It turned out the power had gone out.
Zong Yan set the bags on the floor and switched on her phone’s flashlight, sweeping the beam across the room. She had calculated a few days ago that the generator was running low on fuel, which was why she had gone to the gas station for supplies today. She hadn't expected it to run out exactly during the daylight hours.
There wasn't much in the house, but a pile of clutter lay scattered across the living room floor. It looked as though someone had thrown a fit here.
Zong Yan navigated around the mess and finally spotted a hunched figure on the sofa. He was hiding under the blanket she usually used.
*At least he didn't run away,* Zong Yan thought.
She didn't bother with Si Jiang immediately. Instead, she returned to the door, picked up the diesel canisters, refueled the generator, and adjusted the circuit.
With a sharp *buzz*, the lights flickered on one by one, dispelling the darkness. Much like the lights of ten thousand homes in the distance, she, too, had returned home.
"I bought watermelon today. Go cut half of it; put the rest in the fridge."
Zong Yan carried the groceries into the kitchen and gave the order without looking back.
There was no response.
She didn't mind, simply going about her business. She took out the cutting board, washed the vegetables, and gave the fresh chicken a quick cleaning before putting it into the pressure cooker to boil.
Chicken soup, garlic water spinach, and cold-dressed kelp shreds.
That was tonight's dinner.
Usually, Zong Yan made one or two simple vegetable dishes—bland and functional. But her "pet" seemed unable to accept this, always staring at the bowls as if he were looking at animal feed. Si Jiang had a palate for the spicy flavors of Sichuan and Hunan, while Zong Yan was someone who didn't care for seasonings at all.
So, Zong Yan had picked up some pre-made cold dishes today. They weren't expensive anyway; she figured she’d give her pet a change of pace. He needed to eat more so he wouldn't waste away.
At this thought, Zong Yan sighed softly. Raising a human pet was indeed much more troublesome; the stray cats and dogs she used to feed never turned their noses up at anything. A single ham sausage would make them ecstatic.
But since she was raising him, she would just have to figure it out as she went.
The aroma of chicken soup gradually filled the air.
The lump on the sofa finally stirred. He pulled back the blanket, revealing bloodshot eyes and a deathly pale face. His brow was furrowed, and a thick aura of gloom surrounded him, radiating intense resentment. The glass jar in his arms was nearly the same temperature as his body.
*I want to revolt so badly!*
Si Jiang suppressed his anger. Bracing himself, he moved onto his wheelchair and pushed himself toward the kitchen. His dark eyes glared fixedly at Zong Yan’s back.
This woman was an absolute bastard.
"Wash the watermelon and cut half."
Zong Yan didn't turn around, yet she seemed to know exactly when he was behind her. She simply repeated the instruction calmly.
The fire in Si Jiang’s heart burned hotter, his eyes nearly spitting flames. He charged toward Zong Yan in his wheelchair.
Then, he picked up the watermelon from the floor, moved it to the sink, and began washing it with clumsy movements.
It wasn't that he was a coward. It was that this woman possessed a freakish strength. She could carry a generator weighing dozens of pounds up several flights of stairs, and when she moved him into his wheelchair, she barely even frowned.
Sometimes Si Jiang truly didn't understand how Zong Yan’s body was constructed. She looked so thin, yet she was terrifyingly tough.
"Wash it well," Zong Yan glanced over. "Don't waste water. It’s a hassle to haul it up."
*You’re the one with the strength, what’s the big deal about hauling a few more buckets!* Si Jiang grumbled internally.
He was completely oblivious to how shameless he was being—a man relying entirely on a woman to do all the heavy labor.
Zong Yan pretended not to see his expression, adding only: "Be careful when you cut it."
Si Jiang’s hand trembled. The knife he had just aimed at the rind nearly slipped. He jumped, relieved he hadn't cut his finger. In the past, watermelon had always been delivered to his mouth in pre-cut cubes by a nanny or a woman; this was his first time cutting one himself.
To be precise, it was his first time cutting anything.
The process was harrowing, a "gory mess" of fruit. The table was covered in red juice, and the edges of the slices were jagged and uneven.
When the watermelon finally appeared on the dining table, Zong Yan fell silent for a full ten seconds.
"You managed to make a watermelon look like this?"
The subtext: *You really are useless.*
Si Jiang felt a bit guilty and snapped back, "It’s edible, isn't it?"
Zong Yan neither agreed nor disagreed. she just ladled a bowl of chicken soup, portioned half the vegetables into Si Jiang’s dedicated bowl, and placed them along with the kelp on the small table on the floor.
A pet had no right to eat at the same table as the master.
Regarding this, Si Jiang had moved from humiliated protest at the beginning to numb resignation now. He crawled down from his wheelchair, sat before the small table, and ate obediently.
If he threw a tantrum and refused to eat, Zong Yan wouldn't coddle him. Poor people generally didn't waste food. If Si Jiang didn't eat, Zong Yan would save the meal for the next one. If he still didn't eat, she’d save it for the one after that. She would wait until he was so hungry he’d swallow even slightly sour rice.
After Si Jiang had crawled out of the bathroom once, utterly exhausted from hunger, he would force himself to eat no matter how much he didn't want to.
Today, the pet ate an extra bowl of rice.
Zong Yan watched him, thinking that the cold kelp had been a good purchase after all. She ate quickly, as if completing a task. While Si Jiang was still sipping his soup, Zong Yan had already cleared her dishes and taken them to the kitchen.
Zong Yan ate two spoonfuls of watermelon. The rest went to Si Jiang.
Everything was as usual—dull and natural.
Until one o'clock in the morning, when Zong Yan suddenly opened her eyes.
There was no one under the sofa.
Her expression instantly turned hideous. She searched the room; her pet was nowhere to be found.
Zong Yan gripped her phone, her intense emotions like spilled ink, staining her desolate soul with heavy colors.
"Heh."
A laugh as cold as ice.
Zong Yan mocked herself. She had clearly been too kind to this pet; otherwise, how could he have found the chance to run?
She should have been like her biological father, locking all the doors and windows and cornering her mother like livestock. Her mother had hidden under the bed, but no one could escape. Or like her stepfather, using chains to bind someone forever—that way, even in death, they would die by your side.
Why wasn't she that cruel?
Zong Yan shook her head with a sigh. She had originally wanted to raise Si Jiang in her own way. But the results proved that it wouldn't work.
The moonlight was like water, but it couldn't penetrate the enclosed stairwell of the high-rise.
In the narrow passage, someone was limping, pressing against the wall, moving down with every muscle tense. When he moved too fast, he tripped and fell because he couldn't see the path. When he slowed down, anxiety and fear whispered incessantly in his ear.
*Run, Si Jiang. Or you’ll die here.*
*Run outside, back to the world.*
*Before she finds out.*
Ignoring his new bruises, Si Jiang dragged his injured leg downstairs. He didn't know how long he had been walking when he finally saw a faint light. His eyes brightened, and he immediately ran toward the exit.
That was the direction of freedom!
His pace quickened. He burst out of the final corridor, and moonlight bathed him once more.
"I'm free!"
Si Jiang spread his arms and looked ahead with a smile. But when his gaze finally settled on what lay before him—the smile cracked, inch by inch.
"How is it? The free world."
A chilling voice sounded from behind him.
Si Jiang spun around, fear forcing him back a step like a neural reflex. His movement made the newcomer’s eyes grow even colder.
"Is this the freedom you chose to run for?"
"You... when did you follow me?" Si Jiang asked frantically. He hadn't heard a single footstep behind him.
Zong Yan didn't answer. She simply walked past him, ignoring his instantly stiffened body, and stepped into the moonlight.
The nearby weeds were nearly as tall as a person. Abandoned stone materials were piled everywhere like ruins. The deep, dark grass rustled with the sound of something crawling within. It was a wasteland, devoid of human life, without a single sound of modern society. The silence was terrifying.
Zong Yan snapped a piece of foxtail grass, twirling it in her fingers. She showed no sign of anger over her pet’s escape.
Si Jiang’s thoughts were in chaos. He couldn't grasp the situation. Why wasn't Zong Yan grabbing him? Why did the outside world look like this? Had the earthquake been so severe that everything was now a ruin?
Could he... could he go back? The school, Chen Bai, his parents... were they still there? And this endless, pitch-black wasteland—how long would he have to walk to reach the city he once knew?
Zong Yan. She was the only one who knew the answers.
"Zong Yan, is the world... is it like this now?" he asked, suppressing his terror.
Zong Yan didn't confirm or deny. She just stroked the fuzz of the foxtail grass with her fingers, plucking it off clump by clump.
Was this a silent "yes"?
Si Jiang’s body went limp, the strength he had been forcing for so long half-vanishing in an instant. How could this be?
Zong Yan stripped the grass bare, tied the stem into three knots, snapped it, and threw it to the ground. She ground it into the dirt with her foot. The sound of her shoe grinding against the grit was a harsh, screeching noise. Each crunch sounded like a death knell, draining the color from Si Jiang’s lips.
He looked at Zong Yan, opening his mouth to speak.
Zong Yan gave him no chance. As if she had finished her walk, she turned back toward the building.
She said, "Since you want to leave so badly, then go."
"A pet that only thinks of betrayal is better off discarded."
Si Jiang repeated blankly, "Discarded?"
It wasn't that he was running away anymore; it was that Zong Yan didn't want him. He was being abandoned? His fingertips began to tremble strangely.
Zong Yan turned toward the stairwell. As if suddenly remembering something, she looked back at Si Jiang.
"Oh, right. Don't worry, your parents and Chen Bai are alive."
She met Si Jiang’s widening eyes and flashed a cruel smile.
"It was probably the day you chose to become a pet. I heard Chen Bai talking to your father at the school gate."
"Your father was in a black sedan, wearing a suit. He told Chen Bai that searching for you in the ruins had already cost too much time and resources, and it was affecting the family business."
Her eyes held a faint trace of pity and mockery as she watched the light in Si Jiang’s eyes fade to gray.
"He said they’d let the rescue team look for you for one more week. If you weren't found after a week, then..."
"Then he’d act as if he never had a son."
A voice, so soft it was almost inaudible, spoke the words at the same time.
Si Jiang laughed, though it looked like he was crying. Those words were too familiar. He had heard them several times over the years. That was exactly his father’s tone; Zong Yan, who had never met the man, couldn't have made it up.
"Si Jiang, tell me, it’s been nearly a month. Do you think they’re still looking for you?"
"Is there anyone left who believes you’re alive, who’s waiting for you to come back?"
Zong Yan seemed genuinely curious for a moment, then, realizing none of this concerned her anymore, she held out her hand to Si Jiang.
"Si Jiang, I don't want you anymore. You can go back. Take off the collar and give it back to me."
At the boundary between moonlight and darkness, Si Jiang’s face was as pale as a ghost's. He touched the collar around his neck and repeated, "You don't want me either? You want me to give the collar back?"
Zong Yan frowned in confusion. "What else? My collar is only for my pet. You aren't one anymore, so you aren't fit to wear it."
The smooth wax block slid in Si Jiang’s palm, yet it felt even hotter than his body temperature.
"Are you... really that petty?"
Si Jiang didn't know what he was saying. The sour emotion in his heart was expanding rapidly, pulsing with his heartbeat, crowding into every corner of his being until it felt like he would explode.
He was being given up on. How hilarious. That amount of time was more than enough for those two old fossils to try IVF; they must have been itching to do it. Without the burden of a son like him, they could finally have an ideal, obedient, and excellent heir for the Si family.
One week. His life, his entire existence, was only worth one week.
Si Jiang moved his leg. No—now that he was a cripple with a ruined face, if he actually appeared before them, they would probably prefer it if he had died in the earthquake. Those two had finally gotten rid of him.
And the woman before him—the one who had pulled him out of his nightmare, who lit candles for him, who gave him a glass jar and wax, who raised him like a dog—she didn't want him either?
Si Jiang opened his mouth, but no sound came out.
She was the one who had imprisoned him and kept him in the dark. Yet she was also the only person who made him feel less afraid of the darkness.
It was Zong Yan’s negligence that had caused his leg injury to linger, yet she was the one who regularly applied medicine, never flinching at the pus or blood, and she had even found him a wheelchair.
At night, she would leave a light on for him and hold his leash because he was afraid of the dark. Sometimes when he got up in the night, she would accompany him to the bathroom door and wait.
Sleeping, reading, and eating with someone, then doing chores and cleaning... sleeping when tired and always having a companion nearby upon waking. Si Jiang had lived for so many years and had never felt a life that resembled a normal family as much as this. Even if he was experiencing it as a pet.
But...
This was all Zong Yan’s fault!
"I won't."
Si Jiang shook his head. He would never give the things back to Zong Yan.
Zong Yan felt a surge of disgust at this clinging. The exhaustion from lack of sleep had drained her patience.
"Fine. Then throw it away. I don't want it."
She tossed the words out coldly and stepped into the pitch-black stairwell.
"Zong Yan!" Si Jiang shouted after her. "Wait! What right do you have to discard me? I don't agree!"
Zong Yan stepped onto the stairs.
Si Jiang, clutching the wax block, followed her.
"It’s your fault! You imprisoned me! You said I was your pet!"
"You said you’d raise it well and not abandon it! Was that all a lie?"
Zong Yan didn't stop.
Si Jiang entered the dark stairwell. His instinctive fear made him halt. This time, without expectation or hope, he had lost the courage to walk this long, dark path again.
But Zong Yan was moving fast; her footsteps were growing distant.
Si Jiang cursed at her in a breakdown. "Zong Yan, you stop right there! Don't you dare leave!"
"It’s your fault! You said you’d be back on time, but you still made me wait so long before giving me the candle! You know I can't stand the dark! Do you know I almost went crazy when the power went out today?"
"You said you’d be back at six, but what time was it when you actually got back? What time! You’re a liar! Why should I be a liar’s pet? If you can't keep a promise, why can't I run?"
"Zong Yan, you can't provoke me and then throw me away like trash! I won't accept it!"
Si Jiang pounded on the wall, the *thud-thud-thud* echoing with the grievances and resentment he couldn't voice.
"Who provoked whom first?"
Zong Yan’s voice drifted down from above.
Si Jiang froze.
"Who was it that incited the students to isolate me, to bully me, to make sure I didn't have a single day of peace at school? Who was it that knew perfectly well I didn't write that love letter, yet used it to mock me for 'a toad lusting after swan meat,' making me a laughingstock? Who was it that wouldn't let me go in university, hinting to my roommates to bully me, causing me to be misunderstood by my professor and lose my scholarship?"
She listed each event with extreme calm, yet they struck Si Jiang’s ears like claps of thunder.
"I..." Si Jiang’s lips trembled.
"And who was it that forced vodka down my throat while I was working? If my colleagues hadn't rushed me to the hospital, my life probably would have ended that day."
"I didn't know... I didn't think it would be that serious."
When Si Jiang did those things, he only wanted to vent his spite. He couldn't stand Zong Yan’s pride, so he wanted to use every method to break her until she submitted. He hadn't intended to kill her.
But... did Si Jiang really not know that drinking that much vodka could be fatal? Did he really not know that a poor person losing a major source of income would severely impact their life?
Of course he knew. He just didn't care.
The old him hadn't cared at all.
"Si Jiang, why would I bother provoking you?"
Zong Yan was revealing the final answer, and Si Jiang was beginning to fear hearing it.
"Before, those things didn't matter. I could endure them. But why, after ruining my scholarship, did you have to take photos to slander me and get the school to cancel my financial aid?"
Si Jiang’s breathing stopped.
"Si Jiang, you wanted to drive me to my death. How can you not allow me to want revenge on you?"
"To me, if you aren't a pet, you aren't even worth as much as trash."
"No..."
Si Jiang hadn't expected Zong Yan to choose this moment to tear away all the pretenses between them. He had been cast out into the wasteland, and no one would ever reach out to him again.
"Don't..."
"Si Jiang, you are finally mine. No one will save you now."
An auditory hallucination whispered a triumphant laugh in his ear.
"You have been abandoned by everyone."
*I haven't. I won't.*
"Zong Yan!"
He had never let out such a hoarse scream. "I'm sorry! It was my fault!"
He closed his eyes and charged into the darkness.
Tripping, slipping, tumbling. Si Jiang half-ran, half-crawled to catch up to Zong Yan’s footsteps.
"I'm selfish, arrogant, and willful!"
"I have a terrible temper! I never think about how others feel!"
"I knew I had problems, but I didn't want to admit it, let alone change!"
"Everything I did to you before was my fault! I'm guilty! I really know I was wrong!"
"I didn't really want to run today! I was just angry and scared! You kept coming back late, and I was afraid that one day I’d never see you again! I was scared, so I wanted to make you angry!"
"I didn't want to escape! I just wanted to get your attention..."
"Zong Yan, don't give up on me..."
"My parents don't want me anymore. 'Si Jiang' is just a meaningless name. When they look at me, they don't see me; they see my family background."
"Now I have nothing. I am nothing. Do you think I have no value too?"
He slumped against the door, his hands—covered in dust and blood—pounding on the closed entrance.
"Zong Yan, open the door. I want to come in."
"I was wrong. I really know I was wrong."
"I’ll never want to leave again. Being a pet is fine, really. I’ve been quite happy during this time."
Si Jiang forced a smile into the empty air.
"I can atone for what I did wrong. I can compensate you. You can make me do anything."
"Zong Yan, open the door."
He cried out, "Open the door! I want to go home!"
The persistent hallucinations fed on his terror. Countless shadows began to roam around him, closing in, grabbing at his clothes and hair, pulling at his arms to drag him back into the darkness.
"Zong Yan, I’ll be a good pet. Just give me one more chance."
"Please! They’re going to take me away! The box... the box is back! They’re going to lock me inside! No! I don't want to be thrown into the water..."
Si Jiang was paralyzed with terror. He clutched the wax block at his neck, trying to shrink himself into the crack of the door, burying his head between his knees until his voice went hoarse.
"As long as you don't abandon me, I’ll never leave."
"Zong Yan, let me go home."
*Click.*
The door opened.
Zong Yan held a leash in her hand. Si Jiang lunged forward, fastening the end of the lead to his own collar.
Then, he looked up at Zong Yan with a timid, fawning expression.
"Master."
***
