✧𝔻𝔼𝕍𝕆𝕋𝕀𝕆ℕ~ 𝒶𝓃𝒾𝓂𝑒 𝑜𝓃𝑒𝓈𝒽𝑜𝓉 𝒸𝑜𝓁𝓁𝑒𝒸𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃~✧

✧Wen Ning- Kidnapped (Part One)✧

WEN NING DIDN'T expect to wake up tied to a chair. And he certainly didn't expect to not have his sister next to him. Wen Qing always stayed near to her brother, with her he felt safe. Without her, tied up in this unknown cell, he could do nothing but hang his head and try not to cry.

After resting for two minutes, he looked up when he heard the sound of a rusty metal door creaking open. Two people, a young adult woman that looked to be close to his age and an older man, walked in wielding weapons. Both of then were wearing golden clothes which showed that they were from the Jin clan. But they were faces he'd never seen before...

"Wen Qionglin, sit up!" the man snapped, whipping the floor next to him with a rawhide whip to scare him.

"Ah- I- it-" Wen Ning stammered, unable to talk well due to his anxiety. Why was he tied up like this, in a Jin clan prison cell, and why were they yelling at him? Where was his jiejie? Where was Wen Qing? Why was he alone? It was so scary!

"Sit up already," the woman said. She sounded sad and another emotion that Ning's racing mind couldn't name. Was it maybe... regretful? Upset? It sounded like she didn't enjoy whatever it was she was doing. Maybe he could use that to bring her on his side?

He decided he'd try. He kept his head hung low and uttered a pained moan. When that got no reaction, he moaned again, and this time the woman and man both sighed.

"What's wrong, Wen?" the man snapped, grabbing him by the throat and choking him of all his breath. "Does it hurt, being tied up?"

The woman cried out seeing him in pain, and Ning was now sure that she was too softhearted for her job. He liked women like her. Perhaps he could get her to help him get out of this predicament he found himself in.

"Y-yes, it h-hurts a lot," he choked out. The man was choking all the air out of his lungs, he could barely talk without pain now.

"Let go of him, Wang Shi. Father will never acknowledge us as legitimate children no matter how many of his enemies we hurt," the woman said.

The man, Wang Shi, was angered at this, and he dropped Wen Ning to the ground to turn on the woman who had spoken to him in such a disrespectful way.

"YU SU, I'LL KILL YOU!" he yowled, leaping at the woman, who elegantly dodged, leaving her sibling? lying helpless on the floor.

"M-miss Yu Su, a-are you g-going to r-release me?" Ning asked.

"I'm planning to," Yu Su replied, ignoring her brother swearing at her from where he laid on the ground. "Wang Shi just kidnapped you to give you to our father, Jin Guangshan, thinking that if he received your head as a gift, he'd accept us as his legitimate children. But he never will. Children of a concubine can never be the offspring of such a fine lord as him."

The sarcasm dripping from her last sentence made it clear to Wen Ning that she didn't find her father to be a fine lord at all, and that she didn't enjoy being called a child of a concubine. Who would, though? It was understandable that Wang Shi would want to be recognized as a legitimate son. Nobody wanted to be known as the son of a whore.

And Wen Ning was useless anyway...

"I-I'll let you t-take me..." he said softly, then added, "if it h-helps you."

"You see!" Wang Shi said, sneering at Ning in a very disgusting way. "He wants to be taken away!"

"Don't be stupid, brother," Yu Su snapped. "He's selfless, that is all. And Mr. Wen, I'm planning on helping you out of here no matter what. So you will not be taken."

"Ah, t-thank y-you f-for your kindness," Ning stammered, bowing as best as he could all chained up.

"Don't worry about it!" Yu Su responded. "Let's go!"

She pulled a key out of her hanfu and quickly unlocked the chains holding him captive. Once the chains were undone, she took Ning's hands in hers and led him out, sneaking past the soldiers with ease.

Once they reached the outskirts of Lanling, Yu Su said she wouldn't be going any further.

"I'm too unfamiliar with the terrain here, I'd get lost. You can make it to Cloud Recesses from here if you walk for a few days. Be sure to eat well, okay? Bye!"

The young Jin lady skipped away down the streets of Lanling, her long hair waving behind her. Wen Ning watched her go, then continued on his way back to his home.