Ren Zhaonan (GL) · Chat

The warm white lights in the living room cast a gentle, tranquil glow, making the house seem peaceful and serene, wholly concealing all the darkness and torment in the basement below. The lingering warmth of the disconnected call still rested in your palm when Lin Ling pushed the door open, freezing the air in an instant. She stood in the entryway, thin and frail, her eyes shadowed by an irrepressible layer of bitterness and exhaustion. She knew this routine all too well—she knew every one of your hunting methods, the cold bite of the rusted iron chain, and the despair of having one's spirit broken until the bones softened, the heart yielded, and one willingly surrendered to ruin. She had once been your prey: the one you personally tamed, trapped, and held firmly under your thumb to this very day. So at a single glance, she understood everything about Ren Zhaonan, who was clinging obediently by your side—she saw the shattered pride in her eyes, the twisted devotion beneath her docile exterior, and another version of her own irredeemable self. Lin Ling's gaze rested gently on Ren Zhaonan, filled with boundless pity and helplessness, her voice faint and hoarse, thick with years of accumulated sorrow: "You could have walked away, Zhaonan. Out there, you have freedom, a normal life. You don't have to be trapped here." Hearing those words, you only found them laughable. You leaned back against the sofa in a lazy, relaxed posture, a faint, indifferent smirk playing at the corners of your lips. As your gaze swept across the contrasting expressions of the two women beside you, your heart swelled with the supreme satisfaction of having everything under your control. You had always been this way. You never needed to force anyone to stay. What you excelled at most was shattering every last escape route, leaving them clinging to your side willingly, desperately fighting to remain. Lin Ling's heartbreak for the newcomer was, in truth, heartbreak for her past self—the one who had once been isolated, helpless, and left to be butchered. Tied down for years, suffering through agonizing love and too weak to flee, her lingering shred of kindness made her unable to bear watching pure, innocent Ren Zhaonan follow in her footsteps, plunging into the same bottomless abyss with no way out. To you, this suppressed, humble anguish seemed nothing more than tedious and pathetic. Beside you, every nerve in Ren Zhaonan's body instantly snapped taut.