One phrase, “Lotus Gentleman,” cast Cui Xun into an endless abyss.

Li Ying finally understood why Cui Xun so deeply hated this title. She believed he would have preferred that Ashina Wuduo had never heard these three words, would have preferred the Turkic soldiers to have killed him with one slash, rather than endure the humiliation that followed.

Ashina Wuduo was skilled at eagle taming. Even the fiercest hunting falcons, once in her hands, would be tamed into complete submission. She enjoyed the process of taming eagles and took pleasure in it. She was fully confident that this handsome but proud Han man would, like every hunting falcon she had tamed, be thoroughly subdued by her.

In the first month, Ashina Wuduo locked Cui Xun in a dungeon without daylight. The dungeon didn’t even have a window, only eternal darkness and a deathly silence. Previously, people confined here, at minimum for five days, at most for ten, had all been driven mad by the dungeon’s extreme silence. Even the strongest Turkic men would kneel and beg for mercy. But for a full thirty days, Cui Xun did not plead.

In the second month, Ashina Wuduo used chains made of iron thorns, threaded them through his shoulder blades, and hung him up. She gave him not a grain of rice to eat, not a drop of water to drink, and wouldn’t let him sleep. Just as he was about to faint, someone would pull on the chains piercing through his bones. Iron thorns scraped against bone marrow, and the extreme pain would wake Cui Xun. This punishment left him in extreme hunger, thirst, exhaustion, and pain. When the body’s torture reaches its limit, the will gradually breaks down. But even after this torture continued for ten days, repeated three times, Cui Xun still did not beg for mercy.

In the third month, Ashina Wuduo brought in thirty Great Zhou women holding babies. She told them that if Cui Xun begged for mercy, she would not kill the children in their arms. These thirty mothers initially knelt and begged Cui Xun, tearfully pleading with him to save their children. The infants, still unaware of their imminent fate, smiled innocently at Cui Xun. His eyes seemed covered with a thin layer of mist, but he still would not yield. The mothers’ pleas eventually turned into bitter curses against him. Ashina Wuduo killed one child each day before him. She wanted him to remember that these children died because of him. During these thirty days, Cui Xun vomited blood several times from extreme guilt and heartache. But still, he did not beg for mercy.

Ashina Wuduo completely lost face. The words she had spoken were like slaps on her face, making her humiliated. In her anger, her torture of Cui Xun became increasingly cruel. Cui Xun was proud by nature, and she insisted on breaking his pride. She once dressed him in sheepskin, locked him in a prisoner’s cage, and had him paraded through the entire royal court to the sound of gongs and drums. She also once put a chain around his neck and tied him naked in a dog cage, displaying him like livestock for people to watch. Yet through a thousand tortures and ten thousand humiliations, Cui Xun gritted his teeth and never spoke a word of surrender.

Scene by scene, incident by incident, Ashina Jia’s memories unfolded before Li Ying’s eyes. Li Ying couldn’t possibly imagine that there were so many ways in the world to break a person. She bit her lip, her eyes reddening, and murmured: “I never thought people could be so cruel.”

“Sister Wuduo has always gotten whatever she wanted since childhood. She never had anything she couldn’t obtain. This was probably the first.” Ashina Jia said, “The more Cui Xun refused to submit, the more she became interested in him. Her feelings for him were no longer just admiration for his appearance, but also admiration for his spirit. But her love was different from ordinary people’s—it was a love intertwined with possessiveness, control, and the desire to torment. The more she liked Cui Xun, the more she wanted to torture him.”

Late in the night, snow was falling heavily. Li Ying stood on the withered yellow grass. Though she was only a thread of consciousness, she seemed to feel the bone-chilling cold. She watched Cui Xun hanging outside the khan’s tent. He wore only a thin white robe, his black hair disheveled, his long eyelashes covered with crystalline snowflakes. He appeared much thinner than when he was first brought to the Turkic royal court. His hands were bound and hung up by iron chains, his feet unable to touch the ground, all his body weight concentrated on his wrists. Despite the cold, fine beads of sweat continuously formed on his forehead. His face was as pale as paper, his lips tightly closed, his body slightly trembling, seemingly enduring great pain and torment. Li Ying’s nails dug into her palms as she said with reddened eyes, “Everyone expresses their affection differently. If I liked someone, I wouldn’t want them to suffer even the slightest harm. I wouldn’t torture them like this. I can never accept Ashina Wuduo’s way of showing affection!”

Ashina Jia remained silent, her face showing a trace of shame. A feast was being held inside the khan’s tent, with constant laughter and merriment. Li Ying saw the tent flap suddenly lifted as a Turkic girl timidly emerged from inside. It was Ashina Jia when she was still alive.

Ashina Jia held a bowl of steaming mutton soup. She stood outside, hesitating for a moment, but still quickly walked to Cui Xun, who was hanging there. She said softly, “It’s too cold outside. Have some soup to warm yourself.”

Cui Xun had been tortured to the point of dizziness. He slightly opened his eyes, with a few strands of wet black hair clinging to the side of his face. His eyes were as cold as shattered jade or frosty stars. Ashina Jia gripped the rim of the golden bowl tightly. She shrank back a little but still mustered the courage to bring the bowl to his lips: “Please drink some.”

But as soon as she finished speaking, a whip struck her hand holding the golden bowl. Ashina Jia cried out in pain and let go. The golden bowl rolled to the ground, and the creamy white mutton soup spilled everywhere. She turned her head in shock: “Sister Wuduo…”

Ashina Wuduo wore a red robe, as beautiful as peach blossoms. She held a horse whip in her hand and said with a cold laugh: “What? Do you pity him?”

Ashina Jia looked at her piercing gaze and immediately felt waves of fear. She said quietly: “I… I don’t…”

Ashina Wuduo gave another cold laugh. She walked to Cui Xun’s side, grabbed his chin, forcing him to lift his head. She said to Ashina Jia, “Look clearly. This man is my Lotus Slave, a slave who belongs only to me! No one else is allowed to touch him in the slightest!”

Ashina Jia looked at Cui Xun, who had been tortured until his body was covered in wounds. She wanted to say, he is not your Lotus Slave, nor does he want to be your Lotus Slave. But she opened her mouth and ultimately did not dare to say these words. She feared Ashina Wuduo; she did not dare to argue with her.

She lowered her head dejectedly. Ashina Wuduo pressed on aggressively: “Ashina Jia, do you like him too?”

Ashina Jia was startled, then shook her head in panic: “No… I don’t…”

Ashina Wuduo smiled and walked up to her, placing the horse whip in her hand: “Since you don’t, then whip him.”

Ashina Jia held the horse whip in a daze. She looked at Ashina Wuduo in disbelief. Ashina Wuduo sneered: “You can’t bear to do it?”

She pressed further: “If you don’t whip him, it proves you like him. This is my Lotus Slave, and you dare to like him? Ashina Jia, in Turkic lands, no one dares to take what’s mine.”

Ashina Jia was frightened by the threat in her tone. Having grown up with Ashina Wuduo, she knew how much she hated others taking her possessions. Once, a prince from a small country who dared to compete with her for a shot-down wild goose was dragged to death by her horse. Ashina Jia held the horse whip, her hands beginning to tremble. Ashina Wuduo impatiently urged: “Go on, whip him!”

Under her urging, Ashina Jia unconsciously stepped forward, trembling, gripping the whip handle. The horse whip struck Cui Xun’s body without skill, the tip lightly falling on him, leaving only red marks without deep wounds. Ashina Wuduo impatiently said again: “Are you too weak to eat properly?”

Ashina Jia was startled and instinctively increased her force. Cui Xun’s thin clothes were torn by the whip, and new, horrific, bloody marks covered his already wounded body. Ashina Wuduo did not call for a stop, and Ashina Jia did not dare to stop. The horse whip fell heavily on Cui Xun’s body again and again. Crimson blood flowed from his wounds, dripping onto the pristine white snow below.

After what seemed like an eternity, Ashina Wuduo finally said: “Enough!”

Ashina Jia hurriedly stopped, holding the blood-stained horse whip, her entire body trembling. Ashina Wuduo looked at her with contempt, then slowly walked to Cui Xun’s side. Cui Xun had been tortured by this cruel whipping to the point where his breath was as thin as a thread. He hung his head, his face as pale as paper. Ashina Wuduo carelessly tugged at a strand of his black hair that had fallen down his back, pulling it. Cui Xun was forced to raise his head. Ashina Wuduo looked at his pale face and said with a smile, “You’ve been captured by the Turks for so long. Has anyone come to save you?”

“Everyone has abandoned you—your family, your king. So why suffer so much? For what?”

“That useless Ashina Jia, not even daring to say a word of affection.”

“In this world, there is not a single person who can save you, nor is there a single person willing to save you. You can only be mine, my Lotus Slave.”

Amid the swirling snow, Li Ying couldn’t help but look at Ashina Jia beside her. The Ashina Jia, formed from obsession, covered her face, knelt on the ground, and wept bitterly. She murmured: “I have failed him…”

Perhaps when she offered him that bowl of mutton soup, he finally kindled a glimmer of hope for humanity in his heart. In the endless series of tortures in Turkic lands, this was probably the first time he experienced gentle kindness. But soon, this gentle kindness was trampled by its giver, offering him only lash after lash of cruel whipping.

Ashina Jia wept: “I was afraid of Sister Wuduo, so even though I liked him, he was abused for two whole years, and I never dared to say a word for him… I was just as Sister Wuduo said—a useless person…”

Li Ying felt a deep sorrow in her heart. She saw both Ashina Jia and Ashina Wuduo enter the tent, leaving only Cui Xun outside, still bound by the wrists and hanging. His body was covered in blood, his jade-like form now marked with layer upon layer of horrific old and new wounds. In the wind and snow, his thin suspended body was like a solitary white crane, utterly alone.

Li Ying bit her lip, tears welling in her eyes. Without hesitation, she walked forward, stood on her tiptoes, and tried to undo the iron chains binding his wrists. But as expected, her fingers passed through the chains; she couldn’t touch them at all.

At that moment, she couldn’t tell if she felt disappointment or heartache. Tears finally fell uncontrollably.

But she was just a consciousness that had entered Ashina Jia’s memories. Cui Xun couldn’t see her at all. No matter how much she grieved for him, he couldn’t see her.

But even if he couldn’t see or hear her, there were still some words she wanted to say.

She choked back sobs but looked at Cui Xun with determination, speaking word by word: “Cui Xun, you are yourself. You are not anyone’s Lotus Slave.”

She continued: “In this world, it’s not that no one can save you, nor that no one is willing to save you. I will save you. I will save you.”