Her eyes sparkled under the illumination of the firelight, emitting a gorgeous ice-blue glow that was filled with the light of reason.
This was the first female elf with a strong personality that I had ever seen. Her hair was short, and the short, soft, dark green hair was neatly combed on both sides beside her ears, making her small and pointed face look even tinier. There was a diamond hairpin pinned to her short hair. The transparent diamond faintly gave off a weak, colorful light, which echoed with the color of her eyes, giving off a strange and mysterious feeling.
Her ears were not much different from those of other elves. They were also pointed and long, slanting upward from both sides. Her eyebrows were thin and curved, without a single stray hair. Obviously, they had been carefully groomed. Her red lips were small, as delicate and beautiful as rose petals.
Her eyes were somewhat similar to the appearance of Western Europeans in our world. They were not only big, but the double eyelids were particularly prominent, and they were deeply set, making her facial features look very three-dimensional.
She might not possess astonishing beauty, but she had an extraordinary temperament.
Now, her petite body stood there, and her small, narrow shoulders faintly exuded a kind of tenacious strength.
"Miss Xuedai'er!" The several men loosened their grip on me and said rather respectfully.
She looked me up and down before asking, "Who is she?"
An elf big man rushed to answer, "A spy. Madam Adona asked us to lock her up."
Miss Xuedai'er looked at the wounds on my body and said, "Locking her up is fine, but you've tied her up too tightly."
"Yes," another burly man immediately said with an apologetic smile, "We'll loosen the ropes on her right away."
Immediately, the ropes on me were indeed loosened a bit by them, and then I was escorted forward by them.
Since then, I began my days with mice, cockroaches, and some nameless "vermin". There was no sunlight all year round here. Even through the small ventilation window on the top of the cell, only darkness and cold, gloomy wind came in.
I often walked back and forth in the narrow cell, feeling restless and uneasy.
I had never done anything wrong in my life and had never been in prison before. But when I came here, the first place I ended up was this prison cell.
I felt like my head was splitting.
This was a prison cell in an underground city. This was a terrifying conclusion I reached after observing for several days in prison.
Before reaching this conclusion, I had asked the jailers at the door where exactly this place was, but they just glared at me and then turned around and left.
Just when I felt helpless, a few days later, I was suddenly released from the prison cell. A maid in black said to me, "Miss Xuedai'er said that you should go to the kitchen to help out."
Miss Xuedai'er? I thought to myself. Could it be that she was helping me?
In a very simple and crude room, I was ordered to change into a black long dress and tie on a small white apron, a typical kitchen maid's outfit.
Someone handed me a comb and asked me to put all my hair up at the back of my head without a single strand out of place.
I took the comb, and as soon as I looked into the mirror, a scream suddenly rang out in the room. The small mirror was dropped to the ground by my trembling hand. I covered my face and backed away in horror.
The maids were startled by me and gathered around.
I screamed as I backed up against the wall, pointing at the small mirror on the ground, "It's not me, it's not me, that's not me..."
I kept screaming and crying, and the small comb in my hand also fell to the ground.
Just now, a very strange face had appeared in the mirror. It was an elf's face.
The elf in the mirror had a small face, a pointed chin, pointed and slightly long ears, and long curly purple hair.
It was clearly an elf's face. That face looked less than thirteen years old. It was the face of a very young little girl.
"It's not me, that's not me..." I screamed hysterically, staying as far away from that small mirror as possible, as if I would turn into another person if it got closer to me again.
"Quickly," an older maid suddenly approached me and grabbed my hair, "Quickly comb your hair. We don't have time to play around with you."
I cried and screamed at her, "It's not me, it's not me, it really isn't me..."
With a "slap", she raised her hand and slapped me hard, saying harshly, "Don't make me repeat it again. Hurry up!"
This slap made me a bit more sober. I gasped for breath, broke free from her, leaned against the corner of the wall, trembling all over like a frightened fawn.
A maid picked up the small mirror from the ground, put it on the table, and gave me a cold look, "Hurry up!"
Hearing this, the other two maids quickly stepped forward, dragged and pushed me to the table, and ordered fiercely, "Comb your hair quickly!"
I picked up the comb tremblingly, not daring to look at the mirror. I closed my eyes and combed my hair, finally tying it into a messy small bun at the back of my head.
After opening my eyes, I saw the mocking and disdainful smiles in the eyes of those maids. What's more, one of the maids even covered her mouth exaggeratedly, as if trying hard not to laugh, which made me feel really uncomfortable.
Amid their impatient scoldings, I shakily got up from the chair and then followed them out of the room.
It took me a long time to gradually get used to my new appearance.
I was assigned to work in the kitchen. I had never done such things before, so I had to start learning from scratch. I began to learn how to chop firewood. I didn't chop through many pieces in the whole morning. After observing for a few days, the supervisor sent me to make a fire. I learned from others and blew on the fire with a long wooden tube. After blowing for a long time, the fire didn't start, but I was choked so much that I couldn't straighten my back.
After learning for a few days, I finally managed to start a fire. I was actually a bit happy. After all, how could anyone be that stupid?
I knew that the other little kitchen maids often made fun of me behind my back, saying, "I've never seen anyone so clumsy..." But I didn't care.
When I felt that the air around me was getting colder and colder, a little kitchen maid told me that winter had come.
In this underground city, we could still feel the change of seasons, and even more acutely. This was a sinful underground city. Everything above the ground symbolized upward and positive things, while underground it symbolized the "evil" side of the elves' nature, an "evil" related to lust.
The elves here seemed to be willing to stay here. They liked to indulge themselves and revel in what seemed like endless carnal desires. The "performances" I saw in the caves separated by fences on the streets above ground were part of this underground "culture".
I originally wanted to escape from this place, but later I changed my mind and decided to take a good look around this place first. Perhaps it was out of curiosity. Anyway, I wanted to stay and see first.
It was very cold here in winter, even underground. I wrapped myself tightly with thick clothes and covered my bare neck with a fluffy scarf. Other women dressed similarly to me. But Luwu, a little kitchen maid who worked with me in the kitchen, said to me, "But when they go to a certain place, they will take off their thick clothes spontaneously and reveal the thin gauze long dresses inside."
"Oh, where?"
"The underground hot spring."
"What kind of place is that?" I became interested.
"Follow me."
It was midnight at that time. Luwu and I sneaked out quietly while everyone was asleep and there was no one in the kitchen.
She led me, taking advantage of the dim firelight on both sides of the winding corridor, and, as if hiding from something, bypassed some elf guards and came to a big house with a black-painted exterior.
"Are we still in Madam Adona's underground palace?" I asked her.
She nodded, with excitement shining in her eyes.
Madam Adona's underground palace was the "lair" of Madam Adona with those two big ears. If you walked out of Madam Adona's underground palace and went to the southeast corner deep underground, it was Digraf's underground palace. The two underground palaces operated the same "business" - brothels, and they were famous rivals.
I became a bit nervous and asked her, "Are we doing something bad?"
She laughed and said, "If this is considered bad, then I don't know how many women have done this bad thing."
There was no one in front of the house, and not a single guard could be seen. I was very surprised. Madam Adona was extremely suspicious. She was worried that others would harm her all day long, so she raised a lot of guards and thugs. There were people guarding everywhere in the underground palace.
But why wasn't there a single person here?
I told Luwu about my doubts. Luwu blinked her eyes and said, "You'll know in a moment." Then she gently pushed the door open. I didn't know what was going to happen. My heart was in my throat, and I kind of regretted coming here with her.
The door was opened silently. Luwu signaled me to tiptoe and walk in quietly. I had to do as she said. God knows how difficult it was to tiptoe without making a sound, but I still managed to do it with great effort.
As soon as I entered the house, a strange feeling welled up in my heart. I didn't know where this feeling came from.
The house was quiet, without a single sound. It was empty and spooky. There were round, dark-colored carpets on the floor. There were strange-shaped elf statues standing in the corners. The flames in the huge fireplace were burning brightly, illuminating the surroundings and warming up the house.
In the center of the house, there was an extremely wide stone staircase. The stone staircase was very high and led straight to the bronze gate of a certain room. There was a soft purple carpet laid on the stone staircase. The carpet was very long, from the front to the back, from the top to the bottom, extending all the way to the last step of the stone staircase and could even make a turn.
I originally wanted to take a closer look at the elf statues, but Luwu pulled me and rushed straight towards the staircase in the house. The two of us quickly went up the staircase. When we reached the top, Luwu pushed open the bronze gate.
Before I could even exclaim in surprise, I was pushed in by Luwu.
In front of me was a mass of white steam, curling up in layers, making my eyes dazzled. At the same time, I also heard a gentle splashing sound of flowing water.
"This is the underground hot spring," Luwu whispered to me. "The water in the hot spring is flowing water that flows in from outside."
She led me, like a thief, along the several small trees beside the hot spring, quietly approaching the huge hot spring pool.
The white steam was like layers of fog barriers, blocking my view and making it impossible for me to see what the hot spring pool in front looked like.