917 Once Upon a Time (1/2)
A lot of torture had been inflicted upon Han Fen when she was in Golden Roc Castle. Though she was capable of turning physical pain into the sexual pleasure that she desired, the torture had still caused her body a lot of physical damage. When the pleasures wore off, the pains still remained.
She was lying on her side with a blanket covering her in bed, looking extremely listless. She didn't use a pillow and instead stretched her head over the edge of the bed and left it dangling there. With her head upside down, she faced the little kid not far from her.
This was a very weird posture. Her body was in a twisted shape like that of a half-dead snake, which made Shangguan Cheng feel scared. It hadn't even been three days since he had left the stone castle, but everybody he had met was different from those back home, especially this girl in front of him. His small mind couldn't handle so many changes.
He drew back, straightening the thin rope fastened to his wrist. The rope was about seven to eight feet long, and the other end of it was fastened to Han Fen's left wrist. She didn't resist and just let Shangguan Cheng pull her arm past the edge of the bed.
She had been in this posture, not blinking, for nearly a quarter of an hour. An idea suddenly occurred to Shangguan Cheng. ”Are you dead?”
The weird woman didn't react. Shangguan Cheng became scared. Without his father or any other adult around him, he became much more timid. After standing there, transfixed, for a while, he took action. He tried to undo the knot on his wrist with one hand but failed due to the incorrect method he used. Then he tried to bite the knot with his teeth, which were not yet fully grown and thus proved totally unhelpful, but he did manage to wet the knot with saliva.
He thought for a while and found that he only had two options – yell and call someone outside the tent to help, or walk up to that body and trying to undo the knot at the other end with both of his hands.
If he were in Golden Roc Castle, he would without a doubt choose the first option. However, this was a completely foreign place to him. Except for his mother who had kissed him like crazy when she had first seen him, nobody else had ever shown any kindness to him. So, he had only one choice left.
”I'm not afraid.” Shangguan Cheng tried to embolden himself, but his feet refused to move forward.
”I'm not afraid,” he repeated and then tiptoed over, as if he was trying not to disturb the dead.
Half of Han Fen's arm was exposed to the air, and there were many scars of different depths on it, which sent chills down Shangguan Cheng's spine. He hurriedly closed his eyes, fumbled around, and found the knot. Then, with all his strength, he started trying to undo it.
The knot was too tight, and Shangguan Cheng's strength was not enough to undo it. Frustrated, he opened his eyes and saw that the two eyes, which were upside down, were looking at him and blinking curiously.
Afterwards, Shangguan Cheng felt like he had had a hundred choices, but in the end he choose the most shameful one, which he wouldn't be able to forget, even many years later: he cried and wet himself.
Three streams of liquid flowed from three different parts of his body. Shangguan Cheng's wail was no different from that of any common children. If the Unique King were here to see him crying this way, he would have been deeply disappointed.
Han Fen abruptly turned around, knelt down on the bed like an animal, stuck out her tongue to make a grimace, and then smiled. ”Why are you crying?”
”I–I hate you. You play–played dead to scare me… ” Shangguan Cheng sobbed.
”I wasn't playing dead. I was sleeping.”
”But your… eyes were open.”
”Why is that strange? People can sleep with their eyes open.”
”Really?” Shangguan Cheng stopped crying, seemingly somewhat suspicious.
”Of course. I can also sleep with one of my eyes closed and the other one open. It's just a petty trick. I can do a lot of things.”
”Then why did you get caught by my father?”
”Because I was unlucky, and your father… Who's your father?”
”The Unique King,” Shangguan Cheng said proudly.
”Oh, I remember. You called the Unique King father.”
”My father is the toughest man alive. You can't defeat him with your petty tricks.”
”Ha-ha, of course I can't defeat the Unique King, but he's not the toughest person alive. The Master Commander is.”
”My father is not afraid of elephants, and he is not even afraid of lions.”
”The Master Commander is not even afraid of the God of the Underworld and she dares to leave corpses intact. She's definitely not afraid of the Unique King.”
These two people, one standing on the ground and the other kneeling on the bed, tried their best to widen their eyes and stare at each other. Neither of them was willing to yield.
Shangguan Cheng blinked first.
”You lost,” Han Fen said happily and laid down on her back. Then she mumbled with a frown, ”It hurts so much. It hurts so much.”
Shangguan Cheng drew back step by step until the thin rope straightened. ”Only cowards yell because of pain. And yet you have the nerve to say that my father is not the toughest?”
”Then what you call the kind of person who wets his pants? A 'peeing-ghost'?” Han Fen asked with a smile.
Shangguan Cheng blushed. ”That was because you scared me… ”
Han Fen pulled heavily on the rope and forced Shangguan Cheng to the bedside. In amusement, she sat on the bed and swiftly stripped Shangguan Cheng naked in spite of his objections and struggles. She then tosses his clothes to the ground, looked around, and then grabbed her blanket and carefully wrapped it around Shangguan Cheng.
”You are a little big for a kid, but you're pretty fun. Stop kicking. I'm good at wrapping kids up.”
Shangguan Cheng finally yielded. Like an infant who had just been born not long ago, he was wrapped up in several layers of blanket. As annoyed as he was, he had to admit that he felt pretty comfortable.
Han Fen looked up and down at her masterpiece. Suddenly, something occurred to her. ”No. You said that your father caught me, but the Dragon King rescued me, and he also took you here. So, the Dragon King is tougher.”
Shangguan Cheng had almost forgotten about the argument that they had just had. He thought for a while and then understood her words. ”The Dragon King is a coward. He didn't dare have a kung fu competition with my father, so he had someone else take his place… ”
”But your father didn't fight either.”
”Father… Father is not a coward. He said that he would get me back.”