Chapter 84: Feeding Prisoners

While Lu Feng was fast asleep in his private quarters, catching up on the rest he had missed earlier that morning, the sun slowly shifted across the sky, casting long, peaceful shadows across the quiet courtyard of the estate.

The doors of the main residence opened softly, and Han Lin stepped out onto the polished stone porch. She carried a heavy wooden tray lined with a few coarse bowls containing plain water and cold, hard steamed buns. Looking across the bright courtyard toward the reinforced training hall where the two captive intruders were being held, she paused and let out a small sigh.

Although these men had broken into the estate the previous night with ill intentions, Lu Feng had left them alive for a reason.

Letting them starve to death before their master decided what to do with them would only create unnecessary trouble. Han Lin adjusted her grip on the heavy tray, straightened her posture, and walked with steady, unhurried steps across the courtyard.

She unbolted the heavy iron bar securing the training hall door and pushed it open just enough to step inside. The room was cool and dim. Bound tightly against two thick wooden pillars by heavy and well-knitted ropes, the two captive intruders sat slumped on the cold stone floor. Their clothes were torn from the previous night’s brief struggle, and their faces were pale from hours of complete restraint.

Hearing the heavy door creak open, the two men snapped their heads up.

Han Lin walked over calmly and set the tray down on a small wooden bench just out of their reach. "My young master is currently resting," she said, her voice completely even and devoid of emotion. "He has not ordered your execution yet, so you are to eat and drink. We will not have you dying of hunger in our hall."

The younger of the two captives merely stared at the floor with a hollow, defeated look, well aware of his helpless situation. However, the older one—a burly man with a scarred jaw—spat onto the stone floor, his eyes flaring with anger as he glared up at Han Lin.

"Food?" the scarred man sneered, rattling his heavy iron chains against the pillar. "You think a bowl of stale water and a cold bun is going to make us bow to your little master? Do you even know who we are, little girl?"

Han Lin did not flinch. She simply stood there with her hands neatly folded in front of her apron, looking down at him as if he were nothing more than a noisy fly. "I know you are prisoners tied to a post in our estate."

"Listen to me carefully, you foolish maid," the man growled, leaning forward as far as the chains would allow, his voice rising in an arrogant attempt to intimidate her. "We belong to the Shadow Fang Syndicate! Our brothers in the lower district know exactly where we went last night. If we do not return by nightfall, an entire squad of bloodthirsty mercenaries will tear down these iron gates and burn this whole estate to the ground!"

He bared his teeth, a cruel, mocking smirk twisting his face. "When that happens, your young master will be skinned alive, and a pretty little thing like you will be dragged off to the underground markets in chains! So if you have any sense left in that little head of yours, you had better unbolt these chains right now and beg for our mercy while you still can!"

Han Lin stared at the man ranting in front of her. Instead of showing the slightest hint of fear, anger, or worry, her lips slowly curved upward into a broad, amused grin.

"Is that so?" Han Lin murmured softly, her eyes sparkling with genuine entertainment. "You certainly have a very loud mouth for someone tied to a wooden pole."

Without another word, she turned on her heel and walked out of the training hall, leaving the door slightly ajar.

The scarred intruder let out a harsh laugh, mistaking her quiet exit for hesitation. "Yeah, run along, little girl! Go wake up your master and tell him what is coming for him!"

Han Lin walked back across the sunlit courtyard, her broad grin widening with every step. She climbed the steps to the side pavilion and knocked gently on the wooden door of the quiet side chamber.

"Miss Chenxue," Han Lin called out softly, her tone light and cheerful. "Are you free for a moment?"

The door swung open, revealing Ye Chenxue. She stood dressed in her simple, elegant robes, her long dark hair falling neatly over her shoulders. Her face was calm, but her sharp, icy eyes carried a quiet, underlying coldness that had grown distinctly sharper ever since the intrusion the night before.

"What is it, Han Lin?" Ye Chenxue asked smoothly. "Is Lu Feng awake?"

"No, Young Master Lu is still fast asleep," Han Lin replied, wiping a tear of laughter from her eye. "I went over to the training hall to feed the two prisoners so they wouldn’t starve. But the older one is running his mouth. He is making loud threats, screaming about burning the estate, and saying some very colorful things about what his syndicate will do to us."

Ye Chenxue’s eyes narrowed into tiny slits, the temperature around the doorway seeming to drop by several degrees in an instant. A faint, razor-sharp aura flared briefly around her fingertips before settling down into a suffocating, silent pressure.

"Is that so?" Ye Chenxue said quietly, her voice dangerously smooth. "Show me."

Han Lin nodded happily and led the way back across the courtyard.

Inside the dim training hall, the scarred intruder was still talking to his silent companion, his voice full of bravado. "Mark my words, as soon as night falls, the brothers will arrive. They’ll break these doors, chop down that arrogant kid, and..."

The shadow of two figures fell across the threshold as the heavy door pushed open entirely.

The scarred man cut his sentence short, turning his head to bark another insult. "Back already? Did you go cry to your—"

The words froze in his throat.

Ye Chenxue stepped into the dim light of the hall. She did not say a single word. She did not draw a weapon. She simply walked forward with slow, deliberate steps, her cold, pitch-black eyes fixed entirely on the scarred man.

The moment her gaze landed on them, an overwhelming, crushing weight descended upon the room like an invisible mountain falling from the sky. The air in the training hall grew thick and impossibly heavy, making it almost impossible to draw a breath.

The younger intruder gasped, his face turning ghostly pale as his entire body began to tremble violently against the wooden pillar.

The scarred man’s arrogant smirk shattered into utter horror in less than a second. His pupils dilated with absolute terror as he felt the sheer, terrifying depth of the killing intent radiating off the quiet woman standing before him.

It was a cold, absolute pressure that made his soul shake—a level of raw, suppressed power that made his syndicate bosses look like harmless children.

Ye Chenxue stopped two steps away from the bound men. She looked down at the scarred man, her face completely expressionless, her eyes completely devoid of warmth.

"Repeat what you just said to her," Ye Chenxue commanded softly, her voice echoing in the silent hall like a freezing wind. "Word for word."

The scarred man swallowed hard, his throat completely dry. The bravado, the arrogance, and the fierce threats he had spewed just moments ago vanished as if they had never existed in the first place. Sweat poured down his face in thick streams, soaking his collar as he frantically shook his head, his body pressing as hard as it could against the wooden pillar in a desperate attempt to move away from her.

"I... I..." the man stammered, his voice cracking pitifully as he broke into a violent shiver. "I didn’t mean it, My Lady! I was wrong! I was completely wrong! Please... please spare us!"

Beside him, the younger captive immediately slid as low to the ground as his chains allowed, pressing his forehead against the cold stone floor. "Mercy! Honored Lady, please have mercy! We are just low-level criminals! We were foolish! We won’t say another word! Please!"

Ye Chenxue stood in silence for a long moment, letting the suffocating pressure linger in the air until both men were sobbing quietly from pure terror, their arrogance completely crushed into the dirt. They became utterly humble, submissive, and terrified to even look up at her face.

Satisfied with their silence, Ye Chenxue turned her head slightly toward Han Lin, her cold expression softening just a fraction. "Leave the food and water on the floor. If either of them speaks above a whisper again, come get me."

"Yes, Miss Chenxue," Han Lin said, her smile bright and satisfied as she stepped forward, placed the tray within their reach, and walked back out toward the sunlit courtyard.

Ye Chenxue cast one last cold glance at the trembling men before turning around and walking out, pulling the heavy wooden doors shut behind her. The iron latch clicked back into place with a definitive, heavy thud, sealing the terrified intruders inside the quiet darkness once more.