Fortunately, Luo Shangyu didn’t do anything out of line afterward.
She helped Qin Yu clean her body and carefully washed her hair.
During the bath, the Leather Collar around Qin Yu’s neck was removed.
She took this opportunity to greedily enjoy this rare moment of freedom.
Soon, Luo Shangyu finished bathing her.
The heavy feeling of her long, water-soaked hair was still something Qin Yu wasn’t quite used to, but fortunately, Luo Shangyu used magic to dry it quickly.
“Eat first. I’ll punish you properly after you’ve eaten.”
After the bath, Luo Shangyu brought in a tray from outside the military tent, filled with a sumptuous dinner.
“…”
Sitting at the table, Qin Yu felt her heart tighten at Luo Shangyu’s words and the sight of the lavish meal.
‘This rhythm — is it a last meal?’
However, when Luo Shangyu placed the dinner in front of her, intense hunger overcame Qin Yu’s fear, and her appetite soared.
She ate the food in her bowl in large mouthfuls, ignoring her image, while Luo Shangyu sat opposite her, watching with great interest.
Suddenly, Qin Yu looked up and saw Luo Shangyu staring straight at her, which made her feel a bit uneasy.
“What… what are you doing!”
“What am I doing? Keeping a good eye on my captive so she doesn’t run away again.” Luo Shangyu’s voice wasn’t loud, but her tone was light.
“…”
It felt terrible to be watched while eating.
Qin Yu sped up, wanting to escape Luo Shangyu’s surveillance as quickly as possible.
“Eat slowly. What’s the rush? Are you that eager to be punished?”
Luo Shangyu dealt with her own dinner in a leisurely manner, looking up at the nervous and flustered Qin Yu.
***
Qin Yu’s hunger gradually vanished, replaced by a feeling of fullness in her stomach and an inner dread of the coming punishment.
“I’m finished.” Qin Yu set down her chopsticks and wiped her mouth with a nearby towel.
“Go to the bedroom and wait for me.” Luo Shangyu’s voice was incredibly calm, yet it was as sharp as a blade, piercing Qin Yu’s heart and making her footsteps unsteady.
Qin Yu walked into the bedroom, closed the door, and slowly crouched down with her back against it.
Everything today felt like a dream.
First, she had wasted most of the day exerting a massive amount of effort to escape, only to be caught by Luo Shangyu and brought back to face punishment.
‘How could I be so stupid…!’ When Qin Yu carefully summed it up, she realized she had really been “asking for it” today.
She didn’t dare think about escaping anymore.
Her only hope now was to escape Luo Shangyu’s “punishment.”
‘Maybe if I fall asleep, Luo Shangyu will let me off?’
With a sliver of hope, Qin Yu climbed onto the bed and crawled under the covers, trying to fall asleep as soon as possible.
The autumn rain was still falling.
The temperature in the room was a bit low, but it was very warm under the blankets.
The cotton pajamas Qin Yu was wearing had been specially ordered from a tailor by Luo Shangyu this morning.
They fit Qin Yu perfectly and were both warm and comfortable.
However, Luo Shangyu’s so-called punishment hung over Qin Yu’s head like the Sword of Damocles, keeping her from falling asleep for a long time.
In the darkness, the bedroom door opened.
Qin Yu squeezed her eyes shut, attempting to fake sleep to get through this.
Footsteps came from the door, getting closer and closer, then stopped beside Qin Yu.
Qin Yu took a deep breath and lay flat with her eyes tightly closed, silently praying that Luo Shangyu would spare her.
She felt an itchy sensation on her face as Luo Shangyu’s warm breath brushed against her cheek.
‘Is she observing me…?’ Qin Yu’s heart climbed into her throat.
Whether she could escape punishment depended on this!
By the light from outside the bedroom, Luo Shangyu could faintly see Qin Yu’s long eyelashes trembling slightly.
‘She’s not asleep…’
Luo Shangyu initially wanted to wake Qin Yu directly, but then a better idea occurred to her.
She turned and walked out of the room.
“Whew — “
Hearing the door close, Qin Yu let out a long sigh of relief.
Luo Shangyu had left; it seemed she had escaped disaster.
Just as she was about to change positions and continue sleeping, the door opened again.
Qin Yu’s heart tightened once more.
Luo Shangyu walked up to Qin Yu with a joyful expression, as if she were already amused by what was about to happen.
She pinched Qin Yu’s nose, forcing her to open her mouth to breathe.
‘I’ve been found out?’ Qin Yu didn’t know what to do for a moment and could only breathe through her mouth.
‘If I’m asleep, I should probably breathe through my mouth like this…’
Qin Yu carefully pondered the movie scenes she had seen in the real-world.
Seeing that Qin Yu still hadn’t “woken up,” Luo Shangyu covered Qin Yu’s mouth with her hand.
Soon, Qin Yu felt her chest tighten.
She pushed Luo Shangyu’s hand away, sat up, and coughed violently.
“So you weren’t asleep after all!” Luo Shangyu sat on the edge of the bed, enjoying Qin Yu’s unsightly state.
“You woke up the moment I called you.”
“Is that how you wake someone up! It was so violent, how could I not wake up?” Qin Yu said, wiping the saliva from the corner of her mouth.
“I think… you should clarify a certain fact,” Luo Shangyu said calmly.
“Strictly speaking, you are no longer a person. You are my captive, my property, so you are just an object. Therefore, I am waking up a ‘thing,’ not a ‘person’.”
“The first step of your punishment is to make you recognize your position!”
“Recognize my position…” Qin Yu repeated blankly.
The Luo Shangyu before her was full of a sense of control, making Qin Yu feel as though she were already being toyed with in the palm of her hand.
As she spoke, Luo Shangyu refastened the collar she had removed during the bath around Qin Yu’s neck.
The familiar sense of pressure flooded into Qin Yu’s mind once again.
“No matter what your status was before, or what it might be in the future, what you must do now is obey my orders unconditionally!”
“Yes…” Qin Yu whispered, lowering her head.
“Qin Yu,” Luo Shangyu reached out and hooked her finger under Qin Yu’s chin, forcing her to tilt her head up slightly.
“Tell me, what should you do from now on?”
“…”
This was a trick question!
Qin Yu naturally knew what Luo Shangyu wanted to hear.
She whispered, “I am your captive. I will do whatever you tell me to do, and I will absolutely not resist…”
Luo Shangyu nodded in satisfaction and then asked, “Will you dare to run away again in the future?”
“I won’t dare…”
These words were truly from the bottom of Qin Yu’s heart.
After hearing Luo Shangyu say she was a Seventh-rank Quasi-god today, Qin Yu was already terrified and had given up the idea of escaping.
A Seventh-rank Quasi-god, a powerhouse of this world — she couldn’t escape at all!
“Very good!” Luo Shangyu looked at the results of her teaching with satisfaction.
“I am very pleased with you today. Since this is your first offense, we’ll stop here for today.”
Qin Yu felt a sense of relief.
It seemed her punishment had come to an end.
As long as she behaved herself from now on, she shouldn’t be punished again, right?
“Go to sleep!” Luo Shangyu lay down first.
“Okay.” Qin Yu pulled the blankets over the two of them.
Luo Shangyu turned off the Magic Guide Lamp in the room, and the room fell into darkness once more, leaving only the sound of the autumn rain outside the window.
“Um… is the weather going to turn cold?” Qin Yu asked, wrapping herself tighter in the blanket.
“No,” Luo Shangyu said, “It will stay hot for a few more days before the weather turns cold.”
“How do you know that so clearly?”
“I am of the Elf Race. I’ve lived for over 1,000 years, so how could I not know?”
‘So Luo Shangyu is of the Elf Race…’
Qin Yu’s previous suspicion was confirmed.
She hadn’t been sure when she first saw Luo Shangyu’s ears because there were very few members of the Elf Race left these days.
“Then why did you say you’ve only been a General for the Kingdom of Yiyong for a few years?” Qin Yu asked.
She regretted it as soon as the question left her mouth.
She was just Luo Shangyu’s captive; why should she be told so much?
However, to Qin Yu’s surprise, Luo Shangyu answered very straightforwardly, with no intention of hiding anything: “A few years ago, through a chance opportunity, I was granted an audience with the former King of the Kingdom of Yiyong, Feng Yue. That’s when I entered official service. Before that, I lived a life of leisure, traveling to various places in the South Continent of the Phantom World.”
Qin Yu nodded.
After hearing Luo Shangyu’s experience, she realized that Luo Shangyu hadn’t always been a General.
If that was the case, then Luo Shangyu’s heart must not be entirely made of stone.
If she kept pleading, maybe she would be set free.
“Oh, that’s right.” Luo Shangyu stretched out her arm and pulled Qin Yu into her embrace.
“I went a bit too far just now. I’m sorry.”
Qin Yu was instantly shocked, ‘Is this real? Is Luo Shangyu apologizing to me? Apologizing to a captive?’
However, Luo Shangyu’s body temperature behind her was very real.
Luo Shangyu was actually embracing her.
“It… it’s okay…” Qin Yu hurriedly explained.
But as soon as the words were out, she felt a bit of regret.
Why would she say it was okay?
“You’re lying, aren’t you?” Luo Shangyu placed her hand over the left side of Qin Yu’s chest, feeling her heartbeat.
“Yes…”
“You can disobey my orders to a certain extent, and I won’t punish you for it next time, but you absolutely must not run away again.”
“Yes.” Qin Yu nodded.
She realized that Luo Shangyu’s punishment was real, and she didn’t want to go through it again.
However, she felt that the tone Luo Shangyu used when telling her not to run away was very heavy — unusually heavy.
Why did she place such a heavy emphasis only on the fact that she couldn’t run away?
Qin Yu also thought about how Luo Shangyu had imprisoned her in the military camp but had hidden her identity.
The soldiers didn’t know who she really was…
Connecting the clues, Qin Yu reached a startling conclusion: Luo Shangyu had captured her but hadn’t made it public because she definitely intended to use her for something!
Just as Qin Yu was about to ask Luo Shangyu directly, Luo Shangyu suddenly asked, “Do you want to know the contents of the negotiations with your deputy, Zhu Xun, this morning?”
“I do!” Qin Yu replied immediately.
Compared to the vague answer about Luo Shangyu’s purpose for kidnapping her, Qin Yu was more interested in what Zhu Xun had said this morning, as it directly concerned her.
“He said you were missing and had already guessed that I was the one who had imprisoned you. He asked me to treat you well, and later, the Empire would send a diplomatic mission to negotiate terms with me to get you out.”
“I see…” Qin Yu responded.
Zhu Xun’s words weren’t surprising.
He was just a frontline commander; the specific plan for her ransom would have to be decided by the officials in the imperial court.
“As for the time of the withdrawal…” Luo Shangyu said, “In exchange for 10,000 gold coins, he secured a promise that we would not counterattack when they retreat tomorrow.”
“So we’re leaving tomorrow?”
“Correct.”
“Will you continue to keep my identity a secret from now on?” This was Qin Yu’s biggest concern.
After these two days, she had almost accepted the changes to her body, but she hadn’t yet accepted the change in her identity.
Under Luo Shangyu, though she wore a collar, she at least didn’t have to wear shackles.
The collar was just a disgrace, while shackles meant a total restriction of freedom.
The clothes she wore weren’t prison garb; they were even Luo Shangyu’s own clothes, clean and comfortable.
If she were brought before the King of the Kingdom of Yiyong, Qin Yu couldn’t imagine how miserable her life would be.
“Don’t worry. At the very least, I will do everything in my power to keep your identity hidden!” Luo Shangyu comforted Qin Yu.
Luo Shangyu’s embrace tightened, and in the dark night, her breathing was clearly audible to Qin Yu.
Luo Shangyu hooked her right leg between Qin Yu’s legs, leaving Qin Yu in a very passive position.
However, Qin Yu felt a great sense of security being held by Luo Shangyu, and even she didn’t know why.
Perhaps it was because, in the military camp of the Kingdom of Yiyong, the only person she could rely on was Luo Shangyu.