```
Hearing the voices of the two villains fading away, Fan Meijiao struggled to sit up, incessantly writhing with her hands and feet, in a futile attempt to break free from the ropes.
She didn't want to be humiliated, nor did she want to take the fall for her uncle, Zhao Fengnian. She had to save herself, she had to escape, marry into the Mu Family, and become the respected Second Madame Mu commanding servants, not sold by a group of scoundrels to some poor, deep forests to be a wife to multiple men.
However, the thumb-thick ropes were tied too tightly, beyond what she could break free from. There was nothing in the cellar to aid her, no sharp objects with which to cut the ropes.
After struggling for nearly an hour, all she had to show on her wrists and ankles were rope burns, and not a single sign of loosening. Fan Meijiao gasped for breath, her eyes filled with despair and hatred beneath her blindfold...
