“Hmm?”
“Little Cripple, it seems there are other people like you who want to protect others.”
“I really don’t get it. Why do you weaklings hold such stupid ideas?”
Su Ling struggled to open his eyes. Everything was a blur of red, making it hard to see. The pain all over his body nearly robbed him of the ability to move.
“Look at the sorry state you’re in. Do you think he’ll end up like you?”
“You’re a half-beast, so you can take it, but he’s not!”
The woman smiled and reached out to untie the rope around Su Ling’s wrists. As soon as the rope loosened, his body crashed heavily to the floor. The sharp pain brought a flicker of clarity to his dazed mind.
Su Ling lifted his head with difficulty, struggling to open his eyes, but his eyelids were too heavy. After much effort, he only managed to open them a tiny crack.
“Still, I could choose not to hit him.” The woman leaned close to Su Ling’s ear and whispered seductively, “If you behave and listen to me, I’ll let him go. How about that?”
Su Ling was stunned for a moment. His muddled brain took a long time to process her meaning. He turned his head to look at the boy who had given him the steamed bun.
The boy was slender and thin, his skin pale almost to the point of transparency. His round eyes were moist and innocent, his eyelashes long and soft, his features small and delicate. He exuded a fragile, breakable air, tears glistening in the corners of his eyes as he looked at Su Ling with worry.
Su Ling then looked at Lin Feng. His entire body was covered in injuries—bruises on his arms, face, and legs. All because of him.
Su Ling turned back to the woman. She was smiling at him, just watching. He licked his dry lips and nodded with difficulty. Whatever it was, if it meant they would be spared, he’d accept it.
‘After all, how much worse could it get?’
The woman gently stroked Su Ling’s head. “Good boy.”
She picked Su Ling up and gestured to her subordinates. “Take them both downstairs.”
Su Ling’s cat ears twitched slightly. Downstairs? Where? What were they going to do?
He wanted to do something, but he was too exhausted, too pained to manage anything. After struggling a few times, he only aggravated his wounds and passed out from the pain.
When Su Ling woke again, a chain was attached to the collar around his neck. Beneath him was a soft bed. The room was dark except for a faint light illuminating one corner. Su Ling instinctively looked and saw the woman sitting in front of a computer, seeming busy.
Su Ling looked away after a moment and reached up to touch his neck. The collar pressed tightly against his skin. When he tugged, a searing pain shot through his neck, as if the collar had truly grown into him.
His eyes burned hot, and tears dripped down from the corners of his eyes. This collar was put on him by his elder sister. ‘In these people’s eyes, I’m a toy, a pet. Then in my elder sister’s eyes, what am I? Maybe the same… or maybe worse. Or in her eyes, I’m just a piece of trash that took over her nest…’
That guy had said his elder sister was doing this to avenge her real brother.
“What are you thinking?” The woman had approached without his notice. As she drew closer, Su Ling’s heart tightened. He looked up at her, afraid to face her, and could only shrink back uneasily, but there was nowhere to hide. With no escape, he was forced onto his back by her oppressive presence. Yet the woman didn’t stop. The distance between them shrank until Su Ling could feel her hot breath.
“Mm!!~”
Su Ling’s eyes flew wide open, warm tears streaming out. He tried to struggle, but as soon as he moved, she stopped him. The woman lifted her head, a flash of greed in her deep eyes.
“Don’t move, Little Cripple. You don’t want those two little fellows to end up missing limbs too, do you?”
Her voice was soft, but to Su Ling it sounded like a demon’s whisper. His body trembled, and the force of his resistance gradually faded. He pressed his lips tightly together, his eyes full of tears as he looked at her uneasily.
The woman smiled lightly, reached out to lift his chin, and let her gaze roam over his body without restraint. “Later, scream nice and loud, got it?”
Su Ling was momentarily stunned at this. ‘Scream? Scream loud? But I can’t scream at all!’
Just as the woman was about to kiss him again, he immediately raised his hand to stop her.
“Little Cripple, I told you not to move. If you upset me, those two will die!” Her voice was icy, her eyes full of impatience.
Su Ling swallowed hard, waved his hands frantically, and pointed at his throat.
“What do you mean?” The woman frowned as realization dawned. “You can’t speak?”
Su Ling’s heart ached at that. He wanted to tell her he hadn’t always been like this, but he couldn’t. After a moment of thought, he nodded. Though he used to be able to talk, he really couldn’t now.
“Tch, cripple on top of cripple. Useless waste!”
‘If I can’t even do such a small thing, what am I if not a cripple?’ The woman grabbed Su Ling’s chin and twisted his head to face her.
“Little Cripple, you’ve taken away a lot of my fun, you know that?”
Su Ling lowered his eyes. He didn’t know what to do. He was well aware that she wanted to toy with him, just like that guy had—maybe even worse. But unexpectedly, instead of playing with him, she threw him off the bed.
“I’m in a bad mood now. Stay here by yourself.”
Su Ling struggled to get up from the floor and looked at her. ‘Why isn’t she playing? Is she disgusted by me?’ He stared blankly at his own body. One leg was broken, a strange tail grew from his rear, a pair of cat ears sat on his forehead, and his throat was ruined.
“Little Cripple, what are you staring at? Keep it up and I’ll throw you out.”
Su Ling forced back the urge to cry, refusing to let the tears fall. He didn’t care if she threw him out. But the word “cripple” stabbed deep into his heart, making it hard to breathe and filling him with an indescribable pain.
‘I’m a cripple. A worthless nobody. A cripple who gets rejected…’
He remembered when he was little. His elder sister was cooking in the kitchen, and he always ran in to cause trouble. He wanted to help, but every time he just made things worse, turning everything into a mess.
‘I’ve been someone who can’t do anything right from the start. No, now I’m not even human anymore…’
Su Ling curled up, feeling the pain from his broken leg. He thought that if it could hurt a little more, enough to kill him, that would be good. If he died, he wouldn’t trouble anyone. After all, his mother, father, and elder sister had all abandoned him. There was no one left in this world for him. Living on would only mean being toyed with, and even being despised by the ones playing with him. It’d be better to just die…
“Wake up.” The woman impatiently kicked Su Ling.
His wounds hadn’t fully healed, and her kick landed right on one of them. The sharp pain jolted him awake from his sleep. He clutched the wound and looked at her uneasily. He didn’t understand what she wanted now. Hadn’t she already grown tired of him?
The woman used the tip of her toe to lift Su Ling’s chin. Though Little Cripple was a cripple, he was incredibly beautiful—the kind of beauty that made people unable to look away at first glance.
“Little Cripple, you fell asleep so fast. You didn’t think I was done with you, did you?” She pulled out a small pink bottle from behind her back. “I found something fun for you. Drink it.”
Su Ling took it with trembling hands. He didn’t know what was inside the bottle or what would happen when he drank it. But one thing was certain—he was about to be tortured.
Yet he didn’t dare refuse. Thinking of those two boys, he couldn’t. He opened the bottle with shaking hands and poured it into his mouth bit by bit.