SC Chapter29

The rain, mixed with the stench of dirt, dripped through the decaying roof. The plain white garment was soaked and clung to Shen Yunjie’s body. After a long while, he let out a weak groan.

Someone’s rough fingers brushed away his wet hair stuck to his face. Shen Yunjie painfully frowned while struggling to open his eyes. Everything was white and blurry. After a long time, he was finally able to see things clearly, followed by the undeniable pain in his body.

“You’re awake.” Zhao Sheng knelt beside Shen Yunjie while reaching out to touch his face: “I thought you wouldn’t wake up. You vomited a lot of blood, it’s all over your clothes.”

Shen Yunjie tried to move, but found out that his hands were tied behind his back. It was still nighttime, and the place looked like an abandoned, broken temple, with a rotten statue of Buddha lying crookedly to the side. He was lying on a layer of soaked weeds.

“Don’t move around, you can’t break free anyway.” Zhao Sheng let out a strange, muffled laugh, which sounded extremely eerie in the darkness.

Shen Yunjie took a breath. More than the stabbing pain in his chest, he was more concerned with the waves of tightness and pain in his lower abdomen. He struggled to reach into his sleeve to grope around with his still-movable fingertips.

“Looking for the dagger? It’s here.”

The cold dagger was then pressed against Shen Yunjie’s face.

Shen Yunjie stopped struggling and said hoarsely, “What exactly do you want?”

Zhao Sheng pinched Shen Yunjie’s chin, forcing him to turn his face to look at him: “I don’t want to do anything, I just want you to look at me, look at me, please.”

Hot, foul-smelling breath sprayed onto Shen Yunjie’s face. Zhao Sheng seemed to have gone mad, his tone was extremely strange. Shen Yunjie didn’t have a deep impression of this neighbor; he usually seemed quite normal.

“Alright, first help me sit up.” Shen Yunjie tried to keep his tone as calm as possible.

Zhao Sheng reached out and helped Shen Yunjie up from the ground by letting him lean on his arms. Shen Yunjie felt Zhao Sheng trembling from head to toe, snorting hot air through his nostrils as a pair of hands pressed and rubbed his lower back with force.

Shen Yunjie let out a muffled groan. The tight pain in his abdomen became more pronounced. He bit his lower lip to endure a wave of dull pain while gasping, “Where is this?”

“The Empress Hou Tu Temple, north of the city. Outside are barren fields and a mass grave. No one can find this place.” Zhao Sheng held Shen Yunjie tightly, and the hard object below was pressing against his waist, bumping him rhythmically.

Shen Yunjie was drenched in cold sweat from the pain. He tightly closed his eyes, gritting his teeth and saying, “You… you kidnapped me like this, aren’t you afraid of being seen?”

“It’s dark, no one saw it.” Zhao Sheng swallowed hard, saying, “I saw it with my own eyes. You were driven out of the house and was kneeling outside. No one wants you anymore. It’s fine, I want you. I’ve wanted you for a long time.” As he spoke, Zhao Sheng started to sob, clutching Shen Yunjie’s lower back and pressing him into his embrace.

“From the first moment I saw you, I wanted you. When you were doing that thing in the kitchenwith him, I heard you cry out, the door rattling as you wept… later, when you were bathing by the well, I watched through the hole. Your legs were stained with his stuff, while your waist was bruised.” Zhao Sheng’s breathing became more rapid, his eyes blood-red.

Shen Yunjie felt like throwing up, his stomach churning violently. He suppressed the sweet, metallic taste in his throat, gasping and enduring the nausea, saying, “You want me? Take me then. But you tied me up too painfully, untie me first.”

“No, I know you want to run away.” Zhao Sheng held Shen Yunjie fiercely and refused to let go.

Shen Yunjie leaned against his stinky chest while suppressing the killing intent in his eyes, and said weakly, “Where can I run? I’m severely ill and about to give birth. I don’t have the strength to escape.”

Zhao Sheng slightly loosened his arms. He looked down and saw Shen Yunjie was sweating all over from the pain, looking soft and easily bullied. He hesitated for a moment, thinking about untying Shen Yunjie, but then suddenly stopped: “You’re lying to me, you just want to escape.”

Shen Yunjie quietly looked up at him, lowering his voice: “If I was determined to escape, even tying me up wouldn’t work for you. How about I suggest a way to put your mind at ease?”

Zhao Sheng tightly gripped Shen Yunjie’s shoulders as he trembling even harder: “What way?”

Shen Yunjie looked down at the ground and said faintly, “Don’t you have a rock by your hand? Smash my leg, and can I still run then?”

Zhao Sheng stiffly released Shen Yunjie and picked up a rock from the ground, his hands constantly shaking.

Shen Yunjie’s eyes were darker than the night. His pale lips gently parted, and he softly seduced, “Smash it, smash my leg, and I’ll be yours. I won’t be able to run away. Then untie me so I can hold you and serve you well…” Before the words finished, the dull thud of the rock hitting bone made Shen Yunjie’s eyes widen abruptly.

A brief, miserable scream echoed through the mass grave, and a few black crows flapped their wings and disappeared into the autumn rain.

Sweat dripped from his pale chin. Shen Yunjie closed his eyes lifelessly, his chest slightly rising and falling. Zhao Sheng used the dagger to cut the ropes on Shen Yunjie’s hands and hastily tore at his clothes, tilting his head to bite and gnaw at his chest.

Shen Yunjie tilted his snow-white, slender neck while looking down at the dagger Zhao Sheng had thrown on the ground with a cold smile playing on his lips.

The dagger at Shen Yunjie’s fingertips pressed silently against Zhao Sheng’s throat, then with a single swift motion cut it open, sending blood spraying. Zhao Sheng’s throat emitted a gurgling, hissing sound, his eyes widening in disbelief at Shen Yunjie. Shen Yunjie flipped the dagger and drove it into Zhao Sheng’s chest, twisting his wrist to utterly shred the area around the heart. Only after watching Zhao Sheng breathe his last breath did he slowly release his hand and say, “That’s letting you off easy.” He no longer looked at the horrifyingly dead Zhao Sheng. He reached down to touch his leg. Thankfully, the bone wasn’t completely shattered; it should only be fractured in a few places.

The sky was still dark as Shen Yunjie, clutching his stomach and dragging his broken leg, painfully crawled toward the door. He had to hurry back. If his Young Master opened the door and couldn’t find him, he didn’t know if he would worry.

Then the night wind brought the autumn rain across his face, and Shen Yunjie suddenly froze. After a long pause, he reached for his abdomen and, leaning against the door of the ruined temple in despair, let his lowered lashes tremble as tears ran down his pale cheeks.

No, he wouldn’t. The person he loved most hated him to the core.