The whip cracked against the floor with a sharp, crisp sound, sending a shiver down Xu Yizhou’s spine. Unpleasant memories surged to the forefront of his mind.
“Zhou, are you afraid of pain?”
A walked over to Xu Yizhou, holding the whip, and leaned down to look at him, reaching out to grip his chin. Xu Yizhou caught the faint scent of mint again. He gazed into A’s eyes. The distance between them was so close he could feel each other’s breath.
“I am. I’m afraid of pain.”
This time, Xu Yizhou didn’t stammer; the words almost spilled out on their own. If the lighting in the room had been any brighter, the faint blush creeping up to the tips of his ears would have been clearly visible. Feeling somewhat awkward, Xu Yizhou avoided A’s touch and shrank back slightly.
“Don’t worry, I won’t hit you.”
A cold smile appeared at the corner of his lips as he straightened up. His tall frame cast a shadow that instantly enveloped Xu Yizhou’s entire body.
“Come in.”
As soon as the words were spoken, the door opened once more, and a man wearing a shirt with restraints walked in. The man was dressed only in a shirt, which reached down to his thighs, leaving his lower body bare and revealing smooth, pale legs. A black garter was fastened just below the inner thigh, squeezing the muscles until they appeared slightly distorted. Unlike the others who had been crawling on the floor earlier, this man wore a silver half-face mask, identical to theirs. From the moment he entered, the man’s gaze settled on Xu Yizhou, who was sitting in the corner of the sofa.
Unlike the oppressive aura A exuded, this man’s gaze simply made Xu Yizhou feel scrutinized, with a hint of barely concealed hostility. It wasn’t until the man approached that Xu Yizhou noticed the back of his shirt was entirely made of lace, offering an unobstructed view of his entire back. The man addressed A as “Master.”
“J, did I tell you to walk in?”
A’s voice was icy, devoid of any emotion, yet impossible to defy. Xu Yizhou could visibly see J’s body tremble.
“Master, there’s an outsider here…”
J’s eyes flickered nervously toward A, as if looking up at him in a pleading manner.
A raised the handle of the whip and pressed it against J’s chin.
“Have you forgotten how to obey your Master’s orders?”
“It seems you’ve forgotten everything I’ve taught you these past few days.”
“I’m sorry, Master.”
After speaking, J slowly knelt before A, placed his hands on the ground, and crawled to the doorway. The view beneath the shirt was so clear that Xu Yizhou could see every detail.
Xu Yizhou couldn’t help but swallow hard. Under the gaze of both men, J crawled to the doorway, turned around, and crawled back to A, leaning down to reverently kiss the tip of A’s shoe.
“As punishment, forty lashes. Count them yourself.”
A stepped back slightly, and J obediently straightened his kneeling posture, spreading his legs and clasping his hands behind his back. Xu Yizhou felt as though the manuscript he had read that day was now playing out before him like a live-action adaptation, as if these were the very characters from his story.
“This time, you have no choice.”
With that, A swung the whip down hard against J’s chest. The sharp crack was audible, yet J didn’t flinch or try to dodge. The faint whistling sound of the thin whip alone was enough to make Xu Yizhou’s hair stand on end. When it struck flesh, he felt as though the pain were his own, each lash sending a jolt through his body.
To be honest, the whip hurt much more than when Wen Jiang had hit him with his hand.
He just felt like his balls were aching.
“Tell me your name.”
“J.”
Though his voice trembled, it was still steady enough to hear that J was trying to maintain composure. Another lash fell, striking J’s thigh, where the flesh squeezed by the garter immediately showed a red mark.
“Tell me your rights and duties.”
Xu Yizhou felt that all these lines were far too familiar—exactly the same as the lines in that BDSM script. When he was dubbing, he hadn’t realized it, but seeing it like this, it really was painful. J’s clothes had been torn by the whipping, revealing a chest crisscrossed with multiple red marks. But they were just red marks, with no broken skin or bleeding.
Even his lower body had taken a few lashes. Xu Yizhou broke out in a cold sweat just watching, unable to imagine what expression he would have if the whip landed on him.
Only now did he realize that it wasn’t like the moaning and groaning described in the script when being beaten. Instead, there was more restraint and the involuntary sounds that slipped out despite trying to hold back. He could see J kneeling upright, but his body had already begun to tremble.
“Master, I’m sorry.”
A listened, sitting expressionlessly beside Xu Yizhou. The overwhelming pressure made Xu Yizhou instinctively shift a little to the side. After forty lashes, A wasn’t even out of breath, just calmly looked at Xu Yizhou.
“It seems Zhou has no reaction.”
Because they were close, Xu Yizhou seemed to catch a fleeting smile at the corner of A’s lips.
“Then the question you wanted to ask already has its answer.”
With that, A stood up, walked over to J, and placed a collar he had somehow picked up around J’s neck. Then, leaning down, he lifted J into his arms. They left the room.
Suddenly, only Xu Yizhou remained in the room, the scenes from moments ago still lingering in his mind, hard to shake off. He thought for a long time before finally understanding what A meant.
If it wasn’t a reaction born from masochism, then it could only be the second kind.
But how could he possibly have such feelings for Wen Jiang? He found this answer utterly unreasonable. Xu Yizhou glanced at the slightly ajar door, stood up, and hurried out.
But outside, aside from the bustling crowd, there was no sign of A or the J from earlier.
The deafening music was nothing like the silence inside the room, pounding so loudly it made his ears ache.
In the dimly lit hallway, he had no idea where he was, only able to wander aimlessly by instinct. But it felt endless. And he kept bumping into walls. He had clearly seen A and J walk out just moments ago. How could they have disappeared in less than a minute?
And Gu Xing was nowhere to be found either.
Xu Yizhou fished his phone out of his pocket, ready to call Gu Xing and head straight back.
But eighteen floors underground, there was no signal at all—not even a single bar.
Forget making calls, he couldn’t even send a message.
Xu Yizhou irritably ran a hand through his hair, staring at the pitch-black, maze-like darkness around him, feeling on the verge of collapse. With no other choice, he could only head back. But once that door closed, he couldn’t even hear a sound. Everything around him was eerily quiet. He practically hugged the wall as he walked.
He could sense that there weren’t just walls here—there were rooms too, because he could feel doors. To be honest, it was impossible not to feel a pang of panic, especially now that he was alone here. Suddenly, a large, icy hand gripped his wrist and pulled him into a place.