After the biting and tearing that day, Lin Wan felt a strange satisfaction, but the price of that satisfaction was a week of drinking cold, watery porridge. Chen Jin also felt satisfied, but the cost for him was a shredded shoulder. In his carelessness, it got wet and became infected. Not only did he get a tetanus shot, but he also had to apply a pungent ointment for days. To make matters worse, the nurse at the hospital laughed at him.
Chen Jin was a meticulous businessman, always counting every loss down to the last cent. He was also a petty person, and he felt that compared to Lin Wan, who secretly drank porridge for a few days and lost some weight, his physical and mental losses were far greater. This imbalance made him resentful.
Whenever Chen Jin was upset, Lin Wan was the one to suffer. The first casualty was her "weapons"—her nails. He didn't hesitate to deal with them, and the process was nothing short of brutal. Chen Jin, with no compassion, took the nail clippers and ruthlessly trimmed her sharp, pointed nails until they were smooth and flat. He then used a small file to make them smooth and shiny. As he felt the tension in her body, he casually mocked, "Look at you, so scared. It's not like I've nailed bamboo sticks into your nails..."
Lin Wan, pressed down on the bed, already seething with anger and frustration, shuddered violently upon hearing those words. The chilling sensation was so vivid it felt as if bamboo sticks had truly been driven into her, the eerie touch spreading from the tips of her nerves to her heart, making her chest twitch with every beat. She gritted her teeth in fury, thinking, If you dare cut my nails every day, then I'll make sure you get a tetanus shot every week.
Chen Jin was a smart man. He knew he couldn't keep cutting Lin Wan's nails every day, and he certainly didn't want to endure a tetanus shot every week while being ridiculed. So, from that moment on, whenever they were intimate, the first thing he did was control her hands. If he was in a rush, he would tie them with a tie or a belt and secure them to the bedpost, putting an end to any resistance. Watching her with her eyes burning red, looking like a little fire-breathing dragon, was something he thoroughly enjoyed. Moreover, his perverse nature soon revealed that this only intensified his pleasure.
Lin Wan felt like she could give up eating. Facing such a villain every day, the anger alone could fill her up. Her temper grew more and more volatile, and sometimes when he annoyed her, she would snap, "Get off, go find someone else if you want to do this." She knew that people like him were never short of women warming their bed. After all, there weren't many women as "clueless" as she was.
But he would just laugh, wrapping his arms around her playfully, "There's no one else, now it's just you." Seeing the suspicion in her eyes, he explained, "I don't have the habit of keeping a harem like Fang Zheng and the others. I don't need to schedule them in shifts; Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday… too tiring for my brain. If I mess up and called the wrong name, I'd have to apologize and make it up to them—what a lowlife move."
Lin Wan immediately latched onto the part that mattered to her: He doesn't keep a harem? Does that mean he replaces them one by one? To her, that sounded like good news. Without thinking, she blurted out, "So, how long do I have before I'm 'replaced'?"
Chen Jin, in the middle of a good mood, paused for a moment, then laughed. He pinched her cheek and said, "Lin Wan, you really know how to kill the mood. But I can't give you a definite answer. It depends on my mood."
"How long's the longest time you've been with someone?" Lin Wan asked, risking his ire by continuing.
Chen Jin actually thought about it for a second before answering, "I don't remember, probably no more than a year."
Lin Wan mentally calculated. A year... For others, that might be too short, but for me, that feels like a life sentence. At the same time, Chen Jin seemed to guess her thoughts. His expression immediately darkened. He got off her and said in a detached tone, "Don't worry. Maybe in a couple of days, I'll be bored with you. You don't need to think too much of yourself. But Lin Wan, remember this—until I say stop, you'll stay obedient. Don't overthink things and put those twisted thoughts of yours away." He turned his back, leaving her with a cold, indifferent shoulder.
Lin Wan certainly wouldn't take Chen Jin's warning seriously. For her, the only meaning in life now was to fight against him. Even if she couldn't win, she would make him uncomfortable, make him sick. So, after her fracture healed, her fighting spirit returned, and she began planning again—big plans and small plans.
Most of her grand plans were stillborn, like the time she looked at the gas stove in the kitchen and thought that if she made a small adjustment, he could die in his sleep without even knowing. When she looked at the knives, she would imagine him covered in blood. She even researched fatal body points online, concluding that the carotid artery was the simplest and most satisfying target. I wonder if blood would gush out like a fountain?
She realized her mind had twisted, but it felt almost like a curse she couldn't shake. Every day, thinking about these things made her feel oddly satisfied. Is this a form of spiritual victory? She wondered. With her current mental state, it wasn't impossible that one night, she might get up, go to the kitchen, grab a cleaver, and "sleepwalk" her way to ending Chen Jin's life. And then, she would have won—spiritually and physically.