Chapter 3

I was dragged to the red-light district in the slums.

On a crude wooden bed, I spent two years living a life worse than death, and I developed severe depression.

Madam Zoe lit a cigarette and looked at me with some pity.

“Look at you, a perfectly good college student, and somehow you offended so many powerful people.”

I stared at the ceiling without any reaction.

I remembered what Chloe had said.

“Ethan gave the orders, and they’ll make sure you only take old, ugly, broke losers, so you learn your lesson.”

I could not forget the disgust in Mr. Blackwood’s eyes either.

“I sponsored you, and this is how you repay me? Messing around with my son like that? I think you must not want to live!”

He brought in infected men, one after another, and sent them into my tiny cubicle day and night for thirty straight days.

The ulcers on my body began to hurt again, and I trembled as I crawled up, fell to the floor, grabbed the painkillers in the drawer, and swallowed an entire handful.

In my daze, I seemed to hear Madam Zoe say, “Clean yourself up, someone is here to pick you up.”

I was already rotten all the way through, so no one would care about me.

Thinking of that, I tugged at the corner of my mouth self-mockingly, then lay on the floor and closed my eyes.

When I heard footsteps, my body moved from muscle memory, and I crawled up, knelt at the man’s feet, and reached out to undo his belt buckle.

“Do you want protection, sir? Two dollars each.”

I received no answer for a long time, but I kept moving anyway.

Here, too many people hesitated over five dollars, and I had long since gotten used to it.

But this time, what I heard was not a reluctant “yes.”

Instead, it was a low roar suppressed with rage.

“Julian Lane! Are you really this cheap?”

My whole body shook, and my muscles spasmed instantly.

Almost the next second, I prostrated myself and apologized mechanically.

“This slut knows he was wrong, this slut will never dare disobey your orders again, and this slut will never dare make the little princess cry again.”

I kept knocking my head against the floor, again and again, and I could not feel the pain.

I saw the shock in Ethan’s eyes, but there was not the slightest ripple in my heart.

It was clearly his order, so I did not know what he was pretending for.

Ethan grabbed my arm and lifted my weightless body up, and I stumbled as I met his gaze.

“I really won’t dare again...”

Disgust flashed through Ethan’s eyes.

But he took off his suit jacket and threw it over my head.

“Wash yourself clean and come back with me.”

When I heard I could leave, I no longer cared about anything.

I never wanted to experience these days worse than death again.

I promised in a trembling voice, “Don’t worry, I will never have any improper thoughts again, and I will listen to you and the little princess.”

“Whoever you and the little princess want me to serve, I will serve.”

I lowered myself to the humblest position, but Ethan was actually dissatisfied.

With a dark expression, he told me to shut up, and I shrank back and fell silent.

I showered as ordered, and in the cracked mirror, I saw a version of myself that could never be clean again, but my eyes were calm.

Ethan was actually still waiting there.

He sat on a wobbly chair with one broken leg and lit a cigarette.

“My family agreed to let me marry Chloe.”

I lowered my head dully. “Congratulations.”

The broken-window effect had truly worked, and he got what he wanted.

But my lifelong wish had shattered two years ago.

“Weren’t you a broadcasting major? Chloe said she wants you to be the officiant at our wedding.”

His voice was light and ordinary, and he did not think anything was wrong.

He fully supported Chloe using the wedding to hurt me and humiliate me.

But my voice had been completely ruined.

I did not know how many burning cigarette butts had been shoved into my throat.

Ethan did not hear it, or maybe he simply did not care.