Chapter 293 - Going back to hell

"Why are you doing this? Please let him go" Yan Mei pleaded with him, even though she knew it wouldn't change anything. The tears flooded her eyes and she couldn't even bring herself to wipe her eyes, too well she remembered how he loved her tears, how he treasured her screams.

In the beginning, she had begged until her voice was hoarse, pleaded with him, tried to bargain, and even tried railing at him but he only absorbed, delighted at every show of emotion.

"Remember when your entire existence was me?" He continued in a casual conversational tone, they could have been discussing the weather for all the inflection in his voice

"I taught you how to breathe, I determined how you did everything and even when you screamed, it was all because of me, I made you into the best thing you could be and you were to eager to please"

The words drove heavy bile to her throat until even her breath tasted bitter. The tremors racked her entire body until it seemed impossible that she would, could keep standing "Let him go" her voice was a mere whisper, a faint breath.

"Him? He's nothing, remember when he wasn't in the picture? Just you and me little kitty, just you and me, and you gave me everything."

Gu Zhi gestures vaguely at Wang Lu, but she couldn't look at him, she couldn't take her eyes off Gu Zhi. Terrible things happen when she toke her eyes off him, terrible things happened around him but she could hear the screeches of the metal chair grinding against the concrete floor getting more frantic by the minute

"Let him go" her voice barely louder than before.

"He needs to see how we are, me and you little kitty. We were perfect together until you left." Gu Zhi accused her, all the while wearing that smile.

She knew that smile, over time she had learned to predict him by the subtle tilt of his smiles, this one meant he was planning something devious, desperation choked her "Please let him go, I'll do anything, I'll willingly stay"

He smiled, pleased with her words before he shook his head "No, I'm going to erase him from you, completely purge him so that we can go back to the way we used to be. I came back for you, I had to come back. I made a deal with the devil for you did you know that?"

"No" a choked sob ripped from her throat. 

"What's your life without me huh, nothing. Say it!" The sudden intensity in his voice sliced through the room with an edge of dread.

"No please, not Wang Lu" she continued between broken sobs, her eyes riveted in her husband's.

"You don't listen, you never listen" Gu Zhi spat as he abandoned every illusion of being calm and composed. His eyes burned with a raging and feral need to destroy, too bad she was the object of his obsession.

"Please not him" she plead even knowing it wouldn't make a difference. "I'll do anything, please!"

"Say you've missed me" he prompted again, reducing the space between them to nothing

"I've missed you" she parroted from her knees as she looked up to see the sick glee at her position at his feet.

"Say you're nothing without me" it was an almost intimate whisper, it promised her horrors

"I'm nothing without you" she returned

"Say my name!" He spat, suddenly angry. His hands descended until he fisted her hair, tightened the strands, and used it as a lasso to jerk her head backward, she had no choice but to look at him, her throat primed for the descent of the twitching hand at his side.

"Gu Zhi" she returned obediently

"Say you're nothing without me, say my name when you say it, kitty, say my name!" He shouted at her, punctuating every word with a jerk while he tightened his hand in her hair till every inch of her scalp throbbed.

"I'm nothing without you, I'm nothing." She replied, unable to help the tears streaming down her face.

He finally relented "That's my girl." The fist in her hair released as he lifted the hand to trace the tears on her cheeks

Those were the right words, she had needed to hear him say it just once. Then everything changed.

Yan Mei surged up in one single move and he couldn't help the shock emblazoned on his face. It seemed unreal that she was fighting back, he couldn't reconcile the image of the sobbing girl with this avenging angel with a vicious smile.

Yan Mei surged up in one quick move, head-butted him, the cartilage in his nose shattered with a satisfying crunch but she didn't give herself time to enjoy it, she simply swung around in an anti-clockwise motion and kicked him.

The kick rocked him back a few steps but the shock of it had a more profound effect on him as witnessed by his expression before he quickly wiped it off and replaced it with a smile.

It was his most malevolent smile yet, but she was done pretending it had any effect on her. She laughed, a loud note of bitter mirth that filled the warehouse. "I sure he had you fooled Gu Zhi, how can you believe that I was just waiting to knuckle under to you"

"You've gotten a few bad habits, Yan Mei, Faking it and hitting back, did he teach you that? I wonder how long it will take me to cure you of them"

"The irony is blinding, you're the one that needs a cure you sick depraved monster" the words were harsh but the delivery was calm, she was done letting him draw reactions out of her, ever.

Gu Zhi tutted at her as if she were a disobedient child "first things first, he'll have to go, I can't allow such disruptive bursts of Independence between us, terribly inconvenient"

"The only person leaving here is you and that when you go back to hell" she replied easily, defiance coating every word.