Chapter 62: The Cage of the Heart, Love and Hate

Li Lianhua drifted in the boundless cold and darkness, his consciousness like shattered ice, sometimes condensing, sometimes dispersing. In his trance, he could always feel a powerful and burning warmth tightly protecting his heart, dispelling the gnawing chill. A familiar aura, etched into his bones, lingered constantly by his side, carrying a tension that bordered on despair.

After an unseen amount of time, as if traveling through the long polar night, his heavy eyelashes finally fluttered a few times, and he opened them with great difficulty. His vision blurred for a long time before gradually focusing on the familiar gauze curtains overhead. His whole body remained limp, as if he had been run over, and his throat was dry and aching.

He tilted his head slightly and saw the person standing by the couch at first sight.

Di Feisheng sat there, his figure erect as a pine tree, yet revealing an undisguised fatigue, his eyes bloodshot, his jaw set. Seeing him awake, his bottomless eyes suddenly lit up, like a drowning man grasping at a piece of driftwood. He immediately leaned over, carefully helped him up, and offered warm water to his lips.

Li Lianhua took a few sips from his hand to moisten her dry lips, but suddenly raised her eyes, her gaze clear and with a hint of weak persistence, she looked straight at Di Feisheng and asked the question that had been lingering in her mind for three days of sleep. Her voice was hoarse but clear:

"...People outside are saying...you're going to marry Jiao Liqiao...is that true?"

Di Feisheng paused while feeding the water, a terrifying stern look flashing across his eyes. He almost immediately understood that it was the disciple on duty outside the building that day who had let the news slip!

He suppressed the rage surging within him and gently set the bowl of water down. His movements could even be considered gentle, but when he looked up again, his gaze was filled with a deep, undeniable calm. He raised his hand and gently brushed away the sweat-soaked hair from Li Lianhua's forehead. He avoided the main point, his voice low and tender, yet filled with a disturbing sense of absolute possession:

"No matter who I marry..." He slid his fingertips across Li Lianhua's pale cheek, his eyes burning as if he wanted to sear him into the depths of his soul, "...you will always be the only one I love the most. No one can replace you."

These words, like the sweetest poison, slammed into Li Lianhua's heart with an irrefutable intensity and paranoia. Instead of feeling comforted, he felt a deeper chill and a sense of absurdity.

Li Lianhua violently waved his hand away, her body trembling slightly from weakness and excitement, her eyes filled with disbelief and pain. "My beloved? Di Feisheng... What do you think of me? A toy hidden away in this building, hidden from view?!" He gasped, staring at him intently. "Why are you keeping me under house arrest? With all the bloody events outside... What exactly are you hiding from me?!"

Facing his barrage of questions, Di Feisheng's eyes were as dark as the night. He was silent for a moment, then reached out again and grasped Li Lianhua's trembling hand into his palm without allowing it to be refused. His strength was so great that it almost hurt him, but his tone was deliberately slowed down, almost coaxingly strong:

"You're not in good health and can't stand being disturbed." His gaze was heavy, cutting off all his inquiries without question. "Don't worry about what's happening outside, and don't need to know. Just stay here and take good care of yourself. I'll take care of everything..."

His words were gentle, but every word was like an iron bar, trapping Li Lianhua firmly in this world, isolating him from all the truth and storms, and also... depriving him of all his choices and freedom.

Li Lianhua looked at him, at the unshakable determination and almost crazy desire to protect hidden in those familiar eyes, and his heart sank into an ice cellar. He understood that no matter what he asked, he would not get a real answer.

The Di Feisheng in front of him was no longer the opponent who had fought him fair and square in the past. Instead, he was a man who was consumed by some paranoid belief and was willing to build a high wall to imprison him under his wings.

He slowly closed his eyes, extreme fatigue and disappointment sweeping over him. He stopped struggling and asked questions, but just let the other party push him back onto the couch and tuck in the quilt.

The room fell silent again, leaving only the invisible wall between the two of them that grew higher and higher, and the sweet yet cold words "my love", which weighed heavily on their hearts like shackles, making them feel suffocated.

Di Feisheng stood by the couch, his gaze fixed for a long time on Li Lianhua's seemingly obedient but alienated profile. His palms clenched quietly, and in his eyes, there was a dark tide of pain and desperation that no one could see.

For several days, Li Lianhua curled up on the couch, his face as pale as paper. He hadn't eaten a single grain of rice in days, making his already frail body feel even more fragile. His eyes were closed, his lips chapped, and his breathing was shallow, as if it would fade at any moment. But the slight frown between his brows and the tightly pursed corners of his lips betrayed a silent, resolute resistance.

Di Feisheng entered, carrying a carefully prepared ginseng soup, and this was the scene he saw. He paused, a suppressed storm swirling in his eyes, a mixture of heartache and anger that threatened to tear him apart. He took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing his anger, and sat down beside the couch. His voice was low and slow, yet it carried an undeniable force:

"Lotus, drink the soup."

Li Lianhua's eyelashes trembled, and she slowly opened her eyes. Her eyes were cold and distant. She only glanced at him once, then closed them indifferently again, even turning her head slightly. The meaning of rejection was self-evident.

This silent resistance completely ignited Di Feisheng's days of anxiety and panic! He suddenly put down the soup bowl, and the porcelain bowl collided with the wooden table with a harsh sound. He reached out and almost roughly pinched Li Lianhua's jaw, forcing him to turn back to face him. His voice suddenly rose, carrying a terrifying chill:

"Li Lianhua! Do you really have to force me like this?!"

Li Lianhua was forced to look at him. There was no fear in his eyes, only a bottomless sadness and disappointment. His voice was hoarse and his breath was weak: "... forced you? Di Feisheng... Who is forcing whom? How much blood is on your hands... You know it in your heart..."

"Who am I doing all this for?!" Di Fei growled, his eyes bloodshot. "Do you think I want to see you like this?! I'm willing to let the blood of those ants stain my hands?! All this is to save you! You must live!"

"Heh..." Li Lianhua smiled lightly, with endless ridicule and fatigue, "...Living like this...is not as good as..."

"Better than what?!" Di Feisheng interrupted him abruptly, tightening the grip on his jaw. His eyes were terrifyingly sinister. "Better to just die? Li Lianhua, I'm telling you, don't even think about it!"

He leaned over, approached Li Lianhua, and smashed down word by word like a poisoned ice cone:

"If you don't cherish this body and take the medicine..." He paused, a hint of mad cruelty flashing in his eyes, "The next person I'll destroy is Fang Duobing's Tianji Villa! Don't you care about that kid the most? Don't you treat him as your apprentice? Then I'll let you watch with your own eyes how his family is destroyed because of your 'righteousness' and 'unyielding'! Let him become your next nightmare!"

Li Lianhua's pupils suddenly contracted! The blood in his body seemed to freeze instantly! He stared at Di Feisheng in disbelief, his body shaking violently and uncontrollably.

"You...what did you say?! Di Feisheng...are you crazy?! How could you...how dare you..."

"Why wouldn't I dare?" Di Feisheng released his hand, slowly straightened up, and looked down at him with a cold and disdainful gaze, as if examining an insignificant speck of dust. "To me, this Jianghu is nothing more than a place where ants gather and disperse. So what if Tianji Villa is here? So what if Fang Duo is sick? If their survival means you being obedient and lingering on for a moment longer, then that is the only value of their existence."

His tone was calm, but every word he said revealed an extreme coldness and madness that treated everything as straw dogs.

Li Lianhua looked at him, as if truly knowing the man before her for the first time. Di Feisheng, the same Di Feisheng who had once debated swordplay with him in the East China Sea, a Di Feisheng who, despite their different philosophies, shared a certain openness and paranoia, now seemed so unfamiliar, so... terrifying.

To achieve the goal, they will do whatever it takes and treat human life as worthless.

The immense fear and despair poured down on him like ice water, chilling him to the bone. He opened his mouth, but no sound came out. Only tears silently slid down, burning his cold cheeks.

Di Feisheng looked at his tears of despair, his heart felt like it was being cut by a sharp knife repeatedly, the pain was unbearable, but his face showed no sign of it. He simply picked up the bowl of slightly cold ginseng soup again, scooped up a spoonful, and passed it to his lips, his voice without any emotion:

"Drink it."

This time, Li Lianhua didn't refuse. Like a puppet whose soul had been drained away, he mechanically and numbly opened his mouth and swallowed the bitter soup. The last bit of light in his eyes was completely extinguished.

He knew that some things had changed completely from the moment he woke up, or rather, from the moment Di Feisheng decided to save him at all costs.

And he was powerless to stop it.