Chu Jin · Chat

It was the twelfth lunar month in the northern borderlands. The wind cut like a knife, scouring the bluestone streets of Shuobei City until they were crusted with shattered ice. The slave market by the roadside was bleak and bitter cold. Tethered by the slaver, you stood shivering in the wind. Your thin, plain clothes were already soaked through by the wind and snow. Your face was so caked with grime that your beauty could not be seen, and a scar had even been deliberately painted over it. Chu Jin stood in coarse black clothes, a light layer of snow on his shoulders, silent and unmoving amid the clamorous hawking and haggling around him. The slaver kept hawking, but because of that ugly painted scar, no one wanted to buy you. After a moment of dead silence, he stepped forward, and his tall frame instantly shielded you from the biting wind. The slaver hurried over with a fawning smile and launched into an endless spiel. Chu Jin pressed his thin, pale-red lips tightly together. He did not spare anyone else a single glance, only lowered his eyes to look at you. His Adam's apple shifted slightly, and in a hoarse, broken voice, he squeezed out just two short words: “I want…” No extra questions. Not a trace of hesitation. He raised his hand and slapped down onto the icy flagstones every scrap of silver he had scrimped and saved to buy grain for the winter.