I Raised the Fallen Lop-Eared Rabbit into a Yandere 5

Chapter 5: Infatuation

Adele pulled over a chair and said, “Sit down. Don’t be so nervous.”

Lina did as she was told. Because she was so thin, sitting on the bare wooden stool was also a form of torment. Her bottom ached from the hard surface.

But Adele had told her to sit, and she didn’t dare not to. So she subconsciously pulled her knees up, wrapped her arms around her shins, and curled into a ball.

It was finally a little more comfortable.

Adele glanced back at her.

Lina instantly recalled the words of her previous instructors:

“A woman must sit with proper posture.”

“Only a sacrificial offering with dignified bearing will win the Lord God’s favor.”

…

Lina’s whole body stiffened. She instinctively wanted to slide to the floor and kneel, but the tap on her palm reminded her not to break the rules.

Will Teacher be angry?

I’m not allowed to kneel casually, so should I stand up to admit my mistake?

If I don’t admit my mistake in time, will I be locked in the dark room again?

A thousand thoughts spun in Lina’s mind, but Adele simply said, “Are you cold?”

Cold? It was concern.

Not the harsh criticism she had imagined.

Lina couldn’t hide the surprise in her eyes. “I’m not cold,” she said.

Adele’s gaze rested on her pajamas.

Could that possibly be comfortable to wear?

The cheap, ankle-length linen nightgown was a very oppressive light gray color. A high collar enveloped her entire neck, and the cuffs were very tight to prevent the sleeves from rolling up at night and exposing skin.

There were ties at the waist and hem. When Lina slept, the ties had to be fastened tightly, wrapping her up like a mummy.

The Sacred Cult required its followers to abandon base desires and to remain pious even while sleeping.

As an offering, Lina was especially forbidden from wearing clothes with even the slightest pattern, or from casually exposing her skin.

Lina followed Adele’s gaze to her own chest.

Why is she staring at me?

What does it mean?!

Could it be that everything just now was really a facade, and she has ulterior motives too?

A lingering shadow from the past.

It was the first time Lina had felt warmth, but the person she trusted had nearly choked her unconscious, intending to assault her…

It was Herte who saved her.

Not a father saving his daughter; he just didn’t want his offering to be damaged beforehand.

Lina clenched her fists.

How disgusting.

Adele shifted her gaze away and said in a gentle voice, “I’ll have someone come and make you a few sets of loose, soft pajamas. You can tell the tailor yourself what patterns and designs you like. As for the money, I’ll figure something out.”

Lina: ?

She was so incredulous that it took her a long moment before she obediently said, “Thank you, Teacher.”

Adele gave a placid “Mm,” and her invisible ears twitched smugly.

Lop-eared rabbit, just you wait for me to take good, hard care of you.

She walked to the glass cabinet and brought up the question she’d wanted to ask before. “The books inside, have you read them all?”

Lina shook her head, her gaze averted, her voice as faint as a mosquito’s buzz. “They forced me, I had no choice… But I never read them carefully…”

Adele said, “It’s not your fault. If you’ve read them, you’ve read them. Just think of it as broadening your horizons. I know you don’t like the things in here. I’ll have someone come and deal with them, throw them all out.”

Lina’s eyes lit up. “Really?”

She hated these books. Facing them every day was like facing an unchangeable, disgusting fact—that she was born to be a sacrificial offering.

Why?

“Really,” Adele added. “Anything in this room that you don’t like can be thrown out.”

“But… Father won’t allow it.”

At the thought of Herte, Lina instantly wilted.

“I allow it, so he cannot object,” Adele stated bluntly.

She spoke calmly, yet with an unyielding forcefulness. Her noble air seemed innate. At that moment, she was the very picture of a true aristocrat.

Lina was stunned by her presence and forgot to ask why, merely nodding obediently.

A light knock sounded on the room door, immediately followed by a maid’s voice. “Lady Adele, Miss Lina, I’ve brought lunch.”

Adele didn’t let her in, only saying, “Leave it at the door.”

If the maid saw Lina sitting, it would surely arouse suspicion.

Until Lina was well and strong, she had to eliminate any possibility of being exposed.

Only after the person outside had walked away did Adele open the door and quickly bring the tray inside.

On it were two lunches.

One was prune juice with cherry tomatoes. The other was pan-fried shrimp cakes with beef ribs, plus two slices of buttered bread and a glass of apple juice.

Lina proactively took the glass of prune juice. She knew that the cold, bland lunch was hers.

She was already used to it.

It was just that if she ate lunch at 12:00, she would be hungry by 12:30, and her stomach would start to hurt by 13:00.

Never mind.

She was truly used to it all.

“Wait.”

Seeing her about to drink it without hesitation, Adele quickly stopped her. “You’re still growing. This stuff has no nutrition. You eat my portion. Just one slice of bread for now. If you eat too much at once, you won’t be able to digest it. We’ll gradually increase it later.”

Before Lina could react, the prune juice in her hand had been snatched away by Adele and chugged down in two gulps.

!

“Teacher…” Lina looked at Adele’s green-tinged face and asked with concern, “Are you alright?”

Adele still had no expression, but her voice sounded like she was on the verge of death.

“I’m fine…”

Ah!!!

So sour!!!

“Alright.” Lina didn’t look at her anymore, her attention completely captivated by the tray of food.

She had actually been longing for a normal lunch.

Whole wheat bread with a soft-boiled egg, vegetable congee flavored with fresh shrimp, and a jumbo hamburger covered in cheese slices…

She wanted to eat them all.

The servants in the manor could eat hot pork floss buns, while she could only drink cold prune juice and eat low-calorie vegetables.

This was to maintain a slender figure, to stunt her growth in height.

Petite and weak, slender and holy—even otherworldly, as if she didn’t partake of mortal food—that was what made a more qualified offering.

But why was she born to be a sacrifice for someone else’s faith?

Why?

Fortunately, her dream came true today.

Because of this new instructor, she could finally have a normal lunch.

Lina took a gentle bite of the whole wheat bread, which smelled of butter. Every pore in her body relaxed in bliss.

It was so delicious.

She then tried the shrimp cake. The scallion oil was rich and fragrant, the sweet shrimp crisp and refreshing. With one bite, the roots of her teeth trembled from the deliciousness.

It was clearly the most ordinary food, yet she had longed for it for over a decade.

This belated satisfaction made Lina’s heart feel like a whole bottle of soda had been overturned inside it, every corner filled with sweet and fragrant bubbles.

She secretly glanced at Adele.

Ears higher than her brows, a high nose bridge, a sharp jawline.

It was a very aggressive set of features.

Arched brow bones, slightly upturned corners of her eyes, a tall nose.

It added a touch of restrained and sophisticated coldness.

She wore a white linen shirt, the top two buttons undone, and her long shoulder and neck line made her already straight collarbones look even more defined.

A primal, alluring tension.

The ends of her long black hair had a very distinct natural curl. Half of it fell in front, covering the small diamonds on her velvet vest, while the other half was hidden behind her, swaying gently with the wind.

She was tall, two-thirds of her height being her legs. Tall leather boots tightly encased her lean calves, and the spotless surface of the shoes could reflect the gold trim on her black trousers.

Noble, cold, distant.

Lina could only think of these adjectives.

The second time she stole a glance at Adele, she was caught red-handed.

In truth, she hadn’t gotten away with it the first time either.

How could a lop-eared rabbit’s curious gaze escape the naturally sharp senses of a white wolf?

Adele simply hadn’t pointed it out immediately.

“What are you looking at?” Adele’s eyelids drooped slightly, concealing the coldness in her eyes the moment their gazes met.

In just two short days, this had already become a habit for her.

She tried her best to appear gentle, afraid of scaring the person before her.

But Lina still trembled at the moment of eye contact. It wasn’t her fault; thousands of years of genetics would sound a warning, reminding creatures at the bottom of the food chain not to let desire cloud their judgment.

Even if she didn’t know Adele was a wolf, she could sense the danger.

In an instant, Lina’s two ears hid behind her back.

Don’t eat rabbits!

Lina stammered, “N-nothing…”

Adele said expressionlessly, “Oh.”

But the little wolf inside her deflated.

It seems I’ve scared her again…

Adele waited until Lina had finished her lunch before continuing, “You still have a lot to learn. From history and politics to military and economic affairs, you need to understand it all.”

Lina had secretly read world history before. The colorful tapestry of changing times was her first glimpse of it. Unfortunately, Herte had forbidden her from reading any further.

He said that it was enough for a woman to learn how to serve a man; studying history and politics was useless.

He also said that women must be obedient, and sacrificial offerings needed to be even more obedient.

People who had seen a wider world would be more “disobedient.” Only by stripping them of their right to education could one better control them.

Although Lina had read little, her mind was quick. She had already guessed Adele’s intentions.

To demonstrate the royal family’s respect and support for religion, a group of outstanding nuns would be selected to enter the palace every three years. Those with average qualifications would enter the chapel to assist members of the royal family with religious activities.

Those with excellent qualifications could even stay by the side of a princess, a prince, or even the king.

That was what you called soaring to the heavens in a single step.

Lina had never held power, but she could vaguely sense that with real power in hand, she wouldn’t be easily oppressed, wouldn’t be beaten and starved every day.

In this secular world, the only thing that could truly save a person was power.

Only worldly success could free a person from constraints.

Adele had been observing Lina’s expression. She knew very well that a little rabbit who had been conditioned for years couldn’t turn into a tiger overnight.

She didn’t want to turn the rabbit into a tiger either. She wanted Lina to have the power to be herself, so that one day, even if her rabbit ears were showing, no one would dare to stare at them with malicious eyes.

Adele took a book out of her bag—

Fifty Years of Storms—The Autobiography of Queen Gila

“From today on, your bedtime reading will be this book.” She put away the Sacred Cult doctrines that had been on the bedside table. “Read it well. I will be asking questions.”

Lina held the book. On the cover, the queen held a scepter and wore a crown, standing on a high wall, looking down on all living things. Every blade of grass and every tree on the entire continent of Dezhou submitted to her. Not a single person dared to look up and offend her.

The queen’s gaze struck her soul. It was many years later that Lina understood that the feeling was called yearning.

A yearning for power.

Seeing that Lina wasn’t resisting, Adele secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Fortunately, the little rabbit hadn’t been completely poisoned yet.

【Wait, did I just sit through a moral education class?】

【Did this author take the wrong medicine? What’s with this heartwarming turn.】

【What are you all so anxious about? Isn’t a clear-headed despair more interesting?】

【Exactly. After she sees the wider world and then discovers she can’t escape her fate, won’t that be even more painful?】

Lina didn’t see these comments. She was immersed in the queen’s gaze, until—

“Gurgle gurgle gurgle—”

A sound that wasn’t loud, but loud enough for both of them to hear, suddenly rang out.

Every hair on Adele’s body stood on end. The effects of this prune juice were truly as advertised!

She felt like everything was about to spin out of control…

“I have something to do, I need to go out for a bit. You rest well. I’ll have someone come and move the things you don’t want in this room—”

Adele said this while striding out with feigned composure. The moment she was out the door, she started running as if her butt was on fire.

Lina covered her mouth with both hands. Although she hid the high curve of her lips, her smiling, crescent-shaped eyes betrayed her mischievous thoughts.

The prunes grown in the manor were ten times more potent than those on the market.

From the moment Adele had chugged that glass of prune juice, she had been counting down. As expected, she got diarrhea.

【Bad rabbit!】

【I told you this little rabbit was bad!】

【Why do I feel like this instructor is less wicked than this rabbit ball…】

【Person above, +1】

Lina saw the comments and raised an eyebrow almost imperceptibly.

Adele had drunk it herself, so she couldn’t be blamed. Besides, with the title of “instructor,” she really couldn’t bring herself to like her.

However, the title of “teacher” wasn’t bad at all.

…

Lina had never been to school. She didn’t really understand what the identity of a teacher meant, and no one had ever told her to respect her teachers and value education.

Therefore, when she offended her elders, she naturally felt less guilt.

Insubordination?

No, she just wanted to get closer to her savior. What was wrong with that?

Her tearful prayers in the dead of night had finally been heard by a kind deity. Adele had come to save her.

The room fell completely silent. Lina couldn’t help but recall everything that had just happened.

When Adele had grabbed her left hand, she had been scared, because she didn’t know what she was about to face.

The uncertainty made her afraid.

But she wasn’t terrified. Subconsciously, it seemed she had already accepted the fact that Adele would not hurt her.

Terror was for the instructor.

But fear was for the teacher.

Lina rubbed her palm.

It had long since stopped hurting.

It was as if that light tap had wiped away all her mistakes.

It was as if being disciplined by Adele had truly made her her student, one who could receive her care and affection.

Her palm grew hot from the rubbing. For some reason, an image of Adele’s hand appeared in her mind.

Fair and slender, with fine blood vessels slightly raised on the knuckles, intertwining and disappearing into the delicate skin. The blood pooled briefly at the fingertips, and that touch of pink at the tips drew Lina’s focused, unwavering gaze.

By the time she snapped out of it, she had been standing there in a daze for a long time.

A person so young couldn’t yet figure out her own thoughts and could only force herself to pull away. She sat on the edge of the bed with the queen’s autobiography. Before she could even open it, Adele’s every frown and smile echoed in her mind again.

She was distracted again.

For the 17-year-old Lina, her life before had been one of deep suffering.

A crazy father, twisted instructors, fawning and bullying servants, a stomach that was never full, a body covered in scars, and a hopeless life…

The only one who had reached out to pull her up was Adele.

How could she not be infatuated?

If love was a piece of candy mixed in with glass shards, a person who didn’t lack love would at most glance at it. But a person who lacked love, even knowing the risk of being cut, would still carefully pick up the candy.

It was too precious, so getting hurt didn’t matter.

Lina wanted to get closer to Adele. Even if Adele was an instructor who might hurt her, she still wanted to get closer.

A little closer.

And a little closer.

Lina’s experience was still shallow. She didn’t understand why she was always thinking about Adele’s hand.

By the time she finally realized, her heart, which had long since strayed from the right path, would only become uncontrollable.

What would a lop-eared rabbit, craving her teacher’s care and affection, become?

Obedient and well-behaved?

Or unscrupulous?

…

It took Lina a long time to rescue herself from her chaotic thoughts. She thirstily opened the first page.

The thought that the person she would be approaching in the future was Princess Huaguang, a woman, made most of her unease dissipate. The affinity for her own kind, the trust in women, made it all less disgusting.

It seemed she had a chance of not being burned to death.

For the first time, her life had a new choice.

And on the other side, in an inconspicuous bathroom in the manor.

A pair of white wolf ears drooped pitifully on top of Adele’s head.

She was silently “cursing” the entire family of prune juice.