Chapter 244 Rex's Lover
Inside the dark carriage, a biting cold wind blew into the carriage through the gaps between the wooden boards.
It’s cold, so cold that it makes people shiver.
The sound of wheels rolling over the stone pavement, the clatter of horse hooves, the frequency of the wheels turning, and the sound of wind hitting the carriage floor.
And... there was the sound of someone's breathing, very close at hand.
This extremely strange yet somewhat familiar environment made Shirley's half-asleep brain even more groggy.
Something deep in her memory was quietly reviving. She instinctively rejected the awakening of that memory, but her brain was out of her control. The horrible impression that made her hair stand on end seemed to be grinning at her, clamoring wildly to return to her spiritual world.
I don’t know how long it took, maybe just an hour or two, maybe longer.
The closed door of the carriage was opened and light poured in.
Shirley curled up and trembled as she tried to raise her hands to cover her face.
Someone appeared outside the car door and reached out to grab Shirley.
Shirley wanted to struggle, but someone grabbed her arm from behind, lifted her up like a hen by the wings, and pushed her out of the car.
Shirley wanted to scream, but no sound came out.
In the confusion, she seemed to hear the person holding her laughing and saying in a flattering tone: "It's a good piece of stuff, only five gold coins."
Shirley began to tremble uncontrollably, her eyes widening in fear.
In fact, there were not just one person but two people who escorted her out of the car.
The man who opened the car door pinched her chin without complaint and said disdainfully, "It's too expensive. Two or three gold coins are enough for a little girl like this."
That was just... a memory that Shirley tried hard to forget.
She was sold out of a family that could not give her much warmth but at least gave her a safe place to live because of a few gossips from a passing merchant. This made even the humble desires of ordinary lower-class women to get married, have children and have their own small family out of reach. This was a terrible memory that completely changed the course of her life.
Sibel was an orphan from the monastery and was sold by the monastery, while Shirley's life was ruined by her family, which made her hate that memory even more and want to forget it completely.
Someone carried her up.
Shirley, awakened by the horrific memories of the past, opened her eyes with difficulty.
This time, she was truly awake.
She saw the road below her.
It is a garden path paved with pebbles, which can only be seen in wealthy homes.
Shirley shuddered and forced herself to raise her head.
She saw a large hollow iron gate and a high bluestone wall that was even more exquisite than the wall of Westham's elegant Dream Club.
On both sides of the cobblestone path are beautiful gardens that are well maintained even in winter, without any dead branches or leaves.
Shirley's neck drooped limply.
Yes...she was attacked in the window service hall, and apparently, kidnapped.
Ms. Zhao reminded them not to leave the city hall easily, and if they need to leave, they must not act alone and must be accompanied by an operator.
Who could have thought that someone would be bold enough to enter the City Hall and kidnap someone?
There was a dull pain on the side of her cheek, and the over-stimulated Ms. Shirley struggled to maintain a bit of clarity so as not to faint again.
When she was thrown onto the smooth marble floor, Ms. Shirley instinctively used her arms to cushion the impact and protect her head.
As Ms. Shirley was shaking from the impact on her arm, someone walked up to her.
A woman's foot, wearing a satin-soled shoe, kicked Shirley in the side of her abdomen. The force was much lighter than that of the man who kidnapped her, but it was still painful, causing Ms. Shirley to flip over irresistibly and face up.
The person who kicked Shirley was a maid. Her skin was whiter and more delicate than Shirley's, who had been exposed to the sun a lot after becoming a clerk. On her wrist was an exquisite bracelet that even Shirley, who was the top star of the "Lover Club", could not afford. She seemed to be disgusted with touching Shirley, a "dirty woman". She pinched her nose, took two steps back, and stood respectfully behind a noble lady.
Ms. Shirley looked up.
The moment she saw the lady clearly, Ms. Shirley couldn't help but tremble all over.
The Lord of Everlook Town - Baroness Virgil!
A staunch supporter of Viscount Darcy's family, Lord of Kane Town!
Ms. Shirley knew very well how much Viscount Darcy hated the current City Hall, especially after the coal yard that originally belonged to their family was taken back by the City Hall at half price.
Ms. Shirley swallowed and her face turned paler.
If the hatred of the coal yard being "seized" was not enough to make Viscount Darcy's family completely break with the City Hall, then the tax reform that the City Hall was vigorously promoting was enough to make Viscount Darcy, no, all the local nobles turn against him.
She was actually the first victim of the nobles' counterattack... Thinking of this, Ms. Shirley felt cold all over.
"Is this Charlie Rex's rumored lover?"
Baroness Virgil sat upright in a gorgeous high-back chair. She looked up and down at the disheveled Shirley with cold eyes, then turned her head away in disgust.
To Mrs. Virgil's right, another noblewoman sitting on a high-backed chair slightly covered the lower half of her face with a small fan and said critically, "Among commoners, she is considered a beauty. How can we expect that illegitimate child to have such high aesthetic taste?"
The personal maids behind the two ladies let out a soft laugh at the right moment.
Not everyone can become a personal maid for a noble lady. She has to be a servant who has served her master's family for more than three generations, has received a more decent education than the children of ordinary middle-class families, and has to have a decent appearance to be qualified to stand behind the noble mistress.
In the eyes of these high-class maids, even middle-class housewives who are qualified to appear in social occasions and can fight for positions to please and flatter their mistresses are just "inferior people", let alone ordinary people.
A noble lady like Mrs. Virgil would not bother to talk to such a commoner. She didn't even have the interest to take a second look at him and just waved her hand casually.
The maid who had kicked Shirley took a half step to the side and said condescendingly to Shirley, who was curled up on the ground trembling, "Madam will generously give you a chance to save yourself, commoner, to prove your worth."
Shirley, who was trembling with fear, suddenly felt angry.
Of course she knew that in the eyes of the ladies she was as humble as an ant, and they would not be held responsible even if they killed her. They could just make up an excuse that she was rude and offended first, and then give her a little money to choose a cemetery for her. Then even ordinary people would have to praise the ladies who killed her for their generosity and kindness.
Not to mention a woman like her who had been a prostitute, even if the male owner of the highest social status in a civilian family was killed by a noble carriage, he would only be punished with a dozen gold coins.
Shirley didn't think she could influence the decision of the city hall at all. Even if she could, she couldn't tolerate putting Mr. Rex and Ms. Zhao in a difficult position because of her.
Once she was sure that she had no way out, Shirley no longer felt that there was anything to be afraid of... She had already experienced the respect that she would never have with her fate. She had also experienced the feeling of being valued and needed by many people. Compared with the trajectory of her life over the past twenty years, the past six months had given her so much. She could be content.
Ms. Shirley struggled to stand up, tidied the messy hair around her ears, adjusted the curled corners of her clothes, and made her back straight enough so that she would not look too humble and cowardly.
"I am a woman saved by the god of death." Ms. Shirley raised her chin and proudly looked at the maid and the noblewoman who looked down on her. She shouted with all her strength, "No matter what you want to get from me, it's just wishful thinking! Stop dreaming!"
Mrs. Virgil felt offended and a look of displeasure appeared on her face.
Her personal maid sneered and winked at the guards who were escorting Ms. Shirley.
The Virgil family's security guard immediately pounced forward like a wolf or a tiger, and kicked Ms. Shirley, who was barely standing up, to the ground from behind.
"Well said, you are worthy of being a woman from the City Hall."
The sturdy and thick mahogany door was torn into pieces by the violent thick black vines. The howling wind blew the door fragments and smashed them into the magnificent hall of Virgil's house.
The gorgeous chandelier was scratched and swayed, the glass of the huge portrait framed on the wall shattered, the exquisite large vase more than one person tall was knocked over and broken, and the valuable ornaments on the finely carved shelves fell off one after another.
Mrs. Virgil and the noble ladies who accomplice with her let out screams of panic that were not any more noble than those of ordinary frightened peasant women. Although their respective maids tried their best to protect their mistress, the pampered and respectable life of senior maids was not enough to make them strong enough to withstand all the fragments of the mahogany door that were blown in by the strong wind carrying the dangerous black mist.
The only person who was not hit by the debris was Ms. Shirley, who was kicked down by the strong security guard and lay on the ground, almost unable to breathe.
Ms. Shirley looked back blankly.
Through the ruins of the luxurious gate with no remains left and the completely shattered French windows, she discovered that... the beautiful garden that she had seen when she was carried in had been occupied by countless huge black thorny vines that had sprouted from the ground.
These wildly dancing thorny vines destroyed the exquisite scenery in the garden and swept the men who had kidnapped Ms. Shirley into the air and threw them down.
With the magnificent courtyard that the Virgil family had maintained for hundreds of years completely destroyed as the background, the man standing at the gate was... Mr. Rex's supporter, Lord Tarantan, the black magician Yang!
"Mr. Yang!" Ms. Shirley called out weakly. The surprise of surviving the disaster made all the grievances and anger she had endured for a long time turn into excited tears that rolled down.
Yang Qiu glanced at Ms. Shirley's bulging left cheek, her messy hair and thin indoor uniform, her arms with bloody scratches, and the obvious footprints on her lower back, and waved his hand expressionlessly.
The solid marble floor was broken through by hideous thorny vines, which swung violently and pinned the two guards who were trying to escape against the wall.
The kidnapping plan led by Baroness Virgil was indeed bold and careful. After abducting Ms. Shirley, she still created suspicion and left the City Hall building in a noisy group, pretending that she wanted Ms. Shirley to go outside to "mediate the conflict" so as not to arouse the suspicion of the overwhelmed staff at the service window.
Afterwards, he took Ms. Shirley around the city in circles to avoid being tracked down.
It was not until Ms. Shirley woke up from her coma and saw the Virgil family's garden and the street view of Sapphire Street outside the big iron gate that Yang Qiu discovered her trace.
Fortunately, Sunset Boulevard where the City Lord's Mansion is located is not far from Sapphire Street, and Mrs. Virgil, who kidnapped Ms. Shirley, did not intend to kill her directly, but wanted to use her rumored identity as "Rex's lover" to make a fuss, so Yang Qiu was able to arrive in time.
After helping Ms. Shirley, who was trying hard to suppress her sobs, Yang Qiu stopped the storm and looked at Mrs. Virgil, who was surrounded by the frightened maids.
"The Virgil family of Ever Hope attacked the city hall and kidnapped important officials of the city hall. This is Ever Hope launching a territorial war against Innadli." Yang Qiu said expressionlessly, "I am Yang, a black magician followed by the Lord of Innadli. I have accepted the challenge of the Virgil family on behalf of Charlie Rex."
