The Silver Harbor Serpent Lord Refuses to Hibernate - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The crying was very faint.

It sounded like someone muffled under a blanket, gasping for air.

I followed the sound up to the attic.

When I pushed the door open, the first thing I saw was a room full of dresses.

White ones, blue ones, red ones.

They hung in rows.

It looked like a room full of silent people standing there.

At the far end of the room sat three trunks.

They were filled with jewelry, gloves, hairpins, and stacks of contracts.

At the top of every contract, the same sentence was written:

Winter Shelter, effective upon voluntary consent.

My mind instantly exploded.

All those nasty rumors from Silver Harbor came rushing back.

They said Ling Changsheng chose a new bride every winter.

They said no woman who entered Blackstone Manor ever came out alive.

They said his favorite thing was to keep the women’s dresses.

Before, I had dismissed it as the idle gossip of street loafers.

But now, with this room full of dresses laid out before me, I felt a true chill for the first time.

“So, you really did sneak up here.”

Ling Changsheng was standing at the door, watching me.

I instinctively reached for the letter opener at my waist.

Then, I realized how ridiculous that was.

In a real fight, that blade of mine wouldn’t even be able to scratch his scales.

“What are these?” I asked.

“Evidence.”

“Evidence of how many girls you’ve eaten?”

He was silent for two seconds, and then he actually looked like he wanted to laugh.

“Yan Jinghong.”

“You’ve lived here for twenty days. You’ve eaten the best food and slept in the warmest bed.”

“And yet, your impression of me is still whether or not I’m a man-eater.”

“Then explain this.”

“They were all escapees.”

He pulled out a contract and handed it to me.

“Some were hiding from domestic abuse.”

“Some were hiding from debt collectors.”

“Some were hiding from husbands who wanted to sell them to the Northern Frontier Mines.”

“There aren’t many places in Silver Harbor that will take women in.”

“My place is one of them.”

“Meifu found the clothes.”

“I wrote the contracts.”

“To prevent anyone from coming to my door later and claiming I’m holding them against their will.”

I flipped through the contract.

It actually bore the seals of the Harbor Authority and the Parish.

The wording was even more rigorous than a law firm’s documents.

The earliest one was from eight years ago.

My momentum instantly halved.

But I remained stubborn.

“Then what about the crying?”

Ling Changsheng looked toward a small door at the very back.

“A new girl is having a nightmare.”

“She just escaped from a ship yesterday.”

“She was locked in a cage and shipped across the sea.”

I walked over and pushed the door open.

Sure enough, a girl of sixteen or seventeen was huddled in the corner.

There was a ring of bruising around her wrists.

When she saw me, she began to tremble even harder.

That spark of anger flared up in me again.

Only this time, it wasn’t directed at Ling Changsheng.

The girl grabbed my sleeve and said a great deal in broken sentences.

She said there was a Priest in the Parish who specialized in picking out ‘docile goods’ for the Nobles.

Young women from out of town with no one to rely on were the most valuable.

She also said they were recently looking for a woman who knew how to keep accounts.

Black hair.

An old scar on the web of her left hand.

I instinctively pulled my hand back into my sleeve.

She was talking about me.

“That’s why I told you not to wander too far from the Manor,” Ling Changsheng said from behind me.

“You investigated me?”

“From the first day you showed up, I knew who you owed money to and who was looking for you.”

He looked at me, his tone flat.

“I am no saint.”

“I don’t just pick up random strange women to bring home for the winter.”

“Since you’ve been targeted by them, it means you know something you shouldn’t.”

My heart sank.

Three years ago, my sister Yan Xiaoman left the Port on a merchant ship.

Then, all news of her ceased.

I had searched for so long.

I searched until I found ledgers riddled with discrepancies.

I searched until every lead wound back to the Parish and port smuggling.

Now, that trail was finally starting to speak for itself.

I asked Ling Changsheng, “Do you take these people in because you want to be a good person?”

He gave a short laugh.

It was a cold laugh.

“No.”

“I just hate it when people make my Port dirty.”

That night, I passed by the bathroom. The door wasn’t fully closed.

Hot mist drifted out from the crack.

Ling Changsheng stood by the pool with his back to the door.

The steam rolled over his shoulders and back.

Silver Scale spread out inch by inch along his spine.

It was more complete than during the day, and more terrifying.

It looked like he was molting.

A line cracked open in the old scales on his shoulder.

It was as thin as a layer of moonlight.

I should have left immediately.

But he spoke through the mist.

“You’ve been standing there so long, you’re about to stare a hole through the door.”

The tips of my ears suddenly felt hot.

“Who would want to watch you molt?”

“Then why haven’t you left yet?”

For the first time in my life, I wanted to slam a door plank into someone’s mouth.