the dimly lit room, the Marquis seemed to hear the sound of a leg bone breaking, as if bone marrow and flesh were splattered everywhere.

The Marquis's mind went blank, and a scream echoed through the small room.