Chapter 277 - 113: Coming a Thousand Miles to Be the Scapegoat, You’re Basically My Pet Kitten

Chou’Er’s face was flushed, her small hand tightly gripping the Pill Bottle.

She remembered what Jiang Lan had just said—that he disliked mutes—so she forced herself to reply, "I... I... un... understand."

Her voice was raspy, not exactly pleasant, but it held a clear quality that could not be concealed.

Back in the fighting pits, she had rarely spoken to anyone, sometimes going years without uttering a single word.

This made it difficult for her to communicate, and she tended to stutter whenever she rushed to speak.

Jiang Lan seemed to smile. "Do you know who I am?" he asked.

Seeing him rise to leave the room, Chou’Er clutched her Pill Bottle and followed behind him.

His words made her recall the maids’ conversation in the bath. ’But with my current status,’ she thought, ’calling him Young Master Jiang probably isn’t right.’

"M... Master..."

Chou’Er replied after a moment of thought.

Jiang Lan looked as if he was about to laugh. "I was asking if you know who I am, not what you should call me. Understand?" he said.

Chou’Er nodded in confusion.

Seeing this, Jiang Lan shook his head with a soft chuckle and said nothing more. ’I’ll just have to train her slowly over time,’ he thought.

As he had said before, Chou’Er was a blank slate. He could mold her into any form or shape he desired.

The auction had already concluded. Outside, a Jade Carriage was waiting, attended by Jiang Lan’s retinue of guards and Knights.

"To the Yunlan Platform."

After boarding the Jade Carriage, Jiang Lan gave the order. Seeing Chou’Er standing outside in a daze, he reached out a hand and pulled her aboard as well.

The interior of the Jade Carriage was quite spacious, furnished with a soft divan, an Incense Burner, and an assortment of Spirit Fruits, fine wines, pastries, and candied dates.

Chou’Er was still unaccustomed to her new surroundings after she stepped inside.

Accustomed to living in the cages of the fighting pits, she approached everything with a sense of unfamiliarity, apprehension, and extreme caution.

Jiang Lan, however, reclined casually on the divan and had Chou’Er pour him some wine. But she was so clumsy that she ended up spilling it all over the floor instead of filling his cup.

He couldn’t help but look a little exasperated.

Chou’Er blushed at her own clumsiness.

"Don’t worry about it. It’s just a bit of wine."

Jiang Lan propped himself up a little, sitting a bit straighter. He could sit however he pleased on the comfortable divan, after all.

He had Chou’Er sit beside him and began to casually ask about her experiences in the fighting pits and the circumstances that led to her being sold there.

Asking such questions, he knew, was like intentionally reopening old wounds.

But Jiang Lan was well aware of one simple truth: the quickest, most direct way to get closer to someone and earn their trust was to empathize with them.

And as for how to create that empathy? By facing their scars together, of course...

Chou’Er was oblivious to Jiang Lan’s intentions; she simply thought he had taken an interest in her past and her experiences.

And so, in her halting, stuttering way, she began to tell her story, piece by piece.

She herself felt no great surge of emotion as she spoke. She couldn’t remember much of her early childhood anyway. Her days in the fighting pits had been monotonous: fighting, killing, and being put on display for others to watch. It was an endless, uninteresting cycle that had lasted a very, very long time.

Jiang Lan seemed to be growing drowsy as he listened, only perking up when Chou’Er began to speak of how her mother had sold her to human traffickers.

In her usual stuttering, raspy voice, Chou’Er recounted how her father had abandoned her and her mother, and how her mother had then ruined her face with boiling water...

The Jade Carriage fell silent for a moment.

"So that’s where those scars came from. Your mother was a cruel one..." Jiang Lan’s gaze rested on her face, and he seemed genuinely surprised.

Chou’Er’s expression, however, remained largely unchanged. There was a flicker of sorrow, but it was buried deep in her eyes.

Noticing Jiang Lan looking at her, she instinctively lowered her head. Her hideous face had caused many to loathe and fear her.

She dreaded those undisguised looks of disgust and revulsion.

"Are you afraid I’ll find you repulsive? You’re lowering your head so much it’s about to disappear into your chest," Jiang Lan said with a soft chuckle, seeing her reaction.

Chou’Er kept her head down, wringing her hands inside her wide sleeves.

"Come sit over here," Jiang Lan said.

Chou’Er pressed her lips together and glanced at the divan beside him, at a loss.

"I told you to sit over here. Why are you dawdling?" Jiang Lan repeated.

Only then did Chou’Er slowly shuffle over and sit beside him, perching on the very edge of the seat. She kept her hands tightly clenched around her sleeves in her lap.

Sitting so close to Jiang Lan, she could smell a pleasant, woodsy scent coming from him.

"In the fighting pits, you were covered in blood and filth, with your hair completely disheveled—you looked more frightening than a beggar, and even then, I wasn’t repulsed by you."

"Now you’re all cleaned up. They’re just a few scars, and sooner or later, they can be removed completely. What is there to be insecure about?"

Jiang Lan reached out, tucking the strands of hair from the sides of her face. His long, slender fingers traced over the deep scars, where the flesh beneath was faintly visible.

Chou’Er’s face flushed. Though she was flustered, his words stirred a strange emotion within her, something she had never felt before. It was a pleasant warmth, just like the feeling she had after taking that Elixir Pill.

"I... I understand..." she responded, trying her best as she lowered her gaze, her long eyelashes fluttering.

"I have no need for cowards or the insecure by my side."