CH 36

Injection and Chains

Yi Zhize woke up again, his head in a daze.

He looked around at the completely unfamiliar environment.

Lifting the covers and stepping barefoot on the carpet, crisp ringing like silver bells resounded in the quiet room.

Yi Zhize looked down and saw a silver chain tied around his right ankle.

The chain was long, stretching to the end of the hallway column.

That doctor, secluded him.

He went to the window and looked out into the vast blue ocean.

He didn't know what kind of drug he had been given, but when he tried to recall the past, a tingling pain came to his skull.

He calmly surveyed the interior of the room and plotted his escape from here quietly.

The door was gently pushed open and Ou Tingyun approached him.

His smile was gentle and his voice pleasant, as thoughtful as when they first met: "Ze Ze, you're awake? Are you uncomfortable?"

Yi Zhize had a terrible headache: "Mr. Ou Tingyun, as a lawyer, I inform you that you are now suspected of illegal detention."

"Ze Ze is so cute," Ou Tingyun's smile deepened, "We are in love, aren't we? I took a month's leave of absence from the law firm for you. I think a month is almost enough time."

Yi Zhize became alert: "What?"

Ou Tingyun put on gloves and took a tray out of a silver-white cabinet to one side. There were glass bottles with labelled paper and silver syringes on it, "I'll hypnotise you and modify your memories. Ze Ze, I will give you a flawless and beautiful memory. Forget all the unpleasant things of the past, only the longing to love and keep each other. From now on, we will never be apart."

Crazy.

Yi Zhize thought to himself.

Simply and utterly hopeless.

"Tingyun," Yi Zhize's palms broke out in cold sweat, "I don't think that's necessary." He struggled to choose his words, trying to gain an ounce of leeway, "Right now, I'm right here with you, and I'm not going anywhere."

"What about later?" Ou Tingyun inserted the syringe into the glass bottle and the clear liquid was drawn into the syringe.

"And later," Yi Zhize said, "I won't leave."

"That's great," Ou Tingyun smiled, "but I'm still worried, listen to me Ze Ze, it won't hurt."

Yi Zhize looked at the doctor's smiling face and fear rose steeply in his heart.

Ou Tingyun moved closer to him, and Yi Zhize instinctively pushed him away and ran out.

'Clang!' It was the sound of the silver chain being pulled violently.

Yi Zhize closed his eyes in despair.

Ou Tingyun gently embraced him from behind: "Ze Ze, don't be afraid, it will be okay in a moment."

His body trembled slightly.

The needle cut through the skin and pierced deep into the flesh of his neck.

The cold liquid flowed into the warm blood and Yi Zhize's consciousness gradually blurred...

Suddenly, it was as if he had gone back to that night in 2002.

It was the rain-filled street of Lijing Road.

He was like an ignorant intruder, observing the whole event from a third party's perspective.

His mother, Xie Qingmeng, was still as elegant and gentle as he remembered.

She was holding his hand and carrying a white transparent umbrella.

"Mummy, I want to eat walnut pastry!"

"Ze Ze is such a little glutton."

"But it's really delicious."

"Be careful of cars," Xie Qingmeng held his hand tightly: "don't be so reckless. When it's raining, remember to be courteous to others. Be careful, don't splash water on others."

"Okay."

Xie Qingmeng took his hand and walked past the pedestrian crossing on Lijing Road.

Don't.

Yi Zhize began to tremble.

Don't go any further.

Stop!

He shouted, stop!

It was no use.

The black car came almost as fast as if it was aiming at a target, ramming hard into the mother and son.

Almost instantly, Xie Qingmeng pushed Yi Zhize away.

Stumbling, Yi Zhize tumbled several times, splashing mud and water over his body.

A warm liquid spilled onto his face.

What is that?

Yi Zhize looked up and saw his mother, a bloodied mess.

The car door opened and the driver was a gorgeous lady, wearing silver heels.

She approached Yi Zhize and knelt down, her smile cold: "What a pity."

She said, "Why wasn't it you who died?"

"Now that there are so many people, it's impossible to run you over again" she sighed and grabbed Yi Zhize's neck, "Damn it, it's obviously you."

Yi Zhize felt suffocated and he began to struggle desperately.

Onlookers pulled the frantic woman away, sirens sounded and she was handcuffed.

Why?

Yi Zhize thought, why?

He woke up from his dream with a jolt.

In the dark night, Ou Tingyun wrapped his arms around him, his voice low: "Ze Ze, did you have a bad dream?"

His senses regained consciousness and Yi Zhize realised that he was now in a situation where he was unclothed.

Ou Tingyun was almost glued to his body, skin to skin, feeling his desire vividly.

Can't be trapped here, Yi Zhize thought.

Mu Xin hadn't lied to him, it had never been an accident.

He was going to find out the truth.

The most urgent thing at hand, however, was to regain his freedom.

To get him to trust him.

Yi Zhize thought, it was simple.

Whatever he wanted, he would give it to him.

It was a,

brand new,

hunting game.

Yi Zhize said, "Teacher, I dreamt of the past on Lijing Road."

Ou Tingyun took him into his arms, "Perhaps the drugs have stimulated you, don't be afraid. It will be like that at first indeed, and slowly, I will help you to overwrite this past and give you new memories."

"Teacher, can you please not do this?"

"Not do what?"

"I want to remember all of this," Yi Zhize took the initiative and wrapped his arms around his neck, "I want to remember everything that has happened with you. Our first encounter, your treatment of me. You were my salvation, Teacher."

Ou Tingyun's breath caught slightly and there was surprise and regret in his eyes, "Ze Ze, you..."

"I'm all alone in the world, I have nothing else to worry about." Yi Zhize touched his lips, the tone of his voice cold but extremely provocative: "You're all I have left, Teacher."

Ou Tingyun was so nervous that his body trembled, fearing that this was just a fantasy he was dreaming about.

Yi Zhize took the initiative and caressed his aroused desire, "Let me keep the only thing in my memory, Teacher, okay?"

Ou Tingyun's voice was hoarse as his fingertips rubbed the side of his lover's face, dropping a soft kiss on his tear-shaped mole: "Okay."

"Teacher, I love you."

"I love you too, Ze Ze." Ou Tingyun buried his head in the nape of his neck, "Love you very much."

Words of lingering love were spoken, intimate lust was released.

Within the apparent sinking, Yi Zhize was terribly sober.

Ironically, he had never said love.

There had been a thousand times when he had wanted to tell him, but in the end it had been too hard to do so because of timidity or embarrassment.

Now, for the first time, he confessed passionately to him, but out of deceit and entrapment.

Why?

Underneath the waves of pleasure, there was a dense pain in his heart.

After that day, their relationship progressed rapidly.

Ou Tingyun treated him with the utmost care and tenderness, a hundred times more than he ever had before.

Yi Zhize fulfilled almost all of the doctor's expectations.

The two read poetry or plays together, watched books and films on psychology together.

They were immersed in hypnosis, and they made love passionately.

It was like all the passionate couples in the world.

Although Ou Tingyun had stopped injecting him with drugs, he had refused to unlock the chain that had trapped him.

He could not delay any longer.

Yi Zhize thought that if he stayed like this, he was afraid that he would also be deceived by the illusion he had created.

He was completely immersed in this false love affair.

He had to find a way to unlock the chain.

Yi Zhize took a porcelain cup off the table and slammed it on the floor.

Then he fetched a shard and stabbed it violently into his ankle.

A sharp pain seeped into his heart and blood dripped out.

Yi Zhize bit his lower lip tightly, deepening the cut that the porcelain piece had made.

Cold sweat broke out, and red blood stained the silver chain.

The sound of footsteps rang in his ears from a distance.

The doctor, he was back.