Chapter 20 Stockholm Syndrome (Part 2)
Bang! Bang! Bang!
When Lahan walked near Ling Shuang's room, he heard a muffled sound of something hitting a hard object.
The door was not locked. Lahan opened a crack at the door and looked inside. He found that Beichen was banging his forehead against the wall. Red blood had splattered on the white stone wall. Ling Shuang was holding a beautiful bottle in one hand, looking at her with a gloomy and helpless expression. He wanted to go forward to help her but was frightened by her more serious self-harm behavior.
Lahan knocked on the door gently, attracting Ling Shuang's attention.
"My dear employer, Lord Su Mo asked me to pass on a message for you to go to the Youyu Kingdom Embassy. It seems that he wants to discuss the upcoming decree."
“…”
Ling Shuang nodded, but looked at Beichen, whose face was covered in blood, with concern.
"Xiaochen, are you okay──"
"I can't die."
Beichen spoke in a hoarse voice while holding the edge of the bed, and reached out to wipe the blood off his face.
"If I can't help it, then—"
"I won't drink it."
Beichen interrupted Ling Shuang coldly, walked to the table on the side, picked up a glass of something that looked like red wine and drank it in big gulps.
Ling Shuang took a few steps back, sighed, and turned to walk towards Lahan:
"Take this bottle. If she's really in a state of disarray, let her drink it. Also, get some healing spirit crystals to heal her. The money will be directly deducted from the head of the Divine Group. ...Watch her and don't let her leave the room."
Perhaps because Lahan and Beichen had a personal grudge, Lingshuang replaced the room guard with Lahan after Yizhi's attack, and seemed to trust him more.
"learn!"
Lahan deliberately made a gesture of obeying orders in a slick manner. Ling Shuang snorted lightly and looked at Beichen, wanting to say something but hesitating for a few seconds. But in the end, she said nothing and left with the door closed.
The room was silent for a few seconds. Lahan scratched his head awkwardly and asked quietly:
"Are you okay?"
"It's okay." Beichen panted and shook his head, sneering, "It's just a drug addiction."
"..." Lahan was silent for a moment, then suddenly walked to Beichen's side and lowered his voice, "My employer didn't get some spirit crystals here to monitor you, right?"
"No. I can't go out. There's nothing in this room. What's there to monitor?"
Then the mercenary with ghost eyes suddenly laughed strangely, turned around and spoke to his own shadow in front of Beichen's surprised expression:
"It's safe now, brother Fallen Darkseed, come out."
“What—?!”
Beichen covered his mouth in surprise: "Dark Seed, is it -- wait, didn't they say it would take ten days to come? It's only been four days."
The next second, light refracted from Lahan's shadow, and a few seconds later, a human figure stepped out from the space behind Lahan.
Knee-length white hair, a pair of blood-red pupils, and a set of jet-black light armor—
Seeing this familiar figure, Beichen's whole body trembled, then he cried hoarsely like a young animal and pounced forward!
"Ya Ye!!"
The tall, dark-skinned man stretched out his arms and hugged her tightly, then tightened his arms and pressed her into his arms, rubbing his chin against the top of her head:
"What the hell are you idiots doing? I was just away for a while and someone messed me up like this."
"Yaye-Yaye-Yaye--"
I don’t know if he was too happy or too aggrieved, but Beichen could hardly speak normally. He just called his name incoherently and rubbed his chest like a puppy.
That’s great, Yaye is fine──That’s great, at least Yaye is fine!
Yaye patted her back like a child, glancing at Lahan:
"What are you still standing here for? Go and keep watch."
"Hey, is this how you ask for help?!"
“So annoying!”
Yaye directly threw over a small bag, which sounded like it was full of coins.
"Oh, how generous! I'll give you two hours. Otherwise, there won't be enough time to do other things."
Lahan weighed his purse and laughed excitedly, then went out obediently.
After the person left, Yaye pulled her out of his arms, looked her up and down carefully, then bent down and licked the blood on her forehead.
"Don't waste your blood on something meaningless like this, other than letting me drink it. You're becoming more and more unruly!"
"This blood is already dirty."
Beichen smiled bitterly and retracted his forehead.
"I have that guy's blood and ridiculous drugs in my body right now... Yaye, please don't drink my blood like this."
Yaye frowned, but then he stuck out his tongue and licked her forehead.
"...You were possessed by that little bastard?"
"Can you taste it? It really does look like a vampire."
"Vampire?" Yaye laughed boldly, "What is that? But I like this name. Yes, I am a ghost now."
"Yaye, you can't move yet. Xiangying is being taken with him. We don't know where Xifeng and Yinyue are being held, and we don't know where the twins have been sent to."
As if sensing the murderous intent in Yaye's tone, Beichen anxiously grabbed Yaye's sleeve. Her movements were full of peace of mind and dependence, and she almost returned to the way she got along with Yaye before. She was completely different from the cold ice sculpture she had been in front of Lingshuang.
She quickly reviewed the current situation, then explained the plan in her head to Yaye in detail. Then, under Yaye's correction, she developed several backup plans. Finally, Yaye exhaled and nodded.
"Okay, I know everything. I'll have that ghost eye cooperate with me to explore the terrain here. Don't worry, I have the ability to hide in the shadows, so this kind of detection work won't be difficult for me."
"But, be careful. If anything happens to you, I—"
"You little bastard, you're becoming more and more useless!" Yaye slapped her on the back of the head in an angry tone, "Who am I? The great Yaye! You don't trust me at all? Huh?!"
But Beichen did not shrink his neck and retreat with a wry smile as usual, but just lowered his head with a sad look on his face.
Yaye rubbed her hair vigorously with a complicated expression.
"Why? Are you sad about losing your innocence?"
"Um."
"You've suffered such a huge setback, aren't you very willing to accept it?"
"Um."
"Everyone doesn't know what's going on now, are you worried?"
"Um."
"Holding a grudge and wanting revenge?"
"Um."
"Are you afraid that drug addiction will take away your sanity and turn you into a useless person?"
"Um."
"Any other ideas?"
Beichen shook her head, but Yaye pinched her chin nonchalantly, smiled arrogantly, and shook her head.
"Innocence is indeed more important to some women, but now that it has happened, there is no point in being sad. It is better to think about it this way. Whether your first time was with Xiang Ying or Gemini, it was a kind of hurt to the other party. Now it has been resolved without any pressure."
"……ah……"
"You were indeed not careful enough to be ambushed and betrayed. If you were wrong, it was that you shouldn't have been so soft-hearted as to keep that little coward around. He always has access to all the latest and most accurate information about you. He knows when you're at your weakest and when you're most vulnerable. If he can't destroy you with a single blow, I think he should go back to the Protoss Mine and rebuild."
"But I wasn't prepared for it. Yagad and Xifeng were injured, but I didn't take precautions to prevent a surprise attack."
"Is that a reason for his betrayal? According to this theory, all women wearing revealing dresses are inviting rape? If they get raped, it's not the men's fault, but the women's fault for dressing too provocatively. If your house gets robbed, it's not the thieves' fault, but the yard's fault for being too fancy and not having adequate security measures."
Beichen's expression improved a little after hearing what Yaye said.
Yaye continued speaking as he crushed the recovery spirit crystal to heal the wound on her forehead.
"It's true that many people have been dispersed. But don't forget who they are. Xifeng is an emperor-level warrior, Yagad is the Red Moon Knight, Gu Yinyue is the Martial Emperor, Xiao Peng is a strategist blessed by the Charm Spirit, not to mention Xiang Ying, Hei Huo, and Su Jie, who you think are the most important. Do you think they are so easily defeated? Do you think they are princesses in a high tower, who will be imprisoned and wait for you to rescue them?"
“…! Yaye, you mean…”
"I have no basis for this, but I believe them. ...You should believe them more than I do, idiot!"
"Um."
Beichen lowered his voice and nodded vigorously with a slight movement.
"Revenge is certainly necessary, but you should treat a toy like a toy. There's no need to dwell on that kind of stuff all day. What's the opposite of love?"
"Of course it's hatred."
The person in Yaye's arms gritted his teeth and said hatefully, but he raised his eyebrows again and gave him a vicious look.
"Idiot!! Did I allow you to be so stupid?! Be careful or I'll make you sit in an empty chair!!"
The white-haired, red-eyed Fallen Dark One spouted illogical and vile words, while roughly yet tenderly rubbing her cheek with his middle finger:
"The opposite of love is indifference. The thing that will cause him the most pain is not taking him seriously. Remember this. In your eyes, there are Xiang Ying, Shuang Zi, me, Gu Yinyue, Xifeng, and Prince Rui—those who are kind to you are enough. Those who are too dirty to look at, get rid of them immediately! Do you hear me?"
“Hmm—!”
Beichen grabbed the corner of Yaye's clothes tightly and nodded vigorously with a trembling voice.
"As for things like drug addiction—"
Yaye's expression became serious. He bent down, put his hands on his knees, and made his face level with Beichen's line of sight.
"No one can help you with this kind of thing. You can only overcome it on your own. It may be difficult, because you have to endure pain that ordinary people cannot endure—but..."
He stared at Beichen's cheek, looking into her dark pupils, as if he wanted to see into the depths of her soul.
"If you can even overcome your drug addiction, then there will be no more suffering in this world that you cannot endure, no more things that can break your nerves, and no more temptations that can make you waver. From then on, you don't have to worry about anything you can't control. You can proudly trample all the evil thoughts in the world under your feet. If you are Xiang Beichen, don't compromise easily."
As he spoke, he revealed a wild and charming smile and summoned a sickle. The black evil light swirled in the air and brushed past Beichen's neck, as if trying to cut off something from her body.
"I'm watching! Win beautifully for me! Then whatever you want, Master Yaye will give it to you as a reward!"
Beichen stared at Yaye for a long while, and finally the corner of his mouth curled up into the first real smile since they met.
"Yaye occasionally talks nonsense, isn't that natural?"
"...You little brat, you've actually learned to be so smooth-talking? Did you get my permission?! What I say is the truth, even if it's nonsense, it's nonsense you have to listen to!"
Yaye narrowed his eyes and sneered, revealing his fangs at the corners of his mouth, causing Beichen to involuntarily shrink back a few steps. He laughed dryly and scratched his head, seeming to regret what he had said just now. He was carefully observing Yaye's expression.
Seeing her shrinking back, Yaye chuckled, and the smile on his lips softened.
"It's good to have a bit of a temper, but that's for the outside world. In front of us, just be a good-for-nothing little loach."
Beichen pouted and rubbed into Yaye's arms again:
"Yaye really looks like dad... Although I'm an orphan and don't know what it's like to have a dad, I think he must be like this - fierce, gentle, handsome, and strange..."
Veins popped up on Yaye's face.
Forget about the first few adjectives, what does "strange" mean? Is strangeness a necessary attribute of a father?!
"I don't mean to be your dad."
He slapped the back of Beichen's head in a rough voice and pulled her away.
"There will be plenty of opportunities to act like a spoiled child later. For now, let's save time for our respective plans. Protect yourself and wait for the good things I bring. If you're missing something next time we meet, don't blame me for making you run upside down as punishment."
"Well, I will try my best. Yaye too, please be careful!"
Yaye smiled evilly, with an expression that said "Don't worry, how could anything happen to me?", and took a step back, but suddenly seemed to remember something, and returned to Beichen. His handsome and ghostly face came close to her, and his lips lightly pecked her on the mouth. Then, before she was stunned and had yet to come to her senses, he had opened the door and disappeared in the shadow cast by the door panel in the light.
"Eh...ah?...What happened...just now...Yaye...?"
It can't be true, it's an illusion, right?
Beichen was completely stunned by the big bomb that Yaye dropped at the end. He touched his lips blankly for a long time and couldn't recover. An hour later, Lahan sent Yaye out of the underground base safely, and then returned to the room again. When he entered the room, he still saw Beichen sitting on the edge of the bed with a silly look on his face.
Seeing Lahan open the door and come in, Beichen coughed awkwardly and straightened his sitting posture.
"You must have a lot to ask me, Miss Baiying."
"Just call me Xiang Beichen. I do have a lot of questions—why are you helping us?"
Beichen poured a glass of red wine for Lahan and made a "please sit down" gesture.
Lahan slumped onto the sofa carelessly, raising his eyebrows:
"Didn't you hate me before? Why did you suddenly change your attitude?"
Beichen tilted his head and smiled, his eyes calm.
"Everything has its own comparison. Compared to a certain guy, your level of despicableness is nothing. And now that I think about it, the tragedy at Sylvia's party was also instigated by that guy, right?"
"Well, that was a test. But the accident with your family sword was not something we could have predicted. It was an accident—but it is true that he gave me an extra reward afterwards."
Beichen gritted his teeth and tried hard to drive out the hatred in his heart that was like a poisonous flame from his mind.
Yaye was right. The opposite of love is indifference. If I hate him as he wishes, wouldn't that be falling into his trap?
"Let's not talk about this. You haven't answered my question yet."
Lahan curled up on the sofa, took a sip of the red wine handed to him by Beichen, and then shook the glass gently.
"Do you know why my eyes look like this?"
He pointed to the red whites of his eyes.
Beichen still didn't dare to look directly into those terrifying eyes, but after hearing what he said, he still observed them carefully for a few seconds.
"…Is it some kind of illness?"
"No." The Ghost Eyes mercenary laughed self-deprecatingly. "I cried. ...It's pretty embarrassing, isn't it?"
As he spoke, he stared at the wine swaying in the glass.
"Ten years ago, I was a naive young man who almost wanted to be stepped on. At that time, I had just been promoted to a first-level Holy Spirit Warrior, and was considered a relatively powerful person in the village. Then, I took the money I had saved for two years and went to a nearby big city to hire Dai Yuan."
"Dai Yuan?"
"Yes, it's a female weapon, a long sword. Although it's of the Quantized type, its strength is quite impressive, almost on par with the Yeyue type. When I met her, she only had three manes. She wasn't particularly pretty, dressed in black and looking a bit rustic, with her eyes hidden in her bangs. But she had a very good personality. She was aloof and didn't talk much, but she was very attentive and considerate. She always wanted to be ahead of me in everything, and sometimes she was even more controlling than my mother."
As the man spoke, a gentle smile with a hint of nostalgia appeared on his cynical face.
"Don't look at me like this now. I was innocent once, too. At least back then, I truly loved her. I spent nearly every day with her, helping her hunt and advance. I watched her gradually become stunningly beautiful, but I was afraid that in her eyes, I'd become a villain who was only interested in the body of a weapon. Let alone asking for blade sharpening, I didn't even have the courage to hold her hand. It wasn't until she reached the Ninth Glory that we hugged each other in excitement, and that was when our relationship took a step forward."
"...And then you started dating?"
Beichen is a very good listener. He never interrupts when he speaks, and when he pauses, he asks a question at the right time to show his concern.
"Yeah, we were inseparable. I was so naive back then, I thought it wouldn't matter if we didn't have children, so I naturally assumed my parents would support me. But can you imagine what happened?"
"You told your parents, and your parents were strongly against it?"
"Yes, what parent would want a child who can't produce offspring? Besides, I'm the only male in the family, so they wouldn't agree no matter what. Later, I backed off and said that if I absolutely must have a child, I could marry a human wife—but in reality, I discovered that no human would be willing to share a mate with a war machine. Furthermore, Dai Yuan disagreed. She said that marrying another human girl without any feelings for her would ruin her life—and since I'm her master, I absolutely cannot do such a shameless thing."
"She's a very stylish warrior sister."
"Yes, my Dai Yuan is such a proud woman. So... because she was so proud, she finally decided to leave me. One night, after making love with me, she took advantage of my mental instability and, with the advantage of the single contract of the Nine Glory War Weapon, she terminated the contract with me and left."
"And that's how you ended it?"
"No, if it ended like this, I would be glad. She left me, and I couldn't find her no matter how hard I tried, but later I found out that she was hiding near my house, secretly guarding me every day. So when the accident happened that day, she—"
"Something happened?"
"My personality makes it easy to make enemies—don't look at me that way, I know I'm not. Back then, being young and impulsive, it was inevitable that I'd steal benefits from colleagues at work, or perhaps I'd be too prominent, sparking jealousy. In short, many people secretly resented me. When this resentment accumulated to a certain point, those ridiculous idiots—not having the guts to come after me, instead turned on my family."
As Lahan spoke, his expression gradually became ferocious, his eyes fixed on the red in the wine glass.
"They wanted to take my family hostage and make me suffer, but Dai Yuan, who was hiding in the dark, discovered them. She stepped forward to provide cover, allowing my family to escape safely. However, facing so many Lingwu Divisions, how long could she, an ownerless weapon, hold out? So, when I came back, I saw my house on fire, her body stripped naked, and being tortured by more than a dozen people. And no matter how angry I was, I couldn't break through the defense of so many people to rescue her!"
With a "pop", the wine glass in Lahan's hand broke, and the bright red liquid stained his hands and dripped onto the cashmere carpet under his feet.
"In the end, I had several teeth knocked out, my hand bones broken, and was pinned to the ground. I watched helplessly as she was violated while her stomach was ripped open and her strange internal organs pulled out. Finally, they took out her crystal core and crushed it in front of me."
“──”
Beichen slowly covered his mouth, not knowing what to say.
"Then they left me crying like a dead dog and walked away laughing. I held her body and used up all the Star Spirit Ore Solution, but it couldn't save her. After my tears dried up, my eyes started bleeding, and when the blood dried up, I went blind. Of course, with the help of the Super Recovery Spirit Crystal, my eyes were eventually healed, but I couldn't change back to what I am now."
He pointed at his eyes in self-mockery and smiled bitterly.
"After that, I quit the guild. I spent a whole year tracking down everyone who had caused her death, secretly killing them using the most vicious methods. At the last moment, I felt that all my conscience and kindness as a human being had completely died. I became a mercenary who would do anything for money, including murder, arson, robbery, and smuggling. My value quickly became very high. Because of my ruthless methods and the shape of my eyes, I was nicknamed Ghost Eyes."
Beichen looked at his profile with a complicated expression:
"Then why... did you think of betraying your employer to help me?"
"Because... when I was holding you down in that hall and saw the look in your eyes... it suddenly occurred to me." He laughed dryly and grabbed his hair tightly. "What was the difference between what I was doing and what those people who killed Dai Yuan did...?"
"Lahan..."
"I was wondering if Hooked Claw, lying beside you and watching you being violated, felt the same way I did back then. If they could still take human form back then, would the liquid flowing from their eyes be clear or golden? And then... I finally discovered it."
The mercenary with ghost eyes looked at the red wine in his hand that was gradually solidifying.
"I thought I'd sold everything I had. My time, my fighting ability, my dignity, my stance, my conscience—but there's one thing I haven't sold, and I don't want to sell it. It's my soul. So... this time, I'm doing this, not so much to help you, but because I want to find myself again. I want to be less distant from ordinary people."
"What about now?" Beichen looked at him with a faint smile, "Do you feel like you've been found?"
"Ah," the ghost-eyed mercenary casually pulled up the tablecloth to wipe his hands, "It's nice to feel like I'm still human. ...Thank you, Miss Shiro."
"I'm the one who should be thanking you. If it were you, I think the Stockholm thing would make some sense."
"……What?"
"No, no, just treat it as my nonsense. ...But isn't professional ethics the most important thing for mercenaries? If you change sides like this, it might be difficult for you to survive in the industry in the future, right?"
"How could I possibly make such a mistake?" Lahan smiled and shook a finger. "Do you know what the biggest mistake that little spearman made in his life was?"
"What?"
"Yesterday was the last day of his contract, and this morning, he forgot to renew it."
"puff!!"
Beichen couldn't help laughing.
"Have you found your next employer yet?"
"Isn't it right in front of me?"
"I don't have any money right now."
"Didn't you just give it to your old lover who fell into the dark?"
"He's not my lover!... Ahem." Beichen blushed and turned away awkwardly, coughing softly. However, when he turned back, his eyes became stern again. "Well, Lahan, I still have a most troublesome problem that hasn't been solved yet, and I'd like to ask for your help."
"What?"
"Please give me a message for someone."
As she spoke, she walked to the bed, lifted the sheet, and fumbled in the gap at the foot of the bed for a long time before carefully pulling out a very small piece of paper, putting it in Lahan's hand, then stood on tiptoe and whispered a few words to him.
Lahan raised his eyebrows in surprise, then laughed wildly a few times and patted Beichen's shoulder.
"You're much more interesting than my previous employer. Don't worry, I'll definitely help you!"
"Then I look forward to hearing from you."
With a "pa" sound, the mercenary with ghost eyes and the black-haired girl raised their hands and high-fived at the same time.
Beneath the surface, new alliances were forming.
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