A Star Reborn: The Queen’s Return
chapter-216

He almost could not control the restlessness of his body, so he turned away to avoid looking at her.

She started to feel uneasy again. “Blood, blood…” she said as she removed the blood-stained clothes from her body. Her initially bandaged fingers came into contact with the water, and the gauze started to detach, and as her injured fingertips touched her body, she yelped in pain.

Li Lei could not help but turn over and saw that one of her hands was soaking in the hot spring water and blood was flowing out from her fingers, staining the water red again. Li Lei was taken aback and grabbed her hand immediately. “What are you doing?!”

She looked at him and cried again. “So much blood… It hurts…”

He cursed before he violently turned her body around to backface him and quickly took off the blood-stained clothes off her body and threw them far away.

With her beautiful back exposed, her thin shoulder blades that were like butterfly’s wings were tightly tied by a thin coat belt, and her clothes were covered with blood stains.

Blood rushed to Li Lei’s brain and eradicated all of his senses. He did not know how he was able to untie that thin belt. The thin coat drifted further and further away in the water. He tightly hugged her and pressed his chest against her back.

She was still crying and making small weeping noises.

Li Lei wanted to chop off his own hands. His hands seemed to have a will of their own and moved along her waistline and almost touched a restricted area of her body. No, no way … There was a weak voice shouting in his heart. Stop, let her go. You can’t do this to Xiao Ling …

However, he was unable to control himself.

“Xiao Ling…” He said in a low and hoarse voice. His dry lips were on the back of her neck. “Leave me, quickly leave.”

She acted as if she did not hear him and sank deeper into his arms. “I’m scared.” Tears fell into the hot water and circled the bath. She turned around to face him and put her hands around his neck. “Don’t chase me away.”

He was the only spark of light in her darkness.

He was caught off guard and looked at the large piece of jade-colored skin below her clavicle. Having lost all of his senses, at once, Li Lei tightly hugged her and roughly kissed her lips unlike the warm entanglement of lovers. In fact, it was more like a beast devouring his prey.

She remained soft in his arms and was supported by his arm strength. She did not resist him and let him do whatever he wanted.

Until he separated her legs and forced himself on her.

The sudden pain made her scream. She looked at the vacant space with empty eyes, and tiny fragments appeared in her vision. Those memories were so cruel that she could not help but start to struggle. “Let go of me! Let go… let go…”

However, he did not let go. He had already crossed the line. How could he let go now?!

“Xiao Ling, tolerate it for a while.” He said as he increased his strength.

There was a trace of blood in the warm pool water which quickly disappeared.

Xia Ling cried out. “Don’t be like this, it hurts…”

Li Lei turned a deaf ear to her pleas.

However, her next words were like ice from the abyss and extinguished all his desire and enthusiasm.

She said, “Ziheng, it hurts…”

He slowly let go of her.

Her body fell backward, and she leaned weakly against the rocky wall in the shallow water. She used the low wall to stabilize herself as her fragile body shivered with fear.

Li Lei looked at her, and there was an inexplicable feeling in his heart. Anger? Sorrow? Defeat? It seemed to be none of them.

However, there was much heartbreak. She did not know if it was for himself or for… her.

He could not believe that she said something like that when he was having sex with her.

Li Lei did not know how many men could tolerate something like that. Besides, he felt that he had already turned into a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. Seeing that her body was slowly sinking below the water level, he violently picked her up and threw her on the soft bed in the bedroom.

He threw a pile of down jackets on her, making sure that she was buried like a dumpling and only her small face could be seen. Then, he turned around and decided to leave.

However, he heard her weakly cry out. “Don’t go… Ziheng. Don’t go…”

“Go look for your Pei Ziheng!” Li Lei was boiling in anger. This time, he kicked the door open. The elegant wooden door made a loud noise after he kicked it.

He furiously stormed out and broke a few objects in the living room out of rage. Unfortunately, he still could not calm down and started punching the wall.

His knuckles started bleeding.

However, he acted as if he could not feel any pain. His expression darkened. After some time, he strode into his study room and made a phone call. “Hey, Bao Renjiu,” he said. “How’s your investigation of Pei Ziheng going? Besides Xia Ling, is there any other woman who was deeply entangled with him?”

At the other end of the phone, Old Man Bao sneered. “Pei Ziheng? That bastard is very loyal. If he readily engaged in affairs, he would not have hurt my daughter. He was blindly in love with Xia Ling. He did not even love my daughter, Jingwan, how could he fall in love with somebody else?”

“That’s impossible!” Li Lei exploded in rage. “Investigate again!”

“Who else do you want me to investigate?” Old Man Bao was a veteran in his field and was very smart. “I saw the latest news that you are together with the small star called Ye Xingling? I remember her, and I heard that she was disturbed by Pei Ziheng. I’m sure you want me to investigate her relationship with Pei Ziheng, but let me tell you that it is impossible that anything happened between them. She is only 18 years old and very young. Ten years ago, Pei Ziheng was already together with Xia Ling. At that time, Ye Xingling was still in kindergarten!”

“Well, you still have to investigate it!” Li Lei was in a very bad mood.

Old Man Bao laughed coldly. “What’s wrong with you? Had a fight with that small star? Why are you yelling at me for? You care so much about her relationship with Pei Ziheng, I don’t believe that you haven’t sent anyone to investigate that yet. Since even the professionals on your end can’t find out anything, what makes you think that an old man like me would be of use to you? Let me tell you, Li Lei, we have a co-operative relationship. I’m not your subordinate and definitely not your punching bag!”

He made a lot of sense, and Li Lei could not reply to him.

Both of them fell silent for some time.

Old Man Bao said, “I can give you some information regarding Xia Ling.”

“What?” asked Li Lei.

“Pei Ziheng is a beast, pervert, and bastard,” said Old Man Bao. “Thankfully, Jingwan did not marry him. Perhaps Jingwan was lucky to die before marrying him…”

He slowly told Li Lei what happened when Xia Ling was imprisoned by Pei Ziheng for a year.

“I just found out how Pei Ziheng tortured her. His methods were really horrifying, and any man with a little humanity could not do it…”

Li Lei listened quietly.

After a long time, he hung up the phone.

He pondered for a while before turning on his computer and typed the words “Stockholm Syndrome” in the search engine.