Chapter 64 Punishment! You want me!
"Let me go!" Fangru finally struggled, kicking her legs wildly in the air. Her stomach pressed against his hard shoulder armor, and a wave of nausea surged up her throat.
Just as she was about to step out of the palace gate, she suddenly gripped the doorframe with all her might, her fingernails scraping against the vermilion lacquered wood with a sharp, piercing sound. This sudden resistance completely enraged him, and Zhou Ling abruptly stopped in his tracks.
"All of you, step back."
The three words landed with an undeniable authority.
The civil and military officials were all deathly pale, and dared not even breathe too loudly.
Li Zuo looked at the woman who was being held tightly in the emperor's arms, his eyes filled with worry, but he could only lead his imperial guards to retreat slowly.
The heavy palace doors creaked shut, completely shutting out the last ray of sunlight.
Zhou Ling turned around and approached Fangru, who was slumped by the door, step by step, the shadow enveloping her completely.
He didn't speak, but suddenly leaned down, grabbed her by the back of the neck, and slammed her against the cold palace pillar like he was holding a runaway cat!
"Don't want to leave?" He pressed his thumb hard against the fragile artery in her neck. "Then, right here in front of the Buddha, tell me everything, one by one, about your sordid affair with that traitor!"
Fangru was being choked and couldn't breathe, her vision blurring, yet she stubbornly tilted her head back to meet his bloodshot eyes, a blood-stained smile blooming on her lips: "What does Your Majesty want to know? In the cellar... he held me, kissed me, and said..."
"Shut up!" Zhou Ling suddenly let go, but just as she fell, he used his knee to brace her between his knees, pinning her firmly against the pillar.
He tore down the prayer flags from the shrine, and with a "rip," he snapped them in half!
With his left hand he pressed down on her struggling shoulder, and with his right hand he grabbed the prayer flag that had been broken in two. Like binding prey, he tightly wrapped her wrist around the temple pillar. The force was so great that the silk cut into her flesh, and Fangru trembled all over in pain. But he seemed not to see it, and just kept wrapping it around until her wrist was tightly bound and her knuckles turned white before he stopped.
"You and him, are you having a good time?" He leaned down, his nose almost touching her face, his breath hot with a mixture of ambergris and anger. "Then I'll let Buddha see how his good follower gets feverish before him!"
The sound of tearing fabric exploded in the silent Buddhist hall, more piercing than thunder.
Fangru felt a chill on her shoulder as his coarse cloth clothes were torn open, and her exposed skin instantly bumped into his burning palm.
His palm felt like a red-hot iron, gripping her tightly until she almost cried out.
"It hurts?" He chuckled, but his teeth suddenly bit down hard on her neck. "This is just the beginning! Don't you like other men? Can he really make you suffer like this? Can he really make you remember whose you are?"
His kiss landed, with a punitive force, sliding from the side of her neck to her shoulder, leaving a trail of glaring red marks.
Fangru struggled to turn her head to the side, but her back bumped against the grain of the pillar. The protruding patterns embedded themselves in her flesh, causing her to tremble with pain.
She saw the madness surging in his eyes, as if he wanted to devour her whole, or as if he wanted to drag her down to hell with him.
"Speak!" He suddenly grabbed her chin, forcing her to look at him, his knuckles turning white from the force. "Have you and him done this? Have you?"
Fangru forced a smile, but tears slid down her cheeks and dripped onto the back of his hand: "It's...much more fun than being with His Majesty..."
"Very well, very well indeed! Since you enjoy pleasure so much," he bit her earlobe, each word venomous, "I will indulge you in pleasure to the very end! Even if I torment you to death, you will only ever be my ghost!"
Zhou Ling suddenly let go of her, turned around and grabbed the incense burner on the Buddhist shrine, and poured all the warm incense ash inside onto her bare shoulders!
As the warm incense ash fell, Fangru screamed in surprise, but he suddenly bent down and pressed her down onto the ground covered in incense ash.
Can he satisfy you?
Fangru was terrified, but she didn't back down. "With him... I'm a thousand times more happy than when I serve His Majesty..."
Zhou Ling's pupils suddenly contracted, and he abruptly turned her around and pressed her down in front of the Buddhist shrine.
Another incense burner was knocked over, and the warm incense ash splashed onto her back, startling her so much that her whole body tensed up.
"Since you know so much about pleasure," he said, biting the delicate skin behind her ear, his voice terribly hoarse, "I'll show you what true pleasure is."
Her back slammed hard against the cold edge of the Buddhist shrine, the pain making her vision go black, but he grabbed her chin, forcing her to look up and meet the compassionate, lowered eyes of the Buddha statue. His gaze fell on her disheveled clothes and his face, which was stained with hostility, like a silent judgment.
He tore open the collar of his robe, pressing his burning chest against her back, which was covered in incense ash.
The fine ash rubbed against their pressed skin, creating a stinging yet strange sensation.
Fangru tried to break free, but he held her wrist firmly, his fingertips leaving messy marks on the ash-covered ground.
“Look at the Buddha statue,” he urged her to look up, to face the compassionate, downcast eyes of the golden Buddha, “let the Buddha see how his followers are favored…”
Every action carried a sense of punishment; the incense ash was thrown up, dancing like dust in the candlelight.
She bit her lip, refusing to make a sound, until he leaned down and kissed the ash on her shoulder blade, gently licking away the ashes with the tip of his tongue.
“Say it out,” he said in a deep voice, his tone leaving no room for argument, “let the gods know whose people you are.”
The sandalwood scent mingled with the ambergris on his body, so thick it felt like it could drown you.
"Want to escape? Want to elope with that traitor?" He hated her to the core. "Compared to me, isn't that kind of brute the kind of man you want?"
Fangru was in pain all over from being pulled, and her tears, mixed with humiliation, fell into the incense ash on the Buddhist shrine: "I want no one but you!"
The air seemed to freeze the moment she finished speaking.
Zhou Ling's hand around her waist tightened suddenly, his knuckles turning white from the force, and the veins on the back of his hand becoming prominent.
"Finally willing to tell the truth?" His deep voice trembled dangerously. "That brute can give you what you want?"
Fangru was about to say something when he suddenly interrupted her.
"Since you think I'm inferior to him..." He bit her earlobe, "then feel it carefully, and see who can truly make you..."
Unspoken words are translated into concrete actions.
He abruptly turned her around, forcing her to brace her hands on the cold edge of the shrine.
The coolness of the sandalwood penetrated through my palms and reached my heart, creating a stark contrast with the burning body temperature behind me.
Amidst the swirling smoke, she saw the compassionate eyes of the Buddha statue flickering in her vision.
"Can you feel it..." he panted, turning her face towards the Buddha statue, "...Who is granting you bliss?"
Her voice trembled and she sobbed, her tear-filled eyes reflecting the compassionate silhouette of the Buddha statue.
She tried to curl up, but he held her even tighter in his arms.
Sweat trickled down his forehead, dripping onto the prayer mat covered with scriptures, leaving dark stains.
The sound of bells pierced through the night, and she finally... but he caught her just in time.
His burning lips pressed against the back of her neck, leaving a painful mark.
"This is the price you pay for betraying me! You think you can escape? Even if you die, you can only die in my arms!"
It felt like it was trying to tear her apart, each time causing her knees to rub against the blue bricks with a burning pain, while her back repeatedly bumped against the Buddhist shrine, shaking the incense burner on it slightly, and sending ash fluttering onto her hair.
He bit her on the back of the neck, "Even if you die, your body will serve me!"
Fangru's tears fell onto the prayer mat in front of the Buddha shrine, mingling with the incense ash and spreading into a dark stain.
She noticed that the Buddha statue's eyes were always lowered, as if in pity, or as if in silence.
"Even if I die... I will still let you lie on my dragon bed... and enjoy my pleasure every night..."
Each time, it was with a destructive, madness, as if it wanted to drag her, the Buddhist temple, and the Buddha statue into hell.
"Say it! You belong to me!" He grabbed her, forcing her to turn around and look at him. "Say you only love me!"
If she dared to say she didn't love him, he would strangle her.
Fangru stubbornly refused to utter a sound, but he suddenly pressed her head down, forcing her face against the cold Buddhist shrine.
Incense ash clung to her face, mingling with tears, causing both pain and itchiness. The scriptures on the Buddhist shrine were shaken and fell to the ground, their pages scattering and covering her trembling fingertips.
“Say it,” his voice was terribly low and hoarse, “say that you are mine.”
The incense ash clung to her sweaty skin, forming filthy streaks. With the slightest movement, she felt the ash mixed with dried smegma rubbing against her skin, creating a nauseatingly sticky sensation.
Only disordered breathing remained in the Buddhist hall.
She bit her lower lip tightly, and her breathing became rapid involuntarily. He immediately noticed this subtle change.
His burning lips traced the outline of her ear, his husky voice seductive: "Want it? Say... say you want me."
She managed to gasp out, "I want... Buddhist prayer beads..."
Zhou Ling stopped abruptly. He knew, of course, that she was reciting the string of purple jade prayer beads that she treasured, but at this moment he simply raised his hand and pulled off the wooden prayer beads enshrined on the shrine.
"Alright, I'll give you the Buddhist prayer beads."
The cool wooden beads rolled slowly down her sweaty back, each one still carrying the lingering warmth of incense.
The moment the bead touched her, she couldn't help but tremble.
"Do you like it?" He bit the back of her neck, pressing the entire string of prayer beads tightly against her. "This is the prayer beads you asked for... You'll have to suffer."
The sandalwood beads rubbed against his skin with each movement, the sacred and the profane intertwining in their burning breaths.
She gazed at the Buddha statue's compassionate, downcast eyes, and finally crumbled the moment the prayer beads brushed against her cheek, her fingertips scratching messy marks on the prayer mat.
The second round of actions was even more brutal than before. He gripped her back with one hand and rolled the Buddhist prayer beads across her neck with the other. Pain and numbness intertwined, causing her to let out soft, gasping breaths.
(What exactly is wrong with this section? Is it because you can't put Buddhist prayer beads on your face?)
The Buddha statue's gaze remained fixed on them, compassionate yet indifferent, making everything in the temple seem all the more absurd.
His breath brushed against her ear, hot and intoxicating with the scent of ambergris.
"Will you talk or not? Talk about wanting me!"
Fangru gritted her teeth, but tears streamed down her face even more fiercely. She shook her head, insisting, "I only want... the Buddhist prayer beads..."
"Stubborn to the end!" The madness in Zhou Ling's eyes completely erupted. He wrapped the Buddhist prayer beads around his wrist, his fingertips clenching tightly, each touch causing the beads to dig painfully.
(What exactly is wrong with this section? Is it because you can't wear Buddhist prayer beads on your wrist?)
...
………………
Most of the candles in the Buddhist hall had burned out.
Fangru's consciousness oscillated between pain and pleasure until she couldn't even lift her fingertips, and could only let him torment her over and over.
The prayer flag wrapped around her wrist finally snapped with a "crack," and she collapsed onto the cold blue bricks like a fallen leaf.
The torn crimson silk lay limp on the ground, like fallen petals after a festival.
Zhou Ling slowly rose, his dark robes gleaming with a dim luster in the hazy morning light.
His movements as he lowered his eyes and tied his belt remained elegant and composed, as if he were not the one who had just lost control.
The ash-covered toe of his boot gently lifted her face, forcing her unfocused gaze to focus on him. "Now you understand?" His voice was soft, yet each word was like a knife, "Even if you've been humiliated like this..."
He bent down and gently wiped away the bloodstains from her lips with his fingertips, his movements as tender as if he were handling a precious object, but his eyes were so cold that they made her tremble.
"You will always be mine."
Suddenly, Li Zuo's voice came from outside the hall to report. Zhou Ling did not turn around, but bent down, picked her up from the ground, and carried her on his shoulder.
This time, his movements were even more ruthless, almost crushing her bones.
"Return to the headquarters." He pushed open the palace door, moonlight shining on his face, which was damp with a thin layer of sweat. The obsessive look in his eyes had not yet faded, but his voice had already regained the coldness and hardness of an emperor. "Take Ma Xian back and interrogate him personally. Anyone who dares to touch my things will be begging for death!"
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