After the Breakup, All Four Wives Went Crazy! - Chapter 4

Su Zhao raised her chin slightly.

Sensing the hidden threat in Todd’s words, she didn’t pay it much mind, choosing instead to nod with measured poise and lean into her proud persona to flex.

“Beast-slaves are a dime a dozen, and they’ll never be in short supply. But a rare auction item like me, whose high status and scarcity are completely maxed out? Once you miss out on this, you’ll probably never see another one in this lifetime.”

Todd was clearly choked up by her retort.

The battered magic wand in her hands trembled slightly.

Su Zhao couldn’t help thinking that maybe she was getting up there in years, well into retirement age, which must be why she couldn’t even keep a steady grip on what she was holding.

“I wonder if this is a blessing or a curse for you.”

“But since she has already set her sights on you, given her ruthless nature, what percentage of a chance do you think you have of escaping once you fall into her hands?”

Su Zhao swore she was just acting out of pure empathy, driven by sincere concern for the elderly, which was why she kept staring intently at that magic wand.

However, the other party completely misinterpreted her good intentions.

As she spoke, her sentence trailed off to a halt. They were looking right at each other, and as their eyes met, Su Zhao offered a polite, gentle smile.

Todd’s face stiffened. Without a word, she shifted her body and silently stepped back half a pace.

Fearing perhaps that Su Zhao might suffer a sudden rush of blood to the head and try to snatch it straight through the bars, she seamlessly moved the magic wand out of Su Zhao’s line of sight.

Su Zhao let out a light sigh.

She felt a bit hurt.

Softly, she said, “Behavior like yours is an outright insult to my personal dignity.”

What a joke. Who did they think she was?

Princess Dorothy of the Lanyin Empire.

A princess might lack real power, sure, princesses didn’t have magic, weren’t in line for the throne, and had no fiefdoms, retainers, or property.

But a princess could always lean on her mother and her older sisters, working hard to sponge off her family.

A princess was richer than an entire nation.

Did she really lack an ugly little magic wand?!

The princess felt deeply aggrieved.

It was just like when you spend your time running errands and offering warm, solicitous comfort to a sick friend, only to turn around and get slapped right across the face by their partner.

You know in your heart that you meant well, that kissing her was just taking advantage of the generational gap because you genuinely viewed her like a granddaughter, but no matter how you tried to explain it, her partner refused to believe you.

You could only stand there utterly dumbfounded after taking a few hits, feeling even more helpless than someone falling into a trap of dark magic. That aggrieved feeling was enough to fill the entire magic tower.

Oh dear.

“Your Highness Princess Dorothy, I am not joking with you.”

The more Todd threatened, the more powerless she felt.

The roles of the two parties seemed to have flipped; the naive little princess remained unfazed, not taking the threat seriously at all.

Instead, she, the villainous wrongdoer, was left offering heartfelt, earnest advice, trying to break down the logic and feed it piece by piece to the naive little princess, hoping to make her realize the cruel reality of the situation.

“Once she succeeds and successfully wins the bid for you, are you planning to let her endlessly torture, whip, and trample you like those pathetic beast-slaves, or do you intend to be a good little obedient girl and let her do whatever she pleases?”

“When that time comes, your noble status won’t mean a thing anymore. Your dignity will likely be ground beneath her feet, begging for a death that won’t come.”

Su Zhao was a well-mannered, good kid. Recognizing the other’s kind intentions, she offered her heartfelt thanks.

“Thank you for your kindness, I understand.”

Todd: Hmph.

Su Zhao looked at her innocently and said sincerely, “Please believe me, I didn’t mean to mock you, nor was I trying to use sarcasm.”

From her calm and composed demeanor, Todd couldn’t extract any of the reactions she wanted.

Frowning tightly, Todd’s tone grew even more solemn.

“Please weigh this carefully. This choice is entirely to your benefit and carries no harm. It’s not too late for you to regret it now.”

“If you truly insist on going your own way and stubbornly set yourself against us, once you make this crucial mistake, I’m afraid you won’t even have a chance to regret it later.”

Su Zhao slowly stroked the bars in front of her.

She stared at the cage and fell into deep thought.

She could tell that Todd was telling the truth. Regarding Guest Number 7’s perverted habits, even if some parts had been deliberately fabricated to scare her, they could make it a reality the moment they wanted to.

In a lawless place like Lanster City.

Duke Norland’s will.

Was the absolute truth.

“It is time to make a choice, Your Highness.”

Todd urged her once more.

Her patience clearly wasn’t as deep as Su Zhao had imagined. She clutched the magic wand vertically against her chest, and the black gemstone at the tip glowed faintly, staring fixedly at Su Zhao like the vertical slit pupil of some ferocious beast lurking in the dark.

At the same time, the evil pupil on the emblem stared blankly and unblinkingly right back at her.

The malevolent aura emanating from it rolled outward like a turbulent undercurrent, carrying an undisguised sense of coercion and plunder that enveloped Su Zhao tightly.

Todd was looking at her as well.

Three pairs of eyes, a triple layer of pressure.

Su Zhao felt as though she had been plunged into an ice cellar, the biting chill invading from all directions and making even breathing exceptionally difficult.

A slow smile crept onto Todd’s face, her pitch-black eyes never leaving Su Zhao’s. Her voice was extremely soft.

“Is it to leave the cage, gain your freedom, and become an honored guest of Lanster City?”

The subsequent words sounded as if they had been chewed and crushed between her teeth before finally being spat out: “Or to have your spine snapped, be locked in a cage forever, and treated like livestock for venting desires with no hope of ever getting out of here!”

Su Zhao knew that right now, she was simply fish on a chopping block, at the mercy of whoever wished to carve her up.

Just as Todd had said, whether she held a grudge against the succubus, resenting her for placing her in such a dilemma and wanting to seek revenge by any means necessary,

Or, from her own perspective, prioritizing her own safety to avoid actually being delivered to the auction block and bought by that perverted Number 7.

First, she had to crawl out of this cage.

As a human being, rather than a slave.

Right now, she possessed no bargaining chips to negotiate with them.

Should she really betray Evelyn?

Should she just play along, feign compliance, and get herself released first, only to flip the script and rebel the moment she saw Evelyn and her mother and secured some backing?

Su Zhao frowned slightly. With just a brief moment of thought, she dismissed this unreliable idea.

In this magical fantasy world, there were far too many obscure magical contracts designed to ensure she carried out every single term of an agreement with absolute fidelity.

Su Zhao hadn’t forgotten.

The one threatening and coercing her over there, trying to strike a deal with her.

Was most likely a demon.

As much as she craved that tail, Su Zhao also knew quite well that, as the saying went, a demon’s cunning was just as legendary as their power.

Anyone foolish enough to sign a contract with a demon without a second thought invariably stepped onto a miserable road of no return.

Countless unlucky fools who thought they were smarter than the rest, armed with naive fantasies and reckless courage, threw themselves at the attempt one after another.

Not to mention other examples, the last unfortunate soul who had traded with a demon, the poor Duke Norland, had already selflessly contributed his own painful lesson to ring alarm bells for those who came after.

Forget signing a contract; in front of a demon, Su Zhao didn’t even dare speak too much. She was terrified that a single wrong phrasing might give the other party an opening to exploit.

Perhaps just a poorly chosen wording, or an accidental sigh of sentiment, could inexplicably plunge her into irredeemable ruin and mistakenly offer herself up to the other side.

Yet a second later, recalling her earlier streak of smooth-talking flirtation,

Su Zhao fell silent, cutting off her train of thought just in time. Clinging to an eighteen-fold hope of sheer luck, she wiped that entire experience clean from her mind.

Acting as if she had never said those things.

Without a trace, she scanned the room while stalling for time. “I still need some time to think this through carefully.”

This place was clearly a warehouse used for storing auction items.

Only now, the room was completely empty, with even the crystal covers removed from row after row of shelves.

Inscribed upon the door and the cage were intricate magic arrays that left Su Zhao completely helpless.

Su Zhao’s magic wand was still in these people’s hands.

From the succubus to Todd, everyone acted with extraordinary caution. Even though they had long known that Princess Dorothy was just an ordinary person with zero magical talent and that getting a magic wand was merely a waste of rare materials just to put on airs,

From start to finish, they hadn’t let her touch or even come close to that wand.

Their caution was airtight.

Time ticked away second by second.

The atmosphere grew heavier and heavier.

Todd said coldly, “It is merely a simple multiple-choice question; going left or right rests entirely upon a single thought of yours.”

“But please choose carefully. After all, wherever your future destiny leads will be set in stone by this very thought.”

“I…” Su Zhao fell silent.

Her head pounded with stress. She racked her brains, but aside from betraying Evelyn, every single path led to a dead end.

Yet if she chose to stand firm for the sake of affection points and steadfastly defend her pretty older sister, she would have to face the terrifying fate of being bought by Guest Number 7.

Su Zhao: Profanity.

Her daily routine of cursing the succubus.

Su Zhao knew her own limits. As a pitiful little weakling incapable of learning magic, she had no way to resist their crude dominance.

Once she fell into that person’s hands, it seemed she would only have two choices: surrender and admit defeat, or slink away offline and try to reload an earlier save.

Once she reloaded, all the affection points she had spent so much time and diligent grinding to build up would completely vanish. After sweating over the game for so long, Su Zhao wasn’t willing to let her hard work go down the drain and fall so far behind her peers.

Torn between choices, every option was wrong.

She honestly wanted to shed a sympathetic tear for herself.

She didn’t want to reload, nor did she want to make a deal with a demon. Outside of those, Su Zhao genuinely couldn’t think of any other solutions.

Surely she couldn’t actually resort to acting submissive and trying to butter up her sugar daddy, right?

Perhaps people’s bottom lines really do retreat step by step. As Su Zhao’s head ached with indecision, fighting her reluctance the whole way, a brand-new idea suddenly popped into her brain.

It actually seemed…

Actually sounded kind of fun?

Right at that moment, a pleasant female voice suddenly cut into the bustling din of the auction hall.

“Two hundred million gold coins.”

The auctioneer grew intensely excited, violently swinging the auction gavel down.

Raising her voice to a high-pitched, passionate shriek that nearly shattered her vocal cords:

“Two hundred million! Guest Number 12 bids two hundred million!”

“This is an unprecedented high price!”

“An unprecedented achievement!!”

Oh, my corset!

Su Zhao groaned in silent agony.

That auction, which she had practically pushed to the back of her mind, stubbornly bounced back out, waving its claws to assert its existence.

Su Zhao’s heart was practically breaking.

She endured and endured, but finally couldn’t help demanding aloud:

“Why isn’t it over yet? Is this really taking this long?”

Todd: “It’s clear that everyone is extremely interested in you.”

Su Zhao: …

She’d rather not have this kind of interest, thanks.

Though this particular VIP had barely managed to help her out of a tight spot by diverting Todd’s attention and buying her more time to think,

Normally, a kind and polite person like Su Zhao would certainly rush over and express her deepest gratitude.

That was, of course, assuming,

That said person hadn’t just dropped two hundred million on her corset.

“It seems the number of distinguished guests interested in you tonight has exceeded even my imagination.”

Todd frowned slightly, her gaze drifting between Su Zhao and the direction of the auction hall.

She seemed to be weighing something, her eyes reflecting deep thought as she discarded her previous hurried attitude and grew unusually calm.

As long as Todd didn’t initiate conversation, Su Zhao was more than happy to play dumb.

If the enemy doesn’t move, I won’t move. Her thoughts had already wandered back to the auction.

The next second.

Earth-shattering cheers erupted from that direction.

The auctioneer screamed: “Congratulations to Guest Number 12! Princess Dorothy’s corset is yours!”

Su Zhao: …

Su Zhao wore a blank expression.

She had lost the capacity to smile.

What kind of brainless moron was made of money?!

Was the idiot who bought her half-eaten peach a moment ago also Guest Number 12? The level of perversion packed into this guy made Number 7 look tame by comparison.

A flash of absolute despair hit Su Zhao.

Were there any normal people left in this world?

On second thought, however, Su Zhao reined in her drifting thoughts, scooped that person right up, and put them to very natural use.

“Guest Number 12 is rolling in wealth and obviously comes from an extraordinary background. Compared to Guest Number 7, perhaps Number 12 is better suited to be my master?”

Todd: …

“The potential of Guest Number 12 clearly surpasses Number 7, and their overall conditions are superior as well.”

Su Zhao smiled, deliberately trying to provoke her with her words.

“You lot run a professional auction house after all. You’ll definitely find me a perfect master, right?”

Todd’s lips twitched.

Left completely speechless.

In the end, she simply let out a deep, heavy sigh.

Having just closed a massive transaction, the auctioneer was clearly running on too much adrenaline. The moment the gavel dropped, her ecstatic emotions rushed over her like a tidal wave, nearly drowning her entirely.

Opening her throat wide, she let out a shriek: “Thank you to our anonymous succubus lady!”

Thank whom?

Su Zhao’s smooth, effortless line suddenly stuttered.

The happiness that had just bubbled up was snuffed out instantly like a tiny flame spat upon by the wind.

For a moment, she couldn’t care less about Todd as she pricked up her ears.

Inside the auction hall, the atmosphere was roaring like a crackling fire, every single person’s nerves gripped tight by the fierce bidding war.

The auctioneer struck the gavel down with all her might, full of robust energy as she announced:

“As a true adventurer, the succubus lady used her extraordinary strength and transcendent courage to bring back countless treasures for us from Princess Dorothy’s palace!”

The auctioneer shouted, full of high spirits and fighting vigor:

“Let us give her our warmest cheers!”

“And pay tribute to her noble character!”

The crowd’s emotions were completely ignited.

Applause grew more and more fervent, and the cheers rolled in like wave after wave of a stormy sea, refusing to die down for a long time.

In a single instant.

Su Zhao’s emotions experienced a rollercoaster ride.

She cycled through calm, disbelief, shock, awe, anger, fury, and raging wrath.

Ending up right back at self-doubt.

Her lips trembled slightly. Her head was a mess, leaving only a single question echoing in her mind.

Is this world simply too insane?

Or is she just not crazy enough?

Filled with burning resentment, Su Zhao couldn’t stop her mind from drifting to all sorts of wild places. From her own miserable predicament all the way to that treacherous succubus who dug her own grave without mercy.

Yet as her thoughts wandered down that path, they suddenly took a sharp turn. Her brain seemed to have a mind of its own, bypassing the succubus’s cunning schemes to automatically replay her sister’s light-pink ears, her undulating curves, and her plump, peach-like heart-shaped tail.

Along with that dragonfly-light kiss.

The blazing flames of her fury were brushed and teased by a spring breeze, swirling in circles before suddenly soaring away, hovering somewhere between distant and inviting, teasingly playing hard to get.

Su Zhao’s expression softened by the second, the corners of her mouth curving upward on their own.

Thinking and thinking, she slowly grew at peace.

Otherwise known as completely numb.

Ah, sweet romance.

Even though the scumbag woman had scammed her out of her wealth, looks, and feelings, leaving Su Zhao on the verge of being played to death while forced to help count the cash.

She was pretty, though.

Even though her sister’s scumminess was the real deal.

When her sister decided to charm someone, she was truly, devastatingly magnetic.

She was pretty, after all.

And the most crucial point: she still hadn’t managed to touch that tail she coveted for so long!

She was so gorgeous, equal parts alluring and wicked.

What else could she do?

Naturally, you just choose to forgive her!

The auctioneer made a solemn proclamation:

“Next auction item!”

“Also originating from Her Highness Princess Dorothy!”

Su Zhao’s heart leapt straight up into her throat!

Instantly jolted out of her pink-bubble reverie.

A sentence blurted out of its own accord.

“Why is there more!”

Forget playing a dating sim; even back when she used to play immersive horror games, staring face-to-face with a red-clad female ghost with their noses practically touching, Su Zhao had never felt this nervous!

Ghosts would only kill her.

By contrast, the situation she was about to face right now was an event so catastrophic that if word ever got out, it would cause her to suffer a dual social death across both two-dimensional and three-dimensional realities!

Mental death was far more terrifying than physical death.

She still wanted her dignity.

The auctioneer deliberately prolonged the suspense, waiting until the atmosphere reached a fever pitch before loudly announcing: “Princess Dorothy’s most beloved little plush toy!”

Phew.

Su Zhao let out a slow sigh of relief.

Thank goodness, thank goodness. It wasn’t something even more private than her corset like she had imagined.

“The little plush toy that Princess Dorothy absolutely has to kiss passionately and press against her cheek every time she sleeps! It looks like a very cute little bat. It seems our Princess Dorothy also possesses a childlike innocence.”

“There’s even a little bit of saliva left by Her Highness rubbed right onto it, oh.”

That breath she had only managed to exhale halfway got stuck right in her windpipe.

The mindset Su Zhao had just managed to adjust,

Collapsed all over again.

Su Zhao clenched her fists so hard they creaked, her cheeks burning red as she gritted her teeth and cursed, “That damned bastard!”

Was she really that broke?!

A dignified succubus who drew everyone’s attention wherever she went, basking in endless adoration, how on earth did she manage to live like this??

Treating it like picking through a trash heap, she had packed up everything, every random piece of junk in her palace, and handed it over to an auction house to sell.

Even her corsets and undergarments had been bundled up and put on the market. Was she genuinely broke to that extent?!

The more Su Zhao thought about it, the angrier and more aggrieved she felt.

Su Zhao wanted to drop a few little teardrops.

Perhaps Su Zhao’s resolute attitude had finally worked, or perhaps seeing that she refused to cooperate made them want to use her to trade for other benefits.

Todd seemed to have given up on her previous notion of forcefully coercing cooperation, and no longer demanded that Su Zhao make a choice.

Su Zhao couldn’t be bothered to guess what was going through her head. In her eyes, this woman was by no means a good person. Seeing that Su Zhao was of no further use for the moment, Todd didn’t leave; instead, she asked with a show of concern, “What is the matter with you?”

“Nothing,” Su Zhao smiled with forced strength.

“I just can’t wrap my head around how there could possibly be a poverty-stricken wretch like her in this world, shaking heaven and earth.”

Inside the auction hall, the crowd roared with laughter.

Following a round of escalating bids, Guest Number 7’s soft, sweet voice was now familiar even to Su Zhao.

Her voice sounded like it had hooks on it, every single syllable capable of piercing precisely into the most hidden desires deep within one’s heart.

“To think our Princess Dorothy is actually so cute in private.” Number 7 laughed with ambiguous amusement. “Oh my, I want to possess her even more now.”

Her tone was casual.

Like she was toying with some delicate, fragile pet.

The surrounding crowd let out a chorus of boos.

“Give her to you? With the way you play, you’d completely ruin her!”

“Forget it! If you give her to someone else, maybe once they get tired of playing, I can still find a way to get my hands on her. But with you, you poisonous spider, she’d be ruined in two days!”

“The little princess has been raised with meticulous care. If you want to play with her for a longer time, let me tell you, you have to treat her gently first, slowly ramping up the intensity step by step.”

As soon as Number 7 spoke, the crowd grew rowdy, shouting over one another and egging each other on. Boos and mocking laughter rose in waves.

Yet every single word treated Su Zhao with the frivolous condescension reserved for a plaything, mapping out a destination for her that could by no means be called wonderful.

In their eyes, Su Zhao was nothing more than an object to be manipulated and toyed with at will. What awaited her seemed to be nothing but endless darkness and despair.

The door was suddenly pushed open.

A person dressed as a servant stopped by the doorway, bowing respectfully. “My lord, the other items have all been presented. It’s time to prepare the final grand finale item.”

This cage was suddenly starting to feel a bit prickly.

Su Zhao let out a gloomy sigh.

Actually, she wasn’t all that stubborn. When it came down to it, she was someone who knew how to read the room better than anyone.

She wasn’t about to stick her neck out and stubbornly lock horns with the local tyrant.

Even as Todd said quietly, “This is your last chance, Your Highness.”

Su Zhao forced a smile. “Stop dreaming. Even if I were to die right here today and throw myself off this cliff, I would never, ever betray my dear, beloved best friend.”

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