“Let me tell you, Laidi…” He slowly crouched down, reeking as he approached me. “Ever since you were little, I could see you were a beauty. Who could have thought that at thirty-five you’d still have no one who wants you?”

“What…?”

“Your mom already told me you have brain problems.” He smiled, revealing a mouth full of yellow teeth and releasing an extremely foul odor. “If you’re obedient, I won’t beat you. Otherwise I’ll come here every day until I’ve beaten you into submission.”

“Beat… beaten into submission…?”

I could hardly imagine encountering such a thing in modern society. In my ten years as a lawyer, I’d been threatened and placed under house arrest, but no one had ever dared to openly lay hands on me like this.

“Are you sick in the head…” I said, clutching my lower abdomen. “There’s nothing wrong with my brain… No matter how much money you gave my family, let me go and I’ll pay you back double.”

“Pay me back?” Butcher Ma extended one hand and lewdly lifted my chin. “You’re my wife now. We’re a couple. Your money is my money—what’s there to pay back?”

“Do you have any common sense…?” I tried hard to keep the tremor out of my voice. “A marriage relationship requires a marriage certificate as proof… After you conducted your transaction, you just tied me up and brought me here. This goes against my personal will and can even be considered human trafficking. It’s already seriously illegal. You’ll go to prison!”

Butcher Ma fell silent for a long moment after hearing this, then revealed an ugly smile.

“You really do have brain problems.” He sneered. “I found a matchmaker and gave your old man a betrothal gift. Both the matchmaker and your old man agreed. What right do you have to refuse? Didn’t you go to college and get an education? Haven’t you heard the saying ‘obey your parents’ orders and the matchmaker’s words’?”

“What ‘obey your parents’ orders and the matchmaker’s words’…”

I felt this was truly ridiculous. What year was it now?

Had I traveled back to ancient times?

I didn’t know if it was a good or bad thing, but the times had developed somewhat too rapidly.

This led to contradictory rifts emerging between people of the same generation. Those who could keep up with the train of the times kept getting better and better, while those who couldn’t board the train were forever left in the past.

I remembered when I was young, even making a phone call required going to the village’s only commune. But after growing up, carrying a palm-sized phone allowed me to “sweep away” all obstacles.

And now, in the same province, people could hear both the inferior marketing slogan “If you love her, buy her the first cup of milk tea this autumn” and the bizarre ancient ideology of “obey your parents’ orders and the matchmaker’s words.”

One could only say that the times had developed far too quickly. Some people were unwilling to keep pace with the times and were abandoned in dark corners.

“In any case, you took my money… so you’re my wife for this lifetime.” He said, pinching my face. “In the village, sixteen or seventeen-year-old girls with pretty faces are only worth a hundred thousand yuan. Don’t refuse a toast only to be forced to drink a forfeit.”

Honestly, I was truly frightened.

From his perspective, there was no way he would back down on this matter.

As the village’s notorious scoundrel, if someone really was willing to send their daughter into the tiger’s den, it would be impossible for him to still be a bachelor in his fifties.

Now he had paid money to “purchase” me and didn’t want to return the goods.

So how exactly could I escape?

This person’s strength far exceeded mine. Right now the only good news was that he hadn’t raped me—

But that was only a matter of time.

“I don’t agree…” I said through gritted teeth. “What you’re doing is illegal. As soon as someone finds out, they’ll call the police. I advise you to stop early. I promise not to prosecute you.”

“How can you be sick this severely…” A contemptuous look slowly appeared in Butcher Ma’s eyes. “I’ll say it one more time: we’re already a couple. You’re my wife, understand?”

“Screw your couple!!” I really couldn’t take it anymore. “Can’t you understand what I’m saying? I’m unwilling! I don’t want to! There’s nothing wrong with my brain. I just don’t want to marry someone in this village. Is not wanting to get married also a disease?!”

Butcher Ma sighed after hearing this. The smell from his mouth was truly awful. “You don’t want to marry someone in the village—do you want to go to the city? What’s so good about the city? Are the men there reliable? Everyone knows that in the city you’re just someone who files lawsuits. Sounds like a bitter life. From now on you won’t need to file lawsuits. I’ll give you pork from home to eat for free. You give the Ma family children, and I guarantee I won’t find another wife.”

Absurd, absolutely absurd!

What was that just now?

A confession of love? A courtship?

I’ll give you pork to eat, you give me children.

What kind of ridiculous person could say such words?

“I told you… I refuse.” I said, my voice trembling. “If you let me go now, there’s still a way back. Any later and you’ll really be courting disaster.”

I’d thought he could barely communicate normally now, but unexpectedly, after I finished speaking, a slap landed on my face again.

Smack!

His hand seemed to be covered in pig fat—fishy and sticky.

“Refusing a toast only to be forced to drink a forfeit!” Butcher Ma cursed. “Just wait. I’ll starve you for five days. By then you’ll be begging me to be my wife.”

What…?

He stood up to leave, but I blocked him.

“Hey! If you don’t give me food and water, in this kind of weather I won’t last five days—three days and I’ll die.” I tried to persuade him from his perspective. “You want me to be your wife, so you can’t let me die, right? If I die, your hundred thousand yuan will be wasted.”

He snorted coldly. “Five days—even a pig won’t starve to death. How could you starve to death?”

“I’m a person, not an animal.” I said, trembling as I covered my face. “At least give me some water to drink. I haven’t had any water in a long time.”

He thought for a moment, then used great force to push me to the ground before walking out and locking the door again.

I felt the situation was very dangerous. This man thought I was a pig.

He really might let me starve to death here.

What I hadn’t anticipated was that a few minutes later, a bottle of mineral water was thrown through the window in the wall, along with a packaged bread that would expire in one more day.

I carefully examined the cap of the mineral water bottle and the bread’s packaging. Neither had been opened—they should be fine.

If Butcher Ma was meticulous enough to choose to drug the water and food, I could only accept my fate.

I swallowed both the bottled water and the bread, feeling somewhat better. But how could I get out of this small room of only five or six square meters?

How long would I be trapped here?

Right… Xiao Sun?

I suddenly thought of Xiao Sun. It was already evening now. By all rights, he should have lost contact with me this morning. Would he realize I was in danger?

No… that was hard to say.

To him, this was my hometown.

No matter what, he couldn’t deduce that I would be sold by my own parents to a butcher.

He could absolutely never imagine that Zhang Chenze, who charged a minimum of twenty thousand yuan in attorney fees for a single case in Chengdu, had been sold for the high price of one hundred thousand yuan.