[Rest a.s.sured that nothing really horrible happens, but nothing goodâs happening, either. My poor baby⊠translating your suffering is suffering itselfâŠ]
I can see that this is a considerably large stone room. Judging by how dark and moist it is, it should be underground. Thereâs a pile of bizarre junk on the floor.
Yuan Qingyun is evidently quite pleased at my current âdangling nakedâ state, as he looked me up and down and smiled. âSir Zhang, this look really suits you⊠s.l.u.t.â
That malicious smile and resenting tone⊠though I know his obscenity is for Zhang Qinglian and not me, I still s.h.i.+ver. Furthermore, even though itâs summer, this stone cell is extremely wet and cold, and Iâve already gotten gooseb.u.mps from the chill.
But now is the time I should try to break out of this situation. I compose myself and donât acknowledge his insult, keeping my cool. âWho do you think you are? What do you think youâre doing capturing me? There will definitely be a storm brewed up when Iâve disappeared from the Everfragrant House. None of you will escape that misfortune lightly.â
Yuan Qingyun let out a loud laugh. âAm I going to go back and let them catch me? âSir Zhang, you must not recognize me. Itâs surname Bao, first name Yun, third son of Bao Cunxin. Because of my unworthy nature, I was exiled to the Western Region by my old man to study martial arts, a very long time ago. When you caused his and the rest of my familyâs deaths, I was still over there. You didnât finish the job, Sir, so very sorry for that!â He restrained his laughter and put out a softly-toned sentence. âDonât worry, Sir, this place is very well-hidden, and no oneâs going to bother you and me.â
My heart is cold. I was under the impression that he was a foreign spy or something, and that way I could still play it by ear, fabricate some kind of method, and dupe him with a few fabricated words. So long as people have schemes and desires, they have weak points. If heâs greedy for wealth, I can lie to him about where some hidden treasure might be; if he loves power, I can swindle him with promising that if he doesnât kill me, I collaborate with him on the inside to eliminate whoever or ascend to the throne or whatever; if he likes a certain beauty, I can say that thereâs a way I can help him get a hold of them. The only issue is the difficultly of prescribing the specific medicine to the other partyâs illness to manipulate them, but thereâs always a method to be used. Yet heâs thought this through, wanting revenge with hatred steeped deep in a sea of his familyâs blood, and seems like apart from getting that, he doesnât care about anything else. Thatâs difficult to manage.
rack my brains for an emergency solution, abruptly calling to mind his two black-clothed, masked accomplices. In a eureka moment, I ask him sternly, âWas that a.s.sa.s.sination attempt on the Emperor your instigation?â
Yuan Qingyun paused, then smiled. âIâm one who loiters about jianghu, what would I want to be Emperor for? âWasnât me.â
I stare him in the eyes. âDonât lie to me.â
âYouâre not going to leave here alive anyways. What would I lie to an about-to-be-dead man for? I only collaborated with that guy to take revenge. He helps me some, I help him some. He wants to make himself Emperor by sending his own people to a.s.sa.s.sinate him â what even would I be instigating?â
Huff, Yuan Qingyun doesnât even want power. I wasnât actually hoping for that, but this is the first time Iâve heard about the behind-the-scenes power that I had suspected of. My heart inevitably tightens, and I hastily steady my voice to investigate. âWho is he?â
Yuan Qingyun laughed chillingly, coming forward to pinch my chin and lift my face up, his loose hair draping over us and obscuring my line of sight as he did so. His long and beautiful fingers are like iron tongs, causing extreme pain in my grasped chin.
âSince when has the majestic Sir Zhang wanted to change over to being a loyal servant?â His tone is capriciously disdainful. âYouâre still protecting that idiot rulerâs b.a.s.t.a.r.d son? Could it be⊠thatâs your type?â Again moving close to my ear, he bites the lobe, saying in a disgustingly sweet voice, âWant to know who he is, Sir Zhang? âIâm not telling you.
This⊠this pervert!
I looked at him coldly. âYou want to kill me now?â
Yuan Qingyun looked out me, then bust out laughing as if heâd heard the best joke ever. âHaha, Sir Zhang, you really must be kidding. I worked so hard to capture you alive, how could I let you die just like that! Itâs so I can get close to you, I even had to be a prost.i.tuteâŠâ He sticks close to me in an embrace and slowly gropes my body, using his sort of deliberately drawn-out cadence to speak in a velvet-soft voice, âI had planned to make you enchanted by me, so when the time comes youâd be in so much anguish you wouldnât want to live. I didnât expect you to be so stone-hearted⊠I give you my body and you can actually be so cold the next time we meet, looking like you canât wait to go⊠Didnât seem to be much hope for someone so frigid, so I had no choice but to make a spur-of-the-moment plan to get to mess around with youâŠâ
Being felt up by him makes the hair on my body stand up, and his pompous-p.r.i.c.k manner of speaking sets annoyance alight within me. âWould you have been a prost.i.tute if you didnât enjoy it? Donât put that on my head,â I mock.
Yuan Qingyun- no, Bao Yun tilted his head, then slapped my face to the side with an immense force. The pain is scorching, a buzzing sound set off in my mind and the inside of my mouth is filled with the flavor of blood.
I kept my head to the side it was forced to and didnât make a sound.
Bao Yun hasnât stopped smiling as he brutally s.n.a.t.c.hed my hair to pull my face over, fingers carelessly entangled with the strands.
âCome,â he says softly, âIâll take you on a tour of this room. I spent so much time thinking of how to prepare it for you⊠Ever since I visited your Residence that night and got jabbed by that back-stabbing brat Yao Jinzi, I was determined not to let you die too easily. I went to a lot of trouble to gather most of these thingsâŠâ
He released my hair and went to a table, first picking up a set of needles. âWeâll start with a simple test later. These needles, for example, are for inserting into the crease between the skin and the fingernail. Theyâre mostly for womenâs useâŠâ He then picked up some kind of grate-like array of iron wire and giggled. âHave you seen this one before, Sir Zhang? You hold it over the skin and press down hard, and when the skin squeezes out from the mesh, you take a knife and cut it off piece by piece by piece. Itâs said to be just like lingchi.â He goes off into a corner, then points at a wooden horse-looking thing. âYou must have seen this one. Itâs the wooden donkey for punis.h.i.+ng harlots and parading them through the streets.â He consciously reached out and stroked the wooden donkeyâs saddle, then clenched hard around an immense protrusion coming from it. âThis will probably be too much for a man to handle, but it probably matches up with Sir Zhangâs achievements.â
He explained each and every one of the 70-80 things in the room with great detail. The more he spoke the more brilliantly his smile glowed, and with every thing I heard I felt my own face get a few degrees paler. If I can get out of this alive, I will write the words âliquor is a poison that pierces the intestines, s.e.x is a steel blade that sc.r.a.pes the bonesâ in big characters and hang it up in my hall as a warning for later generations. There truly isnât a good end to going whoring!
Bao Yun finished all that talking yet didnât need a drink of water, instead continuing on. ââŠThereâs still some things Iâve yet to prepare, like chili water, but today came about so suddenly. So sorry to have wronged you, Sir. Once weâve tried out all these and I canât think of any other fun things to do, Iâll cut a hand off, then the day after, half your nose. Itâll be slow, but Iâll kill you eventually. Only after three or five months would I be willing to deliver you to the afterlife, SirâŠâ
When he said that, I contrarily calmed down a bit. If heâs âbegrudgingâ to kill me, I can drag this out for a few months so Jinzi and the rest can find me. I just have to endure these torturesâŠ
Can I really do that, though? I might not even last a day before Iâm crying and begging for Yuan Qingyun- no, Bao Yun to kill me. My knowledge of myself tells me that my psyche under pain has always been stronger than my sensitivity to desire.
Bao Yun comes over to me and strokes my jaw with his hand, seeming to speak as his mind thinks of it. âWhich should we start with? âŠLook at that fine skin and tender flesh. We canât make your body too unsightly, can we? Or Iâll lose my appet.i.teâŠâ He turned and touched the container of needles. âHow about this one, hm?â
I watched the flash of cold light from the needleâs tip, imagining that they were put under my fingernails and finding that my blood is refusing to supply itself to anything above my neck. I tremble uncontrollably, quickly bowing my head to avert my eyes lest he see the fear in them.
Bao Yun is spellbound by the needle, then shakes his head. âToo feminine. No good, no good.â He ponders it, then seems to come to a decision. âWhatever. Iâm typically a compa.s.sionate person, and you canât withstand anything too intense, Sir Zhang. So letâs start with the easiest, and slowly add on to itâŠâ
Saying that, he takes a black, slender whip from off his waist.
A whipping? I let out a faint sigh of relief. Thatâs much better than the needles.
Yuan Qingyun plays with the thin whip in his hand, movements practiced. The corners of his mouth are held in a faintly seductive smile, his expression serene, yet with a slowly rising flame of excitement in his eyes. âDonât be nervous,â he spoke with ever the more gentleness. âIâve been training with this Inkworm Whip for nearly ten years now. I wonât break your skin, certainly not.â
Hearing him use that increasingly sado-m.a.s.o.c.h.i.s.tic way of speaking, my heart goes cold with trepidation. I can only shut my eyes.
When the first lash fell on me, it felt as if all other parts of my body ceased to exist, my entire consciousness focused in on that long, narrow strip. That spot on my skin screamed for me to pay attention to it, and the painful, burning, intense sensation that followed lasted without end.
I desperately bite my lips to stop from screaming for mercy. I still havenât adjusted to the severe pain from the first lash when the second, and the third, come down.
Itâs so painfulâŠ
I look down to see the beginnings of straight, scarlet criss-crossing welts on my body. Contrasting with the fine, fair skin, itâs extravagantly obscene. Sure enough, itâs not lacerated, displaying the skill of the flogger. I seem to have read in a book once that experienced executioners can make it seem like a personâs skin is full of cuts and overflowing with blood, when the damage isnât actually heavy at all. It could also be like me where the skin isnât broken, but flesh under the skin has been ruined, and when itâs been destroyed, treating it later is twice as difficult. The key point lies in the ultimate strength of the whip when it hits the skin.
I tremble in my steadfast endurance, teeth clenching harder, the taste of blood slowly contaminating my mouth. As Iâm afraid of inciting Yuan Qingyunâs l.u.s.t, Iâve been dead-set from the start to not cry or shout or move to dodge, only silently and stiffly standing in place as I do everything I can to endure his whipping.
But Yuan Qingyun suddenly lashed me in that sensitive place, and I couldnât stop my body from faintly twisting away to avoid it. Once that began, it was like a dam broke. I was unable to keep my guard up for even a moment, throwing out my reservation and doing my utmost to twist my waist away, just wanting to avoid a little bit of whipâs tip from hitting the most painful area.
Yet his whip is spitefully precise, and with every swing it inevitably gets a sensitive area like my thighs, the base of the part, and so on. I still refused to scream and wail, but with all my wriggling and sidestepping, tears have silently wettened my face, and sweat has gradually dampened my bodyâŠ
Between the sounds of the whip hitting flesh in the vacuous stone interrogation room may have been a fleeting whimper that I was unable to keep from spilling out.
Yuan Qingyun- no, Bao Yunâs breaths gradually got hoa.r.s.er⊠at last, the lash that should have landed according to the previous tempo didnât come. I opened my eyes, continuously gasping for air and gulping due to the painâŠ
If it was to interrupt this constant, overlaying suffering, I would even be willing to accept another kind of suffering.
âTramp,â he pants. The fire in his eyes glows even more. He viciously took the lower half of my body into his embrace. My lower abdomen knocks against his lower body, an obviously hard bulge pressed against me.
âDonât,â I canât help but mumble.
Compared to rape, continuing with the las.h.i.+ng is better.
His breathing is still unsteady, chest moving up and down. âDonât?â A smile arose as he panted. âI didnât say anything when you were on me last time, but favors are to be returned. Sir Zhang should serve me up some joy this time, right?â
I have a rotten defect when it comes to this guy. Iâve been internally tough since I was small and I can normally handle things smoothly, but once my temper is forced out, my mind always goes to self-destruction with no room for compromise. Itâs gotten harder to find as Iâve gotten older, but it still occasionally comes. Speaking of now, for example, I think yet donât think before I open my mouth and scorn him. âWith you being a pervert, how could it not seriously affect a man of honor and pillar of the state like your respected father? Itâs no wonder heâd want to punt you far away! Ha, you donât even feel anything for him, yet youâre talking about revenge! Youâve had a tendency for this perverted stuff from the outset, and now youâre in luck â you have the pretense of family-wrought hate, so you playing around like this is the right and proper thing to do⊠pah! Youâre just a cowardly hoodlum who dares to do things but doesnât dare own up to them!â
Though Bao Yun didnât understand what a âpervertâ was, he still understood the meaning behind it, and was predictably furious. Two slaps resounded as my face was slapped to the left then the right, even more forceful than the slap at the beginning. I can already feel a thin stream of heat flowing from the corner of my mouth.
âWh.o.r.e!â He swore fiercely. âDeathâs nearly reached your head and youâre still showing off your tongue!â
âWant to enrage me into killing you?â He sneered. âDonât you worry. Iâll kill you after Iâve defiled you enough and raped you into a mess.â He turned my body around 180 degrees, using his hands to pry open my a.s.s. I reject my fate and struggle, the chains binding my hands sending a clanging noise echoing out.
One hand settled on my waist to fasten me to him, the other going to remove his own pants. Iâm at the peak of desperation now.
I already feel something pus.h.i.+ng against my backside with no gap. Iâm doing everything I can to pull back the muscles on my cheeks and pull my waist forward to keep far away from the threat, but the effect is minimal.
Just as the already-desperate situation reaches a point of grave danger, I suddenly hear a light and clear, faintly shaking voice. âWhat are you doing?â
We did it. We found him. The worst f.u.c.king character.