Chapter 289

Chapter 289: 282: Xingxing seduces, Gu Kaiyun takes by force Chapter 289: 282: Xingxing seduces, Gu Kaiyun takes by force Wen Changling stayed in the bathroom for nearly half an hour until Xie Shang came to knock on the door.

She opened the door and let Xie Shang come in.

Xie Shang went over to turn off the faucet that she forgot to close while daydreaming. There were glass cups, a lighter, water, and the hard porcelain tiles in the bathroom, and maybe it was because he was too jumpy, but he thought all these items were unsafe.

“What are you doing with a lighter?”

The lighter was placed on the washbasin by Wen Changling; she must have been fiddling with it in her hand as there were water droplets on it.

“I was going to find your cigarettes, but I didn’t find any.”

“There are no cigarettes at home, I am quitting.” Xie Shang didn’t have a heavy smoking habit to begin with, and recently, since Wen Changling had been coughing, he didn’t want to expose her to second-hand smoke and had not touched them anymore.

He asked, “Do you want to smoke?”

“I want to try.”

She was having severe insomnia and wanted to find something to do.

“Don’t try it, you’ll get addicted.”

She was dressed thinly, her lower back pressed directly against the washbasin, and Xie Shang’s hand went around to her back, cupping her waist, separating her from the cold ceramic surface.

The curtains in the bathroom were not drawn, and occasionally bright light flickered on the textured glass. There’s a custom here to welcome the spring after midnight on Chinese New Year’s Eve, but midnight had long passed.

Wen Changling looked out the window with her head to the side, her restlessness and negative moods becoming harder to suppress at night: “It’s so noisy outside, people are still setting off firecrackers so late.”

“Can’t you sleep?”

“Mhm.”

Xie Shang led her back to the bedroom.

He took out a stick of incense from the cupboard, placed it in the incense burner, and lit it. She watched him light the incense, and soon, she could smell the mild medicinal fragrance.

He wiped his hands clean with a cloth, “If you can’t sleep, then you can keep me company.”

“Keep you company doing what?”

He took out a box from the drawer and placed it on the table.

Wen Changling opened it.

— A black leather choker with a lock, accompanied by a metal chain.

Did Xie Shang install a surveillance monitor in her mind? He understood her preferences this well.

“Do you like this kind of thing?” Xie Shang didn’t wait for Wen Changling to answer, he picked her up and made her sit on the table. He looked up at her, this submissive angle of looking up suggested a willingness to submit, “I thought you would like it.”

The collar had a ring of sharp metal studs. If tightened, it might cause injury.

Thinking of this, Wen Changling struggled greatly.

“Baby, do you want to play?”

The voice of Xie Shang was low and soft, as if saying: Baby, do you want to play me?

It was complete seduction.

Earlier today outside the bar, she had sworn how much she didn’t want to part with it, and now just a few hours later, he brought it right in front of her, asking if she wanted to play.

He was breaking the rules.

The temperature inside the room seemed to increase, she looked at the incense burner on the table, “What kind of incense did you light?”

“The kind that sets the mood.”

Xie Shang was very skilled at making incense.

This incense was harmless to the body, but it could allow her to vent her emotions.

She frowned, “You’re really messing around.”

Xie Shang neither admitted nor denied it, but actively placed the collar representing violence and restraint into her hands, then with her hands, he circled it around his own neck. The lock was positioned just at his Adam’s apple, the cold whiteness of his skin stark against the black leather, a contradictory visual that was both erotic and ascetic.

“Kiss me,” he asserted, a strong and uncompromising show of willing submission.

Wen Changling truly did not want to part with him.

But, Xie Shang was tempting her. With such a face, with such a person, with a pair of eyes so full of affection, if he intended to seduce someone deliberately, no one could resist, not even Wen Changling.

She clenched the chain of the collar and pulled him closer.

This stimulating and unconventional night game began with the gentlest of kisses.

During the half-hour Wen Changling spent in a daze in the bathroom, his mind uncontrollably flashed with many thoughts, such as using a lighter to ignite the curtains or filling the tub with water and lying in it to slash his arteries with a glass.

Xie Shang must have noticed her abnormality too.

She had a secret, one she had told no one, not even Yueyue. When she was preparing for revenge, she plastered the photos of all her enemies on the wall in her “secret room.” Behind all the pictures, she also hid one more photo—that of herself.

Her last object of revenge was herself.

It all started with her saying, “Ah Na, I’m so cold.”

Ah Na took off his raincoat and gave it to her, marking the beginning of all her misfortunes.

*****

After the suffocating sensation around his throat subsided, the long-tense body relaxed at last, but Xie Shang still held Wen Changling tightly, trying to prolong the moment.

She pushed him lightly, but he held on firmly, “Not enough yet.”

His skin was hot, and his eyes were red.

She sat on him and leaned in to touch the marks on his neck, “Does it hurt?”

He shook his head.

“Then why?”

She gently brushed the corner of his eye. Why did he look so sad?

“I can’t bear to part with you.”

He was the one who was hurt, yet he was the one who felt pain. Seeing him like this, how was she supposed to seek revenge?

He removed the used one and put on a new one, then held Wen Changling as they changed positions. The metal chains on his wrists kept pulling back and forth with their movements, rubbing the skin raw without stopping.

Toward the end, blood was drawn, which Wen Changling didn’t want, but she couldn’t help herself. Corruption, degeneracy, lust, and desire mixed violently until she was out of her senses, her entire brain and all consciousness vacated, leaving only Xie Shang’s voice echoing unceasingly in her ear—he said, “Changling, I need you very much.”

Compared to I love you, I need you seemed so much heavier.

Later in the night, Wen Changling slept soundly for the first time in a long while.

On the first day of the New Year, Xie Shang went to the Flower Chamber Hall of the Xie Family, following the yearly custom of offering tea to the elders for the New Year. Xie Jingxian didn’t drink it and smashed the cup. Although the tea was not drunk, if Xie Jingxian had not given tacit approval, Uncle Zhong would not have let Xie Shang enter the house.

On the second day, Xie Shang visited the Su Family.

Granny Zhu’s family had returned to their hometown, and Xie Shang, worrying about Wen Changling being home alone, spent every day after the third day on Lotus Pond Street with Wen Changling.

On the fourth day, Sister Tao from the fruit shop invited Wen Changling for a New Year meal, and Wen Changling went to Sister Tao’s home early to help out. Xie Shang found time to visit Gu Kaiyun’s medical hall.

Gu Kaiyun prescribed medicine for Wen Changling.

“The medicine I’ve prescribed only serves to calm and soothe the nerves. For Wen Changling’s condition, a psychiatrist is still needed to prescribe the appropriate treatment,” Gu Kaiyun said.

Xie Shang knew, but for the moment Wen Changling refused to seek medical help.

After preparing the medicine, Gu Kaiyun took off his gloves.

Xie Shang noticed the injury on his hand, “What happened to your hand?”

Gu Kaiyun didn’t answer.

No one else could have left a mark on Gu Kaiyun’s body.

“That bite mark looks deep,” Xie Shang said with a hidden intent to tease, “Isn’t Miss Zhu usually quite docile?”

Gu Kaiyun, accustomed to an image of lofty integrity, added worry to his eyebrows for a rare change, “When pushed to the brink, she bites too.”

The Miss Zhu of the Gu Family was a woman of good upbringing, it was quite uncommon to see her curse, let alone bite. Miss Zhu was named Zhu Qingan, and Gu Kaiyun kept her matters tightly under wraps, with few being in the know.

Gu Kaiyun’s uncle, Lu Guanli, had remarried to Zhu Qingan’s mother, Lady Wu, who also remarried after her former husband passed, leaving only Zhu Qingan as her daughter. Zhu Qingan wasn’t raised in her stepfather’s Lu Family but at her maternal Wu Family’s home.

Zhu Qingan had a betrothal since infancy. Last June, she got engaged, and according to her maternal family’s custom, an unmarried elder brother should lead her into the ceremony. But unfortunately, neither her maternal family nor her stepfather’s side had any unmarried elder brothers, so Lu Guanli turned to Gu Kaiyun.

Zhu Qingan had been raised in the Wu Family and saw Gu Kaiyun for the first time at her engagement feast.

Walking down the red carpet toward her fiance with Gu Kaiyun, he made a certain determination—her hands, he could not let go.

He had no time for a slow approach; seizing her forcefully was the quickest method. He couldn’t care less about morals or proprieties.

Unlike Xie Shang, who had a rebellious and free-spirited nature from a young age, Gu Kaiyun was known as an elegant gentleman of upstanding character. This was his only act of defiance against tradition.