Heaven and Earth as One

Many years ago, Ning Fengzhi accompanied Xue Ye on a visit to the Auction House. Seeing the women locked in cages, he remained silent for a long while before finally saying just four words: "Humanoid puppets."

In Ning Fengzhi's mouth, the term was an assessment of the phenomenon. Yet from another perspective, was it not also a portrait of those women?

Their minds had been snuffed out when they were very young, leaving behind only breathing shells that lived out their lives according to scripts written by others.

Ning Fengzhi had once said that these people could not be saved.

Even if they were rescued, they would only be a pile of flesh that could move.

The person in charge sighed again, this time with genuine pity.

He turned to look at the women staring around blankly, cursed under his breath, then said to the clerk beside him, "Go withdraw some money from the accounts and give each of them three months' wages to keep on hand. Also, have several rooms in the back courtyard cleaned out. Anyone willing to stay can live there for the time being."

The clerk nodded cautiously and accepted the order, then asked, "Sir, should we notify anyone about this?"

The Heaven Dou Grand Auction House was nominally private property, but in reality, seventy percent of its shares were held by the royal family, with most of its profits flowing into the national treasury.

If the slave trade was cut away, the greatest losses would not fall upon a few scattered shareholders, but upon the royal family itself.

And this royal family was not ruled by the emperor alone.

"The imperial decree has already been issued. What is there to notify?" The person in charge waved a hand. "His Majesty is cutting off his own