Su Cuiling had initially thought that Wang Bingchang had saved her because he was attracted to her. In reality, Wang Bingchang had no other feelings for her at first, aside from finding her gaze fierce and her mind cunning and quick.
How could a cheap woman, acquired for a斗 of grain, possibly capture Wang Bingchang's attention? Moreover, long before, he had already developed different feelings for Huo Qixiao in his heart.
As for Su Cuiling's inflated sense of self-importance, believing that Wang Bingchang had specifically hired those training instructors to meticulously groom her, that was even more baseless.
When he had returned to Suining Prefecture, he had exchanged over a hundred girls along the way. Wang Bingchang had divided these women into three grades – upper, middle, and lower – and then settled them along the routes within his sphere of influence, cultivating them for future use.
He himself had brought dozens of women with him on the journey to Suining Prefecture. By the time they arrived, nearly half had died from the hardships he inflicted. Only ten women remained from the designated upper class upon reaching Suining Prefecture, and Su Cuiling, with her tenacious life force, was one of them.
She was truly a very intelligent person with a strong will to survive. Back when they were still on the road, Su Cuiling had gone to great lengths to conceal the fact that she had no hair and had injuries on her head.
During their travels, everyone was covered in dirt, so no one noticed the cloth she had wrapped around her head, nor did they find it strange even in the height of summer.
As they got closer and closer to Suining Prefecture, Su Cuiling's fear grew. If she couldn't come up with a solution before they reached their destination, it would only be a matter of time before she was discovered.
No! She had finally encountered an opportunity for a change in fortune; she absolutely could not let anyone see the wounds on her head. She must not be driven away again this time!
Just as Su Cuiling was racking her brains for a solution, a turning point finally emerged. One predawn morning, she was woken by the urge to relieve herself. As she got up to attend to her needs, she discovered something.
She saw two of Wang Bingchang's subordinates carrying someone out. The light was dim at the time, and Su Cuiling couldn't clearly see the face of the person being carried. The person's head was tilted back, motionless, appearing to be lifeless. Their long hair trailed on the ground, suggesting it was a girl.
Could it be that one of the girls bought along with her had died of illness? Seeing the long braid dragging on the ground, Su Cuiling suddenly had a brilliant idea.
Having made up her mind, Su Cuiling, suppressing her urge to urinate, carefully followed the people carrying the corpse.
After they had thrown the body down and turned to leave, Su Cuiling overcame her fear and nausea, trembling, and approached the corpse. Using a dagger she had hidden earlier, she cut off the hair from the body and hid it, then quietly returned to their temporary resting place.
Su Cuiling always believed that her actions were careful and clandestine, but she didn't know that Wang Bingchang had already seen through all her movements the first time she followed the corpse carriers out.
If it had been in the past, such sneaky behavior from Su Cuiling might have gotten her killed on the spot. Perhaps Wang Bingchang found the repetitive nature of his daily venting too boring.
Perhaps he was curious and wanted to know what Su Cuiling was up to. So, when his subordinates reported this matter to him, Wang Bingchang did not have her killed but instead instructed them to secretly observe what she intended to do. Upon hearing his subordinates report that Su Cuiling was merely cutting the girls' hair and doing nothing else, Wang Bingchang raised his slender eyebrows and stroked his smooth chin.
Going out in the dead of night and taking such a risk, all for the sake of cutting off dead people's hair? What use could other people's hair possibly be?
In the Great Yu Dynasty, both men and women placed great importance on their hair. The body and hair were gifts from one's parents and should not be harmed lightly. Another point was that the hair of the deceased was considered very unlucky.
Ordinary people would more or less feel afraid when faced with a corpse. Yet, Su Cuiling, a woman, was willing to face those corpses and risk cutting off their hair. What was the reason?
Could she be some kind of monster? Or perhaps…
Considering that Su Cuiling had always worn a headscarf, never taking it off even in the hottest weather, Wang Bingchang had some thoughts flash through his mind, and it seemed he understood why she was cutting off the hair of the deceased.
Interesting! It seemed she was indeed a clever woman, daring to engage in such petty schemes right under his nose, her courage was not insignificant.
Suddenly, Wang Bingchang became even more interested in Su Cuiling. However, that interest was not one of romantic affection but rather treating her like a bird he could toy with.
Wang Bingchang was very eager to see how Su Cuiling would react in an unforeseen situation, without her knowledge, and whether she could ingeniously save herself.
On the third day, Su Cuiling had already cut three bunches of long hair. Heaven itself seemed to be helping her; if people hadn't been dying these past few days, she wouldn't have been able to obtain so much real hair.
What happened next further convinced Su Cuiling that heaven was on her side. Just as she had solved the problem with her hair, she immediately received a warning.
That night, she didn't go to steal hair. When she went out to relieve herself in the middle of the night, she accidentally overheard Wang Bingchang's subordinates discussing that he had lost a jade thumb ring and that all the women would be stripped naked for inspection the next day.
Su Cuiling's heart leaped. After relieving herself, she rushed back to the haystack where they were temporarily resting. She touched the cloth wrapped around her head, her eyes darting rapidly.
If it were just a clothing inspection, Su Cuiling would not have been afraid at all. But when everyone else was stripped bare, and she was still wearing a headscarf, wouldn't that arouse suspicion?
Su Cuiling touched the hair on her head, which was less than half remaining, and anxiously wondered how to solve the problem. She had cut the hair but hadn't figured out how to attach it to her head before the surprise inspection.
After tossing and turning until midnight, Su Cuiling finally came up with a good idea. She carefully sat up, surveyed her surroundings, and found that the other women in the room were sound asleep and hadn't noticed her.
Su Cuiling carefully redistributed the patchy hair on her head more evenly. Then, she took out the hair she had cut earlier from her bosom and placed a handful of dried grass from the haystack nearby.
She took a strand of hair cut from a deceased person's head and, holding it near the root, twisted it onto her own hair. Once it was sufficiently bound, she secured it with a piece of straw.