W-what was going on?
What had happened?
Skye listened to the sound of porcelain shattering,
her mind filled with questions.
Instinctively sensing danger, she braced herself and prepared to retreat,
but then something even more maddening happened.
She suddenly felt the support behind her loosen,
and the pillar supporting her body toppled backward???
Pillars could fall over too????
What???
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
In the darkness,
Skye vaguely heard a series of collisions behind her,
followed by the crackling sounds of all sorts of objects falling to the ground and shattering.
Everything that had happened in such a short span instantly crashed her brain,
and though she subconsciously wanted to flee, she found her feet frozen helplessly in place.
Suddenly,
click,
the sound of a light switch being flipped rang out,
and every light in the hall came on. The blinding glare forced Skye to narrow her eyes.
Once she adjusted to the light,
the sight before her left Skye utterly dumbfounded.
The mysterious space she had thought she had entered was actually a huge tent.
The stone pillars standing throughout the space were actually circular wooden display stands over two meters tall,
and what made her heart pound even harder was that every stand had held exquisite porcelain.
One look was enough to tell that it was incredibly valuable.
Her heart slowly sank to the bottom.
Skye stared blankly behind herself,
and, sure enough, there was a row of toppled display stands and porcelain shards scattered all over the floor.
"W-who's there?"
A young man's voice rang in Skye's ears.
She pursed her lips,
wearing an expression on the verge of tears as she looked at the three figures who had come before her.
Skye understood that she seemed to have gotten herself into trouble!
Yu Xian walked past the crouching Skye,
picked up a porcelain shard in front of her, and said with a heartbroken expression, his voice trembling slightly,
"Th-this is Ming dynasty blue-and-white porcelain that I painstakingly bought at a British royal auction!"
"N-no~ Don't~"
He picked up another shard with gold trim, pain flashing through his eyes.
"This is William Hogarth's Royal Delft porcelain, a peerless seventeenth-century treasure from the Tulip Duchy."
"And this—"
Yu Xian picked up a dark green shard with trembling hands, his expression growing even more mournful.
"This is celadon from the Yue kilns of the Tang dynasty, a treasure from a thousand years ago! Its market value is at least eight figures!"
"Uh, Captain...
C-Captain, your beloved 'Moon Goddess's Tears' crystal cup from the Adriatic Republic
has shattered too!"
Catalina was half a beat slow in reacting to Yu Xian's performance.
Then, wearing a look of utter shock, she pointed at a pale blue crystal cup on the ground that had split in half.
Ignoring Catalina's terrible acting, Yu Xian paced around Skye, picking up a shard now and then,
all while muttering nonstop, "This one's ten thousand dollars!"
"This one's fifty thousand dollars!"
"And this one's seventy thousand dollars!"
"..."
Skye watched this bizarre scene.
With her years of experience scraping by at the bottom of society, if she still could not tell that she had been set up,
then she would have lived all those years for nothing.
Thinking of that,
Skye recalled the past few days she had spent gathering information on the Winter Lord.
There had been that inexplicable feeling—whenever she was about to become lost and confused, it seemed as though some force was quietly helping her,
allowing her to uncover more clues about the Winter Lord.
Then she remembered the scrap of paper in her pocket, burned down to almost nothing and preserving only an address.
How could she not realize that she had been played completely?
But,
what she could not understand was
how she had offended them.
Why had they gone to such painstaking lengths to set her up?
These shattered objects were all priceless treasures.
They had actually used them just to deal with her?
And there were hidden cameras all around, leaving her absolutely no way out!
Was it simply because she had investigated the Winter Lord?
Did those people at the top refuse to let someone like her touch their taboo?
Skye fell silent at that thought.
The clues she had worked so hard to find had actually been deliberately fed to her.
Thinking of the inhuman abuse she might suffer next,
thinking that the world might soon lose a girl named Skye forever,
grief welled up within her.
Why had all of this happened?
Why was the world so cruel to her?
Her biological parents had abandoned her.
The children at the orphanage had despised her.
She had struggled so hard to grow up and had seen far too much petty scrambling in life,
seen far too much injustice and unfairness.
She only wanted to survive.
She only wanted to know about her biological parents.
She only wanted to learn the truth that had been buried in this world.
What had she done wrong?
God, how were You going to treat her?
As for resisting?
Thinking of those vicious Dragon Tooth Warriors,
she had no desire to escape either.
Forget it.
Let it be.
How much worse could things get?
At most, she would just be jumping from one hell into another.
Seeing that the mood had been built up enough, Yu Xian gathered the porcelain shards
and placed them before the silent, downcast Skye.
"Hey, who are you?
How did you get in here?
Don't you know this is private property?
And this time, you've gotten yourself into serious trouble, understand?"
Hearing the voice opposite her exactly as expected,
Skye, whose excitement before coming here and fear upon seeing the vicious Dragon Tooth Warriors had both vanished,
looked up at Yu Xian, whose face was full of pain, and said lifelessly,
"What do you want?"
"My life?"
"Did I violate some forbidden taboo of this world?"
"..."
Yu Xian watched Skye spout nonsense and secretly wondered,
Damn, did I overdo it?
But it was not a big problem.
The girl was merely too overwhelmed right now.
I'll compensate you later, poor Skye.
"Ahem, well, unknown young lady!
You damaged quite a lot of things!
I did a rough calculation, and altogether it should come to 1.1 million dollars.
You'll have to compensate me for that!"
"Of course, you don't look particularly wealthy,
so I'll reluctantly ease the burden for you a little.
Let's call it one million dollars!"
Skye's lips twitched, and all color drained from her face. "I don't have that much money!"
"No money?"
"No money is simply wonderful!"
Yu Xian somehow instantly produced a contract and placed it before her.
"Then come on!"
"Sign this thirty-year contract and work off your debt! From now on, your body is mine."
That was right. My squad of useful tools had gained another member.
I was one step closer to my great dream of slacking off.
Besides,
Y Squad now had four people—me, Catalina, Medea, and Skye. We could finally make a full table for mahjong.
Hehe, one of the goals I had been longing for had finally been achieved.
Hmph. Men. He only wanted me for my looks, didn't he?
Skye's vacant gaze turned toward him.
Looking into his clear black eyes,
she had the feeling that she had no secrets at all before this man.
There were now two paths before her.
One was to sign the contract and become this guy's dog.
The other was to refuse. He had not explicitly said what would happen if she did not sign,
but Skye could more or less guess. It would not end well—prison or death?
But she could not be trapped, and she could not die.
There were still far too many things she wanted to do.
Her biological parents, the world's secrets, and the abnormality within her...
Skye bit her lip. In that instant,
it felt as though her entire life flashed through her mind.
Tears glimmered in Skye's eyes as she stretched out her hands
and shakily accepted the contract Yu Xian had placed before her.
Without reading it closely, she scribbled her name onto it.
After signing it,
Skye gathered the last of her courage and spoke to him,
"You... you can't force me when I don't want to!!!"
"Otherwise, I'd rather die!"
This was the girl's final stubbornness.
At the same time, Yu Xian's voice and the girl's voice rang out together, indistinguishable as they blended into one.
"Welcome to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Y Squad. I'm the captain—Yu Xian!"
Skye stared blankly at the hand Yu Xian held out before her,
then at Yu Xian, Catalina, Medea, and Fatty, all smiling at her...
For some reason,
all she wanted to do now was cry!
P.S.:
A rundown of the most poisonous flaws and most boring plotlines in this book!
Is there any big shot willing to offer some guidance and take it off my hands?
Before you continue