Since then, Luwu never took me to that place again.
But privately, I quietly asked other girls, "Do you know who the man in the hot spring is?"
I only asked the younger girls who were eleven or twelve years old. Only they were innocent and defenseless. One little girl frankly replied, "I only heard from the supervisor sister before that the man is Mrs. Adona's nephew. He was poisoned deeply, so he could only live in the hot spring. Meanwhile, he also had to suck the blood of our female elves to suppress the toxicity."
"Ah?" I didn't expect this answer.
Another little girl continued, "He is very popular among the sisters. Many sisters often sneak to the hot spring to see him. There are no elves guarding the hot spring room, just to make it convenient for the sisters. Because it's said that he only drinks the blood that others offer voluntarily and never forces others."
"This guy is quite arrogant!" I muttered to myself.
"Who made him so handsome," the little girl smiled and said, "Many sisters say that they have never seen an elf with a better figure than him."
I couldn't help sneering. Are you kidding? His figure was okay, but his appearance... especially those gloomy and cold eyes, were really scary. I didn't understand why he could attract women.
The business of Mrs. Adona's underground palace was very good, and there were quite a lot of guests every day.
Among the guests, there were both male and female elves, mainly male elves. Occasionally, several noblemen and noblewomen could be seen. They wore gorgeous clothes and strange hats, some with pointed tops, some square-shaped, and some strange round ones. There were all kinds of gems on the hats, or exquisite and elegant patterns embroidered with gold or silver threads, showing their high social status and wealth.
Whenever this happened, Adona was just like a madam in TV shows, with a big smile on her face, greeting these guests with a smile. Of course, she only received those noble guests wearing precious hats.
Adona greeted them with a flattering smile, but they didn't even look at her directly. They were so arrogant that they seemed to look down on others. But Adona didn't care about these. What she cared about was only the money in their pockets.
"Sir, I heard that another gold mine has been discovered?" Adona's eyes were shining with greed. She licked her lips and said in a shrill voice. It seemed that her saliva was about to drip down.
The nobleman with long and pointed ears glanced at her sideways, smoking a pipe and blowing out smoke. He said, "You are really well-informed!"
"Look at what you said," Adona pretended to be coquettish and stroked her hair, then lowered her voice. "Didn't many elves die some time ago? Weren't they all used as incantation primers to lead out the gold mine?"
The nobleman wearing a square hat and a gem necklace smiled slyly, "Adona, you are really shrewd. Nothing can escape your notice."
The two of them laughed and then began to whisper to each other.
I walked past them with a water basin in my hand and went straight to the third underground floor. After entering the kitchen, I secretly asked Luwu, "Do you know what the gold mine is all about?"
Luwu was playing with a shiny silver coin at that time. She threw it up high and caught it quickly. After hearing what I said, she immediately put away the silver coin and became alert. "Who told you that?"
I put the water basin on the counter, scooped up a bowl of water and poured it into the pot. I said casually, "Mrs. Adona just talked about it with a guest in the front hall of the underground palace."
"Oh," she seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, and then said, "Remember, you can't talk about this kind of thing casually in the future."
She pulled me to a corner and whispered to me. At that time, there were only the two of us in the whole kitchen.
"The gold mine is evil. It is hidden somewhere underground in our kingdom. Only noblemen and noblewomen have the qualifications and abilities to explore and possess it. The gold mine is extremely difficult to be discovered, but once it is discovered, it will bring great prosperity to the kingdom and make it richer. Some time ago, the king killed many elves by following the advice of the priest, using the blood and limbs of the elves to lead out the evil aura of the gold mine, and finally succeeded in discovering the gold mine."
I thought of the mass grave and felt a chill in my heart.
She became excited instead, "In this way, our kingdom will become stronger, and we won't be afraid when we fight against the Tart Kingdom in the future."
The Tart Kingdom was the archenemy of the Aslan Kingdom, and the two countries often went to war. I was currently in the Aslan Kingdom. The national strength of the Tart Kingdom was slightly stronger than that of the Aslan Kingdom. The two countries bordered on each other, and they often quarreled over many issues. The most obvious one was the fight for mineral resources. Many gold mines, silver mines and rare gemstone mines were often discovered near the border between the two countries. The two countries often quarreled fiercely over the ownership of these mineral resources and even launched wars.
"In recent years," Luwu counted on her fingers, "There have been many wars, big and small. They were either for mineral resources or for the border issue. The Tart Kingdom has always wanted to swallow our kingdom."
"Oh, I see."
"Look at you, so silly..." She was a little dissatisfied with my casualness.
In the eyes of the people in this underground palace, I was just a silly little girl. But I didn't care, because I wouldn't stay in this elf world for a long time.
In the coldest days of winter, it was said that a female elf was so crazy about the man in the hot spring that she jumped into the hot spring regardless of the ban, trying to get close to the man. Unexpectedly, the man slapped her in disgust. The slap was so powerful that it instantly killed the female elf.
This incident had a great impact in the underground palace. But strangely enough, the elves all blamed the female elf who overreached herself instead of the gloomy man who killed someone with one slap.
The result of this incident was that an additional maid was to be arranged for this man. Originally, this man didn't want a maid, but this time he agreed to his aunt Adona's proposal to add a maid to take care of his daily life and stop other women from approaching him. Of course, when it came to sucking blood, that was an exception.
Once the news spread, the female elves in the underground palace began to compete for this position. They all racked their brains to get it. Every night before going to bed, one could always hear many female elves excitedly discussing and guessing who would get this position.
I always stayed out of these things, feeling that they had nothing to do with me. I just covered myself with the quilt and fell asleep deeply.
However, five days later, when Adona announced that I was to be the personal maid, all the female elves were shocked and opened their mouths wide, including me.
"I want a young girl," Adona said, "who is inexperienced and seems to have no interest in male elves at all."
"Madam, I'm also very young. I'm only twelve years old and I'm not interested in men either."
"Madam, I've just turned thirteen years old, the same age as her. Why choose her instead of me?"
All of a sudden, the elves were chirping and making noise. Adona couldn't bear the disturbance. She shook her big ears and left staggering with the support of two elves.
And that's how it was settled.
The rainy season in early spring arrived. Rainwater seeped from the ground into the underground, making it seem like it was raining every day underground, with thousands of raindrops falling straight down. Annoyingly, this rainwater was not as clean as that on the land. After the rainwater on the land seeped into the ground, it passed through the soil and became turbid and yellow.
Wearing a rainproof coat, I walked through the puddles filled with rainwater and came to the hot spring, with my body already covered in yellow mud.
When I arrived at the destination, I took off the rainproof coat full of yellow mud, opened the food box and took out the food one by one and put it on the edge of the hot spring pool. Every day, I would go to the kitchen to get the food box at noon and in the evening.
Sitting by the hot spring, my eyes unconsciously glanced over there. The way this man ate was particularly elegant, and the way he drank milk was quite noble. I could only use the word "noble" because the way he drank milk was really graceful, and there was no femininity in his grace at all. It was just like the way a man drank water.
I hardly ever talked to him. I was responsible for his daily life, including food and clothing, and at the same time, I had to prevent those female elves who were willing to "donate blood" from jumping into the hot spring.
At night, I slept in the small woods beside the hot spring. There was a net like a hanging basket tied between two trees. I laid a thin mattress on it and slept on it. I didn't want to sleep on the wet ground, because that would make me have nightmares at night.
As time passed, I began to talk to myself. Because I really couldn't bear not talking for a long time.
"Do you see the white mist rising here?" I said, "It's the hot air from this hot spring. Whenever I see it, I will think of my childhood.
"Do you know what childhood is? Childhood is the period of time you experienced when you were very young. At that time, I was very lonely because my parents were not around. They were busy running around for their own ideals and goals, so they ignored me. Can you imagine how a girl who grew up without her parents' company grew up?
"I grew up in a small county town where it was often foggy. The air there was very humid, and it was foggy both in the daytime and at night, just like the constantly rising white mist here, making people feel as if they were living in a dream world every day.
"Later, my parents took me to another place. It was seldom foggy there, but it was often rainy. I often sat alone in the kitchen boiling water. When I saw the steam rising, it seemed that I went back to my childhood again."
Having said that, I took a look at the man in the hot spring pool and found that he had fallen asleep.
"Are you kidding me?" I murmured, "Am I talking like a lullaby?"