Gu Qingyuan placed Su Ling on the sofa, glanced at him, and left. Su Ling didn’t know what she was going to do, so he could only sit there blankly by himself. Feeling a bit cold, he pulled a blanket from the sofa and wrapped it around himself.
Everything around him felt so foreign. This was a foreign country, a foreign place, and a foreign home. Fear, terror, and all sorts of uneasy emotions flooded over him in a single moment. He wondered if she would hit him again. ‘I don’t want to be hit. It hurts so much, and my cheeks are still burning even now…’
Gu Qingyuan seemed to be looking for something. She rummaged through the living room for a while, then went to search the rooms. Su Ling glanced over a few times before looking away. He didn’t care what she was looking for, though he could likely guess that it had something to do with him. Finally, after Gu Qingyuan had been in one of the rooms for a long time, Su Ling figured she had found what she wanted.
After waiting a bit longer, she finally walked out, clutching a long, thin Silver Chain in her hand. Su Ling bit his lip as he watched her slowly approach him. He had absolutely no idea what to do. It seemed the only thing he could do was… be good? If he was just a little better, would she stop hitting him? Su Ling didn’t know, and he didn’t want to know. He wasn’t her Pet; he had his own thoughts. He was a human being.
He…
“Don’t move!”
Su Ling immediately froze, not daring to twitch. With a click, the chain was completely fastened to the Collar! Su Ling’s breath caught, and his head began to buzz. He couldn’t escape. He thought back to the past—back then, they had used a chain just like this to lock him up. Back then, he had no way to run away.
Now, was there no longer any possibility of escaping in the future? Su Ling looked at Gu Qingyuan, and she looked back at him. The Little Fellow’s eyes were slightly red, with tears shimmering inside them, his pupils reflecting her image.
“Relax. I don’t like you like this. Do you want to get your voice back?”
Su Ling snapped his head up, a small flame of hope igniting in his eyes. Could his voice really be restored?
“It will be, but not right now.” Gu Qingyuan stroked Su Ling’s head. Seeing the Little Fellow looking so defeated and wounded, she tried to keep her tone as gentle as possible. “As long as you’re good enough, obedient enough, and follow my every whim and instruction, I will restore your voice. But if you dissatisfy me, I don’t mind removing one or two parts from your body, understand?”
Su Ling nodded immediately, though he felt a pang of regret the moment he did. She was such a Pervert; if he went along with everything she said, then he…
Gu Qingyuan kept her eyes on Su Ling, catching the flicker of terror in his gaze. An inexplicable surge of irritation rose in her heart! This Little Fellow still didn’t know what was good for him! Did he really want to force her to do something cruel to him?
Her fingers lightly trailed across Su Ling’s skin. His skin was tender and smooth; even a light touch felt comfortable against her fingertips. She truly didn’t want to leave this Little Fellow broken, but if he continued to be disobedient, she would have no choice!
Gu Qingyuan closed her eyes, suppressing the emotions within, and pulled the Little Fellow into her arms. Su Ling didn’t dare struggle and was forced to nestle against her chest.
“In a few days, I’ll arrange for someone to teach you Sign Language. From now on, you’ll communicate with me using Sign Language. You must study hard! After all, you aren’t exactly the most obedient, and it’s still an unknown whether you can satisfy me. So, until then, you can only use Sign Language. Once you’ve mastered it, you’ll be able to communicate with me normally and express your thoughts. If you can’t learn it or fail to express yourself clearly, you can’t blame me.”
Su Ling nodded gently; he would study hard. Seeing him nod, Gu Qingyuan paused for a moment before pulling a small Notebook from behind her.
“Take this. If you have anything you want to say later, you can write it in this Notebook. For example, what you want to eat today or what you want to do—you can write it all down. If you have any requests, you can make them, but don’t be unreasonable. You should understand what I mean, right?”
Su Ling obediently took the Notebook and nodded.
“Good. I have things to take care of. Someone will be over to cook in a while. Go to the room upstairs for now. If you’re bored, you can take a nap. I’ll call you when the food is ready.”
Su Ling looked at his legs and then at her, his hands involuntarily tightening around the Notebook. In his current state, he couldn’t walk, yet she told him to go upstairs. How was he supposed to get there? Was he supposed to crawl? That was the only way he could think of. Perhaps that was what she intended? He didn’t dare ask; he was afraid that asking would only bring another beating.
Gu Qingyuan left. She seemed to be in a hurry and rushed out the door.
Su Ling sat on the sofa for a while. He didn’t want to crawl upstairs, but besides that, he truly had no other choice. Moreover, the cook would be arriving soon, and he didn’t want to face a stranger. Gritting his teeth, he painstakingly crawled off the sofa. Kneeling on the cold floor with both knees, he used his arms to drag himself forward bit by bit.
Every step he crawled was a form of torture for Su Ling. Suddenly, he heard a click, the sound of a lock turning. His heart tightened. The cook was here! No, he couldn’t let anyone see him like this!
Su Ling threw caution to the wind and sped up, reaching the second floor in a short while. But once he arrived, he was stunned. There were many rooms on the second floor, and he had no idea which one he was supposed to go to. Left with no other choice, he could only shuffle to the furthest corner of the hallway. The sounds coming from downstairs made him pull his limbs close in unease.
‘Elder Sister…’
A familiar figure emerged in his mind. He wanted so, so badly to be by his Elder Sister’s side. He didn’t want to be here, not at all. Why didn’t his Sister want him anymore? He wanted to cry, but he couldn’t even make a sound; he could only shed silent tears. Having exhausted himself with crying, Su Ling felt a bit sleepy and slowly closed his eyes.
***
Gu Qingyuan looked at the Little Fellow curled up in the corner of the wall with tear stains still on his face. She impatiently nudged him with her foot. Su Ling opened his eyes dazed, only to see her looking at him with a dissatisfied expression. He was startled instantly and instinctively opened his mouth to speak, but not a single sound came from his throat.
“Didn’t I tell you to wait in the room for me? Why are you here?”
Su Ling immediately waved his hands and pulled out the Notebook to start writing.
“You mean you didn’t know which room to sleep in?” Gu Qingyuan spoke with some hesitation as she looked at the crooked handwriting in the Notebook.
Su Ling nodded immediately, looking at her expectantly with a series of “Mm mm mm” sounds. He naively thought that if she knew the reason, she wouldn’t give him The Penalty.
“Tsk, you really are stupid. All the other rooms are locked; only that one is open. It opens with a single push. Who can you blame for being so dim-witted? Come on, let’s go down and eat!”
Su Ling watched her retreating back and pouted. How was he supposed to know that? She hadn’t told him.