Arc 3: Chapter 3 tw: self harm/torture
In his bedroom, Lin Yuan lay on his rosewood sofa with a heavy sigh.
521 poked him with its wing and asked: “Senior, are you okay? You haven’t even checked if Jiang Qian is your husband.”
Lin Yuan waved his hand listlessly: “Jiang Qian is too miserable. I don’t want my husband to experience all of that suffering.”
When Jiang Qiang was dressed in the unique red uniform as the zhuang yuan, parading through the streets in celebration, high-spirited and full of enthusiasm, he would’ve never expected that a year later, he would fall into a never-ending nightmare, losing his humanity and identity. t/n zhuang yuan is the title of the top scorer in the palace examination
If Jiang Qian really was his husband, he would definitely cry to death.
The four maids who served him closely were named Lü Yi, Lü Zhu, Hui Yue, and Qiu Yue. Tonight Lü Yi and Hui Yue were the ones in charge of getting him ready for bed, and the two beautiful girls entered the room.
When they saw the little prince, who used to be calm and serious, lying casually on the sofa they exchanged a look of surprise.
Lü Yi came forward and said softly: “Little prince, the hot water is ready. This servant will aid the little prince to bathe.”
Lin Yuan lifelessly sat up. Prince Chu’s mansion was extravagant and luxurious and also very big. They walked past the partition on the left side of the mansion and through the inner room to reach the bathing chamber.
Lin Yuan stood silently and waited for the two sisters to leave so he could take off his clothes and bathe.
Lü Yi and Hui Yue were quiet as they waited for him to order them to serve him.
After some awkward silence, Lü Yi finally said: “The little prince, the water is cooling, let this servant and Hui Yue help you take off your clothes.”
Lin Yuan was startled.
The two sisters wanted to take off his clothes?
Then…has his body already been seen by others?
Wuuu, does this count as cheating?
Lin Yuan desperately flipped through the original host’s memories and let out a sigh of relief. He was still pure. The sisters only helped him take off the outer brocade robe.
Alright then~
He waved away Lü Yi and Hui Yue and said: “I don’t need your service. This prince will do it himself, you can leave.”
Although Lü Yi and Hui Yue were puzzled, they didn’t disobey their master’s orders and immediately curtsied and turned around to leave.
Lin Yue suddenly thought of Jiang Qian alone in the room and he was worried. He quickly added: “Lü Yi, arrange for someone to guard Sir Jiang. If anything happens, immediately report it to this prince.”
Lü Yi wondered in her heart why the little prince cared so much about Jiang Qian. He even rushed out today to bring back Jiang Qian from Prince Yanping's mansion, but she remembered that they had nothing to do with each other before. Although confused, she replied respectfully: “This servant obeys.”
After Lü Yi and Hui Yue left the room, Lin Yuan looked down at his clothes and began to study how to take them off.
Do this and this, and then this and that.
Lin Yuan had just grasped the way to take off his clothes when there was a panicked voice outside the door: “Little prince, something is wrong with Sir Jiang!”
What? Something was wrong with Jiang Qian?
Lin Yuan dashed out the door and asked anxiously: “What’s wrong with Jiang Qian?”
Lü Yi was still in shock from what she’d seen and stuttered incoherently. When she had left the bathroom, she had called two bodyguards to guard Sir Jiang, but not long after, one of them reported that something bad had happened to Sir Jiang.
Lü Yi hurried over and as soon as she entered the room, she smelled the heavy scent of blood. Sir Jiang was being restrained on the bed by two guards. His bandages were untied and the bed was covered in blood.
Seeing this, Lü Yi rushed over to the bathing room to report to Lin Yuan.
Lin Yuan was so anxious he didn’t wait for Lü Yi to finish speaking and rushed over to Jiang Qian’s room.
The smell of blood was so strong that it covered the original smell of medicine. When Lin Yuan saw Jiang Qian being pressed down heavily by the guards that he could barely move, he hurriedly ordered them to let go.
The two guards hesitantly released their hands, but as soon as Jiang Qian was free, he began to scratch the wounds on his body as if he wanted to remove his flesh off of his body.
He dug his wounds without a sound of pain. His body was drenched in blood and specks of flesh like dense red flowers that spilled red juice.
Lin Yuan was stunned to see Jiang Qian, who had been dull and quiet during the day, completely change. Now he was crazy and mad, like a carnivorous flower eating away at his own scarred body.
“Hold him down! Quickly!” Lin Yuan shouted anxiously and helped restrain Jiang Qian while checking his wounds.
His wounds were too serious. It was like Jiang Qian forgot that it was his own body. No, it was like he forgot that he was still alive, forgot that when people were hurt they shed blood.
Lin Yuan tremblingly reached a slender finger over the new wound that Jiang Qian had just scratched, but he didn’t dare touch the flesh directly.
Jiang Qian’s eyes didn’t fluctuate; he didn’t look at anyone. His eyes were empty as if he couldn’t even see himself anymore, let alone others.
Doesn’t it hurt?
Are you hurting?
Lin Yuan gently cupped Jiang Qian’s face and looked into the other’s eyes. His eyes were a light, faded brown, and under the candlelight, he could see a shade of amber.
But his eyes were covered in dark shadows, as if his soul had long been imprisoned in the underworld.
Lin Yuan wanted to tell Jiang Qian that everything would be okay. When you’re hurt, you can say it out loud. He would help him, save him. So don’t be scared, you can tell me when it hurts.
But Jiang Qian couldn’t hear his voice, and even if he could hear it, he couldn’t understand.
Jiang Qian was no longer Jiang Qian, just a living human body.
When the mansion's physician came over, he was shocked to see the situation in the room. He hurriedly checked Jiang Qian’s wounds and asked: “Little prince, his wounds…?”
Lin Yuan said in a low voice: “He did it himself.”
The doctor was surprised: “He hurt himself? If this one gives him medicine again, then wouldn’t he hurt himself again? This is not good. This one has said before that he has both mental and physical injuries. His mental injuries must heal and normalize first, otherwise the negative effects will hurt him for the rest of his life.”
He looked at the scars on Jiang Qian’s body and sighed: “His physical trauma is also too serious. With his bones and muscles hurt like this, if we aren’t able to use medicine to heal him, then his body will be unable to recover.”
Lin Yuan got a headache. He thought a bit and called in Lin Xia and asked him to hit an acupuncture point on Jiang Qian’s body to forcibly seal his movements.
This time, Lin Yuan didn’t dare let Jiang Qian stay alone after applying the medicine. He ordered the guards to keep an eye on Jiang Qian at all times.
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The next morning, the secret guard that Lin Yuan had sent to investigate Prince Yanping’s mansion came back, and Lin Yuan finally understood what the meaning behind the sentence of “torture” in the plot.
The dandys like the son of Prince Yanping only knew how to beat and whip to hurt people, the most extreme was to pour salt water or pepper water on wounds. When Jiang Qian first arrived at Prince Yanping’s manion, he was injured all over, but the torture was limited.
But what the son of Prince Yanping didn’t know how to do, other people knew. The son of Prince Yanping wanted to completely break Jiang Qian’s arrogance and trample the other under his feet, therefore, he sent people to go Dali Temple and Ministry of Justice and found two old yamen officials who were proficient in torture methods.
Later, after Jiang Qian was whipped, the two old yamen officials gave him poison that accelerated wound decay. During meals, they put two bowls, one fresh and one rotten, in front of Jiang Qian and let him choose.
When Jiang Qian took the fresh food, they beat him again. Then they forced the rotten rice into Jiang Qian’s mouth.
In the end, Jiang Qian was numbed. He wouldn’t even look at the fresh food, but ate the rotten food directly.
The most terrible move was when they let people pretend to be Jiang family members who wanted to save Jiang Qian. After Jiang Qian left Prince Yanping’s mansion with hope for a few days, he would wake up back in Prince Yanping’s mansion. He would forever be trapped in hell on earth.
Half a month ago, they asked guards to whip Jiang Qian again and again. Everytime they whipped him, they asked Jiang Qian who he was. If they heard him say his name, they whipped him again.
From this, Jiang Qian’s self identity was completely destroyed.
He never said his own name again. He said he was a slave, and he slept in a dog cage and ate dog food.
Jiang Qian was no longer Jiang Qian again.
Lin Yuan exploded with fury and almost ordered the secret to murder the son of Yanping immediately.
But he stopped himself. That dog shit hurt Jiang Qian so much, it was too easy if he simply died.
He let the secret guard retreat and collapsed in bed for the rest of the day. Finally, in the evening, he thought of a way.
In Jiang Qian’s room, he lay on the bed unmoving and surrounded by several guards.
Lin Yuan asked them to leave, and then knelt over Jiang Qian, with his legs pressing on the other’s arms. This way, the person wouldn’t be able to flip over.
Lin Yuan let Lin Xia release Jiang Qian’s acupuncture point, and when it was only him and Jiang Qian left in the room, he looked down at the man who was struggling to get up and gripped the other’s chin and ordered: “Jiang Qian, look at me!”
But Jiang Qian was no different from an animal and didn’t understand his words.
Lin Yuan wasn’t expecting a reaction. He just took out a dagger and cut the palm of his hand. Blood immediately dripped on Jiang Qian’s face and attracted his attention.
Putting the dagger down, Lin Yuan picked up the medicine and poured it on his cut. Wuuu, it hurt, but he had no other way, he could only do this.
Then, Lin Yuan picked up the dagger again, cut his arm and continued to pour medicine on himself.
Jiang Qian silently looked at him with a pair of unfocused eyes.
Lin Yuan cut himself over and over again, and poured medicine over and over again. He repeated it seven or eight times before he stopped.
Lin Yuan smiled at Jiang Qian under him, picked up the medicine, and gently poured it over Jiang Qian’s wound.
His voice was soft: “Don’t be afraid. Jiang Qian, it’s okay.”