Hamish took a deep breath and shouted outside, “Bring the food up!”
Soon, the maid brought a bowl of porridge. Hamish reached out, took it, and squatted down to scoop half a spoonful of porridge to feed Elisa.
In a gentle tone, he said, “Eat, it’s not hot.”
The porridge was a nutritious and easily digestible rice porridge, cooked to a soft and sticky texture, with minced meat sprinkled on top. Elisa pursed her pale lips tightly, neither opening her mouth nor speaking. This situation was exactly as described by the butler, as if she were a soulless puppet.
Hamish was in a bad mood and lacked patience. He reached out and pried open her mouth, forcing her to eat. Elisa reluctantly opened her mouth, and the porcelain spoon scraped against the corner of her mouth, causing a fiery pain. The warm porridge flowed into her throat, and the smell of the minced meat made her stomach churn, making her want to vomit.
Seeing her swallow the porridge, Hamish smirked with satisfaction. Before he could praise Elisa, she immediately vomited it out.
The white glutinous porridge had traces of blood. Hamish’s face turned extremely ugly. His emotions had been tumultuous all the way back, like a thorn stuck in his throat. Now, seeing Elisa in such a miserable state, he angrily slammed the bowl down and raised his hand.
Elisa’s eyes finally showed a flicker of fear as she stared at him without fear, not backing down. She tilted her face up, waiting for Hamish’s slap to come down.
Hamish’s hand, raised in mid-air, suddenly stopped. His emotions were indescribably complex, and in the end, he didn’t deliver the slap. “Do you think starving yourself to death is a way to crash into a wall? Elisa, do you think I have a good temper and really dare not hit you?”
“Then go ahead and hit me, preferably to death.” Elisa had only spoken a few words to him on the phone that day and had remained silent, staring outside the window. Her voice now was hoarse and fragmented, with several words barely audible.
But Hamish understood the coherent meaning. Elisa was a stubborn stone, unyielding, wanting to confront him head-on and hurt herself in the process.
Suddenly, Hamish forcefully pressed her down on the bed, opening his mouth and biting her shoulder. The woman in his arms went from trembling slightly to struggling, and finally became weak and calm. Blood stained his lips as well.
He was like a bloodthirsty demon, wishing he could swallow her whole and merge her into his own blood and bones.
Elisa was bitten hard, her face numb and calm throughout. Her expression showed no signs of change, her eyes empty and lifeless, not like a living person.
Hamish had never seen Elisa so lifeless before, even though there was still breath in her nose, her chest rising and falling, and her body still warm. But he felt like she was about to die.
This inexplicable panic unleashed the restlessness in his heart. He pinched Elisa’s chin, exerting such force as if he wanted to crush that piece of bone.
“If you want to commit slow suicide in this way, do you believe that I will tie you to the bed with a rope, making you like a vegetable, dependent on nutrient solution to keep you alive?” He didn’t care about Elisa’s health, as long as she was alive.
Elisa started to tremble, but the tremors were so slight that he could barely feel them unless he held her tightly.
“I…,” Elisa’s eyes shifted and met Hamish’s gaze. Hamish had already brought her to Shallow Bay and locked her up. What else couldn’t he do?
“If you untie the chains on my feet, I won’t run away and I’ll eat properly…”
“What qualifications do you have to negotiate with me?” Hamish sneered, his words filled with mockery. “Do you want to go to the psychiatric hospital, not wanting to be locked up in the house? Do you want to go to the mental asylum?”
Elisa’s eyes turned red, filled with hatred. Hamish was domineering and ruthless, always following through with his harsh words.
“I heard that the asylum in the north is not bad. Would you like to stay there for a while?”
In Bankshire, the mental hospital was divided into two categories: a regular psychiatric hospital and a mental asylum.
The mental asylum was a terrifying place in Bankshire. The patients locked inside had violent tendencies and were often confined in pitch-black cells, where screams and howls could be heard all night long.
When she was a child, Koby used to scare her by saying that he would sendher to the asylum if she didn’t behave. The fear instilled in her since childhood was deeply ingrained in her bones. Now, as soon as Hamish mentioned it, it instantly awakened the hidden dread within her.
Hamish glanced at the bowl of congee on the ground and looked at her. “Choose for yourself, whether you want to eat properly or become a ‘vegetable’ or be sent to a mental institution.”
Elisa’s eyelashes trembled, and tears welled up in her eyes. Suddenly, she resigned herself to her fate. She propped herself up on the chain around her feet, and the sound of it swaying was jarringly loud in the quiet room.
She slid off the bed and, like an animal, held the bowl on the ground and ate. She swallowed while choking and retching, tears streaming down her face. She clenched her teeth and pressed her tongue against them.
Her stomach suddenly convulsed. Already weakened, her hand holding the bowl went limp, and with a loud “crash,” the bowl fell to the ground, spilling the congee all over.
She hunched her shoulders and looked at the scattered congee on the floor, her eyes bloodshot.
“Elisa…” Hamish began to speak, but Elisa reflexively became afraid and knelt down. Her trembling hand reached for the bowl on the ground, not minding the dirt, and she tried to pick up the spilled congee and stuff it into her mouth.
Hamish’s pupils contracted, and he grabbed her hand and pulled her up from the ground.
Elisa stood up weakly, her eyes red, and choked, “I will eat it all…”
Hamish furrowed his brow harshly. He knew he had pushed Elisa too far. He took her to the washroom with his companions, cleaned her face, and gently said, “You don’t have to eat what fell on the ground, Elisa. I keep you locked up just to make you obedient. I don’t really want to treat you as a toy. My demands are simple; just listen to me and eat properly.”
The phrase “listen obediently” contained too much, such as obediently accompanying him in bed, obediently following his orders to get pregnant, and obediently giving birth to a child for Lila.
What’s the difference between this kind of life and being treated like an animal?
Hamish called the maid to clean the room, and then brought a half-bowl of congee to feed Elisa.
Elisa still had an extreme reaction. Her stomach felt uncomfortable, and she wanted to vomit after eating.
This half-bowl of congee went down more smoothly than the previous one, and Hamish nodded in satisfaction. “Wouldn’t it have been better if you had done this earlier? You had to provoke my anger.”
Elisa nodded, tears still clinging to her eyelashes.
Hamish reached out and wiped them away. “From now on, eat properly and behave, or else I’ll really send you to a mental institution and feed you through a tube.”
Elisa continued nodding.
Elisa was the epitome of enduring pain and quickly forgetting it. No matter how many times she was beaten, she remained the same. But this time, she had learned her lesson and finally listened and ate.
Hamish only loosened the chain on her feet when he bathed her, and after quickly washing her, he changed to another foot and locked it again.
The chain had rubbed off a layer of skin on her right foot. The wound didn’t look big, but it was extremely painful. Hamish applied some ointment and temporarily found a pair of socks for her to wear.
Elisa was exquisite from head to toe, even her feet were delicate and slender, fair and clean, with finely powdered fingertips. It made people unable to resist holding them in their hands and playing with them.
After putting on her socks, Hamish released her ankle and his gaze intentionally or unintentionally fell on the row of bite marks on her shoulder.
Hamish had no intention of applying medicine; he wanted to leave his own marks on Elisa’s body.
When they went to sleep, Hamish picked up the chain from the floor and placed it on the other side of the bed, then bound Elisa in his embrace.
Elisa had lived for twenty-four years and had never encountered anyone as paranoid and twisted as Hamish. She lay awake with her eyes open, Hamish holding her hand heavily pressed against her chest, like a heavy shackle suffocating her.
Hamish couldn’t sleep either. His mind was filled with images of Autumn and Elisa, thinking about the looks they exchanged in the orphanage.
Fate was truly a strange thing. One person accumulated eight lifetimes of good luck to meet someone, while the other suffered eight lifetimes of misfortune.
Elisa endured until the late night with her eyes closed. Insomnia made her increasingly restless. She opened her eyes and looked at the man embracing her.
She hated him, but she couldn’t help but admit that hate stemmed from love. What disgusted her more than hating Hamish was hating herself.
Hamish was now herHamish abruptly sat up, his eyes wide open, and stared at Elisa. His gaze was sinister as it shifted from her face to the iron chain in her hand.
Hamish reached out and firmly gripped Elisa’s jaw, his eyes narrowed and his teeth glistening white. “Elisa, are you trying to strangle me in the middle of the night?”