Chapter 37: Whipping
“Get in your place…”
Gu Zhi took a deep breath, and a warning, without a trace of falsehood, was squeezed out from between her teeth. The blue veins on her arm, which was propped on the table, bulged, and her pupils contracted, the whites of her eyes almost completely covered with blood vessels.
She stared at Su Yu and smiled coldly.
“Just my little dog.”
Su Yu took two steps back until his back was against the wall and he had nowhere to go. He suddenly remembered the fear that had been lingering in his heart for a long time. He had been deceived by the woman’s momentary gentleness and had accidentally violated the prohibition she had set: not to mention anything that had happened outside this basement.
Gu Zhi seemed to be satisfied and even excited by his shrinking back. She stood up and walked towards Su Yu step by step. Her steps were small and slow, and her pearl-like toes touched the ground, creating a seductive and graceful arch. Every step was like walking on a narrow steel wire rope. She was wantonly toying with the boy’s fear, winding his nerves tighter and tighter, until they were ready to snap.
The short distance was walked for a long time. She scratched her cheek with her sharp nails, which were painted with a bright red polish, as if she wanted to tear off the hypocritical… and deliberately gentle skin on her face.
She almost couldn’t stand up. The beast that was hidden in her body had finally found a chance to roar. The spear and the shield were clashing fiercely in her mind. On the one hand, she wanted the boy to grovel at her feet and be an obedient pet. On the other hand, she longed for the other party to make some unforgivable mistakes, to give her an excuse to unleash the violent impulse rooted in her very bones.
Her intuition told her the bloody fact. She was about to go crazy… her complete personality seemed to have been torn in two. Love and possession were forcefully cut apart from their state of mutual fusion. She couldn’t find which was the real her.
“Xiao Chan… you’ve broken the rules.”
Gu Zhi slowly walked up to Su Yu, her fingertips gently touching the source of the restlessness that was hidden in his chest. The increasingly rapid trembling was transmitted to her fingertips. She leaned down and pressed her face against Su Yu’s left chest, her full and alluring lips parting, and she deliberately put on a surprised expression.
“The thing inside is beating so fast. It’s trembling… should we take it out and have a look?”
The smile on Gu Zhi’s lips was cold and dangerous. She squatted down and picked up a diamond-shaped piece of broken porcelain. The sharp edge was very long, and it shone with a cold and dazzling white light under the light. She looked up and smiled at him, the tip of the porcelain piece pressed against his left chest, drawing a circle over and over again, and a faint red mark was pricked under his thin clothes.
“You… you’re going to kill someone?”
Su Yu swallowed the sticky saliva between his lips and teeth. The moisture in his body turned into sweat and oozed from his forehead. His dry and chapped lips parted slightly, and he let out a careful and fearful reminder.
A fierce and vicious person would directly grant him a clean and neat death. But the woman in front of him was a poisonous snake with a flickering tongue and an unpredictable mood. She would show a sweet smile and embrace him, but she would also hold a sharp dagger against his back.
Su Yu couldn’t tell which of the woman’s words were a joke, but he stubbornly believed that the other party would definitely put them into action. The torment of waiting for death to come was far greater than the fear of death itself.
“Kill someone?”, Gu Zhi frowned her delicate eyebrows. She smiled, and her tone was as if she were seriously discussing with Su Yu. “Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that it’s abusing a pet?”
She was smiling one second, and the next second she suddenly choked Su Yu’s face. Her long and powerful knuckles erupted with an irresistible force, forcing him to open his mouth. Su Yu didn’t dare to resist… he knew that that would only lead to more terrible consequences.
The brief harmony between them was as fragile as a piece of white paper that would be broken with a single poke. He could even feel the woman’s strong desire to tear the white paper into pieces in front of his face.
Su Yu tilted his head back, trying to get a chance to breathe. The ferocious and ugly whip marks on his back, which had almost covered his entire back, had not yet healed. At this moment, they were pressed against the wall, and they began to ache faintly again.
That was the punishment for the first transgression. He had only received one whip. The thick rattan was wrapped in rubber and soaked in water. After it was raised high in the air to gain a huge kinetic energy, it cut through the air fiercely and hit the thin flesh and blood hard. It could almost instantly erupt with a pain that ordinary people could not bear.
That fiery pain was pulling at his nerve endings, almost pulling his entire nerve out alive. He had only received one whip, and he was rolling on the ground in pain. The blood from his torn skin was flowing in a large patch on the porcelain-white floor.
He had never experienced such pain in this world. At least the pain of a knife stabbing into his chest was only for a short moment. But this pain was continuous and indelible, like a persistent curse, clinging to the wound, as if thousands of ants were biting his open wound, breaking down his desperate attempt to endure.
His reason couldn’t even count a few simple numbers. What was waiting for him was the remaining nineteen whips…
His dignity had completely surrendered the moment he had cleared his thoughts. He had knelt at the woman’s feet and humbly begged for her forgiveness. The other party seemed to have gained a great sense of satisfaction from his submission. The hand that was holding the whip had picked up the medicine and applied it for him. Her movements were gentle and considerate, and she whispered extremely cruel words in his ear.
“There are still nineteen whips left. I’ll remember them for you.”
…
The dim and painful memories were awakened by the cold and stinging sensation. His heart was pounding, as if it had anticipated the danger and was frantically hitting his ribs, trying to escape this body that was about to face a disaster.
“Wuwu! Wuwu… no… no…”
Su Yu, whose face was being held tightly, couldn’t say a complete sentence. He whimpered with a muffled and unclear plea, and blood vessels crept up the whites of his eyes… his eyes were so wide that they were about to burst.
He stared at Gu Zhi, who was showing a sweet smile. She was slowly putting the sharp piece of porcelain into his unprotected mouth. His body began to struggle uncontrollably, but he was hit hard in the abdomen by the woman’s knee. The pain immediately made him tremble and quiet down.
“Hmm? No?” Gu Zhi stopped her movements. She tilted her head and looked at him. Her mature and intellectual demeanor rarely showed a hint of playfulness, as if she were a child who had found a favorite toy. She complained with some annoyance, “But this is what we agreed on. Since you’ve broken the rules, you have to be punished. What should we do now?”
“Oh, then let’s do it like last time.”
Gu Zhi’s eyes suddenly lit up. Besides her indecisiveness in the boy’s affairs, she had always been a decisive person. She took out the piece of porcelain that had been in his throat and turned to get her props.
“No, I’m sorry…”
His body trembled even more at the mention of the whip, as if by reflex. His knees were a little weak. He grabbed Gu Zhi’s wrist and held it with a fawning look. He knew the woman was very susceptible to this.
Gu Zhi really did stop. She turned her head and looked at Su Yu’s fearful face. His wet bangs were messy and stuck to his forehead, and his features were slightly distorted and disharmonious. He looked really pathetic.
She frowned with some displeasure and annoyance. “So why did you have to make me angry? Even if you’re just pretending, just acting. Is it so hard to be a good little dog?”
Gu Zhi shook off Su Yu’s feeble attempt to hold her back, her strength overwhelming. Caught off guard, he stumbled to the ground, flustered, unable to get up for a moment.
The woman took the opportunity to go to the basement and get something from a room that was protected by several locks.
A coiled whip was held in her fair and slender palm. The dark black rubber was faintly stained with a blood-red color under the light. She used the old trick again, slowly untying the thin rope that was binding the whip, prolonging the time her little dog had to wait for the pain to come.
“No…”
Su Yu’s whole body trembled. He instinctively believed that Gu Zhi would actually do such a mad thing. The fierce front he had tried to put up had already shattered the first time he crossed her. That whip had landed on his back almost without hesitation.
He watched as the woman untied the rope bit by bit. The end of the whip fell to the ground with a crisp sound. His body, which had just struggled to get up, fell down again. He struggled with all his might, almost on all fours, as if he had really become a little dog that was trying to please its master.
Thwack!
Gu Zhi seemed to be completely unaware of what was happening at her feet. She squinted her long, narrow eyes, and they showed the sharpness of the whip being stretched and then slammed to the ground. There was a small bucket of water on the table. She poured a whole bag of salt into it in front of the boy. The whip was soaked in the highly concentrated salt water and became heavier.
He suddenly raised his head and met Gu Zhi’s lowered gaze. His heart was beating to its limit. He no longer cared about his dignity. He shook his head vigorously and even hugged her calf, crawling at her feet and crying and begging, “No, you can’t do this. I beg you… there won’t be a next time. There really won’t be a next time.”
“Haha…”
A few light laughs came from above his head. He raised his neck but only saw Gu Zhi’s expressionless face. The other party was looking at his pathetic appearance with interest.
Gu Zhi slowly squatted down and gently wiped away the tears that had oozed from the boy with her thumb. She stuck out her pink tongue and gently licked her fingertip. She caressed Su Yu’s gentle face. “Since the little dog has begged me like this, then let’s forget it for today. But…”
Gu Zhi paused for a few seconds before she slowly said the words that made Su Yu’s heart even colder and darker. “I’ll still remember it. Along with the last time. But it’s not good to owe too much. I don’t know when you’ll be able to pay it back.”
“Besides that, I want to collect some interest.”
Gu Zhi frowned and thought for a moment, as if she had suddenly had an idea. “I wanted to sleep with Xiao Chan before, but Xiao Chan was not willing at that time. But since I’m so good to you, I can’t even bear to hit you. You have to know how to repay me. Now… shouldn’t you fulfill my wish?”
Su Yu let out a large mouthful of turbid air and habitually swallowed. But his mouth was dry and uncomfortable. Gu Zhi’s words… he almost didn’t think about it. He raised his head, a smile on his lips. He then lowered his neck and nodded vigorously.
