Escape the Miaojiang Villain - Chapter 22
Chapter 22: Prophetic Bizzare Dream-The Tattooed Lotus
But she couldn’t sleep at all right now.
After such a turn of events, how could she possibly sleep in peace? Lian jing’s knife hidden behind a smile could slash at her at any moment; she was terrified to death.
Besides, she was lying on his bed, with the sheets and quilt permeated with his scent.
She felt as though she was being held by him, making her feel thoroughly uneasy.
What a cursed fate—she really shouldn’t have asked for this reward.
A faint fragrance of wood lotus lingered at the tip of her nose. Without even taking off her outer garment, she lay down fully clothed.
Turning on her side, she faced the inner wall, closed her eyes tight, and counted sheep in her mind, praying she would fall asleep quickly.
Yet, in a state of high tension, she remained completely unable to sleep peacefully. Lian jing clearly knew that those were the dishes she had ordered for Baili Xi, yet he was playing dumb and acting crazy.
This was even more terrifying than punishing her outright—first tormenting her spirit, and then delivering the final, fatal blow.
She just didn’t know when that blow would land.
After an unknown amount of time had passed, she heard Lian jing over there seem to get up, walking as if toward her side.
She lay on the bed like a dead fish, pretending to be asleep.
The sound of Lian jing’s footsteps arrived at the edge of the bed.
He called out lightly in a voice tinged with a smile, “Little Slave Bell, are you asleep?”
She maintained that same position, lying sideways facing inward, making no response.
She thought Lian jing was just asking and that would be the end of it, but unexpectedly, he actually climbed onto the bed, lay behind her back, picked up a strand of her hair, and leaned close to her ear, saying, “Little Slave Bell, this young master has personally come to coax you to sleep.”
She tried her best to fake sleep—perhaps he was just testing her; she absolutely must not open her eyes.
“This is the first time this master has ever coaxed a girl to sleep. Tell me… how should I coax you?”
Propping his head on one hand, he took that lock of hair and used the tips to lightly brush against her porcelain-smooth neck.
It tickled so much…
The sharp ends of hair brushed across her skin, prickling her with itchiness.
Unable to endure it, she shifted a little further inward, muttering something incoherently under her breath, pretending she was dreaming.
Lian jing’s long arm reached around her waist, pulling her straight into his embrace.
Her whole body shuddered, and her back pressed against his chest immediately went rigid.
“Little Slave Bell, coaxing you like this—do you like it?”
She didn’t like it.
Not one bit.
She was scared to death.
“Little Slave Bell, if you don’t speak, then I’ll take it as a yes?”
His voice sounded remarkably chilling in the absolute silence of the night.
As soon as those words left his mouth, his fingers began to unfasten the sash at her waist.
Jolted with shock, she opened her eyes in terror. “Youn Master?”
Lian jing showed not the slightest surprise at her waking.
His hands didn’t stop moving as he said, “This young master said he would coax you to sleep. Hurry up and close your eyes.”
Tu Lingxiang was panic-stricken and shocked.
The “coaxing” he mentioned… couldn’t possibly be ‘that’, could it?
She reached out to push him away.
“Young Master, I was wrong! I truly was wrong…”
“How could my Little Slave Bell ever be wrong? Even if everyone else in the world is wrong, Little Slave Bell could never be in the wrong.”
He seized both of her hands and bound them with a chain, his movements methodical and unhurried, his smile exceedingly elegant and refined.
Then, her clothes were forcibly ripped open by him with a sharp tear of fabric, causing Tu Lingxiang to close her eyes in deep shame.
A flush instantly swept across her entire face. She had truly enraged Lian jing today, and she didn’t know what perverted punishment he had in store for her.
She was flipped over by him, her face pressed against the pillow embroidered with mandarin ducks, her eyes right next to those two birds.
Indignation filled her heart: just how was Lian jing planning to humiliate her?
His hand pulled back the collar of her top, revealing half of her delicate, supple back, which made her shudder involuntarily.
“Young..Ma…Young Master, I really know I was wrong…”
Her voice trembled violently.
Yet Lian jing’s cool fingertips touched her shoulder blades, a morbid smile appearing in his reddened eyes.
“I said it already, you are not wrong.”
Her shoulders trembled fiercely, but Lian jing’s hand brushed aside the strands of hair on her back lock by lock, exposing her entire slender back like a butterfly of white jade.
Tu Lingxiang didn’t know what kind of bizarre quirk this was again.
She felt like a tree being peeled layer by layer for him to admire in detail.
Lian jing’s slender fingertips stroked across her skin, as if measuring the dimensions upon it—itchy and numbing.
She bit her white teeth together, trying her best not to make a sound.
Dead pervert!
She was so embarrassed she wanted to dig a hole and crawl into it.
However, just as her mind was drifting, a sharp knife point stabbed into her skin, causing her to cry out in agony from the sudden pain.
“Ah!!!”
Lian jing pinned down her writhing body, tapped her acupuncture points, and then continued carving into her back.
Tu Lingxiang had no idea what he was doing; she could only feel that sharp blade slowly moving across her back, dragging across her thin skin.
Intense pain swept over her, tears welling and spilling from her eyes as she screamed repeatedly in pain.
“Young Master, it hurts…!”
Her hands tightly gripped the sheets on both sides as dense beads of sweat rolled off her forehead, soaking her hair and his pillow.
Shaking violently, she begged for mercy, “Young Master, I was wrong! Stop, it hurts so much…!”
Lian jing remained completely indifferent to her cries and sobs, continuing his work with hand and blade.
The curve of his red lips resembled a crescent moon, chilling and dreadful.
“Crying?”
Seeing her tears seemed to make him even more excited, “Cry louder. This young master loves listening to you cry the most.”
Tu Lingxiang truly burst into loud sobs. She could no longer hold back the flood of tears.
With physical pain compounded by psychological torture, she wept uncontrollably, cursing recklessly, “Pervert! Lian jing, you’re an absolute pervert!”
Lian jing laughed softly and sinisterly, his gaze intently fixed on her back.
The dagger in his hand seemed to turn into a divine paintbrush; his strokes were swift, powerful, and bold.
Wherever the blade fell, beads of blood welled up, and those red drops of blood made his entire body surge with thrill.
Tu Lingxiang felt like she was about to pass out from the pain, but every time she was on the verge of fainting, Lian jing would apply a bit more pressure, forcibly dragging her mind back to reality.
This is too much!
Lianjing, don’t you ever fall into my hands, or else I will definitely make your life a living hell.
She swore fiercely in her heart.
She didn’t know how long passed before the person behind her finally stopped moving.
Lian jing looked at his masterpiece, curling his lips in satisfaction.
Under the dim yellow candlelight, the smile on his face was spine-chillingly eerie.
“Little Slave Bell, now when you go back, that husband of yours should finally divorce you.”
Tu Lingxiang’s brain was too numb with pain to function properly.
She didn’t understand what he meant and asked, “What on earth did you do to my back?”
Lian jing chuckled cacklingly, his tone light and soft.
“I tattooed a… red lotus on your back.”
“What?!”
Tu Lingxiang felt like dying right then and there.
Only now did she understand the meaning behind his words.
Any man who saw the red lotus on her back would know she had an improper relationship with him, let alone her husband.
Lian jing’s fingers lightly caressed her slender back, speaking devilishly.
“This is a red lotus that belongs exclusively to me, Lian jing. Little Slave Bell, do you like it?”
After saying that, he added on his own.
“Oh, I forgot, you can’t see it. But you will definitely like it.”
Tu Lingxiang collapsed limp and drained onto the bed as if all her blood had been pumped out.
Her lip was bitten through, and golden spots danced before her eyes.
Right now, she only wanted to pass out as quickly as possible.
Lian jing got off the bed, his tall frame standing beside it while holding that tool of cruelty.
His long fingers wiped across the blade, catching a drop of blood on his fingertip.
Bringing that bloodied finger to his lips, he extended the tip of his tongue and licked it lightly, savoring the taste of fresh blood.
Seeing this scene, Tu Lingxiang’s head buzzed, and all the blood in her body rushed to her head.
She turned her eyes away in shame, yet she couldn’t control her peripheral vision from glancing back at him.
Have I developed Stockholm syndrome? Why would I think he looks so alluring like this?
“So sweet,” was the comment he made after tasting it for a while.
Leaning down toward her, his stunning, elegant face suddenly came right before her eyes.
He wiped another drop of blood off the blade and asked her with a smile, “Do you want to taste it? It’s very sweet.”
Perhaps because he had tasted blood, his voice had actually grown much sweeter and softer, no longer as icy as before.
Tu Lingxiang shook her head repeatedly.
Who else but a pervert like him would enjoy drinking blood?
Yet he stubbornly pressed the pad of his finger onto her lips, transferring that bright red drop of blood onto her mouth, as if applying lip rouge for her.
The moment his finger touched her, the heart inside her chest began beating wildly once more.
She felt more and more like she was suffering from Stockholm syndrome.
In the original book, the female villain was just like this—the more Lian jing mistreated her, the more she fell for him.
But there was no way she herself could ever like Lian jing, so why was her heart racing?
She even thought that when he smiled at her so malevolently, he looked exceptionally handsome.
Am I really sick?
So sick that I forgot who was carving knife stroke after knife stroke onto my back just moments ago.
Lian jing withdrew his hand from her lips and instructed in a commanding tone, “Taste it.”
She pursed her lips and tasted the blood on them.
Her mind was foggy now, unable to discern any real taste.
Lian jing glanced at the bloodstains on the bed and said, “Little Slave Bell, you’ve dirtied my bedsheets.”
Hearing this, Tu Lingxiang assumed he was driving her away and immediately propped herself up on her arms, intending to climb off.
But as soon as she sat up, her top slid down from her chest, on the verge of exposing her.
She instantly flattened herself back onto the bed.
Lian jing looked at her, let out a sigh, and said with fake concern, “Little Slave Bell, why are you so weak that you can’t even climb up?”
Seeing his hypocritical act, Tu Lingxiang couldn’t help cursing in her head: It’s all your fault I ended up like this! What an actor!
He tilted his head to look at her and asked with an innocent air, “Little Slave Bell, acting like this… could it be that you want to cling to this young master’s bed?”
“I don’t.”
“Then get up.”
“I…”
Her face turned red and white by turns.
Her clothing in front had already slipped down to her chest; if she got up again, she would inevitably expose herself. Her hand reached out to grasp Lian jing’s sleeve hanging over the bed, lowering her posture as she called softly, “Young Master…”
Her tone was soft and sweet, enough to melt any man’s heart.
Lian jing saw her looking at him with such piteous, tear-filled eyes, liquid glistening on her eyelashes and wet streaks marking her cheeks.
Averting his gaze, he pulled his sleeve from her grasp and turned to walk outside.
“If you want to stay, then stay. Who asked this young master to be so considerate and understanding?”
Tu Lingxiang watched him open the door and step out of the room, finding it almost laughable.
You? Considerate and understanding?
She assumed that once he left, he wouldn’t return.
However, after a short while, he walked back in holding a wooden basin.
Setting the basin down, he picked up a wet towel inside, wrung it dry, and came over to the bedside to wipe away the bloodstains on her back.
“???”
Tu Lingxiang was beyond astonished.
How could he do something like this?
He really was carrying “considerate and understanding” all the way through, wasn’t he?
His movements were extraordinarily gentle, completely different from when he was cutting her with the knife earlier.
Tu Lingxiang even wondered if he had a split personality.
“This is the first time this young master has ever served anyone. Little Slave Bell, don’t you feel deeply honored?”
“…”
Tu Lingxiang thought in her heart: I’d gladly pass this ‘honor’ back to you.
In the next moment, she felt a wave of spiritual energy pouring into her back.
Even more shocked, she realized Lian jing was actually healing her wounds?!
That spiritual energy felt warm and soothing. Wrapped in it, the painful sensation of the wounds on her back gradually diminished.
She truly couldn’t figure Lian jing out—what was this supposed to be?
After tormenting her, he gave her a bit of sweetness.
Did he think that would make her forget the pain from before?
Lian jing cleaned up her back and then gently pulled her clothes back on for her.
His movements were as tender as water, and amid such tenderness, she completely fell unconscious into deep sleep.
Lian jing brushed aside the damp strands of hair clinging to her cheek, staring at her sleeping face for a long time.
Then, using a fresh, clean handkerchief, he wiped away the tear stains and sweat from her face.
Looking at this soundly sleeping person, he muttered to himself in an icy tone, “This is the very first time I’ve ever allowed a woman to sleep on my bed. I’ve given you all the rewards you asked for… so why do you still keep thinking about escaping?”
