Ye He Chapter 8

8. A Daily Dose of Kidney Nourishment

Black, viscous, and murky like thick ink, it tightly coiled around the young man. No matter how he cried out or struggled, he couldn’t escape that utterly oppressive gloom.

The man opposite him possessed handsome and refined features. When he smiled, his brows were like painted ink, full of spirit, but most of the time he was silent and expressionless, only staring with a morbid gaze at that one—the prey trapped in the net.

Shen Yi suddenly opened his eyes, gasping for air. It was that dream again.

He habitually reached for the alarm clock by the bed, but grasped only air. The familiar yet strange environment sent a chill through Shen Yi’s limbs, and his heart sank completely. It turned out that none of this had been a dream.

A sliver of the hazy gray sky was visible outside the window, letting Shen Yi know the approximate time. It was evening again. He glanced around and, finding the man absent from the room, let out a sigh of relief. But the sound of running water coming from the direction of the bathroom immediately complicated his mood.

He had never imagined that one day he would be imprisoned and violated by a strange man, his private parts, usually only used for excretion, wantonly penetrated, and foreign bodily fluids injected deep inside him. He had resisted, cursed, pleaded, and even offered all his savings for freedom, only to receive more brutal torment in return.

Drenched head to toe in his own fluids, he could only curl up naked and helpless like a dirty dog, while the man towering over him was impeccably dressed. The stark contrast created extreme humiliation and shame. Shen Yi would never forget that moment; he wished he could kill the man, even if it cost him his life. But the instant his eyes met the man’s morbidly gloomy gaze, he felt a chill from head to toe.

He couldn’t bear the consequences of failure. Perhaps next time, the man wouldn’t just force water into his stomach and manipulate him like a pregnant man—it would be something far worse.

Since Shen Yi gave up resisting, the man’s temper had actually improved. His daily appearances were very fixed, and on weekends, he stayed home all day. Shen Yi had never seen the man contact friends or family; not even his phone ever rang. The empty house had only simple decorations, and two of the rooms were completely bare. The computer on the desk was never used; the man only occasionally turned it on for Shen Yi to play games to relieve boredom, while he watched silently nearby.

Shen Yi, who used to live a life of extravagance, clearly couldn’t be satisfied by a broken-down computer, but he had to endure it, even feeling grateful that the man allowed him this brief distraction. If he had to live the same monotonous life as the man, he probably would have gone insane long ago. He once thought that after such profound humiliation, he could never peacefully coexist with the man in the same space, but in reality, he felt no discomfort.

The man, no longer violent or gloomy, seemed so harmless, just like the night Shen Yi first met him. He would only have thought he was a trustworthy, overly kind person, sensing no threat whatsoever.

Every day after work, the man personally washed vegetables and cooked, then released Shen Yi’s hands, which had been bound all day, allowing him to enjoy freedom for the evening. To be honest, the man’s cooking was delicious, and there was never a shortage of meat or fish. Shen Yi had once tried to make a difficult request as a test; although the man ignored it, the next day those expensive ingredients would be cooked and placed on the table.

After they spent a temporarily warm dinner together each day, the man would send Shen Yi to shower while he silently washed the dishes.

Shen Yi had thought about escaping during this free time, but painful past experiences told him never to confront the man directly. The man’s strength was strangely immense; the Muay Thai and kickboxing Shen Yi had learned were completely useless against him.

On one occasion, while the man was showering, Shen Yi secretly slipped to the door. Before he could even touch the doorknob, the man suddenly rushed out of the bathroom, grabbed Shen Yi’s hair, and violently thrust into him, pinning him against the door. Shen Yi cried and begged for mercy, completely spineless, but the man was unmoved. After venting his lust, he locked Shen Yi in the bathroom for two days. During that time, there was no food or water, only the man’s intense, pile-driving invasion. Shen Yi almost thought he would die such a shameful death.

After that, Shen Yi became obedient, or rather, more enduring.

Once, when the man seemed to be in a good mood after assaulting him, Shen Yi asked about the grudge between them. But besides reigniting the man’s surging bestial desire, he received no answer. Afterwards, Shen Yi, whose legs were sore and trembling from the assault, was unwilling but dared not ask anything further.

One day, by chance, Shen Yi saw the man’s work ID card tucked into his pocket. Ye He, that was the man’s name. The ID belonged to a small company Shen Yi had never heard of, and the man was just an ordinary employee there.

Shen Yi’s first reaction was that it must be fake. The man absolutely could not afford such a large apartment on that meager salary, and the man’s usual food and clothing, as well as his lack of distress over Shen Yi’s deliberately requested expensive ingredients, never suggested financial difficulty. Moreover, if the man truly worked at that small company, his life should have had no intersection with Shen Yi, who came from a prominent family. Why, then, was he confining and humiliating Shen Yi like this?

Although his contact with the man was limited, Shen Yi could sense that the man had a morbid sense of isolation from the outside world, only accepting connections related to himself.

Remembering this, while the man was showering, Shen Yi cautiously searched the bedroom. A few minutes later, he found a photograph tucked away in a cabinet. He immediately recognized the gloomy-eyed, pale-faced man in the picture. On the back of the photo was written: Commemoration of XX City Orphanage, 20XX.

This was taken ten years ago. Shen Yi flipped it to the front and saw that the man in the photo had more youthful features and a slightly pointed chin compared to now, showing signs of mild malnutrition.

Shen Yi frowned. The man in the photo had a distinctly aggressive look in his eyes compared to the present, as if he was staring at Shen Yi with intense malice through the thin film. This feeling made him very uncomfortable.

Just then, the sound of water in the bathroom suddenly stopped, and Shen Yi quickly put the photo back where he found it.

The author wants to say:

Watching that poor little thing abandoned even by 10086 (China Mobile’s customer service number) having a breakdown every day.