The heavy iron gates of the academy felt like the entrance to a gilded prison as Jow walked through them the following morning.
His entire body was a roadmap of dull, throbbing pain, a bitter reminder of the heavy wooden rod Teng had used against his slender frame in the abandoned basement room last night.
Every single step required an immense amount of physical effort, his pale skin looking almost translucent under the harsh morning sun.
He had carefully buttoned his fresh white uniform shirt all the way to the top, ensuring that the dark purple bruises blooming across his soft skin remained entirely hidden from the judgmental eyes of the elite students.
Jow tightly gripped the straps of his invisible restraint, his heart pounding in his chest like a trapped bird as he slowly approached his classroom, prepared for the absolute worst.As Jow cautiously stepped over the threshold of the classroom, his wide, innocent eyes instinctively darted toward his own desk, expecting to see his belongings ripped apart or drenched in filth once again.
Instead, his breath completely caught in his throat as a wave of sheer confusion washed over him.
Sitting neatly in the exact center of his wooden desk was his heavy backpack—the very same bag he had dropped in absolute terror before losing consciousness last night.
Jow rushed forward with trembling steps, his slender hands shaking violently as he unzipped the main compartment.
To his absolute bewilderment, every single history textbook, his notebooks, and even his pens were neatly arranged inside, completely undamaged and clean.
There was no missing item, no defaced pages, and no physical trace of the violence from the night before.Before Jow could even begin to process the strange reality, a long, dark shadow stretched across his desk, completely blocking out the morning light.
Jow froze instantly, his knuckles turning ghost-white against the fabric of his bag as a cold, terrifyingly familiar presence settled behind him.
He slowly looked up through his long, damp bangs, his fragile frame visibly trembling as his eyes locked onto Teng.
The multi-billionaire heir was standing incredibly close, his tall, imposing figure towering over Jow like an absolute dictator.
Teng didn’t have Ray or his usual gang surrounding him today; he was completely alone, his handsome features perfectly calm but his dark eyes emitting a terrifying, predatory intensity that pierced through Jow’s entire sanity.Teng leaned down slowly, his sharp, aristocratic face descending until his cold breath brushed directly against Jow’s burning ear.
He didn’t raise his voice, nor did he offer a single insult.
Instead, his voice dropped into a smooth, sinister whisper that carried a chilling weight.
“Jow,” Teng murmured, his eyes scanning every inch of the transfer student’s pale, breathtakingly beautiful face, noticing the subtle way the boy tried to hide his stiff muscles.
“You have a lot of courage, don’t you?
Even after everything I did to you in that dark room, you still dare to walk back into my territory with that quiet, unbroken resolve in your eyes.
You don’t beg, you don’t cry out for mercy, and you stubbornly refuse to completely submit to my absolute power.”Teng’s hand suddenly shot forward, his long, powerful fingers firmly wrapping around the collar of Jow’s clean white shirt, pulling the slender boy an inch closer.
His grip was brutal, but his expression remained terrifyingly calm, a dark, toxic obsession swirling deep within his immense ego.
“I hate that look in your eyes, Jow.
It disgusts me that a penniless nobody like you thinks he can possess a spirit that I cannot conquer,” Teng hissed softly, his handsome face twisting into a cold, possessive madness.
“I don’t care how long it takes, and I don’t care what I have to destroy.
Jow, you have a lot of courage…
and it is exactly that courage that I want to completely break and smash into pieces.
I want to see you entirely shattered under my feet.”Jow’s fragile frame completely stiffened under Teng’s terrifying grip, the brutal friction of the fabric pressing directly against the fresh bruises on his chest, sending a sharp wave of agony through his senses.
He didn’t have a diary, he didn’t have a weapon, and he had absolutely no power to fight back against the corporate beast standing before him.
Yet, as he looked into Teng’s dark, obsessive eyes, a quiet, unyielding spark of pure resilience flared deep within his innocent soul.
He didn’t scream, and he didn’t pull away.
Instead, Jow simply lowered his eyelashes, his pale lips parted as he spoke in an incredibly soft, polite, yet steady whisper.
“You can ruin my clothes, Teng, and you can hurt my body as much as you want.
But my mind belongs only to me.
You can never break what you don’t own.”Teng’s jaw clenched tightly, a chilling, dangerous smile cutting through his handsome features as Jow’s soft-spoken defiance slammed directly into his immense pride.
He slowly released his grip on Jow’s collar, carefully smoothing down the wrinkled white fabric with a systematic, terrifying tenderness that made Jow’s skin crawl with absolute horror.
Teng leaned back, his predatory eyes narrowing into dark slits as he stared down at the beautiful boy one last time.
“We will see about that, Jow,” Teng whispered smoothly, his voice dripping with an absolute, frightening certainty.
“The school hours are long, and the nights are even longer.
Let’s see how long your beautiful courage lasts when your entire world slowly turns into a customized living hell.” Teng turned on his heel and walked away with a low, dark chuckle, leaving the vulnerable transfer student trembling alone at his desk, completely aware that the psychological trap had officially been sprung around his fragile life.Teng’s low, dark chuckle echoed in Jow’s ears long after his tall figure had disappeared into the front rows of the classroom.
Jow slowly sank onto his wooden chair, his legs feeling as weak as water, unable to sustain the sudden drop in adrenaline.
His slender fingers automatically went to his collar, desperately smoothing down the fabric that Teng had just wrinkled with his brutal grip.
Jow’s chest heaved in small, shallow gasps as he tried to stabilize his erratic breathing, his long bangs falling completely over his eyes to screen his silent agony from the rest of the world.
He felt an overwhelming sense of dread wrapping tightly around his throat; Teng’s words weren’t a generic threat anymore—it was a systematic declaration of total psychological war.The rest of the morning lecture passed in a chaotic blur of intense anxiety and physical suffering.
Every single time the classroom door creaked open or a teacher called out a random name, Jow’s fragile shoulders would violently flinch, expecting a new trap to detonate right beneath his feet.
The severe, deep pain from last night’s heavy wooden rod beating radiated continuously across his lower back, making it agonizing for him to maintain a straight posture on the hard wooden seat.
Yet, despite the blinding headache that throbbed behind his eyes, Jow stubbornly refused to lay his head down on the desk.
He knew with absolute certainty that Teng’s predatory eyes were tracking his every single movement from the back bench, waiting like a patient vulture for any visible sign of complete submission.By the time the midday lunch bell finally rang, sending a rush of hungry students out into the corridors, Jow remained motionless at his desk, staring blankly at the neat lines of his history textbook.
He had no appetite, his stomach twisting into painful, anxious knots as he contemplated the remaining hours of the school day.
He carefully pulled his old, scratched smartphone from his trouser pocket, his thumb hovering over his message inbox, praying that Mr.
Harris hadn’t sent any emergency alerts regarding his unexplained absence from the supermarket logging shift last night.
Jow’s heart heavy with guilt; he knew how vital his job at ‘The Daily Fresh’ was for buying his grandmother’s cardiac medications, and the terrifying realization that Teng was actively trying to ruin his sanity made his fragile world feel smaller and darker than ever before.As the heavy silence of the empty classroom began to choke his thoughts, Jow slowly stood up, using the edge of the desk to balance his shaking frame.
He walked toward the narrow balcony overlooking the vast school courtyard, letting the warm afternoon breeze temporarily dry the cold sweat that had broken out across his forehead.
He gripped the iron railing tightly, his pale face reflecting a profound, heartbreaking sadness that contrasted sharply with his breathtaking, fragile beauty.
He was just a seventeen-year-old boy trying to protect his dying family, yet he had been dragged into a twisted playground of elite cruelty where his innocence was seen as an unpardonable crime.
Jow clamped his jaw shut, a dangerous spark of quiet defiance reigniting deep within his gentle soul as he stared out into the horizon, whispering to himself that no matter how dark the living hell became, he would never let the monster see him break.”He turned to pack his things as the afternoon class was about to begin, entirely blind to the fact that his hidden world at the supermarket loading dock was no longer a secret to the hunter.”