Chapter 53: I Want You to Only Rely on Me
Over the following days, Liang Sheng and the cat depended on each other.
He built a simple little tent using branches and vines outside the deep forest. Though crude, it could at least provide shelter from the wind and rain.
Huddling in the tiny grass nest at night was the only sense of security on the vast, deserted island.
At dusk, many crabs and shellfish would be washed onto the beach by the tide. Liang Sheng, carrying a homemade bamboo basket and bamboo tongs, walked barefoot on the beach with the cat to gather these items.
When hungry, he ate seafood; when thirsty, he drank filtered seawater. Though life was hard, it was fulfilling and peaceful.
It seemed the entire world consisted of only him.
Shen Xingyu wanted him dead, but he insisted on living.
If he could never leave the island, that would be fine, too. As long as he didn’t encounter wild beasts, it could be considered a life of seclusion.
He didn’t have to live a life of compromise, didn’t have to deal with anyone, and no one would frame him…
In any case, he wouldn’t live for many more years. When the time came, he would die here with the cat, having a companion on the road to the afterlife.
Tonight’s moon was exceptionally round. The cold, clear radiance spilled onto the ground, looking inexplicably sorrowful and lonely.
Liang Sheng held the cat and sat outside the tent. Looking up at the sky, tears suddenly welled in his eyes.
Counting the days, today should be the fifteenth or sixteenth, right? During these days on the island, without a calendar or clock, he had almost forgotten the time. Every day, he estimated the hour by watching the sun.
Sometimes when it was cloudy and he couldn’t see the sun, he had to wait for the sky to darken before he could roughly know the time.
When he was first dumped on the island, he was very unaccustomed to it—afraid, helpless, lost… he even wanted to die.
Now, no matter how unaccustomed he was, he had to force himself to adapt.
“Little Flower, tell me… if I die, too, will I be able to see Mother…?”
Liang Sheng held the cat a bit tighter in his arms, resting his head on it while murmuring in a low voice.
The sadness and bitterness could be told to no one.
No one had ever listened to his inner thoughts.
“Meow meow~”
The cat seemed to sense his sadness. Its paw rested on him, and it licked his cheek.
“I miss Mother…”
Liang Sheng gave a sob. His thin frame was wrapped in old clothes; when the cold wind blew, he trembled violently.
A child without a mother is like a blade of grass.
Even now, he couldn’t move on from his mother’s passing, living forever in self-reproach and guilt.
The cat didn’t know what a “mother” was. It could only rub its head against his palm to give him warmth.
“Little Flower, promise me you’ll never leave me, okay? I only have you left…”
Liang Sheng’s eyes were tearful. He held the cat tightly; this was his only hope for living.
The cat gave a few cries, which counted as an agreement.
Only then did Liang Sheng offer a strained smile.
The night grew deep. The sea breeze blew in gusts, mixed with a faint fishy scent that made one instinctively frown.
“Let’s sleep, Little Flower.”
Holding the cat, he bent over to enter the wooden nest.
The ground was covered with dry grass. Liang Sheng’s skin was already red from being poked, but he couldn’t bear to throw it away.
It was the only thing that gave him a sense of security.
He gently patted the cat curled beside him. With the corners of his mouth tilted up, he whispered, “Goodnight.”
With that, he fell into a deep sleep.
The morning wind was cold; there was no sunlight.
Liang Sheng was woken by the cold again.
He instinctively wanted to hold the cat beside him, but his hands felt only emptiness. It was cold; there was nothing there. His finger was poked by a piece of dry grass, and it bled instantly.
His eyes snapped open. Not seeing the cat immediately upon waking made him feel both panicked and terrified.
“Little Flower! Where did you go?!”
Liang Sheng shouted with a sob. Unable to find it in the wooden nest, he crawled out to search for the cat everywhere.
But there was no sign of it.
Not on the beach, not behind the rocks, not in the hollows of the trees, not even in the bottom of the water ditch…
He searched every corner over and over again.
Normally, the cat would wake before him, but it would always crouch obediently beside him. It would never run off, and cats were afraid of water; it couldn’t possibly have gone near the sea!
Where did it go…
Liang Sheng cried in anxiety. He squatted on the ground, his eyes staring blankly at nothing in the distance, not knowing what to do.
If the cat was gone, he couldn’t go on living, either.
The entrance to the deep forest was dark. Suddenly, a few rustling noises came from it before quickly disappearing.
Was it Little Flower?
A spark returned to Liang Sheng’s eyes. He stood up shakily and hurriedly ran toward the source of the sound.
But just as he approached the entrance to the forest, he stopped. He looked inside in fear.
Normally, he and the cat never approached this place. Their activity was limited to the area between the wooden nest and the beach.
The cat certainly wouldn’t have sprinted in on its own.
What do I do…
Should I go in?
But inside, the trees blotted out the sky. Everything was an unknown. What if there were terrifying wild beasts?
Liang Sheng’s legs shook even more violently.
He was truly afraid of enclosed spaces.
But if there really were wild beasts, what if they ate the cat?
Thinking of the tiny cat being attacked by beasts made Liang Sheng’s spine go cold. He didn’t dare think further. Plucking up his courage, he shouted toward the entrance:
“Little Flower! Are you in there? Please come out quickly… I’ll wait for you out here. Come out quickly!”
He shouted for a long time, but there was still no response.
Usually, whenever he called Little Flower, the cat would run over. Today, no matter how he called, he couldn’t see that figure running toward him.
Liang Sheng gradually fell into despair, his tears falling like rain.
Could it be… that even Little Flower didn’t want him anymore?
Was Little Flower in some kind of danger?
He was so worried that he ignored his fear. Taking a deep breath, he walked tremblingly into the forest.
He had to find Little Flower.
If he stayed here without Little Flower to accompany him, he couldn’t live. Either way was death; he wanted to die with Little Flower!
Liang Sheng stumbled forward all the way, more determined than ever. Ahead was the thing most important to him; if he stopped, he would lose it forever.
The forest was very dark; no sunlight could penetrate.
The air was damp, and there were pits and hollows everywhere.
His walk was difficult. He fell several times, his skin tearing and leaving him covered in wounds. it hurt so much, yet he had to climb up and keep walking.
The ancient cypresses reached for the sky like ghost claws. The further he went into the depths, the more gnarled trees there were, and the more his skin crawled.
An occasional rustle in the grass was enough to scare Liang Sheng to tears. He pulled in his neck, hugged himself, and scanned his surroundings in terror, calling out timidly:
“L-Little Flower? Where are you? Please come out… we’ll go out and play hide-and-seek again…”
His voice echoed, lingering for a long time.
His surroundings were dead silent. Besides his breathing and footsteps, there was only the wind.
Suddenly, a sharp pain shot through his ankle.
Liang Sheng’s ankle twisted, and he nearly fell again. He looked down, his brow furrowed. He pulled up his pant leg and saw a leech had burrowed into his skin!
This thing, once given the chance to touch the skin, would attach to its host and start frantically sucking blood.
Liang Sheng was terrified. When he was a child and went to the river with his mother to wash clothes, he had been bitten by a leech, and his foot had been swollen for weeks.
He gritted his teeth, endured the pain, pinched the leech hard, and yanked it out along with a piece of skin!
“Hiss… ah! It hurts so much, wu wu…”
Liang Sheng’s face turned pale from the pain, and physiological tears flowed out. He threw the leech away and hurriedly used his pants to wrap the wound to prevent the bleeding from continuing.
The leech wasn’t dead yet, wriggling non-stop.
Liang Sheng didn’t dare stay. He walked away with a limp. He hadn’t found Little Flower after all this time. He felt wronged and afraid, his eyes red and swollen. It seemed he had already shed all the tears of this lifetime during these past few days.
His health was already poor, and now he was injured. He hadn’t walked much further before his eyes went dark, and he fainted.
Not far away, the sound of footsteps rang out.
Someone was slowly approaching his fallen body.
When he woke again, the sky was already dark.
Or rather, Liang Sheng could no longer see.
He had originally thought it was just the sky turning dark. Terrified, he curled up in place, not daring to move. He instinctively reached out to grab something, but his hands seemed to be tied tightly together; he couldn’t move, and even struggling hard was to no avail.
Who tied my hands?!
Liang Sheng was horrified. He then belatedly realized that his eyes were also covered by something. It wasn’t the dark sky!
“Wu… no…”
He shook his head while crying, wanting to use his hands to tear the cloth away, but his hands were tied too tightly; even moving an inch was difficult.
Who did this?!
Could it be…
“Sh-Shen Xingyu! What exactly do you want to do? I beg you! I beg you to let me go…”
Liang Sheng knelt on the ground. He couldn’t see, so he could only cry and plead toward his surroundings with heart-wrenching intensity. He was afraid of the dark; being blindfolded like this, he would die…
But there was no response.
This kind of torture caused Liang Sheng to break down. He cried with a hoarse voice, his tears soaking the gauze.
“Are you there…?”
He spoke with a final, humble sliver of hope.
He so badly wanted this man to appear. Even if he appeared to kill him, it would be fine; he didn’t want to endure this agony anymore. It was truly too painful…
Not far away, Shen Xingyu stood in his suit next to a tall locust-mulberry tree, holding the yawning calico cat. He stroked the cat over and over, admiring Liang Sheng’s despair at his leisure.
The cat’s heart was also cold.
Perhaps from the very beginning, it had merely been a tool.
Liang Sheng’s pain was uncontrollable. Tears seeped through the gauze and hit the dead leaves on the ground with a soft sound.
His sun had set; the world was forever dark.
“Why treat me like this…?”
He murmured sorrowfully. He didn’t understand what he had done wrong for Shen Xingyu to punish him this way. He only wanted to live out his final moments in peace.
Why… why simply refuse to let him go?
“I want to make it so you can only rely on me, Shengsheng.”
“In a dead end, only I can save you.”
The man’s voice, full of affection, drifted over, making Liang Sheng’s entire body freeze. He was stunned for several seconds. His dry lips trembled as he questioned in disbelief: “So you’re the one who… dumped me on a deserted island?!”
“That’s right. It’s quiet here, with only the two of us. No one will take you away. Do you like it? Shengsheng, have these past few days been happy?”
Shen Xingyu spoke with a light laugh. This feeling of breaking the wings of the canary that tried to escape and locking him by his side was very pleasing. He would destroy Liang Sheng’s world, leaving only the darkness he provided, so that Liang Sheng could never forget him.
“So… you’ve been watching me all these days? Watching me suffer while you remained indifferent…”
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