Chapter 906: Punishment

Yet, regardless of how hard she slapped the door and shouted out, it was completely silent behind the door.

The two bodyguards knew Boss treated this woman like the most precious gem, so they didn’t dare to be too rough with her. Hence, they stood quietly to the side.

Xia Ling grew more anxious as time passed, her slapping becoming more numerous, and her voice growing hoarse. A wealthy lady walking by with her dog looked over at the ruckus that Xia ling was making, before saying something to her female companion. Both of them laughed in amusement. Xia Ling ignored all of them and continued to shout, “Pei Ziheng, open the door!”

Her breath caught in her anxiety, and she broke into a coughing fit.

The red wooden door finally opened.

A tall man stood at the doorway, lowering his head to look at her.

In half a day, he seemed to have aged again. There was pain in his eyes and he looked frail, nothing like his usual dominant self. He looked down at her in silence, not saying a word and not moving, like he was a cement statue.

Xia Ling was shocked by his appearance and stared at him in silence for a while.

A breeze blew over and she started coughing hard again, like she was about to cough her lungs out.

This time, Pei Ziheng finally moved, pulling her into his arms suddenly. His arms were so tight around her that she could barely breathe. She struggled and said, “Pei Ziheng, let go…”

However, he only hugged her tighter, putting his entire weight onto her body.

With his arms encircling her body, he started to slide down slowly, his arms sliding down her back, waist, and thighs. When she realized what had happened, he was already kneeling in front of her.

Xia Ling was stunned. “Pei Ziheng, what are you doing?”

Pei Ziheng didn’t say anything. His forehead leaned onto her knees, as he knelt before her, shaking.

She had never seen him in such a state—in so much pain and so fragile. He had shed every bit of his strong façade and looked completely broken. Was this still that man that she knew?

She didn’t know what to do and her heart went out to him. “Stand up first.”

He refused and continued to stay in the same position, unmoving.

“Pei Ziheng!” She couldn’t resist but shout.

He made a low sound that was like a howl—unclear and like a wounded beast.

He was hugging onto Xia Ling’s legs and she couldn’t move. She could see from the corner of her eye that the passersby had stopped to see what was happening, and were discussing while pointing at them. She was a well-known Diva now and could easily be recognized. He was also a big name that appeared in the media frequently. This scene of him kneeling in front of her in a doorway was truly an eye-catching one. Xia Ling exclaimed nervously, “Pei Ziheng, what are you doing? Are you trying to make us into a joke? Even if you want to, don’t bring me down with you!”

He reacted to her statement and released her legs slowly.

Regaining her freedom, Xia Ling immediately strode into the room and closed the door behind her.

The house was dark with the lights switched off, and only the moonlight shone through the translucent curtains. She could see shattered porcelain in the far end of the room, and it seemed that he had swept an entire dining table of cutlery onto the ground. It was a huge mess. Xia Ling walked over and picked up a piece of shattered porcelain.

There was a dark bloodstain on it.

She gave a start and returned to Pei Ziheng’s side. Squatting down, she pulled his hand over firmly.

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He was still kneeling by the door, his tall frame crunched up and his head hung low, almost like he was going to touch the floor.

Xia Ling put his hand under the moonlight and saw that his arm was filled with countless cuts. Some were deep and some were not, crisscrossed across his entire arms. Some looked like they were from him smashing up the porcelain ware, but some were deep and clean cuts, like the old wound on his wrist that she found many years ago on a yacht party.

Only… these wounds were fresh and blood was still seeping out of them.

He seemed to have cut himself when he was feeling sad.

“Are you crazy?!” She scolded, her voice breaking. “Xia Yu already admitted to her crimes! What are you trying to do? The one that murdered people was her, not you! Do you have to harm yourself like this over such an old case?!”

He said something in a low voice.

She couldn’t hear him clearly and so moved closer. “I… I’m sorry…”

That simple sentence was said with much difficulty.

Xia Ling was stunned.

In the past, when she was being tortured by him and in such pain, she always dreamed of hearing these words from him. Yet, he never said them, and she thought that she wouldn’t ever hear them from him. She gave up all hope.

Now, she heard them under such unexpected circumstances.

It was surreal, like a hallucination.

She turned her head away so that he wouldn’t see the tears that were rolling down her cheek.

Pei Ziheng seemed to have mustered up his strength as he continued, “I… what can I do to make it up to you?” He was the one that was in the wrong… He had said that he would protect her all her life, but the one that harmed her the most was him. He hated himself and wanted to kill himself.

Yet, Xia Ling said, “Make it up to me? There’s nothing for you to make up for.”

His entire palm and arm were dripping with blood under the moonlight, and the blood was covering her hands. She looked down at the bloody mess and tried to change the topic gently. “You need to get these wounds treated… Let me find the first-aid box.” As she spoke, she made to stand up.

Pei Ziheng grabbed onto her. “Xiao Ling!”

She finally blew up in rage. “Do you think anything you do can make up for the harm you caused me?! What can possibly repay the hurt you caused for the monstrous things you did to me?! Pei Ziheng… I lived hell for a year! Hell! Do you understand?! Do you know how I spent that final year with you?!”

She extracted her hand from his bloody palm and ran deeper into the house.

He didn’t chase after her, and only desolately crouched down on the floor, using both hands to support himself.

Xia Ling shook in agitation and started to flip through things in the house, searching for something that even she didn’t know. It took her a long time to calm down, and when she wiped her face, she felt that it was filled with tears.

She wiped the corner of her sleeve across her face and looked out of the window at the moon, the memories of the past coming back to her.

Then, she heard that Wang Jingwan was dead and became anxious. She was so innocent and naïve, and that was the closest that she ever encountered any death. She lost her cool entirely. Pei Ziheng saw her anxiousness as a guilty conscience, concluded that she had murdered Wang Jingwan, and refused to listen to any of her explanations.

Her cries were only met with more cruel treatment and assault.

Later, she grew afraid and was overcome with rage, such that she admitted to the crime that she never committed. She recalled that it was a cloudy day, with dark clouds outside the window. She had said in a weak voice, “Yes, I killed her. So what if I did?”

He had stretched out his hands wanting to hug her, and she avoided him.

What followed was another round of assault and humiliation—her punishment for rejecting him.