The General Under the Skirt - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

By the time she left the confinement room, Huo Zhao’s remains had already been returned to the General’s mansion and placed inside. The coffin would remain there for three days before the burial with Dachang’s highest honors.

After three or four days of confinement, Shen Roujia had gained some clarity. She had been impulsive and selfish. As the legitimate daughter of the Shen family, she enjoyed its prosperity and had a duty to reciprocate.

She needed to secure a powerful marriage alliance to preserve her family’s honor and favor. Moreover, the opportunity to enter the Eastern Palace was precious. What she stood to gain far outweighed what she might lose. How could she let her own feelings and reluctance determine the future of her family?

In the beginning, however, her thoughts were quite simple.

It might sound melodramatic, but she truly believed that if she were to marry, she should at least meet Huo Zhao first. Or perhaps she simply wanted to wait for his return. She wanted to speak to him once, as Shen Roujia, not as the Crown Princess.

Then again, maybe she wasn’t waiting for Huo Zhao at all but rather looking for an excuse to avoid her fate.

But her initial thoughts no longer mattered. Huo Zhao was dead.

Her father had confined her to her room, where she cried for an entire day. In the end, Su Qin patted her on the back and said, “If you truly want to go, I can help you.”

***

The past few days flashed through her mind like a dream. She felt like it was all a nightmare and that she would wake up in her mansion, safe and sound, with Huo Zhao still alive.

After sitting on the ground and silently crying for half an hour, Shen Roujia opened her tearful eyes. She crawled into the corner, hugged her knees, and curled up into a ball. She carefully adjusted her torn clothes, wrapped herself tightly, and began to assess her situation.

Judging from the men’s conversation, they didn’t know her identity. She hadn’t been abducted because of family feuds.

If that were true, escape would be even more difficult.

Those people wouldn’t listen to her at all. When they dragged her out, she didn’t pay attention to her surroundings, but she could still feel the cold, fast-moving wind on her face.

She wasn’t on land.

She was on a boat.

Realizing this, Shen Roujia bit her lower lip, and her despair grew.

She didn’t know how long she had been unconscious or where she was, but she knew she was far from home. She wondered if her family’s search party would find her.

Could she return in time for the wedding?

Why had these men captured her? Would she die on this ship?

Everything had happened so suddenly. One moment she was on her way to Huo Zhao’s tomb, and the next she was here, suffering such humiliation on a ship headed towards an unknown destination.

A wave of cold swept over Shen Roujia and she hugged herself tightly, her slender fingers rubbing her arms. Between the encroaching cold and the throbbing pain, drowsiness overcame her. Shen Roujia slowly closed her eyes, falling asleep as she hugged herself.

Bang!

The door was flung open again.

Shen Roujia was instantly startled awake, opening her eyes in alarm and shrinking back.

“Come out and eat!”

Shen Roujia’s legs went numb. She stayed where she was, crouching. Seeing that she didn’t move, the man said impatiently, “Damn it, you want me to drag you out?”

The recent humiliating and unbearable experience flashed through her mind. Shen Roujia reacted quickly, taking a few steps forward as her words tumbled out, “I-I’m coming, I’ll come out on my own.”

“Damned slowpoke!”

Shen Roujia crawled out of her confinement and stood up. Her fingers clenched, her shoulders hunched, she dared not make any unnecessary movements.

The man standing in front of her was about thirty years old, with small eyes, thick eyebrows, and unkempt stubble. He was slightly overweight, and his breath had a foul odor. There were white, rice-like grains in his hair. When he saw Shen Roujia’s face, a flicker of surprise crossed his features, but it was quickly replaced by a look of contempt as he muttered, “You have the look of a foxy slut.”

Shen Roujia was close enough to hear him clearly. Her palms began to sweat. Hearing such vulgar language, words she had never heard before, she felt deeply humiliated.

The man shoved Shen Roujia’s shoulder, catching her off guard and causing her to stumble forward. She didn’t know where to go, but she didn’t dare stand still, so she tentatively walked forward.

The process was agonizing, but soon, Shen Roujia was brought to a noisy and chaotic place..

Shen Roujia was stunned by the sight before her.

She had been confined to that small room, unable to see the outside world. Even when she had been dragged out briefly, the circumstances hadn’t allowed her to observe anything.

But now she finally had a glimpse of her current predicament.

There were many girls about her age, dressed in rags. Some wore nothing but thin, dirty clothes despite the cold weather. Their hair was disheveled, their faces dirty and their exposed skin covered with injuries of varying severity. Some were even holding babies. The children were so emaciated they couldn’t even cry from hunger, their faint whimpers lost in the cacophony. Their mothers simply shovelled food into their own mouths, paying no attention to their children.

Heaps of food lay on the floor in front of them. The steamed buns were covered in blue-black mould, placed directly on the dusty deck. Several wooden basins contained steaming dishes, but Shen Roujia couldn’t tell what they were. Fish bones, eggshells, fruit peels and wilted vegetable leaves floated in a thick broth. The people around her picked up the moldy buns and swallowed the tasteless stew, as if the filth was nothing to them.

Shen Roujia hadn’t eaten for a long time. Her stomach was empty, but the scene before her made her sick, and she stood there gagging.

The man who had brought her there laughed at her dry heaving and said maliciously, “Go and fight for it, or you won’t even get this much. Go back when you’re done. Don’t even think about escaping, you won’t get away.”

With that, the man left.

Shen Roujia stood there, unsure of what to do.

The people eating continued to scramble for food. They looked up at her apathetically as she approached, then returned to their meals.

Shen Roujia was hungry, but she couldn’t bring herself to eat. Even the dogs in the Shen residence ate better than this. If she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes, Shen Roujia would never have believed that anyone would eat such food.

Tears welled up in her eyes. She slowly moved her feet, found a quiet corner and crouched down. She planned to wait until they had finished eating before she returned.

She had only seen these white flour buns once or twice. The food she ate at home was meticulously prepared by the residence’s cooks. It came in a variety of shapes and flavors. Even the lowest quality flour was carefully sifted and processed before being served to her. And the buns she had seen were always perfectly white and clean. These yellowish-black things were nothing like what she remembered.

She thought of the “Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix” and the “Pork Tenderloin in a Purse” that Aunt Zhang had made at the residence. Aunt Zhang had come from the palace. She had worked in the imperial kitchen for many years before the emperor had given her to the Shen household. She had worked in their kitchen ever since. Aunt Zhang often made her little snacks, sweet and soft. Shen Roujia had eaten them for so many years that it had become a habit.

Her stomach growled twice. Shen Roujia looked at the vegetable leaves on the ground, her appetite completely gone. She didn’t want to fight them for food.

She felt like crying again. What if her father couldn’t find her…

“Hey, are you new here?”

A slightly hoarse female voice sounded next to Shen Roujia. She came to her senses. Although the voice sounded harmless, Shen Roujia had been through too much in the past few days and still flinched.

She slowly raised her head and looked at the person who had spoken.

It was a girl with somewhat disheveled hair. Although her face was dirty, her delicate features were still visible, showing that she was pretty. The fact that the other person was a girl eased Shen Roujia’s fear slightly and she replied softly, “What… what is it?”

The woman before her smiled and said, “You must be new. This ship stopped in Yuanjiang for a day, so I guess your home must be nearby.”

Shen Roujia paused, then quickly said, “Yes, yes, my home… My home is not far from Yuanjiang. You…”

“Don’t even think about it. There’s no way I could take you there, otherwise I wouldn’t be here suffering like this.”

Shen Roujia couldn’t help but feel disappointed, but what the woman said was true. She lowered her head slightly and asked, “…Then do you know where we are now?”

The woman thought for a moment, then said, “It has been three or four days since you were brought aboard. I don’t know where these bastards are taking us, but it must be somewhere in the northwest or southwest, or maybe the far south.”

Shen Roujia’s heart sank. She pursed her lips and asked, “Were you also knocked unconscious and brought here?”

The woman nodded, her expression somewhat complicated, and said, “Which woman on this ship came willingly? Once you’re here…”

She paused, then looked at the people scavenging for food on the ground like pigs and dogs. “Your life is practically over,” she said.