Chapter 11

Once again, I was locked in that hellish room.

But this time was different. Luke brought meals to my room on time every day, watching me finish before leaving.

After more than a week, I finally understood his purpose for doing this.

After dinner, Luke didn't leave.

He reached out and patted my face:

"If it weren't for me, you would have rotted away in that farmers market long ago."

"You should be grateful to me,"

"I've provided for you so well for so many years, it's time you repay our family."

Luke wanted to send me as a gift to the boss of a rival company.

He dressed me in strange clothes that barely covered anything.

"I heard Mr. Qin is quite the playboy."

"Women who end up in his bed never dare show their faces in public again."

"If you can please him,"

"I might consider letting you be Vanessa's bridesmaid at next month's wedding."

...

Gradually, my body began to lose strength.

By the time I realized the dinner had been drugged, it was too late.

13

My body was bound with ropes, unable to move. I didn't know where I had woken up.

My eyes were blindfolded, everything was pitch black.

When the sense of sight is deprived, the remaining senses become infinitely amplified.

I don't know how long it had been when the door was opened.

I shuddered in shock, the scenes from that day at the private club playing on loop in my mind.

The sound of leather shoes came closer and closer until it stopped near me. A man's breath pressed down on me.

It was a familiar scent.

The next second, the blindfold covering my eyes was lifted.

Due to the effects of the drug, my head was pounding, and my vision was blurry.

I could only vaguely see the man loosening his tie, speaking with a suppressed voice:

"I'll untie the ropes first. Tell me if it hurts."

The ropes on my body were finally untied, and the man immediately covered me, barely dressed in scraps of fabric, with a blanket.

The effects of the drug intensified as time passed.

I still lay on the bed unable to move, with the effects growing stronger.

Luke had used a potent drug, intending for me to die on this bed.

I struggled to focus my vision, trying to make out the man's face clearly.

The man used a damp towel to wipe my sweaty forehead, tucking my hair behind my ear, and spoke again:

"Don't remember me?"

"That's going to be a problem."

"Didn't we agree you wouldn't forget me?"

14

In an instant, memories of the past flooded back to me.

In college, there were quite a few boys who pursued me, but I had forgotten almost all their faces.

Except for one person.

We had chosen almost the same courses, and even in a gender studies course with only three students in the entire year, he and I were already two of them.

He sat in the farthest position from me, yet always looked at me without trying to hide it.

Until one day, I finally couldn't stand it anymore.

After class, I stopped him and asked:

"Hey classmate, you're going to stare a hole through my head."

"Can't you show some restraint?"

I had noticed before when passing by him, he always smelled like... baby powder.

It wasn't unpleasant, it was the kind of scent you could become addicted to.

The boy was very tall, always wearing a white polo shirt like he was some kind of inspecting leader.

In stark contrast to the color of his polo shirt were his ears, now red as blood.

"I'm sorry... it won't happen again."

"What's your name—?"

[Ethan.]

"Have you forgotten me?"

The man spoke with some disappointment.

I remembered now, that familiar scent from earlier was the smell of baby powder.

15

"Sleep here for the night, I'll take you back tomorrow."

I had finally managed to leave that hell, and now he wanted to send me back?

My will broke through the control of the drug's effects, and I shouted:

"No!"

"Help me, I can't go back there...!"

"Please, for the sake of our college friendship..."

I grabbed Ethan's hand.

I heard him mutter very quietly:

"Just college classmates and you still forgot me..."

But soon, Ethan regained his proper demeanor.