The Cannon Fodder Was Pampered By The Tyrant - Chapter 8

Is your life really that trifling?

To Lin Yutian, the most painful thing in the world was having delicious food right in front of her but being unable to eat it.

Right now, five steaming dishes sat on the table. Their colors and types were exactly what Lin Yutian liked, but she could only stand to the side, watching with longing eyes.

Si Yan sat in his chair, unhurried, slowly sipping his tea.

“Si Yan.”

Lin Yutian swallowed hard, knowing full well she wouldn’t be able to leave anytime soon. Since things had come to this, she might as well eat first.

She tested the waters: “Can you finish all of this by yourself?”

Si Yan remained expressionless. “That is not for Miss Lin to worry about.”

“Be careful, lest once I finish, I slander you for stealing imperial cuisine.”

“…”

Back to calling her “Miss Lin” again!

Lin Yutian inwardly grumbled about Si Yan’s pettiness. However, after her internal monologue, she felt a pang of guilt. From Si Yan’s perspective, coming home from work only to find a staged suicide scene would naturally put anyone in a foul mood.

“I really didn’t mean it this afternoon,” Lin Yutian said guiltily. “I didn’t think you’d be back so early.”

“Heh.”

Si Yan curled his lips and took a sip of tea. “So, it was my early return that disturbed your elegant interest?”

Lin Yutian realized that Si Yan was a master of sarcasm. Unfortunately, she was in the wrong. She thought for a moment and tried to negotiate: “Then don’t lock me up anymore, okay? I promise I won’t die in front of you, and I won’t scare you.”

For some reason, she felt the air around her grow even more stagnant.

Si Yan lowered his eyes. “You still want to die?”

Lin Yutian thought to herself: Of course, my ten million is waiting for me.

Receiving no answer, Si Yan spoke again, “Lin Yutian, in your eyes, is your life really that trifling?”

Hearing such words from the mouth of a cold-blooded tyrant like Si Yan made Lin Yutian daze for a moment.

Trifling?

Perhaps it was. As the first child in her family, she had been hardworking and resilient since childhood, hiding every hardship and only sharing the good news. Yet, this never earned her any love. She almost lost the chance to go to school, it was only thanks to compulsory education that she managed to attend.

Her parents once told her with a laugh: “When you were born, we planned to throw you in the trash. It’s only because your grandmother saw you and insisted on bringing you back.”

In Lin Yutian’s life, the concept of “death” occupied too much space.

Later, when her brother was born, her suicidal thoughts intensified. Her brother had everything from birth, he was bossy, lazy, arrogant, ungrateful, and vain. Yet, everyone in the family loved him and bought him whatever he wanted. Lin Yutian, who did all the dirty and exhausting work, became a ghost, a punching bag for anyone in a bad mood.

The day her parents had their accident was also her brother’s birthday. Her father was driving a car bought on a loan, and her mother was in the passenger seat. Her brother, already five years old, was crying, “I don’t want to sit with sister! Mommy, I want to be with you!”

And so, her mother ended up holding her brother in the front seat while Lin Yutian huddled silently in the back, reading a book.

The last thing she remembered was her father’s cry of alarm, followed by the sight of her mother shielding her brother with her body.

Before Lin Yutian could snap out of the memory, someone flicked her forehead gently. It didn’t hurt; it carried a faint fragrance.

When she regained her senses, she realized Si Yan was standing in front of her, watching her quietly.

Noticing the mist in her eyes, Si Yan remained cold: “I am asking you a question.”

Lin Yutian immediately pulled herself back. She looked down and said with a sense of resignation, “Whether I live or die, there is no good future for me anyway, is there?”

Just as Si Yan was about to speak, Lin Yutian raised her bright eyes to look at him. “Your Majesty won’t let me go, either.”

She didn’t believe his talk about giving her “a few more chances.” She knew Si Yan was definitely planning something big. Why else would he allow someone who constantly provoked and disrupted him to stay in his presence?

The words Si Yan was about to say were swallowed back down. “At least you know.”

Lin Yutian pouted. She knew it! Si Yan was definitely plotting something very wicked!

“If you’re afraid of me scaring you, then don’t lock me here,” Lin Yutian said. “Otherwise, I won’t be responsible if I scare you again next time.”

“Next time?” Si Yan arched an eyebrow.

“Lin Yutian.” Si Yan forced her to look at him. “Sometimes I find you truly naive.”

He pinched her cheek until it hurt. As she tried to struggle, he raised his hand and pinned her against a pillar in the room. Lin Yutian’s internal alarms went off; this posture was not good at all.

“What are you doing?” She went stiff.

Si Yan looked at her. “There won’t be a next time.”

“I told you long ago, once you provoke me, your life no longer belongs to you.” Si Yan’s narrow eyes gazed at her. “Whether you live as an ant or a phoenix is for me alone to decide.”

Lin Yutian was stunned for a moment. It took a while to find her voice. “But if I truly want to die, you can’t stop me.”

Si Yan let out a snort. “You are welcome to try.”

“Only, the next time you do such things, your range of activity won’t be this large.” His voice was filled with indifference and threat. Lin Yutian’s palms were slick with sweat.

She realized too late that perhaps provoking Si Yan from the start was a mistake. Si Yan wasn’t lying; after tonight, he would surely be more guarded. But she hadn’t expected him to react so strongly. Did he really have no intention of killing her for now?

But what use was she to him?

She thought it, and so she asked it.

Si Yan’s expression suddenly became enigmatic. Without a word, he slowly moved the hand that was pinching her cheek down her neck to her waist, intentionally stroking the skin for a moment.

Lin Yutian felt a sudden tingling sensation at her waist. The feeling was so foreign that she tried to pull away, only to find she was already circled in Si Yan’s arms.

“Do you know what your use is now?” Si Yan’s eyes crinkled slightly.

Lin Yutian’s palms sweated more. She pressed herself against the pillar, trying to stay calm. “Your… Your Majesty, I am a woman.”

Si Yan looked down at her and scoffed, “And?”

“…?”

In her mind, Lin Yutian was typing out a row of question marks. What did that mean?

She tried to reason with him. “It’s not… right for a woman to be like this with another woman.”

Si Yan watched her, offering no opinion but instead asking, “Then who do you think I should be with? A man?” His tone turned icy. “Or do you believe that a woman being with a man is the only ‘orthodox’ way?”

As he said this, Si Yan was already thinking of ways to “correct” Lin Yutian’s perspective. Those wretched, hypocritical, weak, and arrogant things, he had a thousand ways to show her their ugliness.

However, after hearing this, Lin Yutian instinctively shook her head. “Of course not.”

“Your Majesty is the ruler of a nation, shouldn’t you focus more on money and power? So…” She quietly placed her palm over the hand on her waist and gave a fake smile as she pushed it away. “So, Your Majesty shouldn’t waste time on me.”

“How does the saying go? ‘An inch of time is an inch of gold.’ Your Majesty should focus on reading documents, that’s the real business.”

So stop torturing me. I’m just a humble worker who wants to go back and warm myself with money. Let me go.

“So you can even quote classics,” Si Yan chuckled. “It seems you’ve read many books?”

Lin Yutian felt a bit of pride. She cleared her throat. “I guess.”

“Since you’ve heard ‘An inch of time is an inch of gold,’ have you heard another saying?”

Completely off-guard, Lin Yutian asked, “What saying?”

The next moment, she felt herself being lifted off the ground. Si Yan had actually picked her up horizontally, saying shamelessly, “An hour of a spring night is worth a thousand pieces of gold.”

Lin Yutian thought: Oh no!

She began to struggle violently. This couldn’t happen!

“Your Majesty, no!”

After tossing her onto the bed, Si Yan braced his hands on either side of her and leaned down to bite her neck. Only after feeling her warm body temperature and her fragrance did the anger in his heart begin to dissipate.

He sucked gently and asked muddledly, “Why not?”

“Your Majesty, this kind of thing should be done with someone you like.”

Lin Yutian felt uncomfortable with the unfamiliar sensations. Her mind flashed to the original plot. Si Yan had a “white moonlight” (long-lost love) buried in his heart, and his ultimate destiny was to be with her. She thought this line might be effective, but Si Yan paused for only a second before reaching out to untie her belt.

Terrified, Lin Yutian’s voice turned soft as she tried to physically awaken Si Yan’s buried memories. “Your Majesty, think! Is there anyone you like? Maybe a princess or a general?”

Only then did Si Yan’s movements stop. He looked down at her, his eyes reflecting only her. “I have no interest in those people.”

Lin Yutian wailed inwardly. She forced a smile and said, “Your Majesty is so precious, you should do this with someone of equal status. I’m just a nobody. Wouldn’t doing this with me lower your status?”

She wasn’t entirely lying. Si Yan was elegant and beautiful, radiating the grace of someone nurtured by power and wealth. He was the polar opposite of Lin Yutian. In the modern world, he’d be the heiress of a global corporation, while Lin Yutian was just a struggling student. If not for this accidental transmigration, their worlds would never have touched. She had to stop this mistake.

But Si Yan clearly wasn’t listening.

His palm stroked her face, his warm breath fanning over her. “Since you know you’re ‘climbing high,’ shouldn’t you serve me well?”

“If I am satisfied, I might grant you what you want.”

Seeing that this approach wasn’t working, Lin Yutian looked at him pitifully. “I… I don’t know how.”

Si Yan raised an eyebrow. “Your master didn’t train you?”

Lin Yutian looked aggrieved, trying to bluff her way out. “I slacked off and slept during lessons.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Si Yan said. “I will teach you myself.”

“But I’m not very smart… Your Majesty probably can’t teach me.” Lin Yutian hadn’t given up her deathbed struggle.

Before she could say more, she heard Si Yan’s cold and commanding order: “Close your eyes.”

Lin Yutian looked at him pleadingly, the bruises on her neck from the rope still visible. “Si Yan…”

“Close your eyes.”

After a moment of hesitation, she resignedly closed them.

From Si Yan’s perspective, he could see the girl’s trembling eyelashes and furrowed brow. Every cell in Lin Yutian’s body screamed that she didn’t want to touch him.

Does just scaring her make her recoil this much?

Lin Yutian waited for a long time. The expected sensation on her lips or body didn’t come instead, she felt a coolness on her neck.

Surprised, she opened her eyes to find Si Yan fully dressed, holding a jar of ointment and applying it to her skin. She froze, instinctively touching her neck, only then realizing how much it stung.

Why would Si Yan care about this? Who cares if an unimportant side character is injured?

Si Yan pressed her shoulder to keep her on the bed, using his fingertip to apply the balm. Her neck was white and soft, making the red mark look even more jarring.

After applying a thick layer, Si Yan retracted his hand, screwed the lid back on, and said, “Get up and eat.”

Lin Yutian blinked. “Eat?”

She had thought Si Yan was intentionally starving her today. In the past, when she did something wrong, her parents would punish her by withholding food for a day or even three, until she apologized or they calmed down. Since Si Yan was a tyrant, she assumed he would do the same.

Surprisingly, he was actually quite decent.

Si Yan glanced at her thin wrists. “Your physical strength is so poor. How can I enjoy myself if you faint?”

“……”

Lin Yutian’s face turned bright red. She looked away. “I made you so angry, why are you still giving me food?”

Si Yan was incredibly sharp, he understood her train of thought almost instantly. He was nearly laughed at her logic.

“No matter how angry I am, I would not use such low-class methods to mistreat you,” Si Yan said. “Stop overthinking, you idiot.”