Since things had come to this, she couldn’t blame herself.
Yue Li decided to change her strategy, moving from pursuit to discipline.
‘I’ve spoiled her too much lately,’ she thought. ‘That’s why the little thing thinks she can climb over my head and dares to lose her temper with me.’
Thus, over the next few days, Xing Lian’s suffering began.
The daily warm greetings were gone, and being hand-fed was now out of the question.
Xing Lian didn’t mind Yue Li’s coldness. She didn’t care about the woman to begin with, and if Yue Li didn’t speak to her, it was exactly what she wanted.
However, the three meals a day were a different story.
When she first crossed over into this world, she had no attachments and little will to survive. But now, there was someone in her heart.
If she didn’t eat or drink, her life would surely be lost, and she would never be able to see Fei again.
At the thought of Fei, a will to live sprouted in Xing Lian’s heart, and she began to actively ask for food.
Although Yue Li had decided to discipline the little thing, she still provided food. After all, she only wanted Xing Lian to compromise, not to torment her to death.
Besides…
Being just a bit cold and not hand-feeding her? What kind of torment was that?
Yue Li didn’t know how to discipline people, so she began searching for books on the subject. After reading them, however, she realized many of the methods couldn’t be used on the little one.
For example, whipping, starving, or using certain tools…
The little thing’s body was so weak that she fell ill even when eating and drinking well. If Yue Li whipped her a few times and she died, what then?
Depriving her of food and water was even more impossible.
The girl was too thin and severely malnourished; something would easily go wrong if she didn’t eat.
As for using tools for discipline…
That was a possibility.
However, the tools had to be strictly selected. Many could not be used, and she had to be extremely cautious.
The more Yue Li thought about it, the more her head ached.
She couldn’t use harsh methods, and she couldn’t even punish the girl by making her clean the room. After all, she was blind. Making a blind person clean was a joke.
Since physical punishment was too risky, Yue Li decided to use a psychological offensive.
“Lian’er, you eat my food and stay in my home. You can’t just give nothing in return.”
“Shameless!” Xing Lian cursed bitterly.
She knew she relied on Yue Li’s money for food and drink, but it wasn’t as if she were here by choice.
‘If she hadn’t kidnapped me, why would I be here? If I hadn’t been kidnapped, I’d definitely be living a better life than this!’
Yue Li had been cursed at so much lately that she didn’t care what the girl said. She simply spoke in a flat tone.
“I don’t need you to work for money—you couldn’t earn any anyway. I just need you to obey me and listen to my words.”
“I won’t!” Xing Lian stubbornly raised her head.
Yue Li gave a cold smile.
“I knew you wouldn’t agree. In that case, let’s begin.”
Begin? Begin what?
Xing Lian’s face filled with confusion.
As if reading her mind, the corners of Yue Li’s mouth curled up.
“The first step of your discipline: call me Master.”
What is this person talking about!?
Xing Lian was fuming.
“No! I’ll never call you that!”
What a joke. She wasn’t a slave; how could she possibly call her “Master”?
“You really won’t?”
Yue Li reached out and pinched her cheek.
Xing Lian slapped the hand away and opened her mouth, trying to bite Yue Li’s finger. Yue Li didn’t give her the chance, nimbly pulling her hand back to dodge.
“It seems you’ve chosen the hard way.”
With that, Yue Li turned and walked to a cabinet not far away, taking out a bundle of rope.
“What… what are you doing?”
Xing Lian couldn’t see, so she didn’t know what was happening, which made her feel panicked.
“What am I doing? I’m punishing you, of course.”
With a wicked grin, Yue Li pushed her down. Ignoring her frantic struggles, she began to tie her up.
Xing Lian’s skin was delicate. To prevent injury, Yue Li had purchased a very high-grade, fine rope.
Even so, it still left red marks on her body.
“Mmph, it’s so tight… it hurts!”
Xing Lian’s body was far too fragile. Being bound by the ropes felt incredibly uncomfortable.
But now was not the time to worry about that. She just wanted to know why Yue Li was tying her up.
With her hands bound behind her back and her thighs and calves tied together, she was in a position where she couldn’t be violated. This allowed Xing Lian to breathe a sigh of relief.
However…
Why was she taking off her shoes?
Wait… her socks were being pulled off too.
Xing Lian was completely lost.
Yue Li tossed Xing Lian onto the bed and sat down herself, placing the girl’s feet on her lap.
‘What… what is she doing?’
Her jade-like feet were squeezed, making Xing Lian feel a bit afraid. Her ten rounded, plump toes curled helplessly.
“So small, so cute. They’re like ripe grapes. Every part of your body is so beautiful.”
Hearing this, Xing Lian’s heart thundered in her chest.
Why was she praising her for no reason? And such an embarrassing part of her body, too. Could she have some kind of strange fetish?
“You—”
Just as she was about to ask, a sudden ticklish sensation spread from the soles of her feet throughout her entire body.
“*Pfft-hahaha*! What… what are you doing?”
Caught completely off guard, Xing Lian burst into laughter.
“Didn’t I just say? I’m going to punish you.”
Though she couldn’t see, she could feel it. It seemed to be a feather. The woman was actually using a feather to tickle her feet.
Xing Lian’s body was extremely sensitive. Just a light stroke was almost more than she could bear.
“You… stop it! Quickly… give me… *pfft-hahaha*!”
Before Xing Lian could finish, Yue Li began to tickle her feet in earnest.
“Ahahaha… hahaha! No! Stop… hahaha!”
As the white feather brushed against the centers of her soles, Xing Lian writhed and rolled, tears streaming from her eyes.
Despite this, Yue Li showed no intention of letting her go.
“Heh, you can’t even handle a light tickle? What if I speed up…”
“No!”
“Oh, so this is your ticklish spot.”
Noticing Xing Lian’s particularly intense reaction when a certain spot on her sole was touched, Yue Li’s eyes lit up, and the feather began to focus there.
“Wait… stop… I beg you… I… *pfft-hahaha*…”
Xing Lian wanted to beg for mercy, but before the words could leave her mouth, they were cut off by laughter.
Her sensitive body couldn’t withstand this level of stimulation. Aside from laughing uncontrollably, she could hardly do anything at all.
Waves of ticklish sensations crashed against her body, each more intense than the last. She cried and laughed until, before long, she lost all sense of her surroundings.
—
She had heard people say that laughing constantly wasn’t a good thing. If one were too “happy,” it was possible to die from laughter.
Xing Lian didn’t know if that was true, but right now, she truly felt as if she were dying.
She had cried and laughed for who knew how long. Sweat poured from her, leaving her entire body soaked.
Xing Lian was afraid. She was truly afraid.
Being tickled like that was practically a form of torture. Although she had suffered much in the past, she had never endured this kind of misery.
Why?
The woman had been so good to her before; why the sudden change?
If Yue Li had been cruel from the start, then no matter how she tortured her, Xing Lian would have felt it was expected. But this sudden shift in attitude left her with a crushing sense of psychological whiplash.