✅ A star Reborn: The Queen's return (Completed)

36-40

Chapter 36: Stockholm Syndrome
Translator: Atlas Studios  Editor: Atlas Studios

“Xiao Ling,” he said. “everything you get will be bestowed by me, be it pleasure or pain.”

He lashed her with the whip in his hand.

A shrill sound split the air, the pain sharp and the smell of blood filling the narrow space. Yet she gratefully and greedily embraced it all, as she whimpered and begged for him to give her more. This pain reminded her that she was still truly alive…

He cast the whip aside, removed the ball in her mouth, and leaned over to kiss her, his forceful grasp almost suffocating her. “Xiao Ling, my beautiful butterfly…” He brushed his lips against her quivering lashes, whispering. “You are mine and mine only.”

It was always the case. He would first abandon her in the pitch dark and empty room, where it would be so lonely, so quiet that she could barely feel her existence. Once she was on the verge of insanity, a divine-like figure would appear, whip her brutally, torture her, and then in the gentlest of manner, feed her food and water and wipe the stains off her lips before eventually leaving.

The narrow space once again regained its state of loneliness and darkness until she reached a breaking point, where Pei Ziheng would re-appear and repeat the process all over.

Every time Pei Ziheng left, Xia Ling would tell herself she could not go on her cowardly ways, that she would not surrender to it the next time. Yet her body’s reaction was truthful and terrifying — no matter how resolved she was, she could not escape the fear and insanity in the dark, nor could she break free from the gratitude she had towards him and the violence he inflicted on her.

Subsequently, when he saw that she was tamed, he let her out.

Though she dared not lash out at him like before, leaving the dead silence and darkness allowed her to regain consciousness and clarity, and she remained hostile to him. When he entered her, she did all she could to resist him.

He had other moves.

She did not like the pain, and always struggled in resistance, yet she submitted to him under his firm repression… And then the next time it would be the same, resistance, repression, submission…

The cycle repeated.

Xia Yu came to see her.

She was in a simple-looking flair dress, her hair was a mess, and white gauze held her scrawny body together. But Xia Yu looked at her with a tinge of envy, and questioned coldly, “Sister, why is it that Brother Ziheng cares so much about you, and puts in so much effort for you!”

Xia Ling just looked at her, hostile. “What are you here for?”

Xia Yu smiled. “Sister, let me tell you a story.”

She spoke slowly and tirelessly.

As such, Xia Ling learned a new term — Stockholm Syndrome.

“Sister,” Xia Yu said. “here’s Brother Ziheng’s and the doctors’ plan. You will suffer from Stockholm Syndrome under their conscious guidance to reach the ideal state. No matter how Brother Ziheng treats you, be it with love or through torture, you will always be loyal to him, and will return to him voluntarily even if he lets you go.”

“You will lose yourself forever.”

“Brother Ziheng doesn’t even love you, what he wants is simply an obedient plaything.”

Xia Ling took a long time to digest what Xia Yu had said, not believing that was the truth. But all of Pei Ziheng’s actions recently fit what she said.