Chapter 10: As a pet, it was taken out by its beloved owner.

“……Roll back outside.”

The lord’s voice was cold and indifferent, carrying no trace of emotion.

The hand she had braced against the floor clenched slightly from the bone-chilling cold. The surging fear toward Jun Linqiu left her not daring to hesitate for even a second.

“Uuu…”

She tried hard to push herself up, but her numb and aching legs refused to lend her any strength. Not daring to delay, she quickly moved the hand covering her mouth and nose away. Her palm, still warm with liquid, pressed hard against the ground.

“Drip… drip…”

Freed from her hand’s restraint, drops of nosebleed fell onto the floor one after another, making crisp sounds. Only then did she belatedly realize her nose was broken. As if she had lost her sense of smell, she only now noticed the thick metallic scent of blood filling her nasal cavity.

Yet she seemed completely unconcerned. Her only thought was to get up and escape this place. She never wanted to be tormented by this madwoman again.

“Ah!”

Suddenly, a tremendous force yanked her. Her hair was pulled taut, and sharp pain stabbed into her scalp like countless steel needles. Her upper body was jerked upright while her knees remained on the ground. The agony made her instinctively reach up with both hands to grab the roots of her hair, trying to ease the piercing pain even a little.

Just as she slightly raised her head to look at Jun Linqiu, a sudden weightless sensation hit her.

“Bang!”

A dull thud rang out as her chin slammed into the hard, icy stone floor without any cushion.

“Uuu… Ah!”

The instantaneous pain shot through her like an electric current, rushing straight from the tip of her chin to her brain. Her upper and lower teeth crashed together violently. Her gums felt numb as if they were about to fall out. The tip of her tongue was bitten through, and the thick rusty taste of blood instantly spread throughout her mouth.

“Uwaaah—”

The tears that had just dried up overflowed again. This time she could no longer hold on. Covering her mouth, she let out suppressed sobs.

“Tsk!”

Jun Linqiu watched her cry and seemed quite displeased, letting out a soft click of annoyance.

“Uwaaah—”

She just wanted to cry. She no longer wanted to watch the lord’s expression. She couldn’t hold on anymore and only wanted to break down and cry without restraint. She wanted to vent all the grievances and sudden misfortunes in her heart through tears. If she kept holding it in, she felt she would really collapse and go mad.

Even so, she still tightly covered her mouth, unwilling to let the sound of her crying leak out and be heard by others.

“Uuu… Uuu…”

The pain of her hair being pulled came again. This time she didn’t react at all and continued covering her mouth while crying. As her body was pulled upright by the taut hair, her posture changed from covering her mouth with both hands to curling up with her arms wrapped around her face as she cried — as if she was afraid, afraid of suddenly losing balance and smashing into the ground again.

Sure enough, after being lifted to a certain height, the weightless sensation struck once more.

Jun Linqiu gripped her silver-white hair. Her fair, slender fingers loosened slightly. The white hair slid from her palm like quicksand, but the moment it reached the ends, she clenched it viciously again.

“Bang.”

“Uuu… Uuu…”

She cried as she was thrown to the ground once more. This time the fall was much slower. Because she had protected her face with her hands, aside from the pain of her hair being pulled, she didn’t suffer any new injuries.

Uuu… Is she… letting me go?

“Uuu… Uwaah!”

Just as this thought rose in her mind, the sharp pain of her hair being yanked came again. The continuous pain mixed with the dragging sensation made her, who was still crying, unable to stop letting out another muffled groan.

“Uuu… It hurts so much.”

The intense pain instantly cleared her mind. The other party clearly had no intention of letting her off.

She raised her head. Through the double vision caused by her tears, she saw Jun Linqiu’s tall figure with her back to her. The lord was gripping her hair and dragging her forward without the slightest pause.

She was dragged along like a dead dog. The friction between her body and the floor made the pulling pain on her scalp even more unbearable, as if it would be torn off in the next second. To reduce the pain, she could only grit her aching teeth and crawl forward with all her strength.

Unknowingly, sensation had returned to her legs. While moving her legs to keep up, she tried to push herself up with her palms. But the dragging speed gave her no chance. The moment she lifted one hand, she was yanked down again. In the end, she could only support herself with her elbows and knees, crawling forward in a pathetic manner.

A burning pain came from her knees, but at this moment, it no longer seemed to matter.

Jun Linqiu dragged her forward by the hair, like leading a dog on a leash. Forced to move on her elbows and knees, she really looked like a dog being taken for a “walk” by its owner.

She thought her current appearance must look extremely ridiculous, but she no longer cared. There was only one thought left in her mind — end this quickly.

It hurts so much… I’m so tired… How long is she going to torment me before she stops?

Unknowingly, she was led back to the living room. Jun Linqiu walked to the corner where she had been earlier and stopped.

“Uuu!”

Pain mixed with tremendous force struck her. She was violently thrown back into the original corner.

This time, she didn’t make any sound. Her sense of pain seemed to have grown dull, and even the strength to scream had been drained from her. She curled up, slowly shifted herself, and leaned back against the wall. She buried her head deeply into her knees, trying to hide herself completely. The lord’s cold gaze on her felt like needles on her back. She didn’t know what kind of storm would descend on her in the next second.

“Thud thud thud…”

“Huff—”

Only after hearing the footsteps going upstairs gradually fade away did she dare to raise her head and let out a heavy breath. Jun Linqiu’s violence had finally stopped, just like the rain outside the window.

Bruises and scrapes all over her body burned with waves of pain, yet this scalding sensation actually made her feel a little less cold in this freezing room.

She raised her hand and roughly wiped the tears from her face. When her fingertips touched the bridge of her nose, a piercing pain shot through her.

“Hiss— It hurts!”

She sucked in a sharp breath and carefully felt around. Fortunately, although her nose was badly swollen, the bone didn’t seem broken or displaced.

“Uuu… Thank goodness…”

She looked left and right. The surroundings were still pitch black and quiet. After confirming she was alone, she slowly raised her right hand. The cold air around her gathered toward her palm, gradually forming a walnut-sized ice crystal. The ice was very pure, glowing with a faint transparent blue. She wrapped the ice in the corner of her clothes and gently pressed it against her swollen nose bridge. The cool sensation eased the piercing pain a little.

She supported herself with her other hand and stood up, then looked out the window. Outside was still pitch black. The night seemed still very long.

She felt that she had been in that room for less than an hour before being dragged out like this.

She squatted down against the wall again. Recalling everything that had just happened, her body couldn’t stop trembling slightly. A suffocating sense of oppression pressed down on her, making it hard to breathe. She herself didn’t know how she had endured it just now.

She had thought that coming here would allow her to live a comfortable life, but because of her own cleverness, she had ended up in this situation.

She had simply been suddenly disliked by the lord, and suddenly received such treatment.

Was it just because she guessed wrong? Was it just because she said “I don’t know how to do anything” that she had to be tormented like this?