Sometimes Tsi Yi wondered about Xing Yue's past.

The man never spoke of his background and Tsi Yi was never brave enough to ask but he still was able to deduce a few things about him: an extremely powerful cultivator, Han Xing Yue was most likely the sect leader to one of the outlying unorthodox sects. Those that were either enemies or unallied with Five Great Sects: Si Jing, Lian Su, Lan Xiu, San Mu, Mian Yu.

Tsi Yi was a disciple of the Lan Xiu Sect, centered in White Snow Mountains. Having grown up there as an orphan alongside his childhood best friend, Mo SuFang...

Tsi Yi shook his head, not wanting to think about the boy anymore and inevitably getting sad in the process.

Currently, Xing Yue had his arms wrapped around him as they both lied inside the large stone basin that was just a short distance adjacent from Tsi Yi's bed.

He liked bathing with him, this was something Tsi Yi had noticed during the time he's been captured. In particular, Xing Yue loved washing Tsi Yi's hair -like what he was doing now.

Xing Yue, as always, took great care to massage the soap into his scalp so that not a single strand was ripped out, before gently covering Tsi Yi's eyes so that he could rinse the suds away.

He really wasn't that different from a domesticated pet.

Xing Yue next massaged scented oils into the ends of his hair. Like all pet owners, he wanted Tsi Yi to have the best possible appearance. His captive could still remember the one time he'd butchered his own hair just to provoke the man:

It'd been right after he gave him the Soul Binding Array. A little in spite but mostly wanting to trigger the man into accidentally killing him, Tsi Yi bit off random segments of the oh so treasured until the beautiful locks were no more than a hideous mess of mismatched jutting angles.

Tsi Yi had discovered that so long as he didn't actually hurt his physical health to any degree, the array would not hinder his movements. A haircut naturally wasn't considered harmful.

To this day, even knowing the consequences that followed, Tsi Yi still thought it was all worth it just to see that look of immediate astonished horror from the moment Xing Yue stepped through the door.

"What the hell did you do to yourself?!" Xing Yue screamed while advancing on Tsi Yi as he sat on the bed.

Using all the courage he had within himself, Tsi Yi feigned a defiant look: he slapped Xing Yue's palm away when it reached out to check on his broken follicles. "Don't touch me!"

A vicious scowl formed across his captor's face. Xing Yue's hand shot out again, this time at an almost invisible speed, to grab onto Tsi Yi's collar, pulling him up close to seethe into his face: "What did you just say to me?"

Tsi Yi's heart pounded across his ears, in sync with the maelstrom of his nerves, but he still pushed all of it down to spit in the man's face. Xing Yue swiftly swiped the spittle off his eyelid but kept the hand poised in the air afterwards, as if seconds from striking him.

'Come on. Hit me. Hit me!' Tsi Yi mentally screamed.

Xing Yue's palm subtly trembled in the air, as if he was using every bit of willpower to keep it stayed. His eyes were narrowed almost into slits towards Tsi Yi.

Tsi Yi knew he was close to cracking. "What's the matter? Don't have it in you to hit your captive? You've already done worst, haven't you? I'll take getting hit over sexual assault any day!"

Tsi Yi didn't expect to see Xing Yue's expression actually tremble here; it happened in only half a second's time so Tsi Yi almost missed it but...it'd definitely occurred. Did...Xing Yue actually not think of his own actions in this way?

Why was he even surprised? Wasn't that the classic pathology of a psychopath? Unable to see the truth of their reality over their victims?

Han Xing Yue breathed heavily while he slowly -ever so slowly, lowered his palm back to his side.

"I know what you're trying to do."

Tsi Yi sucked in a sharp breath.

He still refused to give up though: "You're really quite pathetic you know, needing to kidnap and coerce someone to love you. You know what normal people do when they want companionship? They go to their friends, their family, but you probably don't even have any of those, because they all can't stand the sight of you!"

Xing Yue didn't just backhand him; he slammed Tsi Yi's form onto the ground with one hand choking his esophagus. "You sure have a lot of balls, I'll give you that."

Tsi Yi could hardly discern the words the man spoke; with half functioning hearing and vision, he was unable to see Xing Yue's complete image. When he'd hit the ground, Tsi Yi's skull had impacted hard against the stone floors with a sickening 'crack.' He soon felt something warm and sticky touching the base of his neck. Semi-consciously, he knew it was his own blood from the would-be-fatal wound.

But Tsi Yi had barely registered this thought when he recognized the feel of restorative Qi flowing into his wound from a soft palm cupping the back of his skull, stitching flesh and bone back together. Even the palm shaped bruise on his throat was healed away by the time Tsi Yi regained his vision and full acumen.

Han Xing Yue's arrogant smirk was maddeningly derisive as he stared down at him with Tsi Yi's head cradled in his lap. Xing Yue's palm wandered into the opening of Tsi Yi's robe at the same time his lips fell whispered next to his ear: "Nice try."

Tsi Yi didn't even bother resisting what came next.

His tormentor flipped him onto his stomach and once more took him as violently and as painfully as he could. Xing Yue violated Tsi Yi until his back entrance was a bloody mess and the man a weeping husk of himself. To add insult to injury, Xing Yue even healed him of these injuries as well.

Back in the Lan Xiu sect, Tsi Yi was a fairly competent medic in his own right, even being promoted to one of three lead medics for the sect at the pinnacle of his career. Xing Yue had kidnapped him just one week after the promotion.

And then his Qi was completely crippled.

All his life's work gone in an instant.

Tsi Yi had never been remarkable in anything in life but he'd at least been proficient in the medical field, even being hand chosen to train with a master healer as a teen...

But now he had to rely on his rapist just to fix him of the same injuries he'd granted him.

Tsi Yi was shaken out of his flashback when he felt an arm suddenly wrap around his waist under the bath water, drawing his bare body flush against another's. His head fell parallel to Xing Yue's as the man leaned all of Tsi Yi's weight onto his chest, making him partially sit in his lap. With one hand cupping his face, Xing Yue's coal black eyes stared down into his trembling green ones.

'Oh god, again already?'

Han Xing Yue didn't do anything though -didn't even say anything; he just continued staring at him while his left fingers lightly combed through the hair framing Tsi Yi's face. With his captive too afraid to look away or even move, they stayed like that for a fair amount of time.

Unable to make out what he was thinking, Tsi Yi felt severely unsettled; this sense of anxiety and dread made him bite his lower lip, a childhood habit he'd formed during times of emotional duress.

The fingers threading through his hair stopped -oh shit- and wrapped around the back of his neck -oh fuck- before feverishly smashing their lips together yet again.

Tsi Yi felt Xing Yue's member grow beside his hip bone -he knew the man was only seconds away from-

An urgent knocking on the thick stone door of Tsi Yi's stone room cut off the atmosphere. Han Xing Yue swore furiously against Tsi Yi's lips; that typical steely gaze once more returning to his eyes.

"I'll be back."

There was no need to order or warn Tsi Yi about trying to leave because the array on his back was constantly preventing him from escaping anyway. He wondered if even the door to his room was ever even locked anymore.

Tsi Yi hadn't bothered to check for a while now; what even was the point in trying?

As soon as Xing Yue finished speaking, he abruptly let go of Tsi Yi's waist -this sudden action caused the man to fall crudely back into the water, splashing a large wave outside of the tub. By the time he righted himself and swiped the water out of his eyes and nose, Xing Yue was already gone.

Tsi Yi grabbed a nearby towel and stood up, quickly drying himself off to avoid catching a cold before the array forced him to do so.

Sometimes, Tsi Yi wondered if the array actually subtly altered parts of his own personality without him realizing. He was unable to do anything that harmed himself but to what extent did this apply? Did it extend to unhealthy food?

If Tsi Yi was at a feast would he literally be unable to bring anymore food into his mouth after a certain bit, on the basis that overeating was bad for his health? Had he acquired a taste for healthy foods that he'd had no inkling towards before?

Honestly, all the days Tsi Yi had spent in this room was one giant blurred mess in his mind: he could not recall any specific meal Xing Yue had brought him, including his most recent one, not more than an hour ago.

Tsi Yi had never cared to identify anything served to him. It was all just prison food in the end. With no choice in eating, whether they were good tasting or not, Tsi Yi had only ever tasted ash.

But now that he was specifically thinking about it...Tsi Yi supposed every dish did look quite intricately prepared. There was also always a wide variety: every meal containing no less than twelve small dishes in accompaniment to the center bowl of shining rice.

Usually, it was Xing Yue who brought him the tray of food when he visited but sometimes a masked subordinate of his would take his place if the man couldn't make it.

Yes, masked subordinate.

For some reason, everyone of Xing Yue's lackeys (disciples?) had their face covered by a black cloth except for their eyes.

Tsi Yi had asked Xing Yue about this once but the man hadn't answered and he'd known there was no point in asking a second time.

After redressing himself in white Hanfu robes, Tsi Yi wrapped a towel around his hair, before lying down in his bed. From underneath his pillow, he took out a manual of Chinese poems from the Siyan Dynasty.

This was the sole thing he had to entertain himself with until Xing Yue came back.

In the beginning, the man had provided him with a huge library, even paper and ink to write or draw with in his spare time. But after one incident, when Tsi Yi used reading as a way to ignore the man when he visited -Xing Yue had punished him by stripping away everything except the bare necessities.

Resentful, Tsi Yi had asked Xing Yue if he wasn't afraid of him being driven insane by the constant monotony.

With that possibility brought up, the man relented a little: allowing Tsi Yi any one book he wanted to read at any given time -he merely had to say the title or just a vague topic to any of the guards stationed outside his room, and it would be provided to him. Tsi Yi also had the option of switching out one book for another, or for that matter, any other distraction he wanted -he just needed to knock on his door to inform someone of the request.

Han Xing Yue had warned him though, that if he caught him ever again ignoring him, he'd strip him of this privilege too.

Tsi Yi had considered calling him on this bluff -he could tell the man was desperate to keep him after all; how could he bare to risk him losing his own mind? But...something inside Tsi Yi had just told him that Xing Yue was not a man that made empty threats...what if he had some trick up his sleeve that would prevent him from losing his mind while also stripping him of all entertainment?

Tsi Yi hadn't wanted to push his luck.