Darkness pressed down on Su Ruanruan like thick ink.
Her consciousness struggled to resurface through a pungent, nauseatingly sweet smell of blood. Su Ruanruan let out a faint cry of pain. A dull ache throbbed at the back of her head, as if she had been struck by something heavy, and it felt as though countless needles were stabbing into her brain.
‘Ugh…’
She instinctively tried to raise her hand to rub her aching temples, only to discover with horror that her arms would not move.
Her arms were pinned behind her back, and she felt the stinging friction of rough hemp rope against her wrists. Not only that, but her ankles were tied tightly together. She was like a lamb waiting for the slaughter, forced into a humiliating and defenseless position, slumped on the cold, hard concrete floor.
As her vision gradually focused, the dim, oppressive light from a basement spotlight pierced her eyes.
‘Where is… this?’
Su Ruanruan trembled all over, and a massive wave of panic gripped her heart like an invisible hand. She struggled to look down and, by the faint light, saw something even more terrifying.
Her clothes had been changed.
The summer school shirt and pleated skirt, which had their buttons torn off by Lin Lie, were nowhere to be found. In their place was a heavy, Saint Lilith Academy winter uniform that smelled slightly of old mothballs.
She wore a deep blue wool knit sweater paired with a thick Scotch plaid skirt, with a red silk ribbon tied neatly at the collar.
Because her body was so small and delicate, the winter uniform that should have fit normally looked cavernous on her, making her appear like a child who had stolen an adult’s clothes.
But that was not the most frightening part.
The most terrifying thing was the cold, heavy metallic sensation against her neck.
A wide, black leather collar was buckled tightly around Su Ruanruan’s slender, fragile white neck.
Attached to the front of the collar was a silver chain about the thickness of a pinky finger. The chain trailed across the floor for some distance, its other end firmly locked to a thick load-bearing pillar.
Cling — clang
Su Ruanruan had only flinched slightly from fear, yet the chain produced a chilling metallic clatter that echoed through the deathly silent basement.
“Awake?”
A deep, raspy voice, laced with a bone-chilling sense of pleasure, drifted from the depths of the shadows.
Su Ruanruan flinched violently, tears instantly flooding her eyes. She was like a startled little animal, desperately trying to scramble backward, but the pillar behind her and the chain around her neck suddenly snapped taut, ruthlessly cutting off her retreat.
“Cough… hack…” The collar suddenly constricted her windpipe. Su Ruanruan let out a series of painful, dry coughs, and a ring of jarring red marks immediately bloomed around her delicate neck.
“Don’t move around so much, Ruanruan. You’ll only hurt yourself.”
Accompanied by the sound of heavy combat boots thudding against the concrete, Lin Lie’s tall figure slowly emerged from the darkness.
She was not wearing her school uniform. Instead, she had changed into a black utility vest that fully exposed the tanned, explosive muscle lines she had developed from years of training.
Standing at 172 centimeters tall, she was like an insurmountable mountain in front of the petite Su Ruanruan, radiating an aggressive, overwhelming pressure.
Lin Lie walked up to Su Ruanruan and slowly crouched down. Those golden, beast-like pupils no longer held their usual irritability or anger. Instead, they were filled with a suffocating, morbid obsession.
Her gaze traveled greedily over Su Ruanruan, looking at the slightly oversized winter uniform and the collar around her neck, her lips curling into a satisfied smile.
“So beautiful…” Lin Lie reached out, gently stroking Su Ruanruan’s small face, which was pale with terror, her fingertips brushing away the tear tracks at the corners of her eyes.
“Lin Lie… you… what are you going to do… let me go…”
Su Ruanruan was on the verge of a breakdown. She tried to dodge the hand, but with her hands tied and her neck locked, she could only turn her head helplessly and let out a faint, mosquito-like whimper.
Her voice was naturally soft and sweet, and now that it was colored by tears of fear, it carried no deterrent power at all. Instead, it sounded like she was acting spoiled and begging for mercy, further provoking the worst sadistic desires in the predator’s heart.
“Let you go? Not a chance.” Lin Lie let out a soft chuckle, her fingers sliding down from the cheek to gently hook the edge of the leather collar. “Do you know how long I searched for this set of clothes?”
Su Ruanruan froze, looking at her through tear-blurred eyes.
“That day one year ago was also winter.” Lin Lie’s eyes gradually darkened, as if she were sinking into a feverish memory. “Backstage in the auditorium while the snow was falling. You were wearing this very uniform, looking down at me as you stepped on my love letter with your hateful little feet.”
Lin Lie’s fingers suddenly tightened, pinching Su Ruanruan’s pointed chin and forcing her to look up and meet her eyes.
“Back then, I thought that this outfit made you look so noble that no one would dare touch you. But what about now?”
The smile on Lin Lie’s face became twisted and cruel. “Now, that high-and-mighty Queen is locked in a basement by me with a chain, just like a dog. Not only that, but everything you’re wearing, from the inside out, was put on you by my own hands…”
Hearing those words, Su Ruanruan’s brain felt like it exploded. An unprecedented sense of shame and terror instantly submerged her.
‘You… you touched me?!’ Su Ruanruan’s eyes widened. Her pale face instantly flushed bright red, and tears poured out like a broken dam. “Waaa… pervert… you lunatic…”
“That’s right, I’m a lunatic. Driven mad by you.”
Lin Lie was not angry. On the contrary, she looked as if she had heard a wonderful compliment. The last shred of sanity in her eyes finally snapped completely.
In the next second, she suddenly gripped the back of Su Ruanruan’s head. Her tall body leaned over like a collapsing mountain, ruthlessly kissing those trembling, impossibly soft lips.
“Mmph!!!”
Su Ruanruan’s eyes widened in horror. She tried desperately to tilt her head back, but her skull was held fast by Lin Lie’s broad palm. There was nowhere to run.
It was a kiss devoid of any tenderness, filled with plunder and violence.
A strong scent of cedar mixed with tobacco forced its way into Su Ruanruan’s mouth like a thunderstorm. Lin Lie’s kiss was like a beast biting its prey, roughly prying open her tightly closed teeth to greedily conquer every corner of her mouth.
“Mmph… let… hng…”
Su Ruanruan was kissed until she could not breathe, her chest heaving violently. Her hands, tied behind her back, struggled and rubbed frantically. She was oblivious even as the rough hemp rope chafed her skin raw and drew beads of blood. Her slender legs kicked feebly at Lin Lie’s iron-hard shins, but she only received a more reckless suppression in return.
‘It’s too scary… the difference in strength is too great…’
In the face of this absolutely dominant physique, Su Ruanruan was like a fragile petal that could be shattered at any moment in a storm.
It was only when Su Ruanruan was about to faint from suffocation, her body turning soft as water and relying entirely on Lin Lie’s support to keep from collapsing, that Lin Lie finally showed some mercy and let her go.
“Ha… gasp… ha…”
Su Ruanruan panted heavily. Her once pale lips were now swollen and red, glistening with moisture. Her vision was blurred by tears, and she could only lean limply against the concrete pillar behind her like a dying fish, letting out small, pitiful whimpers.
Lin Lie extended her thumb, lingeringly wiping the silver thread from the corner of her own mouth. She looked at the petite beauty before her, who was completely under her control and had to rely on her even for breath, and a low chuckle escaped her throat.
“What’s the matter? My Queen Su, you can’t even handle this much?”
Lin Lie wickedly pinched Su Ruanruan’s soft cheek, which was flushed pink from the lack of oxygen, her tone full of mockery and teasing.
“Where did your arrogant attitude go? Where is that Mesugaki who called everyone ‘Small Fry’ or ‘Stray Dog’ and trampled on their dignity?”
Lin Lie leaned close to her ear, her warm breath fanning across Su Ruanruan’s sensitive earlobe, sending a shiver through her.
“Why aren’t you being tough anymore? Why aren’t you continuing to curse at me? This look of yours right now, crying and begging for mercy, soft as a pile of mush… it makes me so excited that I want to break you right this second.”
‘She’s a pervert… a complete pervert!’
Su Ruanruan froze, boundless despair spreading through her heart. She knew that for a paranoid fanatic who had already fallen into madness, tears and pleas were not only useless but would become the best aphrodisiac.
‘I can’t go on like this. If I don’t want to be completely destroyed, I have to find a way to save myself.’
The Original Owner’s memories flashed through her mind. That high-and-mighty Young Lady from a conglomerate who never bowed her head… how she had used that posture of looking down on everything to trample a School Bully like Lin Lie under her feet.
‘Maybe… maybe if I act with the same arrogance and disgust as before, she’ll regain a shred of sanity, or at least find it boring?’
Su Ruanruan bit her lower lip hard, suppressing the urge to cry in her throat as she tried to recall the Original Owner’s haughty expression.
She snapped her head up, attempting to glare at Lin Lie with a gaze that was “ice-cold and piercing.”
“Ha… hah?”
Su Ruanruan opened her mouth, wanting to let out a mocking, cold laugh.
However, she had overestimated this body’s endurance and her own acting skills.
Because of the recent suffocation and extreme fear, her voice was completely raspy and carried a thick nasal tone. The cold laugh that was supposed to be lethal turned into a soft, pampered sound, like a kitten yawning.
“You… you mad dog in heat…”
She tried her best to make her tone sound malicious, attempting to mimic that specific sharp, biting tone of a Mesugaki:
“Don’t… don’t touch me with your filthy hands… Small Fry… you’re disgusting…”
The air seemed to stand still in that moment.
Su Ruanruan felt a wave of despair. ‘It’s over.’
She knew her performance was a complete disaster.
In those big, watery eyes that were red from crying, where was the shred of high-and-mighty disdain? They were clearly filled with a cowardice that screamed “please don’t bully me.” The insults coming out of that swollen, cherry-red mouth sounded less like an attack and more like a cute girlfriend throwing a tantrum because she was upset, all due to the trembling and softness of her voice.
Forget about provoking a mad dog; this was practically feeding honey-coated poison to a starving wolf.
Sure enough.
Lin Lie froze.
She stared at the little kitten in front of her who was trying to “baring its claws” when even the claws were soft and harmless. Her golden pupils constricted sharply, and then, as if she had heard the world’s biggest joke, she covered her face and began to laugh hysterically.
“Hahaha… hahahahaha!”
Lin Lie laughed until her shoulders shook, and tears nearly came to her eyes.
“Ruanruan… oh, Ruanruan… what is wrong with you? How can you be… how can you be this cute?”
Lin Lie abruptly stopped laughing, her gaze becoming extremely dangerous and burning, as if she wanted to swallow Su Ruanruan whole. She grabbed the back of Su Ruanruan’s neck, pulling her toward her chest like she was picking up a kitten.
“Keep cursing! Call me a mad dog again. That soft voice of yours sounds so good when you’re insulting someone…”
“Ugh…” Su Ruanruan’s defenses completely crumbled. Her mask of pretense shattered instantly, and she could only huddle her neck helplessly as tears pattered down.
Just as the lust in Lin Lie’s eyes grew heavier, and her large hand began to uncomfortably reach toward the hem of the winter uniform to start the next, more excessive action —
Vrrr — vrrr — vrrr —
An extremely harsh vibration from a cell phone abruptly echoed through the cavernous basement.
Lin Lie’s movement paused, and her brows instantly knitted into a tight knot. She let out an annoyed “tsk.” She didn’t want to deal with it, but the ringtone kept going incessantly as if it were a death knell.
She irritably pulled the phone out from her cargo pants pocket. She took one look at the caller ID, and her expression shifted slightly.
The call seemed very important, enough that this mad dog already in heat was forced to suppress the wicked fire in her heart.
“Consider yourself lucky.”
Lin Lie took a deep breath, suppressing the raspiness in her voice. She stood up, looking down at the shivering Su Ruanruan curled on the floor, her eyes full of warning.
“Stay here and be my good Puppy. Don’t even think about going anywhere. I’m going out to take a call, and I’ll be back soon…”
Lin Lie licked her back teeth and flashed a bone-chilling smile. “When I get back, we’ll settle this interest slowly.”