pain
A slightly cool touch covered the eyelids, lightly adhering to the skin, and then, with a gentle force and an irresistible meaning, the silk scarf around the head was slowly tightened.
The light was gradually squeezed out of the gap between the eyes and the scarf, and was replaced by some faint halos in front of the eyes through the scarf fibers.
As vision is obscured, the remaining senses are amplified one by one.
Zhou Min heard the crisp sound of Zhou Qiting's high heels hitting the floor as she paced, felt the faint airflow caused by her passing by, and the faint cold fragrance lingering in the air.
If the hazy halo before his eyes is the canvas, then these subtle sensory stimulations are the paint. Zhou Min uses his imagination to complete this breathtakingly beautiful picture.
And the next moment, the familiar hard touch on the chin added a bold touch to the picture—
It was the sandalwood ruler. At this moment, Zhou Qiting was using it to gently lift Zhou Min's chin. After she maintained her head raised, the ruler slowly moved down, gently swiping across her throat and lingering at her collar.
Zhou Qiting's voice was even colder than the citrus-woody perfume she was wearing, and it carried a chill that seemed to freeze the blood as it fell into Zhou Min's ears.
"When you threatened the psychiatrist, did you ever think about being punished?"
Hearing the word "punishment", Zhou Min's originally kneeling body tensed up a little more, so that the shirt on his back no longer stuck to his skin. His hands, which were handcuffed behind his back, were clenched into fists to cover up the thin sweat oozing from his back and palms.
She was vaguely expecting something, but was also nervous that Zhou Yiting would notice her anticipation, so she pursed her lips and remained silent to avoid revealing more about her trembling voice.
After waiting for a long time without a reply, the ruler around his neck was removed.
Bang!
The sudden movement made Zhou Min's body tremble violently, his back suddenly felt numb, and then the skin that was hit was filled with burning pain. The clothes were a filter for the senses, giving the pain on his body a hazy texture.
The suppressed groan was blocked by the tightly pursed lips, escaping from the nose and turning into a slight sigh.
"From now on, you must answer every question I ask truthfully, do you understand?" The still cold voice beside my ear spoke the command.
Hearing this, Zhou Min pulled his thoughts away from the pain in his back. His lips parted slightly as he forbearingly uttered a submissive word: "I understand."
"Answer my last question."
Of course Zhou Min had thought about what kind of punishment she would receive, but not only after she threatened the psychologist, but even earlier, from the moment she woke up from her coma and saw Zhou Qiting, she had imagined Zhou Qiting's retaliatory punishment on her countless times.
She accepted it all, whether she was killed or cut into pieces.
But she didn't expect that Zhou Qiting would just ignore her. While healing her body, he also let her spirit become increasingly exhausted.
What punishment could be more painful than this?
Thinking of this, Zhou Min's mood began to decline again, and he replied in a muffled voice, "I have thought about it."
Bang!
“Hmm—”
With a slight sound of breaking wind, the ruler fell on the same place again, but it was heavier than last time. The pain overlapped on his skin, bringing a burning pain that finally made Zhou Min groan.
"This is punishment for your behavior."
"Next..." Zhou Qiting paused, as if recalling something, "Let's settle the score between you and me, deceiving me from the very beginning."
"Do you remember how many times you lied to me?"
Zhou Min had to fall into memories.
In the silence, there was another sound of breaking wind. Zhou Min, who was in a state of tension, subconsciously straightened his back, and this time the ruler fell on his upper arm.
Before Zhou Min could react to the unexpected beating, Zhou Qiting spoke again, his tone lacking any emotion.
"You're too slow to answer."
Then he continued, "Are you counting from the day you went to Zhenbang for the interview?"
The pleasure rising from the pain distracted Zhou Min for a moment. After hearing Zhou Qiting's words, the word "yes" almost came out of her mouth, but she quickly swallowed it back after reacting.
"No." After a one-second pause, Zhou Min thought of his words, "Of course I started from the first time we met when we were little..."
Bang!
"ah--"
After a short slapping sound, there was a cry of pain followed by an unfinished sentence.
Zhou Min didn't need to look to know that the skin exposed outside the collar of his shirt must be flushed with excitement.
But she couldn't understand why he hit her now since she had already answered the question. Did he find out she had lied?
In order to prevent Zhou Yiting from thinking that she was dissatisfied with her sudden behavior, she did not directly ask the question in her heart, but tilted her head slightly to one side, expressing her confusion with gestures.
Zhou Qiting understood what she wanted to say, but did not explain it. Instead, he asked:
"How many times are you going to lie to me again?"
Zhou Min had no way to answer this question. She gritted her teeth and waited silently for the ruler to fall on her body again.
But the expected punishment did not come.
This time, Zhou Qiting did not hit her with a ruler. He just used the corner of the ruler to press against the place where he had just hit her, and moved it up and down. The force was sometimes light and sometimes heavy. When it was light, it seemed as if he was comforting her, and when it was heavy, it seemed as if he wanted to engrave the pain into her flesh forever.
Just when Zhou Min was about to be unable to bear the stimulation that was sometimes shallow and sometimes deep, Zhou Qiting spoke.
"Does it hurt?"
Zhou Min took a deep breath and answered truthfully, "It hurts."
"Then why don't you speak up?"
Hearing this, Zhou Min was stunned.
In Zhou Min's eyes, expressing pain is expressing dissatisfaction with the punisher. This is something she has learned from long-term experience.
So at this time, instead of speaking your mind and getting a heavier punishment, it is better to grit your teeth and endure everything silently.
She replied nonchalantly, "It's still within the tolerable range."
Snap——
"Can you tolerate this?"
The continuous pain in her back blocked her words. She could only swallow the word "can" whole and endure the beating as a vent with her neck stiff.
The beating did not last long before Zhou Min felt the tip of Zhou Qiting's shoe against her shoulder blade, and the next second, she was suddenly kicked down.
"What about this?"
Because his hands were handcuffed behind his back, and Zhou Qiting's sudden movement caught Zhou Min off guard, he could only tilt his shoulders to absorb some of the impact of the forward lunge.
Zhou Qiting didn't give her a chance to speak. Immediately, the stiletto heels of her high heels stepped on the part of her back that had been repeatedly whipped, and crushed it hard.
"ah--"
The accumulated pain finally made her cry out in pain.
"Can you bear this?" Zhou Qiting spoke softly, without reducing her strength at all.
Zhou Min's cheek was pressed against the cold floor, but her body was burning hot. She felt the ferocity in Zhou Qiting's movements, and laughter sounded muffled in her chest.
The upward curve of her lips deepened, and her enthusiasm finally overcame her disguise, and she expressed it bluntly: "Zhou Qiting, a little harder..."
After a slight sneer, Zhou Qiting agreed: "Okay."
Zhou Min had no way of seeing Zhou Qiting's expression at the moment, so naturally he had no way of guessing her mood, but judging from the increasingly sharp pain behind her, she must be hating herself at the moment.
For Zhou Min, true and intense hatred is better than false and sporadic love.
Zhou Qiting continued to apply force and asked in a low voice: "Is this enough?"
"Not enough, crush me until I'm crushed..."
I can bear anything you give me.
Perhaps because she had vented her anger or because she felt disgusted, Zhou Yiting retracted her heels after hearing Zhou Min's morbid words.
Zhou Min heard the sound of high heels hitting the ground. After a moment of silence, Zhou Qiting called her.
"Zhou Min..."
The ending tone was not as crisp and clear as usual, and it seemed to be held back, as if some unfinished words were swallowed along with it.
Zhou Min guessed correctly, because soon she heard a long sigh, as if saying, forget it.
The sound of high heels hitting the ground rang out again, from near to far. Zhou Min suddenly felt uneasy. In panic, she shouted out her longing: "Don't go!"
The footsteps only paused for a moment, and soon moved away. Finally, with the sound of the door closing, the faint light that Zhou Min saw through the scarf in front of him also disappeared.
In an instant, waves of silence and darkness overwhelmed her.
“Don’t go…”
Soon, the fear in her heart expanded rapidly from the inside out, swallowing up her sanity.
She was still lying on the ground, so how could she feel the wall three steps in front of her?
She curled up her body and buried her head in her knees, not daring to look at the clock on the wall. But as she moved, the shabby chair beneath her shook silently, and the wounds all over her body ached.
"Zhou Qiting..."
She had to repeat Zhou Yiting's name over and over again to resist the increasingly clear sound of the second hand ticking in her mind.
Tick-tick, tick-tick——
The scene in front of me played back frame by frame, and finally stopped in a small, bright and clean room.
In the middle of the room, the skinny child was squatting on the ground with her hands on her head, curled up in a ball. As the woman beside her whipped her, her thin body twitched again and again, and unstoppable crying leaked out from the tiny figure.
Under the merciless beating, whip marks accumulated on her body, and even the skin on her back was torn. The moment the whip fell, the tail of the whip flew out a series of blood beads, splashing on Zhou Min's face.
A sticky liquid flowed down her cheek. She came to her senses from her fear and wanted to reach out to stop what was happening, but as soon as she exerted force with her hands, she heard the shackles on her wrists clanking.
The crisp sound of metal colliding was even more obvious among the crying and the cracking of whips.
The woman stopped what she was doing, looked at her, and walked towards her.
Under that terrifying gaze, Zhou Min felt as if all his strength had been drained away, and he struggled in vain to retreat.
But she was eventually caught up, and looking at the whip raised high, she closed her eyes in despair.
"Zhou Min."
A familiar voice called her name softly in her ear, and at the same time, a cool palm caressed her cheek.
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