“Mm… where… is… this…”
Su Ling’s voice was broken and hesitant. Every word he spoke required an immense amount of effort. His body, moreover, flared with pain from time to time—a pain he simply could not ignore.
‘This is really too much!’
‘It clearly wasn’t my fault. I didn’t do anything, yet I’m being treated like this. Why?!’
With the grievances in his heart find no outlet, he could only let his tears flow. He didn’t even have the strength left to make a sound as he sobbed.
This place did not seem to be anywhere he had stayed before. The environment was dark and damp, and the surroundings were pitch black except for an old lightbulb overhead that cast a dim, yellow glow. It appeared to be a basement.
‘It seems I’ve been confined again…’
As the realization dawned on him, his tears fell even harder.
Bang!
The worn-out iron door let out a loud crash as Ye Moran walked in, carrying a tray with a meager meal.
“You’re awake?”
“You…”
“Baby, save your strength. I don’t want to hear anything unpleasant coming out of your mouth!” she said. “Come, eat.”
Su Ling clamped his mouth shut, his eyes glaring fiercely at her.
“See? You’re being disobedient again.”
“You’re always like this. You’re exceptionally obedient when I’m bullying you—you do whatever I tell you to do. But as soon as it’s over, you become defiant again.”
“You really are quite… pathetic!”
Su Ling’s pupils trembled. What was she saying? Was she calling him pathetic?
‘Why? Why would she say that to me?’
A wave of distress surged in his heart. Being spoken to like that by the person closest to him made Su Ling feel as if he almost couldn’t breathe.
“Aren’t you just pathetic?” she continued. “You’ll chat with anyone you run into. Do you still remember when you were 16 years old?”
“Just because you saw a little girl crying on the side of the road, you went running over like a little lapdog to comfort her.”
“What, do you think you’re very kind?”
“The result of your kindness was that the girl wouldn’t stop pestering you afterward. If it weren’t for me, she would still be clinging to you even now!”
Su Ling lifted his head in disbelief. A chill ran through his body as he looked at her smiling face; he felt nothing but terror.
He remembered that girl. At the time, she had been separated from her mother. Seeing her crying so pitifully, he had gone to comfort her and helped her find her mother. After helping her, they had added each other as friends and become close!
They used to hang out often after that, but one day, she suddenly disappeared. He couldn’t contact her no matter what he tried. When he went to her house, he was told her family had already moved away. At the time, he had cried for a long while over it.
He never expected that her disappearance wasn’t a silent goodbye, but rather his own elder sister’s doing.
What was even more infuriating was that she was the one who had robbed him of his friend, yet here she was, acting as if she had done it for his own good!
“Heh, you must think I’m very wicked right now, don’t you?”
“See, that stupid brain of yours is always thinking about things like that. But have you ever considered that I did it to protect you?”
“Those so-called friends of yours—did they really approach you and stay close just to be your friend?”
“That Nan-gong Wan… when you were with her, did you really not feel that she had ulterior motives?”
“Let me tell you, not a single one of them wants to be your friend. They all want to get in your pants!”
“Lies… you’re lying!”
Su Ling could no longer endure it. He squeezed out the words with every bit of strength he possessed.
“Heh, you think I’m lying? Well then, how about I call that Nan-gong Wan right now and let you ask her yourself if she likes you?”
“No… don’t!”
“Fine. We can wait a while then. Given your current physical state, you can’t say more than a few words anyway.”
“Tsk, I almost forgot. Come, eat your food first.”
“Be good this time. If you don’t eat, I’ll starve you for a while and see if you’ll eat then!”
Su Ling tightly pursed his dry, cracked lips. His jawline was taut, and his entire body shook uncontrollably from a mixture of anger and fear. His already weak body swayed, nearly causing him to collapse to the floor.
He looked up at Ye Moran. Those eyes, which had once been filled with trust and reliance, now held only broken flickers of tears and a bone-chilling coldness. Even his glare carried the tremors of exhaustion. He gritted his teeth, still refusing to open his mouth or touch the bowl and chopsticks she held out.
The smile on Ye Moran’s face faded slightly. Her fingertips gripped the edge of the porcelain bowl until her knuckles turned white. The tenderness in her voice vanished completely, replaced by cold obsession and impatience.
She took a step forward and knelt in front of Su Ling. Her rough thumb and forefinger gripped his chin with enough force to nearly crush the bone, forcing him to lift his head and meet her toxic gaze.
“You’re not going to be obedient, are you?”
Ye Moran let out a soft chuckle. It was a sinister sound that echoed through the empty, damp basement, making Su Ling’s skin crawl.
“Su Ling, have you forgotten? I am your Master. Everything you have was given to you by me—your life, your stability, and even every living soul around you can only exist with my permission!”
“I didn’t lock you in here to imprison you. I did it to protect you.”
Her thumb brushed against Su Ling’s trembling lips. Her movements were gentle, but her words were laced with ice.
“Everyone outside wants to devour you. I am the only one who truly wants to keep you by my side and cherish you. But what about you? You’re forever ungrateful, always thinking about running away, always trying to get close to those people who want to tear you apart!”
Su Ling was in pain from her grip. Tears fell uncontrollably, splashing onto the back of Ye Moran’s hand, but their warmth failed to thaw her cold heart. He wanted to struggle, to push away the hideous person before him, but the pain and weakness pinning him down left him without even the strength to lift his hand. He could only emit small, stifled whimpers—like a young bird with broken wings, fragile and at the mercy of its captor.
“What are you crying for?”
Ye Moran frowned, her tone softening slightly yet remaining unmistakably commanding. She released his chin, scooped up a spoonful of porridge, and held it to his lips.
“Be a good boy and eat. Once your body is recovered, we’ll have the strength to do the things we like, won’t we?”
“Of course, you can choose not to eat. But the price will be your friend—she might disappear completely, just like that little girl did!”
At the mention of the girl, Su Ling’s body suddenly stiffened. His heart felt as if it were being squeezed by a frigid hand, and a suffocating sensation overwhelmed him.
He finally understood. All these years, the people around him had left one by one, and it had never been a coincidence. It was all orchestrated by the woman in front of him. She had used the most despicable methods to cut off all his social ties and every bit of warmth, eventually trapping him in this dark basement while calling it “protection”!
“You… lunatic…”
Su Ling used the last of his strength to squeeze those two words from his throat. His voice was incredibly raspy, and the despair in his eyes was thick enough to be tangible.
The spoon in Ye Moran’s hand clattered against the rim of the bowl. The last shred of her feigned tenderness shattered, and her expression turned dark and terrifying.
She slammed the bowl onto the floor and grabbed Su Ling’s wrist, pinning him harshly against the cold wall. Her forehead pressed against his, and her breath fanned over his face, carrying a nauseating sense of possessiveness.
“A lunatic?”
She chuckled softly, her laugh filled with madness and obsession.
“Yes, I am a lunatic. From the first moment I saw you—from the moment I saw you smiling at someone else—I went mad.”
“Su Ling, you can only be mine. You can only look at me, and you can only rely on me. Aside from me, you aren’t allowed near anyone, and you aren’t allowed to trust anyone!”
“You’re going to eat this porridge whether you want to or not!”
Ye Moran picked up the bowl again, scooped some porridge, and forced it past Su Ling’s tightly shut lips, pouring it in.
“If you dare spit it out, I’ll call Nan-gong Wan right now. I’ll let her see exactly how pathetic and wretched you look, and we’ll see if her so-called love can actually protect you.”
The warm porridge choked his throat, causing Su Ling to cough violently. Tears and bile mixed together; he was a wretched sight.
He leaned powerlessly against the wall, watching the encroaching, manic Ye Moran. He finally understood completely—he couldn’t escape. This dark, damp basement would be his eternal cage, and the person he had once considered his closest kin was the most terrifying nightmare that would haunt his entire life.
He closed his eyes as hot tears continued to fall. The last spark of light in his heart was finally extinguished by the endless darkness…