Without warning, Ren spoke, "Don't you dream of a home?" "What are you saying?" His sentence were had nothing to do with the situation, the place, the time, and definitely not with them. It was as if the spring weather had made the flowers in Ren's heart bloom and lose his hold. Inside him, spring had come, in her eyes were the stars of the sky and the waves of the seas, but in her soul, there was a cold and harsh winter that would never end or die.
He smiled brightly, "Don't you dream of a home that would hold you, your dreams, and the ones dearest to your soul?"
"No, I don't dream, only fools dream." He looked at her in confusion, as if he expected her to throw herself into his arms and tell him how lonely she was and how desperate she was for her dreams to come true. She too seemed confused, because even though it was clear that she would never find anyone who would understand, she thought he was one of those fools who dream, and she was right.
Her hands that had touched his moved away from him, and suddenly the music that played in his soul stopped. Instead, it was enough for him to hear the whisper of the breeze and her voice when she spoke. It seemed to him that she would speak if he said the worst words, so he wished he could anger her, to bring out her sweet music. She finally spoke, "You are extremely foolish. I stole a dagger from you, from the black market, and you ask me about dreams. Of course, I will not tell you about myself, nor am I interested in knowing about you. If you want romance, look for it in the theaters, not in the streets of Liu Mu." Her words were convincing, and he felt that he would lose the argument, and if he lost it, he would lose his music. Amidst the breeze, he did not want the evening to end.
He changed the strategy of trapping her in the gentle night breeze that made one wish to live forever. "What if I offered invaluable help?"
"Do I look like I need help?"
"That day, the man who followed you, remember him?" Ruo was silent, then nodded. Ren looked like a merchant who has caught the greatest prey. "His servant said that day that you lived on Slave Street, so I guessed that you had no work. Honestly, I didn't want to go so as not to hurt your dignity, so I've waited here every day since then, waiting for you to come."
His words were a gray line, Ruo Yu didn't understand how to interpret them, sometimes his words were kind, and sometimes he was like any man in Liu Mo.
He seemed to be portraying himself as a prince from a fairy tale, and she as a lost servant waiting for the prince to rescue her and free her imprisoned soul for eternal joy. But in reality, she was never anything. She was never the servant, and certainly not the servant who could become a princess, nor the princess, nor the prince. She was nothing and never thought or had the desire to become anything. From a young age, she learned loss and lived with it as a part of her being. The biting winds of winter, nor the scorching sun of summer, had never hurt her.
"Then what do you propose?"
"I will buy your freedom." Ruo Yu sighed. She hadn't expected anything from him in the first place, She didn't possesses anything like self-pity, the only thing that was growing without her even realizing it was hatred. "And can freedom be bought? I know it's sold, without right or virtue. Who are you to buy and sell my life? And who are you to judge me?"
"Why are you exaggerating? I mean nothing but good."
"There is no good in the men of this empire." She said as she left. She was always the one to leave whenever the walls felt too narrow. Even though the sky was always wide open above her. Life around her always seemed to be closing in, suffocating her. Sometimes she felt like she was drowning even though she was on land. She wondered what it would be like to actually drown.
Ren sighed, and his voice stopped her, "There's a new place in Liu Mo. They say they offer free accommodation to workers since they're new. That's what I can help you with." He didn't apologize, and Ruo didn't really feel the need to. Words like an apology were useless to a broken heart, but since he offered this, she had to see the place. He definitely didn't say it with the same intention he seemed to have intended. Instead, she felt it was a challenge. She wasn't one to miss an opportunity.
If there was one rule Ruo Yu lived by, it was to never place your hopes and desires on things as changeable as human souls, which melt faster than snow and change faster than the seasons.
And if there was one thing Ruo Yu had ever needed, it would have been a home.
But when things are delayed, they become meaningless, even if they are given easily, and even if they are never achieved.