“You should be careful in the future. You shouldn’t do this even if you’re young. S*xual intercourse is strictly prohibited for the next week ah.”
“What else do I need to pay attention to?”
“No more, just need to supplement. Ai, young people nowadays really don’t pay attention…”
I vaguely heard a familiar cell phone ringtone, and I opened my eyes. It was all white, and it seemed to be a hospital ward. I looked up and saw two empty IV bottles hanging above my head. I was stunned, and then I realized it immediately. It was Tunshe Nalin who tortured me too much, and I was sick again.
When I heard the sound of the door being pushed open, I quickly closed my eyes and pretended to be asleep.
After the door closed, the room was silent. I didn’t know if he was approaching. I held my breath, and my whole body tensed up. I felt a cold touch on my ear and cheek, and I shivered with fear.
“You’re awake?” A hoarse and cold voice came to my ear.
I couldn’t pretend to be asleep any longer. I opened my eyelids a little, and he held me up and pulled the quilt away. I immediately shuddered and curled up into a ball: “What are you doing?”
“I’ll apply ointment for you.” He sat on the bed and put his arms around my waist. “Be good, and take off your pants.”
“I’ll do it myself.” Thinking of what he had done to me during this period of time, I felt so ashamed and angry that my teeth were itching.
“You dare to talk back, so you’re not afraid of me anymore?”
I was stunned, and he had already pulled my pants down. My whole body tensed up, and I clutched the bedsheet with both hands. I wanted to scream, but he covered my mouth with his other hand, so I had to bite his fingers, but it hurt my teeth instead. After applying the ointment, I was sweating profusely.
He dressed me as if helping a child after they’d relieved themselves, wiped the dampness from the corner of my eyes, pulled me into his embrace, and wrapped me in his coat. After a moment of silence, he finally spoke: “We were newly married… and yet we were already apart, it was too hasty of me. I forgot you’re weak. From now on, I’ll restrain myself.”
I lay against his chest, filled with anger but not daring to speak nor move.
Restrain yourself, my ass. You’ve said that before, did you ever actually restrain yourself?
My ear was bitten, sharp teeth grazing my earlobe. “You’re ignoring me?”
I shrank back. “It’s not your fault… it’s… mine.”
I never should have flirted with you in the first place, that was my biggest mistake.
“And what exactly did you do wrong?”
I pressed my lips together, afraid to speak recklessly, but in the end, I couldn’t hold back and muttered through gritted teeth, “I was blinded by lust and brought this upon myself, it’s all my f*cking fault. I couldn’t even tell if you were human or not. Truly bewitched beyond reason.”
There was a brief silence. Then, a faint breath of sound came from the chest pressed against me, it was a slight vibration, he was laughing.
I timidly lifted my gaze to him and couldn’t help but freeze. The corners of his lips curved slightly, and beneath the blindfold, his face was like melting snow on a glacier. This was only the second time I had seen him smile like this since knowing him, the last time was on that snowy night in the small town. A wave stirred in my heart, leaving me dazed, I actually wanted to paint him again.
Even knowing he wasn’t human, that he was a bloodthirsty, man-eating evil god, even after he had forcibly crossed my limits and done such excessive things… I still felt this urge toward him.
It was truly absurd.
Thinking back to last night in the studio, I couldn’t help but feel a deep rage, mortified to the point of wanting to die from shame.
If it were anyone else, I would have fought him to the death, but Tunshe Nalin… I just couldn’t do anything to him.
“Burning papers into ashes…”
The familiar ringtone of my phone rang again, rescuing me from the situation. I quickly grabbed the phone, and the caller was Irene. I pressed the answer button, and her anxious voice immediately came through.
“Young Master, are you alright? Why haven’t you answered your phone for two whole days? The bodyguards downstairs won’t let me up, and they won’t tell me anything when I ask as well. I’ve been so worried, are you sick?”
“En,” I replied, “I’m fine.” Just as I was about to hang up, I suddenly remembered the amulet, the one with Ming Luo’s ashes inside. It was the amulet Irene had put on me.
“Wait, Irene, where did the amulet you gave me come from?”
“It was from the Madam. Why?”
My heart tightened. “She gave it to you personally, and it didn’t pass through anyone else in between?”
“That’s not the case. It was sent to the courier station downstairs at your building. You weren’t home, so I picked it up for you. The sender was indeed the Madam, and I also called her to confirm. She specifically told me to make sure you wore it. What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
It was left at the courier station, and Ming Luo knew my address and was familiar with my handwriting. That amulet was very likely switched by someone from the Ming family. My mother, though not my biological mother, has always cared for me and would never try to harm me, nor could it have been Irene.
“There’s no need to be afraid. With me here, your former lover’s family, can’t touch you.”
Worshipping an evil god to ward off evil spirits?”
Does this mean I’ll have to lock myself into a life controlled by him, both in my artistic career and my personal freedom?
I anxiously scanned through all the unread messages on WeChat, replying to Cheng Wan and my parents. After hesitating for a moment, I finally opened Weibo. As expected, my Weibo was blowing up, with countless comments and mentions about my new work and marriage news. Most of the content was about the photo of me being publicly embraced by Tunshe Nalin at YICCA.
I forced myself to suppress the urge to smash the phone against Tunshe Nalin’s forehead. Looking up, I saw the culprit calmly staring at the photo on my phone screen, showing no sign of guilt at all. His eyebrows were even slightly raised, as if pleased with his own masterpiece.
I suddenly realized that he could have directly found my house, yet he deliberately chose to appear at the art exhibition. He knew exactly where my weak spot was, he knew how to grab hold of me with one move.
How sinister…
How could I have ever thought that he, having lived in the mountains for so long, would have a simple mind?
I can’t just accept this fate.
“I’m going to use the restroom,” I said, standing up with my phone. Seeing Tunshe Nalin following behind, I locked the door as I entered. “I’m just going to the bathroom. Surely, you don’t need to keep watching me, right?”
I quickly opened Mo Wei’s WeChat and went to his Moments. It definitely looked like Mo Wei’s account, but it hadn’t been updated in a long time. I tried searching for his online name on Weibo, and a verified account with over a hundred thousand followers appeared at the top of the search results. I clicked on it, and the latest post was a repost of the news about the heavy snow blocking the mountains in the Jiangsu region, and the timestamp was from the night before last at seven o’clock.
The IP address was in Jiangcheng.
Tunshe Nalin hadn’t used the phone in the past couple of days, could it be that Mo Wei is still alive?
I bit down on the dead skin of my lip and sent him a private message.
Not expecting much, but to my surprise, I got an immediate reply: “Teacher Qin Ran?”
“Mo Wei? Is it really you?”
“I’ve been waiting for you. If it weren’t for my Taoist friend, I’d be long dead. If you need help, come to the Chenghuang Temple above Jiang’an Pedestrian Street. My friend and I are here. See you soon.”
A message popped up, it was from Cheng Wan. I opened it to find a picture.
“Take a look, this is the new work Qing Ze uploaded these past couple of days. I guess you must have stimulated him at YICCA, he’s made huge progress. Abmer, take a look at his recent paintings.”
The painting depicted a vast, dark sea, with floating human corpses and schools of dead fish. Among them, there was a shadowy figure, barely visible. Silver hair framed its form, and it was surrounded by a ghostly aura, both real and illusionary, evoking a sense of ethereal, otherworldly emptiness.
The painting was titled “The Merman’s Grave.”
I couldn’t deny that the composition and colors of the painting were excellent. However, for some reason, the figure in the painting made me think of… Ming Luo.
But how could that be? How could Qing Ze have painted Ming Luo? It’s true that Qing Ze had seen Ming Luo before and had even tried to steal him away, but Ming Luo had ignored him. Because of that, Qing Ze had even thrown a drunken tantrum at an art salon in the Jiangcheng art circle. Qing Ze never had the chance to paint Ming Luo, and now, Ming Luo is dead.
‘Knock, knock.’ There was a knock at the door.
“Ranran? If you don’t open the door, I’m coming in.”
I was startled and quickly stuffed my phone into my pocket, unlocking the door.
“What do you want? My stomach hurts.”
A cold hand grabbed my wrist. “Are you hungry? Want to go home and eat?”
I didn’t want to go home! I shook my head, only now noticing his clothes, he was still wearing my black velvet bathrobe on top and my longest pair of wide-leg pants on the bottom, but they were too short for him and his ankles were exposed. Thankfully, both the bathrobe and pants were black, so it looked like he was wearing a kimono. It didn’t seem too out of place, but it definitely wasn’t something a normal person would wear in winter. Add to that, there’s the blindfold on his face… the whole look became a bit absurd.
My heart skipped a beat when I thought about how the luxury menswear brands were concentrated on in the pedestrian zone.
“Didn’t you say you wanted to buy clothes the day before yesterday? I’ll take you to the mall. You look too strange dressed like this. There’s a food street near the mall, we can grab something to eat there tonight.”
Tunshe Nalin didn’t know my true intention and nodded. “Alright.”
After going downstairs, I got into his Porsche. I checked the map and was surprised to find that the hospital was only a few hundred meters away from pedestrian zones. If we took the car, it would take an hour due to traffic.
Besides, if we walk, there will be a lot of people around, and I might have a chance to escape on the road.
“Tunshe Nalin, this place is very close. Let’s walk over instead of taking the car.”
I had all these plans in mind, but as soon as I got out of the car, he held my hand.
