Chapter 201: Control

Yin Huaiyu had originally scoffed at the idea, but the moment the door was locked, there was no sound at his ears, and he could not see his own hand in front of his face; he was as if in a corner forgotten by the world, as if no one could ever remember him.

Time passed second by second.

Because he could not see, Yin Huaiyu could only use his hands to feel out the layout of the room; he discovered there was no furniture, and perhaps this basement was just something Ling Wu had found temporarily.

The amount of time a person can stay in a completely enclosed place where they cannot hear sounds or see things varies from person to person, ranging from a few short hours to potentially several days.

In such an extreme environment, both the body and the mind face enormous challenges and torment.

Ling Wu believed that to control a person, one should not start from the simple physical level, but rather control their spirit.

From a physiological perspective, when isolated from the outside world, the human body's biological clock is severely disrupted, and changes in light and the sounds of daily activities help the human body maintain a regular routine.

Now, these two points were excluded.

Once the secretion pattern of melatonin is disrupted, one falls into a state of difficulty falling asleep or extremely poor sleep quality, and physical fatigue accumulates rapidly.

Often, physical pain can largely dictate mental judgment; this was the reason Ling Wu deliberately did not treat Yin Huaiyu's broken leg.

When both eyes and ears lose their function, the sense of touch and the sense of pain become especially acute.

To give an example, it is like when you accidentally cut a small nick with a fruit knife; pain signals are transmitted to the brain through nerve fibers, but when you shift your attention, the nervous system allocates more resources to the new point of focus, relatively lowering the attention paid to the pain signals.

And in the process of shifting attention, the release of endorphins in the body may be stimulated, thereby alleviating pain.

Now, in the environment Ling Wu had created, the conditions for Yin Huaiyu to shift his attention were effectively stripped away, so the pain would be magnified several times over under this physiological and psychological torment.

That is to say, the line he said to Yin Huaiyu—"It just depends on whether the mental you can defeat the physical you."

He used both methods simultaneously and was not worried at all that Yin Huaiyu would not submit.

Things went exactly as Ling Wu had expected; after only a few hours, Yin Huaiyu could no longer stand it. He used his fingernails to scrape against the wall, trying to scrape out a sound, and threw himself against the iron chains to shift his attention.

He sat at the table, staring at the wall clock.

"Tick!"

"Tick!"

Ling Wu tapped his fingers lightly to the beat; it was a pity that Yin Huaiyu could not hear any of these sounds. He was not anxious; on the contrary, he was very patient.

At this moment, separated by a door.

Yin Huaiyu had completely lost the concept of time; how long had passed outside? Had it been 12 hours?

The pain in his broken leg was sharp and direct, like countless red-hot needles stabbing into his severed limb at the same time; every pulse beat intensified this agony.

His nerves had also become a lit fuse, continuously transmitting pain signals to his brain like a madman.

Yin Huaiyu lay on the ground: "It hurts... it hurts so much..."

There was no difference between having his eyes open or closed, but at this moment he opened his eyes, groping in the darkness, and crawled toward the direction of the door.

Was Ling Wu outside?

He certainly would not have gone far.

Holding this thought, Yin Huaiyu slapped his hand against the door, his voice hoarse: "Ling Wu, Ling Wu, you're outside, right?"

"Open the door."

"Open the door..."

Ling Wu saw the vibration of the room door and looked up at the time; only 4 hours had passed.

Was he unable to hold on already?

He was even more fragile than he had imagined.

He did not know how much time had passed when the door was opened. Yin Huaiyu looked toward the crack of the door with a muddled consciousness; like an addict, he crawled uncontrollably toward the bright ground, grabbing Ling Wu's pant leg: "Are you here to let me out?"

It was different from what he had expected.

Ling Wu did not speak to him at all, just stared at him coldly, as if looking at a commodity waiting to be sold.

He placed a ceramic bowl on the ground.

Yin Huaiyu froze for two seconds, looking at that beautiful face, seemingly not understanding Ling Wu's meaning; was he not going to let him out?

But he did not understand that the bowl of water was Ling Wu's obedience test for him, and as it stood, Yin Huaiyu had not drunk the water, clearly losing his first opportunity.

Ling Wu squatted down and stroked his head; when that palm touched his skin, it was so soft, so warm... his eyes were as encompassing as water.

Yin Huaiyu pressed his face against him like someone drinking poison to quench thirst, while wanting to reach out to touch Ling Wu.

But he did not know which part had gone wrong; Ling Wu's gentleness was like a dream bubble, dispersing in an instant without a sound. He took the ceramic bowl into his hand, did not look at him once, and closed the door again.

Even when the door closed, Yin Huaiyu had not reacted.

Why?

Why didn't he speak to him?

Why did he close the door again?

His expression had clearly been so gentle a second ago; why did it become cold and ruthless the next second?

Had he done something wrong?

Yin Huaiyu barely even realized that his thinking was now being led by Ling Wu; as the victim, he had actually begun to reflect on his own problems.

The abyss was beckoning to him, and he was completely unaware.

But Yin Huaiyu's psychological defenses were not bad, not to the point of completely losing his sanity. He began to analyze: when the door opened just now, the light outside had not changed, so he could not analyze anything. Perhaps next time he could analyze the passage of time from the subtle changes in Ling Wu.

He collapsed onto the ground.

Forced into a vicious cycle of pain and freedom.

His reason told him not to submit, that this was Ling Wu domesticating him, but on an emotional level, he understood that perhaps if he pleased Ling Wu and apologized to him, he could get out.

Should he try?

No!

Yin Huaiyu thought of his smooth-sailing life, full of triumphs; how could he just submit like this?

He scraped his fingernails against the wall, counting sheep in his heart to dissipate the time, but as he counted further, he discovered that those sheep all had blood-red eyes.

Yin Huaiyu also became more tyrannical, his nerves stretched taut.

At the same time, Ling Wu, who was observing him, also discovered with surprise that this young master had somehow thought of something in the room, and his endurance was actually longer than the first time.

He rested his chin on his hand and looked at the computer screen: "A futile struggle."

On the computer screen were investigation files on Yin Huaiyu's mother; noble families only utilized without feeling, but his mother had clearly committed a great taboo, as she truly liked Yin Shuyi, and after the two families married, she soon became pregnant with Yin Huaiyu while full of longing.

At the same time, she naively believed that Yin Shuyi also liked her.

But during her pregnancy, she discovered that Yin Shuyi had cheated, and the mistress outside, emboldened by favor, had found her way to the Yin Family; the two had a huge argument, and the heart-fluttering love of her youth was crushed to pieces.

Yin Shuyi spent his days socializing in the business and official worlds and never came home; her mental state worsened after giving birth to Yin Huaiyu, she began to suffer from insomnia, and they spent six years tormenting each other like this.

Finally, one day, the mistress Yin Shuyi kept outside became pregnant again and, sporting a large belly, made a scene in front of her; she was undergoing drug treatment at the time, and after being provoked, she went mad and jumped down from upstairs.

She fell to her death in front of Yin Huaiyu.

This is also the reason why the father and son are not close.