Chapter 133
Please, just love me!
"Hmm..."
Cheng Sangluo's bloodless lips trembled a few times, and she let out a muffled groan of discomfort.
She opened her eyes in a daze, her empty gaze fixed on the bright chandelier. The glaring light made her frown, and a wave of nausea surged in her stomach, rising to her throat, but she forced it back down.
Cheng Sangluo regained consciousness quickly, and a flood of memories pulled her back to the scene before she fell into a coma.
She seemed to be hallucinating; the crackling sound of electricity still lingered in her ears, and the piercing sensation flowed through her bones and blood, as if leaving an indelible scar deep in her soul.
At the end of the memory is Lin Jin's wistful and infatuated face, and her soft, gentle whispers, which tell of her deep affection wrapped in real and tangible hurt.
Cheng Sangluo gasped, her mind becoming increasingly clear. Being able to breathe meant she was still alive, and it also meant that the pain Lin Jin had caused was still there.
She didn't know how long she had been unconscious or where she was, so she cautiously looked around the room.
The spacious room, apart from the tightly closed door, didn't even have a single window for ventilation, completely isolating Cheng Sangluo from the outside world and making it so airtight that not even sunlight could get in.
Cheng Sangluo was only wearing a soft tank top on her upper body. The wound on her back had been stitched up again, and there was a faint bloodstain on the cotton gauze covering it.
She tried to sit up and suddenly felt a sharp pain in her left arm, as if it had been dislocated. She instinctively tried to pull her arm back from its raised position.
The moment she forcefully lowered her arm, her wrist was painfully jolted by something unknown. When she looked up and stared, immense fear quickly overwhelmed her dark eyes.
Her wrists were handcuffed, the light reflecting off them with a cold glow from the room's lamps.
The handcuffs were fastened to iron rings on the wall, making a metallic clanging sound as the arms swung.
Cheng Sangluo panicked for a moment, but quickly regained her composure. She silently tugged at her arm, trying to loosen the iron ring on the wall, but after struggling repeatedly, she still couldn't get it right. She had no choice but to get up and stand at the head of the bed to relieve the pain in her arm joint.
It's obvious who orchestrated all of this, but the methods used are as clumsy as ever.
"Lin Jin, oh Lin Jin..." Cheng Sangluo leaned wearily against the wall and sighed softly, looking at the cold handcuffs on her wrists. A surge of immense anger welled up in her head, but it quickly turned into a fit of rage and laughter.
In an instant, the empty room was filled with laughter that was both helpless and heartbreaking.
"After going around in circles, the end is still the beginning." Cheng Sangluo raised her eyelids and scanned the furnishings in the room. Apart from a bed, there was nothing else. It was as if the owner of the house dared not put in a single item, lest she, with her rich experience, escape.
Lost in thought, the heavy steel door was pushed open.
Lin Jin's slender and thin frame was wrapped in a nightgown that reached her ankles.
She held the tray in both hands, which contained a bowl of bland white porridge and a few side dishes. Seeing that the person in the bed was awake, her tired face softened with a relieved gentleness. "Awake?"
Cheng Sangluo could only sit or stand; her movement was limited to the headboard area, and she couldn't even get out of bed.
She looked toward the sound and saw Lin Jin walking towards her. The person she knew so well that every smile and frown of hers could be etched in her memory had now become a nemesis who felt strange and hateful to her.
Cheng Sangluo sat on the pillow with her arm in a sling, choosing to remain silent amidst her fury and sarcastic remarks.
Lin Jin placed the plate on the bedside table, sat down on the edge of the bed, and tried to reach out to touch her lover's face, but was met with a cold shrug.
Her hand froze in mid-air, and she finally had to reluctantly withdraw it. As if nothing had happened, she said in a gentle tone, "The doctor said you need to take good care of your injury. Secondary damage to the wound can easily cause inflammation and high fever, so you can only eat light meals during this period. You can only take medicine after you finish drinking the porridge. I'll feed you."
Cheng Sangluo glanced at the white porridge indifferently, still keeping her lips tightly pressed together and remaining silent. She really didn't want to look at Lin Jin any longer, so she simply lay down with her back to her, at least out of sight and out of mind.
"If you keep not eating or drinking, only your body will suffer. Don't you want to leave me? Why not take better care of yourself so you'll have the strength to escape later?" Lin Jin patiently coaxed, picking up the porcelain bowl and stirring the white porridge with a spoon, carefully blowing on it to cool it down, and continuing to coax, "Will you be a good girl?"
Cheng Sangluo had no reason to accept Lin Jin's gentle treatment anymore. These words of goodwill had become traps, and she might fall into a new abyss if she wasn't careful.
At that moment, she didn't want to hear or see anything, nor did she want to respond in any way, so she simply grabbed the blanket and covered her head.
Lin Jin stared intently at the bulging quilt, her hand holding the porcelain bowl resting on her knees, and let out a soft sigh.
She felt that she had become outrageous because of love, losing her former domineering aura and no longer having any better means to suppress Cheng Sangluo's indifference.
She put down the bowl in her hand, and slowly tucked Cheng Sangluo's blanket in. Her tone was gentle, but her words were full of threat: "You can ignore me, but you have to be responsible for your own health. I just want you to recover properly and eat well, so... don't force me to do anything drastic..."
Cheng Sang, glaring in the darkness with bloodshot red eyes, suddenly threw off the covers and sat up, staring intently at the person she once loved most, roaring, "What other extreme things can you do? Electrocute me, handcuff me, or keep me imprisoned like this? I'm just a worthless life, if you have the guts, kill me. You want me to compromise? Impossible, never in this lifetime!"
Lin Jin glanced at her beloved's forehead, veins bulging with anger, and with each resolute word, she suppressed her last bit of tenderness. "Impossible? Don't forget, from the day I brought you home, you've never won against me, not even once."
As she spoke, she stood up, her fingertips brushing against the iron handcuffs on Cheng Sangluo's wrists, then moving to the drawer, murmuring indifferently, "The logic is simple: you can never fight city hall. If you don't want to eat, fine, you won't eat. When you're starving, you'll naturally beg me. Of course, I know your temper too well; when you're stubborn, I can't do anything about it. But I have endless methods at my disposal, just like..."
Lin Jin paused, then took out the terrifying stun gun from the drawer.
She pressed the power button and played with it, the room filled with the crackling sound of electricity. "This method never fails. You've already hurt me, so what's the harm in it? I've said it before: dogs only get rewards when they obey, and resistance only leads to defeat. It doesn't matter if you don't eat or take your medicine. I'll electrocute you, and I'll send someone to give you IV fluids to keep you alive. One day, I'll train you into an obedient dog."
'Sizzle—sizzle—'
Cheng Sangluo stared in terror at the electric shock from the stun gun, cautiously squeezing into a corner. "Madman! You've been a madman all along! Get out...get out of here!!!"
Lin Jin frowned slightly, as if calling someone a 'madman' was the dirtiest insult.
She turned off the switch, gestured with her chin towards the congee, indicating that Cheng Sangluo should do it herself, and uttered only one word: "Eat."
Cheng Sangluo was furious, panting heavily, wishing she could kick the crazy woman off the bed, but reason held her back. "You're disgusting enough to make me vomit, how can I have an appetite?"
“We’ve been together for so long, you should be used to my ways. You used to tolerate my good and bad points, why can’t you do that now?” Lin Jin smiled weakly, picked up the bowl of white porridge and put it in front of Cheng Sangluo. “Actually, I’m very disappointed in you, so I mixed a little bit of hate into my love, so that it would be worthy of your hate for me, so that it would be fair.”
"Hate?" Cheng Sangluo retorted incredulously, not understanding where this so-called hate came from. She could only repeatedly question, "What did I do wrong? Where did I offend you? You should lay it all out on the table and say it! You keep saying you love me, but what you've done to me, is any of it true love? I'm not your possession, much less your pet dog. Is wanting to possess me an expression of love? Then it can only mean... you're selfish, you're perverted, you're sick!"
"Enough!!!" Lin Jin suddenly lost control of her emotions. Her ears were ringing and her head was throbbing as if it were about to explode. She grabbed Cheng Sangluo's neck and screamed hysterically, "Yes, I admit it, I am sick! Do you have to keep reopening my wounds and rubbing salt into them? What's wrong with just wanting to be with the person I love? You kept saying you loved me, but you said you didn't want me anymore. You'd rather believe the gossip of others than ask me for confirmation. Do you really understand me? You know nothing and remember nothing. You've abandoned me time and time again, distrusted me time and time again. How can I not hate you? How can I not hate you! Since we can't be together, let's torture each other! I said I'd be entangled with you for the rest of my life, and I mean it!"
Cheng Sangluo had never seen Lin Jin so out of control. The aloof and arrogant woman was now tormented by the fear and uncertainty of love.
She lost all her power, imprisoned in pain by unrequited love, heartbroken like a wronged woman, and even for a moment wanted to strangle the person she loved most and then end her absurd and tragic life.
But when she saw Cheng Sangluo's face flushed red from being choked, she jerked her arm back, shaking her head anxiously, "No...no...we shouldn't have turned out like this...I didn't really want to hurt you...Sangluo...I..."
Cheng Sangluo's eyes darkened, but she didn't lose her temper again. Instead, she stared blankly at Lin Jin, whose neck was twitching.
She stared intently at the man she once loved, her silence conveying deep disappointment and estrangement.
Lin Jin seemed like a different person. She leaned in and embraced Cheng Sangluo, her fingertips trembling slightly as she touched the spot where she had just pinched her. "Does it hurt? I'm sorry... I'm sorry... Let's get some sleep... get some sleep..."
"Ugh—" Cheng Sangluo's utterly exhausted eyes suddenly widened as she looked at her abdomen in a daze. "You—"
The buzzing sound of electricity rang out again.
Taking advantage of Cheng Sangluo's inattention, Lin Jin stubbornly pressed the stun gun against her body, her face as calm as still water. "You can't get too agitated, it'll be bad for your wound. I'll stay with you and get some sleep, and when you wake up, we'll be back to normal... Can we pretend nothing happened, and enjoy life and our love for each other like before? Darling... go to sleep..."
......
Cheng Sangluo felt like she was in a daze the whole time. When she woke up, she couldn't tell whether she was in the real world or trapped in a nightmare with one layer after another.
The embrace pressed against her heart carried warmth and the scent she used to love most. All of this told her that being confined to a bed and experiencing everything was an indelible reality.
She laboriously nodded and lowered her eyes, only to find that Lin Jin had put a leather collar around her neck. Fortunately, her right arm was not handcuffed, and she still had some mobility.
Lin Jin placed his palm on Cheng Sangluo's chest, his eyes closed and his ears listening to her heartbeat, his expression as calm as ever.
She was a light sleeper and opened her eyes at the slightest noise. She pulled hard on the iron chain wrapped around her palm to pull her beloved closer to her.
"My dear..." she whispered softly, her eyes meeting Cheng Sangluo's with a gentle light, as if everything that had happened before was just a nightmare her lover had.
Cheng Sangluo was pulled so hard that her neck was bent over and she couldn't move, so she had no choice but to meet those deep and infatuated eyes.
She was silent for a moment before asking, "How long have I been asleep?"
"It's already 10 p.m.," Lin Jin said, then gently kissed Cheng Sangluo's ear.
No matter how intimate the relationship, a one-woman show without a response is a tragic ending, because she cannot feel Cheng Sangluo's love, hence the overwhelming tears welling up in her eyes.
Her eyes were filled with a love that cherished her most precious treasure. Her fingertips caressed Cheng Sangluo's indifferent face, and every inch of her strokes was full of tenderness. But the more she cherished him, the more she was wrapped in an almost perverse obsession.
Lin Jin sniffed sadly to ease the soreness from crying, but when she opened her mouth, she couldn't hide the trembling in her heart: "In your eyes, what kind of person am I?"
I possess wealth, power, and wisdom, yet they constantly mock me, laughing at how barren, impoverished, and chaotic my spiritual world is.
Do you know why I'm afraid of losing you? Because in this world, besides you, I can't find another person who truly loves me.
In this revenge plot that has occupied half of my life, I have been caught up in ups and downs and scheming against each other, and I have long forgotten what happiness should look like.
So this is what happiness looks like. You showed me what it means to be selfless and unwavering, and you showed me this time and time again, even etching it into my memory.
You were never a pawn at my mercy, but rather a pure white flower that suddenly bloomed in this game of chess, silently waiting there to quietly open.
I want to give you everything I have, I want to live a good life with you, I can't let you go, so my greed gave rise to delusions, I started to envy all things real and illusory, I envy the air, I envy the clouds in the sky, I envy the sea you have seen.
Cheng Sangluo, please, please, please do me the honor of loving me...
This heartfelt confession, intertwined with a plea to drag himself down into the dust, came from the mouth of that arrogant man who stood on a cloud, looking down on everything as if it were a dog.
[Author's Note]
1. My pre-order novel, "The Sinful Lover," is available for collection.
2. The main story is expected to end in about ten chapters, with an additional five or so chapters of side stories.
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