Imprisoning the Black Moonlight

An eerie atmosphere filled the room. The girl's eyes, filled with hatred, were broken and desolate as she stared blankly at the man before her. Large tears fell one by one, yet she made no sound. She just stared at him quietly, determined to get an answer.

Hong Jin had never seen Yao Gongyue so broken and desperate. Finally, unable to bear her gaze, he sighed, took her fair and delicate hand, and spoke softly through his thin lips, which had been pointing fingers at the world since he was a teenager, "Baby, stay, okay? As long as you stay, I'll agree to anything you want!"

"Hong Jin!" Yao Gongyue wiped away her tears, stubbornly raising her swan-like neck, her clear eyes looking at him. "Do you know why I went to Avist?"

"When I was sixteen, a boy at school pressured me to date him. I refused, and rumors spread like wildfire. His mother came to the school and humiliated me and my family. I was furious and told the boy I would never like him, and then—"

"He jumped off a building!" As she uttered these four words, tears welled up in the girl's eyes, a hint of ashen pallor spread across her fair cheeks, and her pale lips trembled slightly.

“I was expelled from school, and everyone called me a troublemaker. No school was willing to accept me. My mother and aunt sold our only house to pay for my schooling.”

I really didn't mean to provoke you. I just... I just couldn't lose. Hong Jin, I had no way out. If I hadn't found a rich boyfriend back then, I would have had trouble even making a living!

My mother and aunt run a hair salon. They have to pay rent and make a living. They have no idea that 1,000 RMB is just the price of a pair of slippers for someone else at a school like Ivy. But I can't tell them, because if I do, they might even do something like selling their blood.

She had never spoken these words to anyone, because she knew that no one could truly empathize with her suffering; they would only use it to hurt her. But today, facing utter despair, she had no choice but to reopen her wounds and beg for a man's pity.

“Hong Jin, I really thought that dating me was just a pastime for rich young men. You spent money on me, but didn’t I also try to make you happy and always go along with you? How did it come to the point where I have to give up everything?”

The man looked at her quietly, raised his hand, and gently wiped away the tears from her fair face. His dark eyes were filled with pain and defeat, and his tone was terribly cold. "So, baby, that year, in your eyes, was it just a pretense of affection that I bought with money?"

Yao Gongyue pursed her lips and looked at him, unsure whether to say yes or no. Neither affirmation nor denial seemed quite right.

Hong Jin's fingertips trembled slightly, his eyes were so red they looked like they could drip blood. He got up in a daze, walked to the huge French window, took out a cigarette from his pocket, and lit it.

Outside the window, the sun blazed brightly, the grass was lush and green, and the flowers were in full bloom. The man standing by the window was tall and slender, upright and resolute, yet he carried a deep sense of loneliness and desolation.

As far as the eye can see, the towering spire of the Golden Buddha Temple is faintly visible. Outside, the world is in turmoil, but he has fallen into hell, with no one to help him!

As the cigarette burned to ashes, the man turned and returned to the anxious girl.

"Baby, I give up!"

"Even if I paid for this year's friendship, I still gained something. Let's let this go, and from now on, let's live well together, okay?"

Yao Gongyue hadn't expected him to come to this conclusion after only a short time, and said helplessly, "There is no future, Hong Jin. My future will never include you!"

"Why?" Hong Jin didn't understand. His eyes turned even bloodshot as he pressed down on her shoulders and roared in a low voice.

"Because!" Her beautiful eyes suddenly flashed with a cold light, "I hate being forced!"

The man's mind was in complete chaos, his ears were ringing, his chest was heaving violently, and his trembling dark eyes betrayed his panic.

By the way, if she were really a soft-hearted person, she would have given in and compromised back then, and agreed to that boy's request. Why did it end up with both of them getting hurt?

On matters of principle, she is actually quite unyielding.

One wrong step, one wrong step!

Hong Jin broke out in a cold sweat. After taking a few deep breaths, he finally spoke, "I have private property in China. You don't need to worry about your mother and aunt's lives. I will arrange everything to ensure they have enough to eat and wear. Will that calm you down?"

Yao Gongyue practically jumped off the sofa. "You're not allowed to go to them!"

Accepting Hong Jin's arrangement meant being tied to a foreign land for life. Her mother and aunt couldn't leave their homeland, and she couldn't leave them either. They had relied on each other for so many years, and none of the three could live without the other.

"Hong Jin!" She stamped her foot on the ground in frustration, and the tears she had finally managed to hold back welled up again. "Can't you just let me go? You're rich and powerful, you can have any woman you want, why do you have to tie me down? My mother and aunt can't live without me!"

"How do you know," the man growled through gritted teeth, "how do you know I can fucking survive without you? Huh? Yuebao!"

From the moment I was about to pierce myself through, I knew that the name Yao Gongyue was my heavenly deity, the only glimmer of light I saw in the endless hell, and my faith.

Born in the land of ten thousand Buddhas, I, Hong Jin, am never a believer. I have earned a doctorate in philosophy, but I have discovered that in my desolate ideology, loving you has become the only methodology.

"You've been living a perfectly fine life for the past twenty-odd years, haven't you? I'm not a demon, I didn't capture your soul or steal your spirit, so why can't you live? Hong Jin, we already settled the money, what's wrong with letting me live?"

"Payment settled?" The man's forehead veins throbbed, his anger rising to his head, his eyes blazing. He grabbed the girl's slender wrist, gritting his teeth, "You really think I'm some spoiled brat? Fine!"

The man closed his eyes to suppress the rage in his chest, nodded and exhaled several breaths of stale air before speaking, "Since that's the case, then this young master will buy it for a lifetime. Name your price!"

Her wrist was being pulled so hard it felt like it was about to break, but the girl stubbornly met the man's fierce gaze. "Due to poor management, the business went out of business. Please go somewhere else to spend your money!"

Hong Jin felt as if some evil spirit deep in his soul had been released from its spell, breaking free of its cage and running rampant, shouting and bewitching: Look, look, she has no heart at all. What is there to keep such a woman around?

What's the point of having a heart? As long as we keep people, what does it matter if we don't have a heart?

He gritted his teeth and wiped his face hard. "Then don't blame me for dining and dashing!"

After saying that, he hoisted the person onto his shoulder with one hand and strode upstairs to the bedroom.

The master bedroom was a mess. They carried the person and kicked open the door to the adjacent second bedroom.

Yuebao, we've hit you, we've made a fuss, we've coaxed you, but if you're going to be stubborn, then let's just stick to our stubborn ways!