Song Qingxian instinctively kept her distance from him, pressing herself closer to the car window. She had thought she was slowly healing him, but just because Lu Chiyan had appeared, everything she had done seemed to have been undone. The gentle, even soft version of Lu Nanzhan from before felt like nothing more than a fleeting illusion.
Now, he had become even more terrifying, even darker and more oppressive.
His tall body leaned toward her, carrying an overwhelming possessiveness and pressure. Lu Nanzhan gently stroked her face. The glass shards still embedded in his palm had not been removed yet, and blood continued to seep out.
His blood smeared little by little across Song Qingxian’s face. The contrast between her pale skin and the vivid red blood created a shocking visual impact. Yet strangely, even though it was fresh blood, she felt a decayed, rust-like, deathly aura from it.
Lu Nanzhan’s lips slowly pressed against her face. His cold lips were gradually stained red by blood. Then he kissed her lips, and she clearly tasted the metallic scent of blood.
It was Lu Nanzhan’s blood. Her lips were now also tinted with that eerie crimson. His blood felt like a seal, like a mark of death. Song Qingxian suddenly found it hard to breathe, as if an invisible hand was tightly gripping her throat.
This was a Lu Nanzhan she had never seen before.
He wasn’t even “mad” in the usual sense anymore. He was eerily calm, terrifyingly still, like something lifeless from the depths of hell. He said nothing, only quietly kissed her, yet it filled Song Qingxian with unprecedented fear, even more intense than the moments before her previous near-death experiences.
Fear surged through her body like it was about to burst out of her veins. She wanted to call his name, but terror robbed her of speech. Her hands clenched tightly at her clothes, palms damp with sweat.
“Xianxian, are you afraid?”
After a long silence, Lu Nanzhan finally spoke. His voice was deep, each syllable striking her heart like a hammer.
Song Qingxian forced herself to stay calm and grabbed his hand. “Azhan, let me help you take the shards out, alright? Otherwise you’ll keep bleeding.”
“Xianxian, are you trying to disembowel me?” he asked softly.
Song Qingxian looked at him in shock. “What are you talking about?”
Lu Nanzhan took her hand and placed it against his chest. “There are many sharp fragments here too. They’re still bleeding. Do you want to take them out as well?”
Her hand trembled uncontrollably. “Azhan, I meant your hand,” she said, her voice breaking with tears. “Why did you suddenly become like this? I’m scared.”
In her eyes, Lu Nanzhan was no longer just obsessively possessive. It was as if something inside him had split apart, as though multiple personalities and thoughts were trapped within one body. She felt a strong sense of fragmentation from him.
“Xianxian, I regret it. I shouldn’t have let you go out,” Lu Nanzhan said, gently stroking her hair. “I should lock you in a cage at all times. You belong only to me.”
He spoke the most gentle words in the world while saying the most suffocating things.
A deep unease rose in Song Qingxian’s heart. She faintly felt that whatever punishment came next would be terrifying beyond imagination.
The Villa:
Lu Nanzhan carried Song Qingxian all the way back to the bedroom in an almost gentle manner. She grabbed his arm. “Azhan, let me help treat your wound first, alright?”
He looked at her silently for a long moment, then finally said, “Alright.”
She sighed in relief.
He brought over the medical kit. Song Qingxian carefully held his hand and slowly picked out the glass shards embedded in his palm. “Azhan, bear with it a little.”
The shards were deeply embedded and covered in blood. It looked horrifying.
Lu Nanzhan lowered his gaze and watched her without speaking, as if he couldn’t feel pain at all.
After she finished cleaning and bandaging his wound, she gently pressed a kiss to his hand, hoping to calm him.
“Xianxian, have you ever heard of falconry?” Lu Nanzhan’s deep voice sounded beside her ear.
“I’ve heard a little…” Song Qingxian didn’t understand why he suddenly brought it up.
He sat by the bed and pulled her into his arms. His movements were intimate, almost tender. “Xianxian, you’re like a falcon. You always want to fly away, don’t you?”
“I don’t…” she quickly denied.
“Do you know one way falconers tame birds?” he asked, gently stroking her eyes. “They temporarily sew their eyelids shut. Once they lose their sight, they can only rely on the falconer’s voice and touch.”
Song Qingxian’s pupils trembled.
He wouldn’t be thinking of sewing her eyes shut, would he?
Fear made her eyelashes shake uncontrollably. “Azhan, you…”
Lu Nanzhan lowered his head and kissed her eyes. “Xianxian, it might be a little painful, but the reward is worth it. Once you’re tamed, you will rely on me, and I will rely on you. We’ll never be separated again.”
Song Qingxian stared at him in disbelief.
How could he have become this insane? Just yesterday, he was still learning “a hundred ways to be gentle.” How could he suddenly turn like this?
“You’re not really planning to train me like a falcon, are you?” her voice trembled.
“Xianxian, it won’t hurt much,” he said softly.
“But I’m a human, not an animal!” Her emotions finally broke.
To take a wild, free falcon and train it into Stockholm Syndrome, until it no longer yearned for freedom and instead accepted captivity, clinging only to its master…
Was Lu Nanzhan really loving her, or was he trying to control and keep her like a possession?
His fingers continued to gently stroke her eyes, as if seriously considering the idea of sewing them shut.
His voice remained gentle, yet completely devoid of warmth. “Xianxian, is there really a difference between humans and animals?”
“Of course there is.”
“Is there?” His grip tightened slightly at the corner of her eye, pressing against her tear mole.
Was there really a difference between humans and animals? He had grown up surviving like an animal himself.
Song Qingxian grabbed his arm, tears pooling in her eyes. “Azhan, don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
She looked at him, terrified. She had been foolish enough to think she could change him.
Lu Nanzhan’s voice deepened further. “Don’t be tamed by me, or don’t stay by my side?”
“Azhan, tell me what I did wrong. I’ll change, okay?” she begged.
He pinched her chin gently. “Xianxian, you betrayed me.”
“I won’t do it again, I promise. Please forgive me just this once,” she pleaded.
“Once after another?” His grip tightened. “Xianxian, I don’t blame you. It’s just that I haven’t fully tamed you yet.”
A madman. Why would anyone try to tame another person?
Her lips were bitten until they almost bled. “Azhan, if I lose my eyes, I won’t be able to see you anymore. I can’t bear that…”