He scrambled back from her, a crab-like, pathetic crawl, until his back hit the wall of the hovel.
He was panting, his body drenched in a cold sweat. He was... trapped.
It wasn't a metaphor. It was a fact.
She had "anchored" him. She had taken her deepest, most profound psychological horror—her
pathological fear of abandonment—and she had weaponized it. She had turned it into a leash.
Li Mei sat on her mat, her expression now one of quiet, serene patience. She was not the
"unveiled" monster or the "crying, concerned" girl. She was... a keeper. She was a zookeeper,
sitting outside the cage of a newly-acquired, very-frightened animal.
"It... it will stop hurting, Ren Wei," she said softly, "when... when you stop trying to leave me."
Ren Wei stared at her, his mind—his one, true weapon—racing, trying to analyze, to categorize,
to survive.
Okay. Okay. Baseline. I am a prisoner. My cell is... my proximity to her. My leash is... my own
mind. The punishment is... a feedback loop. A 'Silken' Skinner Box. Pull away, I get a
soul-crushing shock. Stay...
He tested it. He took a deep, ragged breath. He looked at her. He forced himself to not think
about leaving. He thought, instead, about... her. About staying. About their first kiss.
The dull, throbbing ache of sorrow in his chest... receded.
He choked. It receded. It was replaced by a faint, artificial... warmth. A tiny, chemical-feeling
'reward' of peace.
He was a rat in a maze. And she had just... trained him.
"You..." he whispered, his voice shaking. "This... 'Silken Heart' art... this is... this is what you do."
She gave him a small, proud smile. "It is the Path of the Unseen. Of True Bonds. Other
cultivators... they shatter mountains. They part the seas. They are... so loud." She shook her
head. "They don't understand. True power... true immortality... is not in breaking things. It is in
binding them."
She looked at him, her eyes soft. "I chose you, Ren Wei. Out of all the worthless, loud, broken
things in this sect. I chose you. Your mind. Your... your goodness. It's a... a masterpiece. And I...
I am its curator."
He was... an art piece.
He ran his good hand through his filthy hair, his mind going a million miles an hour. He couldn't
leave. He couldn't fight her—she wasn't just stronger in her own, insidious way, she was in his
head.
And he couldn't "fix" her. That was what had triggered this. His "understanding" was what had
sealed the lock. By showing her he saw her, he had become, in her mind, the only thing worth
having.
So, what was left?
Survival.
If you are in a cage, you do not beat your fists bloody on the bars. You wait. You watch. You
learn the zookeeper's routine. You play the part.
He had to become... a subject. A willing, loving subject.
He needed... he needed time. He needed more information. He needed to pretend.
He forced his panting to slow. He forced the look of horror from his face. He looked at her, on
her mat, and he forced a small, broken, "confused" smile.
"...Mei," he said, his voice a calculated, trembling mess. "I... I... I don't... I don't understand. It... it "Shh, shh," she soothed, getting up and moving toward him. He flinched, and she stopped. She
was... respecting his "fear."
"It's... it's just a bond, my love," she said, her voice the one he had first fallen for. "It's... it's like
a... a safety line. When you... when you ran for the door... you scared me. You... you were
running... away. Into the... the void. The... the line... it... it just... it caught you."
She... she believed this.
In her twisted, perfect, psychological world, she was his savior. She hadn't pulled him. She had
caught him.
"It... it won't hurt," she whispered, "if you... if you just... stay."
A long, terrible silence filled the hovel. Ren Wei looked at the floor. He looked at his hands. He
was... he was fcked*.
But... the tournament.
"The... the tournament," he said, his voice flat. "We... we still have to... to fight. Tomorrow."
This was his lifeline. A practical, immediate problem. A distraction.
"Yes," she said, and her voice was bright. Normal. As if they had just... discussed the weather.
"Yes! We... we have to win. We have to... to get to the Inner Sect. Together."
Together.
He finally, slowly, raised his head. He looked at her. He had to do it. He had to sell it.
He manufactured a single, "lost" tear. He let it roll down his cheek. "Mei... I... I'm... I'm scared."
Her face melted. This... this was a Ren Wei she understood. This was her role.
She rushed forward, and this time he let her. She knelt in front of him, her small hands taking
his. They were so warm.
"Oh, my love," she breathed. "Don't be. Don't... don't ever be scared. Not of... of anything."
She leaned her forehead against his. He was rigid, a scream trapped in his throat, but he let her.
"I am here," she whispered, her eyes closed. "I am in you. And I... will never. Let anything. Hurt
you. Again."
He looked, over her small shoulder, at the open doorway. At the freedom, ten feet away, that
was now as distant as his old planet.
He was in the cage. The cage was her.
And the only way to survive... was to make her believe he loved the bars.