Chapter 50: Silence
“Welcome home, Xiao Chan.”
…
Thud.
A drop of warm blood fell on the white porcelain floor. The temperature melted the previously coagulated black blood clot, turning it into a small, dazzling pool of blood, but it was even darker.
The dim incandescent light above cast a thin and bleak light, like a net that could not be broken, completely enveloping his thin and slender body.
It turned out that he had always been just a small fish that had fallen into a fishing net that was about to be tightened. All his seemingly powerful struggles were just futile. Until he was completely out of the water, those naive and ridiculous fantasies were easily sunk by a strong sense of suffocation.
A sharp object hitting the floor made a crisp sound, and the sound of the tape being torn and wrapped always echoed in the basement. Besides that, it was as if all the sounds had been suppressed. The dim and dull basement fell into a dead silence that was maddening.
He stared at the dirty floor with a numb expression, his eyes bloodshot. His dark pupils were as if they had melted in the cold temperature, and they could not form a round shape, and they were slowly dilating.
His pale and dry lips were covered with layers of dead skin. They parted slightly, and he counted the meaningless numbers. The sound was almost inaudible. His throat was as if a ball of fire had fallen into it, burning the vocal cords that were used to make a sound. He could only make a hoarse and raw, noisy sound, like the raw sound of a robot with a rusty axle swinging its arms.
“One… two… three…”
The footsteps suddenly stopped, and the dark room fell into a dead silence again.
But the boy, as if he had been greatly frightened, began to struggle. It was as if this moment of silence was a special signal, and a storm was about to fall from the dark clouds.
He ignored the shackles of the hard iron chain and twisted his body frantically. The iron chain rattled, and the purple bruises on his thin white joints became deeper and deeper, and they gradually crawled towards the darkness.
His limbs were uncontrollably weak and trembling. The coldness was transmitted from the iron chain to his skin, and the bone-chilling coldness was deeply pierced into his bone marrow, bringing a needle-like stinging pain.
He stumbled and fell in a panic. His forehead accidentally hit the porcelain tile under his knee, and a dull and unbearable pain arose. But it was as if he had found a single ray of light in the darkness. He raised his drowsy head, and his dim and lifeless pupils were filled with a few strands of light from the incandescent lamp above.
He took a few rapid breaths, and his chest heaved violently. His gums were bleeding from being bitten. He knew what he was going to face next. Perhaps a moment of pain was nothing. If he died… that would be even better.
The bulging blue veins on his neck were prominent, and the particularly thick artery was pulsating at an extremely fast frequency, which was particularly conspicuous. He ignored everything and hit the ground hard. His forehead was facing the ground, and his speed was surprisingly fast, almost without a single bit of strength left.
But everything was futile from beginning to end. He had fallen into a fishing net that had already been tightened. How could it be so simple as to let him struggle to the death and end this twisted and deformed relationship so simply?
The wet and greasy hair on the back of his neck was fiercely grabbed. He was in so much pain that his face was twisted. The accumulated strength had not yet been released when it was forcefully suppressed. The iron chain that was shackling his neck rattled, and the chain was shortened again. He was forced to raise his head by the pull from behind his head, and his dark eyes reflected the woman’s figure.
The other party seemed to have finished what she had been busy with in the darkness just now and had walked up to him.
Half of the woman’s face was hidden in the darkness. Under the pale white light, her full red lips, which were painted with a glaze, were particularly alluring. He saw the woman’s cold and indifferent eyes were inverted, and they were carved with a snake-like, cold and ruthless violence.
She still didn’t speak. She just silently looked at the boy. Her cool fingertips traced his features, caressing the bloodstains on his cheeks, and the wounds at the corners of his lips…
She gently and soothingly touched the boy’s twisted face, which was full of fear. Her eyes were cold and calm, like a knife that had been dipped in poison. His whole body was trembling. He was on the verge of collapse because of the unknown fear. His face was without a trace of blood, almost completely pale. His dim and dull pupils were contracted, and they were full of helplessness and fear.
“Wuwu…”
Su Yu frantically shook his head. The chains on his body were rubbing against each other, breaking the silence in the dark room. He whimpered and wanted to speak, but his throat was hoarse and swollen, and he couldn’t make a sound at all.
He had already forgotten how long he had been crying and begging not long ago, until his throat could not make a sound. The woman had not uttered a single word from beginning to end. That silent memory had become the source of his fear and despair.
There was no scolding or reprimand, and of course, there would be no comfort or forgiveness.
The woman had been doing her own thing in a muffled voice since she had entered this dark room, as if there was only one living being in this enclosed space from beginning to end.
After she had lifted Su Yu’s neck with the tip of her shoe and had said a few incomprehensible words, she had started to do her own thing. She seemed to not care about Su Yu’s silence at all. She turned around and dragged out the long whip that had made every cell in his body tremble from a corner that was not visible in the shadows.
This time, she did not issue any warning or threat to Su Yu, but it made him feel even more terrified and powerless. The other party silently held the whip, which was stained with a little bit of blood, and wrapped it with black tape, circle after circle, mercilessly increasing the weight of the whip, so that it would be more powerful when it was swung.
Bewilderment, fear, terror, collapse…
All the emotional transitions seemed so reasonable in the darkness, where only the sound of the tape being wrapped and the sound of footsteps were intertwined. The woman had just remained silent from beginning to end, but she had easily broken his seemingly solid defense. He would rather the whip hit him immediately, or face death immediately. He was absolutely unwilling to endure such torment.
He began to beg for mercy. The moment the woman expressionlessly sank the whip into the wooden bucket filled with salt water, his reason completely collapsed, like a tall building collapsing in an instant, and his dignity was also extinguished in the despair and fear.
He cried and apologized, almost incoherently, but he was also screaming his lungs out. His dry throat was getting more and more burdened. But in the end, even if he was hoarse and couldn’t make a sound, he had not received even a single cold glance from the woman. The other party was just staring at the whip in her hand, and she inadvertently showed a sinister smile that made his back feel cold.
…
“What’s wrong with you, Xiao Chan? Are you uncomfortable? I’ve been hearing you cry for a long time. My ears are about to get calloused.”
Gu Zhi grabbed Su Yu’s wet and sticky hair and forced him to raise his head. This was the second sentence she had said since she had entered this basement. But the boy’s eyes were a dim gray, as if he were a prisoner who had been sentenced to death, in despair.
“I’m sorry… I’m sorry…”
The memory slowly faded, but his body was still trembling with unease.
Su Yu was forced to raise his head, tears spilling from fear and pain. Shaking uncontrollably, he lowered himself beside Gu Zhi’s pure black, luxurious high heels, clinging to her slender, fair calf.
“I was really wrong. I shouldn’t have run away… I’m sorry. Please forgive me.”
Gu Zhi looked down at the obedient and submissive boy at her feet. The long corners of her eyes were curved into a cold and indifferent arc. She felt a little pity. If… he had been so obedient earlier, it would have been fine.
“Didn’t I tell you, Xiao Chan? Pain is the most memorable. But…”
She casually kicked Su Yu away. The heel of her shoe made a crisp sound as she walked to the table. She slowly pulled out the long whip that was soaked in a high concentration of salt water from the wooden bucket. She wrapped the whip around her gradually tensing forearm, circle after circle. This would make it easier to exert force, and it would… be more painful, and it would also make people remember more.
“The pleading before the pain is just fear. The apology after the pain… is what becomes a complete memory.”
