Flaying
The night gradually deepened.
The pitch-black sky was like a giant beast of the abyss, crawling high above the city where the lights were waning.
Creakââ
ăZong Wenă pushed open the door. There was no light in the dim room, and the obscure starlight projected his shadow on the expensive carpet as he slowly walked into the room...
He didn't turn on the electric lights, but instead lit a wisp of candle fire, igniting the glass candles placed on the table and by the bed. The orange firelight blurred the dark room, carrying a trace of a romantic atmosphere in the haziness, just like a faintly discernible light veil draped over a young girl's bare body.
ăZong Wenă casually picked up a glass-like cup and popped open the cork of a bottle of red wine. The scarlet, intoxicating wine poured out in the candle light, rolling and flowing into his hand.
Draped in a red sleeping robe and holding the red wine, he stood by the dim window, overlooking this brilliantly lit city...
His eyes narrowed slightly, intoxicated as if he were a king standing amidst the ăRed Dustă.
Knock knock knockââ
A light knock sounded on the door.
"Come in," he said indifferently.
As the door pushed open, a black dress slowly walked into the room. Facing ăZong Wenă's direction, her hands naturally closed the door behind her.
ăZong Wenă turned sideways in front of the window. On his slightly drunk cheeks, a pair of eyes overflowing with greed and obscenity stared at ăLiu Qingyană, as if using his gaze to peel open a perfect piece of art.
He walked towards ăLiu Qingyană step by step. His red sleeping robe swayed slightly in the dim yellow candle fire, and he slowly raised the remaining red wine in his hand that he had just drunk.
"Have a drink?" He tried to make his voice as gentle as possible, like a kindly old father.
ăLiu Qingyană stood there calmly. In the flickering candle light, her appearance was increasingly enticing, like a chilly angel fallen to the mortal realm, making people unable to resist wanting to ravage her.
"I don't want to drink this."
"Don't want to drink? It doesn't matter..."
ăZong Wenă shrugged and put the wine glass back on the table. He raised a hand and began to tease ăLiu Qingyană's pitch-black hair, a smile emerging on his slightly drunk old face.
"You know? You are truly very beautiful... Not that kind of artificial cuteness, nor coquettish allure. You have a temperament that belongs only to you... The first time I saw you, I knew you couldn't be compared to those ordinary women.
Your posture, your appearance, your dancing... you are a born superstar. If you rotted in that ăWillow Townă, it would truly be too much of a pity... As long as you are given an opportunity to let everyone see you, I believe that one day, you will stand above all others and become the goddess everyone dreams of!"
As ăZong Wenă spoke, his completely red face grew increasingly excited. Both of his hands fiercely grabbed ăLiu Qingyană's thin and weak shoulders, and his entire person leaned in almost to her ear:
"I want to personally send you to that position, the position that originally belongs to you! To let you become the goddess that draws everyone's attention!
But the premise is, you must belong to me... and can only belong to me."
ăZong Wenă smiled and added a sentence,
"Just like a loyal dog."
ăLiu Qingyană calmly looked at that old face, which was so close at hand and still reeking of alcohol, and slowly closed her eyes... Her long, slender eyelashes closed together in the candle light. She stood there like a chilly, absolutely beautiful black-dressed cloth doll.
Seeing this scene, the evil fire in ăZong Wenă's heart burned even fiercer, as if the young girl had completely given up resisting. He grinned hideously and pounced directly at ăLiu Qingyană's body, wanting to push her right onto the sofa!
But the next moment, his body seemed to have been electrocuted, suddenly stiffening in place!
ăZong Wenă's pupils unconsciously widened. He looked down in astonishment and discovered a slender palm had, at some unknown time, pressed against his chest... That was ăLiu Qingyană's hand.
For some unknown reason, ăZong Wenă felt as if an electric current was flowing through his entire body. His four limbs didn't feel like his own, and his whole person froze in place like a sculpture.
At the same time... ăLiu Qingyană's eyes slowly opened.
When those black, glass-like pupils were exposed to the air, the temperature in the room dropped suddenly. ăLiu Qingyană's entire temperament changed, and an indescribable feeling of ice-cold and trembling bloomed outward from the hem of her black dress...
The dim yellow candle fire swayed silently, but there was not a trace of ambiguous romance left. At this moment, in ăZong Wenă's eyes, that originally absolutely beautiful girl's face seemed to come from the netherworld, making him unable to stop his heart from trembling.
"You... you unexpectedly..." ăZong Wenă seemed to have thought of something, looking at ăLiu Qingyană in disbelief, as if seeing a ghost.
But under ăLiu Qingyană's palm, even his vocal cords seemed to be suppressed. ăZong Wenă exhausted all his strength, but could only intermittently spit out a few words.
He absolutely never expected that ăLiu Qingyană, who was so thin and weak that it seemed a gust of wind could blow her over, was unexpectedly a ăDivine Path Possessoră!
He didn't understand, and couldn't understand, if ăLiu Qingyană was truly a ăDivine Path Possessoră, why she would participate in ăWillow Townă's selection, why she struggled in this big mud pit of the ăFlower Capital Consortiumă, and why, under his hundred kinds of harassment, she remained silent from beginning to end...
"Have I unexpectedly grown thorns?" ăLiu Qingyană spoke softly, ethereal like a whisper from amidst a hazy misty rain.
"Not all flowers can be ravaged by others... Since you have no way to control your own desires, you must be prepared to have your skin and flesh scratched and broken by thorns."
ăLiu Qingyană closed her hand, leaving only her index finger. From the position of his chest, she traced downwards, lightly sliding across ăZong Wenă's skin.
However, as ăLiu Qingyană's fingertip slid across, ăZong Wenă's skin and flesh were sliced open just like a zipper. Scarlet fresh blood flowed down the girl's fingertip onto the ground, and dripping wet blood and flesh were exposed to the air!
Unprecedented pain assaulted ăZong Wenă's nerves. He opened his mouth wide in agony, wanting to howl out loud, but could only let out bursts of helpless whimpering sounds!
The blue veins on his neck bulged one by one. In this severe pain, his bloodshot eyes widened, and he personally watched ăLiu Qingyană's finger trace downwards... disemboweling him.
He was personally witnessing the entire process of his own "flaying."
"You all covet my skin," ăLiu Qingyană said softly. "But what meaning is there in this? Beautiful or ugly, what lies beneath this skin is the true 'us'...
Do you want to see your truest appearance?"
ăLiu Qingyană's fingertip traced down to ăZong Wenă's lower abdomen, then slowly released. At this time, a sinister and terrifying cut had appeared on ăZong Wenă's torso, just as if the "zipper" of his skin had been pulled down. All his muscles, blood vessels, and organs were exposed to the air!
"No... no!!" ăZong Wenă struggled in pain. His facial features were already twisted from the severe pain. Under this silent flaying punishment, both his mind and physical body were tortured to the extreme!
ăLiu Qingyană raised her hand, pinched the collar of the red sleeping robe, and unhurriedly stripped it from ăZong Wenă's body... ăZong Wenă's elderly skin was revealed in front of ăLiu Qingyană, like a lamb waiting to be peeled open.
ăLiu Qingyană looked at the blood-stained red sleeping robe on the ground and suddenly smiled:
"Are you worthy of wearing red clothes?"