44: save4 The Price of Freedom
Ten million...
This number made Liu Lili's eyelids twitch involuntarily.
Ten million.
This was an astronomical figure Liu Lili had never encountered before.
Liu Lili knew Lu Lele's family was rich, but she didn't know they were this rich.
Just like she didn't know that the company where Lu Yanyan held her inherited shares was the largest tobacco enterprise in Tangerine City, and even the entire White Lily Republic.
Lu Lele's late parents were high ranking executives eligible to attend shareholders' meetings. Although their shareholding wasn't large, under the boost of a monopoly's massive capital, the actual value had reached a figure difficult for ordinary people to imagine.
And in the first year after inheriting the shares, Lu Yanyan had sold off a portion to use for other investments, while also reducing her own level of attention within the company.
For Lu Yanyan, ten million was painful, but it wasn't an amount she couldn't produce.
Liu Lili thought of her parents' salaries. Combined, they only made five thousand a month. If they wanted to save ten million, it would take two thousand months, equivalent to one hundred and sixty six years.
Even if her parents worked hard their whole lives, they couldn't earn that much money.
But this beautiful, graceful woman before her, who looked so much like Lu Lele, said she could give her mom and dad ten million Lily Coins.
"As long as you stay and keep Lele company."
The beautiful woman before her spoke thus, a hint of apologetic warmth in her voice:
"There will be no abuse, no hitting or scolding. I know you suffered many grievances. That wasn't your fault. I will make Lu Lele treat you well. You just need to stay with her. Of course, you cannot leave this place. Please remember, the current Liu Lili has already disappeared from this world."
While Lu Yanyan said these words, Liu Lili also thought of her favorite hamburgers and fries. A set meal was about twenty. Ten million Lily Coins could buy five hundred thousand of them.
Three meals a day, she could eat for four hundred and twelve years, enough for five lifetimes.
The loans at home could be paid off with just a fraction of that ten million...
Her parents and her younger brother, her own flesh and blood, could live happily from now on.
What she needed to pay was very simple.
Just stay here.
Just pretend the Liu Lili in reality was already dead.
Just live her life like these past few days.
If she didn't have to worry about her family, then living with Lu Lele wasn't necessarily something to dread.
Especially since the other person loved her, and Liu Lili had already deeply experienced the depth of that love.
If she wouldn't be tortured, then living like this wasn't unacceptable.
Liu Lili couldn't help but think mournfully that if you asked an ordinary person of similar age which was more important, a lifetime of freedom or ten million for their family, perhaps most people would choose their own lifetime of freedom.
But the realistic Liu Lili would choose the other option. Even knowing this choice would make her appear to have no dignity or backbone, it was the same.
However, she had to confirm that the graceful woman before her wasn't lying to her. Otherwise, everything would become a joke to her.
"How... can I trust you?" Liu Lili asked.
"I will show you the transfer record at an appropriate time, within this week."
Lu Yanyan spoke thus, her tone very serious:
"As for Lu Lele, if she dares to bully you, I will beat her severely. And I will do it in front of you, as I said."
Liu Lili nodded and asked:
"Then where is Lele now?"
Lu Yanyan answered calmly:
"She is receiving 'punishment' upstairs."
"You... how do you plan to punish her?" Liu Lili asked.
"However she treated you these past few days, I will treat her the same." Lu Yanyan smiled and answered. "Right now, she is receiving neglect play. It just started."
"Is that so?"
Liu Lili nodded. Painful memories couldn't help but rise in her mind.
The constantly forced stimulation, and the humiliation brought by that stimulation.
If she could make that guy feel it too, that would be wonderful.
Liu Lili suddenly felt the woman before her was much more pleasing to the eye, and along with it, the conditions the woman proposed suddenly became acceptable.
But actually, Liu Lili knew clearly in her heart.
Originally, she didn't have the capital to refuse this proposal.
In fact, these conditions could be said to be entirely 'charity' from Lu Yanyan.
In the end, Liu Lili never had any bargaining conditions. Not from the start.
Everything could only listen to Lu Yanyan's words. Everything could only be arranged by the woman before her.
Even if Lu Yanyan had no ill intent, even if she was considering things for Liu Lili, even if she gave Liu Lili's family wealth hard to imagine as compensation.
But why was there a feeling of being so suppressed she couldn't breathe?
It was as if, in the unseen world, a force greater than Lu Yanyan was deciding the direction of Liu Lili's life.
What could that be?
If she could break that force, she would gain true freedom, right?
But even so, herself in reality couldn't actually change anything.
After all, even if she resisted such things, what would be the result?
"Okay, I agree."
Liu Lili finally nodded very calmly. Then, just as calmly, she raised a new request:
"It's just that, reading manga every day will feel very boring. So, big sister, can you install a television in the basement?"
"..."
Lu Yanyan hesitated for a few seconds, then nodded:
"Okay. Little sister Liu Lili, please wait for a while. I will grant your wish."
...
...
Lu Lele had never felt time pass so slowly.
Tick tock. Tick tock.
Every minute, every second.
Every instant was such torment.
The key was, she couldn't see the end of the torture.
When pleasure is accumulated to excess, the so called joy is converted into utter pain.
It was like riding a never ending roller coaster. Only the first few loops give you the thrill; after that, it becomes pure torture.
Muscles twitching uncontrollably.
Sweat constantly pouring out, then drying up.
Lu Lele's spirit was on the verge of collapse, crying constantly.
But it wouldn't stop.
It just kept going.
Continuously, without end.
Until a certain moment, the vibration on Lu Lele's body suddenly stopped.
Lu Yanyan was outside the door, listening to Lu Lele sobbing. After listening for a long time, she finally softened her heart, unable to bear seeing her biological sister suffer such torture any longer.
At this point, it had already been the fourth hour of Lu Lele's confinement.
The moment she saw her sister, Lu Lele looked at her as if seeing a savior, using the most humble, obedient words to beg for forgiveness.
She finally understood how Liu Lili felt back then. She completely understood Liu Lili's feelings through personal experience.
Holding the sobbing Lu Lele, Lu Yanyan felt very distressed, but she still hardened her heart and said seriously:
"The punishment hasn't ended, okay? After all, what you did to Liu Lili was far more than this."
"Come, lie across my lap. You know what I'm going to do, my dear little sister."
Hearing this, Lu Lele cried even louder.
She hadn't expected Liu Lili had experienced so many excessive things.
What a good turnabout of karma.
If only she had been gentler to Liu Lili back then, it would have been good…