He leisurely packed up all his tools, bade Xi Wang a rather polite farewell, and kicked him as a parting gift. When he said Xi Wang's name, he even let out two deliberately mocking laughs before closing the door, leaving, locking it from the outside, and cutting the power.
"..."
The room fell into darkness again. Within the range of his vision, only the faintest, nearly nonexistent moonlight squeezed through the cracks of the window, most of which had been sealed with wooden boards and dirt, silently comforting the young, pitiful child.
However, Xi Wang did not care. He merely slowly adjusted his breathing and gradually recovered his strength.
It was okay... it was okay. This was only a reenactment of the past.
Although his memories were somewhat blurred, Xi Wang could still realize that much.
Someone would come. She was a lovely girl, pink and adorable.
When she came, everything would change. She would tell him of the beauty of the outside world and give him candy filled with sweetness. Hope would come to his side alongside tiny white stars.
He would see pink flowers similar to her, and in the slightly chilly spring, see pink petals fluttering all across the sky.
And that damned Priest would die a miserable death.
Although he did not know how she had done it, he remembered that all of this had happened before.
So... it was fine.
With those thoughts, Xi Wang slipped into unconsciousness as his awareness blurred.
In the room nearly filled with darkness and silence, only the dark patterns on Xi Wang's body, resembling both chains and flowing water, quietly circulated. The entire room gradually became damp, then turned wet and cold beneath the low nighttime temperature.
Such a terrible environment was nearly devastating to a weakened child. Frailty, hunger, and the damp, dark surroundings took turns stripping away his vitality, making the flame of his already feeble life grow even dimmer.
Yet even so, he remained alive, tenaciously and resolutely alive. The flame was weak, but it had not gone out.
Sunrise gave way to sunset, and night descended once more. Dim lights lit up the room again, and Xi Wang knew that damned man had come.
Today, he was rather gentle. He fed Xi Wang some soup and forced him to eat a little food. Of course, he fed him himself, since Xi Wang could barely even raise his hand now.
After doing all that, he left Xi Wang a small bucket of drinking water before departing.
The room grew increasingly wet and cold, unbearably so.
Another day passed. Xi Wang was now able to move a little. When the Priest came that night, Xi Wang attacked him without hesitation, only to fail, unsurprisingly.
"Interesting."
He looked at Xi Wang, who had been beaten to his knees, and spoke with great interest.
"You actually had the nerve to resist me today... As expected, you're still a bad child. I've given you too much food, and too much water as well."
He slowly bound Xi Wang, then hung him up. Like he was admiring an object, he prodded Xi Wang's body before cutting open the bandages. Looking at the wounds that had already healed and scabbed over, he spoke with something like admiration.
"Just as I thought, you're simply the most perfect existence for me... I truly hope that one day, I can really have you."
"I think that day isn't far away, is it?"
He gently stroked Xi Wang's face and spoke softly.
"...Ptooey."
Xi Wang's only response was a disdainful spit.
"...Very good. I like this side of you."
The Priest was not angered. He simply wiped away the spit, then took an iron rod from the toolbox and tossed it into a basin, adding pieces of charcoal one by one.
"After all, we have plenty of time. I believe that one day, we'll reach an understanding."
He slowly lit the fire. Once one end of the iron rod had turned red-hot, he gripped the other end and brought it close to Xi Wang's face, making him feel the searing heat.
"Let's take this nice~ and~ slow."
He did not press it directly against Xi Wang's face. Instead, little by little, after making him fully experience that blazing heat, he pressed it to his skin and let him feel the piercing pain unique to burning.
Perhaps because Xi Wang's resistance today had amused him, the torture lasted especially long. He did not finish packing up and leave until late at night. Before leaving, he even left the still-burning brazier in the room, saying the room was too damp and cold and that it would help Xi Wang keep warm.
The price was that Xi Wang was not let down, remaining suspended in the air for the entire day.
There was no need to elaborate too much on the days that followed. There was no need to dwell on that torture resembling brutal punishment.
Xi Wang spent one bloody day after another amid that tedious, tasteless torture. Though the pain did not lessen, he gradually got used to it.
Xi Wang remained alive, quietly living through one day after another. He did not cry or complain, and aside from the occasional resistance, he made no unnecessary movements.
Xi Wang looked out the window at another sunny day and quietly closed his eyes. As for the laughter of children outside and the complaints of those "bad children," he had long since ignored them.
She, that girl like a drifting flower, would come one day.
She would bring a real Priest to him and take him away from this dark room.
Wait, and hold hope in his heart.
But... she did not come.
And it seemed that a very long time had already passed...
"Not today..."
Xi Wang looked at the tiny ray of sunlight squeezing through the cracks onto the floor, golden light resting on ground stained with blood and dust.
Another sunny day. How irritating.
Xi Wang tried to move his arm, but he could not, because the tendons in his hands had been severed. He could only slowly wriggle across the floor.
Still, through his efforts, he managed to shift himself beneath that faint light. The tiny golden rays shone upon his face, bringing a trace of warmth.
"Maybe tomorrow, or the day after..."
Xi Wang narrowed his eyes and murmured unconsciously before falling into a deep sleep.
How much longer had passed...? He no longer knew.
Every day, he watched the sun rise and set, endured pain at night, then saw bright, sunny days again through his haze.
The room also alternated repeatedly between dampness and dryness... It made sense. An overly damp environment posed too great a threat to him. Though that Priest always loved tormenting him, he would also treat him, enjoying torturing him to the brink of death without actually letting him die.
After all, the Priest regarded him as his private property. It would not do to let him die.
Come to think of it, some time ago, that man had apparently learned a new game from somewhere. He locked Xi Wang in a coffin, threw him into some pit in the graveyard, and left him there, only hanging an IV bag so he would not die.
A few days later, he took him out and stuffed him back into this room. Who knew what he had been thinking...
"...Ha."
Slowly, Xi Wang shifted himself into the corner of the room and sniffed the somewhat cleaner air. With the aid of that tiny sliver of sunlight, he noticed that the marks on the floor seemed to have become extremely faint. Xi Wang suddenly gave a soft laugh.
Someone had come... Someone had been here... Someone the Priest was afraid of had come, so he had no choice but to hide Xi Wang and clean up even the traces. Only after that person left did he dare bring Xi Wang back. Xi Wang should have thought of it earlier; he simply had not realized it because his mind had still been muddled.
Haha, so even a disgusting bastard like him had someone he feared...
Perhaps because this realization made him happy, Xi Wang kept smiling that night. There was also an inexplicable mockery in his gaze when he looked at the Priest.
The Priest was not angry. He merely did his best to weaken him, throwing scorching coals onto his body until even Xi Wang's faint breaths carried traces of heat, only to quickly turn cold again due to his weakened body.
Then, as night was about to pass and dawn was about to arrive, the Priest came again.
For once, he took Xi Wang out of the room and dragged him into the graveyard. Then, gripping his head, he forcibly pried open his eyes and made him look at the corpse in the pit.
Xi Wang remembered that Priest's face—the real Priest, the one who had always wanted to help him.
He was dead, in a miserable state. His chest had been cut open, his organs pulled out and exposed. Blood had pooled at the bottom of the pit, soaking the surrounding soil and the Priest's clothes.
He should have been the one to save Xi Wang, yet now he had already died in such a tragic manner.
Then, the Priest manipulated Xi Wang's hands, making him pick up the shovel nearby. Like controlling a puppet, he guided him to shovel up the dirt beside the pit bit by bit, slowly burying the Priest's corpse. Finally, he even used the shovel to pat down the earth, confirming that it had been packed solid.
There was no gravestone, nor was there even a mound of dirt over the corpse's location. It had merely been buried.
Xi Wang no longer remembered what happened later that day. He was in a daze, as though even his consciousness had scattered.
Xi Wang realized that she would not come, because she had already come.
After that, no one would pay attention to him anymore, and he would never get out.
From then on, Xi Wang's reactions to pain grew weaker and weaker, while the Priest's actions became increasingly crazed. He stopped treating Xi Wang's wounds and stopped bringing him food.
The Priest was trying to push him to the edge of death, and Xi Wang showed no reaction.
Drip—
It was the sound of blood falling, familiar beyond familiarity.
Drip—
The Priest sat leisurely to the side, admiring his "masterpiece" and watching Xi Wang grow weaker with satisfaction.
Drip—
There were countless wounds on his body. New wounds, old wounds, and wounds that had yet to heal overlapped one another; cuts, burns, and punctures mixed together. Bright red blood flowed from them, gradually gathering in the basin below.
By now, Xi Wang had grown into an adult. He no longer needed a broken stool to give him something to stand on. He was tall enough that, even in this situation, his toes could touch the ground. Yet the Priest did not seem to have aged much. Aside from his hair growing increasingly gray and a few more wrinkles appearing on his face, there was almost no change.
At this point, tormenting Xi Wang had practically become the Priest's daily task, like some kind of habit. Even if Xi Wang actively begged him, surrendered to him, and threw himself into his arms, he would refuse—he had already had enough fun.
Now, he only wanted to kill Xi Wang.
Thus, he stood and approached Xi Wang.
Drip—
It was the sound of liquid falling.
"Hah—"
Xi Wang slightly raised his head and struggled to lift his eyelids. The Priest, noticing his movement, immediately stopped and waited for his next reaction.
"Hehe..."
Because his mouth had been cut before and the wounds had not fully healed, Xi Wang could only make indistinct sounds. Yet the mockery in his words was still heard by the Priest.
"You are not him."
Enduring the pain, Xi Wang spoke bit by bit in an indistinct voice.
Drip—
The blood was still flowing.
Before you continue