Gu Qingyuan looked at Su Ling with a gloomy expression and shook her head. “Why won’t you answer?”
He really didn’t want to answer that question. Whether it was good or bad didn’t matter anymore.
But Gu Qingyuan clearly didn’t think that way. She believed she had been good to her Little Thing. After breaking his leg, she had taken care of him. She fed him, stayed by his side every moment, held him tightly when he was cold, and paid close attention to him at all times.
Wasn’t that enough? Why wouldn’t her Little Thing answer?
‘Ha, it’s all a lie! All that talk about accepting me—it’s all a lie! They never truly accepted me; they’re just afraid of me! Afraid that I’ll cut off another leg!
‘They never truly accepted me at all. They’ve been pretending the whole time. Maybe this Little Thing knew all along that half-beasts have this sense of smell and was just putting on an act for me!
‘And I was stupid enough to believe it, even deciding to treat them better from now on. Heh, what a fool I am—deceived by everyone, and now even my own Little Thing fools me!’
The angrier she got, the more she wanted to tear off another one of his legs right then and there.
Su Ling kept his head down, unaware of her change in mood.
Gu Qingyuan suddenly sat up and got out of bed. Su Ling lifted his head, confused, watching her—what was she going to do?
The room had bare walls on all sides, except for one wall lined with rows of small cabinets. There were many cabinets, and Su Ling had no idea what was inside. As he watched her head straight for them, an inexplicable unease rose in his chest.
Gu Qingyuan opened one of the cabinets, glanced at the contents, carefully selected a few items, and said, “Come here!”
She didn’t walk over. Instead, she found a chair nearby and sat down. Su Ling’s body trembled. ‘Is Master going to punish me again? Did she get angry because I said I wanted to go out?’
Su Ling lowered his head and crawled off the bed bit by bit. Standing on one leg, he supported himself with his right hand on the bedframe and tried to take a couple of steps forward. His body wobbled, nearly sending him crashing to the floor.
He had no choice but to abandon the hopping approach. Slowly, he bent down and switched to crawling, inching forward bit by bit. Even so, it was still a struggle. He fell several times. When he lifted his head and saw his master’s expressionless face, he had no choice but to keep going.
After falling five or six times, he finally reached her. His one remaining shin was covered in scrapes and bruises from the collisions, especially his knee, which was red and swollen, faintly showing traces of blood.
“Ha!” Gu Qingyuan laughed, but the smile was cold.
She stood up, gently stroked her Little Thing’s cat ears, then took out an object and fastened it over his mouth.
It was a black ball, shoved directly into his mouth, with two black straps on either side connected to the ball. As the buckle clicked tight, his mouth was completely sealed by the sphere.
Su Ling’s pupils trembled. He looked at his master uneasily.
But Gu Qingyuan ignored him. She pulled out a length of hemp rope and began binding his body. Soon, Su Ling was tied up in a very humiliating way.
Once he was bound, Gu Qingyuan picked him up under his uneasy gaze and carried him to a wall. The wall had several protruding cylinders. Su Ling was firmly fixed against those cylinders.
With his mouth unable to make a sound and his body unable to move at all, only his eyes remained—filled with fear and helplessness as he stared at Gu Qingyuan.
After finishing all this, Gu Qingyuan stared at her Little Thing’s current state and finally smiled.
“Little Thing, do you know what you did wrong?”
Su Ling’s body was firmly pinned against the wall, unable to make even the slightest movement.
“Ha! Of course you don’t know, because you never think you’re in the wrong. You’ve never truly seen me as your master. But that’s fine—I can slowly make you understand how to be a proper pet.”
As she said this, Gu Qingyuan wasn’t looking at her Little Thing. Instead, she stared at his foot, pondering whether to cut off his other leg.
After staring for a while, she abandoned the idea. Or rather, she found herself a reason: ‘His foot is so beautiful—small, pink and tender, soft to the touch. Cutting off one is enough. If I cut off the other, I won’t get to see such an adorable foot anymore. That would be a loss.’
With that thought, she gave up on the idea. After all, there were plenty of other ways to torment her Little Thing.
‘Let’s start with the mental side. No matter how much physical torture you inflict, it eventually heals. And this Little Thing is clearly the type to forget the pain once the wound scabs over. So compared to physical torment, mental anguish might yield unexpected results.’
With a click, Gu Qingyuan turned off the only light source in the room.
The entire room plunged into deathlike darkness. No light at all. Nothing. No vision.
Everything before his eyes was pitch-black. Su Ling wanted to close his eyes, but the moment he did, all sorts of terrifying images flooded his mind. He had to open them again. His eyes stared fearfully at the dark surroundings, the shadowy corners as if something horrible might leap out at any moment.
Crack!
Suddenly, a sharp whip sound cut through the air.
Su Ling’s body jolted. Then excruciating pain shot from his waist. ‘I’ve been hit! No!’
He cried helplessly, staring uneasily at his surroundings. But a long, long time passed, and the whip didn’t strike again. Just as Su Ling thought it wouldn’t come, another crack fell. This time it hit his thigh.
Su Ling trembled in agony, but couldn’t make a sound. All he could do was wait in that unease, waiting for the whip to fall again.
But this time, even longer passed—longer than before—and still the whip didn’t fall. Su Ling thought it would never come again. And indeed, after a very long time, the whip still hadn’t appeared.
He let out a breath of relief, but soon fear returned. The darkness was too complete. He was afraid of the dark; the pitch-black environment made him think of all sorts of terrible things. He struggled on in that anxious state. Suddenly, Su Ling almost wished the whip would come. At least when he got struck, he wouldn’t have time to let his imagination run wild. The physical pain would drown out the fear in his heart.
But no. The whip seemed to have vanished, never arriving.
At that moment, Gu Qingyuan held the whip in her hand, standing less than a yard away from Su Ling. She wore night vision goggles on her head, clearly seeing her Little Thing’s position. But she wasn’t in a hurry to strike the third time. Wait a little longer—wait for the right moment.