Shen Zhe sat motionless in the dark corner of the room, his bloodshot eyes fixed on the second hand of the old clock on the wall. The steady tick-tock felt like rhythmic hammer blows against his frayed nerves. It was 8:00 PM. Lin Yan was thirty minutes late.
For Shen Zhe, every moment of her absence was an agonizing torture of the soul. Ever since that fateful day he learned the world had "erased" him, Lin Yan had become his only oxygen. A morbid fear began to take root in his mind: he feared the footsteps in the hallway were not hers; he feared she would step out into the light and find another man—someone whole and radiant—instead of a crippled, pale ghost consumed by vengeance like him.
Click.
The dry sound of the lock echoed. Lin Yan stepped inside, bringing with her the chill of the night wind, the scent of the bustling city, and... a foreign fragrance. Her face was flushed with a glow, and a lingering smile still graced her lips.
"Zhe, I'm back! The shop was so busy today, and a male customer kept me chatting for quite a while, so I—"
Before she could finish, a dark shadow lunged at her like a predator in the night. Shen Zhe, leaning on his cane, used a frantic strength to pin her against the iron door that had just slammed shut. His hand gripped her slender wrist so tightly her knuckles turned white, forcing a faint whimper of pain from her lips.
"Who was he?" Shen Zhe's voice was low, hoarse, and trembling with a delirious rage.
Lin Yan froze for a moment, but deep within her eyes, a flash of uncontrollable joy flickered. She feigned a tremble, her eyes welling with tears of mock fear. "What's wrong with you? You're hurting me... He was just a regular customer..."
Shen Zhe heard nothing. He buried his face in the crook of her neck, inhaling frantically as if trying to sniff out the stranger's scent to mark his territory. A faint whiff of men's cologne clinging to her lapel struck him like a slap to his shattered pride. Jealousy acted like a potent acid, corroding the last remains of his reason.
"Did he touch you? Where? How did he look at you with those filthy eyes?" Shen Zhe growled, his red-rimmed eyes burning with an extreme sense of possession. "Lin Yan, tell me! Is it because you see me like this—a cripple—that you've grown bored and want to find someone else?"
"No, Zhe... in this whole world, I only have you..." Lin Yan sobbed, but her hand secretly caressed his rigid, tensed back. It was a divine sensation—she was stroking a beast she had completely tamed, a demon raised by her own hands.
Abruptly, Shen Zhe swept her up with a terrifying strength and threw her onto the narrow bed where his own leg had once been shackled. He hovered over her, his shadow engulfing her. His gaze no longer held a shred of human warmth, only a chilling possessiveness.
"Listen to me clearly. The world out there already considers me a lifeless corpse, so I have nothing left to lose. If you dare let anyone else touch you—even a single hair—I will kill him, then I will kill you, and finally, I will end my own life right before your eyes. You are only permitted to be mine. You are Shen Zhe's personal property. Do you understand?"
Lin Yan was not intimidated by that blood-soaked threat. On the contrary, she cupped his face, distorted by jealousy, and pulled him down into a kiss thick with the taste of conquest.
"Yes... I am yours. I am your personal prisoner, forever."
That night, a scene of profound irony unfolded. Shen Zhe took the initiative to use the very ropes Lin Yan had once used to imprison him to tie her hands to the headboard. He refused to let her leave his sight for even a second, even when she needed the bathroom. He wanted to ensure that every time he opened his eyes in the dark, he could touch her and feel her warmth, to be certain she hadn't vanished into the vibrant world outside.
The kidnapper had now become the possessed. And Shen Zhe had officially become the most loyal demon in the golden cage he had locked from the inside.