The Yellow-Haired Villain in Soaring Phoenix’s Novels Also Desires Happiness

Chapter 48, The Smile Gradually Becomes Distorted

“Young master, how does the fish taste?” An suddenly asked afterward.

“Hmm, very delicious.”

“That’s great! It was worth all the effort I put into catching the fish for you.”

—

An elegant smile appeared on An’s delicate face, causing Mu En to momentarily lose his composure.

Although being sickly is quite frightening, one cannot deny that when An is in her normal state, she is indeed a stunning beauty. Moreover, her figure, hidden beneath the maid outfit, is curvaceous and no less impressive than Celicia’s.

If only he could date her, it might not be such a bad idea.

Of course, the premise is that she has to return to being a normal person.

“By the way, An, you seem to be completely soaked. What happened?”

Due to the dim lighting, Mu En had not noticed An’s condition until she mentioned it. Only then did he realize that she was drenched as if she had just swum four hundred meters in a river. Her usually meticulously arranged hair clung to her forehead, and there were quite a few mud splatters on her dress.

This appearance was unimaginable for the usually meticulous An.

“It’s nothing, young master, I just got a little wet in the rain,” An replied.

“Got wet in the rain?”

Mu En frowned:

“If you got caught in the rain, why didn’t you go take a shower and change your clothes?”

“Because I wanted to make sure the young master could have lunch as soon as possible. Aren’t you hungry?” An said matter-of-factly.

“It’s fine if lunch is a bit late, but what if you catch a cold from being in the rain!”

Mu En’s expression turned serious:

“Hurry back and take a shower, a hot bath, soak for a while, change into warm clothes, and then sit by the fire for a bit. Just to be safe, it’s best to call a doctor to get some medicine to prevent a cold!”

“Young master…”

An looked a bit taken aback, but her cheeks visibly flushed:

“You care about me this much? I’m so touched, I really want to…”

“Alright, stop being silly and go!”

“Okay.”

Feeling the rare warmth from Mu En, An obediently nodded and quickly tidied up the remnants of the food.

Yet even with Mu En urging her repeatedly, An still meticulously collected every single fishbone with great care before taking it away.

“Then, young master, I will excuse myself.”

“Hurry up and get lost!”

“Alright.”

Even though Mu En had scolded her harshly, An’s expression grew increasingly blissful.

She left with a light step.

In the narrow, dim cage, silence returned.

Mu En watched An disappear into the darkness, and his serious expression immediately crumbled.

Then…

The smile gradually twisted…

“Hey.”

“Heh heh.”

“Heh heh heh heh.”

“As expected, a woman’s IQ drops when she’s in love.”

“Opportunity, isn’t this it?”

…

After confirming that An had truly left, Mu En stretched his limbs a bit.

Though he couldn’t move much due to the shackles, he managed to gauge the limits of his current mobility.

“Looks like the first step is to free my hands, huh?”

Mu En glanced to the side.

To completely restrict his movements, his hands were tightly shackled to the wall, forcing him into a position reminiscent of Jesus on the cross.

In this position, he couldn’t do anything, so he had to break free from the shackles on his hands.

“It’s okay, it’s okay.”

Mu En took a deep breath, a long-held determination surfacing in his eyes.

“I’ve tried this many times in the Black Book space; I can do it.”

With resolve, Mu En pressed his right thumb into his palm, then—he pushed hard!

Crack.

Accompanied by the crisp sound of bones shifting, a wave of intense pain surged into his mind, causing cold sweat to bead on Mu En’s forehead.

“Hiss—sure enough, even though I’ve tried it in the Black Book space, this kind of pain in reality is still hard to bear.”

“After all, it’s a dislocated thumb.”

But thankfully, this pain was not endured in vain.

After the thumb dislocated, his palm could indeed easily slip through the shackles.

The dramas do not deceive me!

Successfully freeing his right hand from the shackles, Mu En pressed his palm against the ground, aimed for the right spot, and then—he pressed down hard.

Crack.

The sound of bones shifting echoed once more.

The excruciating pain hit him again.

“Hiss—damn it, realigning is even more painful than dislocating.”

Mu En held his head high, gritting his teeth to endure.

But he didn’t even have a moment to rest, to ease the pain.

After his thumb was back in place, bruises still lingered around the bone, and his palm trembled uncontrollably, yet he had no time to care about these things.

He didn’t know when An would return; he had to hurry.

Mu En raised his hand, using his trembling fingers to slowly retrieve something from his mouth.

It was something he had just desperately hidden under his tongue, almost discovered by An…

A fishbone.

It was also his key to freedom.

Lockpicking LV8.

Mu En looked at the records in the black book, feeling the fruits of his hard practice, and couldn’t help but reveal a hint of a lucky smile.

Father, Grandfather, and the ancestors of the Campbell family, I misjudged you.

The bizarre books you stuffed in the library are not useless at all!

At least that book, “Fish Bones Can Pick Locks—A Hundred Ways to Break and Enter,” is incredibly useful right now!

“Alright, let’s get started.”

Mu En took a few deep breaths to calm himself, also steadying his trembling hands.

He pinched the fishbone in his right hand, carefully extending it toward the lock of the shackles on his left hand, his heart racing in his throat.

Success or failure, it all hinged on this moment!

……

The outcome was even smoother than Mu En had imagined.

Under his high-level LV8 lockpicking skill, not only did he easily unlock the shackles binding him, but even the large lock on the iron bars, which looked quite reassuring, was pried open effortlessly with the fishbone.

It seemed An had never considered this possibility; although he had been cautious enough not to even let Mu En wear clothes, he hadn’t anticipated that Mu En could learn such an incredible skill as picking locks with a fishbone.

Father, Grandfather, and the ancestors of the Campbell family, thank you once again!

You are a bunch of muscle-headed fools who don’t like to read, and that’s just perfect.

“I need to make a quick escape.”

After the lock clicked open, Mu En cautiously stepped out of the iron bars.

The light outside the bars was dimmer than in the cage, illuminated only by a glowing stone embedded several meters above his head.

Fortunately, it didn’t significantly hinder his vision.

“This place… seems to be an underground storage room?”

Looking at the clutter piled around him, Mu En vaguely recalled where this was.

In the far corner of the duke’s estate, there was an underground storage room used by the maids to store various odds and ends.

Later, due to the estate’s renovations, it fell into disrepair.

I remember when I was a child, Mu En came here to explore, but ended up taking a hard fall because it was too dark.

Mu En instinctively touched his forehead, where he could still vaguely feel a small mark.

“I remember back then, it was An, who had just become my personal maid, comforting the crying little Mu En and rescuing him from this place.”

“And it was from that moment on that Mu En began to rely more and more on An.”

“An was so gentle back then, just like an older sister.”

…

So why has it turned into such a dangerous illness now, Jiao!