“Uh… I’m a cat, not a female slave.”
Xu Yinsheng weakly retorted.
Even if Zhao Yicheng treated her like a sex doll, “female slave” sounded awful. “Cat” was much better.
“You’re not ashamed, you’re proud of it!”
Chen Kedi was almost laughed into anger.
He tapped Xu Yinsheng’s forehead with the gun handle, looking utterly disappointed:
“People like you have already been tamed. Rather than human, you’re just dogs in human skin, with no will to resist, manipulated and played with in every way.”
Then, as if something occurred to him, he leaned against the shelf and sighed.
“On this yacht, I’ve seen too many female slaves like you.”
“The most precious thing a person has is their self. Those who abandon even their self-awareness are no longer fit to be called human.”
“Forget it. There’s no point in saying so much to a bitch who doesn’t even know she’s trapped, and is instead enjoying it.”
“…I’m a female cat, not a bitch,” Xu Yinsheng whispered.
“And do you think I want to be like this? If I could escape, I would have fled long ago.”
“Escape?”
Chen Kedi stared intently at the silver-haired loli, whose hands and feet were bound, unable to struggle.
He shook his head disdainfully and pointed to himself.
“Now I’m giving you this chance. I’ll take you out, give you a chance to be human.”
“Do you dare? Or rather, do you have the will to resist tyranny?”
Ah… escape?
Xu Yinsheng was speechless for a moment.
If she escaped, all thirty Little Yin Stars would be wasted.
That wasn’t even the most important thing.
Would Zhao Yicheng catch her during the escape?
Could she trust what this stranger said?
The vastness of the sea, where could they escape to?
This series of reasons prevented Xu Yinsheng from even considering escape right now.
Xu Yinsheng felt that she would escape, but not now.
She needed preparation and a plan, and… a tiny bit of courage she herself was unwilling to admit to facing her fear.
Seeing the silver-haired loli’s silence, Chen Kedi thought he had hit a sore spot.
He lowered the gun.
A human-dog whose self-awareness had been eroded—what resistance could it have?
He sneered, a hint of disappointment mixed in.
“See? You can’t even muster a single thought of resistance or struggle. Who do you expect to save you? The Great Sage Equal to Heaven, arriving on auspicious clouds?”
“Your current state might not be self-degradation, but you are beyond saving now. You’ve abandoned human dignity for animal survival.”
His tone carried deep sarcasm and mockery.
Mocking the silver-haired loli who dared not fight and accepted her fate; mocking the dark trade that should have been eradicated by the wheels of history but has resurfaced because of a group of powerful people; mocking the countries of the world that advocate human rights and equality, yet turn a blind eye or even tacitly approve of this!
“How can you say that!”
“I don’t want to be like this either, but what can I do!”
Xu Yinsheng’s eyes reddened, and tears dropped to the ground, one by one.
“I just want to eat a steaming bowl of braised pork, and fragrant white rice.”
“You haven’t eaten cat food, you don’t know what it tastes like—astringent and dry, like pebbles, and it grinds your teeth; you haven’t slept in a cat cage, you don’t know how icy and cold those bars are, cold enough that sometimes a gust of wind at night can wake you up shivering; you haven’t been ‘walked,’ you don’t know what it feels like to have someone hold a red rope in front, while you crawl behind, unable to lift your head, every action beyond your control, like a puppet manipulated by a puppeteer.”
Tears streamed down the silver-haired loli’s cheeks, soaking her clothes.
Chen Kedi fell silent.
He watched the silver-haired loli sob softly, her voice filled with immense grievance and unwillingness.
“The distance from the second floor to the villa’s iron gate is only a hundred-odd steps, but you don’t know how high and long that is for me. So long that without his permission, I can’t even take a single step out of the villa.”
“And,” Xu Yinsheng sniffled a few times, tears shimmering in her crimson eyes, “Didn’t a great sci-fi author once say: lose humanity, lose much; lose everything?”
“I once had a lot, but now it’s all gone. Now I don’t ask for much, just a big bed, a bowl of rice, and a serving of braised pork.”
Xu Yinsheng said a lot, as if trying to pour out all the grievances she had accumulated during this time, until she cried herself tired.
Chen Kedi was silent for a moment before slowly speaking.
“Sorry, I haven’t eaten cat food, so I don’t know what it tastes like. I’ve eaten rat meat—rats that grew up on trash, very fat, lots of oil when roasted, but the taste was bitter and astringent.”
***
Xu Yinsheng froze.
Growing up in an ivory tower, she’d only seen pictures of mice online, let alone eaten them.
“I didn’t mean to mock you.”
Chen Kedi shook his head, then paused.
“I’ve saved a few of your kind of women… girls before. They could have escaped, but they chose to cling to my leg, yelling for security.”
“In their eyes, I saw only the loyalty and obedience of the tamed. It’s hard to imagine those were human eyes.”
He sighed, sounding a bit weary.
“Again, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to humiliate you.”
Xu Yinsheng nodded, accepting his apology.
She blinked her crimson eyes, long lashes glistening with tears, chewing on a word Chen Kedi had just used.
“Tamed?”
“Yes.”
Chen Kedi twisted his somewhat stiff neck, a mix of mockery and melancholy in his voice.
“The methods humans first used to tame cattle, sheep, and dogs were ultimately used on their own kind.”
“Do I have signs of being tamed in my eyes?”
Xu Yinsheng asked curiously, remembering Chen Kedi’s earlier words.
She couldn’t recall Zhao Yicheng ever whipping her.
Aside from all the bad things Zhao Yicheng had done to her before, he was actually quite good to her…
Xu Yinsheng abruptly stopped that thought, taking a sharp breath.
How could she think that!
Chen Kedi looked at the silver-haired loli’s blood-red eyes and nodded.
“Yes, very strong, almost overwhelming the last vestiges of humanity.”
But Xu Yinsheng was completely baffled.
Taming, she’d seen it at the circus—whipping disobedient lions.
But Zhao Yicheng had never whipped her.
So where did that unconscious urge to defend him come from?
Wait, Xu Yinsheng suddenly remembered something.
It was at the very beginning, when Zhao Yicheng established the Little Yin Star system of punishment and reward, explaining a series of rules.
At the time, she’d dismissed it, thinking Zhao Yicheng was acting out again.
But then she used the three silver Little Yin Stars Zhao Yicheng rewarded her to exchange for a bowl of rice and a serving of braised pork.
That’s when she seemed to start changing.
The initial resistance turned into: this method works.
Back then, she just wanted to do more chores in the future to earn a few more servings of braised pork and rice.
Later, she slowly used Little Yin Stars to watch TV, to sleep in her own big bed, to exchange for more and better things…
She began to accept more ways to earn Little Yin Stars, like warming Zhao Yicheng’s bed as a human pillow, sleeping with her head on his lap, being his cat, letting him lead her around the villa…
A chill ran down Xu Yinsheng’s spine, fine sweat beaded on her forehead.
She felt shivers.
She didn’t know when she stopped resisting, accepted, and even embraced Little Yin Stars.
For Little Yin Stars, she could sell her labor, her dignity, her personality.
And yet, she still deceived herself, convincing herself that this wasn’t submission, this was just having something to look forward to.
Xu Yinsheng suddenly envisioned a sad and terrifying future.
Wearing a collar, an anklet, a happy smile on her face, she crawls onto Zhao Yicheng’s bed, manually spreading her legs for him to enter.
“Master said five hundred thousand Little Yin Stars for a child. Kitty wants Little Yin Stars. Kitty wants to have Master’s child. Please satisfy kitty.”
Chen Kedi noticed the silver-haired loli, deeply lost in thought.
He was about to rouse her, but then the silver-haired loli looked up, her crimson eyes meeting his, as if shedding their dullness, bright and dazzling.
At this moment, he saw the light of “humanity” in her eyes.
“Do you have a way to escape from the ship?”
“Yes.”
“Then, please take me and escape from here!”