So, What’s the Price?

“Well, Miss Yanlan, do you have any extra food and water?”

I pushed all irrelevant thoughts aside and looked into her black eyes.

Why did “black” and “stars” go together?

I didn’t know, but her eyes could indeed be described that way.

It was the first time I had ever truly looked into her eyes.

“As for food, why don’t you ask the leader? Judging by how you look, you just came from serving her, right? And as for water, there’s the snow outside. Although, if you drink too much of it, you’ll probably get all sorts of strange diseases.”

She refused.

And in my eyes, all the stars in her gaze exploded at the same moment, leaving only a cold, dead black.

“I…”

I opened my mouth, and the action of fiddling with my fingers stopped.

I clenched my fists.

I wanted to say something, but I couldn’t.

I had just come from the leader’s mansion.

Was I going to ask one person for supplies right after being tormented by another?

That’s impossible.

“Is your throat so hoarse because you were screaming too loudly?”

She continued to poke at my wounds.

I was silent.

I hadn’t expected this person, who had just let me into her shop and given me a coat, to say something so cutting.

Although I had roughly deduced what Su Yanlan disliked in the dream, the speed at which she changed her expression still shocked me.

I was a scumbag, but even a scumbag gets angry when attacked.

I could have responded to my neighbors with a counterattack, but I couldn’t do the same to Su Yanlan.

I felt a little upset.

“Ha… I’m sorry. I apologize for disturbing your mood with this presumptuous request. I’m leaving now.”

After a few more seconds, I finally adjusted my emotions and looked up again.

Reaching for a smile, I stepped toward the door.

She didn’t seem to want me here either.

What was the point of letting me in?

To skin me and turn me into a specimen?

“Here. Take this.”

She sighed, took a hard, long piece of biscuit from her coat pocket, and tossed it to me.

With its cracked surface and irregular shape, it was ugly, but it had weight.

Fine.

Miss Su Yanlan was actually a good person.

Wasn’t my ability to change my expression just as good as Su Yanlan’s?

It didn’t matter.

I stood there, holding the hard biscuit in both hands, and gnawed off small pieces with my teeth, then swallowed them.

The sound of me eating the biscuit echoed through the shop.

What would I look like now?

An ugly dog?

Or a beggar who hadn’t eaten in ten days?

I didn’t know, but I was sure it wasn’t pretty.

I could hear Su Yanlan’s footsteps moving away.

I didn’t know where she was going, but it didn’t matter.

I was fully immersed in eating.

I found that seeing food after such long hunger was even more maddening than being constantly hungry.

If the original owner of the biscuit had tried to take it back, I probably would have bitten them too.

Teeth were my strongest weapon.

After a while, Su Yanlan brought me a cup of warm water.

She gestured for me to sit on a stool and placed the cup on my lap.

Was someone stroking my hair?

It didn’t matter.

Let her stroke my hair.

As long as she could give me food, I would give her my body.

But I didn’t think she would be interested in my body.

She had said before that she wasn’t interested in that.

She was a pervert, but in some ways, she wasn’t as perverted as the average person.

Very contradictory.

“Hah… thank you, Miss Yanlan. You’re a good person.”

Finally, I finished eating the biscuit and drinking the water.

My stomach felt better, and my throat wasn’t so sore.

Although it still hurt, at least my voice was normal.

“So, what’s the price?”

She didn’t seem pleased with my thanks.

Instead, she leaned in close and spoke near my ear.

My body stiffened again.

Right.

Everything had a price.

Su Yanlan wasn’t one of those easily fooled, romance-obsessed girls.

And I couldn’t suck her dry without a price.

The coat that she lent me was set aside, revealing the torn sleeve of my maid outfit.

She grabbed my arm, and her right hand entered the hole in my sleeve, gently touching my skin.

The cold touch made me shiver.

“Miss Yanlan, are you…?”

Before I could finish the sentence, she pushed me over.

The wooden stool fell, hitting my side, causing a sharp pain.

I didn’t scream, didn’t struggle.

I let her pin me down.

She had given me life-saving food, so whatever she did to me was fine, right?

I had come to that conclusion.

Well, it had nothing to do with resolve.

I was just too weak to resist, so I had to submit.

If I had the superpowers from all those novels, I would have taken revenge on everyone who had wronged me.

How terrible could it be?

“I said before, if you damaged it, I would take a piece of your skin. You didn’t refuse.”

She gently stroked the gash.

Damn it… was this also part of the agreement?

What was I supposed to do now?

Refuse, or let her proceed?

How much would it hurt to get skinned?

I didn’t dare to imagine.

My mind raced.

And I sadly realized that no matter what I did, I couldn’t refuse her.

Thinking had just ended, when Su Yanlan pulled out a small pair of scissors from her coat pocket.

Why did she have to carry everything in her pocket?

Just as the thought ended, the scissors were pressed against the skin near my collarbone.

The sharp tip pierced the skin.

She hadn’t applied much pressure, but I could already feel a sharp sting.

Her fingers twirled the scissors near my collarbone.

She must have been targeting the area about the size of her hand.

“Remember to scream, or it won’t be fun.”

As she said this, I could feel the scissors piercing my skin.

The pain was light, I knew why.

Because she hadn’t applied much pressure.

“Wait, it’s possible to break the contract, right? If I can pay a penalty!”

I shouted, my tired body trying to retreat, but in vain.

“…That’s the idea, but what do you have left? You have nothing.”

She paused and then delivered the verbal blow to my heart.

The scissors began to dig deeper.

“Ugh… aren’t you interested in peeling off my skin? Wouldn’t it be more fun to peel it all off at once, and then I can suffer to death? ”

I moaned, starting to gasp for air.

My fingers and toes curled in pain.

My weary body couldn’t take the pain and the fear.

“…Maybe.”

The scissors plunged a little deeper, then stopped, even retreated a little.

“But you smell like bitter almonds. I don’t like it.”

Her next words made me drop my guard.

My mind raced again.

Bitter almonds, bitter almonds… wasn’t that the smell of the leader?

The result of our earlier pleasure.

“Ugh!”

I suddenly lunged forward, ripping away from the scissors, the pain causing me to cry out.

The blade drew a bloody line across my skin.

Seeing my surprise, Su Yanlan instinctively drew back her hand, guarding herself.

However, my goal was not to attack her.

In this moment of crisis, I kissed her lips.